Term Paper on "Successful and Unsuccessful Application of Organizational Behavior Concepts for Disney"

Term Paper 9 pages (2600 words) Sources: 5 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Successful Application of Organizational Behavior Concepts for Disney

The Disney company begins the creation of an organizational culture that is desirable and successful prior to even the first interview with each prospective employee by ensuring that all employees are uniquely 'fit' to the organizational culture of the Disney company and in order that each employee shares in the Disney 'magic'.

The Disney Corporation has gone through many phases in the life of the business. Disney can claim overwhelming success and as well must necessarily acknowledge times of failure. This work intends to show that the Disney Company has realized great success through implementation of customer-responsive organizational behavior and that this success can be attributed to effective practices within the structure, culture and human resource practices of the organization.

BACKGROUND

The theme part concept was pioneered by Walt Disney with the goal of creating "...a unique entertainment experience that combined fantasy and history, adventure, and learning in which the guest would be a participant, as well as a spectator." (Grant, nd) the Disney-designed theme parks are located in Florida and California in the United States as well as in Japan and France. All the theme parks are divided into distinct lands with all parks having similar lands and attractions that are identical to one another. Some of these are: "Main Street, Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, and Adventureland.," all designed with the intention of guest immersion into the land's atmosphere with rides that have themes mirroring the land in which they are located. Food, souvenirs sold within each land is themed as well as are the employee's costumes. Grant (nd) states that the success of Disney "...can be traced to the control of the environment to create a unique experience for the visitor. This control is achieved through highly systematized operations management and human resource management. Disney has sophisticated procedures for selecting and training employees to ensure the highest levels of service, safety, and maintenance in the industry.

The work of Waltz (2007) entitled: "The Magic of Disney's Organizational Behavior Concepts" states that the reason that experience of Disney is so magical and that Disney is a household word is because "the magic begins with the vast amount of training each employee receives to make visitors experience a memorable one." Waltz points out the statement of Walt Disney who once said:

You can dream, create, deign and build the most wonderful place in the world but it requires people to make the dream a reality." (Walt Disney; in Waltz, 2007)

This statement of Walt Disney illustrates his early realization that implementation of strategic training and organizational behavior method was important in creating the environment that would be successful in terms of customers and customer-responsive employees.

I. The DISNEY INSTITUTE

Training in the Disney Company was implemented by Walt Disney in 1986 and the Disney Institute was developed specifically for this purpose. The Disney institute offers a wide range of classes, which include:

1) Disney's approach to people management;

2) Approaches to quality service;

3) Approaches to creative leadership;

4) Approaches to orientation;

5) Approaches to HR management;

6) Customer loyalty;

7) Other business related classes based on the participants needs. (Grant, nd)

Disney employees gain greatly from the training provided at the Disney institute and according to Grant (nd) the benefits reap by these employees "supplement the organizational culture of the company, and show the detailed thought that went into creating training that would benefit the massive number of employees that exist throughout the Disney Company. The intense focus that Disney puts into each employee is easily paid back by the customer satisfaction that they maintain which keeps the theme parks jam packed year around." (Grant, nd)

II. PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYEE SCREENING

Each prospective employee of the Disney Company is required to watch a ten-minute long video, which explains that Disney employees must have their own private transportation to and from the park. No tattoos, no excessive jewelry and absolutely no makeup is allowed by Disney employees. Studies show that approximately 10% of the prospective employees leave due to these reasons from even applying for work with the company. However, as stated by Waltz (2007) the Disney Company desires to: "...weed out those individuals that are not going to be a good fit. The same day that they interview they are hired and complete paperwork and receive their first benefits briefing. This way less time is spent on orientation and the cast members can start their valuable training right away." Disney's employee training program has been so successful that other companies such as Toys R Us, Price Waterhouse Coopers and others have used the same type of training. Training offered by the Disney Institute is stated to: 'The training offered deals with several organizational behavior concepts such as decision-making, motivation, group behavior, communication, organizational culture, organizational structure, and human resources practices. " (Waltz, 2007)

Waltz reports that the reports coming back from those such as Toys R Us and the success they have realized through use of Disney's employee training program gives an indication; "...that the Disney Institute was able to create classes to teach employees from a variety of companies how to create a good organizational culture. This is done along with observing group behavior and teaching motivation through the new and improved organizational culture, which is created by the training. The most interesting thing about it all is that they have been able to duplicate the same customer response and employee response repeatedly in many different types of companies. Because the institute has been so successful with Disney employees, any company has the ability to attend the lectures and classes to obtain this world class training to make companies have more successful interactions with customers." (Waltz, 2007)

III. EMPLOYEE TRAINING

The first step in training by the Disney Company is orientation referred to as "Traditions" and is held on the same day the employee is hired, which incidentally is the same day as their interview, as Disney interviews and hires the same day. Waltz states: "it does not matter who you are within the company it is necessary to be a part of the magic. Traditions is used to submerge the employees into the dream, mission, and service ideology of Disney and how Walt Disney wanted his company to operate even after his passing." (Waltz, 2007) Waltz states additionally that Disney makes offerings of: "...first class business standards to make the company operate with a fantastic organizational culture. I say this because they strive for excellence and make you feel at home away from home and treat their employees very well while giving them top of the line training and opportunities." (Waltz, 2007) the organizational culture of Disney is one in which employees "...feel that they are valued as an individual and a vital part of the team. They can do this with open communication throughout the chain of command, comprehensive training, and rewards. Providing this type of dynamic employee has given Disney one of the lowest attrition rates for any company in the United States. This philosophy of how to treat an employee has been passed on year after year by the likes of Walt Disney. The basic belief is that you cannot have happy guests if you do not have happy employees, which is an example of organizational culture and can be an example of human resources practices." (Waltz, 2007)

The Disney Institute offers programs at "six resort convention hotels and at convention or meetings sites in various cities. Disney doesn't release information about how many people go through the institute or how much revenue it generates, but some of the current offerings indicate the kind of numbers involved. One tour package put out by Florida Unlimited Incentives offers three nights at a Disney resort hotel, an Institute management program and goodies such as a park pass. The price $3,495 a person." (Shuit, 2004)

IV. EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION SURVEY/QUESTIONNAIRE

Disney has their own special 120-question survey, which is used in making a determination the performance of management in the company and whether employees are happy with the way management is conducted. This survey is used for making determinations relating to effective communication between managers and employees. After having administered the survey among company employees a staff meeting is scheduled and must be within three weeks of the date the survey was conducted. At the time of the staff meeting all concerns raised by the survey/questionnaire are addressed which speaks of the company's human resources practices and organizational culture showing that the company holds the employee's welfare and concerns high in its regard.

Blassingame (2003) states of the Disney company: "The company-wide belief that every cast member has valuable information to share is given life through Disney's ongoing employee communication efforts. Cast members receive a biweekly newsletter with company information and updates available in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. They can find updated information online via the Disney intranet as well, which contains everything a cast member could need, from the current… READ MORE

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