Part 1: In this part, the reader would be able to understand the main similarities between the American and Disney culture according to the North American class presentation.
The American culture has influenced significantly the way Disney does things, because Disney was created in United States, it takes many aspects of the national culture in order to be the leader company in the parks and resorts segment:
Taken from: Getty images
The first similarity is that United States and Disney believe in the importance to have and follow a dream. The Americans see America as a dream, since the first immigrants arrived to the country to the magical movies created in Hollywood and Disney. United States supports the dream world created by Disney, where guests can go and live the dream and also employees work in their “dream job”, according to the Disney employment website. The following video explains how Disney Dreamers academy has been helping people to have and follow a dream: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-rrKxULseg
Image taken from: Disney dreamer
Another similarity between the American and the Disney culture is the continuous improvement, because both, national and organizational cultures are always trying to learn through mistakes, changing unsuccessful elements for successful ones. They consider that perfection is death because after perfection there is nothing more to develop.
Americans and Disney employees work not just for money, but because work defines who they are, they want to be happy working for the company. For example in Disney, employees feel happy and proud working for the company and receive recognitions for their good service practices.
In terms of diversity, national and Disney organizational culture promotes the importance of managing diversity, because in that way the country and the company can achieve creativity and innovation.
In addition, the aggressiveness is an important aspect of the American culture, which can also be seen in the American Football; Americans are very competitive and always want to be first. This aspect is shared by Disney culture, that gives to the employees the instruction to be “aggressively friendly”, which means helping customers when they need it and exceed their expectations, in order to be the leader company in the parks and resorts segment.
Taken from: Getty images
Finally, United States is also an individualistic culture, but promotes group meetings in order to discuss tactics and ideas in group that will be implemented individually; this national aspects can be identify during the American Football huddle, where players have a reunion in order to establish winning tactics. Disney also encourages employees to gather together every day in order to discuss interactions with customers, study the traditions learned and cooperate creating strategies in order to resolve problems and achieve high quality service practices.
Part 2: According to the text: “Manhe American code aging excellence through corporate culture: the HP way” The Management Case Study Journal 2(1): 13-25. by: Nick Forster; it would be answered the two following questions:
1. List and explain 3 strategies used by HP in order to develop and sustain a strong organizational culture - "The HP Way".
Stories: one strategy used by HP in order to develop and sustain a strong organizational culture is the telling of stories related to the company history, values and role models. The stories are told during trainings, management meetings, speeches from company leaders and throughout all the global operations. With the stories, employees know more about HP and receive a message of how the company does things.
“Open Door”: Another strategy is the “open door” principle, in which the company encourages employees to communicate and look for advises from any HP manager. The communication can be formal and informal, about a personal or work issue and between the most junior employees and the senior managers. For example the informal communication takes place during the ritual coffee breaks and “beer bust”, where managers and employees talk, knowing more about each other. With this communication strategy, values can be communicated and the corporate culture is transmitted and maintained.
Close relations: the third strategy used by HP in order to guarantee that all the values are shared throughout the company and maintain the strong corporate culture is giving to employees the same terms and conditions of employment and establishing flexible hours, casual clothing and first names. Therefore, HP want to achieve close relations between managers and employees because don’t want to create divisions among different sections that could weak the company´s culture.
2. By 2001, Carly Fiorina was facing a huge dilemma in terms of organizational culture. "Should Fiorina try to revitalize the HP way or attempt to replace it with a “better” culture than the one established by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett in the 1940’s?” Explain your answer.
The HP organizational culture established by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett gave job security to employees, has lower rates of labor turnover and created a company where people want to work. Taking into account all the benefits that the organizational culture established by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett gives to HP and to the employees, it will be difficult, almost impossible to try to replace the successful HP culture for a “better” one, because the process is very long and can be a failure, also it is not necessary to change all the culture, because there are many successful elements in it.
Taken from: Top news
Therefore, Fiorina should try to revitalize the HP way, as she was doing when she stated to improve the company performances, changing unsuccessful practices made by the company, for better practices that increased customer satisfaction. It is necessary for the company, the introduction of new ideas in order to improve the company practices, but not to replace the organizational culture.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Disney dreamer. [Online] Permanent URL: http://www.disneydreamer.com/YOMD.htm. Last accessed: May 7, 2010
Getty images. [Online] Permanent URL: http://www.gettyimages.com. Last accessed: May 7, 2010
Forster, Nick. 2002. “Managing excellence through corporate culture: the HP way” The Management Case Study Journal 2(1): 13-25.
Top news. [Online] Permanent URL: http://topnews.net.nz/content/22435-hp-unveils-new-convertible-tablet-touchscreen-elitebook-2740p. Last accessed: May 7, 2010
Youtube, (February 15, 2009), “Disney's Dreamers Academy Stories of Success”, [Online] Permanent URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-rrKxULseg. Last accessed: May 7, 2010
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