Sexual Orientation in Organizational Communications - Essay Example

Sexual Orientation in Organizational Communications: Disney and its Policy Regarding Homosexuals Background The question of sexual orientation within corporate systems has been controversial for a long time. Globalization has made racial, gender, national, and sexual differences less evident and made communities and corporations more open toward differences. Earlier it was mostly forbidden to acknowledge sexual orientation to colleagues and management or even discuss this issue at all despite powerful movement for homosexuals` equality. It was connected to the fact that work was considered the place where there was no space for sexual orientation and personal issues. Despite serious social movement of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community in recent decades, the minority of people are still fighting for equality. And in this fight corporations are extremely important in terms of the LGBT community acknowledgement because they can provide their employees with decent support and do it more profoundly than country and local authorities (LGTB Manual, 2010). There are few companies that are able to risk their reputation, unless their reputation is so immaculate, and make such a contradictory issue as accepting non-traditional sexual orientation of the employees in company`s policy. Such companies receive unnecessary attention and their public relations sphere is suffering. In such a situation Disney, the company specializing on the children`s entertainment content and supporting homosexuality acknowledgment at working places looks absolutely extraordinary (Tully, 2013).However, Disney was and remains such company, and despite its worldwide success it is being accused of promoting immoral values to future generation. Reasonably it raises a lot of questions regarding the place of homosexuality propaganda in a corporate world and especially in children`s content. However, Disney manages to communicate to the world that their policy is grounded on higher values such as equality, acceptance, and diversity, and sticking to these goals can serve as the most important factor. Moreover, Disney`s internal policy of visibility is coherent with its external representation which proves that the company has well-elaborated policy and know what image to create in consumers` perception. Disney was established in 1923 by two brothers, Walter and Roy Disney as a small cartoon studio in California. Today this multinational corporation is one of the biggest Hollywood studios and is the owner of 11 theme parks around the planet, two aqua parks, and several broadcasting companies. The company`s main product was children`s animation movies before it launched its radio, films, and entertainment facilities (Corporate History, 2008). Disney has gigantic auditory that is why the attention of the public is always attracted to the decisions of this multinational corporation because it is regarded as family-oriented enterprise with enormous effect on children. From this perspective open decisions of Disney to support the LGBT minorities may look embarrassing, but the company is persistent in this policy even under threat of losing some auditory. In this regard, it is interesting to examine how this huge entertaining business based on promotion of family values and Christianity deals with its new reputation of LGBT rights support. Walt Disney himself was a very religious man who attributed his success to his Congregational raising and the habit of praying (Kershaw, 2012). The point is the Disney company has even openly supported gay minorities by several decisions, such as holding gay days in their theme parks or hiring animators and authors who were open homosexuals (Wong, 2014). This paper critically analyzes sexual orientation in organizational communications based on the case study of Disney and its policy regarding homosexuals Strategies Walt Disney`s Ethics Code the issue of discrimination and equality was discussed long before the company establishment. The company's policy particularly prohibits employees from harassing any other employee, guest or other person in the course of the company's business for any reason prohibited by law, including, but not limited to, race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, covered veteran status, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, or any other basis prohibited by state or federal law” (Ethics Code, 2010). The first incident during which it became clear that Disney does have intention to demonstrate its loyalty to the ethical principles happened in 1995 when the company started offering health insurance to the homosexual partners of their employees. Similar initiatives were long ago accepted by other big companies, such as Universal, Paramount Pictures, Sony and Warner Brothers (Disney Co. Will Offer Benefits,1995). According to this policy those workers who would like to receive insurance for their long term homosexual partners have to sign a document claiming that they live with homosexual partners. What is interesting that heterosexual partners do not receive such benefits from the company which underlies Disney`s exceptional attitude to the LGBT community (Chen, 2013). This innovation was announced with the help of internal newsletter and was not supposed to attract much attention. However, this incident provoked a burst of outrage among religious activists