Corporate social responsibility in hotel chains

On 20 October Ms. Taghreed Hassan Mohammed Badawoud successfully defended her DBA thesis titled: Corporate Social Responsibility Policies of Multinational Hotel Chains and Their Implementations in Emerging Markets. A Case Study of Egypt.

“Gaining this DBA degree to me is seen as the natural development of my career and my overall abilities. The process of obtaining the DBA degree improved my personal, professional, and academic skills, and I believe it will also be a great asset in my career development. I strongly recommend it for professionals to improve their abilities and take on new roles and responsibilities”. This is what Ms. Badawoud said after her DBA successful defense.

This study, focusing on Egypt, examines the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices of multinational hotel groups, and the extent to which they implement their published head office CSR practices in their overseas properties. These activities were benchmarked against best practice framework, Meyer (2008). Ms. Badawoud studied four multinational hotel groups (Marriott, Hilton, InterContinental, and Accor), and five properties in Cairo – Marriott in Zamalek, Conrad (Hilton), CitiStars and Semiramis (InterContinental) and Sofitel Gezira (Accor). The findings of this study raise concerns about the practical application of these policies in reality. Ms. Badawoud, as observer/ participant, examined the five properties’ Head Quarters’ CSR policies, making a qualitative analysis of actual CSR practice, compliance to the hotel group’s advertised CSR policy and the Meyer (2008) framework were analyzed.

Ms. Badawoud discovered that compliance was often random and piecemeal, that the stated CSR policies often contained caveats explaining that these policies apply only to certain categories of owned and managed hotels, and that sometimes franchised properties are excluded. Stakeholders see the branding but do not know if the advertised CSR policies apply to a specific property or not, raising further concerns about the authenticity of CSR practice.

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