Bippity, Boppity, Boo! The Magic of Disney Revealed

 

Cinderella’s Castle

This blog post focuses on the corporate and organizational culture found in Walt Disney World.  By using a functionalist approach and studying the park’s branding strategies, employee conduct, and incorporation of Disney values into park practices we will discover how Walt Disney World continues to be one of the most sought after tourist destinations in America.

Walt Disney World has branded itself as being a place “Where dreams come true.”  With focuses on magic, dreams, and fairytales, Disney has successfully built themselves a reputation that promises magical adventures, dreams coming true, and fairytales awaiting every guest to walk through their park’s gates.  By branding themselves as a magical place where dreams really do come true, Walt Disney World has successfully maintained their position as the top tourist attraction in Orlando, FL since its opening in 1971.  Their branding strategy is remarkably successful, as exhibited by survey responses describing Walt Disney World’s atmosphere as “magical,” “welcoming,” and “the happiest place on Earth.”

Disney explicitly states six key values that they hold and that they expect their employees to promote: innovation, quality, community, storytelling, optimism, and decency.  These values are exhibited by different actions taken by Walt Disney World and its Cast Members.

Every guest that comes to Walt Disney World is simultaneously receiving a one of a kind Disney vacation while still being a member of the vast Disney community.  Disney has made it their goal to make their park goers feel as though they are getting a special, one of a kind experience rather than feeling like they are just another face in the crowd.  By making park goers feel as though they are guests within the world of Walt Disney, Disney is able to make it’s guests feel valued by the franchise and feel as though they are part of the Disney community.  This is incredibly important to Disney, because by making park guests feel valued, important, and special, Disney is connecting with their guests on an emotional level.  This emotional connection is one of the biggest ways that Disney is able to hold such a large following and continue to get repeat customers.  The best resource Disney has that allows them to make these important, emotional connections is through their employee interactions with guests.

Disney Cast Members lending a helping Mickey hand

Employees at Disney are referred to as “Cast Members.”  Cast Members at Disney have one of the most important jobs in the parks because they are the people that personally interact with park guests on a one-on-one basis every single day.  Cast Members are ultimately responsible for upholding high standards of quality for not only service, but also the quality of guest’s Disney experiences.  Disney recognizes the important role these Cast Members play, stating that “Our Cast Members and employees are the cornerstone of our magic.”

Cast Members must exude professionalism, compassion, and graciousness at all times.  Upon hiring, every Cast Member is given a lengthy “Standards of Business Conduct” that details all the legality rules Disney expects their Cast Members to follow.  These legal issues include scenarios ranging from accepting money from park guests to copyright infringements.  The legal responsibility held by Cast Members is vast, but Disney regards it as being necessary, stating that “We count on every Cast Member and employee to follow the letter and the spirit of those U.S. laws that may apply.”

In addition to the legality issues surrounding Disney Cast Members, they also must follow an incredibly detailed “Disney Look Book” that describes what types of appearances Cast Members must adhere to.  With rules on aspects such as hair length, fingernail length, tattoo and piercing visibility, and skin exposure, Disney ensures that all of its Cast Members have a “classic” look.  This strict dress code helps Cast Members to promote the decency value that Disney so clearly has.  With a focus on family and children, decency is at the top of Disney’s priorities.

These specific rules on legal issues and personal appearance that Disney expects of all its Cast Members show a bigger picture of what Disney is all about.  They strive to provide a family-friendly atmosphere that will be welcoming to people of all origins, cultures, and ages.  With millions of guests visiting Walt Disney World every year, Cast Members must have specific rules and regulations to ensure that special, “magical” moments and memories can be made for every guest.  By making sure that employees embody the essence of Disney, Walt Disney World is not only ensuring their name is not tarnished by unruly Cast Member actions, but they are also ensuring that guests have the utmost magical experience possible.

Optimism is another crucial value that falls into the hands of Cast Members.  Walt Disney World radiates optimism from every angle.  Based on our survey results, guests that attend Walt Disney World typically have incredibly positive things to say about the Disney Cast Members.  When asked about their experiences with Disney Cast Members, survey takers responded with some notable answers that highlight the optimism and quality of service provided by Disney Cast Members: “Everyone was so happy and willing to help with what I needed,” “Went out of their way to make us feel special,” and “Always amazing guest services at Disney.”  However, a select few survey responses came back with incredibly negative comments about Disney’s customer service and guest relations.  One responder stated that “Disney made me feel like a face in the crowd,” which is the exact opposite intention of Disney’s meticulous Cast Member training and rules.  Disney can obviously not ensure a magical experience for every single park guest, but to improve upon current conditions they should try to look out for and please disgruntled guests like the one above.

