Corporate Culture vs. National Culture - The Role of Human Resource in Managing Cultural Differences in International Hotel Companies

Abstract

International hotel companies, as part of the service industry, are facing challenges of culture complexity after merging, capturing, franchising and other forms of business reformation. Human resource management (HRM) and corporate culture are essential for modern management. The most widely spread national culture theory is Hofstede’s five dimensions theory. The purpose of the study is to explore how an international hotel company’s corporate culture is transferred to another country with a different national identity through local HRM. Based on Hofstede’s national culture theories the paper explores the culture differences between parent company and host company. In-depth interviews from sample hotel companies from USA, France, Thailand and China were conducted. The empirical results indicate that managing cultural diversity has been brought up on the agenda and HRM has played an important role in transferring corporate culture in well established hotel companies. It is useful for international hotel companies to establish formal corporate cultures with a concern for diversity. In addition, effective HRM is necessary to educate employees and convey corporate culture.