Msc Management

DISNEY LEADERSHIP AND RISK

MANAGEMENT REPORT

By KUTTIMANI MUTHU
 M Sc Management
Programme

Executive Leadership and Governance

Module
Name

Schedule Term 3
Schedule
Term

BP0253849
Student Reference Number
(SRN)

DISNEY LEADERSHIP AND RISK MANAGEMENT

Report/Assignment REPORT
Title

Date of 27-09-2022
Submission

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The word count, excluding the contents table, bibliography and appendices, is 5214 words.

Student Reference Number: BP0253849 Date: 27-09-2022

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Table Of Contents

Introduction —---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

Part A

Organisational culture and the role of the board —------------------------------------------------------- 4

Corporate governance —---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5

Regulatory Landscape and Management of Risk —------------------------------------------------------- 7

Part B

Leadership and management —------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8

Leadership for performance —------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10

Financial Leadership —--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13

Ethical Leadership - The treatment of Disney workers —---------------------------------------------- 14

Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15

References --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Introduction:

The Walt Disney Company is a fortune 500 company with $98.6 billion in total assets
(NASDAQ, 2018), 195,000 employees and is headquartered in Burbank, California. In October of
1923, Walter(Walt) and Roy Disney founded the Disney Brothers Studio and started creating
animated films which became the foundation of the studio. The company went on to open its first
theme park in 1955, in Anaheim, California called Disneyland. While Walt Disney passed away in the
1960’s his famous quote “If you can Dream it, You can do it” still reverberates in the corporate halls
of The Walt Disney Company. The company aims to inspire people around the world through
exceptional storytelling reflecting iconic brands and creative minds and innovative technologies. In
1971 The Walt Disney World came into existence and went on to expand its media assets and theme
parks. In 1983 Disney launched The Disney Channel and the Disney Empire carried on to expand
internationally as well with Tokyo Disney in the same year and Euro Disney in 1992. The acquisition
of Capital Cities/ABC happened in 1995 , giving Disney access to television and cable networks like
ESPN and ABC. The company purchased Pixar in 2006, Marvel Entertainment in 2009 and Lucasfilm
in 2012 bringing disney with comic characters like Spider-man, X-Men, Captain America and
Thor.Disnye is currently worth $90 billion, with roughly an annual revenue of $67.418B with 67% of
it being reinvested. Its key objective is to be one of the world's leading providers of entertainment and
information to the consumer.

This assignment aims to discuss the organisation culture, its strategies and how it plans to manage
risk. Further discuss leadership, the style of leadership, its business challenges, its ethical leadership
and the way it treats its workers.

Part A

Organisational culture and the role of the board

The company’s culture revolves around “a story to tell” while adapting to change, embedding
creative content, focusing on technology and innovation and vision of global expansion. The mission
statement of the company is reflective and strengthening of the organizational culture in such a way
that takes priority and establishes its values. Walt Disney had established 4 keys, a core value
statement as follows; safety, courtesy, show and efficiency (Jones, 2015). The main characteristics of
the corporate culture in Disney are; Innovation,Decency,Quality,Community,Storytelling and
Optimism. He was a pioneer in winning strategies and making culture a high priority. The wholesome
family values that he championed and the way in which he incorporated that value, by even a simple
changing the titles of engineers into imagineers made disney culture what it is today and along with its
winning strategies, has made it a successful company (Dumaine, 1990). To build strong organisational
culture, the requisite values will have to be identified and made known and inculcated. In the disney
company by itself is a cultural expression in America and the principles and values that induce and
motivate employees and behaviour are systematic workplace culture. Disney has more of a non-
hierarchical structure and is adaptive of creativity, innovation and technology. The organizational

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context of this, is it aims to stimulate potential and vivid abilities of the people’s resources to achieve
outstanding solutions and outcomes (Disney Company, p.7, 2021).

While organizational culture was defined by creative content technology, innovation and motivating
the employees to create the best customer experience in line with the guiding principle “Creating
happiness” (D. Savenger, 2019). dedication and fervor to see success create charismatic and
transformational leaders (Gebert et al., 2016). one such leadership was noted in Walt Disney during
the early time as head of The Disney Company. Goldsby and Mathews (2018) states that Walt Disney
creates a family like working atmosphere wherever workers were integral to the success of the
company. Disney leveraged on his charisma to inculcate trust in his employees. Such leaders
understand it is difficult to nurture cooperation and commitment without trust (Iqbal, Anwar & Haider
2015). Walt Disney encouraged his employees to refer to him as “uncle Walt'' of Simply “Walt”
(Goldsby & Mathews 2018), thereby creating a personal relationship and developing trust, however as
the company grew he did become an autocratic leader in the later years.

