Response 1
Dennis Hightower’s Credibility
The disciple Luke scribed the words Jesus said, “As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built” (Luke 6: 47-48,NIV, 1978/2011). A foundation that is built on rock, is sturdy and hard to knock down. When a foundation is built on soft materials like sand, it is more susceptible to collapse. Dennis Hightower is given a timeframe to create a functional center-linking subsidiary for Euro-Disney. Various roles that he held in his career are what make him qualified for this new position. He was an Intelligence Officer in the Army for southeast Asia/Eastern Europe, received his MBA from Harvard, and as a Country Manager in Mexico for GE. He has a sounding knowledge of working with various cultures. It shows that he is ultimately qualified when he was the one that was interviewing others for the role, and then Boyd found that Hightower carried the characteristics they were looking for in the role.
Before Hightower Entered Disney Europe
Disney in Europe was run by eight wholly owned business subsidiaries in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, France, West Germany, and Italy (Liberty University Custom: Heinz, 2021, p. 496). The eight running each subsidiary are well engrained in their country’s culture. Hightower’s goal is to link the eight countries with their cultures currently operating into a strong foundation simultaneously without it crumbling. Hightower is stepping into this role with a new perspective, he has the power to change things than what the managers were doing previously. If one of the eight were hired for the role, they would just make the other seven do what they were doing and that would have created a discomfort for Europe Disney.
Steps to Take Assessing the Current Conditions
Disney is known for the experience they offer. From an American standpoint, Disney embodies a patriotic, hopeful, striving forward approach while as Europe represents that imagination they also tap into their culture (Tesler-Mabé, 2016). Hightower has the benefit of knowing how the American Disney’s portray to consumers to create a unified subsidiary amongst the eight countries. The foundation of Disney is creating an experience for the consumer. Keeping experience as the center of the units will help HighTower to move Europe Disney in the right direction in one center linking subsidiary.
Issues Anticipated/Inspiration for Critical Thinking
Everyone views change differently. They perceive, interpret, and respond to change in different ways, times, and actions (Liberty University Custom: Heinz, 2021, p. 256). The managers are going to be resistant at first because their organizational structure just shifted with a new manager to report to. There could be some resistance in the beginning. To increase an organization’s objectives, Hightower can implement cultural controls through implementing values, action controls with monitoring, results controls by performance measurement systems, and personnel controls with training (Delfino & van der Kolk, 2021). Utilizing new training, having online chats, doing touch points, having large discussions and small discussions, inspire creative thinking. It is finding what drives a person and their passion to help unlock critical thinking for someone. Hightower is new to the role, and that alone brings a new perception. He will simplify matters, and advance others all for the betterment of each subsidiary unifying them together. Change happens for everyone at different stages of life, it is how one reacts to it.
References
Delfino, G. F., & van der Kolk, B. (2021). Remote working, management control changes and employee responses during the COVID-19 crisis. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, ahead-of(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj-06-2020-4657
Liberty University Custom: Heinz, A. (2021). Leading Organizational Change. McGraw-Hill/Create.
Tesler-Mabé, H. (2016). A Mickey Mouse kind of Europe: representations of Europe at Walt Disney World. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 25(2), 197–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2016.1198692
Zondervan. (2011). NIV, Foundation Study Bible, Leathersoft, Teal, Red Letter. Zondervan.
Respond with – least 250 words responding to the posts of their peers demonstrating course-related knowledge by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Sunday. ach reply must incorporate at least 1 scholarly citation from a peer-reviewed journal, 1 citation from the text, and one biblical integration all in current APA format. Any sources cited must have been published within the last five years.
Response 2
Hightower
I do think Hightower is qualified for this position. He has a good amount of experience in different market sectors (Liberty University Custom: Heinz, 2021). He has experience in being a manager in a foreign country (Liberty University Custom: Heinz, 2021). This is in addition to his corporate planning experience in Europe itself (Liberty University Custom: Heinz, 2021). His time in the military as an officer likely gave him practical experience of being in charge of people that were older and more experienced than himself. The Bible states that youth should not stop one from leading others: “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1Timothy 4:12, English Standard Version).
Organization
Disney Europe was decentralized prior to Hightower being hired at his position. Eight country managers were in charge of a total of 26 different markets (Liberty University Custom: Heinz, 2021). These managers submitted their own budgets as forecasted their own profits (Liberty University Custom: Heinz, 2021). All eight of the managers had been in their respective positions for a decade or more prior to the arrival of Hightower (Liberty University Custom: Heinz, 2021). These managers were also personally connected with the Disney family. This potentially complicates the introduction of change in Disney Europe.
Way Ahead
I think that Hightower should take a few months to get an assessment of how each country performs. By doing this, Hightower could formulate his own strategy based on the best and worst practices from each director to formulate his own strategy (Singh, et. al., 2021). It would also allow him to see if there are any trends that could be geographic specific that he must account for and promote international interest in the new Disneyland theme park. The time period will also let him assess how the receptive the directors would be to change (Singh, et. al., 2021). If they are combative on giving him reports or information that he needs, he will know that there will likely need to be change in those positions prior to executing the changes. I think the interpreter change manager approach would be the best method to effect change in the organization due to the internal and external factors that will influence how change is implemented.
I believe a restructuring of the organization will be needed to promote the success of Disney Europe. The different country directors can act as subheads that report to Hightower. A clear flow of information would need to be established to ensure that the new hierarchy is well defined. It is important for Hightower to take a slower approach to implementing his changes to ensure that his subordinates that have more experience in the business will be more receptive to change. It is also important that he listens to the directors and others in order to have buy in from the directors. This will likely result in greater success for the organization.
This could also give Hightower the opportunity to have the directors bring up new ideas that could possibly work beyond their jurisdiction. Incentives can be set up to promote this idea. By promoting critical thinking by the management teams across Disney Europe, Hightower is likely to gain ideas that will further improve the company that he may not have thought of due to his lack of experience in the business. The most likely obstacle to these changes that Hightower would face is from the directors that had been in the company for so many years and were used to running things a certain way. They would likely push back against Hightower’s ideas due to his lack of experience when compared to their own. By actively seeking their input, Hightower will gain trust with them and will likely have a better working relationship that would facilitate success for the company (Mustafa, et. al, 2019).
Reference
Liberty University Custom: Heinz, A. (2021). Leading Organizational Change. McGraw-Hill/Create.
Mustafa, N., Nakov, L., Islami, X. (2019). The Impact of Organizational Changes on Increasing SMEs Competitiveness. Acta Universitatis Danubius 15(2). Retrieved from: https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/2316729963?pq-origsite=summon
Singh, J., Solanki, H., Kumar, A., Shah, D., Raja, V., Trivedi, K., Pradhan, P., Singh, P. (2021). Impact of expanding window from three years to five years for research performance parameter in india rankings. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology 41(1):37-41. Retrieved from: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2494271077?parentSessionId=Kl7zYwcjA2rC86%2BUzrbrqe7ny6IhW0nCU1FYLbSYsEI%3D&pq-origsite=summon&accountid=12085
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. (2011). Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/
Respond with – least 250 words responding to the posts of their peers demonstrating course-related knowledge by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Sunday. ach reply must incorporate at least 1 scholarly citation from a peer-reviewed journal, 1 citation from the text, and one biblical integration all in current APA format. Any sources cited must have been published within the last five years.