In the movie "Gung Ho", directed by Ron Howard, a car manufacturing plant in Hadleyville, PA is bought by the Japanese company Assan Motors. The plant has been closed for sometime and the town was desperate for it to reopen in order to bring revenue into this deteriorating city. The entire town was excited about the factory reopening. Once it did open, they were met with an extremely demanding executive team. Assan Motors expected the Americans to work like the Japanese; hard and diligent. They were expected to work as long as it took to get the job done perfectly. Stage 1 ? Establish a Sense of Urgency
For the town of Hadleyville, PA a sense of urgency existed from the beginning of the movie in the sense that the factory was closed, the town was deteriorating, and the people were desperate to continue their lives in this town. Stevenson was chosen by the employees to represent them to the Japanese, but when the Japanese came to Hadleyville Stevenson failed to help the employees understand the necessity of changing their work behaviors. For example, during the morning exercise he pokes fun at it by saying "just do it for a while and eventually they will forget about it." A better way to handle this situation would have been to involve himself, from the beginning, in the morning exercise routine and to explain the importance of doing them. He should also remind them why the Japanese came to Hadleyville in the first place.
Stage 2 ? Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition
Assan Motors and Stevenson failed to form a powerful coalition. The two groups have different ideas of what makes a team and how best to run the factory. The Japanese believe that the employees should live, eat, and breathe the factory. They do not allow workers t ...