Walt Disney Organizational Structure
The Walt Disney Company’s Organizational Structure
Organizational structure
The Walt Disney Company’s organizational structure looks most like a horizontal structure. Horizontal structure is based on departmentalization or subdividing the organization into subunits (Bateman & Snell, 2011). The Disney Company has five business segments: interactive media, studio entertainment, consumer products, parks and resorts, and media networks. These departments are grouped by product which is a great example of the divisional approach. Each product is closely related to the other as they all are about entertainment in one form or another, but they do still have their own descriptions.
The interactive media segment uses digital media to create high-quality interactive entertainment since it was founded in 2008. The studio entertainment segment is a segment on which the company was built. Stage plays, music, and movies are brought to people everywhere through this segment. The consumer products segment brings engaging and innovative product experiences from clothing and toys to fine art and books to the public. Millions of guests each and every year take the opportunity to spend their vacations and making memories at one of the world’s leading providers of leisure and family travel experiences, at a Walt Disney park or resort. The media networks segment is made up of various cable, broadcast, publishing, and radio businesses over two divisions. The divisions are ESPN Inc., and the Disney/ABC Television group (“Our businesses: the Walt Disney company”, n.d.).
The Disney Company could use a functional approach and group their departments or jobs by the skills needed to perform them. An example would be a marketing division which would take care of marketing company wide. With the divisional approach, each business function would have their own marketing division.
If the functional and divisional forms overlapped they would have a matrix organization.
Organizational structure
The Walt Disney Company’s organizational structure looks most like a horizontal structure. Horizontal structure is based on departmentalization or subdividing the organization into subunits (Bateman & Snell, 2011). The Disney Company has five business segments: interactive media, studio entertainment, consumer products, parks and resorts, and media networks. These departments are grouped by product which is a great example of the divisional approach. Each product is closely related to the other as they all are about entertainment in one form or another, but they do still have their own descriptions.
The interactive media segment uses digital media to create high-quality interactive entertainment since it was founded in 2008. The studio entertainment segment is a segment on which the company was built. Stage plays, music, and movies are brought to people everywhere through this segment. The consumer products segment brings engaging and innovative product experiences from clothing and toys to fine art and books to the public. Millions of guests each and every year take the opportunity to spend their vacations and making memories at one of the world’s leading providers of leisure and family travel experiences, at a Walt Disney park or resort. The media networks segment is made up of various cable, broadcast, publishing, and radio businesses over two divisions. The divisions are ESPN Inc., and the Disney/ABC Television group (“Our businesses: the Walt Disney company”, n.d.).
The Disney Company could use a functional approach and group their departments or jobs by the skills needed to perform them. An example would be a marketing division which would take care of marketing company wide. With the divisional approach, each business function would have their own marketing division.
If the functional and divisional forms overlapped they would have a matrix organization.
References: Bateman, T.S., & Snell, S.A. (2011). Management: Leading & collaborating in a competitive world (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Disney institute. (n.d). Retrieved from http://wdwinv.com/difiles/People%20Management%203.5%20day.pdf Our businesses: The Walt Disney company. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-companies Tama, J. (2011). Chapter 1: Brief history & mission statement. Retrieved from http://thewaltdisneyco.blogspot.com/2011/09/chapter-1-brief-history-mission.html