Name: R.Z.

C Ramsaran
School: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Course: Organization Theory
Student number: 2772728
 How can The Walt Disney Company avoid hiring
the wrong person?
If you think about “the happiest place on earth” the first place that comes to mind is Disney
land. The Walt Disney company is a worldwide entertainment company. Their goal is to
entertain, inform and inspire people around the world through the power of storytelling,
creative minds, and innovative technology.
The Walt Disney company, known as Disney, was originally founded on October 16, 1923,
by Walt Disney and his brother Roy. The first film they created was Alice’s wonderland,
after the success of the Alice comedies they introduced mickey mouse to world. The
character is now one of the most famous cartoons in history. And a lot more films after that.
Originally the company operated under different names like the Disney Brothers Cartoon
studio, The Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions. But after Walt Disney died
Roy decided to name the company after Walt Disney to honor him. Over the years Disney
expanded its operations. The company does not only operate in the animation industry but
also operates int the radio, music, publishing, and theater spaces.

Every organization has it owns important characteristics, like organizational identity, the
structure, and the design of an organization. The Walt Disney company has a multidivisional
(M-form) structure. “M-form organizations have a hub of central services linked to spokes
with profit centres that are usually specialized in terms of either products or regions” (Clegg
et al., 2022, p399). The main element of Disney’s organizational structure is its many
divisions. This a typical case of a M-form structure. “The M-form represents a combination
of a divisional structure with hierarchical control and functional flexibility” (clegg et al.,
2022, p399). There are four divisions within Disney namely, Walt Disney studios, Walt
Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Media Networks, and Disney Consumer Products and
Interactive Media.

In 2018 there were controversies going around about James Gunn, director of “the Guardians
Of The Galaxy” series. Disney fired James Gunn because of some old tweets. In the tweets
Gunn makes some inappropriate jokes about pedophilia and molestation from decades ago.

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Disney has a family friendly reputation, so it puts Disney in an incredibly difficult position
when it comes to hiring. Disney does not only need to worry about whether someone can do
the job he or she had been hired to do, but the company must also consider whether that
person has the potential to upset the public with his or her current or past behavior. Most
employers hire their employees based on their skills for the job and not their complete
personality. James Gunn was hired because he was a good director and not for the content he
posts on twitter. You can keep your professional life and personal life separated, but
sometimes the two don’t get along. But of course, there were not only be situations where
people will dig up old tweets from decades ago. There are also situations where they must
face with toxic personalities in the workplace. One bad hire can become a drain on the entire
team’s energy, negatively affecting the performance of the organization. It is an important
part of risk management to know how to handle a toxic personality. But it is even better to
avoid hiring the wrong person in the first place. Disney can prevent this from happening by
being aware of the different personalities when they are hiring. Because then Disney knows
what the strengths and weaknesses are of the cast members and therefore what tasks and
responsibilities to give them in order to optimize their performance or Disney know that they
will negatively impact the organization and don’t hire them. So, the challenge that Disney
face is to identify the different personalities of the cast members in order to avoid scandals
and toxic personalities in the workplace. Because one bad hire can result in big risk!

You may ask yourself how can Disney prevent this from happening? Well, as I said earlier
Disney needs to be aware of different personalities when they are hiring people. Companies
look for personalities that complement their organization. But it can be quite challenging to
figure out a person’s personality considering how much time it will take observing it over
those few crucial months of employment. But there is a way where you can get those insights
before a job interview or even before reading their resume. Disney can use the Big Five
factor approach in their pre-employment.
I will begin by giving the definition of personality, and then I will discuss the Big Five
approach.

The definition of personality is the stable patterns of behavior and internal states of mind that
help explain a person behavioral tendency (Monte, 1991). A person’s personality can have a
strong impact on what they choose to do and how they perform at work (George, 1992), in
life (Rode et al., 2008) and academically (Hendriks and Hofstede, 2011). In the workplace
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different personalities will influence job performance as well as working relationships, for
this reason it. Is important that managers have the skill to manage diverse personalities
(Clegg et al., 2022, p51).

