Bergamini Zack Bergamini Professor Wolcott ENC 1102 April 5, 2013 Literature Review: Walt Disney The following

literature review is about how The Walt Disney World Company, one of the largest companies in the world, treats their front line employees. These employees are treated like slaves while working (Kober, 2010, Perlin 2011, & Shortsleeve, 2004). The front line employees also called cast members are the ones who operate the ride systems, cashiers at food stands and store locations, and park operations such as custodial. For the amount of work these employee actually have to do, the pay and benefits are poor. Like every worldwide company, Disney is under much media scrutiny, especially with their employees. Disney cannot discriminate or treat their employees poor because then they will have a jaded public image. This is not what a company needs when their main goal is obviously revenue but the revenue comes from the high-class service Disney is supposed to supply to every guest equally (Smoodin, 1994 & Wallace 1996). With that need of high-class service, the amount of stress the employees are put under is tough for an Florida hot eight-hour shift these cast members must work daily (Perlin, 2011 & Prevot, 2011). There is a misconception of how Disney treats their front line employees, it is not bad in any way, but the work they do is not comparable for the hours and the effort they put in on a weekly basis and through the different articles, journals, and interviews found in my research hopefully a person wanting to work for them is not afraid to jump, but maybe can bring these points up with the company.

Bergamini Amount of Work Compared to Pay: If you are working as a front line employee at Walt Disney World or any other Disney park across the world you are guaranteed to work at least 40 hours a week. Disney can get away with having some employees work more than forty hours thanks to fine print in the paperwork they have employees sign and date before actually working (Perlin, 2011 & Prevot, 2011). They work you to the bone, Disney wants everything out of you and you have to be in perfect guest service behavior the entire time (Smoodin, 1994 & Wallace 1996). Researchers agreed that working at Disney is complex, an employee will not just have to work his or her own designated area, but they are performers, they have to put on a show as well (Shortsleeve, 2004 & Perlin, 2011). Disney believes that the employees are cast members and that the park is a stage the word cast is in cast member thus where no matter where you are on stage you must be in topnotch form (Smoodin, 1994 &Wallace, 1996). If the employees are supposed to do so much, then most researchers believe that working them so much is not the ideal way to go. They feel the pay given to the front line employees is way too low. Their hourly wage, which is minimum wage at just upwards of $7.50 an hour, is deemed unfair for many of the scholars. Which is definitely not a large sum of money at all. It can be increased or fixed very easily.

Walt Disneys Idealisms: Walts view on how employees should work at the theme parks is how the company based their training and work ethics (Bryman, 1999 & Garcia, 2010). Bryman suggested Walt was a totalitarian leader, the managers followed his leadership style, and thus the employees were frightened in their job. They did not want to be fired at all. Garcia went on to say that most employees especially during the 1970s and 80s where Disney was lead in a totalitarian state.

Bergamini Employees could not even talk to each other while seen by guests, they were like robots in a sense it was business only for employees. The only fun they could have is interaction between guests, not each other (Bryman, 1999 & Garcia, 2010). Both thought that seemed irrational. However, once Michael Eisner took over the company, the managerial leadership changed and the employees were give more freedom (Bryman, 1999). Prevot understood this change, he studied that the guest service improved, and ratings were higher than ever before. The more democratic, modern leadership was a blessing for employees. Prevot went on to say that with times changing Disney has to make more changes to the way they treat employees in order to keep a low turnover rate, save money and keep a reputable reputation towards the public media and future guests.

Conclusion: It is has been shown the amount of work and the way Walt Disney went about leading his managers was unfair to the front line employees. Researchers have found that change is necessary for employees to be treated fairly. Kober, Perlin, Shortsleeve, Smoodin, and Wallace examined the ways Disney works their employees may be too much when you add in the many facets of the job, long hours, and the weather. Especially when they are not receiving good enough pay for their job. Bryman, Garcia, and Prevot studied Walt Disney leadership style and how change has helped employees greatly, but it can still be changed for the better. However, through this research they never discussed how Disney could change their outlook on frontline employees with better pay plans and benefits to not only increase better customer service, but to create a better working environment where the employees actually are pleased with their pay.

Bergamini That is exactly what I am going to accumulate through my research. Therefore, if I do end up working at Disney World I can bring that up as suggestions for future use.

Bergamini Project Proposal: The Walt Disney World is the largest single-site employer in the world with over 66,000 employees and they spend around 1.2 billion dollars for labor plus 500 million dollars in benefits at about $7.55 an hour. They have over 3,700 different job offerings and host the largest college internship program in the country, the Disney College Program where students from all over different colleges have the power to work as front line employees anywhere on the resort. Roughly about 60% of all front line employees are from the college program. Also, the Disney International Program is gives the same opportunity jobs as the college program, but to internationals looking to work in America. With all this said, there are a ton of employees working for Disney World. I believe they are not getting the fair pay they deserve. My project will hopefully give a better pay plan and benefits to the employees that they will feel more comfortable working. This is for the all Disney executives to look at. They are very intelligent men and woman with most having their PhD in business and marketing, so these people are no slouches. All the executives are in their mid 40s to mid 60s, with the main focus hopefully reaching to Thomas Staggs, Chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts, Meg Crofton President of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and Robert Iger CEO of Walt Disney Company. I will begin to use a money marketing analysis, which then will compare their old pay plan to the one I create. Also I will contrast this plany with other pay plans as well, such as the large competitors like Universal, Sea World, and Six Flags. When coming up with a fair hourly wage that I think is suitable for these frontline employees I will do some research by actually going into the theme parks themselves and ask employees how they feel they should be paid and what benefits would they most likely want if they were to receive such benefits. Another method I will use is have a friend apply and start working for the company so I have an inside track by seeing his weekly

Bergamini statements and from there I will do my own fixed pay. That way I have a real life example on my hands when creating the plan. The goal is to create a pay plan that will entice the Disney management, if that does not go as planned, hopefully I will come up with plenty of great benefit options that Disney has not already thought of that will be enticing and better for the employees. Hence they will really want to be in top service form always and the ratings hopefully will get even higher than ever.

Bergamini Works Cited Bryman, Alan. Disney and his Worlds. Routledge, 1995. 64-77. Print. Bryman, Alan. "The Disneyization of Society." The Sociological Review 47.1 1999. 25-47. Print. Garcia, Jason. "Walt Disney World Cast Members Can Relax a Bit about Their Look." Orlando Sentinel. 14 June 2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. Kober, Jeff. "Are Disney Cast Members Mousetrapped?" Magic of Business by Jeff Kober. Mouse Planet, 9 Dec. 2010. Web. 12 Mar. 2013. Perlin, Ross. "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom." Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. 1 May 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2013. Prevot, Arnaud. "THE MARKETING OF AMERICANA: PROMOTING THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY AND HARLEY DAVIDSON MOTORS IN THE FRENCH MARKET." Consortium Journal of Hospitality & Tourism 15.2 (2011): 35-45. Print. Shortsleeve, Kevin. "The Wonderful World of the Depression: Disney, Despotism, and the 1930s. Or, Why Disney Scares Us." Project MUSE - The Wonderful World of the Depression: Disney, Despotism, and the 1930s. Or, Why Disney Scares Us. The Lion and the Unicorn, 30 Jan. 2004. Web. 12 Mar. 2013. Smoodin, Eric Loren. "Disney and the Corporate Agenda." Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom. New York: Routledge, 1994. Print. Wallace, Mike. Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1996. Print.