Bob Iger, who was the CEO of the company from 2005-2020, is a key player in the success and
technological growth of the company. He inspired his employees by exhibiting a transformational
leadership style, he found a way to motivate his employees to go above and beyond the basic
requirements of their job and give their best effort to Disney (Reingold, 2012). Transformational and
Ethical Leadership is a style of leadership where the leaders and followers encourage each other to to
be better (Allen GP, 2016). These types of leaders exhibit honesty, integrity and need to lead among
others (Kirkpatrick & Locke 1991). Igor put more focus on developing innovative creative content
than micro monitoring his workers, proving to lead by example on the core value of Disney..

Transformational and ethical style leadership applied to the CEO of the company and to the Board of
members, the board was held to the same ethical standards as of the employees, The “Code of
Business Conduct and Ethics for Directors” held the board accountable to a much higher standard on
all actions taken in the name of the company. The Board of Directors in Disney consists of 10
distinguished individuals with diverse skill sets and professional backgrounds (Annual Report, 2021).
While the main responsibility of the board is to have oversight over business practices , it also has a
great responsibility to the shareholders, for instance in the fiscal year 2020, the members of the
management and the board, continued their strong engagement with the shareholders and the
feedback from these engagements allowed the board an informed thinking about compensation and
Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance practices etc. Feedback on CEO succession was
also taken seriously and addressed in the fiscal year.The board has 4 standing committees Audit,
Governance and Nominating, Compensation and Executive which follow a set of duties which are
paramount to the fulfilment of its duties to the organization. The Board has a role in Risk oversight
and assessment in relation to the company’s performance. ( Annual Report, 2021).

Corporate governance

The governance framework of Disney had adopted Corporate Governance Guidelines, which
addresses the composition and the different duties of the board in a flexible framework , director
independence, ownership of stock, management succession, review of the board, selection of new
board members(Annual Report 2021, 2022). The organisation's Standards of Business Conduct

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applies to everyone inclusive of senior management in the company. There is a specific set of Code of
Business Conduct and Ethics for Directors, which is applicable specifically to the directors. Under
these guidelines each of the directors are expected to devote a specific amount of time, energy and
diligence in attending to these duties, ensuring to attend the meetings of the shareholders. The
guidelines also specify that the chairman of the board should be an independent director unless the
board decides otherwise. To this effect the CEO Mr Iger had been appointed as chairman, this brought
strategic context to the chairmanship and added an effective continuation of the board leadership plan
in place with an effective strategy for future transition of leadership. Each year Mr Iger was elected to
continue serving as chairman, based on his performance and the growth of the company during that
period. A lead director was appointed during that time and duties expanded in 2013 to include the
following; to preside on all meetings, serve as the middle man between the chairman and board, take
consensus from the board, chairman and other members to have final authority on approval of the
meeting agendas. organize yearly evaluation of the CEO, be available for consultation for
shareholders, and lead the annual assessment of the company. provide information when required,
assist in the selection of the committee members, be a delegation to the board in carrying certain
duties.

There are 4 committees which serve Audit, Governance and Nominating, Compensation and
Executive. The Audit Committee members are independent as far as the SEC, New York Stock
Exchange and the Corporate Guidelines will allow and within the same realm the members are audit
financial experts and have accounting and related financial management expertise. The governance
and nominating committee is responsible for creating policies relating to governance, inclusive of
reviewing and monitoring the implementation of guidelines as well. The committee is also involved
in the reviewing and approving the transaction between the senior management and 5% shareholders
under the Related Person Transaction Approval Policy. monitors the annual self evaluation and
supervises the annual review of the BOD, makes recommendations. This committee also reviews any
contribution made politically to be in line with the political contributions activity and policy. The
Compensation committee deals with the review and the approval of the remuneration of the CEO, and
is also a part of assessing the CEO’s performance either in an individual capacity or with other
members of the board. This committee is also involved in the remuneration review of other executive
officers and some compensation plans.the board had delegated an oversight on the workforce review
to this committee in the fiscal year 2021. There were some key considerations in the discussion an
analysis of compensation, especially as this was the period of the pandemic and some of the key
opportunities and challenges are listed as follows, ensuring the health and safety of the employees by
implementing policies in line with the rules of the pandemic, enhanced health packages for the
workforce.supported the community by providing PPE suits, food and other essential consumer
products amounting to an in-kind support of $26.6 million. adopting flexible approaches to get world
class content to the consumer , by bringing sports to fans by hosting MLS and NBA seasons at the
ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Florida, through a safety “bubble”. have a different
compensation structure in lieu of the pandemic for the NEO”s as volunteered by the NEO’s.reduced
base salary, no bonuses and reduced equity awards, including diversity and inclusion metrics in NEW
compensation etc. In the face of challenges faced due to a pandemic situation and the macroeconomic
drop in the past year, the compensation committee has managed to have a positive reaction in the
financial performance of the company.

