The influence of corporate culture and workplace relationship quality on the outsourcing success in hotel firms

Although hotel outsourcing research has studied the effect of corporate culture on inter-organizational relationship success, little is known about how it influences the way internal and external workers relate and behave in the workplace. Questionnaire data obtained from 215 internal employees at 14 hotels in Gran Canaria (Spain) on Cameron and Quinn’s (1999) Clan, Ad-hoc, Market, and Hierarchy corporate cultures, the relationships of trust, relational and task conflict between internal and outsourced staff, and customer-oriented (COBs) and service sabotage behaviors have been analyzed. Structural equation modeling results indicate that trust and relational conflict are the main relationship outcomes significantly associated with sabotage or customer-oriented behaviors (COBs), and Clan and Adhocracy are the only culture types that reduce relational conflict or increase trust significantly. A practical implication is that explicit attention should be paid by hotel managers who outsource services to the need to integrate the innovative Adhocracy with family-oriented Clan in hotel organization culture.