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Cultural Due Diligence in Hospitality Ventures pp 15–43Cite as

The Unpacking of Culture Within the Framework of Cultural Due Diligence

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Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to broaden our understanding of the concepts of culture and organisational culture and their respective characteristics and functions. My intention is not to provide a comprehensive list of definitions but to focus on concepts of culture that address the development of COCA based primarily on theoretical approaches of ‘cultural anthropology’ and ‘organisational (change) management’. This chapter begins with a definition of the term ‘culture’ and then proceeds with a brief discussion of the related terms of ‘national culture’, ‘ethnic culture’ and ‘organisational culture’ and ‘community’. As this thesis focuses on the analysis of ‘organisational culture’, the other terms will be discussed only briefly. As a way to unpack the concepts of culture, Sect. 2.3 defines the five aforementioned terms within the context of cross-national or cross-ethnic ventures undertaken by two parties. Section 2.4 discusses the common aspects of ethnic and organisational cultures, while Sect. 2.5 debates one of the core questions addressed in this thesis: What are the most important dimensions for investigating organisational culture in a hospitality joint venture? By identifying dimensions and variables of organisational and ethnic culture one can explore the organisational culture of joint ventures within the framework of COCA. The Conclusion section summarises the arguments presented. Thus, this chapter provides the basis for Chap. 3, which reviews the existing literature in this area to examine the role of organisational culture in the hospitality sector, with a special focus on the different approaches of integrating (economically poor) communities into the tourism sector.

In seeking to make change, we ignore the importance of culture and local priorities at our peril (Goodwin, 2011, p. 245).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Social and cultural anthropology are branches of anthropology. The term ‘social anthropology’ is used in the United Kingdom to denote the branch concerned with how contemporary human beings behave in social groups by examining the social organisation of a particular group, with a focus on such aspects as customs, economic and political organisation, law and conflict resolution, patterns of consumption and exchange, gender, kinship and family structure, religion, socialisation and conflict management. The term ‘cultural anthropology’ denotes a subject that is closely related, or even equivalent, to ‘social anthropology’ and is more commonly used in other English-speaking countries such as the US (Hirschberg, 1988).

  2. 2.

    A society is a group of human beings who live in the same space and depend on each other for subsistence and (economic) well-being. We can use here the term societal culture. Large societies are composed of different social, ethnic and regional groups or other subcultures such as the subcultures of suburbs and ethnic minority groups (Harris, 1989).

  3. 3.

    The terms ‘social’ and ‘culture’ are often combined into the single term ‘sociocultural’. ‘Culture’ comprises the material and immaterial characteristics of members of a society in contrast to the group structure and relationship between groups in society (Harris, 1989, p. 21). In short, the term ‘sociocultural’ embodies the way of social interaction in its cultural context.

  4. 4.

    For example, the Republic of Indonesia is a country with over 300 different ethnic groups who speak their own language or dialect. The official language of Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia, an artificial language based on a Malay dialect, which is used as a lingua franca.

  5. 5.

    Despite its German origin, Boonchote (1994), a Thai tourism researcher, used the classical concept of ‘Gemeinschaft’ and ‘Gesellschaft’ in his case study in an ethnic village (Tai Yai) in northern Thailand, because ‘his’ research village has been transforming from a rural farming community into a more urbanised society through the influence of tourism development.

  6. 6.

    Some remarks should perhaps be made here about the term ‘organisational climate’: While the concept of organisational culture has its origins in cultural anthropology, the concept of ‘organisational climate’ is rooted in American social psychology. The different origins of the two concepts explain the different areas of research. It should also be noted that there is little agreement on the differences and commonalities between the terms. Some authors use them interchangeably, others believe that their meanings partly overlap, and still others regard them as fundamentally distinct (Julmi & Scherm, 2012, p. 69). For reasons of space, this thesis cannot discuss the differences and commonalities between the two terms in greater detail.

  7. 7.

    In German language the author prefers the term ‘Gestaltkreis’.

  8. 8.

    Every household, office and building in Thailand has its own spirit house. The spirit(s) must be appeased every day with prayers and sacrifices in the form of food, water or flowers.

  9. 9.

    I argue that the term ‘intercultural organisational culture’ is inappropriate and indeed problematic, because it suggests that there is also such a thing as ‘non-intercultural organisational culture’. If the assumptions presented in Hansen (2011) were right, all organisational cultures should display interculturality, simply because of the different cultures of the staff collectives. In order not to use an outdated concept of ‘culture’ that is based solely on national boundaries, skin colour, places of origin and organisational differences within nation states, I proposes to do without the term ‘interculturality’ and to use the term ‘managing diversity’ instead.

  10. 10.

    This argument is a subjective one and is based on my biographical experiences when working as a tourism consultant in Thailand for more than 6 years.

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  1. Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung, Eberswalde, Germany

    Nicole Häusler

  2. Myanmar Responsible Tourism Institute, Yangon, Myanmar

    Nicole Häusler

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Häusler, N. (2017). The Unpacking of Culture Within the Framework of Cultural Due Diligence. In: Cultural Due Diligence in Hospitality Ventures. Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51337-9_2

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