Developing the Hospitality Culture

HRTM 122 TOTAL QUALITY SERVICE MANAGEMENT

AIREEN Y. CLORES DCHM, VSU

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“Every organization of today has to build into its very

structure the management of change.”

Peter Drucker (1909 - 2005)Austrian-born U.S. management consultant.

Post-capitalist Society

THE HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE:

Define and build a total service culture

Chapter content:

• Redesigning organizations for quality

• Importance of leaders• Culture and its importance• Beliefs, values and norms• Culture and the environment• Total quality and organizational

improvement • Communication and cultural

change• Cultural behavior in organizations

After working through this chapter, you should be able to:

Identify the context of international hospitality management

Determine the roles of different cultures in international hospitality management

Explore the cultural dynamic for organizations with national cultures, organizational cultures and touristic cultures

Examine the processes used in managing cultural diversity

Consider the implications of overlapping cultures in international hospitality management

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Developing and Leading an Excellent Team of Workers

 

Managers get work done through people---and a manager’s greatest challenge is to create a service team that delivers the

“service experience” consistently and well to the member community.

Poor organization design can make be devastating to a company. Team of workers can contribute to customer satisfaction and

continuous improvement .

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The Ritz Carlton Mystique

Ritz Carlton: Known for its fine Service

• Private bath in guest room• Lighter fabrics in rooms• White and black tie uniformed staff• Fresh cut flowers in public areas• Ala Carte dining / gourmet cuisine• Intimate smaller lobbies• Personalized guest experience

The Ritz CarltonCulture

• The Gold Standards are the foundation of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. They encompass the values and philosophy by which they operate and include:– The Credo– The Three Steps of service– Service Values– The Employee Promise

• These Gold Standards are printed on a card carried by all employees to insure flawless service to their guests

Redesigning organizations for Quality • Moments of Truth

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“[W]e could say that the perceived quality is realized at the moment of truth, when the service provider and the service customer confront one another in the arena. At that moment they are very much on their own… It is the skill, the motivation, and the tools employed by the firm’s representative and the expectations and behavior of the client which together will create the service delivery process.”

Richard Normann

Creating centers of Excellence• It is a process of bringing together key people from all areas

of the business and operations to focus on best practices.• Provides a way for groups within the company to collaborate.

This group also becomes a force for change, as it can leverage its growing knowledge to help different business units learn from experience.

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Internal marketing …marketing aimed internally at a company’s own employees

o Enables employees to deliver brand promise

o Ensure consistently high service

o Four-step process:

• Establish a service culture

• Develop a marketing approach to human resource management

• Disseminate marketing information

• Implement reward and recognition system

o Too few organizations apply the concept

o No unified concept

o Corporate distraction (boost revenues, cut costs)

Link Between Internal Marketing and Profits

INTERNAL

MARKETING 1. Service Culture 2. Marketing approach to HRM 3. Communication 4. Reward & Recognition

SERVICE QUALITY

GAPS model

Measuring Service Quality

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

LOYALTY

Relationship marketing

PROFITS

Figure 4.1

What is Culture?

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Activity: The cultural minefield…..identifying yourself

• Understanding and effectively interacting within the cultural groups to which we belong is like walking through a minefield. Being culturally aware means much more than just understanding the culture of other groups or countries. It means understanding who you are and your own cultural dynamic. Consider the following “cultures”, and the impact on your life:– Where you were born.– Your nationality and heritage.– How you were raised and your family life.– The schools you attended.– Your religious preferences.– Your profession.– Your company and its corporate culture.– Your gender.

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Teaching new values…

• Employees learn to get to know the cultural values from day one

• Disney’s four cultural values: safety, courtesy, show and efficiency

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Beliefs, norms and values

• Beliefs– Form of ideological core of the culture; how people in organizations

make sense of their relationships with the external world and its influence on the internal organizations.

• Values – Preferences of certain behaviors or outcomes over others; defines

what is right and wrong

• Norms– it how people are expected to act

• Norms in advertising• Norms in personal appearance• Folklores and mores

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Service culture

….a culture that supports customer service through policies, procedures, reward systems, and actions

o Culture must support customer service

o Leaders crucial for transmitting, preserving culture

o Commitment from management

• positive attitude toward customers and employees

• time and money transmitting value system

• properly trained employees respond appropriately

• empowered to do so by the organization

o Establishing a service culture may have regional characteristics 

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Leader Influence on Culture

• Much!• Can manipulate or influence factors that determine

culture and therefore service culture.• Cannot manage simply through guiding principles.

People do not automatically fall in line.• Key: the leader’s behavior.

Continued next slide

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Continued

Culture strongly determined by:• What leaders do during good times and bad times.• How they do it.• What they pay attention to.• What they measure.• How they reward.

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Quality Service Climate

• Establishes atmosphere for everyone.• Climate is a subset of culture.• Leaders set the tone, mood, and culture that set the

climate in an org.• A positive service climate reinforces and supports

quality service.• Climate is controlled by the leader(s).

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Characteristics of Supportive Leadership Climate • Service providers generally treat customers like they

are treated as employees.• Dignity and respect.• Feel like winners.• Pride is fostered.• Group cohesion among teams.• During good and bad times!

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Four Leadership Imperatives

1. Leaders must allow a strong sense of personal control over job outcomes and behaviors.

– Empower employees.– Allow wide discretion to solve issues.– Allow ees to create own schedules.– Collaborate with ees about ways to improve conditions

and service.

