Queen and The "Warriors"

The Queen


The Queen is the leader of all the ants in her colony, however throughout the film she is trying to train and prepare her eldest daughter Princess Atta to take her place as Queen. The Queen in her leadership style, although having the power to make the final decisions, often takes a back seat to more predominant leadership roles in her colony such as Princess Atta and Flik. Hopper, the leader of the grasshoppers appears to be the only other character to override the leadership of the Queen who fears him, however the Queen accepts this and obeys the orders set by Hopper.

 "It’s the same every year, they come, they eat, they leave; that’s our lot in life. It’s not a lot, but it’s our life."

The Queen tends to take a more laissez-faire approach to her daughter Princess Atta, although she does worry about the youngest daughter Dot. The Queen is viewed as the most precious ant in the colony consequently it is her life that is under threat of the grass hoppers.

Adairs model of leadership (see Thomas 2004) can be applied to the Queen in that she sets out the culture for the ants in the beginning, they do as they have always done and complete the task of collecting food for the grass hoppers. She believes that without completing the task there would be no ant colony as the grasshoppers would destroy them. She is also aware of herself and her weakening health and seen throughout the film to be training up Princess Atta to allow her colony to have a Queen more fit and active.

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The "Warriors"

Overview of Character’s Role

The ‘Warriors’ otherwise known as the ‘P.T. Flea's circus troupe’ are a team like no other.  Filled with charisma, talent and tricks collectively they contribute a quirky one of a kind group to plot. The crazy circus act are mistaken and discovered by Flik for a courageous group of warriors, perfect for the task of defeating the evil grasshopper’s clan to prove himself a worthy and dignified ant!

The bunch presents a different style of ‘teamwork’ within the movie, one very different to the focused, structured and purpose driven type that the ant colony perform in the movie. The Warriors are a collaborative of dynamic characters which amusingly complement each other and produce an effective force of individuals, even though they are not as composed as the ant colony.  The warriors demonstrate how important motivation is needed within any type of teamwork, especially to be effective and persevere through trials and challenges, even when the odds are against.

Leadership Style

TeamWork

‘Teamwork – When a group of people work well together’ (Cambridge, 2012)

Teamwork can be shown, portrayed and motivated in a number of different ways, this is based on the types of characters the team holds.  Teams can be placed together for a purpose or at random; and depending on the skills, abilities, strengths and weaknesses each individual has will create the level of success the collective will accomplish (Mullins, 2010). 

Belbin (1981) explores the concept of individual roles within teams, she argues that this is a major factor in acheieving any groups maximum potential and success. Belbin discusses on how the mixture of roles complement one another, on the bases of individuals compensating for other team members weaknesses and vice versa by compensating for strengths. She also highlights that individuals can play a number of these roles at different point and times.

Here are the potential roles that Belbin distinguished in her research:

• The Co-ordinator: An individual who controls and co-ordinates the activities of the group.
• The Shaper: Shapes the thinking and decisions of the group.
• The Plant: Provides the creative thinking of the group, the good ideas.
• The Monitor/Evaluator: Analyses issues and puts forward options.
• The Implementer: Translates general ideas into practice.
• The Team Worker: Provides cohesiveness and support for individuals.
• The Resource Investigator: Looks for ideas and resources outside of the team to support team effort.
• The Completer: Provides the impetus to complete tasks on time and to the required standard.

Here are some of the positions applied to the characters in terms of Belbin’s key role theory;

• ·         Slim the ‘Walking Stick’ – Could be seen as The Monitor/Evaluator/ The Translator;
• ·         Manny the ‘Praying Mantis’ – Could be seen as The Co-ordinator/The Complete;
• ·         Rosie the ‘Black Widow Spider’ – Could be seen as The Team Worker.

The Warriors originally being part of the flea circus, allows the audience to see their wacky talents in an entertaining fashion; the purpose of this interest is to entertain so their skills and abilities are used towards achieving this. However, when the pressure appears and the team needs to rise to the challenge of defeating  Hopper and his gang, their wacky abilities primarily seen as useless changes and adopts its valuable nature.  

Here we see an example of Bruce Wayne Tuckman’s (1938) theory of ‘developmental sequence in small groups’; this explains the process of which a group goes through four stages to achieve any goal;


Forming (Trust) – identity orientation and commencing of communication;
Storming (Conflicts)– resistance due to interpersonal characteristics and conflicts;
Norming (Commitment) – cohesion starts as challenges have been worked through, and
Performing (Accountability and Results) – flexibility of positions, support and motivation is established.

Motivational Skills

Just as the story demonstrates motivation can derive at any point.  According to Robbins (2001) ‘Motivation’ is defined as ‘the process that accounts for and individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort towards attaining a goal’; the audience could see this as the circus bug’s not wanting to disappoint Flik and the colony by staying to help fight against the grasshoppers, even though they feel inadequate and insignificant.

Loxley (1997, see Payne 2000) classifies a type of collaboration theory titled ‘general systems theory’, which views groups as a ‘whole made up of interlocking subsystems’ that can influence other parts of the system; the audience see this at that crucial moment of if the ‘warrior’s ‘ will stay to fight or leave Flik in his distress.

The flea circus display motivation in different ways throughout the movie, they display this individually and collectively in multiples scenes and scenarios, for example ‘Lady Bug deciding to stick around to help and teach the little ants’;  this could also be interpreted through ‘achievement motivation theory’ (Atkinson and Feather, 1966) through self-empowerment an achievement of Maslow’s pyramid.