and many of them spoke out blaming Disney for inappropriate policy. The pastor of the West Kendall Baptist Church Mr. Benson claimed that this decision disappointed them a lot. He encouraged Disney to re-evaluate their policy and analyze what values they are promoting to American society. Moreover, the pastor called for boycotting the content of Disney formally to make some influence on Disney.Mr. Benson also commented thisinitiative as "just another step in the direction of making the traditional family meaningless”(Navarro, 1995).The director of American Family Association, Mr. Caton, initiated a boycott of Disney`s media products and theme parks and encouraged all those who supported traditional family values to follow his example. Mr. Caton claimed that the company which image is extremely important for right family goals establishment has gone from its right direction and is promoting the ideas that homosexuality is acceptable and popular in American society (Navarro, 1995). Both speakers turned out to be rather direct and pressing, their remarks creating a fuss around the company despite the fact that the decision concerned internal policy of Disney. Thus Disney being absolutely family-oriented turned out to be in the center of ambiguous scandal and had to prove to consumers that their policy remains coherent with morality. Disney had to respond to these accusations, and though the company always avoided giving direct commentaries regarding its internal policy, this time Disney`s spokesman concluded that the decision was made (it was also marked that three years of internal negotiations preceded final resolution thus the decision was well-thought and weighed), and the company would stick to it. Dreyer also denied any information regarding boycotting and explained this innovation as that corresponds to the overall policy of non-discrimination (Disney, 1995). When people come to some organization, they bring their personal attitudes, communication competences, and values with them. Every employee has his own expectations regarding work of the company. Organization in its turn establishes regulations, policies, and codes that have impact on people`s expectations and work. So people have separate unique personalities that get into the interaction with others within corporate world, and it is the responsibility of a company to regulate this interaction right to receive good results (Shockley-Zlaback, 2012, 140). Disney has established a policy of diversity and encouragement which proves to be very effective as the company has long ago become international and its products being sold all over the world. Thus the company is struggling for multiculturalism and appreciation of democratic values. Diversity is inevitable factor of workflow today. It touches racial, national, gender, religious, sexual orientation aspects, and it is a responsibility of every company to accept and appreciate this diversity. It is crucial to arrange communication between absolutely different people to make it possible to achieve professional goals and solve existing problems. Interpersonal relationships serve as a core to every organization that is why minding diversity principle is important. Interpersonal effectiveness can be achieved through cultural diversity appreciation, meaningful communication; delivering and active listening of messages is a necessary element of successful work (Shockley-Zalaback, 2012). As the problem of racial ad national diversity seems to be solved in the United States because up to 2050 it is estimated that half of the working population of the country will be Africa-American, Hispanic, Native-American, more and more attention should be paid to cultural, gender, and sexual orientation diversity. Supporting different layers of people with the help of organizational policies stimulates abilities ad interpersonal relationships within a company (Shockley-Zalaback, 2012, 165). That is why the decision of Disney to support the principle of diversity above all other principles is motivated by weighing all perspectives and sticking to the general policy. The communication style chosen by the company is reasonable and logical, and is absolutely relevant to the situation. Pastor Kevin Swanson was one of the most serious critics of the animation film and even did not choose words describing this new movie. He claimed that “Frozen” was really evil and called Disney  "one of the most pro-homosexual organizations in the country". He expressed fears regarding this movie because his 5-year-old might think that homosexuality or bisexuality is a normally accepted thing (Denham, 2014). In the case of “Frozen” Disney decided not to give any commentaries at all at least none were found on the corporate site or on the pages in social networks. The organization managed to make the conflict constructional, which in this case was equal to following the next steps: 1. Monitoring personal behavior and the behavior of others; 2. Determining common goals and objectives; Developing norms to work on problems; 3. Elaborating problem goal and definition; 4. Arranging a meeting for solving problems 5. Determining the solution and narrowing the actions; 6. Sticking to solutions; 7. Observing the process; Disney emphasized that their primary goal was saying the story that would appeal to children and adults as well and found out that escalating the conflict by responding to provocations will only spoil the image of the