Team Work Movie Review

Using a Christmas tree as a ladder doesn’t sound as good plan, but for the passengers of the Poseidon this can be their only chance to survive. The luxury ship, Poseidon, has been flipped over after being hit by a gigantic "wall of water" caused by an underwater earthquake. Passengers were in midst of celebrating New Year's Eve, and now everyone and everything inside the ship slides downward. What does this have to do with my Supervision class?

That might not be an easy question. I think ship’s crews are like a big organization, we can find leaders, supervisors, decisions to be made, goals, communication, negotiation, etc. Members of the crew share a common goal, and they have a mission, in this case the luxury Poseidon and its passengers were on their way from New York to Athens, when suddenly the plans have been changed from celebrating and enjoying their trip to finding a way to survive.

The unfortunate situation that the passengers of the Poseidon lived, could have been prevented if the Captain Harrison would have had empowerment to make a decision (taking on more ballast before going full speed as the ship was too heavy) Like an unqualified manager would take his/her department in the wrong direction, the ship’s company man in this story overrules the Captain, and doesn’t allow him to make a decision. In addition to that, the Capitan is afraid of being “fired” (removed from his charge). Sometimes we can see this type of behaviors in companies.

I wonder if this decision could be considered unethical, maybe yes. The passengers’ lives were lost because of this decision, how would the owners of the ship company justify this mistake. Who is held accountable for this fatal decision? Similar things happen in the real work with organizations, when leaders make decisions that not only affect the business but also the community or their own employees.

Afterward the first shock has subsided; the surviving passengers find themselves with a dilemma: should they...