Dustin Bryan
Mrs. McCallum
MGMT 340
22 March 2014

Act of Valor, the film that stars an elite squad of real life Navy SEALs, is an amazing story about what these brave men go through on a daily basis in dealing with anti-terrorism. Inspired by true events, the film has everything from brilliant combat sequences, state of the art war technology and edge of your seat emotion for an overall great picture. I chose this film because I have always really been into war and action type movies and I thought it would be a great film to relate topics that we have discussed in class to real life situations. Working in a cubicle or a standard office is a little different than the type of work that these brave men do every day, but it is still work and they go out there and apply the same principals to get the job done and come back home just like every other person in the workplace. The barriers and challenges of diversity as discussed in Chapter 4 of our textbook discusses different types of challenges that woman and minorities might have in the workplace and even goes on to discuss examples like the four layers of diversity. Here in America we are a very diverse group of individuals and the Navy is no different. In the movie, SEAL team 7 is made of people from all different types of backgrounds that have to learn about each other and how to work around their differences to become brothers in arms working together as a flawless group of killing machines. They became very close and learned how to work together flawlessly because in their dangerous missions there is zero room for error or disagreements, you essentially trust your life to your squad. In the SEALs division there are still problems that exist however, even in today’s equal workforce women are not allowed to become Navy SEALs. I am not sure the reasoning behind this, unless there is some sort of procedure that only men can do in this division of the military.
The cause and consequences of job satisfaction as discussed in Chapter 6 discusses different ways that a business can positively reinforce their workers and create job satisfaction. It also talks about the consequences of job satisfaction if not done correctly, such as poor motivation, low morale and high employee turnover. In the film, job satisfaction is very important because if the members of the team are not fully focused and committed to their job it could be the end of their lives. You don’t want someone who is not happy with his job being a Navy SEAL, the missions are far too important and these brave men need to be putting their all into every mission so they all can come back alive and successful.
In chapter 9 the textbook discusses trust issues or lack of trust issues. Trust is very important in a business, you need to be able to trust your fellow employees and learn how work effectively in a group to produce the best outcome. Very frequently you will be put into groups to compare and contrast ideas with your fellow employees; you need to be able to be open with them and completely truthful so you can start to really understand each other. The Navy SEALs know better than anyone about the meaning of trust, they have to be able to fully trust their fellow teammates or it could end in disaster. You train for years in these teams so you build these unbreakable bonds between each other so you watch after that person like they are your own flesh and blood. These men would give their own lives any day to protect or save one of their brothers. In the film we see the greatest form of trust when one of the SEALs jumps on a live hand grenade just to save his teammates, he did this because he trust that any of his brothers would do the same thing to protect him. If that level of trust could be found in every type of business it would be incredible and businesses would be way more efficient.
The decision making styles as discussed in Chapter 10 talk about the decisions that companies and businesses have to make on a daily basis. One of the models is a rational model, which has four stages: identify the problem or opportunity, generate alternative solutions, evaluate alternatives and select a solution, and implement and evaluate the solution chosen. This is a very common model that many companies and businesses use to solve common problems. We also see this being used in the film when they are rescuing the C.I.A agent and the backups arrive while they are trying to escape. They identified the problem, which was being chased so they generated an alternate solution. Which was telling “whiplash” that it was going to be a hot extract, they selected the solution of making it a hot extract, and finally they proceeded with the hot extract which was driving into the water and letting the boats open fire upon the people that were chasing them allowing them to escape.
Chapter 12 talks about the different communication styles such as verbal and nonverbal communication. Verbal and nonverbal communication is used in our everyday lives and of course in the workplace. We use verbal communication whenever we speak to one another or whenever we send texts or e-mails, which is very common in today’s technical age. We also use nonverbal communication without even noticing it, such as facial expressions, eye contact or even body movements. We see both types of communication in the film, we see verbal communication whenever the SEALs give verbal commands or talk through their radios and we see nonverbal communications when the seals need to communicate while being stealthy, such as touching the shoulder to sign that an area is clear or pointing in a certain area that they are ready to move into next. Both types of communication are used in the everyday workplace, no matter if you are an accountant or a Navy SEAL.
The leadership style as discussed in Chapter 14 is described by “A social influence process in which the leader seeks the voluntary participation of subordinates in an effort to reach organizational goals. “ Basically meaning that the person in charge needs to be able to take control and get the job done by coaching, inspiring, and motivating. This is in almost any organization there always needs to be that one person that everyone turns to for direction and guidance. The Navy has incredible leadership qualities with their rank system; each member of the Navy has a rank and has to answer to people above his or her rank. The Navy SEALs in this movie all have an overlooking officer that they answer to and take instructions from. This teaches great leadership qualities as people climb the ranks and as they slowly teach the new members below them.
In Chapter 15 it talks about how the organizations are structured. The book describes an organization as “a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons.” It goes on to explain the organization chart which reveals four basic dimensions of organization structure: hierarchy of authority, division of labor, spans of control, and line and staff positions. We see these four dimensions in the film, an example of hierarchy of authority would be every soldier reporting to the commander in chief which is our president of the United States and down through the Navy’s rank system. We see examples of division of labor with the different tasks that the SEALs do, they all have certain tasks listed to do to complete the mission. We see examples of spans of control by how many seals report to their commander. Finally we see line and staff positions, the line managers would be the president, the high ranking officers and other government officials like the pentagon. The staff positions would be the SEALs and other soldiers below them.
The success and failure factors as discussed in Chapter 16 talk about the different ways a company can be successful and fail. To be successful a company must constantly improve and stay fresh to keep the current customers you have while attracting new customers. Companies that do not update and change will eventually die out. Today’s technology is improving and changing so fast that you have to stay alert or you will fall behind. The Navy SEALs in the movie are a good example of this they have to come up with new plans and strategies to fool their enemies or the enemies will learn their ways and pick them off easily. Change is the majority of the time a good thing in the world of business.
It just goes to show you that it doesn’t matter if you are in an office, out in a field, or in a foreign country doing a dangerous, secret, and deadly mission, there are a lot of similarities between all these different forms of work. I guess you could say work is work and the same principals apply no matter the job. I really did like this project overall. It showed me how to compare different forms of work to each other, I never would have thought a desk job and a Navy SEAL would have similarities in their jobs, but this project showed me that they do. I also just really enjoyed watching the movie; it was a great film that I never would have watched without being assigned this project.

Works Cited
Kinicki, Angelo, and Mel Fugate. Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills & Best Practices. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2012. Print.
Act of Valor. Dir. Scott Waugh and Mike McCoy. Relativity Media, 2012. Film.