This chapter focuses on the use of corporate culture as a competitive tool to enhance the performance of organisations. However, the focus of the study was on star-rated hotels in Ghana. To address this, the chapter first focused on determining the corporate culture that is dominant among the star-rated hotels operating in Ghana. Secondly, it also sought to establish the influence that corporate culture has on organisational performance. Out of a population of 680 star-rated hotel managers, a sample of 248 were chosen using stratified random sampling technique. Self-administered questionnaires were used to solicit the views of managers of the selected hotels. In all, a total of 178 responses were retrieved and analysed using descriptive and partial least squares in structural equation modelling. Findings of the study revealed that the rule-bound culture is the dominant corporate practiced by the star-rated hot hotels in Ghana. The study also found that corporate culture significantly predicted organisational performance of star-rated hotels in the country.
TopIntroduction
One of the critical issues in business today is for businesses to identify key areas of the business that the business is doing better compared to competitors. Such areas determine the competitive advantage of the firm. Competitive advantage of the firm is meaningless if it cannot enhance the performance outcomes of businesses. In order to address this chapter focuses on corporate culture as one of the key areas of businesses that can be used as a competitive tool to enhance performance of businesses. One of the key areas which businesses can use to enhance their competitive advantage and also drive organizational performance is the culture of the organisation (Joseph & Francis, 2015; Yaprak, Tasoluk & Kocas, 2015). Organizational culture refers to the values and norms that are shared by members of the organisation that also define the way things are done in the organisation (Desphande & Farley, 2004). Han and Verna (2012) defined organisational culture based on the anthropological concepts such as symbolism, myth and rituals. The authors explained that the structure of an organisation can therefore be analysed based on these anthropological concepts.
The oil find in Ghana and the political stability of the country has made Ghana one of the attractive countries in the sub-region for businesses. This has contributed to rising number of multinational hotels in Ghana over the past five years. These developments in the hotel industry of Ghana have resulted in intense competition. As the number of tourist arrivals in the country continue to rise, the demand for hotel accommodation in the country continues to increase. The oil-find, the influx of Chinese nationals in search of business opportunities have also contributed to the increased number of hotels including Kempinski, Movenpick, Ambassador hotel and Tang palace.
As competition in the hotel industry of Ghana continue to intensify as a result of the influx of new hotels, the hotels in Ghana should be able to identify and adopt the right culture which sets the hotels apart from their competitors and also enable the hotels to achieve higher performance. As established in the study of Kim, Lee and Yu (2004) a strong culture which is shared by a majority of employees is a predictor of the overall performance of an organisation. Organisational performance is the sum of accomplishments achieved by the various departments of an organisation. These accomplishments are measured within a given period of time (Lee & Huang, 2012). Despite the link between culture and organisational performance, little research has focused directly on how hospitality businesses in general and hotels in particular can maximize performance by adopting a particular corporate culture which can be used as a competitive tool in driving performance (Han & Verma 2012).
Though studies have indicated that organizational culture predicts performance (Han & Verma, 2012, Jogaratnam, 2017) most of the studies were not based on the global hospitality and tourism industry of which the hotel sector feature prominently (Han & Verma, 2012). Furthermore, though many studies have investigated the relationship between corporate culture and firm performance, results have been inconsistent (Han & Verna, 2012). For example, whereas studies by Doran, Haddad and Chow (2003), Jogaratnam (2017) and Nikpour (2017) lend support to the direct effect of corporate culture on performance, the findings by Kim, Lee and Yu (2004) prove otherwise.