International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108

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International Journal of Hospitality Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman

Organizational culture on customer delight in the hospitality industry

Chiu-Ying Kao a,b , Sheng-Hshiung Tsaur c,∗ , Tsung-Chiung (Emily) Wu b
a
Department of Food and Beverage Management, Shih Chien University, 70, Da-Zhi St., Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
b
Department of Tourism, Recreation, and Leisure Studies, National Dong Hwa University, No. 1, Sec. 2, Da Hsueh Rd., Shoufeng, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC
c
Graduate Institute of Recreation, Tourism, and Hospitality Management, National Chiayi University, No. 580 Sinmin Rd., Chiayi City 60054, Taiwan, ROC

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Compared with customer satisfaction, customer delight is considered a more effective indicator of
Received 6 September 2015 customer relationship management in the hospitality industry. As researches have suggested that orga-
Received in revised form 2 March 2016 nizational culture plays a vital role in providing customer delight service in the hospitality industry, this
Accepted 1 May 2016
study initiated to investigate customer delight from the perspective of organizational culture. The inves-
tigation was based on multilayer cultural theories, and the domains of customer delight culture were
Keywords:
identified in this study by applying a qualitative approach and content analysis. Finally, a framework of
Customer delight
the customer delight culture was then developed to clearly understand the insights of organizational
Organizational culture
Organizational values
culture on customer delight.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Customer delight is created during the process of service deliv-
ery (Kwong and Yau, 2002), and delighted customers are those who
have had extraordinary service experiences. According to Patterson
(1997), customer delight entailed a stronger emotional state than
satisfaction and created a pleasurable experience for the customers.
Compared with customer satisfaction, customer delight demon-
strates a stronger effect on affective loyalty (Kim, 2011), repetitive
purchase behaviors (Wang, 2011), and competitive advantages
(Torres and Kline, 2006). Therefore, some researchers suggested
that company should move the service standard from satisfaction
to delight (i.g., Skogland and Siguaw, 2004; Torres and Kline, 2006).
Service experience is considered as the result of interactions
among organizations’ processes, service employees, and customers
(Bitner et al., 1997). It implies that front-line employees as well
as organization play an important role in creating a delightful
service experience for the customers. Organizational culture, the
core of organization, is considered as the DNA of organization
life, which strongly influences employee behaviors and attitudes
(Schein 1992). As a result, studies on delivering customer delight
must examine organizational culture.
Although customer delight has attracted considerable research
attention in literature (e.g., Oliver et al., 1997; Cook et al., 2002;
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: jkaony@gmail.com (C.-Y. Kao), tcwu@mail.ndhu.edu.tw
(T.-C. Wu).
Kwong and Yau, 2002; Finn, 2005; Leung and Kwong, 2009;
Barnes et al., 2011; Loureiro, 2010; Loureiro and Kastenholz, 2011;
Loureiro et al., 2014), most of them have mainly concentrated on
delight’s antecedents as well as consequences, and the strategic
importance of delighting customer in rising competition. For exam-
ple, customer delight models have been developed for retailers
(Arnold et al., 2005), the banking industry (Hasan et al., 2011),
and the hotel industry (Torres and Kline, 2006, 2013). In their
study of hotel customer delight typology, Torres and Kline (2013)
even depicted that organizational culture could foster customer
delight. But, none of the study has investigated the customer delight
from perspectives of organizational culture. As organizational cul-
ture and customer delight has shown the close relationship from
previous literature, the central aim of this study is to thoroughly
investigate the concept of organizational culture on customer
delight.
Organizational culture is considered to be multilayered (Kemp,
2005) and comprises four distinguishable and interrelated com-
ponents: shared basic values, norms, artifacts, and organizational
behaviors (Homburg and Pflesser, 2000; Hogan and Coote, 2014).
This concept of cultural layers was proved to be a useful ana-
lytical tool for studying organizational culture and for a detailed
understanding the path that culture influences employees in orga-
nizations (Homburg and Pflesser, 2000; Hogan and Coote, 2014).
As such, on the basis of this cultural layered model, this current
study pioneered to explore customer delight from an organizational
perspective and examine how the processes of cultural values and
norms impact on customer delight behaviors. A framework of the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2016.05.001
0278-4319/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 C.-Y. Kao et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108 99

multilayered customer delight culture was thus developed in this tive system to elicit desired behaviors leading to better business
study. outcomes. For instance, Ekini et al. (2008) emphasized that organi-
zational culture supports front-line employees’ desires to delight
customers.