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Figure 1 : 2022. FISCAL YEAR 2021 ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT

Finally the executive committee serves mainly to take action that requires board approval and is
authorised to act for the full board on issues other than those which are reserved by Delaware law to
the board.

Regulatory Landscape and Management of Risk

The board as seen in the Corporate Governance Guidelines of the company is also responsible for
assessing the potential risks involved in the company and its performance. It is involved in the
reviewing of such risks and their mitigating factors and in carrying out these responsibilities the board
either by themselves or through setting up of independent committees evaluate the risk factors
associated with the economic and market assumptions made that deal with the business plans of the
company including significant and notable transactions, deal with the risks associated with the day to
day running of the operations of the company. The risks relating to the business plans are addressed in
regard to each business unit against the assessment of the long term plans of the company. The board
also has the opportunity to deal with such risks at board meetings during regular review. The day to
day operational risk is presented to the board through regular reports and the audit committee reviews
these reports to mitigate the risks that the company may be facing. While the board addresses the ones
that fall within its responsibility, the audit committee assesses the internal audit plan and of the audit
department, the compliance program,international labour standards program, treasury operations and
tax functions. They also receive reports from external auditors on financial reporting, significant risk
findings from the internal audit department and legal findings from the general counsel. reports are
also received about information technology risks, data and cyber security risks. the day to day
assessment of risk lies with the SVP on IT and Risk management who works closely with the
Executive Vice President of Enterprise Technology & Chief Information Officer.The audit committee
reserves specific time to discuss these with the CFO, HOD of internal Audit, external auditors and
general counsel and these are aso pt forth to the entire board n regular meetings.

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Risks is a main aspect of managing a business, As vogel says “ the movie industry by itself is
complex and is often noted to operate in the edge of chaos and in the middle of uncertainty and is
often an inference to even a casual observer , or participant in the whole process of marketing and
making films (Vogel, 2015). Corporate risk is often associated with the possibility of loss (The World
Bank, 2014). Media and content film makers are subjected to regulatory risk with a variety of laws
relating to copyright and intellectual property.

The content of Disney falls under intellectual property rights and when a company like Disney
expands worldwide IPR becomes a global factor. The regulations for such content changes from
country to country and depending on the political factors, especially trade policies and government
restrictions on the content is different. the content that can be viewed in the USA can be lieral when
compared to China. For instance China regulates video content in a much stricter manner than the US.
The legal regulations and its indicators become vital for a company which operates with physical
safety in mind , for instance since Disney owns theme parks, it is important that the company keeps
the environmental regulations factored in, it has to think about reducing the carbon footprint due to its
use of such a widespread space. Due to the park's safety and injury issues, they are facing over 50% in
lawsuits, because of this the company has to have its Consumer Protection Regulation intact to avoid
being taken advantage of. An example of regulations affecting Disney is the EU privacy regulation
known as General Data Protection Regulation, on announcement of this regulation it was understood
that in order to avoid fines, any company doing business in the EU had to be compliant (Hopping et
al., 2019). As the Uk government is looking at a potential sale of the operton channel 4, it is also
contemplating a much firmer oversight on US streaming services. This is inclusive of new age rating,
impartial and accuracy ratings and content which plateaus the playing field so that public broadcasters
can compete.

One of the major risk incident faced by Disney is when Disney france was accused of was unfair
ticket pricing by Disney France from forign visitors and the EU union has started probing on these
accusations , consumers had accessed Disney of blocking their access to cheap deals and redirecting
tem to much more lucrative and expensive ones and went to further add that the local french
customers received large family discounts, annual packages and special rates, however disney had
refuted these claims by stating that it had run we thought promotional discounts for local markets
(Barker, in Financial Times, 2015). The board decided to ditch the pricing policy and agreed to make
changes to the website to allow access to other sites, to enable the consumer to compare prices and
then purchase tickets. (Brunsden & Robinson, 2016).

