This paper examines how the Walt Disney Company achieves sustained success through deliberate organizational behavior strategies. Beginning with rigorous pre-hire screening and continuing through immersive orientation and the Disney Institute's training programs, the paper traces how Disney builds a workforce culture aligned with its entertainment mission. It explores the company's employee satisfaction surveys, its "Performance Excellence" initiative, and the management philosophy of hiring for attitude and training for skill. The paper argues that Disney's organizational culture — grounded in innovation, quality, storytelling, and decency — is the primary driver of both employee satisfaction and the "magical" customer experience that keeps guests returning to its theme parks.
The Walt Disney Company has gone through many phases over the course of its history, claiming overwhelming success while also necessarily acknowledging periods of failure. This paper argues that Disney has achieved great success through the implementation of customer-responsive organizational behavior practices, and that this success can be attributed to effective strategies within the company's structure, culture, and human resource management.
The theme park concept was pioneered by Walt Disney with the goal of creating "a unique entertainment experience that combined fantasy and history, adventure, and learning in which the guest would be a participant, as well as a spectator" (Grant, nd). Disney-designed theme parks are located in Florida and California in the United States, as well as in Japan and France. All of the parks are divided into distinct themed lands — among them Main Street, Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, and Adventureland — each designed to immerse guests in a particular atmosphere. Rides, food, souvenirs, and even employee costumes are themed to match the land in which they are located.
Grant (nd) states that Disney's success "can be traced to the control of the environment to create a unique experience for the visitor. This control is achieved through highly systematized operations management and human resource management. Disney has sophisticated procedures for selecting and training employees to ensure the highest levels of service, safety, and maintenance in the industry."
The importance of people to Disney's model was captured early by Walt Disney himself, who once said: "You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality" (Walt Disney, in Waltz, 2007). This statement illustrates his early recognition that strategic training and organizational behavior methods were essential to creating an environment successful in terms of both customers and customer-responsive employees.
Formal training within the Disney Company was implemented beginning in 1986, and the Disney Institute was developed specifically for this purpose. The Institute offers a wide range of courses, including:
(1) Disney's approach to people management; (2) approaches to quality service; (3) approaches to creative leadership; (4) approaches to orientation; (5) approaches to HR management; (6) customer loyalty; and (7) other business-related classes tailored to participants' needs (Grant, nd).
According to Grant (nd), the benefits that Disney employees derive from Institute training "supplement the organizational culture of the company, and show the detailed thought that went into creating training that would benefit the massive number of employees that exist throughout the Disney Company. The intense focus that Disney puts into each employee is easily paid back by the customer satisfaction that they maintain, which keeps the theme parks jam-packed year around."
The Disney Institute's programs are offered at six resort convention hotels and at convention or meeting sites in various cities. Disney does not release information about how many people go through the Institute or how much revenue it generates, but the scale of offerings is substantial. One tour package offered by Florida Unlimited Incentives, for example, includes three nights at a Disney resort hotel, an Institute management program, and a park pass — priced at $3,495 per person (Shuit, 2004).
The training offered through the Institute addresses several key organizational behavior concepts, including decision-making, motivation, group behavior, communication, organizational culture, organizational structure, and human resources practices (Waltz, 2007). The program has proven so successful that companies such as Toys R Us and PricewaterhouseCoopers have adopted similar training approaches. Waltz (2007) reports that feedback from these companies indicates the Disney Institute "was able to create classes to teach employees from a variety of companies how to create a good organizational culture... The most interesting thing about it all is that they have been able to duplicate the same customer response and employee response repeatedly in many different types of companies."
Each prospective Disney employee is required to watch a ten-minute video that explains the company's standards: employees must have their own private transportation to and from the park; tattoos must not be visible; excessive jewelry is prohibited; and unconventional makeup is not permitted. Studies show that approximately 10% of prospective employees choose not to apply after viewing this video. However, as Waltz (2007) explains, this is intentional — Disney seeks to "weed out those individuals that are not going to be a good fit."
Those who proceed with the application are interviewed and hired on the same day, completing their paperwork and receiving their first benefits briefing immediately. As Waltz (2007) notes, "This way less time is spent on orientation and the cast members can start their valuable training right away."
The first step in the training process is an orientation program called "Traditions," held on the same day as the interview and hiring. Waltz (2007) explains that regardless of one's role within the company, participation in Traditions is mandatory: "it does not matter who you are within the company — it is necessary to be a part of the magic. Traditions is used to submerge the employees into the dream, mission, and service ideology of Disney and how Walt Disney wanted his company to operate even after his passing."
Waltz (2007) further observes that Disney offers "first-class business standards to make the company operate with a fantastic organizational culture," striving for excellence and treating employees well while providing top-tier training and opportunities. The organizational culture Disney fosters is one in which employees "feel that they are valued as an individual and a vital part of the team." Open communication throughout the chain of command, comprehensive training, and meaningful rewards all contribute to this culture. The result is that Disney maintains one of the lowest employee attrition rates of any company in the United States (Waltz, 2007).
Disney has its own 120-question survey used to assess the performance of management and whether employees are satisfied with how the company is run. This survey also helps evaluate the effectiveness of communication between managers and employees. After the survey is administered, a staff meeting must be convened within three weeks to address all concerns raised. This practice reflects the company's human resources philosophy and organizational culture — that employee welfare and concerns are held in high regard.
"120-question survey and biweekly cast member newsletter"
"Core values and Performance Excellence change initiative"
"Attitude-first hiring and executive participation in operations"
"Synthesis of Disney's organizational behavior model"
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