(Dis)connected organizational identity of multinational hotel corporations: Employee insights from a Mexican luxury hotel property

Abstract

Organizational identity (OI) is a critical concept in understanding what is central, distinctive, and enduring to an organization. For headquarters of a multinational corporation that command multiple subsidiaries across nations and cultures, addressing a unified OI is challenging. Specifically, within tourism and hospitality management, scant attention has been paid to examine multinational tourism and hospitality corporations using OI frameworks. Thus, through a social constructionist lens, this paper aims to explore corporate and property OI of a multinational hotel corporation by using a single bounded case in Mexico. Data collection included interviews, focus groups, direct observations, and internal documentation. Findings indicated the connection and disconnection between corporate and property OI through localization and power dynamics. Theoretical and industry implications clarify insights to better understand the OI complexities in a multinational hotel corporation setting.