2. Literature review
Cultural phenomenon is difficult to decipher; therefore, Schein
(1992) proposed a well-known model containing three levels of cul-
2.1. Customer delight
tural phenomenon in organizations: visible manifestations, values,
and basic underlying assumptions. While Schein (1992) regarded
In service encounters, customers’ expectations are related to the
the unconscious basic assumptions as the deepest level and the
perceived value of services they hope to receive from providers.
essence of culture, other researchers considered the basic val-
Customer satisfaction is thus defined as customers’ evaluation of
ues as the deepest level. For instance, in the study of marketing,
the performance of a product or service relative to their expecta-
Deshpande and Webster (1989) defined organizational culture as
tions. In 1984, Kano’s model of customer satisfaction (Kano et al.,
shared values and beliefs that provide employees with norms
1984) highlighted the relevance of “excitement factors” of any
for behaviors in the organization. Combining Schein’s model and
product or service in addition to “basic factors” and “performance
Deshpande and Webster’s (1989) definition of culture, Homburg
factors” in providing delight to customers. Previous studies evalu-
and Pflesser (2000) concluded that organizational culture consists
ated customer delight on the basis of a disconfirmation paradigm
of four distinct but interrelated components presented in three
and reported that customer delight is when customers feel that
layers: shared basic values (first layer), norms (second layer), and
their experiences exceed their expectations and derive pleasure
artifacts and behaviors (third layer). Values are the social princi-
from such experiences (Patterson, 1997). Oliver et al. (1997) noted
ples or philosophies in the organization. Norms are organizational
that a product or service performance, which positively surprises a
expectations of employees’ behaviors. Organizational norms derive
customer, results in arousal in a customer’s mind and causes a pos-
from values and are manifest in artifacts. In other words, values
itive effect on the customer. And this emotional transition leads to
underlie norms as well as artifacts, and determine the desired
customer delight. Although researchers suggested that customer
patterns of behaviors. For instance, employee’s customer delight
delight and customer satisfaction are distinct constructs (e.g., Finn,
behaviors can be resulted from values and guided by norms in
2005; Loureiro, 2010; Loureiro and Kastenholz, 2011), the post-
the organization. The advantage of the multilayer cultural model
consumption memory created by delight motivates customers to
is to get deeper level of understanding the process of culture, to
adopt behaviors to recreate the experience (Rust and Oliver, 2000)
decipher cultural phenomenon, and to understand the paths that
and the disconfirmation becomes an important predictor of delight
culture fosters desired patterns of behaviors in organization. There-
(Loureiro, 2010).
fore, the conceptual framework of the customer delight culture was
The second concept of customer delight is based on the needs
explored in this study by adopting this multilayer cultural model.
theory. Schneider and Bowen (1999) argued the customer delight
stems from fulfilling customers’ security, justice, and self-esteem
2.3. Conceptualization of the customer delight culture
needs. They suggested that fulfilling customers’ security and jus-
tice needs leads to customer satisfaction, whereas fulfilling their
2.3.1. Shared basic values
self-esteem needs may lead to customer delight. To achieve cus-
Value is a type of social cognition that facilitates employees’
tomer delight in service encounters, Kwong and Yau (2002) also
adaptation to their organization’s environment (Wiener, 1988) and
proposed a framework involving five basic human needs (justice,
enhances social contagion among coworkers for information shar-
esteem, security, trust, and variety) for increasing customer delight.
ing and interpreting environmental conditions. Studies suggested
From the perspective of human emotion, Kumar et al. (2001)
that culture derives from values, manifested by norms and artifacts,
explored and defined customer delight as an emotion composed
and reinforce daily practice (e.g., Higgins and McAllaster, 2002).
of joy, exhilaration, thrill, or exuberance. It is customers’ posi-
According to Khazanchi et al. (2007) value profiles orient employ-
tive emotional reactions when they receive a service or product
ees’ decisions as well as actions, but congruent values enable a more
(Berman, 2005). There are chances that customers do not have
cohesive culture by setting a common expectation for behaviors.
clearly expectations before service experience. Barnes et al. (2011)
Therefore, it is vital to explore the shared values in the customer
then suggested that customer delight would originate from affec-
delight culture in order to enhance organizational goal alignment.
tive drive, the emotional state.
If customer delight is fulfilling customer needs (Schneider and
Recent researchers have different arguments upon the rela-
Bowen, 1999), the value of customer orientation which empha-
tionship between customer delight and customer loyalty (e.g.,
sizes (a) pampering the customer, (b) reading the customer’s needs,
Loureiro, 2010; Loureiro and Kastenholz, 2011; Loureiro et al.,
(c) keeping relationship, and (d) delivering the service required
2014); however, delight has been shown to have powerful effects
(Donavan et al., 2004) should be found in the customer delight cul-
on customers’ psychological and behavioral state responding to the
ture. Customer orientation is a set of beliefs and values that draw
service experiences. For instance, the highly positive arousal level
organization attention to prioritizing customers’ interests. In order
is able to create emotional bonds as well as stronger memories
to deliver delightful service, Pimpakorn and Patterson (2010) sug-
for customers (Arnold et al., 2005). Consequently, creating cus-
gested that service personnel should possess a customer-centric
tomer delight experience is essentially and increasingly important
service concerns. Insomuch, the shared values of customer orien-
in hospitality industry.
tation should be acquired in customer delight culture.