Another incident that Disney faced was when a monorail pilot was crushed when another train
backed into him. It was later understood through investigations that the manager instead of overseeing
operations was at a restaurant. A wrongful death suit was launched against Disney and much later
Disney had privately settled the incident before it ended up in court.

There are many poor employment practice allegations against Disney, one involving an employee not
allowed to wear her hijab in the workplace.people not paid for overtime, forcing employees to pay for
costumes out their on pocket etc, Disney should try to make the workplace a safe environment to
work in for its employees , this culture need not be allowed to grow.

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Part B

Leadership and management

Introduction

Leadership is an integral component which will propel a business forward, leaders are those who
skillfully and efficiently assess a situation and provide a solution immediately. they have the ability
to steer a group of people into thinking unanimously towards a common goal. They think for the
future and evaluate situations to provide apt solutions . Kotterr(1988) states that leaders are concerned
with activities that produce constructive or adaptive change. Leaders are concerned with acquiring
commitment through performance. Leadership is no longer described as one single characteristic , it is
a group of characteristics illustrated through various models such as dyadic, shared, relational,
strategic, global, and a complex social dynamic (Avolio 2007, Yukl 2006). Leadership in corporations
indicates a knowledge of following guidelines, governance and enhancing the growth of the company
through empowerment. This report includes a discussion on the leadership style at Disney and its
comparison to that of its competitors, the ability of disney to handle challenges and its future
development, this report also aims to discuss the influence of leadership on performance and finance ,
Ethical leadership is also discussed.

Leadership models have evolved through the years and few of the common styles are shown below in
the figure and the leadership style that is evolving and providing best outcomes of late is the
transformational style of leadership.

Figure 2: Institute of Project Management. 2022. 10 Leadership Styles and How to Identify Your Own.

An accumulated research along with metadata studies indicate that transformational leadership has
found to be far more effective in a number of organizational outcomes such as productivity and
turnover (Judge & Piccolo 2004). In the past decade, there has been extensive research which
indicates the transformational type of leader influences attitude, behaviour and performance with

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followers commitment, satisfaction and sense of fairness Liao & Chuang 2007, Walumbwa et al.
2008).Disney leaders have mostly exhibited a transformational style of leadership and management.
Both Walt Disney and Bob Iger exhibited this leadership style . Disney leveraged on his charisma to
inculcate trust in his employees. Such leaders understand it is difficult to nurture cooperation and
commitment without trust (Iqbal, Anwar & Haider 2015). Walt Disney encouraged his employees to
refer to him as “uncle Walt'' of Simply “Walt” (Goldsby & Mathews 2018), thereby creating a
personal relationship and developing trust.However as the company grew he did become an autocratic
leader in the later years. Bob Iger who was the CEO of the company from 2005-2020, is a key player
in the growth of the company and has contributed to the success and technological growth of the
company. he inspires his employees by exhibiting a transformational leadership style, he founded a
way to motivating his employees to go above and beyond the basic requirements of their job and give
their best effort t Disney (Reingold, 2012).

Competitors of Disney were man; Twenty-First Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Six Flags and
CBS Interactive Time Warner Inc, SonyLisgate, Universal Studios, Viacom etc, a poll suggest that the
CEO of Disney ranks 5th in comparison to its key competitors ,while disney ranks first in customer
service , it ranks 2nd in pricing after Universal and 3rd in culture 2nd in net promoter score .
Universal studios mainly targets the middle class and has a pricing strategy to target this specific
market, Disney can stop having different pricing strategies and try to have a universal pricing towards
the middle class market. There have been many allegations of poor employment practices in Disney
like racial discriminations, not being paid for overtime, forcing employees to pay for costumes out of
their own pocket etc. Disney should make the environment a better place to work and hence increase
its net promoter score.

As one of the largest media organisations which cater to producing content for children, it had a
responsibility to stay well ahead in terms of content and to hold the attention of the viewer. There are
always challenges as there are shifting standards in children's entertainment. Earlier days saw children
only exposed to content on television, today they are exposed to content on mobile phones, tablets,
gaming consoles etc. With this expansion of focus and content exposure through multiple channels,
Disney will have a challenge in presenting itself uniquely in every market (Crecente, 2019).recently
Disney has aimed to stop publishing video game but will rely on electronic arts to to license disney
properties to stay in the video game market (Crecente, 2019). Since EA has a strong international
presence this aids in disney products being marketed. The recent challenge for Disney being logistics
of creating content while keeping in mind the safety of the employees during the pandemic.

