Change Strategy At Disney For Achieving Autonomous Culture Essay.

Disney Change Strategy

As companies have already instilled organizational cultures, adjusting to new cultures is quite a challenge as it is not a simple task that can be achieved overnight. It requires strategized plans and structures that will be effective when implementing change in an institution. The case study at Disney involves improving the flow and efficiency of the ever-growing creative and technical work at Disney to re-envision the system group. Giebel and Johnson have had work in progress regarding relationship-driven change rather than metric-driven (Dhir, 2019). Their success of change, as they believe, can be measured through the strengths of the relationship with key customers and stakeholders (Hanelt et al., 2021). However, the force has an average tenure of 15-40 years and is conditioned to a top-down culture. This paper will discuss a change strategy at Disney to achieve autonomous culture within the more prominent organizations with a long-standing hierarchical structure.

Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)  are complex systems that are a dynamic framework of interactions, although the ensemble’s behavior may not be predictable according to the habits of elements. The nature of CAS is that it is adaptative in the personal and collective behavior change self-adjust and mutate corresponding to change the initialization of micro event. The system can help Giebel and Johnson comprehend the situation with the larger Disney organization and their system groups to help inform the change strategy.

Most organizations globally operate based on title and hierarchy amongst employees. The top leaders are found in their own dedicated offices separate from other employees. However, Disney wants to eliminate this by breaking these walls down by putting the staff together, the new staff, and people with the best ideas regardless of the tittles (Galkina & Atkova, 2020). It ensures the new staff should not feel limited, especially by their titles. It will ensure they employees unleash themselves and make the most out of themselves (Hoogeboom & Wilderom, 2020). To help achieve this change, CAS can use its considerable models. Two people’s social behavior responses as they relate to a given surrounding can be taken as a rudimentary model of an institution change.

Following the order in which these individuals respond can feature their relation over time and be translated as demonstrating information exchange, cooperation, trust, and competition. When these relations are repeated for a certain period, one can analyze their habits development and evaluate how they relate to individual or group benefits (Galkina & Atkova, 2020). This CAS model can be helpful to Giebel and Johnson to give the perspective on how to achieve the culture change. It facilitates understanding how characteristic strategies of performance that emerge under the model have been recognized as helpful in addressing a wide range of social challenges (Galkina & Atkova, 2020). The model can be used to demonstrate an extension of that work to a much more comprehensive set of issues involving correlation between multiple groups of people with more realistic structural and social characteristics (Hoogeboom & Wilderom, 2020). If they employ the use of CAS models in their change strategy, it can be effective in understanding the situation with larger Disney organizations.

Complex Adaptive Systems

Giebel and Johnson used the scientific method and experimentation metaphor to describe their approach. A scientist uses scientific methods and experimentation as a standardized way of getting observations, collecting data, developing theories, trying predictions, and interpreting the outcomes. However, it does not mean its application is always like that, as some other areas are easily tested than others. When they cannot use direct experimentation, the scientific method is modified. Still, the aim remains the same, to discover cause and effect interconnections through asking questions, gathering and assessing the pieces of evidence to determine if information availed can be combined into a logical answer (Bolisani & Bratianu, 2018). They effectively used these metaphors of scientific methods as they tested theories, starting with the utilization of small autonomous groups to break the formation of initially formed groups (Dhir, 2019). It demonstrates the development and use of theories which is an integral part of scientific methods. Through this experimentation, they learned that people would stagger in at different times and a jump from six to seven employees participants, of which the quality of the discussion dropped.

In conversation, they can use the metaphor of scientific methods to ensure that employees are moving towards the change and that resistors are swayed in various ways. Scientists often depend on metaphor and analogy to develop a logic of scientific phenomena and share their results. They are easily misinterpreted or inadvertently back up stereotypes and information that might limit the methods’ goal (Dhir, 2019). Giebel and Johnson need to ensure that they embrace the conceptual, political, and social perspectives of the metaphors of scientific methods that facilitate the adoption of vital perspectives on their utilization and effects through their conversation.

