Corporate Culture and Corporate Identity with Special Reference to the Hotel Restaurant - Research Paper Example

Chapter Introduction Chapter 2: Literature Review Chapter 3: Methodology Research Aim Research approach Study Design Research methods Secondary research Primary Research Sample Sample size Sample Selection Method Data collection method Data Collection Instrument Questionnaire Design Data Collection Method Data Analysis Chapter 4: Results Chapter 5: Analysis Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations Abstract Corporate Culture and Corporate identity are increasingly being used as competitive advantages in the today’s business environment. Corporate culture guides the internal working of the organization and determines how it treats its employees and its customers and partners. Organizational culture helps in creating an environment of efficiency and high performance and helps in making the organizations competitive. Corporate identity, or the position that the organization holds in the business environment, is impacted upon by its culture. Corporate identity is linked with the brand and image of the organization, and hence it is expected to directly impacts upon the revenues and capitalization of the organization. As such, there is a need to understand and assess what comprises of corporate culture and corporate identity and how the two can be assessed and even perfected. This need is even more significant in the case of service intensive organization like the hotels and the restaurants, as the customers largely form their opinions about the organization on the basis of their interactions with the staff. The current research is therefore aimed at analyzing the corporate culture and corporate identity at hotel Erbprinz in Germany. The research was conducted using both secondary and primary methods. An exhaustive literature survey was undertaken where numerous books, journals, articles and data bases like springlink, emerald and ebosco etc, were used to collect the basic material for the review. The primary research was conducted using the interview method and selecting the Director of Erbprinz as the respondent. Some of the conclusions derived from the interview findings are as follows. Corporate Culture is the set of values, attitudes and behaviors that the owners of the organization expect the employees to cherish and follow. Organizational Culture is the set of values, attitudes, beliefs that the employees of the organization share. Corporate Identity is the way the organization is positioned in the minds of its stakeholders – customers, partners, competitors and employees. Corporate culture and Organizational Culture both impact upon the Corporate identity of an organization. There is a basic difference between Corporate Culture and Organizational Culture. While Corporate Culture is the outcome of the vision and mission of the organization as envisioned by the owners/founders, Organizational Culture is the result of the complex interaction between the employees. Corporate Culture can be deduced from the organization’s vision and mission statements, its policies and procedures, its websites, press releases or any other formal communications that the organization undertakes. Organizational culture is evident from the physical setting of the work-place, from the communication channels and flow of information, from the free-time behaviours of the employees, from the artifacts and decorations on the employees’ desks and from the informal means of interactions between the employees and between the employees and their seniors. The research provide some useful recommendations for the organization to undertake. These recommendations included an empirical assessment of the organizational culture and then introducing change to make it streamlined with the corporate culture. Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature Review Chapter 3: Methodology It is important to develop a research methodology that is cost-effective, saves time and also renders appropriate data for analysis. The following pages will elaborate upon the overall methodology used for the current study. Research Aim The main aim of the current research was to analyze corporate culture and corporate identity with special reference to the hotel-restaurant Erbprinz, Ettlingen, Germany. Research approach The approach used for the current study is empirical where the data is collected about the existing state of affairs via a data collection instrument (Key, 2002). The research hopes to conduct an interview of the director of the hotel-restaurant Erbprinz, Ettlingen, Germany. Using th empirical data thus collected, it is expected to gain insights about what comprises of corporate culture and identity especially in the hotel industry. Study Design The primary study is designed so that the data could be collected in a confidential manner and with minimum bias from both the interviewer and the respondent. In order to reduce bias in recording the responses, the researcher has made use of a tape recorder to record the responses of the director. The questions that were posed to the respondent were all based on an understanding of the issue developed via the literature review, and hence aimed at reducing any confusion and bias on the respondents’ side. The following sections will further elaborate upon the study design and methods employed. Research methods Both the secondary and the primary research methods were employed for the current study. This ensured that maximum possible understanding of the corporate culture and identity is developed and that the researcher gains a more holistic insight about the subject. Secondary research: Secondary research was conducted using sources like journals, books, articles, newspapers, websites and other electronic sources. Primary Research: Primary research was conducted using an interview method where open ended questions were presented to the respondent. As such, the primary research was qualitative in nature. Sample: Director of Erbprinz Sample size: One Sample Selection Method: The sample was selected on the basis of convenience of the researcher as the researcher was granted the permission to conduct the research in Erbprinz. Also, the Director of Erbprinz was available for interview. Data collection method: The qualitative research was conducted using a questionnaire with open-ended questions and asking the selected respondent to express his opinion on the questions included in the questionnaire. Data Collection Instrument – An open ended questionnaire was employed [appendix A] Questionnaire Design: The questionnaire was designed after a thorough understanding of the concepts of corporate culture and corporate identity was developed via the literature review. The questions that were finalized to be included in the questionnaire were aimed at exploring the respondents understanding of corporate culture and how culture and corporate identity interact and influence each other. The questionnaire also contained questions specific about the hotel-restaurant industry and were aimed at finding out the importance of culture in this specific context. The questionnaire design was simple, followed a logical sequence, and used simple English phrased and short sentences for easy understanding. Data Collection Method: The interview was conducted using the questionnaire as the survey instrument. The researcher posed the questions to the Director of Erbprinz, and recorded the responses on his notebook. For additional accuracy, the researcher also used a recorder so that while analyzing the responses, he can recall the total interview. Data Analysis: The