Customer relationship management (people, process and technology) and organisational culture in hotels

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of four organisational cultural traits of adaptability, consistency, involvement and mission on the three components of customer relationship management (CRM), namely, people, process and technology, in the context of the hotel industry.Design/methodology/approachRequired data are collected with a quantitative approach and a questionnaire adapted from the Denison organisational culture survey and the Mendoza CRM model. The questionnaire was distributed among 364 managers of a chain hotel in the UK and gathered data were examined using the structural equation modelling method.FindingsThe results of this study reveal that the four traits of organisational culture (adaptability, consistency, involvement and mission) have positive and significant impacts on the three components of CRM (people, process and technology). A set of theoretical contributions and practical implications was also discussed.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is conducted with a case study approach; hence, the findings cannot be generalised to a larger population, and the results might be different for other industries. Because of the limitation of access to all employees, only managers were selected as the sample, and future studies with all employees may show different results.Practical implicationsCurrent study helps hotel managers to understand the role and importance of organisational cultural traits in successful implementation of their CRM strategy components.Originality/valueThe position taken in this study recognises the need to enhance the understanding of organisational culture’s impact on implementing CRM components. Organisational cultural traits have different levels of impact on CRM implementation, and this is the first study to investigate the detailed impacts of the four traits of adaptability, consistency, involvement and mission on the three components of CRM, namely, people, process and technology.