Autonomy is a critical aspect in an organization to promote how employees work. A strategy for Disney to instill autonomy in the new teams of the organization to accept working in a shared environment is by first creating and communicating a clear vision and purpose (Dhir, 2019). The company wants to improve relations amongst employees to make everyone feel free to achieve the most for the company; hence, if all employees understand what they are working towards, they can use that knowledge as their guideline to back up their decisions. The second step is giving the employees the tools they need. Most of the time, challenges arise when employees are specified by managers and owners on what must not be done but how (Hanelt et al., 2021). With this in mind, it gives the employees the impression that their abilities and judgments are not trusted hence, demotivating and conflicting with why they were hired in the first place. Instead, provide tools that aid to achieve the goals and let them find their own how (Dhir, 2019). Another step is taking a step back and letting the employees do their skills which is an effective way of developing autonomy. Working on their own helps them to develop confidence in their independence.

Use of Metaphors

Hello to all our esteemed colleagues. We will start the meeting by introducing ourselves by the first name only to know how to call each other as we look forward to working together. You are welcome to the new staff joining the team, and we want to feel alive with colleagues. In case of any help, do not hesitate to reach out to any of your fellow workmates. With that said, my name is Giebel, director of systems and the purpose of this meeting is to lead and encourage change that has been in progress for quite some time, as you are all aware.

I, at this moment, welcome all of you and encourage you to stick around until the end of the meeting to help us work together that we so much need to help propel the company towards growth. After the speech, all questions are welcome, which will take a few minutes.

At Disney, we have worked in the amination industry with some of the colleagues we started with together. I believe we have an implied hierarchical form of approach in working in this company. Still, after a review and consideration, we have decided to change that in such a manner we can all work under the same space freely (Dhir, 2019). There are no views of entitlements, but employees relate on the same levels. To implement this change, we have considered specific strategies that we value effective in promoting this change.

The first thing reminding you of what our vision is. We want to promote more relations between employees, and to achieve this; we want all of us to sit and interact working under the same space. No separate offices for certain employees, but we will all be here. Secondly, to promote autonomy, we want each of you to work in your way, without limitation, so long as they are within company policies to achieve personal and organizational goals (Hanelt et al., 2021). You are encouraged to use and request any resources needed to facilitate your personal and group work. Lastly, we believe each of you knows why they are working here in this company so that supervisions will be less, but we expect delivery of work. You will work freely and independently, but individual target results are critical as they will be reviewed to understand individual performance.

I promised time for questions. Please, any person with a question or needs clarity regarding what I have addressed, you may raise your hand and let me allow you to speak. If we put these into practice, we will achieve the most excellent autonomy the company is aspiring for. Thank you all for coming and for your time, have an extraordinary time, ladies and gentlemen.

Hello, we hope this message finds you well. We are reaching out to all our employees of this organization as the managing team would like to inform you about adopting the new autonomous team (Dhir, 2019). From our last meeting, we discussed the strategies that will facilitate us in achieving the new way of working here at Disney.

It has been a work in progress that we have been experimenting with altogether. Still, as we work using this system, we believe it will be valuable to the company and more so to an individual (Dhir, 2019). It is a plea to you all that the system is now in effect, and we would appreciate all the colleagues embracing it.

Please feel free to reach out to the human resources for any assistance or inquiries regarding the new structures. I look forward to hearing from and working with you, all members of Disney.

Companies often restructure themselves for various reasons within their working environment (Dhir, 2019). These changes aim to promote efficiency and effectiveness from employees and the institution overall (Hanelt et al., 2021). Conclusion: Several factors require leaders to execute change, as it is critical to comprehend the need for change. Once it has been determined, to ensure the effectiveness of the change, it is crucial to understand the best change strategy for the company. Employees should be informed on the plans to change to different working cultures to help with easier adoption.

References

Bolisani, E., & Bratianu, C. (2018). The elusive definition of knowledge. In Emergent knowledge strategies (pp. 1-22). Springer, Cham.

Dhir, S. (2019). The changing nature of work, leadership, and organizational culture in future ready organizations.

Galkina, T., & Atkova, I. (2020). Effectual networks as complex adaptive systems: Exploring dynamic and structural factors of emergence. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 44(5), 964-995.

Hoogeboom, M. A., & Wilderom, C. P. (2020). A complex adaptive systems approach to real life team interaction patterns, task context, information sharing, and effectiveness. Group & Organization Management, 45(1), 3-42.

Hoogeboom, M. A., & Wilderom, C. P. (2020). A complex adaptive systems approach to real life team interaction patterns, task context, information sharing, and effectiveness. Group & Organization Management, 45(1), 3-42.

Hanelt, A., Bohnsack, R., Marz, D., & Antunes Marante, C. (2021). A systematic review of the literature on digital transformation: Insights and implications for strategy and organizational change. Journal of Management Studies, 58(5), 1159-1197.