symbolic frame of organizational analysis walt disney company

The Symbolic Frame
A novel approach to organizational behavior, Bolman & Deal’s (2013) model includes the structural, the human resources, the political, and the symbolic frames. The symbolic frame refers to the organization’s use of signs, symbols, and stories to create a brand identity and organizational culture, as well as justify its behaviors. Symbols create and propagate meaning, and encapsulate an organization’s written codes of ethics and values.
Therefore, symbols become one of the most powerful means by which to create and control organizational culture. Bolman & Deal (2013) explain the five assumptions underlying the symbolic frame. The first involves the salience of meaning. What matters most to an organization is not what happens, but what it means on a deeper symbolic level—how actions or facts are interpreted in light of the overarching stories, myths, or symbols that guide the organization and its members.
Second, the symbolic frame allows for nuance. Especially in a large, heterogeneous company, individual members will perceive events according to their personal interpretation of the symbols. The symbols nevertheless create a sense of unity amid the diversity within the organization.
Third, symbols have an especially tangible value during times of change or crisis. Symbols can help members of the organization find guidance, resolve conflict and confusion, increase the locus of control or sense of certainty, or to find meaning, hope, or value in any situation.
Fourth, organizational processes and singular events become part of the ongoing narrative or story. Rituals, ceremonies, and archetypal heroes provide members with a sense of deep meaning that motivates their engagement and performance over time.
Finally, culture is created through the effective implementation of symbols and stories. Culture becomes the all-important glue binding together the disparate members of a team, department, or corporation. Buying into shared values and beliefs enables the resolution of conflict in ways that promote organizational success.
The symbolic frame is a method of assessing organizations as if they were any other type of society—using the tools of sociology and anthropology and forgetting for a moment the ulterior motives of the organization’s leaders. Without the underlying myths and symbols, an organization cannot hope to solicit intrinsic motivation among employees or to engender brand loyalty across multiple generations of consumers. The symbolic frame applies well to organizations with huge visions, whose leaders become legendary heroes, and whose cultures become an identity and a way of life for its members almost to the point of being like a religion given the emphasis on values and beliefs guiding the behavior of individuals and small groups within its umbrella.
When an organization uses storytelling, it breathes life into its policies, rules, structures, and formal regulations. Likewise, stories legitimize positions of power and the roles filled within the organization. Stories and metaphors are not only “deeply rooted in the human experience” collectively, but also part and parcel of the structure of human consciousness and cognition (Bolman & Deal, 2013, p. 254). The symbolic frame shows how organizations create and implement long-range strategies for management, marketing, and more.
Framing Disney
Few organizations could possibly prove to be a better example of the symbolic frame than the Walt Disney Company. All major organizations demonstrate the power of storytelling and symbols through their branding, but for Disney, symbols and stories actually are the products and services the company provides. In fact, the mission of the Walt Disney Company is “to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling,” (“About the Walt Disney Company,” 2020). Storytelling and symbols are woven into the fabric of organizational culture, into its products, and into its mission, vision, and values. Moreover, Disney self-consciously promotes and capitalizes on the social, political, and psychological power of storytelling. Storytelling is the company’s medium and its message. Essentially, Disney uses symbols and stories to sell symbols and stories, reinventing those symbols and rewriting those stories anew to keep the brand relevant to people from disparate times, cultures, and places. The Walt Disney Company therefore provides a complex and layered example of the power of the symbolic frame.
The symbolic frame includes several core components including the creation of legendary heroes who become mythic figures, belying their human faults and failings. Of course, the founder of the eponymous company has become its most meaningful mythological hero. Walt Disney established a brand name by becoming a self-made hero, a sort of postmodern god-king whose name became synonymous with storytelling itself. The legend of Walt Disney became an indelible part of the Disney Company story. Much of what became part of Walt Disney’s biography was apocryphal rather than real and especially embedded in the notion that “Walt Disney was a creative genius who was responsible for the company's success,” (Wasko, 2001, p. 237). Of course, the founder did contribute much during the early years of the company but whitewashing the character and life story of Disney parallels the many ways the Disney Company totally rewrote the heroes borrowed from the world’s folktales and legends so that they could be used as instruments of corporate control. Disney has been charged with creating a “mythocracy,” based on totalitarian methods (Boguszewicz-Kreft, Kreft & Zurek, 2019, p. 1). A type of almost dictatorial leadership permeated the culture of the Disney Company long after its founder died, with subsequent CEOs like Michael Eisner being called an “almost glorified, face of corporate waste and self-awareness, if not aggrandisement,” (Forbes & Watson, n.d., p. 1). From the start, Disney created the normative culture within which authoritarian and mythical leadership styles were expected. Transmuting negative traits into positive ones also became a skillful tactic of the symbolic frame for Disney.
Another aspect of the symbolic frame is storytelling, which involves narratives and also the creation of special heroes who embody organizational values and visions. Storytelling is of course the business of Disney. Disney sells new versions of old stories. Di Giovanni (2014) points out that “cultures which are distant in time and space are depicted in a selection of Disney animated films,” (p. 207). Stories went from being culturally specific, bound to specific places, peoples, and times, to being globally commercial in value through the Disney enterprise. Furthermore, the use of storytelling allowed Disney to engage in the co-creation of the story of America via the “projection of western stereotypes and American values” onto the co-opted folktales and fairytales (Di Giovanni, 2014, p. 207). For the Walt Disney company, storytelling becomes a form of “propaganda” used in both internal communications and in marketing, which “contributes to corporate hegemony,” (Boguszewicz-Kreft, Kraft & Zurek, 2019, p. 1). Storytelling is what Disney sells, what the company does best, and it also uses storytelling throughout its organizational culture to ensure employee engagement.