Deliver quality to customers is one of the most powerful com-
2.2. Layers of culture petitive strategies (Schneider and Bowen, 1999), and Edvardsson
(2005) suggested that service experiences may result in both cogni-
Organizational culture is similar to the social force that influ- tive and emotional responses, which cause the basis for perceived
ences organizational behaviors beyond formal control systems, service quality. In particular, some favorable service experiences
procedures, and authority (O’Reilly et al., 1991). Muafi (2009) that strongly impact customers’ quality perceptions would stay
defined organizational culture as the value, ideology, philosophy, in customers’ memory for a long time. The hospitality industry
trust, rituals, symbols, and norms that influence organizational has its unique characteristics, and front-line employees not only
performance. Organizational culture can be considered an effec- deliver physical products, but also intangible products such as
100 C.-Y. Kao et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108
manners and experiences. Service quality perceptions are thus
formed during production, delivery and consumption processes in
this industry. Therefore, unlike traditional produce-oriented ser-
vice quality perceptions, it is supposed that managing total quality
experiences should be found in the organizational culture on cus-
tomer delight.
As surprise is an essential component of customer delight
(Crotts and Magnini, 2011), it is assumed that values of service
innovation should be concluded in the customer delight culture
in order to create positive surprises for customers. Service innova-
tion and service improvement are the two major innovation drivers
for meeting customer needs and retaining customers (Chang et al.,
2011). In the service industry, values supporting innovation have
been proven to positively foster innovative norms and behaviors
in an organization, improving company’s performance (Hogan and
Coote, 2014). While customers in the hospitality industry are seek-
ing new and unique experiences, organizational shared values of
innovativeness become essential to meet this challenge in the hos-
pitality industry.
2.3.2. Norms
Norms, shared structures in an organization (Tillquist, 2002),
shape employees’ interpretations of shared values, and assist
them in conceptualizing their settings and behaviors. Tillquist
(2002) suggested that norms provide clues to service providers
regarding the appropriate roles, goals, and actions in service
encounters. In other words, it is norm that represents an orga-
nization’s expectations of its employees’ behaviors. Therefore, if
customer-oriented values pursued in organizations prioritize cus-
tomer delight, customer-oriented norms should be instituted in the
cultural layers to define the expected behaviors.
To deliver excellent customer service, employees must be both
“willing” and “able” to do so (Pimpakorn and Patterson, 2010).
Willingness refers to employees’ level of engagement and positive
attitudes, whereas ability refers to employees’ capabilities to help
satisfy customer needs. For instance, literature (Verma, 2003) indi-
cated that delighters possess positive interpersonal factors (e.g.,
employee politeness, respect, friendliness, and consideration), take
a personal interest in customers’ needs, and exceed their assigned
responsibilities. From this point of view, if front-line employees
need to exhibit customer-oriented behaviors, the employees’ com-
petencies and personality traits should be constituted in the norm
of customer delight culture in order to achieve desired behaviors.
2.3.3. Artifacts
Artifacts, which is conceptualized as man-made artificial prod-
ucts in organizations, is the most visible layer in organizational
culture that employees of an organization can see, hear, and feel
(Schein, 1992). Employees perceive the meaning of artifacts and at
the same time realize the assumptions of implicit values embedded.
Hedonic value is a reaction to aesthetic features, leading to pos-
itive emotions (Rintamaki et al., 2006). The result of Leung and
Kwong’s research (2009) further confirmed that artifact applica-
tions help service personnel to clearly understand and respond to
various customer emotions during service delivery. Consequently,
the delightful artifacts including the layout and design of the work
environment, displayed documentation, dress codes, and other
concrete objects that signify the priorities and desired behaviors
should be emphasized in the organization.
Language also plays a key role in provoking attention during
service delivery. Otnes et al. (2012) suggested that language con-
tributes to customer experiences through relational, perceptual,
affective, and behavioral effects. In service encounters, language
can be organized into meaningful scripting and involves interper-
sonal communication with customers to fulfill social goals. As a
result, language or service scripting, a means of establishing stan-
dardization and cultivating specific behaviors in employees should
be observed in the customer delight culture.
Rituals are collective activities, such as manners of greeting and
paying respect to others. Rituals have pervasive functions, they
can serve as cultural resources (Arnold et al., 2005) for enabling
employees to create desired and effective customer experiences.
Puccinelli et al. (2009) stated that rituals and language are key tools
of customer experience management by enhancing social relations
with customers. From this assumption, service scripting and design
rituals could be applied to create delightful customer experiences
in organizational culture on customer delight.
2.3.4. Behaviors
Behaviors refer to organizational behavioral patterns with an
instrumental function (Homburg and Pflesser, 2000). According to
Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behaviors, which suggests that
intention is the immediate antecedent of behaviors, employees
are likely to engage in a certain behavior if organization inten-
tion persists. For example, customer-oriented behaviors, which
refer to the exhibition of certain attitudes and behaviors to help
satisfy customer needs (King et al., 2013), can be planned and
evoked in hospitality organizations to achieve a desirable out-
come. This process implies the strategic design of behavior patterns
through the expectation of organizational norms, and the devel-
opment of employees’ competency levels by applying human
resource practices in organizations. As a prediction, in order to
enhance employees’ customer delight competencies, the human
resource practices that include job analysis, recruitment, selection,
training, development, performance appraisal, compensation, and
employee relations, should be comprised in the organizational cul-
ture of customer delight.
Empowerment is considered as the flexibility in operations that
relates to the efficiency, productivity, and stability in the perfor-
mance of an organization (Khazanchi et al., 2007). Following this
theoretic path, it seems that employees in hospitality industry need
to be empowered to resolve customer problems or creatively ful-
fill customer needs. Research also argued that service innovation
could be accomplished by employee empowerment (Ottenbacher,
2007), because innovative behaviors required a physical and social
environment that supports the development and implementation
of new ideas, products, strategies, and systems (Hogan and Coote,
2014). It is, thus, postulated that employee empowerment which
closely relates to customers’ perceptions of service efficiency and
service innovation can be traced in the organizational culture on
delight. On top of that, certain designed system and policies to
support employee empowerment should be found in the customer
delight organization as well.
3. Methodology
3.1. Research philosophy
This study is to explore the concept of custom delight culture in
hospitality organizations. The process of research focuses on inves-
tigating the perspectives of organizational culture and conducting
logic reasoning to deduce the facts. Since the exploratory inquiry
into the little-understood phenomenon, a qualitative approach
with in-depth interviews facilitates the process of building an
objective and holistic view of the phenomenon of organizational
culture on customer delight. Therefore, by empiricism and logic
deduction, this study is to stand to explain the research phe-
nomenon epistemologically.
 C.-Y. Kao et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108
3.2. Data collection and sampling
The qualitative research method provides the basis for under-
standing new theories and identifying obscured perspectives
(Walsch, 2003). From cultural perspectives, in-depth interviews
were conducted in this study to understand customer delight. The
results of interviews were then analyzed to develop a framework
of the customer delight culture.
3.2.1. Participants
A two-stage sampling technique was employed to conduct the
interviews. First, purposive sampling was applied for selecting par-
ticipants who can provide relevant insights into matters being
studied (Lincoln and Cuba, 1985). Interviewees need to have experi-
ences or knowledge about the developing process of organizational
culture. Therefore, senior executives and human resources man-
agement were recruited form four and five star hotels that are
famous as their service quality for interviewing. Next, snowballing
was employed to recruit more interviewees according to recom-
mendations provided by some of the recruited interviewees. With
personal networks of and recommendations by some interviewees,
a total of 13 senior hotel executives and managers in Taiwan were
contacted, including those from international chain hotels, domes-
tic chain hotels, independently owned business and resort hotels.
The sample size of a qualitative investigation is determined
according to data saturation, which is reached when no new
information is discovered on the matter being studied. Therefore,
this study was conducted in two phases. The first phase entailed
interviewing 10 hotel executives, and the second phase involved
interviewing the remaining three. Limited new information was
derived from the final three interviews, indicating that data satu-
ration had been reached. Table 1 shows the demographics of the 13
interviewees. Among the interviewees, eight were female and six
were male; their ages ranged from 29 to 62 years. The work expe-
rience of the interviewees in their industries ranged from 6 to 38
years.
3.2.2. Data collection
According to DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree (2006), semi-
structured interviews are often the sole data source for qualitative
research. Through organizing a set of predetermined open-ended
questions, and other questions emerging from the dialog between
interviewer and interviewees, the individual in-depth interview
allows researcher to explore matters deeply. The researcher first
explained the definitions of customer delight and four domains
of organizational culture (values, norms, artifacts, and behaviors)
to the interviewees. Subsequently, the researcher encouraged the
interviewees to share what they can perceive in their organizations
by the following questions:
(1) what are the delight-oriented values pursued by their respec-
tive hotels in order to provide delightful services for the
customers;
(2) what are the norms expected in the hotel organizations for
guiding employees’ customer delight behaviors;
(3) what kinds of artifacts and organizational behaviors can be
found in the organizations.
Totally, thirteen interviews were conducted from July to October
of 2014. Each interview lasted approximately 1–1.5 h and was
recorded and transcribed. Data were systematically sorted and ana-
lyzed.
