FACULTY OF LANGUAGE STUDIES AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

CONTEMPORARY INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

NAME : NORMASYITAH NAJWA BT TAJUDDIN

MATRIC NUMBER : L20A0023
LECTURER’S NAME : WAN SUZANA AAFANII WAN IBRAHIM

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Introduction

In 2016, Hidden Figures tells the tale of a group of African-American mathematicians who

helped NASA throughout a period when the US was battling with Russia to launch a human

into orbiting, and who put an unforgettable influence on subsequent ages. Hidden Figures is

set in the 1960s, when women and people of colour faced discrimination. According to

Chernin & Melfi (2016), during a key moment in American history, the powerful women in

the film also had a significant impact on their style of leadership and coordination with their

peers. In honour of Black History Month, anybody should watch "Hidden Figures," a moving

and inspiring film. They transcended gender and race to encourage subsequent generations to

reach for the stars.

Theodore Melfi directed the film, this is inspired on the same-named novel by Margot Lee

Shetterly. While "Hidden Figures" raises a few critical issues Melfi's objective was clearly to

convey a nice storyline rather than one that is historically correct, such as racial injustice and

gender inequity. While "Hidden Figures" makes significant achievements by conveying a

crucial and historically overlooked storey, it would have been a stronger, more well- rounded

film if it had paid more attention to the experiences of the women who experienced them.

In his pioneering study of cultural inequalities among advanced democracies, Geert Hofstede

identified four characteristics of cultural values: individualism-collectivism, power distance,

uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity-femininity. Hofstede then developed a five cultural

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dimensions called "Confucianism," or long-term orientation, in collaboration with researcher

Michael Bond.

Individualistic civilizations require people to look after only one person and their respective

families, according to Hofstede's research (2017), Citizens in collectivist societies, on the

other hand, consider themselves as part of large groups, involving extended relatives, and are

supposed to take accountability for one another's well-being. When it comes to power

distance, different countries use different levels of tolerance of maldistribution. The "degree

to which a society thinks itself to be endangered by complicated and unclear events" is what

extraversion is all about. Then, masculinity-femininity examines a culture's dominating

values and ranks them on a score on which "masculine" is associated with aggression, the

accumulation of money and goods, and a lack of care for the others. Finally, long-term

orientation assesses how often a society rewards tradition and upholding social obligations;

future-oriented goals include persistence and thrift.

The first cultural dimension in Hidden Figures movie is masculinity vs femininity. The

element of masculinity vs feminine is the proportion to which a culture emphasizes boldness

and materialism over feelings, relationships, and life equality. It is primarily based on

traditional beliefs toward gender roles. NASA exemplifies great masculinity, as evidenced

throughout the film. For example, during the scene where Al Harrison is upset after the

Russians people send Yuri Gagarin into orbital space and shows his dissapointment that the

US is second in a two-man race, you can see the organization's culture. According to Chernin

& Melfi (2016), Harrison quoted in the film saying, “There’s only two things you need to

know going forward. One is staying here working late. And two, don’t expect your pay

checks to reflect the extra time it’s gonna take catch up and pass those bastards”. This quote

is structured in such a way that emphasises the organization's masculine side.

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In this film, there’s also a scene of femininity. Femininity is defined as behaving in a

womanly, ladylike, or feminine manner. When Harrison discovers Katherine gone from her

workstation at a critical moment, he is taken aback when she informs him it takes her roughly

half an hour to walk to the next block 'to relieve herself,' she says. In several occasions,

Harrison's interpretation displays a racial knight mind set. Outside the bathroom, Harrison

himself dismantles the board, allowing everybody to use the same toilet. That sequence,

alongside the one in which Harrison lets Johnson inside the control center to observe the

take-off of Friendship 7, never happened in reality. Al Harrison was not even a fictional

figure. Furthermore, Henson's presence is outstanding, punctuating the film with genuine

passion and compassion. Mary walks to court and persuades the judge to allow her to pursue

her engineering course by taking night classes at an all-white school.

Katherine Johnson's adventures as a part of the Space Task Group are both diminished and

conflated by Harrison's portrayal. Melfi's effort to convey one such simple storey, in which a

white man creates a discriminatory atmosphere and then removes it, detracts from the

complex real-life realities of Black women at NASA.

