Remember the Titans

Sport Psychology Topic:

1. Hersey & Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Model. The purpose of this module is to analyze the leadership style and effectiveness of the coaches in Remember the Titans using Hershey and Blanchard’s Model of Situational Leadership.

Text Reading:

1. Pp. 106-111, 118-119

Other Reading:

1. SLM Lecture Slides
2. SLM Worksheet
3. Summary of SLM model.
4. Video summary of SLM:

Paper #3 Description

Overview:  Analyze the film “Remember the Titans” using Hersey & Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Model (SLM).  The basic premise of the model is that a leader should change their leadership style based on the “maturity” or developmental level of the followers.  Maturity is a combination of competence (ability) and motivation (committment).

Key Points:

1.  Clearly delineate the start and finish of each of the four stages of Tuckman’s model as the football team moves towards the season championship.    Clearly describe (in words and with a reference to the time – e.g., 20:03 – in the film) the start and finish of each phase.

2.  It is suggested that you organize your paper using the four stages of group development as a structure (Part 1 – Forming, Part 2 – Storming, etc.).  As you describe team and coach behavior at each stage, integrate the key concepts (bolded) from the text.

3.  At each stage of team development, you need to diagnose (determine) the developmental level (D1,D2,D3,D4) of the team (providing concrete evidence from the film), and determine the leadership style (S1, S2, S3, S4) demonstrated by the two main coaches in the film (again with specific reference to clips – clearly explaining why and how your choice of style is correct).  Where the styles differ give comment on why these differences might exist.

3.  The building blocks of your paper will be the paragraph.  Each paragraph should have one major point (e.g., Rizzo was a good captain); evidence should be presented to support your point (e.g., we see this in the bar scene when he…).  Finally, the link between the point and evidence should be explained (e.g., according to the text (use APA citation style) there are three components of being a good captain – Rizzo demonstrates two of the three in this scene, and the third later during the “Again” scene.).  This is how paragraphs should be structured in academic writing in sport psychology: 1-2-3.

4.  Submit your one-page paper outline as an appendix with your paper (filename: “yourname.titans.doc”) – this should be point form.  Ideally, in scientific writing, you will organize your paper using an outline - then write your paper around this.  Your actual paper should be 5 double-spaced pages, not including a separate double spaced title page and a separate page for “References” also double-spaced.  Use APA Style to list your references and cite within the paper.  It is difficult to make good scientific arguments without writing very well – the two go hand-in-hand.  In my writng and in evaluating the writing of Smith students I adhere to the recommendations of the excellent Smith “Writing Papers” handbook which you can download here (new 4th edition): Writing Papers (Smith College Handbook).

Here is a slow-moving summary of the model: