Not Just a Mickey Mouse Exercise: Using Disney’s The Lion King to Teach Leadership

Abstract

Disney’s animated feature The Lion King is presented as a vehicle for fostering undergraduate management and organizational behavior students’ experiential learning and application of fundamental leadership concepts (bases of power and leader skills, traits, and behaviors) and more complex leadership themes (a leader’s need to overcome self-doubt, a group’s overdependence on its leader, a leader’s spirituality, the consequences of abdicating responsibility, and the impact of allies and enemies on a leader). Questions based on the movie are provided to prompt group discussion and individual reflection about leadership.