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Walt Disney Company and Bolman and Deal’s Symbolic Frame

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Walt Disney Company and Bolman and Deal’s Symbolic Frame

Introduction

A symbolic Frame is a culture made through beliefs, faith, and meanings. It helps

workers find meaning and value in what they do. It motivates employees by making the

company's future path seem essential and unique. The process involves articulating a compelling

mission and rewarding exceptional performance using a company celebration. Each organization

has a unique symbolic culture. A company's symbolic culture demonstrates how the organization

carries out its duties and how its members demonstrate loyalty to the company and the larger

community. It unifies its members, gives their culture greater depth, and reduces ambiguity and

confusion. Everyone pays more attention when something in an organization strongly connects

to a shared belief. The symbolic Frame helps highlight organizations' characteristics and the

unique symbols that drive their development. In addition, this framework is helpful for every

firm, and adjusting its core competencies aids in establishing a sustainable culture. The essay

examines the Walt Disney Company using the structure and Symbolic Frame based on Bolman

and Deal.

The Walt Disney Company is a multinational company specializing in family-oriented

media and entertainment. It has five primary business units: media networks, theme parks and

resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media.The goal of this

organization is to use the art of storytelling to spread joy, knowledge, and inspiration to people

all around the globe (Boguszewicz-Kreft, 2019, p. 30). Bolman and Deal develop four frames,

structural, human resource, political, and symbolic, through which leaders examine and address

organizational problems (Feuer, 2020, p. 40). The Walt Disney Corporation bridged cultural

divides with the help of a symbolic frame from Bolman and Dealt four frames. An organization's
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symbolic framework highlights its values, mythology, rituals, ceremonies, stories, heroes, and

inspirations.

Theory supporting Bolman and Deal's Symbolic Frame gives people in an organization a

more profound sense of meaning and significance. Those who follow a leader seen via a

symbolic lens are motivated to believe that the company strategy is crucial and unique. Using the

symbolic frame, the leader establishes clear goals and rewards those who achieve them. The

most crucial part to the leader of management is to motivate and excite the team, according to the

symbolic Frame (Feuer, 2020, p. 40). These managers motivate their teams to achieve the

company's goals using a combination of inspiration and charisma as seen through the lens of the

symbolic Frame. Good leaders give their followers hope and meaning through signs, the

organization of experience, and the sharing of meaningful stories (Feuer, 2020, p. 40).

Employees' sense of meaning and faith in the company's mission are the focal points of this lens.

The organization's culture is shaped by its rituals, ideals, and ceremonies. Symbols are

used in the organization to aid in interpreting unclear information. The symbols bring the staff

together and give the company's culture a sense of identity, which has several advantages, such

as smoothening the recruitment process and prioritizing cultural fit making employees report

high job satisfaction (Feuer, 2020, p. 40). Furthermore, cultural compatibility is broken down

into subsections in this context of personality testing for employment.

Moreover, the onboarding process has been improved, the company's values have been

clearly articulated, and an accurate representation of the company's culture has been presented to

the outside world. The symbolic framework is significant because it increases employee

retention, productivity, and career growth for employees (Feuer, 2020, p. 40). The company's

most fundamental values and ambitions can be communicated to all employees with the help of
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the symbolic framework. A significant advantage is that everybody is aiming toward the same

objective. For instance, if a company's primary goal is to become a cost leader, everyone will

work towards that goal. Using a symbolic lens to the company's operations is a great way to

build the company's reputation (Feuer, 2020, p. 40). The company's brand is bolstered by

promoting its cultural values on its website and social media accounts. When people enjoy their

work, they are more invested in the firm's and their coworkers' success.

Leaders must generate recognizable symbols to improve organizational behavior's

predictability and interpret internal and external events. Symbols help people find stability,

meaning, and trust in an uncertain world. Considering Disney's success in achieving its mission,

it's clear that the company has a well-thought-out organizational framework Feuer, 2020, p. 40).

The first defining symbol of Disney is in Walt Disney's famous quote that one may

design and construct the most fantastic site globally, but it requires men to turn the dream into a

reality. Walt Disney was able to realize his ambitions with some help from others. Like all the

best Disney tales, his story needed the belief in an impossible ideal by more than one person

(Schwaiger et al., 2022, p. 580). Walt's life is a tapestry of invention, villains, betrayal, sorrow,

and the Disney happy ending; he overcame obstacles, gained wisdom from his mistakes, and

eventually prevailed. Walt Disney persevered with passion and unyielding belief after losing

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to a friend turned opponent.

The second symbolic Disney quality is the company's aim to entertain, enlighten, and

motivate individuals worldwide through unmatched storytelling. Disney's success in animation

and film inspired him to desire to show the world the wonder of his work (Schwaiger et al.,

2022, p. 580). He wants everyone to experience what he had. He worked tirelessly to realize his

dream of creating a prosperous theme park through services with a memorable and wonderful
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experience. Disney was most focused on developing a family-style park that stood out from the

crowd by being spotless and well-organized. He aimed for the entire customer experience to

exceed their wildest dreams.

