Role Models And Rituals : The Power Of Legacy Programs

In 1928, Walt Disney created The Walt Disney Company, along with its values. The created values still play a signifficant role in Disneys mission as well as vision today are innovation, quality, community, storytelling, optimism, and decency. The actions that Disney has taken over the years in the entertainment industry show that Disney aligns with its values.

Imagine yourself as one person trying to totally reinvent the way that families are entertained. I will be talking to you about a farmer that became an animator. A farmer as a visionary leader, impressive. That is the story of Walt Disney. By all rights, Walt Disney was an excellent animator, but he had the self-awareness to know that he could not make his vision a reality on his own. I believe that Walt Disney is a visionary leader and I will show you how he used “Team Building”, “a group organized to work together”, (Thomas N. Barnes Center, 2012)(p.2) skills, “Diversity”, “a composite of individuals characteristics, experiences, and abilities”, (Thomas N. Barnes Center, 2012)(p.3) skills, and Full Range Leadership Development, “Contingent Reward”, “When the follower fulfills the leader’s expectation, a reward is provide to reinforce the demonstrated positive behavior.”,(Thomas N. Barnes Center, 2012),(p.14) skills to inspire people to buy into his vision and motivate others to help him accomplish his vision. I informed you earlier that I believe Walt Disney is a visionary leader, but that doesn’t make him an ethical leader. Through Walt Disney’s violation of “Honest”, “the bottom line is we don’t lie”, (United States Air Force Core Values, 1997), (p.1), “Openness”, “the free flow of

The Walt Disney Company values the diversity of ideas, perspective, gifts, talents, experiences, and backgrounds that each employee represents within the company. Richardson says,

Organizational culture could almost be considered the roots of a company. The way a company’s employees think, the way the customers feel, and the company’s decisions are made are all based around the culture that the company has laid for itself. An employee’s values, thoughts, and actions should reflect those stated in the company’s mission. Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, while both attempting to create a culture that is comfortable and pleasing to their

Walt Disney once said, “It’s not the magic that makes it work, it’s the work that makes the magic.” (Capodagli & Jackson, 2007). Walt Disney was truly a visionary and ethical leader that used his talents as a transformational leader and artist to dream up a world that has stood the test of time for nearly 90 years. In this paper I will explain why he was both a visionary and ethical leader. It will show that he used inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation to further his clear and easy to follow vision, inspire his personnel, and leverage their creativity. It will also show why I believe Walt Disney fit into the traits of an ethical leader by valuing his team members and creating an environment of mutual trust and respect. Then I will tell you how I have used the same transformational leadership behaviors to lead my people, have made sure not to fall into an ethical trap and take credit for the work others do. All leaders could learn something from Walt’s visionary leadership.

In the beginning, the Disney Company human resources practices ran by Disney were not as

Within the pages of Disney U, a captivating story unfolds describing the development program designed for Disney employees. Many times reading a perfunctory book that is designed to improve one’s skills in leadership is, well, not a delight to read. However, Disney U is able to grab the reader’s attention and guide them through a thought provoking journey of ground breaking leadership tactics, inventive training methods, and creating an engaging environment for an employee.

In this “The Smile Factory: Work at Disney” case study, it clearly point out the power of organizational cultures that created by Disney itself. Organizational culture includes the values and assumptions that shared among whole organization. This culture is very important in improving employee motivation and company performance. It makes the companies operate smoothly and directs every employee toward “right” direction within organization. Every

The Disney Corporation is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with five business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media. (Disney Corporate, 2009). This company did not become one of the leading corporations in the world without hard work, an extreme dedication to the mission and core values of the organization, and the successful application of the four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Many internal and external factors may have a direct impact on the four functions of management like: globalization, ethics, and innovation.

Disney strives to maintain a workforce that reflects open opportunity, where everyone is at an advantage by the company potential.

Walt Disney Company is an expanded global company with operations in four major business segments i.e. Studio Entertainment, Media Networks, Consumer Products and Parks and Resorts. The company has a workforce of more than 15,000 employees in more than 40 countries across the globe. In addition to having a huge workforce, the firm is largely renowned for its success and profitability in all its business segments on an annual basis. One of the most important aspects that have contributed to its growth and profitability throughout the years is its compensation program. The firm has compensation programs for all its employees because of its consideration of employees as one of the major stakeholders of its operations. However, Walt Disney Company has experienced significant challenges in relation to its compensation program because of the various peer groups used in this process. As a result, the company's compensation program has significant structural flaw because of its size and complexity.

The ability to communicate his vision was just the beginning of Walt Disney’s leadership characteristics. Simply stating ones vision is not enough, you must motivate your followers to reach goals, and Disney was an excellent motivator. One tactic he used to motivate employees was encouraging innovation and rewarding good ideas. In pursuit of additional funding to create new films, Disney reached out to his employees on possible ways to obtain funding from Disneyland. A team of seven people decided to increase revenue they would open the park on weekdays and allow corporate members to offer discounted tickets for their employees. Overall, their plan was a huge success. To reward his employees for their success, on Christmas day each employee opened their door to find Mickey Mouse standing there with an envelope. Inside it were 100 shares of Disney stock, 25 $1,000 bills and a hand-written note from Walt: “It’s fantastic. You’re fantastic. Do it again” (Bradt, 2015).

As a business leader and a decision maker, Walter Disney developed a comprehensive approach, which considered a multitude of variables to making final calls. He as such welcomed feedback, and even strengthened the corporate culture at the company so that the employees were encouraged to provide their feedback to the managers, and as such support the decision making

Internal and external perception of organizations develops from leaders creating and managing culture, the behavioral norms within particular industries, and influential subcultures. Organizational culture contributes to the approach and method used to train and develop employees of organizations. Sidestepping organizational culture and cultural diversity while developing and administering training programs inhibits the effectiveness of the training by not addressing company culture and individual perspectives of employees.

As Walt Disney Company is famed for its creativity and strong global brand, Disney appear to create value in its business primarily through a differentiation strategy.