The Leadership Lessons Star Wars Taught Us

The year 2019 was a great time for Star Wars fans. Nine films and 42 years later, we finally get to see the ending of an epic space opera. For me, a leadership researcher, the series is not only a story on balance of power and the clashing of good and evil, it also taught us some good lessons on leadership.

The movie series, along with other tie-in shows (like The Clone Wars) depicted the tragedy of a few individuals’ self-destruction by choosing the dark side. Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) is one of them. By reviewing Anakin’s storyline, what struck me the most is not what a pity it is that he chose evil over good, but how his leaders, especially Master Yoda, failed him.

How? Let me explain.

Although designed as a just and righteous character, the way Yoda led and guided Anakin doesn’t fit in with what was found in organizational justice research.

In our last blog, we discussed the importance of leading with justice. Giving employees channels and opportunities to voice their opinions, concerns and ideas can not only help the organization to continue to improve and grow, but it can also increase employees’ perceptions of procedural justice (one’s perception on the fairness of the processes through which decisions have been made; e.g., Morrison, 2011; Hildreth, Moore, & Blader, 2014).

In many occasions, when Anakin voiced his concerns, instead of patiently listening to him and offering him consideration and suggestions, the master simply directly told him to give up what he cares about (using authority to pressure others is one of the worst influence tactic; see Pressure in THIS blog).

Another key ingredient for leaders to improve procedural justice is be transparent in their actions and decisions (Thibaut & Walker, 1975; Bies & Shapiro, 1988; Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng, 2001).

An area Master Yoda failed to perform.

Although the viewers know about Anakin’s dangerous background and the reasons behind some of Yoda’s decisions, none of this information was shared directly with Anakin. This is especially apparent when he first rejected to train Anakin as a Jedi by using the excuse of “he is too old”, then rejected Anakin’s request to go through the trial of becoming a Jedi master via another excuse of “he is not ready.”

In modern organizations, lack of justice and transparency can lead to increased employee dissatisfaction, less trust toward the leader, less commitment to the organization, higher turnover rate and lower performance (Brockner, 1996; Colquitt, et al., 2001).

A recent study conducted by the Fisher Leadership Initiative also showed that when leaders operate secretly and withhold information from employees (more discussion on the outcomes of this study will come soon), employees tend to exhibit more emotional exhaustion, dissatisfaction and more confusion and conflict when it comes to their work roles.

In the series, Anakin eventually turned his back to the Jedi council and joined the dark side, which helped put an end to the legend of Jedi. In reality, many unhappy employees became the whistleblowers who eventually helped bring down the organizations (e.g., the fall of the once Silicon Valley star--Theranos).

What can we learn from this tragic event?

Make employees feel that they are listened to. Even when actions or changes are inapplicable, the simple gesture of acknowledgement and welcoming them to offering their voices in the future is enough to make employees feel heard and respected.

Meanwhile, as a leader, it is important to be transparent with employees when making decisions or adopting actions. Secrets and deceptions are only good for big-screen dramas and are toxic to employees and the organization.

References

Bies, R. J., & Moag, J. F. (1986). Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness. In R. J. Lewicki, B. H. Sheppard, & M. H. Bazerman (Eds.), Research on negotiations in organizations (Vol. 1, pp. 43-55). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

Brockner, J. (1996). Understanding the interaction between procedural and distributive justice: The role of trust. In R. M. Kramer & T. R. Tyler (Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of theory and research (p. 390–413). Sage Publications, Inc.

Colquitt, J. A., Conlon, D. E., Wesson, M. J., Porter, C. O., & Ng, K. Y. (2001). Justice at the millennium: a meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 425-445.

Hildreth, J. A. D., Moore, D. A., & Blader, S. L. (2014). Revisiting the instrumentality of voice: Having voice in the process makes people think they will get what they want. Social Justice Research, 27, 209-230.

Morrison, E. W. (2011). Employee Voice Behavior: Integration and Directions for Future Research. Academy of Management Annals, 5, 373–412.

Thibaut, J. W., & Walker, L. (1975). Procedural justice: A psychological analysis. L. Erlbaum Associates.