company (Mottram, 2014).The opinions from the creators of the film were brought to light in the interview with Jennifer Lee, a director and one of the screenwriters of the animation film:"We said, 'What if we gave Kai's journey to Elsa?' And doing that, she became more sympathetic and we could make it more complex," this made the story less ambivalent in terms of good and evil and focusthe attention of viewers on the primary concept of love instead. Another screenwriter commented on the absence of romantic line in film: "We started to say, 'How can we redefine true love? Can true love - at least for us at Disney - be different from the kiss from the male lead?' So that was a goal of ours, to play with that. It was those kinds of things that led us to a slightly different version of The Snow Queen" (Mottram, 2014). Thus, the company emphasizes that its policy, all its content is based on the Christian values such as love and acceptance. And though the products (animation films, theme parks, TV shows) can be different from traditional slightly updated and upgraded, the basic message remains stable. Communicating such principles to the community is probably the basic condition of the successful position of Disney on the entertainment market. According to Shokley- Zalaback, conflicts are inevitable part of organization management, they happen on numerous levels: small group, personal, company, or company-to-environment. In any case it is important to deal with the conflict timely and appropriately, where the basic goal is satisfying the needs of both parties without serious loses. It is absolutely important to make the conflict constructive, to set the objective goal, and to choose an appropriate style of behavior (2012). In this situation Disney had to choose between satisfying public needs represented by religious and traditional family organizations and the needs of its employees, and the employees with non-traditional sexual orientation who are often deprived of equal rights. Evaluation There are a number of ways through which the organization has attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented strategies related to its corporate policy on the issue of homosexuality. It terms of the success of the policies, the company is one of the latest companies in Hollywood and big businesses which accepted the initiative with homosexual partners` insurance, and the attention to the company could be explained exclusively by the specificity of the business. The management of the company was aware of its status and decided to choose avoidance style in dealing with this conflict. This style is the most appropriate in such situation because giving extensive commentaries or reducing the conflict would only bring more attention to this case. While Disney decided to emphasize that their decisions are motivated by their ethical code and nondiscriminatory policy and not to raise noise over this issue. In addition, the company has also effectively used its communication techniques very craftily in this case because it emphasizes stability and sticking to higher moral values, such as non-discrimination. It is important for such influential organization as Disney to remain consistent with initial ethical policy a not to adjust to the changing trends. Sometimes it is trendy to support LGBT rights, sometimes the policy of the state is opposite, but the principle of quality is constant. Disney has long stated that they are against any racial, gender or sexual orientation discrimination, and they demonstrate it by their actions. However, Disney is also facing a number of accusations connected with alleged support of homosexuality and its promotion in animation films. Though such pretensions may seem ungrounded, recent Disney movie “Frozen” turned out to be in a center of a scandal. The company was thinking of launching an animation film which would be an adaptation of Snow Queen for a long time, but the initial plan was modified. Initially the directors aimed to make Elza a combination of Kai and Snow Queen leaving the role of Gerda to Anna who would engage in rescuing the sister from evil and even herself. Disney took the riskand created a princess that was not totally positive and charming but was scared, incontrollable, and sometimes dangerous to others. This difference from traditional model inflicted criticism and accusation of public and many saw feminism and homosexuality being promoted in “Frozen”. Chris Buck described Elsa as “little clumsy, sloppy, talks too fast, stains her dress easily. Not perfect, but still inspirational. And we were 100 per cent on board with that "(Mottram, 2014). Disney`s “Frozen” was accused for promoting homosexuality as ice-powers of the main heroine were proclaimed to be a metaphor for sexual orientation. Elza is almost absolutely indifferent to man, and any romantic relationships in the film are substituted by siblings` love. She seems self-sufficient and powerful. While the main Oscar-winning song “Let it go” seems to sound like a coming-out anthem. Moreover, the main heroine raises a question that so much resembles the question all homosexuals ask themselves “born with it or cursed?” Even political parties got involved into a debate regarding the hidden meaning of the movie (Nicolas, 2014). It is astonishing how the company with such a long history managed to preserve its positive public image despite periodical scandals and accusations. Disney is still associated with