Empirical Analysis Of Hotel Cross-Cultural Conflict Under Management Contract

Management Contract and franchising are modes that multinational hotels adopting to enter the hotel market of China. Management contract is especially popular among high-end star hotels in China, for the advanced management concepts, experienced management talents and brand effect brought by the hotel management companies. However, internal cross-cultural conflicts come into being due to the multifaceted cultural differences between the owner and the management company during operating. The presence of cross-cultural conflict will affect both the hotel’s economic efficiencies and social benefits to a certain extent, thus the empirical study of cross-cultural conflict under hotel management contract is required for the situation.Based on the conflict hierarchy theory and Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory, an in-depth analysis of the cause of cross-cultural conflict under hotel management contract is conducted. The cross-cultural conflict is specifically caused by national cultural differences, hotel cultural differences and individual cultural differences. Then the hotel cross-cultural conflict appraisal system is constructed on the basis of the Delphi Method. And based on the Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method, the final hotel cross-cultural conflict appraisal model is built. The conflict appraisal result is creatively combined with the development phases of hotel cross-cultural conflict. Therefore it is practicable to judge which phase the hotel stays through the appraisal. Furthermore, the Langham Yangtze Boutique and the Langham Xintiandi are taken to do empirical research. The appraisal result of Langham Yangtze Boutique’s cross-cultural conflict is relatively strong while the Langham Xintiandi’s is fair. Therefore the validity of the appraisal model is verified. On the basis of in-depth discussion of the appraisal result, management contract hotels in China are suggested to take the fusion strategy to manage the hotel cross-cultural conflict and specific measures are provided from the macro level. Microscopic suggestions for management contract hotels are presented combined creatively with hotel cross-cultural conflict development phases. The empirical study of hotel cross-cultural conflict under management contracts will enrich the contents of both management contract study and hotel cross-cultural study. It points out that the transformation and upgrading of China’s hotel industry, the creating of local hotel management brand and the training of comprehensive hotel management personnel are imperative.