STI ACADEMIC CENTER ORTIGAS – CAINTA

Ortigas Ave. Extension, Cainta, Rizal

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in Multicultural Diversity – SY 2023

Members:
Leyson, Jennifer (Scribe)
Lim, Ma. Joy (Media Developer)
Praxedes, George (Reporter)
Versoza, Nathaniel (Leader)

Culture - Describe the culture of the three (3) companies. Do they exemplify service culture? How is
their organizational climate?
There are (3) companies in the video we’re tasked to watch which are Zappos, Best Western Hotels &
Resorts, and Southwest Airlines. These three companies have their service culture and organizational
climate inside of their organization.

- Zappos
An online retailer of shoes and clothing, is well known for its focus on the needs of the client.
Zappos also places a high importance on its corporate culture. They provide their staff the
freedom to make decisions that are in the best interests of clients, even if that means being
different from the accepted practices. A healthy service culture is fostered by freedom and trust
in their team. It has a distinctive corporate culture that places a strong feature on delivering
happiness to each employee. They place a high priority on developing a positive and optimistic
work atmosphere since this leads to a happier and more engaged staff, which can better serve
consumers. They offer its staff members freedom and decision-making ability. the Zappos
employee empowerment aims to empower staff members to take charge and deliver optimal
customer service. They are renowned for its lively and enjoyable work atmosphere that fosters
individuality and creativity among staff members. Zappos promotes open and honest
communication, where employees are encouraged to share ideas, thoughts, and concerns, this
adds to a distinctive and engaging workplace culture. The business places a strong emphasis on
learning and development and provides employees with chances to advance both personally and
professionally.

- Western Hotels & Resort

Best Western generally aims to deliver excellent service and a consistent visitor experience. They
frequently highlight attributes like comfort, value, and cleanliness. Best Western provides a
loyalty program, which strives to reward frequent guests and provide value to their visits. Many
of their properties also engage in these programs, which can improve the visitor experience. A
lot of Best Western facilities aim to provide their guests with individualized attention, and this
initiative is meant to improve the visitor experience and create customer loyalty. The
organizational atmosphere and culture at Best Western are shaped in part by a family like values.
The company offers management and staff training and development opportunities, employees
walk together on their breaktimes and provide massages and other recreational activities to
create a healthy life style for their employees. The purpose of these programs is to give staff
members the abilities and information required to provide exceptional customer service and
sustain a positive work environment. The organizational climate in best western hotel is that
they have an open-door policy wherein the leader or managers are always there for concerns
and suggestions and that leaders are all ears, best western has a family like environment where
team members work together to overcome challenges and that employees can show their full
potential and be rewarded for their work. The employees feel that the management is taking
care of them and that they are being heard and their opinions matter.

- Southwest Airlines
Southwest values its workers. The company works hard to establish a healthy work environment
because it thinks that motivated and happy workers will deliver better service. a family-like
environment is part of this employee-centric strategy, which promotes a culture of welcoming
 and caring organization. One firm that frequently serves as an example of a great service culture
is Southwest Airlines. Southwest Airlines has established a reputation for providing exceptional
customer service and upholding a distinctive company culture that distinguishes it from its
competitors. Transparency and open communication are important to Southwest, for both staff
and customers. By being transparent, they can foster trust and make sure that customers are
aware of the rules and regulations. Employees are highly valued at Southwest Airlines and are
seen as essential to the company's success. The company's employee-centric approach includes
Improving the strengths of each individual to its full potential and using it for employee growth
and well-being. Teamwork and collaboration are essential components of the organizational
climate at Southwest Airlines, which is one of employee engagement, job satisfaction, and a
strong sense of belonging. The organization encourages collaboration among staff where in
leaders talk to each employee and encourage one another and help improve their strengths.

Artifacts of Organizational Culture – How are the artifacts of organizational culture evident in each of
the three companies? How do you think they can improve on these?

There are different and unique artifacts of organizational culture that are present in each of the three
companies (Zappos, Best Western Hotels and Resorts, and Southwest Airlines).

- In Zappos Company, based on the video that we’ve watched, one of the present artifacts of their
organizational culture was their stories and slogan.
Stories - Tony Hseih (CEO) shares that the company focus more on work life innovation. They also
consider their job or company as their family and believes that if they have a great company
culture and be close to one another inside the company, then they can provide or create a better
service for their customers. With different stories shared with each other they created an
outstanding company culture. They celebrate and embrace diversity and each person's
individuality inside their company.
Slogan - One artifact that we can also see was their values. To deliver “WOW” trough service.
Their customer service representatives are not required to follow a script and do not have to
abide by time limits on their calls. Their only mission is to “wow” the customer and create an
emotional connection with them and that also what makes Zappos Company unique.

There are different ways to improve the organizational culture of the Zappos Company. Since
their company already knows the value of their employees and everyone treats every individual
a family, they could just enhance it by creating an employee recognition program to recognize
and reward their employees for their hard work and make them even work hard for the
company.

