Developing an Organizational Culture in a Hotel

ABSTRACT 

The profession of hotel management is one of the most challenging occupations in the hospitality industry. The success of a hotel manager in the hospitality industry is determined by many specialized skills such as planning, communicating, decision making, recruiting, delegating and knowledge. A successful hotel manager’s main objective is to be able to achieve the highest level of service and the highest profitability. But before any successful hotel manager can develop and create this strategy, a manager must understand how organizational culture in a hotel is developed.

Wheelhouse (1987) defines organizational culture as "the learned attitudes, behaviors, and traditions that make up the human environment of the workplace and determine how work is done. It’s manifested in shared customs, traditions, beliefs and norms." He goes on to say that "It’s this culture that makes each organization unique, gives its membership a sense of identity, and ultimately may determine its success or failure." This culture needs to be established by a hotel manager in order to make its hotel unique and give it its identity. Ultimately, it may determine the hotel’s success or failure.

In order to develop the organizational culture in a hotel, certain points should be considered: how authority and responsibility are distributed and who makes decisions; the manager’s role in the culture; style of management; and how values are put into practice.

Key Words: organizational culture, managing, delegation, responsibility, communication, Bull’s Eye Structure.