Organisational Culture in Hotel Industry

Situated in a quiet, leafy conservation area within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, just 200 yards from Earl’s Court Underground Station, the Barkston Gardens Hotel is a non smoking converted terraced Victorian House offering spacious, comfortable rooms with modern-day amenities including free high speed wireless internet. Built at the turn of the 19th century, this 3 star standard hotel features three modern meeting rooms and a traditional pub-style bar with high-speed Internet access while still retaining its charm and splendour.

Conveniently located and easily accessible by public transportation, the hotel is the ideal base for exploring London’s attractions whether visiting the city for business or pleasure (Barkston Gardens Hotel, 2008). Organisational Culture “Culture is an abstraction” (Edgar H. Schein, 2004). Organizational culture comprises of shared values and beliefs that underlie a company’s identity. The definition highlights 3 important characteristics of organizational culture.

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1. Organizational culture is passed on to new employees through the process of socialization. As far as our organization is concerned there is plenty of socialization among the employees. They know each other on a personal basis and often invite each other to functions at their places. In addition to this they have their lunch together on the same table which provides a good ground for interaction and hence the culture gets transmitted.
2. Organizational culture influences our behavior at work. Barkston Gardens promotes hard work and providing good value to the customers as well as caring for co-workers. This culture affects the behavior of the workers and promotes coordation and collaboration between them. If the workers face a crisis situation they share it with their co-workers who try to help out and suggest a solution to the person facing the problem.
3. Organizational culture operates at different levels. This cannot be appropriately applied to our organization as the organization possesses very few levels of workers at the front office department. Apart from this it is found that organizational culture is shaped by four components: The management’s values The hotel management has prescribed written values and has some passive values such as to make this organization a major player in the hotel industry.

The industry and business environment The industry is experiencing a lot of growth over the past years. This growth is basically demand based as the demand for good hotels is getting higher. This industry requires front office employees who are able to work a variety of shifts, including earlies, lates, weekends and evenings, speak advanced or Native English, must have previous experience of working as a receptionist or shiftleader in a customer service environment, preferably within a hotel of similar size and style, confident using a PC, familiarity using reservation systems and legal right to live and work in the UK. Read also about hotel reservation system

The national culture The culture of UK has witnessed a change where people have become more inclined to travel. Leisure travels is considered a must thing for people to relax and enjoy inorder to have a complete life. The senior manager’s vision and behavior There is a realization to build up an organization that will excel in the future. And regarding behavior managers wants to present themselves as the ideal role model by working for long hours and sacrificing their own leisure activities for the good of the organization.

Layers of Organizational Culture

` “Schein divides organisational culture into three levels,” (executive fast track, 2008). Observable artifacts At the more visible level, culture represents observable artifacts. Artifacts consist of the physical manifestation of an organization’s culture. Other examples include Acronyms: - for example they use short hands in front of customers. Manner of dress:-formal dress code. Decorations: - interior designing done by a specially hired architect expert in wooden works just to create a good ambience along with calendars and big posters of resorts and available facilities in its interior. Espoused values

They are the stated values and norms that area preferred by an organization. Examples can include Customer focus:  putting the needs and interests of the customers at the center of everything the organization does.

• Agility: - embracing change and seizing new opportunities.
• Teamwork: - creating value by working together across the business processes.
• Integrity: - earning the trust of the clients, viewers, members and subscribers.
• Responsibility: - work to improve our communities and take pride in serving the public interest. Basic assumptions Basic assumptions are unobservable and represent the core of organizational culture.

They constitute organizational values that have become so taken for granted over time that they become assumptions that guide organizational behavior. Examples can be of things such as it is understood that use of foul language is strictly prohibited in the hotel and the workers should come properly dressed for work.

Functions of Organizational Culture

Give members an organizational identity Front office department tries to provide a place to work that values customer loyalty over corporate responsibility but also having a lot of concern for the profits that the hotel is making thus employee satisfaction is compromised at times. Facilitate collective commitment In the hotel the highest quality of customer service is delivered with a sense of warmth, freindliness, individual pride and compny spirit as the employees work day and night to make customized customer oreinted pakcages that cater for the needs and specifications. Promote socail system ability The work enviromnet is perceived as positive as the employees are rewarded on the basis of their commitment. Conflicts are effectively managed like if a problem arise the management take charge of the occasion and with their mediation the crisis situation is averted.

Shape behavior by helping members make sense of their surroundings The employees understand what the organization does and how it intends to accomplish its long term goals as the management takes its employees views into consideration before implementing its expansion plans.

Engines of Organizational Culture

“Constructive culture is defined simplistically as one oriented towards achievement, self-actualization, creativity, participation, valuing people, and one that places a high priority on healthy relationships between people,” ( Laurie Hillis, 2003). The dominant construcitve culture is applicable to our orgazanition where standard of excellence is pursued. The nomative belief appicable Achievement- Barkston Gardens values employees who set and accomplish their own goals. The workers are expected to set challenging but realistic goals, establish plans to reach these goals, and pursue then with enthusiasm. Affliative- The organisation places a high priority on constructive interpersonal relationships. Employees are expected to be friendly, open and sensitive to the satisfaction of their work group.