Leadership for performance

Balanced Scorecard for Disney with a range of Strategic Objectives and Key Performance
Indicators

The goal of Disney is to create outstanding content, increase innovation, venture into emerging
markets and to be the leader in production and distribution of entertainment across the world (Walt
Disney Company, 2012).

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Financial perspective: this is important to the planning of cash flow and wealth accumulation of the
company. This is useful to investors as well as investors generally use the financial analysis to analyse
the company (Finpipe, 2014). According to the annual report of 2021, the stock price in the 1st
quarter was $181.18, while revenue decreased by 6% to $65,388 million from $69,607 million in the
prior year due o COVID-19.

Figure 3 : 2022. FISCAL YEAR 2021 ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT

Customer Perspective: A recent study suggests that the more values that the company gives its
custom that much better is the business because of customer satisfaction (Grace & Lo lacono, 2015).
To satisfy this point Disney lays emphasis on gaining new and loyal customers , reducing the waiting
time and improving customer satisfaction. Disney can target getting new customers by providing
attractive promotions and family/bulk packages and unique content. The company can reduce the
waiting time by recruiting more employees and enhancing knowledge and training . developing
technology to apply and enhance customer experience. The satisfaction levels of the customer can be
monitored by surveys, feedback forms, customer purchase trends etc.

Internal process Perspective: this is said to be the effective method used by the company to produce
its products/services (Hicks, 2010). Disney retains its best talent by providing good compensations
and uses performance appraisal techniques to track its performance ratios (Ingelsson, Eriksson &
Lilja, 2012). Disney fills the job requisitions quickly so that there is no lack of manpower and the
company has adequate manpower every year and it does not end with filling up the requisitions, it is
also to fit the right employee to the right role to create a high quality service and entertainment
experience.

Learning and Growth Perspective: Disney focuses on learning by leaning on the areas of threat, ie;
competitive areas with other companies. Strategic acquisitions result in expansion and is also an
effective way to learn , which is evidenced in its purchase of Pixar ( frozen) Marvel ( Captain
America and the other avengers) Lucas films (star wars).these acquisitions result in timeless story
telling. Growth can also be capitulated by creating new alliances of exclusive streaming with media
franchises like Netflix (La Monica, 2016). Another avenue is augmented video games and virtual
reality.

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Figure 4: Walt Disney Company Strategy and Objectives

Leadership for Performance approaches can be used to help achieve the objectives:

A research analysing manager in senior and mid-level may provide an effect on performance
standards and outcomes (Yukl, 2008; Denison et al., 1995). Leadership scholar Gary Yukl (2008) has
stated that strategic leadership demonstrated by senior leaders like CEO’s will have prominent effect
on organizational effectiveness through adaption, utilising human resources effectively and increased
efficiency. Most of this study is based on the transformational leadership ‘is influence, disney has had
leaders exhibiting this kind of leadership. The three pronged approach to build the company is
creating high quality content, explicit technological innovation, expanding globally along with
financial growth, enhancing training and creating different avenues of streaming. Bob Iger tackled all
of this by creating a new approach, he stopped micro-managing his employees and “kept him in the
know” with key people he trusted (Donion, 2014). This allowed each operation to be accountable for
its segment and due to the ownership factor results were optimal in each of the segments. The mission
adapted to being creative as much as possible which created content, trust and accountability. Second,
he fostered innovation by using the latest technology (The Walt Disney Company, 2014). the more
notable involvement being between Robert Iger and Steve Jobs and the implementation of Magic
Bands and a disney app on video Ipod. Expansion into shanghai was driven by Iger as a mark toward
growing internationally. This form of performance driven leadership decentralized Disney , making
each business accountable for its growth and thereby demonstrating a performance driven approach

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which enabled the employees to think of disney as their company instilling unwavering loyalty and
commitment.

Financial Leadership

Key sources of financial and non-financial information the board should have considered
launching this new product.

Disney plus started streaming in 2019, though the seed for this service was sown in 2016 but first
acquiring a minority share in BAMTech , which later became a 75% share. while disney is a colossal
channel business conglomerate, however there are many factors that need to be taken into
consideration especially with the pandemic creating havoc during the immediate first year of its
streaming.

