Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Disneyfication of a University

academeblog.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 268 posts

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#231

Post by downerending »

tatersolid wrote: post #228
downerending wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, just got back from a trip there and was absolutely shocked at the lack of cleanliness of one of their restaurants (Oga's). Maybe it was a one-off.

Oga’s was spotless when the fam went in October, other than the “decorative” grittiness literally painted on the walls so it looked like the movie. That said, most of the Disney World “quick serve” cafeterias are covered in food waste by the end of the day. I suppose there’s only so much you can do to keep up with 20,000 toddlers times three meals a day.

I'm okay with the "decorative" plague--I just don't want to catch the real kind. I've been in cleaner drug-deal bars. The only comp I can think of is the White Castle down the street from the Port Authority bus terminal.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#232

Post by clairity »

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…

> "...and 'MBA-ization'..."

unless you hold an MBA degree, this phrase really weakens your critique, because it rests on a trope rather than experience. you could have easily left it out and it would have only strengthened your credibility.

nearly everyone has experienced corporatocracy, either as an employee or a customer (rarely as an executive or involved shareholder), but most people don't have MBAs and can't speak to how it directly influences organizational structures and behavior (if at all).

the "ever-expanding bureaucracy" you reference is a direct, if unintuitive, consequence of privileging capital over labor. middle managers seek power and prestige through bureacracy because it reflects the values of capital holders (money and strict hierarchy, for example), rather than the creators and doers who seek power and prestige through demonstrations of skill.

to change this, we need a fairer balance between capital and labor (not a wild swing of the pendulum). we need to better reward the makers, not the rent-seekers. laws and norms and expectations and literally who we look up to needs to change.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#233

Post by bigger_cheese »

zwieback wrote: post #173
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…

I moved from Germany to the US a long time ago and at first I was confused by what you call "good vibe culture". I've come to appreciate it, though. When I visit Germany now I notice that people make less of an effort to keep surface interactions more polite and often make a point of spreading their bad mood around. Beyond the surface interactions there's not much difference, though. Interactions with people you know…

But how real are the "good vibes"? The impression I get is a lot of the time its all just a facade.

When taken to the extreme you end up with a Potemkin village where everyone grins and nods and goes about their day never expressing anything honest.

I much prefer a society where people are open and there is some accountability than a group of smiling yes men which is the type of thing these corporate culture workshops seek to indoctrinate.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#234

Post by magduf »

bobthechef wrote: post #83

On a related note, I worked with a guy once who actually said that perks like free snacks were more important for him than a raise because "it's nice" and that it shows the company appreciated you. Now, I'm not saying having snacks is bad, but you must have drowned in the koolaid to think that a couple of bags of chips in place of a raise shows the company appreciates your work. One in a while I meet a poor guy like…

The free snacks help with morale, and cost the company very little. Personally, I'd rather have more money so I can buy my own snacks, but I've never heard of a company offering employees an actual choice between free snacks or a raise, so in reality it really comes down to free snacks vs. no free snacks.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#235

Post by voxl »

riazrizvi wrote: post #92

Unpopular opinion... you can make almost anything sound awful with the right tone of cynicism, and the intended substance of this article is just a cynical tone. Looking at the observations presented I'm inclined to side with the university president. 1. The university staff were mostly sullen at a culture workshop, enthusiasm was low. 2. Disney is an entertainment world leader. 3. Disney attributes its leadership po…

You can't force people to adopt a culture, it's as simple as that.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#236

Post by riazrizvi »

jimbokun wrote: post #214
riazrizvi wrote: post #92

Unpopular opinion... you can make almost anything sound awful with the right tone of cynicism, and the intended substance of this article is just a cynical tone. Looking at the observations presented I'm inclined to side with the university president. 1. The university staff were mostly sullen at a culture workshop, enthusiasm was low. 2. Disney is an entertainment world leader. 3. Disney attributes its leadership po…

> i) it helps you understand you are looking to create change that is remarkable and identifiable to GW, not just any old university, ii) it reminds you the changes being made are to change a young student's life, it's not just to teach them factoids, iii) it reminds you that the goal of GW is to change the world through it's teaching, not train people to pass exams and get certificates. This is still vacuous and not…

It seems that ‘vacuous’ is being used here to indicate questions-remain-unanswered/instructions-are-not-explicit-enough? All high-level/aspirational objectives leave room for interpretation. The question, How is our service distinctive to GW as opposed to any old university will help all staff strive for a higher goal. That’s as vacuous as a question like, What do you want your life to have looked like on your deathbed, ie not at all IMO

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#237

Post by riazrizvi »

voxl wrote: post #235
riazrizvi wrote: post #92

Unpopular opinion... you can make almost anything sound awful with the right tone of cynicism, and the intended substance of this article is just a cynical tone. Looking at the observations presented I'm inclined to side with the university president. 1. The university staff were mostly sullen at a culture workshop, enthusiasm was low. 2. Disney is an entertainment world leader. 3. Disney attributes its leadership po…

You can't force people to adopt a culture, it's as simple as that.

And neither should you, no one is advocating that. The understood context here is that you can’t compel people to work for you, all Americans are free to choose their employment at will.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#238

Post by throwaway3849 »

throwaway3157 wrote: post #226
throwaway3849 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must have more tact than me. I caught the ire of the iridologist when I asked 'What if we disagree with the chart?' Could not find a more uncomfortable way to spend a morning.

What did the instructor do to you for the remainder of the morning?

I was used as the example for the rest of the session. Either I could take it in stride or dig in. That was not the hill I wanted to die on so I sucked it up. Still find it hard to let go of it though.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#239

Post by Consultant32452 »

zionic wrote: post #87
Consultant32452 wrote: post #65

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 chari…

>I genuinely did not understand that was a weird/socially unacceptable thing to do. If it makes you feel any better, I found this line/story absolutely hilarious.

It's all good. I laugh at it too. I have so many more stories like this. Once in college a lady friend who really fancied me got highlights in her hair. She asked me what I thought and I said the stripes reminded me of a zebra. That was uhh, not the kind of thing she was hoping for.

Not being able to read social queues, I once bought a girlfriend a massage at a place that was actually a brothel. My life is a trajecomedy.

Re: The Disneyfication of a University

#240

Post by backupcavalry »

riazrizvi wrote: post #92

Unpopular opinion... you can make almost anything sound awful with the right tone of cynicism, and the intended substance of this article is just a cynical tone. Looking at the observations presented I'm inclined to side with the university president. 1. The university staff were mostly sullen at a culture workshop, enthusiasm was low. 2. Disney is an entertainment world leader. 3. Disney attributes its leadership po…

> guiding principle that cuts across all aspects of an organization's basic deliverables,

As lovely as a thought this might be I have never seen a company that actually used it as anything other than a marketing tool. Maybe a charity (and not even all of them).

At best they'll try to when the company's first founded before it gets swept away in a tide of shareholders and market strategies.

Post reply on HN