Disney Culture Assessment

Practically everyone in the world is familiar with the name Disney or at least knows who Mickey Mouse is. That is a huge compliment to Mr. Walt Disney, the man that founded The Walt Disney Company. The values, ethics, innovation, and creativity that Walt Disney fostered from the beginning are still alive today eight decades later. In order for The Walt Disney Company to continue to stay at the top of the family entertainment industry they must continue to follow and build on the foundation that Walt Disney laid out for them. The organization must have the ability to attract and keep creative and innovative employees with the desire to move the company to new heights. The organizational culture will determine what type of employees The Walt Disney Company is able to attract and their ability to keep them happy and produce the world-renowned products that Disney is well known for.

The Walt Disney Company started out in the 1920s as The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in a small garage in California. Eight decades later The Walt Disney Company has grown from an animation studio with two employees, to one of the largest companies in the world. The Walt Disney Company, headquartered in Burbank, California, has become a diversified media and entertainment conglomerate. The Walt Disney Company is divided into four major business segments: Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Consumer Products, and Media Networks. The Walt Disney Company is “dedicated to providing innovative, quality entertainment for all members of the family, across America and around the world” (Disney 2008). The primary stakeholders for the Walt Disney Company first and foremost are the shareholders, secondly all of the businesses that have a direct tie with Disney such as merchandising, advertising, and manufacturing. The management structure of the Walt Disney Company is a typical hierarchical structure. There is a Board of Directors consisting of 12 members. The management team consists of the CEO, Bob Iger along with a corporate chairman and 2 corporate Senior Executive Vice Presidents, 5 Executive Vice Presidents, and 2 Senior Vice Presidents. There are also 3 Chairmen, 2 Co-Chairmen, and 2 presidents representing the different business units within the Walt Disney Company.

Within the Walt Disney Company there is a mixture of two different organizational behavior theories. The first one is Total Quality Management (TQM) and the second is a mix of Human and Social Capital. The first of four main principles of TQM as described by Kinicki & Kreitner (2008) is, “do it right the first time to avoid costly rework” (p. 13). According to the Walt Disney Company website they, strive for a high standard of excellence while maintaining high-quality standards across all products (http://corporate.disney.go.com/careers/culture.html). The second principle from Kinicki & Kreitner (2008) is to, “Listen to and learn form customers and employees”