One of the key ways that Disney is able to keep the magic alive in Walt Disney World is through innovation.  Walt Disney World is constantly changing, with some rides being updated while other brand new ones are built.  Walt Disney World has rarely “gotten rid” of a ride, with the exception of a small handful that became outdated.  Rather than get rid of old rides, Walt Disney World has chosen to update and modify their current rides but also to expand their parks numerous times to accommodate both their old rides and build new rides.  In 2013, Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom went through the biggest expansion in the park’s history with the opening of New Fantasyland in 2014 that expanded the park by 25%.  Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom is currently under renovation and expansion that is the biggest expansion in Animal Kingdom’s history.  The new section of the park will include thrilling technological advances that will help portray the famous world of AVATAR from James Cameron’s movie franchise.

The new MyMagic+ bracelet

Walt Disney World is constantly using technology to innovate and update their parks.
Recently, they have created a new, state of the art system known as MyMagic+.  The new, multi-million dollar system is being implemented in Walt Disney World with the hopes of creating a better park going experience and increasing guest’s happiness.  The system interconnects the entire park, from room keys to park tickets to Fast Passes, all on a small electronic bracelet that is worn on the wrist of a park guest.  The bracelet allows guests to plan their trips in advance and store all the information on the electronic bracelet.  The bracelets will simultaneously act as guests roomkeys, credit cards, park tickets, meal plans, fast passes for attractions, and schedule of events.  Disney recently launched a “Be Our Guest” campaign to help promote the new MyMagic+ technology while simultaneously promoting the idea of the personalized Disney vacation.  The MyMagic+ system is unlike any other technology currently on the market, and it gives Walt Disney World an innovative edge over its competitors.

Ultimately, what sets Walt Disney World apart from Universal Studios is Disney’s strive for individualized, magical experiences for each and every one of their guests.  Routinely in our research we found that Disney Cast Members were trained to embody Disney values and to go out of their way to make park guests have the most wonderful vacations possible, and people typically praised Disney for their success in this realm.  Disney Cast Members make park goers feel as though they are guests within the parks, and they make personal, emotional connections with guests to help make them feel important and special.

Although both Disney and Universal are theme parks hailing from Orlando, FL, they continue to thrive as neighboring competitors.  This is able to happen without one failing because both parks cater towards different styled vacations.  While both parks accommodate family themed vacations, Universal provides a thrilling, adventure filled vacation, whereas Disney provides a magical, fantasy filled vacation.  Because of the differing style in their parks, many vacationers choose to go to both parks to get a taste of adventure AND a taste of magic.

We hope you have a magical day!

Universal Junction – What’s your Function?

This post focuses on the analysis of Universal Orlando’s organizational culture from a functionalist perspective. Specifically, we will establish a linkage between the visible artifacts and crucial happenings in the organization and subsequent results on their productivity and performance. Looking at these aspects and their influence on organizational performance will give insight into how the creation and maintenance of culture within Universal makes it a valid and established competitor in the market.

“Bringing Families Together” -Universal Orlando

To begin, we will take a look at the branding strategy that Universal Orlando employs to advertise and position their organization as a valuable competitor within the market. As seen by the Vacation Destination Brochure that is widely distributed as part of their marketing strategy, the organization places much emphasis on visual display in promoting one of their core values of “Bringing families together”. Their arguments are strategic in that appeals are made to both individual desires by using statements such as “where you can be courageous, be outrageous and be extraordinary” while emphasizing their ability to create ties and connections within families by being “the only place where you can turn spending time with your family into spending time as a family.” The entire organization is essentially focused on the core values of family and adventure by enabling you to go above and beyond the normal human experience found in everyday ‘mundane’ life. The effectiveness of branding their assumptions in this way is seen in our survey results, where mostly all respondents reflected these values. One respondent claimed the atmosphere to be “Adventurous…Exciting and electric” while another enjoyed the “Excitement, anticipation, [and] high energy”. Overall here we see the effectiveness of Universals marketing strategy in addition to living up to expectations that they set for their organizational performance.

