The role of organizational culture dimension in business recovery: a post Covid-19 perspective in the hotel industry in Kenya

Abstract

The study investigated the role played by the dimensions of organizational culture in a strategic management process to help organizations in the hotel industry realize business recovery in a post-COVID-19 period. The conceptualization of the study relied on the strategic thinking lens preceding strategic management processes to situate the role of organizational culture in the strategic management processes undertaken at the strategy formulation phase. The element of organization's mission was argued to be the relevant practice for anchoring culture into the strategy formulation process. Four types of organizational culture were studied in business recovery. Three objectives guided the study focusing on the extent of the adoption of culture types, levels of business recovery attained and the effect of the level of adoption on the level of business recovery attained. A sample of 57 hotels was selected and 189 respondents were drawn from functional units in each of the hotels. The study reports that the level of adoption of the culture is at a high level while the extent of business recovery is at a moderate level of between 20-40% growth. Innovation culture does not have a significant statistical effect while market, customer orientation and adhocracy cultures have a significant statistical effect on the level of business recovery. The study concludes that the relevant cultures were responsible for aligning culture with the strategy formulation phase through the component of the mission of an organization and that the process needs to embrace combined attributes of the underpinning theories of RBV and the organizational culture theory. The study calls on future research to integrate more aspects of strategic thinking and consider using more objective sources of research data.