Cuckoo's Nest Leadership

Many people believe to have leadership is just to take charge of a situation but leadership, as defined by the dictionary, is the ability to lead a group and having certain qualities such as acknowledging different points of views, trusting one's intuition and being honest in all situations possible. Throughout the movie, Koro gives orders and makes decisions without listening to other's opinions. Paikea's father is against the tradition of the first born male becoming chief yet Koro continues to force the responsibility upon him. He refuses to let Paikea become chief because she is a female and in his eyes, females are not fit to be leaders. Paikea, on the other hand, respects Koro for his opinion even though she does not believe that it is correct. She understands that he has been raised in an environment where positions of power have always been male dominated. She also recognises when and when not it is necessary to break rules that Koro has set and to trust her intuition. Leadership is viewed in many ways but Paikea has all the qualities that are commonly associated with …show more content…
He spends the majority of the movie believing that a good leader must be born into a position of power or be exclusive to males only. When Koro begins training boys in the village to become leaders, it shows that he only wants those who follow cultural ways. He praises Hemi, one of the boys, when he hits Koro out of anger because he believes that anger can help shape a good warrior and leader yet later does not let Hemi finish the training because he helped Paikea when Koro did not want him to. Koro also uses his staff to represent his leadership in a physical form. He stamps it on the floor when the school concert is disrupted and he holds it on the Marae as a sign of his authority. His definition of leadership is traditional and patriarchal which limits the qualities that he can see in