Pros
A branded name, respected theme park, good benefits package and perks.
Cons
As a former employee with the Walt Disney Company and many leaders in the service industry, I am very dissapointed with this companies culture, specific to senior management in theme park operations! The "value" of the supervisors is determined by their success with respect to administrative tasks rather than what is truly important: "guest service, team member development and satisfaction." Supervisors are recognized, rewarded and promoted, based on a monthly system of administrative tasks. They are very inundated with these tasks and require the majority of their shift be spent at a computer. The senior managers expect the supervisors to spend most their time doing park duty coverage and not at a computer or in an office; a bit too impossible to balance when given the amount of tasks expected! As a result, the supervisors have to work many extra hours beyond their shifts trying to play catch up. The end result: priorities are backwards, moral is poor and guest service suffers. There is also too much emphasis on disciplinary action and the senior managers encourage an environment of reprimand over the park radio. Discipline is something that should be done one on one, while praise should be offered in an open forum. Furthermore, senior management does not truly recognize the strong service performing supervisors and are more apt to point out their flaws. Meanwhile, the supervisors who excel at their tasks, but are rarely seen in the park or providing any service, are the ones who are applauded. Just another example of a backwards culture whose priorities are not in line with what creates success. Additionally, when the supervisors are not heard over the radio calling out flaws of team members, cleanliness or quality issues at the attractions, they are said by senior management to be "flying below the radar." Lastly, senior management review their leaders based on perception rather than concrete facts. Team moral is consistently down and the respect towards upper management continues to drop by not only the supervisors, but the front line team members and leads. Most of their senior managers have been raised in this culture since high school and are lacking a well - rounded working background. When supervisors from the outside come in, their ideas are not respected and often are treated like an outcast. Senior management tries to mandate an environment of "do it our way" and are not open to other ideas that might work. The operations senior managers are rarely in the park and have no idea what is truly happening. They are likely to walk the park once or twice a week at most and base their "perception" solely on what they observe. The majority of the time, they manager their team of supervisors from their office through a radio. They also hire high school gradautes to work duty manager shifts placing these inexperienced managers in charge of the parks. Where is the quality in all this? The Walt Disney Company and NBC Universal are truly nothing alike and this goes to show why Disney has more sucess alone just within park operations. Disney has created a culture based on guest service and satisfaction, whereas Universal values a task driven environment. I ask...what guest cares what happens backstage in an office?
