The Disneyfication of a University • Hacker News Board

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#61

Post by bitwize » Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 6:19 PM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #23

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 tryin…

> 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.

This is the kind of bullshit I inoculate myself against by telling myself: This is not your life. These are not your best friends. This is you farming gold out of a megacorp so you have the means to advance the story-driven missions that are your real life.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#62

Post by lolc » Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 6:19 PM UTC

Mirioron wrote: post #28

How can universities afford things like this, when, at the same time, there seems to be a big student loan problem in the US?

In a monetary sense, universities can afford this shit exactly because of the huge loans taken up by students. In an ethical sense, they can afford it because people don't care enough to dump them over it.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#63

Post by smacktoward » Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 6:20 PM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #24

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 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.

The idea of a separate campus just for administrative staff feels like a real-life version of Douglas Adams' Golgafrinchan Ark B: https://everything2.com/title/B+Ark

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#64

Post by duxup » Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 6:20 PM UTC

I suspect there just aren't many good leaders out there, and accordingly a lot of leadership out there sort of struggles along and then for some reason ... just reads their latests leadership book or whatever AT the people they're supposed to be leading.

Leadership is what you do with / for people, not talking at people, but talking AT seems to be the easier / more frequent route.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#65

Post by Consultant32452 » Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 6:21 PM UTC

The most common reason people leave companies is not compensation. It's usually about relationships, primarily with the boss but also coworkers. I'm on the spectrum, so I function a bit like an automaton which places little value on the social aspects of work, but most people aren't like that. This is how "on the spectrum" I am. One time I was on a team that did a team building exercise where we went to a local charity for sick kids and performed manual labor all day. I calculated how much that cost the company and made a presentation to my boss about how much more we could have done by hiring minimum wage workers to perform the same manual labor for the same $ they paid us. I genuinely did not understand that was a weird/socially unacceptable thing to do. Anyways, I'm digressing a bit. Most people were more interested in how it made them feel to do something nice for sick kids. I didn't understand that, I thought the goal was to perform the maximum amount of good for the kids. And taken one step further, people like working for the type of company that would let them do things like help sick kids instead of their normal work tasks. For the social people on the team, it's all about the feels.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#66

Post by specialist » Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #35

Seenso wrote: post #25

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 h…

> every employee had to attend a course that took between one and three whole work days, with no multitasking allowed That reminded me of the Clockwork Orange.

I call it ritualized spanking. a la "the beatings will continue until morale improves". Even more effective than fat shaming.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#67

Post by TremendousJudge » Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

KineticLensman wrote: post #56

TremendousJudge wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Whether this corporatization proves a good or a bad thing in the long run, it remains to be seen. Is it? How could it end up being a good thing? Bureaucracy always pops up somewhere where there is money floating around like a patch of moss grows in humid tree bark. It doesn't produce anything of value besides justifying its own existence

> Bureaucracy always pops up somewhere Sometimes expressed as the Iron law of oligarchy [0] or the The Iron Law of Bureaucracy [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy [1] https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html

Interesting article. What I find the most interesting (and isn't explained) is how Michels justified then going to the fascist party. Did he conclude "Well, since oligarchy is inevitable, might as well try to join one I agree with"?

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#68

Post by treebornfrog » Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 6:24 PM UTC

Site seems to be down?

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#69

Post by jdmichal » Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 6:25 PM UTC

ravenstine wrote: post #52

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #23

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 tryin…

Culture should be apparent. Repetitious reinforcement of the "culture" is propaganda.

Don't mean to nit, just curious about meaning: Did you mean "culture should be emergent"?

Culture has this really interesting property. It's really the cumulative effect of all the decisions and actions taken by every member of the culture. However -- here's the fun part -- the history of those decisions and actions informs future decisions and actions. It becomes somewhat cyclic and self-reinforcing. And because of this it's very difficult to change once it settles in.

So yes, sometimes upon high will attempt to effect cultural change by repetitious reinforcement. And yes, this looks like propaganda because it is. But that does not necessarily mean it is negative or ill-willed. Sometimes a culture really does need to change -- I'm sure Uber saw a lot of "propaganda" when they started getting flak over their sexist workplace...

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#70

Post by downerending » Mon, Feb 10, 2020, 6:26 PM UTC

riyadparvez wrote: post #48

As someone who is not from North America, this positive/good vibe culture really baffles me. You are a human being. Negative emotions are part of life. World is full of pain and sufferings. You are supposed to feel empathy for other people and feel bad for their misfortune even if you have the good luck of not going through suffering. I just don't understand this obsession of feeling good all the time. I don't know h…

Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays! /s

But seriously, as an American, I fully agree. Having to pretend to be a happy camper at work when one is going through a (not culturally approved) personal tragedy sucks big time.