101
3.3. Content analysis
Content analysis is a research method used to subjectively inter-
pret the content of text data through a systematic classification
process that entails coding and identifying themes or patterns
(Hsieh and Shannon, 2005). As content analysis provides a con-
densed and broad description of the phenomenon, this study
applied content analysis to analyze text data from the interviews
and classify them into the most relevant cultural domains.
Content analysis in this study comprises three steps: The first
step involves the development of categories, the second step entails
coding the materials, and the final step involves statistically analyz-
ing the data. The thematic unit used by this study is the most useful
unit of content analysis because issues, beliefs, and attitudes are
usually discussed in this form (Kassarjian, 1977). Two coders (first
author who has years of hotel working experiences and one Ph.D.
student) independently coded the transcriptions into meaningful
units. Next, units of analysis with similar meanings were sorted
into the same category. For instance, the unit “the core values of
our hotel group are trust, respect, and innovation,” and the unit
“employees are encouraged to bring up new and innovative ideas
to create a pleasure customer experience,” were grouped into the
theme “value of innovativeness.” When a disagreement occurred
in the categorization procedure, the coders referred to the unit of
analysis and raw data for consensus. After completing these pro-
cedures, the category were named and labeled to ensure that they
correctly reflected the domains of customer delight culture. The
analysis result is illustrated in Figs. 1–4 . The diagram shows the
relationships between the themes and evolving customer delight
culture.
In qualitative research, credibility and dependability are used
to describe various aspects of trustworthiness (Graneheim and
Lundman, 2004). Member checking and disinterested peer-review
can enhance the credibility and dependability of a qualitative anal-
ysis effectively (Mhyre, 2010). Accordingly, this study invited two
researchers from the university to read every text and try to dis-
cover any neglected units of analysis as well as offer opinions on
the data analysis. At the first stage, 726 units were coded from
the transcriptions. After an assessment, 128 units were removed
and 598 valid units remained. At the second stage, inductive con-
tent analysis procedures were used to analyze these 598 units and
group them into 71 meaningful and interpretable categories. Next,
the two researchers examined those 71 categories carefully and
both agreed with 58 categories to be further sorted into 12 higher-
order categories. The interrater reliability scores of the preceding
classification processes were 0.82 (598/726) and 0.81 (58/71),
respectively, which exceeded the 0.8 standard (Kassarjian, 1977),
indicating that the classification results demonstrated strong reli-
ability.
4. Results and discussion
As shown in Figs. 1–4, the framework of customer delight cul-
ture is composed of 12 categories derived from the content analysis.
All labeled units were classified into four cultural domains, namely
shared basic values, norms, artifacts, and behaviors. These domains
are described as follows:
4.1. Shared basic values
Three customer delight values were identified in this study:
customer-orientated values, service quality values, and service
innovation values.
102 C.-Y. Kao et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108

Table 1
The profile of interviewees.

Code Gender Age Hotel genre Position Years of work exp.

01 Male 47 Local chain hotel Food and Beverage Director 22

02 Female 42 International chain resort Room Division Director 15
03 Female 33 Local chain hotel Human Resources manager 06
04 Female 41 International chain hotel Human Resources Director 17
05 Female 29 International chain hotel Human Resources supervisor 06
06 Male 52 Local chain hotel Assistant General Manager 30
07 Male 45 International chain hotel Human Resources Director 18
08 Male 62 Local chain hotel General Manager 38
09 Female 32 International chain resort Room division supervisor 06
10 Male 38 International chain hotel Front Office Director 11
11 Male 42 Local business hotel General Manager 14
12 Female 33 Local chain hotel Assistant Manager 07
13 Female 37 Local resort Food and Beverage Manager 10

Fig. 1. The framework of shared values for the customer delight culture.

4.1.1. Customer-oriented values
As expected, customer-orientated values were found in the
customer delight culture. Compared with the HICP (Hospital-
ity Industry Cultural Profile) proposed by Tepeci and Bartlett
(2002), the customer orientation observed in the current study
demonstrated strong emphasis on employees’ volition of delighting
customers as a personal responsibility, thinking before customers,
and then providing personalized or customized services, or even
providing extra-role services. For instance, one of the interviewees
expressed the following remarks:
“All employees commit to the basic value that providing
customers with delightful services is valuable and a self-
achievement.” (RE1-15)
Some organizations have adopted customer delight as one of
their organizational values and proclaim strong desires to pursue
 C.-Y. Kao et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108
Fig. 2. The framework of norms for the customer delight culture.
customer delight. One director of international chain hotels made
the following statements:
“Customer delight is the common language of our organiza-
tional culture” (S1-21)
4.1.2. Service quality values
Offering an excellent product or service quality to a customer
is considered an effective strategy for creating a desirable expe-
rience. In the present study, the interviewees recognized the
relevance of service quality to customers’ consumption experiences
by providing value added products and services, efficient services,
detail-oriented services, and home-away-from-home experiences.
