Cultural Diversity in Hotel Industry

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Current Situation
Theories of Culture and Cultural Diversity in a Workplace
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

Increasing globalisation of service industry has made it difficult to manage the growing culturally diverse workforce. Managing a multicultural workforce, either within a global corporation or small business unit is usually very demanding for managers. The concept of managing diversity acknowledges that in a workplace, there is normally diverse population of workers.

The diversity is brought about by the differences in gender, age, race/ethnicity, language, personality, cultural background and even working style. It is based on the principle that harmonizing these differences creates an optimum working environment where every employee feels valued and is therefore ready to utilise his or her talents to the maximum in achieving the goals of the organisation.

Current Situation

Today there is increasing focus on how best to manage cultural diversity in hotel industry or service organizations as diversity among the workforce increases due to globalization. According to Bakalis, Joiner and Leveson (2009, 378) managing cultural diversity refers to the holistic recognition by the leaders of the organisation that cultural diversity continues to increase in the workforce and therefore they have to be more proficient while acting in response to the changes that come with it.

According to D’Netto and Sohal (1999, 530), managing cultural diversity at an organizational level means striving to encourage as well as to uphold a culturally heterogeneous workforce to achieve its full potential by providing an equitable and supportive working environment.

Managing cultural diversity is very important and beneficial to service and hospitality industry. Effective management of cultural diversity enables these organizations to benefit from the knowledge, business experience; cultural as well as linguistic skills that workers come with to the organisation.

Managing cultural diversity within the workforce enables development of organizational values and ethics and also enhances people’s management practices. It improves customer care thereby increasing the market share of the hospitality companies.

Esentually the clients on this business are usually travellers from different parts on the world, therefore making the need for cultural appreciation specifically and important subject. Besides, the greatest resource that is industry has is the workers. They interact with clients directly and as part of servicescape since their dressing, presentation, talking is all a reflection of the company.

Therefore well mannered workers who appreciate cultural diversity are likely to offer the best services. An organisation that effectively manages its workforce is able to keep up with best practices that attract and retain talent. In addition, it helps enhance healthy competition within the workforce.

Theories of Culture and Cultural Diversity in a Workplace

The Business Case for Diversity Theory

The theory relates to how hotels utilize the cultural diversity in their workforce. The proponents believe that if a workforce comprises of multicultural employees, but the management does not fully take advantage of the wealth of experience, then it cannot maximize the benefits that come with cultural diversity.

It states that in a global market place, an organisation that employs a multicultural workforce in terms of gender, different generations, and ethnically/racially diverse persons among others; is in a better position of understanding the demographics of its marketplace.

This gives it an upper hand in the marketplace over other companies with limited cultural diversity among the workforce. The theory also suggests that a company that truly supports its workforce diversity has the capacity to improve its performance, achieve employee satisfaction as well as retention (Özbilgin & Tatli 2008, 42).

Social Identity Theory

Proponents of Social identity theory are of the view that cooperation within as well as between work groups are determined by the demographic distinctiveness of the members of each team in relation to their immediate cultural environment. It suggests that an increase in workforce diversity is a major cause of negative consequences since it may lead to decreased job satisfaction and low performance.

The proponents of the theory believe that social groups in the workplace tend to compete with each other for favour, material as well as social resources. This theory is not applicable in services industry. When the workers fight because of diversity, they are likely to treat clients from different culture with prejudice.

This is bad for business. This creates a situation of conflict instead of cooperation among the cultural groups. According to Haslam and Turner (2001, 26) studies on inter-group relationships have shown that conflicts usually occur whenever members of different cultural groups meet or assigned a joint task.

According to the theory, you can always predict that people will show a favourable bias towards members of their cultural group and they will believe that they are in conflict with members of another cultural group. Based on this fact, the workers therefore need to be trained on working with people from different culture and treat them as equals without any implied discrimination. Barrier to interaction and integration must be addressed.

Social Network Theory

Social network theory discusses the relationship among individuals in a specific environment such as in the hotel industry. Most members of a network provide useful information to other members while others provide emotional, social, financial and even moral support and these resources can greatly market a service industry.

In the hotel and hospitality sector, a good reputation plays a big role as well as interdependence. The structure and the shape of the networks put in place in an organisation have important implications for policy-making as well as implementation. Managers are able to know where to finds resources they need and how to get it.