In addition to successfully branding itself as a place for family and adventure, another crucial core value that Universal has demonstrated is marketing itself as an organization of innovation. Universal demonstrates a growing awareness of the need for innovation in an increasingly technology based society in order to keep up with its competitors. A prime example of the way Universal positions itself as an innovative competitor within this market is this Orlando Sentinel article, which focuses on the permanent closure of the well-known Jaws amusement ride in the Orlando park, one of the original exhibits in the parks 1990 opening. Spokesman Tom Schroder specifically states that “Jaws has been an… important part of our history… But we always have to look to the future and dedicate ourselves to providing new, innovative entertainment experiences for our guests.” This is an excellent example of Universal advertising itself as an organization that does not hesitate to adapt and change in order to keep up with demand in such a dynamic market.

Next, we will use our prior research to examine how these core values are communicated to its members at all levels of the organization. We have to keep in mind that the leadership plays a central role in communicating and also circulating the core assumptions and values to all members. Our data supports that managers in Universal do control the culture by the way they use communication, and that this directly reflects on organizational performance. Of course, we need to keep in mind that every organization must find a balance between the needs of the organization and the needs of its members. As stated in our textbook, “all organizations face at least one fundamental tension… a tension between individual members’ needs and the needs of their organizations (Conrad & Poole, 2005, p.11). The way in which Universal Orlando manages this fundamental paradox directly reflects in their organizational performance, discussed in the following.

“You Maintain the Fun”

In terms of corporate culture, it is crucial to understand how employees within Universal Orlando identify themselves with the values circulated by management. Taking this Forbes article of Comcast’s acquisition of Universal from General Electric as an example, we see an attempt of Universal’s parents company to forge stronger relationships between all members of the organization. For example, it states: “Comcast, with a conservative, low-profile culture, had clashed with the G.E. approach… Comcast moved NBCUniversal’s executive offices to the 51st floor — less opulent space that features smaller executive offices and a cozy communal coffee room instead of General Electric’s lavish executive dining room.” We see that Universal attempts to break up the strict traditional power structures by encouraging more communication, both formal and informal, between its members. This is crucial because it informs us about the vision that Universal has for the structure of its corporate culture.

While the steps taken to foster a community of members through encouraging more dialogue on a relational level is commendable, our survey results support that Universal could potentially put more effort into communication within all levels of the organization. Many comments on customer interaction with employees in the park gave a sense that more communication is needed, such as “They were helpful, but they really weren’t too cheerful about it” and “More into management to keep things moving, but very polite”. While employees were not perceived to be overly evasive or unhelpful, we can draw that the leadership could put more effort into immersing employees into the envisioned culture of the organization, instead of sufficing with their outward appearance of accepting it. After all, the performance of individual members directly reflects upon the performance of the organization as a whole, especially because “an organizational system is more than the sum of its individual members and units or their particular relationship to one another” (Conrad & Poole, 2005, p.35). In the traditional structure that Universal is attempting to break up, the members on the lower end of the hierarchy do play a crucial role. Management must be aware that all employees must become fully immersed in the vision they have for the organization in order to build a stronger corporate culture and performance as a whole.

Looking at these key elements of the organization from a functional approach uncovers a few distinct similarities and differences between Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World. We can conclude that both have distinct core values and a corporate culture that they circulate though uniquely different ways. While Disney embodies the core values of “making dreams come true” and being the “happiest place on earth”, Universal aims to “bring families together” through ultimate adventure. The difference in how members embody the values communicated by management are evident in their customer interactions. While Disney employees place emphasis on optimism and bonding with visitors on an emotional level, members of Universal tend to be slightly more distant and give visitors more space to discover the ‘adventure’ on their own. In addition, both Disney and Universal are organizations of innovation constantly adapting to market needs. While Disney does this by, for example, implementing tech-savvy bracelets for superior customer satisfaction; Universal applies innovative concepts by making room for new technologically advanced theme rides. Ultimately however, we cannot find that one style works better than another, which plays a crucial role in why both Universal and Disney can co-exist peacefully. Their slightly differing approaches ensure that both organizations can and do survive in such close proximity while constantly adapting to new challenges along the way.  

---

 

Conrad, C., & Poole, M. S. (2005). Strategic organizational communication: in a global

economy (6th ed.).Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadworth.