abstract
This study investigates the role of national culture and balanced organisational culture in organisational performance. Hotel management requires flexibility and customer responsiveness to deal with increasingly demanding customers and competitiveness of the market. Studies of the influence of culture on performance in hotel management have not yet revealed the specific impact of national culture and balanced organisational culture on organisational performance. We use the concept of balanced organisational culture which posits that polyrational organisations are more responsive to market changes and more innovative. Data were gathered from 96 hotels in London, UK, and were analysed using structural equation modelling. Our findings show that the national culture of hotel employees influences balanced organisational culture which, in turn, influences performance. This study contributes to existing understanding of factors affecting performance, points towards further research, helps practitioners by demonstrating the importance of taking national culture into account and indicates the importance of achieving balanced organisational culture.
6. Discussion and implication
The hospitality industry has become globalised and it is experiencing the same challenges as other globalised industries. For its managers not least among these challenges is to understand the impact of national culture and organisational culture on the performance of the organisation. Since the UK is one the major tourist destinations of the world, the UK hotel industry can provide a rich understanding ofthis phenomenon. This study examines these relationships in the UK context and reveals some expected and some unexpected results.
The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of Hofstede’s four national culture dimensions on balanced organisational culture and the impact of balanced organisational culture on performance in the hotel industry in the UK. Our findings indicate that three of the four dimensions of national culture that were tested do have an effect on balanced organisational culture, but masculinity does not. This generally indicates the importance of the impact of national culture on organisational culture and, in turn on, organisational performance. This result was expected from previous studies (Hofstede, 2001). However, according to Hofstede the UK has a national culture which has a moderately high score on masculinity leading to the expectation that British people tend to be competitive and driven by achievement(Hofstede et al., 2010). So the lack of a relationship between masculinity and organisation culture in the UKhotelindustry isunexpected.
