disney hr case study

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Disney HR Policies – Walt Disney Human Resources Case Study

With a variety of diverse brands and business areas, the Walt Disney Company is a world leader in family entertainment. It operates in over 40 countries around the world with more than 180,000 employees. Seeing the success of the company, it is hard to believe that it was just another startup years back and had begun as a venture of two unemployed brothers Walt and Roy Disney. 

While it may seem simple, creating a work environment where such a large number of employees work productively and happily every day is not an easy job for the HR and employee experience departments. The company thinks and works differently than other organizations about things, including HR and EX. In this post, let us try to understand their HR policies, practices, and strategies through a Walt Disney human resources case study. 

Disney HR Policies – An Overview

The Walt Disney Company has proven itself as a leader in HR management over its century in the business. The values of the organization focus on the human element of the business, whereby they treat employees as internal customers. Disney is committed to offering a safe, respectful, inclusive workplace environment in all its locations around the world. They strive to hold to the highest standards of ethics, quality, and social responsibility which is the primary reason for many employees to choose this company. 

The corporate culture at Disney stems from the core values it follows across business segments. The website says that each of the businesses has a special ability to harness imagination in a way that improves lives, inspires others, and brings hope, smiles, and laughter to those who need it. The culture is based on core values of community, optimism, quality, innovation, and decency. 

There are six principles Disney follows while managing its human resources. 

Everybody is important – The company uses RAVE – Respect, Appreciate and Value Everyone as a motto. People are taught to greet people, reach out and be available. 

Break the mold – Disney benefits from frequent changes in its structure, creating new opportunities for the employees. 

Make your people your brand – Hire the right people as employees.

Eliminate hassles – Leaders are responsible for finding problems quickly and acting instantly on them.

Create magic through training – Disney focuses constantly on training and improvement of the workforce.

Learn the truth – Leaders never stop learning; go out, learn and experience. 

At Disney, employees are always aware of the objectives and are free to think innovatively and come up with new ideas. The ‘Dream as a team’ notion adopted by the organization helps achieve the objectives. Managers encourage teams to imagine; all the team members have a brainstorming session ‘Blue Sky’ where they can share new ideas which are implemented for the future of the company. 

Walt Disney Human Resources Case Study

Almost any aspect of their HR policies and corporate culture can be used as a Walt Disney human resources case study as they all play a vital role in achieving the position it enjoys today in the industry. Incorporating cross-cultures is a key strength of the human resources function at Disney. Disney’s regulatory HR policies have helped it build and support the desired organizational culture. They have been striving to build a workforce that represents a global marketplace they operate in while fostering an inclusive environment for the employees. 

Another important aspect of Disney’s HR strategy is that employees are clear and aware of their roles and objectives and enjoy the freedom to think beyond limits. The value of equality makes them confident, productive, and independent. With a high focus on training and development, employees are always equipped with the best professional, technical, managerial, and other skills and knowledge. 

Human Resource Practices at Disney

Disney’s success is driven by its focus on overmanaging things that others ignore, and this is something that sets it apart. Overmanaging means being specific, intentional, and attentive to detail to create an engaged and productive workforce and happy customers. The culture revolves around shared values ingrained in its workers right from the top-level executives to the drivers at properties. 

Appreciation for employees is shown with a display of employee pictures recognized for the principles of efficiency, safety, show, and courtesy. Those who work at the company are not employees but rather cast members as they say. Some of the perks for employees include the ability to buy a fishing license or register to vote. 

At the Magic Kingdom, workers are treated to the best standards of safety and comfort. Executive photos are displayed on tunnel walls with their titles and contact. A computerized inventory system is in place to make help employees change quickly and comfortably and head home fast after the job. In short, Disney aims to put their employees first so that they, in turn, develop pride for putting customers first. 

Disney Recruitment Strategies & Hiring Philosophy

The main principle in Disney’s recruitment strategy is the conviction that it should hire the best people and offer them enough room to fulfill their duties. The best employees, as the company believes, are not the smartest and the brightest but those who show a good attitude towards working in the company. It, therefore, considers a positive attitude as the top criterion for hiring.

Walt Disney has equal importance for searching the internal talent as it does for external talents. When looking to hire external talent, the company focuses on embracing diversity as a corporate value. It strives to ensure that its workforce reflects a global diversity with employees coming from different parts of the world. It also promises a commitment to incorporate diverse ideas and opinions to support this goal of diversity. Through this diverse environment, the organization can easily foster creativity and innovation through all the functions of its business. 

The company also emphasizes training as a key step in its hiring strategy. The training takes place in several forms and aligns with the vision of the organization. Walt Disney also places special importance on placing new employees in the right department to maximize the use of their talent. To put this into practice, the company puts new hires in different departments over a period of three months to evaluate their skills and find out where they suit the best. 

Final Thoughts

Walt Disney’s HR strategy stems from its commitment to driving positively engaged people rather than hiring the best talent. It believes that a positive employee attitude is crucial for helping the organization deliver innovative content to customers. The corporate culture is based on the virtues of optimism, diversity, and innovation among others and Disney has successfully merged its human resources strategy with these values. The company’s commitment towards developing its employees through training supports the HR strategy further, setting an example for other organizations.

Further Reading

Employee Engagement Committee

Managing a Coworking Space

Fombrun Model of HRM

HRIS Requirements Checklist

Alex Morris

About author, related posts, impacts of the eu corporate sustainability reporting directive (csrd) on hr, addressing the toll of workplace incivility: organizational culture, effective work delegation: strategies for managers, get a selection of the best & newest articles straight to your inbox..

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The Wonderful World of Human Resources at Disney

“What kind of culture does Walt Disney Company (WDC) want to create? This case uses the experiences of a young visitor to one of WDC's resort hotels to set the stage for an analysis of selecting, hiring, training, and retaining and how those practices are governed by the culture of a large American company. The situation provides an opportunity to explore human resource policies, organizational design as well as how all those elements reinforce the culture.The case opens with an interaction between a young Animal Kingdom Lodge guest and an employee (or cast member as the company refers to employees). There were many different ways the exchange could have unfolded yet the experience was magical for the youngster. What made this exchange a memorable experience for this young guest? Would Walt Disney have been surprised?”

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The Wonderful World of Human Resources at Disney – Case Solution

This paper on "The Wonderful World of Human Resources at Disney" case study aims to analyze the two different case studies by exploring the knowledge about human resource management, human resource practices, and leadership throughout the organizations.

​Gerry Yemen and Lynn A. Isabella Harvard Business Review ( UV6787-PDF-ENG ) July 19, 2013

Case questions answered:

• Explore the role of organizational values and culture in a large firm.
• Examine a leadership style and its influence on human management practices.
• How to establish human resource processes and maintain a competitive advantage.
• What kind of culture does WDC want to create?
• Create a pictorial image of how HR works at WDC, and be prepared to share your image in class.
• What is intriguing about how WDC manages its human resources toward that culture? Is WDC really a magical place?
• Are Walt Disney Company (WDC) human resources practices transferable outside the United States?

Not the questions you were looking for? Submit your own questions & get answers .

The Wonderful World of Human Resources at Disney Case Answers

Executive summary – the wonderful world of human resources at disney case study.

This paper, “The Wonderful World of Human Resources at Disney,” aims to analyze the two different case studies by exploring the knowledge about human resource management, human resource practices, and leadership throughout the organizations.

In this paper, two case studies are used. These case studies, “Creating the Best Workplace on Earth” and “The Wonderful World of Human Resources at Disney,” both describe the practices followed by the organizations to provide a suitable workplace to the employees and fulfill the goals of the firms by giving good services to their customers.

By using both cases, we describe how organizations use their human resource management in order to maintain their competitive advantage over the other firms, the corporate cultures of the organizations, different leadership styles used by the company’s management, and functions of the human resource department.

Moreover, in this research, we explored both studies and interlinked the ideas of both to conclude how different organizations use their human resource skills to reach their goals. For the exploration of both cases, there are many other resources used in order to support the arguments.

Introduction

This assignment is based on the two case studies which are related to organizational culture, values, human resources, human resource management, and leadership. Both of them are explaining the ideal world.

The first one explains what factors help to make an ideal workplace. In contrast, the second one focuses on the imaginative world, which would provide excellent customer satisfaction by using human resources.