For example, two interviewees stated as follows:
“Our general manager’s close involvement and attention to
service details is true reflection of our corporate culture and
values.” (T1-9)
“The goal of our organization is to create a memorable service
experience and a home-away-from-home experience for our
customers.” (R1-8)
4.1.3. Service innovation values
Customers are delighted by positive surprises (Crotts and
Magnini, 2011); therefore, delivering creative and innovative ser-
103
vices is essential for an organization in pursuing delight. As
predicted, the values of innovation and creativity identified in
the customer delight culture included pursuing continuous service
improvements, providing positive surprises, encouraging employ-
ees to create as well as share innovative service ideas, and allowing
flexibility in service delivery. For example, a director of an interna-
tional hotel chain made the following statement:
“Our core values are trust, respect, innovation, performance, and
the spirit of conquest. Innovation is the root of the company and
innovative behaviors are pursued.” (N1-1)
Other interviewees also provided the following statements:
“Our company encourages employees to bring up new service
ideas.” (RE1-16)
“We encourage employees to provide innovative customer
services for customers and give employees the flexibility to
implement service innovation.” (T1-19)
Notably, the findings of customer orientation and service inno-
vation existing in the customer delight culture in this study is
reflecting to Tajeddini and Trueman’s research (2012) that a posi-
tive relationship between customer orientation and innovativeness
because proactive and innovative processes force organizations to
anticipate customers’ needs and foster a core value-creating capa-
104 C.-Y. Kao et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108
Fig. 3. The framework of artifacts for the customer delight culture.
bility. In other words, when employees focus on innovative ideas,
they pay more attention to customers. Therefore, observing both
customer orientation and innovativeness values in the customer
delight culture in this study is not surprising.
4.2. Norms for customer delight behaviors
The norms for customer delight behaviors identified in this
study included customer-oriented norms, customer delight com-
petencies, and communication norms.
4.2.1. Customer-oriented norms
Understanding customers’ individual needs and then fulfilling
them is an important operational strategy for producing customer
delight. In addition to the norm of providing personalized or cus-
tomized services, the norms of empathy and fulfilling customers’
needs of being cared were observed in organizational culture. For
example, one of the interviewees made the following statement:
“Employees are expected to offer special diets for senior guests
to show that we care about their needs.” (K4-8)
The result also revealed that almost every interviewed hotel
expected their employees to arouse delight by boosting customers’
egos and providing personalized or customized services. For exam-
ple, one of the interviewees made the following statement:
“The check-in process and room escorts are conducted by a man-
ager in our hotel to boost the customer’s self-esteem.” (R4-23)
In service organizations, contextual behaviors (extra-role
behaviors) are considered as client-oriented behaviors in which
employees provide positive experiences by exceeding their normal
job requirements to improve customers’ satisfaction (Schneider
et al., 2005) or even produce customer delight. This study revealed
that hotel organizations expect and encourage employees to exhibit
contextual behaviors; for example, a hotel general manager made
the following remark:
“The employee’s extra-role behaviors are expected and encour-
aged in the organization.” (N4-17)
4.2.2. Customer delight competencies
Customers are likely to formulate accurate expectations with
respect to the appropriate levels of employees’ efforts, skills, and
the overall core product (Barnes et al., 2011). The results indicated
that employees’ customer delight capabilities were highly expected
including the ability to listen to and understand customers’ needs,
ability to solve customers’ problems, and high detail orientation.
In addition, the results revealed that hotel organizations delight
customers by urging employees to adjust their attitudes, such as
being exceptionally friendly and providing services that exceed
organizational standards to win customers’ hearts. One of the hotel
managers made the following remark:
“Our organization expects staff members to demonstrate extra
friendly service attitudes and service with a smile.” (N4-10)
Because several interviewees emphasized that providing
delightful customer services heavily relies on team efforts, team-
C.-Y. Kao et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108 105

Fig. 4. The framework of customer delight organizational behaviors.

Fig. 5. The interrelations of customer delight cultural layers.

106 C.-Y. Kao et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108
oriented norms were thus identified and highly expected in the
organizational culture of customer delight. For example, one of the
interviewees stated:
“Providing customers with excellent services depends on the
team efforts. . . when an employee recognizes a returning cus-
tomer, he or she passes the message to other colleagues. . . This
impresses our guests so much, because they think that all of the
hotel employees remember them.” (R4-27)
4.2.3. Communication norms
Communication is found vital in this study because it facili-
tates employees sharing their work-related experiences, expertise,
know-how, and customer information with their colleagues. The
norms of information sharing within hotel organizations and the
communications of organizational goals in delighting customers
were identified in this study. Two interviewees made the following
statements:
“In order to surprise and delight the customer, cross-
departmental communication and sharing of customer infor-
mation are expected.” (M2-19)
“The communication between departments improves service
efficiency.” (T4-2)
Some of the interviewees even stated that employees in their
organizations were constantly encouraged to communicate the
values of customer delight in order to reinforce the congruent orga-
nizational goal.