The Big Five is by far the best-known trait approach (McCrea and Costa, 1999). The focus of
trait approaches is describing a person's personality by using traits. According to McCrea and
Costa (1983), five primary personality traits can describe a person's personality. These are
Extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. I will give a
summary of the five personality traits. People who score high on extraversion tend to be
sociable, and talkative, while people who score low are likely to be closed off, loner, and
reserved. People who score high on neuroticism are more emotionally stable, while those
who score low are more emotionally unstable. Openness refers to a person wanting to
experience new things in life. They are creative and independent. People who score low in
openness are uncreative, narrow minded and they like routine. The agreeableness scale
distinguishes how people get along with each other. People who score high in agreeableness
tend to be more generous, warm hearted and trusting. Whereas those who score low tend to
be ruthless and critical of other people. Finally, conscientiousness refers to people who are
organized, well-disciplined, hardworking. While those who score low in conscientiousness
are usually lazy, disorganized, and impulsive. (Zillig et al., 2002)

The benefits of using the Big Five approach during the hiring process. For example, it helps
the Disney management understand their potential employees both as individuals and as part
of a team. By using the Big Five approach Disney’s management can sort out which
employee has workplace potential or not. Also, the employees can use their results and
understand their strengths and weaknesses better and what they need to work on. It is not
recommended to use the Big Five approach to make the final hiring decision. But it can be
used as a tool to gain insight into your potential employee personality traits.

The best way to measure the Big Five, is the NEO-PI (Costa et al., 2000). There are 2 types
of versions of NEO-PI that the Disney management can use as part of their recruitment
process. The first is the NEO-PI-3, divided into to two tests. Both tests consist of 240
questions. NEO-PI-3 takes approximately 30 to 45 minutes to complete. Secondly, the NEO-
PI-FII is a shortened version. This test consists of 60 questions and is takes about 15 minutes

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to complete the test. Each question is a statement about your behavior. The questions must be
rated on a 5-point scale. Such as “agree” to “disagree” or “like me” to “not like me”.

The Big Five approach is an extensive way of measuring someone’s personality. So, it
therefore quite insightful for Disney managers. Knowing in which level Disney’s potential
employees score on these 5 factors makes the hiring process easier. For example, in the
Disney parks Disney is searching for employees that have a friendly, patient, diligence
personality. That means that the potential employee needs to score high these factors
agreeableness and conscientiousness. And if this person scores low on these factors, then
Disney would not hire them. The Big Five approach is very detailed and gives managers a lot
of information about someone’s personality.

Referring to the main problem: How can The Company Walt Disney avoid hiring the wrong
person? Disney can use the Big Five approach to identify personalities before hiring
someone. It gives detailed results with five personalities factors. The Big Five approach is
also not time consuming at all. So, by using the Big Five approach Disney can avoid scandals
like the James Gunn situation. and toxic personalities.

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 Reference list

Clegg, S., Mount, M., & Pitsis, T.S. (2022). Managing and organizations: An introduction to
theory and practice (6 th edition). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Zillig, L. M. P., Hemenover, S. H., & Dienstbier, R. A. (2002). What do we assess when we
assess a Big 5 trait? A content analysis of the affective, behavioral, and cognitive processes
represented in Big 5 personality inventories. Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin, 28(6), 847-858. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychfacpub/19?
utm_source=digitalcommons.unl.edu%2Fpsychfacpub
%2F19&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages

Heather R. Huhman (2016). Why You Need to Avoid Hiring That Potentially Toxic
Rockstar. https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/why-you-need-to-avoid-hiring-
that-potentially-toxic-rockstar/269491

Per Bylund (2018). 4 Lessons We Can Learn From the High-Profile Firings at Disney.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/4-lessons-we-can-learn-from-the-high-profile-firings-
at/321083

Costa Jr., Paul T.,McCrae, Robert R.Kazdin, Alan E. (Ed). (2000). Encyclopedia of
psychology, Vol. 5 , (pp. 407-409). New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press;
Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association, , 508 pp.