Corporate Culture of Walt Disney Essay Example

companies, local managers are sent to various divisional headquarters in the United States to participate in global strategic planning.

A job description for every job is a common feature in Walt Disney Companies while it is not so in Chinese firms. In the exercise of authority, the Chinese companies would concentrate more on the departmental managers while in Walt Disney company authority is delegated to the lowest level possible.When it comes to the control function, the Chinese Companies appear to exercise control more tightly than their American counterparts.

Daily reviews are common in Chinese companies. While Walt Disney has an employment policy of “hire and fire”, the Chinese companies did not believe in such a policy”.(http://www.freewebs.com/mesman_sulaiman/Pages/mgt.htm)

Human Resource policies for expatriates in China As we have already discussed, culture do affect the human resource management policies.As far as the corporate culture of China is concerned, human resource is available in abundance, but the decision makers tend to take this for granted and hence do not engage in planning those resources. This attitude slowly affects the other areas of human resource development, such as raising the skill level through training and development, motivating people in the right direction and providing quality of work life. Importing management practices from America requires certain precautions.The management practices to be imported into a country must be analyzed in terms of their applicability rather than simply imposing them on the employees.

Walt Disney in China has to cope with the problems of managing a diverse workforce because it has to send some expatriates for the key management positions. This trend of workforce diversity compelled human resource manager of Walt Disney to adapt these changes with

special recruiting programs targeted towards these groups and organizational changes to accommodate their needs. Day-care centers, special benefit packages and language training have all become the part of the inducements to employees. “Managing diversity means changing the culture, that is, the standard operating procedures. It requires data, experimentation, and the discovery of the procedures that work best for each group. It is more complex than conventional management but can result in more effective organizations” (Triandis, Kurowski, and Gelfand 1994, p.773)

The human resource manager has to make some policies to ease the transition for their expatriates in China, which includes:Selecting the right people: as with any position, sound selections for assignments in China are essential. The human resource manager has to keep in mind that some Americans abroad have damaged both their company’s and their country’s image by conveying an attitude of cultural arrogance, which results when a person conveys the attitude that his or her own culture is superior to another’s. Some employees do not function well in a foreign environment. According to a research project by Pierre Haldemann, only the financial benefits are not a sufficient motivator for employees to take part in the international assignments.

According to this research challenge is the best motivator for expatriation process, for 30. 8% of the responders while 26. 95% thought that the adventure of trying something new and different is most appealing. Only 3. 85% of the respondents thought that monetary benefits are important for motivating them for international assignment (Haldemann, 1999).

In the study conducted by Haldemann in which 26 expatriates were interviewed, it was concluded that 46.15% of the expatriates were selected for their Technical knowledge

and merit, 15.4% were selected for being the most suitable person for the job, 11. 5% were selected for having the capability to adapt, 7. 7% were selected for having the ability to speak the language of the host country, 3.8% were selected for their managerial abilities, 3. 8% were selected for their interpersonal skills and 19. 25 were selected without any specific selection criteria. The best approach for Human resource Manager is to select the right people who should, of course, be competent in their specialty.In addition, people should be selected on the basis of their desire to work and live in a foreign culture.

It is more appropriate, that employees who have already traveled or lived in China or have some understanding about Chinese language should be selected to work in the Chinese branch of Walt Disney Allowing Orientation

Visits: an employee’s adjustment to China can be facilitated and apprehensions reduced if he or she can make one or more orientation visits to China before actually assuming job responsibilities