4.3. Artifacts for customer delight
In this study, the results revealed three artifacts used in
customer-delight-oriented organizations, namely favorable service
environments, customer delight service scripting, and design ritu-
als.
4.3.1. Superior service environment
From literature, there is a positive link between customers’ emo-
tions and physical environments (Hightower et al., 2002), and with
aesthetic features (Rintamaki et al., 2006). These positive emotions
then create customers’ memorable experiences. Without a surprise,
the results showed that some of the interviewed hotels effectively
applied audiovisual devices and other special service devices to
create a unique ambiance to attract and delight customers. Two
interviewees made the following statements:
“Stage performances delight customers by boosting visual or
audio sensational experiences.” (M3-8)
“Each hotel brand in our hotel group has its own unique aroma
in the lobby to enhance customer delight and reinforce brand
image.” (S3-17)
Some of the interviewees expressed interests in applying vari-
ous design amenities and services to create a delightful experience
for customers instead of using standardized products offered in
chain hotels. For instance, two interviewees explained their ser-
vices as follows:
“We provide multi-functional adapter as well as iphone charger
in very guest room.” (S3-19)
“In order to take care of our little child customers, our bath
rooms were equipped with adjustable toilet lids.” (K3-27)
Interestingly, some of the interviewed hotel managers discussed
using complimentary services and products to delight customers as
follow:
“There are complimentary snacks and beverages offered in the
lobby all day long to welcome our guests” (T3-10)
4.3.2. Customer delight service scripting
The language and metaphors used in service encounters sup-
port employees to assume the desired behaviors (Hogan and Coote,
2014) and were found in this study to play crucial roles in delighting
customers. For instance, one of the interviewees made the follow-
ing statement:
“Every hotel in our hotel chain has its own standard scripting to
greet and serve its customers.” (RE3-11)
Other than designed delightful scripting, the results also indi-
cated that employees’ body language and etiquette were heavily
applied to create a unique ambiance in hospitality settings. For
example, Employees’ gestures, aesthetic costume, and professional
service manners were found essential in this study to signify the
priorities and desired behaviors as one interviewee made the fol-
lowing remark:
“Our bellboys are trained to run to the customers immediately
and take care of the luggage. The gesture is to show their passion
to serve and service efficacy.” (R3-6)
4.3.3. Design rituals
In the current study, the investigated hotels often created special
events to solicit customers’ emotional pleasure and incite mem-
orable experiences. The interviewees highlighted the following
recollections:
“Our hotel designs special events to delight customers and touch
their hearts.” (T3-9)
“Even on their off days, all okami [Japanese hostess] are willing
to show up in the hotel to say goodbye to their guests upon
check-out. They bow and waive till the customers are out of
sight.” (K3-4)
Also, the results revealed that hotels set up special events for
employees, such as convening ceremonies for awarding employ-
ees who demonstrate effective customer delight performance to
reinforce the importance of expected behaviors. The purpose of
these design rituals is to communicate and reconfirm the under-
lying cultural values and norms. One of the interviewees provided
the following statement:
“Employees’ extra-role service behaviors are praised in public
and awarded in an award event in the hotel.” (H3-13)
4.4. Customer delight organizational behaviors
The results of this study indicated that organizational behaviors
for the customer delight culture were composed of three cate-
gories: customer delight competency development, quality control
system, and employee empowerment.
4.4.1. Customer delight competency development
The aforementioned employees’ customer delight competen-
cies as well as personality traits can be tested during recruitment
interviews. Therefore, the findings of this study revealed that the
recruitment standards and systems to hire the right employees
were incorporated in human resource practices in many hotels. For
instance one human resource director mentioned:
“Achieving customer delight starts from employee selection.
During the recruitment process, we always pose some situ-
ational questions to test the interviewee’s response and to
 C.-Y. Kao et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108
confirm if he is the right person to deliver delightful services
to our customers.” (RE2-17)
The method for developing employee customer delight compe-
tencies is to conduct regular training, and most of the interviewees
believed that sufficient training should be provided for employ-
ees to ensure their customer-oriented behaviors, and for them to
understand their roles in providing delightful services. For instance,
one interviewee narrated:
“The hotel enacts a plan for employee competence
development. . . training is our tool to control organizational
behaviors.” (N2-13)
Worth to mention, mentorship was identified in the study to
develop the employee’s customer delight competencies. Unlike for-
mal classroom teaching, some hotels applied mentor systems to
monitor and advise junior employees on how to delight customers.
