The Disneyfication of a University

Re:The Disneyfication of a University by nabla9 on Monday February 10, 2020 @02:21PM (#22292258)

When Japanese companies came to the West some of them tried to push the Japanese company culture into their subsidiaries without any modifications.

Starting workday with everyone standing in attention outside and singing company song when company flag was hoisted did not go well.

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Re:The Disneyfication of a University by cbm-vic-20 on Monday February 10, 2020 @02:59PM (#22292629)

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Re:The Disneyfication of a University by ACow_Adonis on Monday February 10, 2020 @03:25PM (#22292875)

If by not go well, I'm assuming you mean adopted by many American firms. I'm assuming you're unfamiliar with "the Wal-Mart cheer".

I'd love to say it was isolated, but my wife worked for a big 4 consultancy firm straight out of university. Just do a Google search for "Ernst and young happy day". I'd paste a link, but I'm afraid I'd actually have to watch it again...

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Re:The Disneyfication of a University by jhbadger on Monday February 10, 2020 @05:52PM (#22294291)

There's a long history of US firms doing this sort of thing. IBM used to have an official songbook and employees would sing "Ever Onward" like they were at a school pep rally.

https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/music/music_EO1.htm...

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Re:The Disneyfication of a University by ACow_Adonis on Monday February 10, 2020 @09:06PM (#22295355)

Actually, I'm not a historian in this area, but it would be fascinating to know whether this kind of thing actually started in America, got exported after ww2 (like Japanese baseball), and then reimported with new/old takes from the likes of Japan post 80s and seemed weird to the now globalizing US corporate culture. (Like how 'do the needful' supposedly got imported into India during the days of the English empire, fell out of use in the modern English world, and is now being reimported from India).

I only bring it up as there are just so many parallels in American culture that would see corporate team building and identity type activities as a natural extension: prep rallies, cheer leaders, pledges, marching bands, frats, school songs, etc.

These activities have some parallels outside the US, but they're activities that can seem distinctly 'weird' and not done to the same extent if you come from outside the US.

And not only do we have actual history (ibm) and many contemporary US companies doing these kinds of practices, in many ways the practices make much more sense if taken as a natural extension of already common American cultural practices...

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Re:The Disneyfication of a University by bitwize on Monday February 10, 2020 @04:26PM (#22293560)

Oh man, I'm getting flashbacks to the cringe I felt the first time I heard the KPMG song: https://youtu.be/NCvKXgp-Awo

It's no coincidence that corporate anthems like this sound similar to the Scientology hymn We Stand Tall: https://youtu.be/XyNh1j3dsp8

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Re:The Disneyfication of a University by Aperocky on Monday February 10, 2020 @02:55PM (#22292593)

You need to tell us what happened

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Re:The Disneyfication of a University by zweep on Monday February 10, 2020 @04:11PM (#22293405)

LOL. I’d do it if they had those adorable Japanese mascot characters.

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Re:The Disneyfication of a University by ForHackernews on Monday February 10, 2020 @05:23PM (#22294064)

𝅘𝅥𝅮 There's a thrill in store for all 𝅘𝅥𝅮

𝅘𝅥𝅮 For we're about to toast 𝅘𝅥𝅮

𝅘𝅥𝅮 The corporation known in every land... 𝅘𝅥𝅮

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ChoHNEgRI

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