This document discusses developing a hospitality culture. It defines a service culture as one that supports customer service through policies, procedures, rewards systems, and actions. Leaders play a crucial role in developing and transmitting the culture. A supportive leadership climate fosters dignity, respect, pride and team cohesion among employees. Developing a strong service culture requires establishing clear benchmarks, goals, and objective measures of progress. Organizational culture encompasses shared values, beliefs, and behavioral norms within an organization. Developing and managing cultural diversity is an important part of international hospitality management.

1. Developing the
Hospitality Culture
HRTM 122 TOTAL QUALITY
SERVICE MANAGEMENT
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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

2. 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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3. 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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4. The Ritz Carlton
Mystique

5. 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

6. The Ritz Carlton
Culture
• 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

7. 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

8. 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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9. 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)

10. 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

11. What is Culture?
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12. 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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13. 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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14. 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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15. 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

16. 16
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

17. 17
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.

18. 18
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).

19. 19
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!

20. 20
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.

21. 21
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).

22. 22
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.

23. 23
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.

24. 24
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.

25. Culture across boundaries:
• Culture differences play a key role in the creation of
trust in multicultural teams.
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The Power of Diversity
Diversity 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.

26. 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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27. 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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28. 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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29. 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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30. 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
30
Robbins (2001) suggested that there are seven elements that define an
organization’s culture. These elements will be more or less present in all
organizations, but their specific alignment would allow you to explore the
nature of the organization (Figure 2.2).

31. Org Culture is Not:
• A technique.
• A gimmick.
• A how-to.
• A method.
• A solution.
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32. 32

33. 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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34. 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

35. 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

36. STRATEGIC CHANGE vs.
PROCESS CHANGE
• Strategic Change
– Organizational changes resulting from strategy
development and implementation
• Process change
– Organizational changes resulting from operational
assessment activities

37. 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 markets
Seeking low-cost
position
Mergers and acquisitions
Improving informational
systems
Establishing hiring guide
Table 6.2
Strategic vs. Process change

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40. 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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