The study of “Creating the Best Workplace on Earth” is about how we can make any workplace ideal. Many executives who were interviewed for this have different opinions about expectations for the ideal workplace.

According to their analysis, six main factors help any organization to maintain a better working environment. Those six factors are:

• Every employee should know the current situation of the company
• The management should help their employees evolve their unique skills and qualities more
• Employees should never change their identity
• A firm should value its employees and all other valuable resources
• Never force your employees to follow stupid rules
• To motivate their employee, management should reward them for their daily achievements

These are the main things that make a dream workplace for any employee. Moreover, they want to promote the shared value thing in any organization. For that, the firm and its employees should not only fulfill their mission statements but should focus on their personal and organizational values equally (Goffee and Jones, 2013).

“The Wonderful World of Human Resources at Disney” case study also focuses on human resources, culture, and leadership styles. This study showed how Walt had made his dream place a reality.

Moreover, it explains how he managed his staff as a leader who came up with an excellent strategy for his Disneyland business. He believed that always treat your employees as your partners or guests to encourage and motivate them for their work.

This case study also showed how different cultures help Disney to attract more customers by following their values like quality, innovation, optimism, decency, and more. The Walt Disney Company (WDC) is based on an inspiring creativity model that focuses on four factors: organizational identity, structural systems, collaborative culture, and leader’s role. This model helped them to achieve great success because, until now, every kid, even teenagers, is fascinated by Disney characters.

Also, most individuals want to visit Disneyland once in their life. So, from here, it is clear that Walt’s way of handling his employees, guests, partners, and Disney characters made Disney successful (Yemen, 2014).

Q1.      Explore the role of organizational values and culture in a large firm.

Organizational culture is a set of values, beliefs, opinions, expectations, and actions that would help the employees behave, dress, and act in the organization. The best thing about the culture is that if it works, then it helps the firm to improve its performance and productivity.

On the other hand, if it does not fit, it would create hurdles to success. Moreover, culture and values help the organization earn a competitive advantage and influence talent (Wong, 2020). The best indicator of customer satisfaction in every business is a positive cultural environment.

In “Creating the Best Workplace on Earth,” the author described the six main factors of an organizational culture that would help them create an excellent working environment.

There are many roles of corporate culture and values in a large firm:

• Helps shape the corporate identity : In any organization, the corporate culture helps to set specific goals and commitments for the organization, which further gives their employees a particular direction to work by developing their plans to achieve the final destination. Therefore, smoothly achieving the goals helps the organization to achieve success and to improve the identity of the organization (Alton, 2017).
• Helps to earn competitive advantage : The organizational culture and values allow the different skills to evolve according to the need. It also helps to select the employees for the work according to their talents. Moreover, as mentioned in the case study, if the organization’s culture allows the different skills to develop and present their ideas in the market, that will help them to achieve a competitive advantage. For example, in LVMH, the main factor for their success is diverse cultures and talents, which work co-operatively, and their employees are so creative. Also, they are capable of presenting their ideas, which helped them to achieve great success (Goffee and Jones, 2013).
• It promotes shared values and cooperation : Culture is a phenomenon that can’t work on an individual basis. So, to achieve success, the primary function of culture and values is to unite the different opinions and values of the employees to work together in a group. Moreover, this shared value culture helps to reduce the conflicts in the groups and promotes cooperation. By this, the employees forget about their incentives instead of focusing on the company’s goal (Groysberg & et al., 2018).
• It helps to build brand image and customer loyalty : If an organization’s culture allows the employees to be themselves, provides incentives daily, makes employees aware of the current happenings, and also does not force them to follow some stupid rules, then employees do their work with more enthusiasm. They do not feel stressed in that working environment and also give their best to attain maximum sales. If employees are treating their customers happy and excitedly, it would be helpful for them to achieve customer loyalty and the right brand image (Alton, 2017).

Therefore, these are some roles that are played by organizational culture for the benefit and success of any organization.

Q2.     Examine a leadership style and its influence on human management practices.

Leadership is considered a core task of the organizational members creating, shaping, and negotiating the content of observational structures to represent normal working conditions (Smircich & Morgan, 1982).

In the case, “The Wonderful World of Human Resources at Disney,” Mr. Walter is…

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