Hopper

Overview of Character's Role 
Hopper is a mean and selfish leader of the grasshoppers. They torment the ants each year to collect enough food for them to last throughout the winter. However, this time round Flik decides to create a new harvesting machine to help gather the food. Unfortunately, the machine malfunctions and knocks over all the food causing it to fall into a nearby stream. The ants become worried as they had been collecting the food all autumn and did not have enough time to replace the food before the grasshoppers came. When Hopper and his grasshoppers turned up to the ant colony they failed to receive their food. As a result Hopper demands the ants to collect twice the amount. 

Leadership Style 
In the clip, Hopper is angry that Flik stood up to him. Initially, Hopper and the grasshoppers hold different views about going back to the ant island to terrorise the ants. Hopper wants to return to the ant colony to take the food from the ants. He thinks of an analogy to demonstrate his point to the other grasshoppers. This is done to reduce his fears of the ants forming revolution and overthrow his power. This shows that Hopper is aware of his power and is willing to fight for his position. He has identified himself as an influential figure to the grasshoppers and uses his intelligence to manipulate the grasshoppers. Gardener, (1989), defines leadership in relation to personal traits and characteristics. In particular, Hopper displays the following characteristics which includes intelligence, physical vitality, assertiveness, self-confidence, ability to motive others and decisiveness. Additionally, Gardener proposes that leaders should have an understanding of their followers needs. Hopper fails to take into account the feelings his followers (ants and grasshoppers) which ultimately lead to his demise.

Furthermore, Hopper’s relationship with his followers can also be likened to a transformational leadership style. This refers to the social relationship between leader and follower. Bass (1985) proposes that transformational leaders have the ability to influence, inspire and intellectually stimulate their followers. Hopper displays these traits in his abilities to influence the grasshoppers to return back to ant island. His personality type can be identified from the big five framework; extraversion, neuroticism and conscientiousness, (Bono & Judge, 2004). In the clip he becomes extraverted in his ability to use assertive language to generate confidence amongst the grasshoppers. He instils this confidence into the grasshoppers by displaying a strong sense of direction. This would help to create trust between grasshoppers and Hopper. However, Hopper also becomes quite neurotic in his behaviour, in the sense that he anticipates negative outcomes and becomes fearful and angry of the ants. Bono & Judge, (2004), suggested that these traits would mean that the individual would avoid leadership responsibilities. However, this example shows that Hopper was able to embody a combination of traits. 


Teamwork and Motivation 

Mullins (2002, p. 465) describes teamwork as something that can ‘improve productivity.’ Looking at the character Hopper, this is demonstrated when he finds a way to motivate the team by saying...

‘you let one bug stand up to us, then they all might stand up.  Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one and if they ever figure that out there goes our way of life.’

The speech that he gave to his team motivates them to go and make sure they do not lose their lifestyle.  Here, Hopper also took a risk by getting his team to go ahead and ensure that they took all the food they claimed to be theirs. Handy (1999, p.154) says that ‘Groups often take riskier decisions than individuals would independently.’ This shows that Hopper created an element of confidence and trust among the grasshoppers. Therefore, Handy, (1999), would suggest that Hopper felt more confident in his risk taking when he had the support of the group. This can also be related to the grasshoppers as Hopper informed them about the possibility of the ants outnumbering the grasshoppers. Nonetheless, they still took the risk to go back to the ant farm and challenge the ants again.

Therefore, using key roles by Belbin (1981), Hopper would be considered to be ‘the co-ordinator and the shape,’ mainly because he controls and co-ordinates everything that the group of grasshoppers do.