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Organizational Culture & Safety Culture in Hotel Units
- Organizational Culture, which includes the basic assumptions and values that guide life and actions in organizations and which can contribute to the understanding and interpretation of these, is gaining more and more recognition for promoting quality service to customers of the hotel Units. Its ability to change over time provides organizations with opportunities to intervene and improve. It is an important factor linked to the effectiveness of organizations and activities to improve the quality of services. Senior management plays a key role in shaping, embedding, and transmitting culture to organizational members, so leadership and management are key elements in understanding an organization's culture. The culture operates at all levels of services related to the hotel sector and has a significant impact on both the service provided and the safety of the unit. Organizational culture is related to a number of effects both on the providers of services and on the recipients of the services provided by the hotel units, as it affects, among other things, the quality of the work-related life of the employees in this sector, organizational commitment, empowerment, satisfaction from work, to staff mobility, as well as to the efficiency of services provided to customers. Finally, it can affect the security of customers, but also of the organization itself.
Therefore, from the above, the need to investigate another concept of this Safety Culture in hotel units, in its theoretical context but also in practice, emerges. They are interrelated concepts with a common component of the company's values, goals, people and security. In the constantly changing environment that is constantly evolving towards the most complex, hotel units should adapt and integrate new concepts that play an important role in terms of sustainability, service quality, as well as their continued development.
Four (4) Questions that must be asked: How is Safety Culture defined? Can it be evaluated by the company - organization? Can It Be Improved? What can we do? The purpose of this article is to analyze the broader concept of Safety Culture in hotel units or its connection with the organizational culture of the company and how it can ultimately affect the operation of the business, as well as the improvement of the level of safety, and therefore the better business sustainability. Culture is less about company policy and more about people, especially when it is more oriented towards hospitality services. Safety Culture: Safety is People! In order to create the corporate-organizational Culture, it is important to first define the company's mission and values, but what is most critical is to have dedicated people who will incorporate these principles. Choosing the right people improves retention rates and service levels.
Theoretical Framework 1.1 Culture – In Roman times, the great Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 BC-43 BC) introduced the word cultura into the Latin vocabulary for the first time, from the verb colere, which means to cultivate. It literally means cultivation and is the equivalent of the Greek word education. After the Renaissance the concept of culture was paraphrased as culture, while in essence culture is a subset of civilization. They tried over time to give many theoretical interpretations by researchers, as well as various approaches to this complex concept. There are some key differences between the term culture as used by anthropologists and the term culture as understood in organizations. In this research we focus on culture and safety culture of organizations.
1.2 Organizational Culture – Organizational Culture is likened to the personality of the individual. Regarding organizational culture, many theoretical interpretations have been given as recorded in the literature:
Societies are cultures and organizations are small societies (Batte, 1994). Active phenomenon means by which people jointly create and recreate the worlds in which they live (Gareth Morgan 1997). Shared values, the beliefs that underlie systems and processes within organizations (Gofee & Jones). Modern Greek and foreign literature accept the definition of E. Schein (1985) as the most prevalent. E
Safety Culture With regard to the concept of safety culture, two (2) concepts are negotiated, that of Safety & Security Culture, the relationship between Safety and Security is such that a weakness in security creates an increased risk, which in turn creates a decrease in the body's protection. As a result, security and protection are directly proportional, but both are inversely proportional to risk. Hence the theoretical analysis is based on these two concepts. Given the existence of threats, in both Security and Safety the concept of vulnerability (vulnerability) is introduced as a term to describe the weakness of a particular resource, as well as the ease with which it can be affected by a particular threat. Vulnerability = Security Threats X Security measures / Security Awareness (University of UNISA), in the particular equality and fraction Vulnerability in both Security and Safety decreases as Security Awareness (denominator) increases.
Safety Culture refers to the set of values created in an organization - business and the way people who work in it at all levels of the hierarchy think about safety. The development and maintenance of an effective culture is an essential component of a security regime and protection of the organization from potential threats and risks that could cause damage to the company, such as physical damage, financial damage, etc. It is the set of beliefs, the regulations of habits, roles, social and technical practices which are related to minimizing the exposure of workers, managers, customers and the public, to conditions considered dangerous or harmful.
2.1 Developing the Safety Culture – It is important that the Safety Culture starts first with the senior management and the Management (board), as they are the ones who essentially define the values of the business or organization, and they are the ones who must communicate it and to the rest of the staff of the organization - business at all levels. It helps to develop a specific behavior of the staff, in relation to the security of the organization, as well as the risks that the business may face. Safety belongs to everyone, the staff who work in the hotel units should feel that they are also part of the safety department, they should be able to recognize potential threats and risks during their work and communicate them with the authorities. Everyone is responsible for maintaining an effective safety culture. Especially in hotel units, where many times the strength of the security staff is limited enough to cover the business plan of the company. Therefore if everyone helps by just changing their mindset, they will contribute to having a better level of security but at the same time better services to their customers.
2.2 Security Awareness – Security awareness is the process of teaching the entire group of people where they work in the business. Each person should be able to judge potential threats as well as understand them in depth. Awareness is an ongoing activity that should be continuously developed within the organization. Therefore, from the above it follows that it is very important for people who work in hotel units to develop and acquire an awareness of security as well as a common understanding so that through this process they manage to bring about a percentage reduction in vulnerability so and the possibilities for any malicious action or security gap that will lead to a negative result in terms of the operation of the business.
