Ask Operation Management Expert

Please answer Discussion question

pages 22-23 Part One Business in Society Chapter 1 The Corporation and Its Stakeholders

Discussion Case: A Brawl in Mickey's Backyard

Outside City Hall in Anaheim, California-home to the theme park Disneyland-dozens of protestors gathered in August 2007 to stage a skit. Wearing costumes to emphasize their point, activists playing "Mickey Mouse" and the "evil queen" ordered a group of "Disney workers" to "get out of town." The amateur actors were there to tell the city council in a dramatic fashion that they supported a developer's plan to build affordable housing near the world-famous theme park-a plan that Disney opposed.

"They want to make money, but they don't care about the employees," said Gabriel de la Cruz, a banquet server at Disneyland. De la Cruz lived in a crowded one-bedroom apartment near the park with his wife and two teenage children. "Rent is too high," he said. "We don't have a choice to go some other place."

The Walt Disney Company was one of the best-known media and entertainment companies in the world. In Anaheim, the company operated the original Disneyland theme park, the newer California Adventure, three hotels, and the Downtown Disney shopping district. The California resort complex attracted 24 million visitors a year. The company as a whole earned more than $35 billion in 2007, about $11 billion of which came from its parks and resorts around the world, including those in California.

Walt Disney, the company's founder, had famously spelled out the resort's vision when he said, "I don't want the public to see the world they live in while they're in Disneyland. I want them to feel they're in another world."

Anaheim, located in Orange County, was a sprawling metropolis of 350,000 that had grown rapidly with its tourism industry. In the early 1990s, the city had designated two square miles adjacent to Disneyland as a special resort district, with all new development restricted
to serving tourist needs, and pumped millions of dollars into upgrading the area. In 2007, the resort district-5 percent of Anaheim's area-produced more than half its tax revenue.

Housing in Anaheim was expensive, and many of Disney's 20,000 workers could not afford to live there. The median home price in the community was more than $600,000, and a one-bedroom apartment could rent for as much as $1,400 a month. Custodians at the
park earned around $23,000 a year; restaurant attendants around $14,000. Only 18 percent of resort employees lived in Anaheim. Many of the rest commuted long distances by car and bus to get to work.

The dispute playing out in front of City Hall had begun in 2005, when a local developer called SunCal had arranged to buy a 26-acre site in the resort district. (The parcel was directly across the street from land Disney considered a possible site for future expansion.) SunCal's plan was to build around 1,500 condominiums, with 15 percent of the units set aside for below-market-rate rental apartments. Because the site was in the resort district, the developer required special permission from the city council to proceed.

Affordable housing advocates quickly backed SunCal's proposal. Some of the unions representing Disney employees also supported the idea, as did other individuals and groups drawn by the prospect of reducing long commutes, a contributor to the region's air pollution. Backers formed the Coalition to Defend and Protect Anaheim, declaring that "these new homes would enable many . . . families to live near their places of work and thereby reduce commuter congestion on our freeways."

Disney, however, strenuously opposed SunCal's plan, arguing that the land should be used only for tourism-related development such as hotels and restaurants. "If one developer is allowed to build residential in the resort area, others will follow," a company spokesperson said. "Anaheim and Orange County have to address the affordable housing issue, but Anaheim also has to protect the resort area. It's not an either/or." In support of Disney's position, the chamber of commerce, various businesses in the resort district, andsome local government officials formed Save Our Anaheim Resort District to "protect our  Anaheim Resort District from non-tourism projects." The group considered launching an initiative to put the matter before the voters.

The five-person city council was split on the issue. One council member said that if workers could not afford to live in Anaheim, "maybe they can move somewhere else . . . where rents are cheaper." But another disagreed, charging that Disney had shown "complete
disregard for the workers who make the resorts so successful."

Sources: "Disneyland Balks at New Neighbors," USA Today, April 3, 2007; "Housing Plan Turns Disney Grumpy," The New York Times, May 20, 2007; "In Anaheim, the Mouse Finally Roars," Washington Post, August 6, 2007; and "Not in Mickey's Backyard," Portfolio, December 2007.

Discussion Questions

What are the various stakeholders' interests? Please indicate if each stakeholder is in favor of, or opposed to, SunCal's proposed development.

 

Operation Management, Management Studies

  • Category:- Operation Management
  • Reference No.:- M92738840

Have any Question?


Related Questions in Operation Management

Conflictdefine functional versus dysfunctional conflict in

Conflict Define functional versus dysfunctional conflict in a work group and explain how you can increase functional conflict and decrease dysfunctional conflict. Develop a response that includes examples and evidence to ...

For this assignment you will need to find 2 articles in

For this assignment, you will need to find 2 articles in business that can help describe what are IT strategic initiative being undertaken by an organization are like. Choose a different organization for each of the arti ...

Coping with problems joe is a little nervous he has just

Coping With Problems Joe is a little nervous. He has just been transferred from another plant to take over a production line. Production is down and there is a serious problem with absenteeism. To make matters worse, the ...

Over 30 years ago michael porter identified a holistic

Over 30 years ago Michael Porter identified a holistic approach to understanding how competitive forces shape strategy. He posited that the only way to truly insulate an organization from underlying economic volatility i ...

You are the contracting officer for an air-to-ground

You are the contracting officer for an air-to-ground missile development program. A contract for pre-production models of the missile was awarded by your predecessor and the contractor is behind schedule. In a program me ...

The ikea case provides an excellent opportunity to apply

The IKEA case provides an excellent opportunity to apply strategic management concepts to a large privately-held company that is expanding into India. IKEA is a Netherlands-based Swedish company with a presence in 44 cou ...

Can you answer for me the following questions about social

Can you answer for me the following questions about social loafing and the three main causes of free-riding. 1. Give a description of the phenomenon of social loafing. 2. Give a description of the phenomenon of free-ridi ...

1 analyzing the bridgestonefirestone and ford motor company

1. Analyzing the Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford motor company, is it sufficient to use the ISO/QS 9000 standards as the main basis of vendor/product selection? 2. What position to these cars company ( 1. Volkswagen, 2. F ...

Research the effect of primary and secondary seat belt laws

Research the effect of primary and secondary seat belt laws on the occurrence of motor-vehicle injuries and fatalities. Explain how epidemiologic studies influenced the development of current seat belt laws. Describe how ...

Please provide a brief paragrap of the key takaways from

Please provide a brief paragrap of the key takaways from each of the following topics: Designing Clear Visuals in business reports Designing Successful Documents and Websites Writing Winning Proposals

  • 4,153,160 Questions Asked
  • 13,132 Experts
  • 2,558,936 Questions Answered

Ask Experts for help!!

Looking for Assignment Help?

Start excelling in your Courses, Get help with Assignment

Write us your full requirement for evaluation and you will receive response within 20 minutes turnaround time.

Ask Now Help with Problems, Get a Best Answer

Why might a bank avoid the use of interest rate swaps even

Why might a bank avoid the use of interest rate swaps, even when the institution is exposed to significant interest rate

Describe the difference between zero coupon bonds and

Describe the difference between zero coupon bonds and coupon bonds. Under what conditions will a coupon bond sell at a p

Compute the present value of an annuity of 880 per year

Compute the present value of an annuity of $ 880 per year for 16 years, given a discount rate of 6 percent per annum. As

Compute the present value of an 1150 payment made in ten

Compute the present value of an $1,150 payment made in ten years when the discount rate is 12 percent. (Do not round int

Compute the present value of an annuity of 699 per year

Compute the present value of an annuity of $ 699 per year for 19 years, given a discount rate of 6 percent per annum. As