Dorothy realizes that an IBM electronic computer will be installed soon, potentially replacing

her colleagues. She goes to the computer room and turns on the equipment. She walks to a

public library, where the librarian chastises her for borrowing a FORTRAN book from the

whites-only area. She studies FORTRAN so that she and her West Area friends will not

become obsolete.

The next cultural dimension is the power distance. The power distance index measures how

willing a community is to accept or reject unequal power distribution in organisations. People

who have a high power distance degree accept their place in a hierarchical system, such as an

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organisational chart. Individuals with a low power distance seek to offset power imbalances

by demanding evidence for disparities and power distribution.

Katherine Goble, due to frequent factual changes, she does not completely accept the

hierarchical structure of the Space Task Group as depicted in the movie at the scene outside

of the Pentagon meeting in which she is requesting admission to join. Katherine is conversing

with Paul Stafford about sitting in on the meeting to collect data for the math required for

John Glenn's launch. Katherine objects with Stafford's enforcement of organisational norms,

which states that only individuals with valid security clearances are allowed to attend. When

Al Harrison emerges and asks about the hold-up, Katherine goes straight to Harrison, her

superior. Following some back-and-forth, Katherine quoted saying, “You, sir. You’re the

boss. You just have to act like one, sir”. As Al accepts and invites Katherine into the meeting,

this strikes a chord with him. The meeting is ultimately successful in ensuring that the

calculations are addressed mostly because of the appropriate person.

Greater management personnel must demonstrate great leadership characteristics in order to

guarantee that the discoveries they require from their cohorts are solid and take the company

forward. Individual investigations and developed ideas surrounding these skills have proved

that they may be learnt. The female leaders in the film display a variety of attributes that

identify their overall leadership style in terms of race, gender, and various backgrounds.

The two-way relationships that are developed between being an employee and their boss are

the focus of the leader - member theory. Each leader builds a relationship with their

subordinates that has the capacity to impact decisions, duties, and resource access. Dorothy

Vaughn took on the role of Acting Supervisor of the West Computing Group following his

predecessor fell ill around a year ago, as revealed at the start of the film. During this period, it

is believed that Vaughn has formed a bond with each of her employees in order to better

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understand themselves and their abilities in order to best serve the corporation. The story

centers on Vaughn's connections with Mary Jackson and Goble in specifically. You can see

how each task may be adapted to one another skills, including Goble's strengths in analytic

geometry, during the scenario where Vaughn is distributing out the tasks to the team.

After obsolete using the electronics, the mathematician are thrown off after the expedition.

Mary receives her honours degree while Katherine is relocated to the Analysis and

Computation Division. Dorothy continued to dominate the Programming Department.

The film mattered a lot to 3 women actors because it brought attention to a vital storey that

had gone unheard for 46 years. This film truly inspired people and now generations to be

more respected towards women and coloured people. Despite "Hidden Figures" makes

significant achievements by conveying an essential and culturally forgotten narrative, it

would have been a richer, more-well-rounded film if it had paid more attention to the realities

of the women who experienced them. Notwithstanding these achievements, "Hidden Figures"

misses the mark. Several major challenges that the lead protagonists endure are swiftly

mentioned and then easily brushed over, which really doesn't let the spectator to completely

comprehend the seriousness of the sexism and racism that females like Johnson, Vaughan,

and Jackson faced. The film addresses difficulties that the Black people encounters that are

very applicable today, such as discrimination in employment and the feeling of getting their

successes overlooked in favour of their white colleagues.

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References

(2021). Coursehero.com. https://www.coursehero.com/file/60540259/MGT300-Hidden-

Figures-Analysisdocx/

Gill, C. (2017, March 20). Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and differences across cultures |

OUPblog. OUPblog. https://blog.oup.com/2017/03/hofstede-cultural-dimensions/

Film Review: “Hidden Figures” Tells an Important but Over-Simplified Story ‹ Pepperdine

Graphic. (n.d.). Pepperdine-Graphic.com. https://pepperdine-graphic.com/film-review-

hidden-figures-tells-an-important-but-over-simplified-story/

Times Of India. (2017, February 22). Hidden Figures Plot Summary. The Times of India;

Times Of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/hidden-figures-plot-

summary/articleshow/57285663.cms

Movie Review: Hidden Figures |. (2017, February 8). Www.ecufilmfestival.com.

https://www.ecufilmfestival.com/movie-review-hidden-figures/

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