Ethical and Social Obligations within Millennium and Copthorne Hotels Plc

Ethical and Social Obligations within Millennium and Copthorne Hotels Plc

Background

In less than a decade, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc (MCH) has built one of the Asian region's largest hotel groups and has taken a place among the global top 40. The Millennium and Copthorne Hotels plc, based in London and listed on the London Stock Exchange, serves as the international arm of Singapore's Hong Leong Group, and its chairman is Kwek Leng Beng. MCH operates some 90 hotels worldwide, chiefly under the Millennium and Copthorne brand names. The Millennium and Copthorne Hotels plc has positioned itself as an operator of "luxury four-star" hotels, enabling it to differentiate its offering from the crowded five-star hotel bracket, particularly by offering lower room rates. The company's portfolio contains many prestigious hotels in 18 countries, including Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan, as well as in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the Middle East.

New Zealand is a major market for the company, with 30 hotels, including 15 Kingsgate Hotels. Together, the Asia/Pacific region accounts for 36 percent of Millennium and Copthorne Hotels plc revenues, which neared £550 million ($1.2 billion) in 2004 (Schein 2005 9). In Europe, the company operates primarily in the United Kingdom, with nearly 20 hotels, as well as two hotels each in France and Germany. Europe accounts for 31 percent of group sales. The Millennium and Copthorne Hotels plc's North American portfolio targets major city markets in the United States. In late 2004 and early 2005, the company sold off its holdings in two U.S. landmark hotels, the Plaza in New York, and the Biltmore in Los Angeles. The United States remains the Millennium and Copthorne Hotels plc's single-largest market, at 33 percent of sales. After a difficult period in the first half of the 2000s, MCH has announced plans for further expansion, including the opening of as many as 20 Copthorne hotels in the United Kingdom.

Ethical and Social Obligations

For Millennium and Copthorne Hotels plc, organizational culture is very important because the culture is like something that the employee can be based for. In addition, the organizational culture is defined as a system of shared meaning and beliefs within an organization that determines, in a large degree, how employee's act (Renwick & Tosi 2008 93-103).

Founders of new organizations and managers play an important role in creating and maintaining organizational cultures. However, ethical organizational cultures are those in which ethical values and norms are emphasized. As Osborn & Vicars (2006 546-553) argue that ethical organizational cultures can help organizations and their members behave in a socially responsible manner. Some might believe that if they do the ethical corporate culture, they will be able to get much profit.

Meanwhile, Snodgrass (2002 154-158) claim that the content and strength of an organization's culture also influences ethical behaviour. Nevertheless, a strong culture will have a very powerful and positive influence on managers' decisions to act ethically and ...