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On Culture

by Alan Campbell, Featured Contributor

By Definition: all of the knowledge and value shared by a society

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]L[/su_dropcap]ET’S SAY THAT the attitude and behavior that are characteristic of a group or organization. How does an organization such as the hospitality industry go about establishing a particular culture within its own?

If we were to ask several hotel employees to define their business culture, what would they say it was? Would they be able to articulate it well enough to know what it is? How does one define their culture, what exactly is it? Perhaps best of all how does an organization go about establishing a culture? It is not a mission statement, who establishes the culture, the owner? The GM? What guidelines are used to establish the culture?

CultureCulture is one of the most important aspects of the organization, if not the organization has no soul, it has no direction and will eventually fall in to anarchy. Pushing a little here people, just trying to make a point. There is a property coming on line late next year, and it is being built with a 5 star rating culture you might say. Just because the owners want to establish that kind of culture, does not mean that all of the employees will buy in to it. In the past when a GM had a bright idea and got his team together to brainstorm it, not everyone would by in to it, even though it was a good plan. Everyone seems to have their own black book on what should be. Is building a culture in the organization the same?

I have eluded to the culture of The Opryland hotel in Nashville on several occasions. The employees there where happy, they genially cared for the guest and never pointed to where the guest should go, they were escorted. They all said good morning when passing a guest. They spoke well of the property and of their boss, (Jack Vaughn) at the time that I was there. That did not happen by accident, it was taught and implemented by someone.

It come down to how does one go about implementing culture that the employees want to follow, and feel good doing so. It has to start at the top, the culture must be established by the credo of the property, and carried out by the staff. Will the culture change if a new manager id brought in? Is the culture of the property set in stone? Is there flexibility in it? Questions, questions, etc.

I have worked for many different hotel companies, and even though their mission statement is different the culture is only limited to the guest satisfaction, but not much else. What about the employee culture, do they not count? The culture must be shared by all in order for it to be effective in the organization, and in a lot of cases this is not true. One of the properties here in Las Vegas that I am familiar with the Wynn and Encore hotels. I have spoken to the employees there on various occasions, and they are happy, they have told me that this is the best job they have ever had. They are treated well and paid well, they are recognized and their input is listened to. I can only say that the culture of those properties is owed to the vision of Mr. Steve Wynn who established that type of pride in his employees.

How is your hotel culture? Does it measure up to the expectations of the organization? What can be done to make it better? Is it not the culture of the hotel industry that defines us?

Something to ponder as we reflect on our own culture.


Alan Campbell
Alan Campbellhttp://hmsco1.wix.com/hmsco1
ALAN is a highly accomplished, results oriented Hotelier with many years of experience in developing and delivering strategies and implementing solid organizational cultures that addresses the needs of the customer, colleagues, owners, community and industry. He has been in Las Vegas for over 30 years and has worked for the major strip hotels. Alan has spent some time in California, Los Angeles where he worked for the Radisson and Sheraton hotels. He considers the hospitality industry the best job in the world – it is the only place that both king’s and Paupers will visit you. Alan is also a featured contributor for Ehotelier.com, the “Global Hotelier’s Community.”

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