Walt disney human resources case study

Case Study

Case 1 - The Wonderful World of Human Resources at Disney - Analysis Case
For your analysis of the case, apply the concept of organizational culture and strategic HR discussed in class and the following case reading:

Case: Yemen, G. and Isabella, L.A. (2013). Case: The wonderful world of human resources at Disney. Case no. UVAOB1051. Charlottesville, VA: Darden Publishing.

Case Reading: Wei, L. Q., Liu, J., Zhang, Y., & Chiu, R. K. (2008). The role of corporate culture in the process of strategic human resource management: Evidence from Chinese enterprises. Human Resource Management, 47(4), 777-794.

Assessment: This case will be assessed based on your analysis in response to three specific questions. Please note that mind maps, flow charts, drawings, images, or storyboards are encouraged for your response to question #2. In addition, you are expected to contribute in class for the case debrief.

Please write your response to the questions in an 1,000 to 1,200-word response. Please use APA citations and references to cite and reference the case and the required reading. Please include a cover page.

Questions:

1. What kind of culture does Walt Disney Company (WDC) want to create; and how do the HRM practices (select three) support the maintenance of this culture? (400-600 words)

2. Using your experience, the case, and the reading, answer the question: What are the connections between business strategy, HR strategy and culture? Answer this question by creating a conceptual map or pictorial image to explain how business strategy, HR strategy, and culture are integrated and aligned at WDC. Be prepared to introduce and explain your conceptual map or pictorial image in class. *Note that we will discuss conceptual maps in advance of this assignment (Week 2). This link may be helpful too.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZJj6DwCqSU)

3. Referring to your conceptual map or pictorial image, explain in more detail three key connections you identified between 1)business strategy, 2)HR strategy, and 3) culture at WDC. Please also ensure you apply the reading for this assignment to support these connections. Aim to make a minimum of three connections. Support each connection with evidence from the reading and the case (400 to 600 words).

This case was prepared by Gerry Yemen, Senior Researcher, and Lynn A. Isabella, Associate Professor of Business Administration. Data were gathered from public sources and, unless cited, were based on one of the author’s notes and experiences as a training participant at the Disney Institute in February 2012, and as a family visitor to a resort. The case was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright © 2013 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation.

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HUMAN RESOURCES AT DISNEY You can design and create and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.

—Walt Disney1

Five-year-old Oliver wanted to see the animals during his overnight stay at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was early evening, too late to get in the park, so his grandmother took him to a scenic overlook at the back of the lobby. As Oliver walked around, there were no animals to be seen, only clusters of trees, some grasses, and dirt trails below the overlook. Oliver’s grandmother could sense his disappointment. This was Oliver’s first visit to a place that was supposed to enchant children, so parents or grandparents would bring them back. Expectations were sky-high. Once Upon a Time: Disney’s Heritage and Traditions

I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing: that it was all started by a mouse. —Walt Disney2

The mouse that started it all was a character idea born out of desperation. Walt’s original character, Oswald the Rabbit, for which he had just signed a contract for an animated series, was

1 “Walt Disney Quotes,” JustDisney.com, http://www.justdisney.com/walt_disney/quotes/ (accessed May 28, 2013).

2 “Top 10 Walt Disney Quotes,” MoveMeQuotes.com, http://www.movemequotes.com/top-10-walt-disney- quotes/ (accessed May 28, 2013).

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stolen by the New York distributor, who then hired all of Walt’s animators. On the train ride back home, Walt got the idea for a mouse. “A mouse had always appealed to me,” he said. “While working in Kansas City, I caught several in wastebaskets around the studio. I kept them in a cage on my desk and enjoyed watching their antics.”3 The original name was to be Mortimer Mouse, but Walt’s wife, Lilly, convinced him that the name Mortimer seemed too formal. Mickey Mouse, the character that people loved and the icon of an empire-to-be, was born. The animated film company that Walt founded in 1923 with his brother Roy (who put up most of the money) got busy. Walt introduced the use of sound, then in its motion-picture infancy, in the first talking animated film, Steamboat Willie. The film debuted in New York City in 1928, and was a hit. Disney Brothers Studios was launched; a year later it was renamed “Walt Disney Productions.” To go along with the red-shorted, yellow-shoed mouse, Walt dreamed up some friends: Pluto in 1930, Goofy in 1932, and Donald Duck in 1934. The brothers licensed these Disney characters and began selling merchandise such as shirts, watches, and writing tablets with their images. By 1937, Mickey’s image, on one distributed product or another, had found its way to 38 countries; to handle the volume, distribution offices for merchandise and films opened in Paris and London. Mickey Mouse clubs started cropping up worldwide. Disney products had a global appeal and reach. Walt Disney Productions struggled financially for a while, but with the help of Bank of America and some of their own money, the Disney brothers created a film in color called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Premiering in 1937 and opening nationwide in 1938, it was a financial and artistic success, making millions of dollars. After that, Walt’s imagination and Roy’s business acumen were an unstoppable combination, and by 1940, the firm had issued its first stock. In 1954, they used another medium to share Walt’s imagination with the world: the brothers created a television show called Disneyland (later called The Wonderful World of Disney). Now Disney movie fans turned on their television sets each Sunday evening and watched a variety of Disney characters and stories. From Film to Theme Park As it turned out, filmmaking and television shows were not the only projects on the drawing board. The idea of expanding into theme parks came from the same guy who drew the famous mouse—Walt. Although Roy was against the concept at first, creating a theme park fit well with both Walt’s urge to escape the real world and dream and his goal to create happiness for those who visited.

