Effects of Code of Ethics on Hospitality Organizational Culture

Abstract

In the business world, ethical business cultures are argued to bring about benefits that result to competitive advantage. In the hospitality industry, majority of organizations have written down ethical codes including integrity, equality and fairness. However, despite the written business ethical codes, hospitality organizations still face challenges related to as fraud, discrimination, and environmental harm. The question that arises is whether the written business ethical codes have been mainstreamed in organizational culture. In addition, there is limited information available on business ethical practices and organizational culture in Kenya. The main purpose of this study was to find out the effects of written code of ethics on organizational culture. The specific objectives were to examine the extent to which codes of ethics affect organizational culture of hotels in Kisumu City, Kenya. The study adopted utilitarian theory. The study employed both descriptive survey and explanatory research designs. The target population was 180 employees, out of which 161 formed the sample size from five hotels rated between three to five star rated hotels in Kisumu city. The study employed purposive sampling which was used to select five hotels. Simple random sampling was used to select the respondents. Instruments for collecting data included self administered questionnaires. Questionnaires were distributed to employees in the selected hotels. Cronbach’s alpha was at the level of 0.983. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and multiple regression. The study yielded an R-value of 0.935 and an R Square value of 0.874. Simple regression was used to analyze and test the hypothesis. The findings of this study indicated that code of ethics (t= 2.148, p=0.34) business affect organizational culture. The major conclusion that the researcher drew from the study was; business code of ethics affect organizational culture. The study therefore recommends that hospitality organizations ensure relevance of their code of ethics and increase measures that enable an ethical workplace in order to minimize unethical issues that arise at the workplace.