Michael Eisner: Political Frame
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Using specific examples of "politics" (i.e., the "jungle") as defined by Bolman and Deal, use the Political Frame as a lens through which you will analyze the downfall of Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner.
Begin by visiting the Walt Disney Company website:
The Walt Disney Company. (2014). Retrieved on May 8, 2014 from http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/
The following articles provide a good starting point concerning former CEO Eisner's tenure with the Walt Disney Company:
White, D. (2005, Oct 01). When Mickey finally turned on his master. Michael Eisner's reign at Disney is over. Dominic White reports. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved from Proquest.
Grace Jr., H. S., & Haupert, J. E. (2011). Governance lessons from the Disney litigation. Business Law Today, 20(9), 1-5. Available in the Trident Online Library [Business Source Complete database].
Finally, read the following case study:
Forbes, W., & Watson, R. (n.d.). Destructive corporate leadership and board loyalty bias: A case study of Michael Eisner's long tenure at Disney Corporation. City University London. Retrieved on June 10, 2014 from http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/56372/2A_Forbes.pdf
-Briefly identify and discuss the key political forces that led to Eisner's downfall.
-How does the "Jungle" metaphor apply to the Eisner case?
-Describe the coalitions that formed at Disney. Then, identify those salient interests that caused the division between coalitions, and how these differences were ultimately resolved.
-Discuss the Eisner case study in the context of two or three of Bolman and Deal's Political Frame assumptions included above. How do the assumptions you've chosen inform what happened in the Michael Eisner case?
-Briefly comment on the significance of the "Toxic Triangle" (see Figure 1 of Forbes & Watson's case study about Eisner's departure), and discuss how this model informs the Eisner case study.
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Solution Summary
This posting applies the Political Frame to analyze the downfall of Disney CEO, Michael Eisner.
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The key political forces according to Bolman and Deal are conflict, scarcity of resources, and building a power base. At Disney, the key political forces that affected CEO Michael Eisner were the failure of his large project Euro Disney. The next political force was the death of Frank Wells the chairman of Disney. The disaster of Euro Disney hurt the actions of Michael Eisner, he was fearful of repeating the mistakes of Disney Euro and he drastically reduced costs on all park projects. Projects for parks in California, France, and Hong Kong were either delayed or reduced in size (a). Also, he made reductions in daily maintenance and upkeep. According to Bolman and Deal, political leaders strive to build allies, networks, and coalitions. However, Michael Eisner entered into a conflict with Steve Jobs in a relationship with a distribution deal for Pixar films, Moreover, instead of building networks and coalitions, Michael Eisner entered into conflict within Disney leading to the loss of many talented people and also creating new direct completion. Each of these was a negative political force at Disney. For example, Jeffery Katzenberg was refused the post of President and he left Disney to form DreamWorks. DreamWorks attracted and recruited several talented people from Disney. Michael Eisner himself was a strong political force at Disney. However, he was a negative political force. Instead of building a power base, he installed his friend Michael Ovitz as the president. After a year Disney had to pay him 140 million dollars and fire him. The result was an embarrassment and high costs for Disney. The actions of Michael Eisner did not address the problems of individuals and interest groups have conflicting interests. For example, Disney's America was Michael Eisner's new Disney resort to be located in Virginia near Washington DC. The interests of local businesses and influencers were not considered and they complained so vehemently that Michael Eisner had to put away his plans (b). According to Bolman and Deal, from the political frame, the leader must build allies and coalitions. In the case of Michael Eisner, his mental makeup and psychology prevented him from appointing capable executives to support his objectives and goals. Michael Eisner should have built a strong coalition with Roy Disney. He was the person who had brought Michael Eisner on board but Michael Eisner did not build an alliance with Roy and Roy started the "Save Disney" campaign to oust Michael Eisner.
The Jungle metaphor applies to the Eisner case in several ways. The metaphor of jungle means ...
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