The Walt Disney Company

Introduction Organization’s Background and People Involved The Walt Disney Company is a leading international entertainment center and media enterprise having subsidiaries all over the world. The operation and management of enterprise experience is carried out by the organization’s division Disney Parks and Resorts that is responsible for entertaining people and guiding those into the world of media culture (The Walt Disney Company, n. d. a).Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on The Walt Disney Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Due to the fact that employees play the leading role in creating a favorable environment in entertainment center, this target audience should be carefully considered by human resources managers to enhance employees’ level of engagement. Organization’s Purposes, Mission, Values, and Culture The company’s purpose consists in introducing the people di mension in business sphere to meet Disney’s values and culture. Specifically, the human resource management department focuses on reinforcing the responsibility and commitment to people through such services as learning and development, talent acquisition, communication techniques, and employee services (The Walt Disney Company, n. d. b). Specific attention should be paid to increased leadership for handling selection and recruitment processes effectively and contributing to ongoing retention and development. Problem Analysis Problem Identification Judging from the above-presented information the company places a specific emphasis on leadership and supervision strategies for directing and motivating employees’ work. The employees, in their turn, can take advantage of availability of direct support and, because all their actions are carefully controlled, subordinates might lack independence in making decisions, which can become critical under certain situations. As a re sult, leaders and managers prevail over employees’ steps of coping with their responsibilities and obligations. Though employees have right to share their preferences and goals with supervisor, they still lack skills for cooperating in teams for solving the problems independently.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Specifically, the system of communication between the supervisor and employees, as well as between employees and guests, is well settled and, therefore, vertical management deprives employees of possibility to make decisions without informing their managers. Lack of responsibilities imposed on cast members creates a number of problems in terms of effective team management and employee engagement. Discrepancies between Theory and Practice within the Organization Effective human resource management should embrace a combination of theoretical frameworks appl ied to practice. It should also be constructed with regard to services and opportunities the employees can get while accomplishing their duties (Johns Saks, 2005). Judging from the case under analysis, it should be stressed that there is certain inconsistency between the introduced employee engagement strategies and the ones that are still left unnoticed. In particular, managers successfully meet the requirements of perceived organization support and positive reinforcement approaches, but fail to introduce techniques connected to motivated teamwork, job enrichment, and establishment of self-management working team. Recommendations Providing Meaningful Feedback on Performance Excess accent on effective leadership and supervisions provides no perspectives concerning the opportunity for employees to increase their performance. In this situation, meaningful feedback can help the employees quickly adapt to specific behavior for achieving the established goals (Phillips and Gully, 2011, p. 395). The introduction of the feedback system can help employees become more team-focused for achieving the goals in a more effective way. More importantly, such an approach will increase employees’ incentives and motivations. For instance, the organization should create objectives the accomplishment of which is possible only under team working conditions. At this point, employees can be encouraged to introduce their creative ideas directed at the improvement of the entertainment atmosphere, but the creative projects should be carried out in teams.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on The Walt Disney Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Such a technique can introduce a challenge for employees at first stages; on the other hand, cast members will have to encounter such aspects as responsibilities distribution, decision-making, and problem solving. In addition, feedback on performance can be presente d in the form of rewards contributing to more effective adjustment to a new teamwork environment. Establishing Positive Relations and Healthy Competition between Co-Workers Leadership and supervision practices imply well-coordinated communication between managers and employees. However, a healthy environment will be established with the introduction of favorable relations among co-workers. According to Dutton and Ragins (2007), â€Å"†¦positive connections contributed to the shared emotions component of sense of community, because it was in moments of connecting that temporary employees shared positive and negative emotions† (p. 257). Indeed, active interaction and successful communication provide a favorable ground sharing and gaining wider experience in communicating and negotiating with guests and managements. What is more important is that the established solutions impel employees to discover the points of similarities. Due to the fact that job is a potential source for self-expression, the establishment of a healthy competitive environment is also indispensible to meeting those goals (Dutton and Ragins, 2007). In fact, the idea of competition consists in creating opportunities for all employees to win, instead of one individual dominating at the expense of another employee (Dutton and Ragins, 2007). The proposed approach can help the company understand whether the level of employee recognition is sufficient for increasing performance and motivation. Coping with Emotional Displays in Various Countries Greater group cohesiveness can be achieved through better recognition of cultural diversity within the organization. In this respect, company’s success largely depends on the techniques it will introduce for managing diverse emotional displays as presented in various cultures.