responses that were collected were then analysed by the researcher on the basis of his own knowledge and the understanding developed by the literature review. The responses were compared and contrasted with the available literature on the issue, and the researcher added his own comments about any new insights or knowledge gained. The analysis was presented in the form of a comprehensive discussion of responses to each individual questions contained in the questionnaire. Chapter 6: Conclusions and Recommendations The current research was undertaken with the main objective of analyzing corporate culture and corporate identity in Hotel Erbprinz. The research was conducted using an interview method and a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed using the insights gained about culture and corporate identity. The director of Erbprinz was chosen as the respondent as the researcher felt that a top official will be able to provide more useful information regarding the organizational culture and corporate identity of Erbprinz. The choice of the director was also weighted by the desire of the researcher to evaluate how the senior level officials of Erbprinz perceive the organizational culture that is actually lived by the front desk employees, waiting and kitchen staff and the restaurant managers. The interview method was used because it gave more detailed data as the Director indulged in explaining and elaborating upon his opinions. The research found that the director of Erbprinz had a thorough theoretical knowledge about organizational culture and corporate identity. The major conclusions that can be drawn from the findings are as follows: Conclusions Corporate Culture is the set of values, attitudes and behaviors that the owners of the organization expect the employees to cherish and follow. Organizational Culture is the set of values, attitudes, beliefs that the employees of the organization share. Corporate Identity is the way the organization is positioned in the minds of its stakeholders – customers, partners, competitors and employees. There is a basic difference between Corporate Culture and Organizational Culture. While Corporate Culture is the outcome of the vision and mission of the organization as envisioned by the owners/founders, Organizational Culture is the result of the complex interaction between the employees. Corporate Culture can be deduced from the organization’s vision and mission statements, its policies and procedures, its websites, press releases or any other formal communications that the organization undertakes. Organizational culture is evident from the physical setting of the work-place, from the communication channels and flow of information, from the free-time behaviours of the employees, from the artifacts and decorations on the employees’ desks and from the informal means of interactions between the employees and between the employees and their seniors. Corporate culture and Organizational Culture both impact upon the Corporate identity of an organization. Corporate culture helps in shaping the behavior of the employees towards the desired outcomes, and may help in developing a suitable Organizational culture. Organizational culture is revealed to the customers when they interact with the employees. The customers, especially in a service intensive industry like the hotel-restaurant industry, form their opinion of the organizational culture on the basis of the attitudes of the employees, their quality of service, their dress and professionalism. Customers of restaurant industry basically form their perceptions of the corporate identity on the basis of the personnel appearance and quality of service, on the basis of the responsiveness of the staff towards customer feedback, sensitiveness of the staff towards customer’s needs. Food, hygiene and cleanliness, ambience and atmosphere of the restaurant too play a role in the development of the corporate identity in the minds of the customers. However, it is the employees’ attitudes and behaviours that are a major source of information for the customers o form their own opinions about the restaurant. The above conclusions carry useful insights about how the corporate identity could be enhanced and how the customers can be retained and attracted to repeat their visits. The findings show that the director of Erbprinz was well aware of the importance of organizational and corporate culture on the well-being of the organization. However, it was evident from the interview that the director believed that the corporate culture of Erbprinz was potent enough to modify the organizational culture or the culture that is actually exhibited at the restaurant level, and hence lead to the achievement of the organizational goals. While Erbprinz is a popular restaurant frequented by repeat guests, there is also a scope to further assess the restaurant-hotel culture and to make any changes so as to better align the service with customer expectations. As such, some of the recommendations for Erbprinz are as follows: Recommendations There is a need to empirically assess the culture at Erbprinz hotel-restaurant. This is because the corporate culture of Erbprinz may inspire the employees to perform at their maximum potential, but it is the actual ground level organizational culture that helps them in setting their work goals and modifying their behaviours. The empirical analysis of organizational culture at the restaurant level can be carried out with the help of ghost-customers or researchers who pose as guests so that the employees behave in their normal manners. Another way to assess the actual organizational culture is to gather feedback from the real customers. It is also recommended that once the actual behaviour, attitude and beliefs of the restaurant-hotel staff has been gauged, it should be compared with the corporate mission and vision. Any discrepancies should be addressed by way of implementing change. Though the research helped in highlighting the importance of organizational culture and corporate culture it, the above research has some limitations that need to be listed in order to interpret the finding and analysis in an unbiased manner. The research confined itself to interviewing just one personnel from one organization. Though the person selected for the interview was a Director of the Erbprinz, and was assumed to have sufficient knowledge about the culture of his organization, a more wholistic approach to the current research would have been if more employees – from the different levels of the organizations were included. The research questionnaire was based on the researchers’ knowledge and understanding of the subject and was not developed using statistical methods of itemization. As such, the validity of the questionnaire cannot be assumed to be hundred percent. No empirical evidence was collected about the organizational culture of the restaurant and hotel. The researcher gained all his information from the interview of a top official of the organization which left out a more practical and first-hand understanding that could have been gained by visiting the restaurant and by interviewing the staff. As such, there is scope for future research to overcome the above limitations and arrive at conclusions that are more widely applicable in the restaurant industry. It is also recommended that future research should take into consideration the assessment of the organizational culture by empirical means. This can be done by getting customer feedback, by assessing the quality of service and personnel attitude first-hand, and by getting the front life staff to participate in the survey. Read More