Thirdly, One quote sums up Walt Disney's focus on company culture:  Workers are the

most critical because they make dreams a reality.  When Snow White and her seven pals first

appeared on screen in 1937, Schwaiger et al. (2022, p. 580). they were met with great acclaim.

He dreamed, he gave life to his fantasies, and they came true. Disney, unfortunately, learned the

hard way how to lose staff rapidly. He discovered the hard way workers have the power to either

propel or strangle a vision. During an animators' strike caused by wage cuts, confusion, and

micromanagement, he rethought success as a shared aspiration rather than a personal pursuit.

The employees at Disney are the company's first priority because it is their labor that makes the

"happiest place on earth" a reality for guests. The happiest workers in the world should be found

in a happy workplace (Schwaiger et al., 2022, p. 580). Disney develops a culture where workers

feel appreciated and invested, where the goal is to surpass customers' expectations (Schwaiger et

al., 2022, p. 580). It's all about how they are taught, rewarded, given responsibility, and treated.

The most salient mechanism or process by which the Walt Disney Company creates

meaning for its members is by establishing a company culture that prioritizes employees by

going beyond their expectations for them to exceed customers' expectations in return.  Disney's

recruitment, training, rehearsals, and rewards aimed to indoctrinate new hires into the so-

called magical culture,  a set of shared standards, beliefs, values, and loyalties. (Schwaiger et al.,

2022, p. 580). Walt Disney understood that he needed dedicated workers who believed in the

same things he did and would spread the Disney enchantment in everything they did. He wanted

people to feel like they were a part of the Disney magic the second they stepped on Disney
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property. Disney realized a need to institute a mystical culture that included loyalty, incentives,

and responsibility (Schwaiger et al., 2022, p. 580). Quickly he grasped what he needed to alter to

forestall insurrection and encourage loyalty.

The human resource practices prevalent at Walt Disney aim to instill the company's core

values into the minds and actions of workers. He motivates his staff by encouraging Disney

guests to return for more enchantment (Schwaiger et al., 2022, p. 580). Disney's human resource

policies focus on finding and retaining talented people and providing them the freedom they need

to feel invested in the company's success and motivated to contribute to its goals.

Organizations should be concerned with how they seem to the outside world. They

should prioritize public perception over actual events. Reputation is based on the outward

appearance, and its management is disconnected. Since various people find different values in

the same experiences, every event can be interpreted differently (Krämer, 2020, p. 60). Leaders

of organizations need to establish consistent symbols for employees to use in making sense of

and predicting the outcomes of internal and external events. Symbols like these help people find

stability, meaning, and trust in an uncertain world.

An organization's culture is woven from various sources, including myths, heroes, stories,

rituals, and ceremonies. People's ability to find meaning and fulfillment in their professional and

personal lives is enhanced when immersed in various organizational cultures. Since

organizations are communities of people bound together by a shared sense of mission, values,

and ethics, organizational culture is the glue that keeps everyone working together (Krämer,

2020, p. 60). Leaders should take a Symbolic approach when they discover that demotivation

and disengagement are their team's primary obstacles. The symbolic Frame is designed to help

workers find significance and fulfillment in their jobs (Schwaiger et al., 2022, p.580). The
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strategy is meant to motivate employees by emphasizing the importance and originality of the

organization's future course. It entails establishing a compelling vision and rewarding

exceptional achievement with parties.

In conclusion, those skilled at using the symbolic frame can unite others and encourage

them to work toward a common purpose. The formation of cohesive communities around

nebulous notions that can only be conveyed through stories and metaphors is made possible by

the persuasive power of shared assumptions and beliefs. There is no need for rationalization

when people work together for a common goal, and everyone involved feels like they are a part

of something bigger than themselves. When a typical cause inspires people, they work more, go

further, and set higher goals for themselves.

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References

Boguszewicz-Kreft, M., Kreft, J., & Żurek, P. (2019). Myth and Storytelling: The Case of the

Walt Disney Company. In Myth in Modern Media Management and Marketing. IGI

Global, 22-49.

Feuer, E. (2020). Hazing definitions of students and administrators at two institutions using a

four-frame approach. Oracle: The Research Journal of the Association of

Fraternity/Sorority Advisors, 14(2), 38-49.

Krämer, P. (2022). The Walt Disney Company, Family Entertainment, and Hollywood’s Global

Hits, 44-70.

Schwaiger, K., Zehrer, A., & Spiess, T. (2022). The influence of symbolic and instrumental

attributes of employer image on perceived industry attractiveness: differences between

business owners and employees. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, 5(3), 567-

587.