Gaylord Palms Case Study: Organizational Culture and its Impact

Solution Preview

A. Using research relating to organizational culture, the organizational culture at the Gaylord Palm Hotel creates meaning for its members by establishing the hotel values as the core values of employees, giving importance to teamwork for working together, and communication with its members. Also, at Gaylord Palm Hotel the organizational culture at Gaylord creates a sense of community, a unified purpose, and recognition of individual employees (a). The mission of Gaylord was designed to emphasize a high level of customer service orientation. The organizational culture at Gaylord Palm Hotel creates connections in the workplace, opportunities for learning and development, and listening to the experiences of employees.

Establishes informal controls; The culture at Gaylord Palm Hotel creates many types of informal controls. The culture tells the employees what they are supposed to be focused on, Moreover, the culture becomes a part of the language that is used to refer to any member of the organization. For instance, at Gaylord, the expectations were communicated through STARS which stood for smiles, teamwork, attitude, reliability, and service with a passion. Any employee who stepped outside the expectations immediately returned to the expected behavior when reminded by STARS. From a different perspective, the mission and goals of Gaylord served to remind the employees of what they should be focused on. This again is service, integrity, citizenship, respect, creativity, excellence, and passion. For example, the mission conveys to all employees that they must strive to provide service with integrity and solve problems with creativity (b). The organizational culture establishes informal controls because it defines the proper way to behave in the hotel. The STARS communicates the beliefs established by Gaylord managers and then communicates. These are reinforced through different methods. At Gaylord, such methods include rituals and celebrations such as celebrating STARS promotion through peddling around the hotel in a rickshaw by her new supervisor, All STARS rallies, traveling to Nashville, and hosting family nights. These celebrations reinforce the behaviors employees at Gaylord are supposed to follow.

Ensures the success of Gaylord Palm Hotel's strategic choices: This is ensured because a consumer-driven culture provides Gaylord with a competitive advantage over other hotels as it competes for both customers and employees It also ensures the success of Gaylord's strategic choices because a place with a positive culture is more attractive to work and are more desirable than other places that are unpleasant, uncaring, and unfocused. The culture of Gaylord Palm Hotel ensures success because it helps attract better employees. The best potential employees are attracted to Gaylord because the hotel culture is fun, creative, and offers a ...