pure entertainment, magic, and childish happiness. The image of Disney remained unchanged internally and externally due to right public relations policy. Disney is majorly oriented on its public. According to Shockley-Zalaback, every organization has multiple publics. Where publics is a small or large group of stakeholders with interest and needs relative to a particular organization (2012, 325). Although the managers of the company changed numerous times, the overall approach to presenting the company to the publics and the auditory remains stable. This particularly proves that Disney is structure-based company oriented mostly on the perception of the company as a wholesome unit not as separated faces or CEOs. Shockley –Zalaback characterizes such policy as visible, when people, meaning consumers as well as stakeholders know about Disney`s policy of diversity, ethical support of equality and sticking to overall principles of useful and meaningful entertainment. The managers of Disney company worked over the reputation since its establishment and the principles were approved long ago in a Company`s Code Thus, the company determined common goals that could be applicable bothfor Disney and public and served right purposes. The company is communicating these principles internally with the help of loyal and stable policy of diversity encouragement and it also transmitting them with the help of its products. As these are the things that need to be taught to children, and society, and even religious representatives cannot dispute it. Disney turned out to be very effective in conflicts management. By reducing the commentaries regarding the conflicts that arise in connection with some religious or family organizations opposing Disney`s LGBT support, the company managed to narrow actions, and start solving the problem by communicating it in their own way. Disney did not give direct response to the accusations in the press, they explained their decisions and described what motivated them to create such an animation film and in terms of communication their policy can be regarded as wise and appropriate. The behavior of Disney in the described above situation was adequate and firm. They did not respond emotionally to accusations, did not get involved into a dispute with religious or social organizations, and even did not explain their actions in details. They showed that their products speak for themselves and that overall concern regarding their consumers is always a primary task for the company. Making emphasis on the relationships of company and consumers more than of company and employees is what defines exceptional name of Disney. Recommendation The only recommendations that can be addressed to Disney concern the ability to anticipate future conflict situations and play with forecasts. The company with such a long history and such a skillful personal relations policy can definitely foresee which events and content will attract attention of the public and make statement regarding them in advance casually. There is a need to explain that the policy of Disney has not been changing since the company establishment, and that any new release is adherent to it. I personally find it right to implement the policy that promotes equality for the employees first of all as it rises respect among workers and stimulates them. However, it is also necessary to be able to hear contradictory opinions of the public and to accept it. As the issue with homosexuality is very sensitive I suppose supporting those people on the corporate level adds to the positive image of the brand. References Chen, D. (2013). 5 Signs That Disney Has Supported Gay Rights For Over 2 Decades. ArtsMic. Retrieved on January 17, 2015 from: http://mic.com/articles/50847/5-signs-that-disney-has-supported-gay-rights-for-over-2-decades# Corporate History. (2008). The Walt Disney Company. Retrieved on January 17, 2015 from http://thewaltdisneycompany.com Denham, J. (2014). Disney's Frozen is 'very evil' gay propaganda, says Christian pastor, The Independent. Retrieved on January 17, 2015 from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/disneys-frozen-is-very-evil-gay-propaganda-says-christian-pastor-9189043.html Disney Co. Will Offer Benefits to Gay Partners. (1995). The New York Times. Retrieved on January 17, 2015 from http://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/08/us/disney-co-will-offer-benefits-to-gay-partners.html Kershaw, T. (2012). The Hollowverse. Retrieved on January 17, 2015 from http://hollowverse.com/walt-disney/ Navarro, M. (1995). Disney's Health Policy for Gay Employees Angers Religious Right in Florida, The New York Times. Retrieved on January 17, 2015 from http://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/29/us/disney-s-health-policy-for-gay-employees-angers-religious-right-inflorida.html The Manual, published by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), Retrieved on January 17, 2015 www.ngltf.org. Shockley-Zalaback, P. (2012). Fundamentals of Organizational Communications: Knowledge,Sensitivity, Skills, Values. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Tully, S. (2013). Disney digs on in gay rights. Ocregister. Retrieved on January 17, 2015 from http://www.ocregister.com/articles/disney-604067-gay-scouts.html Wong, C. (2014). Disney World's 'Gay Days' Slammed By Religious Right Activist Janet Porter. The Huffington Post. 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