HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL 12 NO 1, 2002 Managing organisational culture: insights from the hospitality industry Emmanuel Ogbonna and Lloyd C. Harris , Cardiff Business School Despite the widespread criticism of the culture management approach by respected academics, recent surveys indicate that managers are continuing to engage in planned cultural interventions. Indeed, reports demonstrate that managing organisational culture is one of the most popular forms of managerial intervention, with one survey concluding that over 90 per cent of organisations engage in planned cultural change. This study describes and analyses organisational culture interventions in four companies within a single industry. It argues that the conceptualisation of organisational culture and culture change should be differentiated in ways that recognise the signi®cance of contextual factors. It presents an analysis of interventions in the hospitality industry and delineates four insights from this sector that are pertinent to the theory and practice of managing cultural change. Contact : Emmanuel Ogbonna, Reader in Management and Organisational Behaviour, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU. Email: Ogbonna@Cardiff.ac.uk R ecent academic interest into the concept of culture has generally developed in two main ways. First, researchers have sought to further identify and elaborate the theoretical constructs that underpin the concept in order to develop a more comprehensive theory of culture in organisations (for example Martin, 1992; Willmott, 1993; Schultz and Hatch, 1996; Hawkins, 1997; Jones, 2000). Secondly, numerous theoretical debates have centred on whether organisational culture can be managed in the same way that other organisational variables can be controlled by managers (see Anthony, 1990; Legge, 1994; Ogbonna and Harris, 1998). Interestingly, while academics have unravelled the theoretical foundations of the culture concept, they have generally ignored its practical utility. Indeed, academic debates have been largely dismissive of any form of managerial intervention into organisational culture, with many being especially critical of the notion of planned cultural change (for example Willmott, 1993; Legge, 1994). In contrast, practitioner interest into organisational culture has been unrelenting. Most tellingly, a recent survey of organisational practices in Britain revealed that 94 per cent of organisations were either undergoing or had experienced culture change in the period preceding the survey (see IRS, 1997). This startling statistic suggests that there is a gap between academic theories, which are largely critical of the idea of planned culture change, and the actions of practitioners who are increasingly engaging in various forms of cultural intervention. While studies show that many managers believe culture change is feasible, numerous contemporary theorists argue that such views are misguided (see, for example, Legge, 1994). In this regard, either theorists are overly cynical or practitioners are excessively optimistic; whatever the case, a clear gap is evident between management practice and academic theory. The aim of this article is to contribute contemporary empirical insights into modern culture management practices, through 33