Watching television is categorised as a hedonic good which is consumed for luxury purposes for non-
functional wants (Seth, 1991) (Jingyi, et al., 2016).ever streaming became a fad in 2016 it has a
certain appeal and certain influence over the consumer. The attractive factor in streaming is the price
factor and that is why the Millennials and Generation Xers are at the beginning of the line to moving
toward alternatives to cable TV (Chulkov & Nizovtsev, 2015). These generations are characterized by
a more budget conscious approach and this should be considered while launching a new streaming
platform. Another factor is convenience, where the consumer does not have to sit through a series of
advertisements and commercials. around 55.3% of the households in the USA are into some
streaming platform and 2.1 billion USD is spent on subscription fees alone (Wang, 2018). However,
the industry is growing rapidly and a new streaming platform needs to create content which is
different ,target all age groups, on board interesting content,. provide flexible payment plans,
promotions and packages etc to sustain in the industry. At this point as disney has just entered the
market it should provide a motivation for consumers to switch to disney plus or to subscribe iit
additionally.

Disney soul also watch out for key competitors like Netflix and Primve Video as they were here in the
market much earlier and have a majority of the market to themselves with million plus subscribers.
Disney should be able to provide unique content in order to sustain. while netflix caught the first
marketer share of the market, amazon already has a name as a dependable retailer.

The primary factors that contributed to the dramatic change in fortunes and Comparison of
Disney’s performance with its competitors.

Disney hit a loss of about $2.8bn in 2020, due to lockdown measures because of the pandemic. The
parks, experiences and products have been severely hit by the pandemic and that is where most of the
revenue generation happens. Another segment which saw a loss was the entertainment segment. The
fiscal year started in a good position by growing 200% in Q1 and streaming has only been the saving
grace, this segment saw a 81% staggering growth and the subscriber base has grown to 73.7 million
by october 2020. Disney started to focus on tripling the subscriber numbers in its streaming business.

While Disney had a huge loss, its key competitor Universal studios did not fare any beer, showing a
revenue drop of 4 billion in 2020. However, Fox celebrated an increase of 25% in its fiscal income in

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the 3rd quarter. Comcast announced a break even in its theme parks and an increase in its customer
base by7%. post the pandemic challenges the M and E industry is gearing up and shows a marked
improvement. and looks to accelerate as shown below.

Figure 5: Global Amusement Park Market 2020-2024: Market Analysis, Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, and Threats -
Technavio.

Ethical Leadership - The treatment of Disney workers:

In the process of generating and implementing new ideas , individuals may face many ethical
dilemmas, ethical leadership would emphasise morality, social responsibility, autonomy and people
orientation can induce innovative work behaviour (Brown and Trevin˜o 2006). According to Brown et
al. (2005), ethical leadership was defined as ‘‘the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct
through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to
followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision making.’’ there have been
many allegations against Disney; allegations range from religious discrimination to poverty level
wages. The company has an anti - union stance and is known for paying very less wages. In 2012 a
Moroccan woman had raised an allegation that she was not allowed to wear her hijab in the workplace
as it did not go with the Disney look. She was offered a non-public position, but when she declined
she was fired. The woman claimed that her co-workers by uttering ethnic and religious slurs in her
presence. Further Christian employees were allowed to wear ash on their foreheads during ash
Wednesday. She also alleges that there were many employees who didn't gel with the Disney look and
had visible tattoos and these employees were not fired. There as another discrimination which was
ona Sikh musician who was fired because he did not have the Disney look. An instance of age
discrimination was aised ,where a much younger individual was recruited to a new position similar to
the one held by a 26 year old veteran, after he was fired stating the company was making fewer

14
movies and his position was redundant. Racial discrimination charges were raised by a 3 african
american employees that the company systematically passed over them to give promotions to white
employees. allegations of gender discrimination were also raised on a supervisor who made
derogatory comments about female employees. A class action lawsuit against wage and hours
violation was also filed. Disney should formulate a corrective action plan to reduce or stop these kinds
of allegations, it should follow its business conduct practices and recruit a diverse workforce, should
allow room for religious practices or must be upfront on the necessity of certain rules while recruiting.
Senior management must have an open door policy to address such allegations before it gets out of
hand. should have spocs in the specific locations to address these issues. Senior management should
periodically connect with the lower level workforce too, to understand issues that are noted.

Conclusion

This assignment discussed the Disney company, its organisational culture, the important role that the
board played in risk management and oversight. This also touches upon corporate governance
guidelines, analyses the type of leadership noted in the company. This assignment also discusses the
challenges faced by the company, financial leadership, and the description of leadership for
performances. the ethical allegations raised on the company and the recommendation to avoid such an
unhealthy work environment for the workforce.

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