Intercultural Construction And Management Of Hotel Associates In International Hotel Companies: A Fantasy Theme Analysis Based Case Study

The world economic integration and the reform and opening up have seen China’s rapid economic development and growth. As one of the world’s largest factory with the biggest consumer group, China plays increasingly pivotal and irreplaceable impacts on the development of the world economy. At the same time, more and more international companies begin to shift their development focus into China, brings fresh blood and vitality into Chinese economic market. The subsidiaries in China of these international companies are of obvious intercultural characteristics. The diversified cultural backgrounds of the associates have brought great challenge to their traditional management, and also laid profound impact on the practice of the intercultural construction and management. Organizational culture, as one of the most powerful and effective strategies for international companies to accomplish intercultural communication and management, plays an important role in the smooth operation and success of the company.This thesis intends to examine the rhetorical vision created by the international hotel company with its unique organizational culture and reveal how it chains out among the associates and is assimilated quickly and pervasively into their everyday work and life. In order to answer the question, the author takes the associates in a subsidiary of an international hotel company whose parent company is in the United States as the objects of the study, to analyze their organizational life and their attitudes to the hotel, and the hotel culture. In the qualitative research, two phases of in-depth interviews are conducted through e-mail and telephone. The method used in this research to analyze the content and data is Ernest Bormann’s fantasy theme analysis underpinned by symbolic convergence theory. The analysis reveals eight interrelated fantasy themes that construct the dramatic elements of the rhetorical vision in the hotel.The hotel nurtures the associates with its unique organizational culture by creating and maintaining a shared rhetorical vision so that the associates are unified with common faith, value, goals and aspirations, which can influence and guide their actions and attitudes. Through the study, this thesis reveals the intercultural communication and management of the successful international hotel, which provides implications and recommendations for other international companies and Chinese local hotel industry to increase its competitiveness in the hotel industry worldwide. Future studies have also been suggested to examine the associates in an organization.