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The Disneyfication of a University

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Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#21

Post by floren »

ollien wrote: post #15
geerlingguy wrote: post #4

A quick summary: the employees at a university had to attend seminars put on by the Disney Institute to try to instill in them the 'values' that the university should adopt. I vaguely remember the corporate culture workshops we had to attend at a couple previous employers, and yeah, it's annoying and boring, but someone had to justify spending X million dollars on a new slogan and spiffy "these five words summarize w…

My university has latched onto "innovation," and finds the need to tack it onto everything. Sometimes I wonder whose reputation is on the line for that one piece of marketing.

My alma mater, RIT, was particularly bad about "innovation". They built an "Innovation Center" but it was shaped like a toilet so we just called it "the Toilet Bowl"... people can smell bullshit, and they react accordingly.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#22

Post by aidenn0 »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #9

I've worked at places that have really great culture. And places that just wasted everyone's time like we all have. The key for me was seeing people consistently let go for breaking "core values". Or having it be a basis for someone's promotion. Obviously that is never going to work well in a University context where tenure is a thing. If your company is doing that... AND you actually agree and like the Core Values t…

I think part of the point of TFA is that it wasn't specific; the core values they suggest would make just as much sense for McDonalds and for GWU.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#23

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

A good rule of thumb is that the more a corporation talks about "culture", the more the employees should be wary that they are getting fleeced.

A lot of companies have realized that they get employees to work harder for less if they are able to get the employees to develop some sort of emotional attachment to the company. If you as an employee are getting a lot of push about "company culture" and the company is trying to push various experiences to make you feel good about the company, you should make sure you take the time to seriously look at your compensation and what the market compensation is, and see if they are trying to underpay you relative to your value.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#24

Post by cs702 »

It's part of the ongoing "corporatization" and "MBA-ization" of US colleges and universities.

GW's attempt to institute a "culture" using techniques developed at Disney is just one of many possible examples, although I will admit it is a particularly easy one to mock. (Quoting the OP: "The GW culture initiative can be summed up in two words: Mickey Mouse.")

Much of higher education in the US is now controlled by an administrative bureaucracy that thinks in terms of corporate strategy, corporate culture, financial incentives, business processes, and so on. These people don't teach or conduct research, and in many cases have never taught or conducted research. They think of academics as "human resources" that must "add value" to the organization, i.e., produce benefits that can be readily measured.

At the top of this growing administrative apparatus are college and university presidents earning seven figures a year, but typically they also earn additional income from sitting on corporate and non-profit boards. Presidents tend to have illustrious academic pedigrees, but their involvement in day-to-day academic matters is at about the same level as the involvement of a burger-chain CEO in the operations of a single restaurant in the chain.

Below presidents, there are multiple layers of bureaucracy that have been growing for quite some time, with no slow-down in sight. According to federal figures, as of a few years ago, the number of non-academic administrative and professional employees at US colleges and universities has more than doubled in the past quarter century, outpacing the growth in the number of students or faculty.[a]

Perhaps the most salient example of this ever-expanding bureaucracy is Stanford's shiny new 35-acre campus in Redwood City, which houses only non-academic administrative staff -- that is, people who work in departments with names like Finance, Planning, Facilities, Human Resources, Business Affairs, etc.[b]

Whether this corporatization proves a good or a bad thing in the long run, it remains to be seen. (I doubt it will prove to be a good thing.)

[a] https://www.necir.org/2014/02/06/new-analysis-shows-problema...

[b] https://redwoodcity.stanford.edu/

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#25

Post by Seenso »

Several years ago, I had to attend a full day "culture training" session given by Senn Delaney (a division of Heidrick & Struggles) [1]. It was also a massive waste of time. Our company actually has a really great culture, and what I remember of the training amounted to a somewhat subtle attempt to indoctrinate employees to be more blindly obedient to management change initiatives. There was some other stuff, but I honestly can't recall anything else. Maybe some simplified Meyers-Briggs type thing.

The only time I've heard any of the concepts cited since the training push has been in the context of some mid-level executive type pushing an unpopular top-down change, and even then, they seem to be at the bottom of their rhetorical sack. My co-workers' reaction ranged from neutral to eye-rolling, and as far as I can tell, no one has explicitly employed the trained culture concepts and the whole experience has mostly been forgotten.

I have no idea how much the my employer paid for all this, but the cost must have been enormous (every employee had to attend a course that took between one and three whole work days, with no multitasking allowed).

[1] https://www.senndelaney.com/

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#26

Post by Ididntdothis »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #9

I've worked at places that have really great culture. And places that just wasted everyone's time like we all have. The key for me was seeing people consistently let go for breaking "core values". Or having it be a basis for someone's promotion. Obviously that is never going to work well in a University context where tenure is a thing. If your company is doing that... AND you actually agree and like the Core Values t…

My rule is the more a company talks about things like culture, the less they live them. The best companies I have seen had no workshops or motivational posters but after being there for a few days you clearly could see the culture from the behavior of coworkers and management.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#27

Post by kthejoker2 »

aidenn0 wrote: post #22
ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #9

I've worked at places that have really great culture. And places that just wasted everyone's time like we all have. The key for me was seeing people consistently let go for breaking "core values". Or having it be a basis for someone's promotion. Obviously that is never going to work well in a University context where tenure is a thing. If your company is doing that... AND you actually agree and like the Core Values t…

I think part of the point of TFA is that it wasn't specific; the core values they suggest would make just as much sense for McDonalds and for GWU.

A good rule of thumb: if you can't imagine a company adopting the opposite position of a "core value", it's not a value at all.

"Honesty" is not a value.

"Move fast and break things" is a value.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#29

Post by mlinksva »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #9

I've worked at places that have really great culture. And places that just wasted everyone's time like we all have. The key for me was seeing people consistently let go for breaking "core values". Or having it be a basis for someone's promotion. Obviously that is never going to work well in a University context where tenure is a thing. If your company is doing that... AND you actually agree and like the Core Values t…

https://hbr.org/2002/07/make-your-values-mean-something is the classic article/opinion piece expounding approximately the above.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#30

Post by Mirioron »

333c wrote: post #16
webkike wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe me, young teenagers find these meetings just as abhorrent

Of course; I didn't mean to imply they enjoy them. I just meant that they're often subjected to them.

Why are teenagers subjected to this kind of stuff anyway? It's usually pretty apparent that they don't like this stuff. They won't tell you outright, because they're trained to be compliant and taught to never entirely disagree, but it should still be apparent to those who understand teenagers, no?
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