72 Journal of Psychological Issues in Organizational Culture, Volume 3, Number 2, 2012 © 2012 Bridgepoint Education, Inc. and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/jpoc.20100

MEDIA REVIEW

Introduction

Twelve O’Clock High (Zanuck & King, 1949), based on the novel by

Beirne Lay and Sy Bartlett, is one of the most realistic of the World War

II movies. Although produced in 1949, it remains a classic study in lead-

ership. Set in the early years of the United States’ entry into WWII, the

fi lm depicts four bomber groups deploying to England with the sole

purpose of executing an experimental and highly dangerous daylight

precision-bombing mission. To this point, night bombing from high

altitudes had proved ineff ective in signifi cantly damaging the manufac-

turing plants that supplied the Nazi war machine. Some senior members

of the U.S. military believed that daylight precision-bombing might be

the only way to stop Hitler’s relentless campaign in Europe and Russia.

Although the characters in the movie are fi ctitious, the story of the day-

light precision-bombing campaign is based on actual events. Th is movie

is about leadership in probably one of the most signifi cant crucibles a

leader can face—leading in a time of war when the fate of the world

depends on the ability to “operate in the midst of chaos and to exercise

raw power to restore order” (Heifetz & Linsky, 2012, p. 168).

Th e movie focuses on the 918th Bomber Group, one of four groups

under the control of Allied Bomber Command. Although the characters

are fi ctional, the story is based on events that happened during WWII.

Central to the issue of leadership in the fi lm is the concept of maximum

eff ort. Given the highly dangerous mission of daylight precision bombing

at low altitudes, commanders are faced with extracting maximum eff ort

from the pilots and crews, many of whom are barely out of their teens.

Unfortunately for those commanders, no one really knows what maximum

eff ort is or what limits a human being can endure. However, the success

of the mission depends on exercising that maximum eff ort.

Twelve O’Clock High Revisited: Lessons for Leadership in the 21st CenturyBarbara Turner, DM

Journal of Psychological Issues in Organizational Culture, Volume 3, Number 2 • DOI: 10.1002/jpoc 73

As the movie begins, the 918th has sustained

the highest casualties of all the bomber groups.

Th e squadron is hanging on by a thread, and the

beloved commander, Col. Davenport, has lost the

ability to command. Overidentifying with his men,

he loses sight of the mission. Fearing the failure of

the 918th Group, the senior commander relieves

Davenport of command and replaces him with

Gen. Frank Savage. Upon giving him the transfer,

the senior commander informs Savage that the

failure of the 918th could cost the Allies the war.

If the 918th fails, the other groups will also fail. In

taking over command, Savage is faced with not

only turning around a failing group but also replac-

ing a beloved commander upon whom every

member in the group has come to lean. Th ese

challenges come to aff ect him “emotionally, intel-

lectually, spiritually, and physically” (Heifetz &

Linsky, 201, p. 163).

Savage had been the Vice Bomber Group

Commander, so he was familiar with the group.

He knows that the lion’s share of the work involves

changing the culture of the group, which has come

to believe that it is hard-luck or jinxed. Savage

must quickly take the leadership reins within the

group. He must also challenge the pilots and crews

to face the harsh realities of war. He tells them if

they can learn to consider themselves already

dead, to quit planning to go home, they will stop

worrying about dying and get on with the job they

have to do. To this end, he drives them relentlessly

with training missions to shore up their weakened

skills. He needs maximum eff ort from his men,

and he has only weeks to achieve that goal. Th e

immediate reaction of the group is mutiny. All

pilots and crews put in for transfers. Th e loss of all

of his pilots and crews will result in his own failure

as a leader.

Biding his time to get them to achieve a suc-

cessful mission, and at great personal risk to his

command, he fi nally begins to bring the group

around to his way of thinking. Th e pride of belong-

ing to an elite group returns. But something is still

missing. Th e men are willing to follow, but they do

not celebrate their success as he believed they

would. Pride in the squadron, he comes to realize,

is not the only answer. Reaching out to the spokes-

man for the pilots, Lt. Bishop, Savage asks how he

feels after the success of the mission. According to

Bishop,

I don’t know how I feel. And, that’s the

trouble. I can’t see what good we’re doing

with the bombing. Our boys are getting

killed. It’s like we’re guinea pigs and we’re not

really proving anything. You’ve got to have

confi dence in something. Th en when you

fi nd it, everything changes. I just want out.

Savage ponders the conversation for a

moment. He fi nally understands that pride is nec-

essary, but that it is not what sustains the men.

Th ey need a purpose, some meaning for what they

do. He tells Bishop,

We are guinea pigs here. If we can hang on,

one day people will look up and see a solid

overcast sky full of American bombers on

their way to Germany to hit the Th ird Reich

where it lives. We may not see it ourselves.

But, I promise you if we can hang on and

make the grade now, it will happen.

Th is proves to be the turning point for the

group.

Volumes of literature exist on leadership.

Most of what we know is what leadership is not.

Twelve O’Clock High comes closest to showing us

what it is. It is the “courage to act when it matters

even when the consequences to [one’s] personal

reputation is great” (Heifetz & Linsky, 2012).

Leadership entails truly believing that what leaders

74 Journal of Psychological Issues in Organizational Culture, Volume 3, Number 2 • DOI: 10.1002/jpoc

ask people to do not only is possible, but also will

achieve the desired results (Heifetz & Linsky,

2012). In other words, leadership is about creating

meaning and a sense of purpose that makes others

want to give maximum eff ort toward achieving a

vision of what could be.

Heifetz and Linsky (2012) propose that leaders

today face a more complex period of history, when

“taking on the risks of leadership is more impor-

tant and more complicated than ever” (p. 4).

Although advances in technology may make it

more or less complicated, technology has little to

do with the ability to lead. Th e fi lm shows that the

crucibles of leadership are timeless. Th e circum-

stances and the context of those crucibles may

diff er. In the end, leading is about getting a group

of people to overcome their personal agendas to

“connect with something larger than themselves”

(Heifetz & Linsky, 2012, p. 209).

Leadership today is in crisis and has been for

some time. In 2002, after the corporate scandals

rocked the world, U.S. President George W. Bush

admonished leaders, “Corporate America has got

to understand that there’s a higher calling than

trying to fudge the numbers, trying to slip a billion

here or a billion there and maybe hope that nobody

notices” (Associated Press, 2002). Unfortunately,

leaders today do not seem to have taken the

admonishment to heart, as evidenced by the near-

collapse of the world economy. Leadership is a

higher calling, as Savage learned in Twelve O’Clock

High. Maximum eff ort and social performance

rely on a leader’s ability to help others fi nding

meaning and purpose, with the belief that doing

so will in some way help make a better world. ◆

References

Th e Associated Press. (2002). Bush scolds business

execs. Arizona Republic, June 29, A5.

Heifetz, R., & Linsky, M. (2012). Leadership on the line:

Staying alive through the dangers of leading (Kindle

ed.). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

Zanuck, D. & King, H. (Producers). (1949). Twelve

O’Clock High. Los Angeles, CA: Twentieth Century Fox

Corporation.

Barbara Turner is the director of academic affairs for the University of Phoenix in Asia. Her primary interests and research are in the area of philosophical and cultural effects of modern Western capitalism on leader behavior behaviors, organizational ethics, and corporate social responsibility. She may be contacted at annieb@email.phoenix.edu.