The benefits of this type of mentorship were described as follows:
“The junior okami [Japanese hostess] follows the senior mentor
in delivering services. Their performance can be inspected and
rectified immediately. By the way, they work as a team and take
care of each other in the organization.” (K2-23)
4.4.2. Quality control system
Organizational service quality can be controlled using several
methods, and the methods identified in this study are outlined as
follows: service SOP (standard operating procedures), information
exchange systems, customer preference profiles, and problem-
resolution supporting systems. Some hotels even established
customer delight standards to appraise employees’ performance,
and regular surveys of services provided by competitors. The estab-
lishments of quality control systems in this study are to ensure
the common organizational goal of customer delight. One director
summarized the situation as follows:
“Through service quality systems, the hotel tracks the execution
of customer delight values.” (S2-8)
Some of the investigated hotel organizations conducted regular
surveys to explore new services provided by competitors in the
market because customers compare the services they received from
different hotels. Awareness of competitions is an essential tool for
service improvement, as indicated by one of the interviewees:
“In order to be more competitive in the market, there is a policy
to visit or solicit competitors regularly and investigate services
provided by them.” (H2-18)
4.4.3. Employee empowerment
As expected, employee empowerment was identified in this
study. Employees from the investigated organizations were
empowered to provide customized, alternative, positively surpris-
ing, and innovative services to delight customers. It is believed that
empowered employees can promptly respond to service requests
and quickly resolve problems as indicated in the following state-
ment:
“Front-line employees are empowered to give customers alter-
native drinks without permission from the supervisor, because
they know what customers need.” (K2-27)
As employee empowerment was used as a useful strategy
to spur service innovation and creativity to please and exceed
customers’ expectations, one interviewee made the following
statement:
“Our hotel empowers employees to provide customers with
something creative. . . for example, if customers stay a few days,
107
the housekeeper will provide different kinds of greeting fruits
every day.” (S2-16)
One more example provided by an interviewee is presented as
follows:
“The hotel highly empowers the service employees and gives
employees the flexibility to fulfill the customers’ personal needs.
For example, the receptionist happened to know the purpose of
one couple’s trip, which was to celebrate their 20th anniversary;
he was then empowered to arrange a reunion party for the cou-
ple to celebrate with the retired staff who served them when
they spent their honeymoon in the hotel. This creative event
touched the customers very much.” (M2-8)
4.5. Multilayered cultural processes in the customer delight
culture
A framework of customer delight culture was developed and
the findings of this study revealed that the domains of customer
delight culture were identified to scattering in the distinct layers
(Fig. 5). It appears that the process from values to customer delight
behaviors depends on norms for expected behaviors and customer
delight organizational behaviors. For instance, customer orienta-
tion was identified in value layer, and customer-oriented norms
were therefore expected in the investigated organizations. Artifacts
such as service etiquette, scripting, environment, and design rituals,
which considerably influence employees’ behaviors in providing
customer-oriented services, were also then found in the organiza-
tions. Similarly, the results indicated that if an organization always
places customers as its first priority, the norms of providing person-
alized services are expected, and employees are empowered during
service delivery. In conclusion, the domains of customer delight
culture were found in various layers of organizational culture and
closely interrelated.
5. Research implications
The framework developed in this study provides insights into
the concept of the customer delight culture in hospitality industry.
From cultural perspectives, this pioneered study revealed the inter-
relationships among cultural domains (values, norms, artifacts and
behaviors) in organizations to create customer delight. The frame-
work of customer delight culture is important not only because it
investigates and identifies a new cultural phenomenon in the field
of hospitality industry, but also because it fulfills the gap between
organizational culture and customer delight.
6. Managerial implications
The findings of this study can assist hotel management to
understand the concept of customer delight culture and the pre-
sented managerial practices can be applied to create a culture
in delivering delightful experiences for customers. Additionally,
the understanding of cultural process can serve as a guideline for
hotel organizations in defining their own cultural philosophies,
and design and formulate the desired behaviors by establishing
a set of values. Finally, culture has its own distinct advantage
that is not easily to imitate by the competitors. Building an orga-
nizational culture that influences employee’s customer delight
behavior, therefore, becomes a powerful instrument in surviving
in the very competitive hospitality market.
108 C.-Y. Kao et al. / International Journal of Hospitality Management 56 (2016) 98–108
7. Limitation
The key objective of this study was fulfilled, but future val-
idation of this framework is expected to complete in order to
consolidate the research model. This study was conducted by inter-
viewing hotel management; therefore, future research can explore
the insights of the customer delight culture from different indus-
tries, such as airlines. In addition, only hotels in Taiwan were
sampled in this study, it is hope that the further study can explore
the more hotels of different nations.
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