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More People coming from different countries also expect specific reactions to their emotions due to peculiar values, personal needs, and social factors of subordinates. Cultural display principles are conceived in childhood to help people cope with their emotions and adapt those to different facial expressions. In order to react properly to these displays, employers should take into considerations psychological analysis of different cultures presented in the working environment (Phillips Gully, 2011, p. 149). Due to the fact that the Walt Disney Company is a multinational organization, it should count the phenomenon of cultural diversity and analyze a variety of psychological portraits. Better recognition of emotional displays will significantly foster employees’ organized work in team. However, information about psychological techniques should also be proliferated among the employees through specific training courses. At this point, the educational program should be directed at enhancing employees’ understanding of other cultures through representation of different behavioral and psychological patterns. Validation Appreciation of Theories With Regard To Feedback on Performance Slight shift from leadership management to self-management in teams will help employees enhance their awareness that their work is highly appreciated. Theoretically, performance feedback will be more effective if it is conveyed in a positive manner, provided immediately after performance observation, and is specific to the behavioral patterns that are being established for feedback. While presenting performance appraisal, it is important to introduce both objective and subjective means for measuring employee productivity and success. In this particular case, providing feedback on collective performance is much more appropriate because it enhances collaboration among the coworkers and fosters the accomplishment of the established goals. The necessity to introduce rewards is als o justified by theory of self-managed work teams. Such a system provides several benefits. First, because reward presupposed reduced supervision, greater responsibilities and independence in decision-making will be imposed. Second, the introduction of self-management can teach employees to act independent and solve difficult problems. Self-determination and introduction of effective decision-making can deprive managers of the necessity to constantly monitor the work of the staff. Finally, the given approach contributes greatly to increasing employees’ competence, which, in fact, can increase a competitive advantage in general. The organization under analysis can further develop new concepts and strategies based on the newly developed patterns of appraisal. Theories Contributing To Enhancing Positive Relations between Co-Workers to Increase Employee Engagement While evaluating the effectiveness of the ideas of enhancing positive relations, it is purposeful to refer to the theo ry of group cohesiveness and operant learning supporting the necessity to introduce positive and negative reinforcement, as well as create a healthy competitive environment. To enlarge on this issue, competition and reward systems define the extent to which a working team is ready to face challenges. It also outlines the major psychological and ethical problems existing among employees within the identified organization. The approach will especially effective for the managing international issues and conflicts because failure to cooperate in team can lead to dismissal. In this respect, the negative reinforcement should also take place to tackle the problem employee engagement. Due to the fact that operant learning theory implies reinforcement of behavior through punishment and reward, employee engagement can be significantly increased through the introduction of interdependent relations between subordinates. The approach is also congruent with the company’s philosophy because it strives to meet employees’ interests and choices, but in a very narrow-focused way. Consequently, the main task of the managers is to foster independent decision-making through reinforcement of group liabilities. In case one member of the group is not able to contribute to the welfare of the department, the rest of the group should be responsible for the failure. Introducing Theoretical Frameworks for Managing Cultural Diversity It should be recognized that the problem of cultural diversity has now acquired a growing popularity. The issue concerns both customer management and employee engagement because these two dimensions are united by the purpose of enhancing human element. In this respect, the entertainment services provided by the Walt Disney Company will be significantly advanced with the introduction of techniques managing emotional displays. The practical approach can be effectively carried out by referring to the theories of observational learning and behavior mo deling training. The former is concerned with process of imitating various behavioral modes. The practice is aimed at examining others’ behavior, analyzing the consequences of experience, evaluating the outcomes of choosing a specific behavior and imitating the mode to introduce favorable consequences. The former focuses on the introduction of educational program directed at describing a set of behaviors that should be consider and providing patterns demonstrating how to use those models effectively. The training is also connected with the presentation of social reinforcement and feedback to the trainees, as well as with taking measures to ensure the behavioral transformation with regard to organizational goals. In whole, both theories should contribute to better understanding of emotional displays and creating a more favorable environment for employee engagement. Reference List Dutton, J. E., Ragins, B. R. (2007). Exploring Positive Relationships at Work: Building a Theoret ical and Research Foundation. NY: Routledge. Johns, G., Saks, A. M. (2005). Organizational Behavior: Understanding and Managing Life at Work. NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Phillips, J. and Gully, S. M. (2011). Organizational Behavior: Tools for Success. NY: Cengage Learning. The Walt Disney Company (n. d. a). Business Standards and Ethics. Retrieved from https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/ The Walt Disney Company (n. d. b). Company Overview. 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