3 James R. Stewart, Disney War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 23.

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To create his ideal world outside the film channel, Walt gathered a select group of animators, artists, directors, set designers, and writers from Walt Disney Productions—whom he called “Imagineers”—and told them about his park idea.4 As with the sound stage of a film, setting was important. With the Disneyland TV show as both inspiration and source of funding, the Imagineers were asked to create a family-style amusement park in secret. Owned by Disneyland Inc., the park would be spotless and meticulously groomed (bushes cut into the shape of Disney characters, for example). “When I started on Disneyland,” Walt said, “My wife used to say, ‘but why do you want to build an amusement park? They’re so dirty.’ I told her that was just the point—mine wouldn’t be.”5 In fact, imagineers studied human behavior to discover the distance an average person would walk holding an item before throwing it away (every 17 feet). Disneyland Park was built on an 85-acre parcel of land in Anaheim, California and had attractions modeled after images from popular Disney films. The park, raised above ground like a stage, was to be “picture-perfect” in Walt’s words.6 Everything in the park was a prop that would allow a make-believe show to run flawlessly from opening to closing. Park visitors were guests and, during an average visit, would likely have as many as 60 encounters with employees, called cast members. The experience was to be magical, offering visitors the “happiest place on Earth,” and appeal to young and old. After all, the Disney brothers were in show business, and Disneyland was a live show, every day, all day long. In 1955, one year after the debut of the Disneyland television show, Disneyland Park opened at a cost of $17 million. When open, the park filled with pleasant, wholesome, costume-clad cast members who were onstage in the public areas of the park and eager to play a part in the live show while being helpful and friendly. Indeed, no matter what job a cast member was hired to perform, the standard was always “to exceed guests’ expectations.”7 That point was so important to Walt that he would dress so no one could recognize him, tour the park, and go on attractions. One time he took the Jungle Boat ride and was unhappy that, instead of lasting seven minutes, it only lasted four. “How would you like to go to a movie and have the theater remove a reel in the middle of the picture,” he asked the ride supervisor. “Do you realize how much those hippos cost? I want people to see them, not be rushed through a ride by some guy who’s bored with his work.”8 Under the park, at ground level, was an area called offstage, where cast members changed into character, took breaks, and prepared for their parts. Connected through a maze of hallways or tunnels were well-appointed break areas, vending machines, hair designers, a notary, driver’s- license renewal services, check cashing services, postage stamp machines, and, as cast members

4 All designers, engineers, architects, and technicians that created and worked on park resorts were imagineers (imagination and engineer).

5 Richard Hoffer, “Disneyland Turns 50,” Via, July/August 2005, http://www.viamagazine.com /attractions/disneyland-turns-50 (accessed August 21, 2012).

6 Tom Peters as quoted in In Search of Excellence, Enterprise Media video, 1982. 7 Disney Institute and Theodore Kinni, Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service (New York:

Disney Editions, 2011), 14. 8 Disney Institute and Theodore Kinni, 130.

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were provided fresh costumes daily, one of the largest wardrobe departments in the world.9 An underground tram would transport cast members back and forth to quiet corners of the park where they would appear onstage discreetly through unmarked doors. To Walt, every detail mattered. This was perhaps an extension of the painstaking nature of drawing animation, eventually referred to by animators as bumping the lamp.10 Fostering a sense of pride was at the forefront of Walt’s work and, he hoped, the work of every single person working for the company. To ensure that happened, Walt designed an elaborate employee hiring and training process that supported his management philosophy and, above all, allowed for a workplace where creativity could thrive (see Exhibit 1 for the Disney creativity model). All hiring took place at the Walt Disney World Casting Center. Each cast member was trained to perform for the roles they would be playing while onstage. The only downtime allowed was when cast members were offstage, at which point they were allowed to be themselves. If by chance, a noncast member was in the offstage area, cast members were required to stay in character and were not allowed to speak or show the person underneath the costume. Eager to open more, Walt secretly bought several acres of land on the opposite coast, just outside of Orlando, Florida. But before his plans to open another theme park could come to fruition, he died. The years between 1939 and 1966, the year of Walt’s passing, were considered the firm’s golden years. Five years after his death, a second theme park, Walt Disney World Resort (Disney World) opened in Orlando, home to the Magic Kingdom and two hotels. Inside the Magic Kingdoms Disney World and Disneyland were both built and run on what had widely become known as “Disney magic.” Disney values and beliefs, which for the most part were deliberately designed by Walt and Roy Disney, made up its corporate culture and became apparent with every visit to a park. The Disney brothers’ strategy was to exceed customer expectations through strict attention to detail and policies and procedures designed to deliver quality. To do that, they believed that cast members must be enamored with being part of Disney and embrace the firm’s purpose to bring entertainment to young and old—to make people happy. If that transpired, Walt believed a collaborative culture would emerge. And when that happened, he expected financial results would follow.