Marriott International: Analyzing Culture Essay (Article)

Introduction

Marriott International, Inc. is a hotel management and franchising company which has originated as a family restaurant business and over several decades has grown into a large lodging company known all around the world. Currently, the organization deals with satisfying the hotel needs of customers in around 70 countries. The company is being led by J.W. Marriott who has been its Chief Executive Officer and Chairman for more than half of a century and who turned it into what it is now. His vision of the organization is to become the world’s leader in the lodging industry. To achieve the desirable, Mr. Marriott pays special attention to customer satisfaction, as well as ton productive and diverse workforce development. The company is known for its social responsibility and engagement with community affairs, which allows admiring not only its performance as such, but it’s staying concerned with the issues non-related to the business sphere. Marriott International is a successful organization that will necessarily meet all its objectives in the future due to its high level of culture, unique espoused values, correct underlying assumptions, effective primary and secondary embedding mechanisms, and its successful implementation of the Management Flexibility Pilot program.

Level of Culture

Marriott culture focuses primarily on the employees’ welfare with their contributions to the performance of the company are constantly emphasized and duly appreciated. It is not a secret that the organization takes great pride in its customer service, but the most important fact about this service is that it is based on the employees’ commitment to their work. Sustaining the personnel committed to their work is extremely difficult in such large organizations as Marriott International. Nevertheless, the company succeeds in this due to its culture being beneficial for both the employees and the administration. For the past several decades Marriott had “a deeply ingrained culture of “face time” – the more hours you put in, the better” (Harvard Business Review on Culture and Change, 2002, p. 22). The essence of such type of culture consists in the employee’s giving as much time and effort as possible to his/her job with higher pay for longer working hours being the major motivation at this. However, though such culture was beneficial for the organization’s performance (due to its resulting in higher productivity and, therefore, the rapid growth of the company), it was too stressful for the employees who were unable to handle the pressure and had to leave the company. This resulted in Marriot’s loss of the most talented managers and the necessity to establish an alternative type of culture.

In 2000 the company saw drastic changes in culture due to the implementation of a test program called “Management Flexibility … the goal of [which] was to help Marriott’s managers strike a better balance between their profession and personal lives, all while maintaining the quality of [their] customer service and the bottom line of our financial results” (Harvard Business Review, 2002, p. 23). Basically, the company allowed the employees to leave the office earlier provided that they finished their work. This not only resulted in reducing the working hours with no harm to the organization’s performance but even made this performance more efficient due to the personnel’s satisfaction with their work and new company culture. Taking this into account, it may be stated that the level of culture at Marriott International is indeed high with the changes introduced being beneficial for everyone.

Espoused Values

The three greatest values of Marriott International are its associates, its guests, and its communities. The employees of the company are treated as their most valuable assets this is why the working atmosphere is home-like with each of the employees doing their best to maintain friendly relations at the working place. Such an environment contributes to the personnel’s self-affirmation and self-development, as well as into their personal growth. This results in the employees’ developing commitment to their company, taking pride in its name and making everything possible to make it even more successful. In addition, the guests are of great value as well with “the customer is always right” being the rule the employees are guided by. Marriott’s employees pay attention to every detail in order to make their customers satisfied with their products and services, which leads to recognition of the company throughout the world and the customers’ trust in it. Finally, the community is one more value which Marriott supports. Trying to get involved with community life, the organization supports national local programs and national initiatives expressing its concern with the issues the world is preoccupied with.

Underlying Assumptions

Marriott International’s underlying assumptions are not laid out explicitly, though this does not mean that the company’s future plans will not be successfully implemented. Currently, the goal of the organization is to grow its business by means of creating its brands throughout the world. The underlying assumption to this is that the aggressive building of brands will be beneficial for the company and, despite its culture and customers’ treatment being quite mild and prepossessing, the company does not retreat in face of competition and is rather persistent in reaching its goals. Another underlying assumption of the company is that together with brand recognition it will be able to establish a firm and loyal consumer base through making the relations with customers mutually beneficial. If these underlying assumptions are incorrect, Marriott‘s main objectives will not be met this is why before taking any actions the company management has to carefully evaluate all the risks which these actions may involve.

Primary and Secondary Embedding Mechanisms

Marriott’s well-developed embedding mechanisms are quite effective taking into account the employee’s commitment to their jobs and their high productivity. The company has several primary embedding mechanisms which help the employees sustain confidence in their powers and work harder in order to deserve the awards. The company has developed an Individual Stay Awards Program which offers other employers to award their best performers with annual trips. In this way, the company also attracts new customers since these trips are made possible with their help only. Among the secondary embedding mechanisms, Marriott’s organizational structure and, especially, culture are the most effective because they are motivational enough for the employees to support the company’s values. The fact that these values are supported and that the embedding mechanisms are effective makes Mr. Marriott a charismatic leader able to deliver his message to his subordinates (Schein, 2004).

Determining the Impact of the Management Flexibility Pilot

The Management Flexibility Pilot was introduced into the company to give the employees a possibility to leave earlier and spend more time with their families. When determining the impact of the program on the employees, the company’s management tries to observe changes in the personnel’s attitude towards their work. In three months after the implementation of the program the employees started to exhibit “genuine interest in other’s outside life” (Harvard Business Review, 2002, p. 31) and in another three months the survey has shown that the number of managers who considered their work demanding reduced by half. This has allowed the initiators of the program to believe that the impact of the Management Flexibility Pilot on Marriott International was positive.

Additional Recommendations

There is hardly anything that one can recommend to such an organization as Marriott International. The company’s culture can hardly be any better. The most important for the organization now is to try to preserve the culture it has and to continue offering incentives and awards to its employees. This may demand certain expenses, but they will necessarily be covered by the productive work of strongly motivated and striving for the awards employees.

Conclusion

Therefore, Marriott International, one of the largest organizations functioning in the lodging industry, has taken risks and changed its culture which, though it was quite satisfying for the organization as a whole, was not in any way beneficial for the personnel. The implementation of the Management Flexibility Pilot program revived the employees’ commitment to their work and significantly improved their performance on a personal and organizational level. Currently, the culture of the organization is “spirit to serve”, which means that the employees are trying to meet every single need of their consumers. At this, they are strongly motivated due to their efforts being highly appreciated and sufficiently praised.

Reference

Harvard business review on culture and change. (2002). Harvard: Harvard Business Press.

Schein, E.H. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership. New York: John Wiley and Sons.