- For the Best Western Hotel and Resorts, there are different artifacts that can be seen and
explained in the video such as heroes, stories, symbol, and ceremonies.
Heroes - Best Western was founded in 1946 by M.K. Guertin, a California-based hotelier with 23
years of experience in the lodging industry. He first started it as an organization for hotels to
refer business to other hotels as a membership association in 1946.
 Stories – Jason Wolf (Human Resources) The company always strives to bring people together
whether inside or outside the business. Angela Zbikowski (Marketing) shares that the company is
a loyalty based company so everything they do was for the people to love best western and
return to best western also by starting first from their employees, to love working there and
build loyalty on the brand. Jr knuckles (Marketing) shares about how best western employees
treat each other like a family. Shane Collier (Technology) shares that Best Western is a company
that promotes a healthy lifestyle among its people.
Symbol – The Best Western Company is very involved with charitable events and one of it was on
phoenix children hospital and they also made waffles for all the doctors and nurses. The
company also promotes a healthy lifestyle which they have a health and wellness care onsite.
Ceremonies – The Best Western provide bunch of different incentives for its employees to
reward them for their hard work for the company. They also provide trainings and gives
opportunity for carrer advancement. The employees also have their annual employment
engagement survey in which they could voice out the things that they would like to see a change
or any concerns they have. The company really cares for its employees and make sure that every
month you have incentives.

Organizational Culture can be improved by doing a lot of different ways. Based on what we’ve
seen in the video, the Best Western almost did everything to improve their organizational
culture which we can clearly see the effects on their employees. They could just improve more
by enhancing those ways that they have. They could also get feedback from their guest and also
from their people the most since they are the one who’s most knowledgeable about the things
that needed to be improved. They could also improve more their connection inside that
organization by having team building activities that will enhance more their collaboration and
skills.

- For the South West Company, the present artifacts that can be seen are stories, slogan, and
ceremonies.
Stories - Angie Sanders (Senior Manager) who talks about responsibility, belief, anchor and focus.
Natalie Mendez (Program Manager – Leadership Development) Who talks about Harmony, input,
adaptability and intellection. She also states that Southwest philosophy is to put employees first.
And also other people inside the organization shares some stories on how they maintain and
create their organizational culture.
Slogan – It is mention that one of South West philosophy is to put employees first. Their values
to understand their people because they do believe that it would be a strength if they have a
good company culture.
Ceremonies – The South West Company provides trainings for their people not just to widen
their knowledge but to be ready and open for a big opportunity and carrer advancement.

The South West Company can improve their organizational culture by having some team building
activities which can enhance their team work and quality of interactions. They could also give
some incentives to their employee and reward them for their hard work inside the company.
Role of Leadership – Discuss how leaders and employees address the cultural perspectives of their
respective companies. Are there other things their leaders need to work?

There are (3) companies in the video we’re tasked to watch which are Zappos, Best Western Hotels &
Resorts, and Southwest Airlines. These three companies have their own unique way of addressing their
cultural perspectives inside of their organization.

- Zappos is an online retailer known for its strong emphasis on company culture, they develop a
unique way of approach to address cultural perspective among its leader and employees, Zappos
is known for its weird, family spirit, and fun workplace culture. One of the cores of Zappos
culture is happiness. Zappos leader and employees address the cultural perspectives in their
organization by sharing meanings and symbols that associated with the perspective of
differences, they prioritize finding individuals who align with their unique culture and value
work-life Zappos believe in work-life integration rather than work-life balance and prioritizing
hiring individuals who fit into their unique culture. The zappos family believes that if they get the
culture right, other aspects like great customer service and building a lasting brand will naturally
follow. For zappos it is not important for employees to possess Zappos Culture but as an
employee you have a set of core values that you need to find within your culture.

- Best Western Hotels & Resort

Based on the video of Best Western hotels and resorts been in the business for quite a long
period of time, best western hotels and resort have huge employees each branch of their
company globally has fourteen thousand employees internationally and two hundred are
outside of united states aside from employees who working onsite there are also group of
employees working on their homes they are mostly on the phone taking reservations. According
to Angela zbikowski for her Best western Hotels and Resorts is unique because they have a
loyalty based company so everything they do is for the sake of the company, how to make
people comeback and how to get their attention, this relate to perspective of integration which
it deals with cooperative relationship according to JR Knuckles they treat each other as a family,
they also have policy to obey and if you have any questions bosses are available to guide and
help their employees according to him all of the employees including the bosses are smiling and
for him that what is family. Based on their employee best western hotel and resorts prioritize the
health and wellness of individuals everything that employees do is being recognized and
rewarded by their bosses what ever culture your in its all the same treatment for everyone.