2.3 Development of Educational Policy
In many companies, training is treated as a cost and less as an investment, because it may be very difficult to investigate the relationship between employee development and organizational performance. Some attribute this to the vagueness of the definition of both 'executive development' and 'business success' (Harrison, 1993: Torrington and Hall, 1995:394). However, the difficulty is due to the complexity of the variables that affect organizational performance. A necessary condition is that the company / organization has realized the usefulness, feasibility of the training and is willing to accept its results. That is, to accept new ways of behaving. It is known that education leads to learning and learning to change, which is the main goal.
Assessment and Determination of Training Needs (training needs analysis), is done with some specific elements (Schuller and Jackson, 1996:306. Wilson, 2005):
Analysis of Organizational Needs (Organizational level), the strategic goals of the business or any organization as well as the strategy followed, form the framework within which all activities related to the handling of the human factor are planned. Careful analysis of short-term and long-term goals is the first step in analyzing organizational needs. The second and third steps are the examination of the efficiency indicators of the specific organization as well as the analysis of the organizational climate. Intra-business or Intra-company trainings are the first step in the development of a common understanding within the company, which aims at the same result for all those who work in it, that is, the successful management of security to protect the employees and the customers of the company. The trainings should be designed according to the particular needs of each business and based on its activity. In particular, in companies where they are developing in the hotel sector, it is considered necessary to carry out internal trainings on security and protection issues at regular intervals throughout the year. They should give all the cognitive resources to the workers in order to have the appropriate reaction in each situation as required and to spontaneously apply the appropriate procedure that they have been taught, as well as the common way of thinking. Continuous lifelong training of employees and trust in management are key tools for the effective development of a safety culture in hotel units. 2.4 The Security Culture Dimensions - Basis of the Model which has been developed and has an application for Information Security, can be applied for Security as well. Below are listed the seven (7) dimensions of security culture (Seven Core Dimensions of security culture):
1.Attitudes, The feelings and beliefs employees have regarding safety protocols and issues.
2.Behaviors, The actions and activities of employees that have a direct or indirect impact on the safety of the organization.
3. Cognition, The understanding, knowledge and awareness of employees in security matters and in the company's activities.
4.Communication, The quality of communication channels for discussing safety-related issues, promoting a sense of belonging to the company and providing support for safety issues and incident reporting.
5.Compliance, Knowledge of written safety policies and the extent to which employees follow them.
6. Norms (Unwritten Rules), The knowledge of the unwritten rules of behavior in the organization.
7. Responsibilities, How employees perceive their role as a critical factor in maintaining safety or how they can endanger the safety of the organization.
Each dimension is individually observed, measured and understood on a continuum from low to high risk. It can be an important update to the company regarding the safety culture, especially when the dimensions are seen together. The combination of dimensions creates an accurate assessment of an organization's safety culture and allows it to deeply understand human risks and make reliable predictions.
Source: Roer & Petric (2017)
2.5 Evaluation of safety culture dimensions – For the correct evaluation and potential of each dimension, they must be measured with a score of 0-100. Excellent (90-100), Good (80-89), Moderate (60-79), Poor to moderate (50-59), Poor (30-49) and Extremely poor (0-29). The analysis of the results can show at what level the company is in terms of the culture within it, as well as where there is scope for improvement, so that the corresponding corrective actions can be taken in each dimension that is required, as well as the relevant actions that must be taken to be done by the company, so as to develop the safety culture to a greater extent within the company.
in conclusion
From the above analysis and summarizing all the data, it is found that the implementation of a common policy regarding the safety culture in the hotel units, the harmonization in the genus is considered very important. It can create a comparative advantage in the business as it will upgrade the quality of the services provided and significantly reduce the potential threats. The organizational culture is linked to the development of the safety culture to a very large extent, as they have common recommendations regarding the operation of the business, the values and the goals it represents. The identification and evaluation of the dimensions can lead to very good results in the company and especially in those that develop in the field of hospitality.
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Indicative Sources – Influence of National Culture and balanced Organizational Culture on the Hotel Industry’s Performance, Alireza Nazarian, Peter Atkinson, Pantea Fouroudi, International Journal of Hospitality Management 63 (2017) 22–32.
– Cultures Organizations, Software of the mind, Geert Hofstede, Gert Jan Hofstede, Michael Minkov 2010.
– Exploring Organizational Security Culture: Developing a comprehensive research model, Department of Information System, University of Melbourne Australia 2002.
– CLTRe Publishes a research paper for security awareness and culture practitioners on the seven dimensions of security culture, explaining how security culture is made up of seven dimensions, what they are, and how they can be influenced, Oslo Norway 2019.
– The evolution of Society towards the more complex and the Police Reorganizations. Ways to Reduce Threat Vulnerabilities, New York College 2010, Spyridon Mich. Sunday.
– Imprinting the Organizational Culture in the hospital premises, E. Gavriil, N. Middleton, E. Papastavrou, A. Merkouris, Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology Limassol 2017.
– Safety Culture Definition, Evaluation and Management, Vangelis Demosthenous “kratis training & consulting” Limassol 2016.
– Organizational Culture, Motivation of Human Organization and Entrepreneurship, Diploma thesis Mitsopoulos Konstantinos, University of Piraeus 2008.
– Stella Xirotiri – Koufidou, Administration of Human Resources, 2010:278-279,
–https://www.knowbe4.com/hubfs/Security-Culture-Report.pdf?hsCtaTracking=04d2794a-0b04-4394-9f93-8bcf98333ebd%7C14d73435-c537-41d6-ad5f-63c6081abbe4
