Consider the global expansion strategies of Disney and critically evaluate how Disney has exploited its core competences to create value for stakeholders.

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Case Study: Disney Goes Global 

Ritzer (2005) discusses the ‘McDonaldization’ of society, where the principles of the fast-food industry such as efficiency, consistency, quantification, and control are universally adopted, contributing to impersonal uniformity, with standardised products: Brazilian children sporting American-style t-shirts and drinking Coca Cola, Saudi women applying Chanel or Christian Dior cosmetics under their veils, Swedes increasingly eating burritos and tacos at fast-food chains.

‘Disneyfication’ may refer to bigger, faster, and better entertainment with a large sense of uniformity worldwide, a concept invented by Bryman (1999) to refer to the internationalisation of the entertainment values of US mass culture. However, when Euro Disney went bankrupt in 1994, amid criticisms that the theme park was too American for Europeans, management made appropriate changes to cater to local tastes and renamed the park ‘Disneyland Paris’, eg introducing wine and not requiring French employees to act in such scripted ways (Matusitz & Palermo 2013).

When Disney opened a theme park in Hong Kong in 2005, it was not successful; Hong Kong Disneyland personnel found the ‘emotional labour’ required too artificial, with objections to Disney’s refusal to let Chinese food inspectors into the park. The attempted Disneyfication of Chinese culture brought about significant cultural backlash; feng shui principles were not brought into the park, and cast members (employees) were concerned about their salary and working conditions.

Questions:

1. Consider the global expansion strategies of Disney and critically evaluate how Disney has exploited its core competences to create value for stakeholders.

Disneyland Hongkong has just reopened again as organisations challenge the situation presented by Covid-19. Please discuss at least one contemporary management issue as it might relate to the Covid-19 situation from the following list: how personal characteristics of managers might influence culture and effectiveness; effective management in the face of diversity for all stakeholders; the impact of domestic and global environments such as expats moving abroad; decision making; effective leadership in the 21^st century.