The use of myths is also tremendously important to the symbolic frame, and especially with Disney. Myths and legends can be many times more valuable than facts because they are transcendent and possess a universal appeal. Much has been written about the unique method by which Disney creates myths to perpetuate its corporate culture and values. Disney practically claims mythic status in the society and global market economy, in part by disseminating the myth that “the Disney company is somehow special and unique, not like other corporations,” (Wasko, 2001, p. 237). Another myth perpetrated by Disney is that “everyone adores” the company and its products, which are wholesome, “harmless, safe, and unbiased,” (Wasko, 2001, p. 237). These myths are substantiated not by fact, but by the art of storytelling itself. As Bohas (2014) puts it, the Disney method of myth-making represents “intertwined material and ideational universes,” and “multilayered knowledge structuring,” (p. 23). Disney creates narratives and meta-narratives to support them.
Ritual is another cornerstone of the symbolic frame. Disney has become adept at using ritual, particularly in the construction of its theme parks, but also in the release of films and the projection of certain films on television at special times of the year in classical ritual format. Rites of passage or initiation rituals are used to inculcate the company’s vision and values to new members, or to demarcate the transition from one level of the corporate hierarchy to another. Some rituals become formally entrenched in organizational policy. When those policies correspond to stories, myths, and legends, they become so much more than dry procedures and take on a whole new meaning. Ceremonies serve a similar function in organizations, and tend to be “more episodic, grander, and more elaborate” than rituals, which can be small daily actions that signify team cohesion (Bolman & Deal, 2013, p. 260). Rituals, stories, symbols, and ceremonies serve multiple and interrelated functions. Disney has created a veritable pantheon of mythical figures, from its own creations like Mickey Mouse to its co-opted characters like Snow White. Of all the mechanisms used in the symbolic frame, Disney uses myth the most to generate meaning for its members and consumers. The mechanisms by which Disney employs myth are absolutely explicit and deeply entwined with its storytelling function.
Conclusions About the Symbolic Frame
The symbolic frame shows how leaders within an organization can become imbued with almost mystical powers, revered as godlike beings. Walt Disney is celebrated not for the man he actually was, but for the idea of the man, the construct of an idealized American patriarch who brings joy to the lives of children around the world (Wasko, 2001). Disney brand characters like Mickey Mouse also become these legendary heroes that children and adults alike associate with positive affective states.
Similarly, the symbolic frame shows how leaders within the Walt Disney Company, or any other hegemon, proactively construct new stories or revise old ones to make them meaningful for new audiences or members. Disney’s business model is in part based on the use of narratives taken from the folktales and legends of yore, encased in particular cultures or religious traditions. Just as storytelling traditionally functions as a means by which to impart identity construction and also norms, values, and ideals, the Walt Disney Company uses stories to solicit adoration from members and consumers.
All aspects of the symbolic frame inform organizational culture, structure, and leadership. For example, having a deified hero in the persona of Walt Disney enables a hierarchical structure and penchant for authoritarian leadership throughout the history of the Disney Company (Forbes & Watson, n.d.). Disney self-consciously and deliberately capitalizes on the power of symbolism to affect the way people perceive reality. The symbolic frame is used to influence behavior, engender brand loyalty, increase employee engagement, and create what can be considered a type of consumer religion.
Framing Disney
The Walt Disney Company can be assessed using all four of the frames presented by Bolman & Deal (2013): the symbolic, the structural, the political, and the human resources frames. With Disney, however, one frame is many times more apparent and many times stronger than all the others. That frame is the symbolic one, as the entire company is built around the manipulation of symbols, myths, and stories.
Disney’s use of the symbolic frame is all-encompassing, straddling multiple formats and strategies. Animated films is only one part of the Disney enterprise. As the company grew, it extended its tentacles into the fully immersive environment of theme parks, and with those, Disney was able to generate potentially limitless categories of consumer goods and merchandise branded with its characters.
All aspects of the Walt Disney Company, including its human resources management, its political culture, and its organizational structure, depend on the salience of the stories the company tells and sells. Disney manages to blur the distinction between reality and fantasy by leveraging archetypes, myths, and symbols. Its marketing strategies are aligned well with its strategic management objectives, ensuring that Disney will remain successful as a media, lifestyle, and entertainment conglomerate for many more generations.
References
“About the Walt Disney Company,” (2020). Retrieved from: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about/
Boguszewicz-Kreft, M., Kreft, J. & Zurek, P. (2019). Myth and storytelling: The case of the Walt Disney Company. Myth in Modern Media Management and Marketing. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9100-9.ch002
Bohas, A. (2014). Transnational firms and the knowledge structure: The case of the Walt Disney Company. Global Society 29(1): 23-41.
Bolman, L.G. & Deal, T.E. (2013). Reframing organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Di Giovanni, E. (2014). Cultural otherness and global communication in Walt Disney films at the turn of the century. The Translator 9(2): 207-223.
Forbes, W. & Watson, R. (n.d.). Destructive corporate leadership and board loyalty bias. Retrieved from: https://www.city.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/56372/2A_Forbes.pdf
Wasko, J. (2001). Challenging Disney myths. Journal of Communication Inquiry 23(3): 237-257.