Employees Have Feelings Too
Can a culture change help with turnover problems? Sheraton Suites Calgary Eau
Claire had turnover problems almost from the time it opened.^27 Though the hotel
ranked third out of 210 Sheratons across Canada in a 1999 customer satisfaction
survey, its key employees kept leaving.
General manager Randy Zupanski wanted to improve employee morale and he
hired a consulting group to uncover problems in the workplace through a series of
seminars. The consultants uncovered interesting concerns. The hotel management
had focused on team process, encouraging and rewarding team behaviour. However,
the team culture was having a negative effect on many employees. They did not
feel that they were being recognized and rewarded for what they were doing as
individuals.
Zupanski and his managers introduced changes to the hotel’s culture. They made
the recognition program more personal, rewarding such things as attendance, per-
formance, and extra work. Some employees received an extra day off with pay for
their hard work.
The result, said the hotel’s human resource manager, was an incredible change
in atmosphere. Individual employees felt less stressed and more rewarded, which
led to overall performance improvements by everyone. Customer satisfaction improved
so much that the Eau Claire Sheraton received the Highest Overall Guest Satisfaction
award among 230 Sheratons in North America in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004; it
was also named #1 Sheraton Worldwide Hotel of the Year in 2005. Zupanski noted
that working together to change the hotel’s culture brought “us together and brought
trust and understanding into the team atmosphere.”The example of Sheraton Suites Calgary Eau Claire shows that being aware of how cul-
ture affects individual performance can help managers identify specific practices that lead
to poor morale. However, we would not want to leave you with the impression that
changing culture is easy. In fact, it is a difficult process. For a specific example of the
difficulties of culture change, see Case Incident—EnCana’s New Culture Presents Challenges
on the CD-ROM that accompanies this textbook. We discuss the process of changing cul-
ture later in this chapter.Socialization
No matter how effectively the organization recruits and selects new employees, they
are not fully trained in the organization’s culture when they start their jobs. Because
they are unfamiliar with the organization’s culture, new employees may disturb the
beliefs and customs that are in place. The organization will, therefore, want to help
new employees adapt to its culture. This adaptation process is called socialization.^28
New employees at the Japanese electronics company Sanyo are socialized through a
particularly long training program. At their intensive five-month course, trainees eat
and sleep together in company-subsidized dorms and are required to vacation together
at company-owned resorts. They learn the Sanyo way of doing everything—from how to
speak to managers to proper grooming and dress.^29 The company considers this program
essential for transforming young employees, fresh out of school, into dedicated kaisha
senshi,or corporate warriors.340 Part 4Sharing the Organizational Vision
Sheraton Suites Calgary
Eau Claire
http://www.sheratonsuites.com
socialization The process that
adapts new employees to an organi-
zation’s culture.
Sanyo Canada
http://www.sanyocanada.com
OB IN THE WORKPLACE