- Southwest Airlines
Southwest is known for their legendary Hospitality and word-famous culture where people come
first this can be relate to perspective of fragmentation where in the role of leadership is to
comprehend interaction between organization. It aims to guide people, considering their culture
which create development between people. Southwest Airline is recognized for its distinctive
approach to air travel, and it has played a significant role in shaping the airline industry in the
United States.
 - From our perspective as I listen to employees’ statement and based on what they said about
their companies’ culture it’s almost perfect as general each companies’ leader played their role
perfectly where employees can ask for help, where everyone are able to show their culture to
everyone. From my understanding leader must possess personal literacy where they can
understand and value oneself, social literacy where they tend to engage and challenge people,
business literacy where they are focus and mobilizing one’s organization and last Cultural
Literacy where they are valuing and leveraging cultural differences. And based on our
observations the three companies leader possess it all they have the knowledge where they
were able to earn and have effective and appropriate way of addressing each culture, They are
aware about the different culture inside of the company they have the ability to compare
alternative viewpoints, and last they all have the skills where they can able to build awareness
and apply knowledge toward effective change in multicultural settings.

Inter-Organizational Learning – Describe how inter-organizational learning occurs in the three (3)
companies. In your perspective, how do these impact their culture and business processes?

- Inter-Organizational Learning
Inter-organizational learning in three companies is a dynamic process that takes place in
collaborative inter-organizational relationships, in various structured and unstructured social
spaces that foster learning situations described as a learning cycle (Larentis, Antonello, & Slongo,
2019). It influences their culture and business processes by communicating knowledge within
the organization. As your business gains experience, it should evolve over time. During this time,
you, your team and your organization must build a comprehensive knowledge covering all topics
that can improve your business. For example, you should learn more about your ideal customer
or create more efficient processes to run your business.

- Zappos
Inter-organizational learning applies to zappos through their way of accepting employees who
they think can adapt and absorb their company culture. In that way, they can develop
sustainability and improvement in their company. Also, they aims to keep a good employee
relationship within their organization by giving them promotions or recognition because of their
capability to communicate with other employees from inside to outside of their department.

- Best Western Hotel & Resorts

They make sure that their employees embody their company's main principle which is loyalty.
They make sure that the customers will come back for their services and by making their
employees loyal to their brand, they will be able to apply it in their job for the benefit of the
customers and the company. They also have an open door policy where they are open for
employees' questions, suggestion, and ideas. In that way, their teammates can help them and
the employees are able to open up their aspirations in their job.

- Southwest Airlines
They function based on an individual from each department where they pull strings to engage
every employee in their organization. Strings are great tools to put their employees first so they
 can take care of the company as well. A reciprocative response from each benefactors from the
company. They make their employees to understand each individual and their values.

Cultural Competence – Discuss which competencies are present in the three (3) companies. In you
opinion, how do these competencies affect their stability and performance in the global market?
- Personal Literacy - (Understanding and valuing oneself) These competency is present in all three
companies. They understand and value each and every employee that they have. They know it’s
importance and so they care for them by also building an outstanding company culture.

This competency can affect the company’s stability and performance in the global market since
their employees are the one who’s doing all the job to make the company work and process.
Without their employees, without valuing and understanding each and every employee they
have, then the company cannot perform its operation properly. The company or business itself is
nothing without its people. It is also important to value them and understand them in order to
collaborate properly and enhance the team work which will result to a positive outcome that can
be seen in the business or organization.

- Social Literacy – (Engaging and challenging other people) It is also present in all three companies
where we can see in the video that they are all engaging themselves with each other, even on
other people outside their organization by creating charity events and more. They also challenge
their employees in a positive way where they can enhance or improve their skills and abilities
also to grown and have a better opportunity and career advancement.

This competency can affect the company’s stability and performance in the global market since
all companies should remain competent for them to remain on top. By those engagements and
challenges, the employees will improve and be more productive. They could also be more
collaborative with each other in order to share ideas to create a better outcome that will make
the business remain on top.

Based on your research, were there differences between the organizational culture of tourism and
hospitality-related companies and those that are not (Zappos, for instance)? Discuss, if there’s any. If
none, what are their similarities?

- The organizational cultures of Southwest Airlines, Zappos, and Best Western Hotel and
Restaurant are all different from one another.

The culture at Southwest Airlines is known to be lively and creative. Workers are recognized for
their playfulness and casualness, and they are frequently encouraged to be authentic at work.
The company places a high value on employee engagement and happiness because it believes
that satisfied workers make satisfied consumers. Southwest encourages a culture of cooperation
among its employees by encouraging teamwork and a sense of community. While Zappos
implements a decentralized and non-hierarchical organizational structure, by Zappos brought
them recognition. Self-management and a high level of worker independence define this
strategy. The work environment at Zappos is renowned for being imaginative, eccentric, and out
of the ordinary. It is based on a strong customer-centric mindset that motivates staff to go above
and beyond to deliver exceptional customer service. In addition to selling shoes, Zappos aims to
provide a distinctive and exciting work environment. Lastly Best Western prioritizes comfort,
value, and efficiency while concentrating on delivering top-notch service and a reliable tourist
experience. Family-like values drive the organization's culture, which provides both management
and staff with possibilities for growth and development. To promote a healthy work atmosphere,
employees engage in recreational activities and go on walks together during breaks. Because of
Best Western's open-door policy, which promotes teamwork, employees are able to realize their
full potential and feel appreciated.