How cultures are embedded in organizations The design of physical space, work environments and buildings The new office for the department promotes good opportunity for interaction amonst the workers of the same level as the office is very egronomical. And the senior manager himself has a separate office well equipped with intranet that connects him with all the other employees. Sloguns, acronyms and sayings Acronyms are commonly used in front of customers to make communication effective and easier. Deliberate role modelling, training programs, teaching and coaching by managers

Most of the people hired have modest practical education and grooming thus the hired workforce is occassionally sent for formal training. The organizational activites, processes, or outcomes that pay attention to and measure Hotel reservations and PR with cleints and checking the accounts are some of the common task performed by the managers.

Mentoring

“To serve as a trusted counselor or teacher, especially in occupational settings” (freedictionary, 2008). The senior manager acts as a mentor and forms and maintains deveopmental relationships between a mentor and a junior person. Amongst the functions of menotirng perfromed by this leader are Protection (career function): defends the employees if an error is commited by him by mistake. Exposure-and -visiblity (career function): the newly hired have no formal training at times thus they are made to handle situations effectively through traning programs. Role modeling (psychological function): employees were of the view that the commitment from the senior managers was the motivational factor for them. The seniors are personally involved in details when making the package for the clients. Friendship (psychological functions): the whole organization is based upon the fundamentals of friendship and the organization has a very open environment. It is the belief about one’s own self worth based on an overall self evaluation. Here we are going apply the 6 pillars of self esteem to the senior manager of the hotel.

Branden’s Six Pillars of Self Esteem

Live consciously: the manager is actively enganged and knows the in and out of the business and responds well to the changing demands of the customers.

Be self-accepting: the manager is confident about the decision he takes and is not over critical about them. Thus the cognitive dissonance is minimal. Be self-assertive:-the manager is fully conscious about his words used in his dealings and whatever he says he believes in it and stands by it and always has the proof to back up what he says. Have personal integrity:  manager is a man of integrity and has clear values. He tries to avoid misleading his clients and he feels that the main reason for his success is the loyal customers that he has developed overtime

Self efficacy is the person’s belief about his or her ability of successfully accomplishing a specific task. Here senior managers have high self efficacy. The organization started from a scratch but now through hard work it has become a competitive and good business.

Self monitoring is the extent to which a person and his organization observe their own self-expressive behavior and adapt it to the demands of the situation. The managers can be classified as a chameleon that is ready to adapt to their surroundings. The organization has recently gone through a phase in which it has tried to adopt business process re-reengineering witnessing the need for technological updation. Accounting records are now fully computerized and internet linkages are being used to develop attractive customer packages.

Be proactive: the managers are of the view that SWOT analysis is extremely important while taking timely decisions for the organization. Begin with an end in mind:-the front office managers are goal oriented and set up a good challenging goal fot the employees to accomplish.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood:-the managers are good listeners and good servant-leaders. Synergize:  through teamwork the managers are able to generate motivation that leads to efficiency and effectiveneness in operation. Individual differences in group members do not become a source of conflict. The organization has learnt to celebrate diversity and work for enhance performance. Sharpen the saw: the organization is a learning organization which doesn’t hesitate to renew its image. Planning and visualizing the market trends have been the hallmark of Barkston Gardens Hotel. The committed team puts the best effort and thinks that the organization apart from personal effort there are certain external influences which play a key role in determining organizational commitments.

“The act or process of motivating,” (Motivation, 2008). Motivation is a psychological process that arouses and directs goal-directed behavior. “Need theories are based on some of the earliest research in the field of human relations. Need theories attempt to pinpoint internal factors that energize behavior,” (Answers. com, 2008). Needs are physiological or psychological deficiencies that arouse behavior. They can be strong or weak and are influenced by environmental factors. Out of all the need theories only one is applicable

 “To address some of the limitations of Maslow's hierarchy as a theory of motivation, Clayton Alderfer proposed the ERG theory,” (motivationcenter, 2008). E: existence needs-the desire for the physiological and materialistic well being. The hotel management valued the profits of the company very highly as they in turn are meant to fulfill basic physiological needs and used to buy things that can show to the world that the owners are living a well off life.

Relatedness needs-the desire to have meaningful relationships with significant others. Developing PR is very important for the success of the business. So the roots of all these things go down to maintaining good relationships with other people. G: growth needs-the desire to grow as a human being and to use one’s abilities to their fullest potential. The managers as the hotel grew up grew in self-confidence and became believing in themselves and thus expanded the hotel market despite tough competition.

“Work arrangement (or rearrangement) aimed at reducing or overcoming job dissatisfaction and employee alienation arising from repetitive and mechanistic tasks,” (businessdictionary. com, 2008). The concept of job design involves changing the content or process of a job to increase job satisfaction and performance. This theory suggests that employees can be motivated through a number of ways including motivational approaches attempt that improve employee’s effectiveness and attitudinal reactions by using:

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