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Continued

2. Instill a sense of meaning and contribution in service work.

– Let ees know how they are doing.– Allow task variety via job rotation.– Job visitation—ees to other areas of the operation to

observe.– Allow ees to work in area(s) of interest.– Allow responsibility (and power).

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Continued

3. Ensure a strong sense of social connection.– Create service teams.– Allow job rotation.– Encourage multiteam meetings.– Informal social hours.– Out-of-work sporting events (softball).– Team-building activities.

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Continued

4. Allow employees to soar.– Service provider development programs.– Survey personnel skills and interests.– Reward innovation and creativity.

Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Individual Parts

A well integrated program using these concepts will create an organization which is stronger than its

aggregate parts.

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Culture Plus

• In order to move to the next step in the process, there must be a system, which fosters--– Clear benchmarks (service standards).– Concise goals and objectives.– An agreed upon method for measuring progress.

• Objective versus subjective.

Culture across boundaries:

• Culture differences play a key role in the creation of trust in multicultural teams.

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The Power of DiversityDiversity is a term that describes a workplace that includes people from various backgrounds and backgrounds – a concept which we come across in international hospitality all the time.

Employees who have cross-border responsibilities and/or cross-cultural relationships need to be prepared to effectively handle the inevitable intercultural tasks and challenges involved.

Six fundamental patterns of cultural difference

1. Different communication styles– Language barriers

2. Different attitudes towards conflict– Attitudes and perceptions of time as one element of complexity

3. Different approaches to completing tasks– Cultural complexity or roles (religion, politics, practices)

4. Different decision making styles

5. Different attitudes towards disclosure

6. Different approaches to knowing

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Four cultural dimensions

1. Directness (get to the point versus imply the messages);

2. Hierarchy (follow orders versus engage in debate)

3. Consensus (dissent is accepted versus unanimity is needed)

4. Individualism (individual winners versus team effectiveness)

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Case study: Tipping

• Tipping is a sensitive topic in Asia, where breaches of social convention are taken more personally than they would be in the West. Tipping practices are widespread, and rewarding good service without causing anyone to “lose face” in Asia can be difficult. Tipping is not a Chinese custom, but with British influence came the practice of tipping. Though there is a 10% service gratuity added to most restaurant and hotel bills, tips are still expected. Dewald’s research (2001) examined the tipping habits of tourists from six distinct countries – three Asian and three Western – while visiting Hong Kong. This study shows that even though there is a slight adaptation to local tipping habits, those who tip more often at home do the same while travelling abroad. Americans tended to tip more often and in relation to service whereas British and Australian tourists tipped less frequently. Mainland Chinese tipped the least often. Furthermore there seemed to be a relationship between the level of service quality and tipping frequency for some personal, one-on-one services (Plate 4).

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Cont.

• This photograph taken recently in a five-star hotel in China underlines the differences in practices and cultures. Not only is the issue of tipping addressed directly, but also explicitly prohibited. Also of interest is the way that the tip is represented with a $ sign, underlining the cultural differences at play in this international meeting point.

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Organizational Culture

• Explains how people think and act at work;• Comes from various directions inside or out of the

organization;• May be weak or strong;• Formal and informal guidelines, actually activities;• Shared values and beliefs, behavioral norms

Robbins (2001) suggested that there are seven elements that define anorganization’s culture. These elements will be more or less present in allorganizations, but their specific alignment would allow you to explore the

nature of the organization (Figure 2.2).

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Org Culture is Not:

• A technique.• A gimmick.• A how-to.• A method.• A solution.

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Touristic Cultures:

1. Touristic culture is not innate, but learned (travel, interaction)

2. Various aspects of touristic culture are interrelated – meaning that certain aspects of touristic culture will connect with aspects of other cultures that can influence the experience such as religion and diet.

3. Touristic culture is shared – when people visit there is an exchange, no matter how limited, with the other elements of culture in a region or organization, such as religion or language.

4. Touristic culture defines boundaries of different groups both within and without the tourist experience – such as the distinction between the host and the guests or the paying customers and their servants.

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Total quality and cultural change

Types of change• Cultural change• Continuous improvement

(kaizen)• Breakthrough

improvement (benchmark)

• Organizational learning

Importance of change:• Total quality

implementation towards strategic advantage

• Reengineering– Redesign service process

to provide high quality at lower cost.

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Organizations can't change without people changing first

Why organizational change?

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Triggering Conditions:• Unstable and unpredictable world economic environment• Speed in technological advancement that hastens product

obsolescence• Rise of information technology and cybernetics shifting competition

towards intelligence, networking and strategic alliances.• Capital rationing based on quality and security of investment

returns.• Competitive advantage derived from lower cost and speed of

reaction to changing markets• Move towards flatter, leaner organizations• Doing more of the same no longer works

STRATEGIC CHANGE vs. PROCESS CHANGE• Strategic Change

– Organizational changes resulting from strategy development and implementation

• Process change– Organizational changes resulting from operational

assessment activities

STRATEGIC PROCESS PROCESS CHANGE

Theme to change Shift in organizational direction

Adjustment of organizational processes

Driving force Usually environmental forces – market, rival, technological change

Usually internal – “How can we better align our processes?”

How much of the organization changes?

Typically widespread Often narrow – divisional or functional

Examples Entering new marketsSeeking low-cost positionMergers and acquisitions

Improving informational systemsEstablishing hiring guide

Table 6.2 Strategic vs. Process change

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Review Questions:

• Can you describe the levels of culture involved in international hospitality management?

• How can cultural differences be made into positives for an organization rather than being seen as problems?

• Explore the tensions generated by intercultural communications in at least one international setting.

• Why do you need to do more than understand other cultures?

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Thank you….