The movie is set in 1961 during the peak of the Cold War, the opening screen does a good job reminding us of the days of the Cold War and an era of fear. The defective reactor in K-19 sets the stage for conflict between two key leaders on the boat. Captain Polenin was the previous Commander of the boat who has been relived early in the movie, he is left on the boat to act as the Executive Officer for the boat due his operational knowledge and a short time line to get K-19 operational. He is well liked by the crew and demonstrates a Supportive Leadership style in dealing with the crew. Captain Polenin is replaced by Captain Vostrikov who although his father died in the Gulag and has only come into good graces of the party due to his marriage to a niece of a Politburo member. Captain Vostrikov clearly uses Directive Style leadership in his desire to gain results. The movie does a great job of demonstrating the two differences between directive leadership and supportive leadership (not sure if this way by design or just luck). Polenin demonstrated supportive leadership, he was friendly and almost paternalistic, he embraced group think and looked to members of the crew as friends. Vostrikov on the other hand, supported directive leadership, he pushed the crew almost to the brink of destruction (evident in the testing of the missile at the North Pole) always testing them using heat and fire to forge the steel of cohesion. It was implied in the movie that both Captains based their leadership style on their father figures. In the scene where Captain Polenin tells Captain Vostrikov, I believe the captain should be like a father to his crew", to which Vostrikov replied, " If you knew my father you would be paralyzed by fear." The take away I received from this move is also supported by our text for class, (Understanding Behaviors for Effective Leadership), simply put a leader should use a blend of directive leadership and supportive leadership and the movie shows there are times and places for both to be used in an effective manner to achieve mission success.
