Identifying cultural singularities of Egyptian staff as a social identity and their impact on cultural practices in Egyptian hospitality organizations

: a case of crossvergence

Abstract

This thesis develops a framework explaining the extent to which cultural, social, and institutional factors influence employees' behaviour by shaping both their collective social identity and their employers’ identity in the context of foreign multinational and local small and medium hotels operating in two Egyptian regions. The framework identifies a set of cultural singularities characterizing Egyptian hotel staffs that are captured through their application of four HRM practices adopted by the selected hotel organizations. These practices involve: communication styles between the staff and their guests and among staff; decision-making and conflict resolution styles.
The study utilises social identity theory, derived from social psychology, to develop its framework and capture how staff apply the HRM practices adopted by the hotels’ sector within the Egyptian context. Social psychology adopts the idea of the dynamicity of the culture in the context that changes from one generation to another on basis of the changes in their surrounding environment. On the other hand, social identity theory (SIT) has succeeded in explaining the impact of the surrounding socio-culture (key institutional and cultural factors) in regulating and framing individuals’ behaviours.
The research framework adopts a multiple case-study design, involving two groups of hotels (subsidiaries of multinationals, and local one-star companies) in two regions: Cairo and Luxor. Data is based on qualitative interviewing of staff in each group. Two frameworks are derived, clarifying the social identity (cultural singularities) of Egyptian staff in each group that shaped the identity of their organizations in the eyes of guests. However, some differences exist between the two groups of hotels accortding to company type.
Overall, this thesis contributes to cultural research in the business field through adopting SIT as a new lens to capture the contexts of culture that manifest the uniqueness of hotel organizations in the Egyptian context.

Date of Award	Jul 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Portsmouth
Supervisor	Peter John Scott (Supervisor) & Kajal Sharma (Supervisor)