This is because they have contacts of the people who can provide such services through networks. Relationships as well as networks can therefore be used to promote change initiatives in a company. Social networks in a company can help the management discover the unique skills as well as talents among workers which can bring organizational change (Haslam & Turner 2001, 28).

Issues Associated With Diversity in the Workplace

Cultural diversity in the workplace is normally associated with creative and optimum job performance which translates into positive job outcomes; however, this only occurs when it is effectively managed. There are several issues that occur in hotel and other hospitality workplaces today as they are increasingly becoming multicultural.

These include harassment, discrimination against persons who are employed and even those seeking for employment based on gender, background, race/ethnicity and religion. Prejudice usually occurs in task distribution, promotions, rewards, decision making and accessibility to communication networks.

Differences in language within a workplace can also create communication problems. Differences in cultural backgrounds affect the perception of employees towards new ideas, concepts and technology. The way employees perceive the company’s stance on diversity management is also very important.

Management Strategy

Kundu (2001) proposes three strategies for managing cultural differences that exist in workplaces. He says that both managers and employees can decide to ignore the cultural differences or the organisation can minimize the cultural differences and lastly, the organisation can manage the cultural difference.

Managers of hospitality businesses therefore adopt creative ways of managing the cultural diversity that exist in the workplace. They establish policies and practices that explore the benefits of diversity in workplace.

Implementing Written Cultural Diversity Policy

Addressing cultural diversity matters should be a priority concern for managers of organisations. The management of a company must have a documented diversity management policy since diversity has sometimes proved to be a problem and not an opportunity. In most cases, managers majorly focus on managing gender diversity as a result the hospitality and hotel industry employs a considerable number of women.

Support, Commitment and Employee Perception

Perceptions and reactions of employees towards the company determine the effectiveness of the workforce. The management needs to understand the nature as well as the outcomes of perceptions of workers about their organisation’s diversity management.

Employees usually view the organisation’s climate and commitment to diversity management as directly related to the performance of the organisation and their job satisfaction (Hicks-Clarke & Iles 2000, 329). According to Hicks-Clarke and Iles (2000, 329) studies have shown that employees who perceive that the cultural diversity in their workplace is supported and encouraged are likely to develop positive attitude towards the company.

They begin to feel that their job is secure and they also see the possibility of developing their career in the organisation. On the contrary, employees who feel that they are not valued in the company due to their race/ethnicity tend to perceive that this would negatively affect their performance, job as well as their career. They would therefore opt to move elsewhere. Organizational support as well as commitment is highly related to employee retention meaning that these can enable employers retain talented employees from diverse cultural backgrounds (Sippola 2007, 256).

Employees always want to be sure whether the organisation values their contributions or not. They also want to be certain about the employer’s concern on their well-being. It is therefore important to provide rewards for increased and excellent job performance.

There should be favourable opportunities for incentives, supportive supervision as well as procedural justice (Bakalis, Joiner & Leveson 2009, 381). Actions taken by the company in support of or against an issue should be sincere. These initiatives and actions increase employees’ commitment to the company. Retaining culturally diverse employees has been a major concern of most employers. This implies that the management has to constantly carry out organizational audit to establish the employees’ perception towards the company to determine the direction of the firm in relation to its workforce.

Survey results would help make the necessary changes which are intended to motivate the workers and enhance job satisfaction among the workforce in order to achieve retention of culturally diverse and talented workers. According to Bakalis, Joiner and Leveson (2009, 379) the nature of diversity in a workplace has an influence on performance.

When the management appreciate diversity among its workers, a culture of appreciating diversity is built. The will in turn appreciate each more and therefore work together as a team despite cultural differences. The outcome is that the customers from different background will as be received and treated with utmost grandeur. This is what service industry is all about, treating client better so that they feel value for money service and that their culture is also recognised elsewhere.

Inclusion and support of minority culture-groups

In managing a multicultural workforce, it is important that the minority culture-group members within the organisation be integrated in all the informal networks. Access to these informal networks is important especially considering the significance of language on the flow of communication processes as well as in the development of individual networks in the workplace (Lindholm 1997, 14). They should also be allowed access to formal communication networks.

Language problems could be a major source of frustration and dissatisfaction as one feels like an outsider. Open communications can reduce the negative impacts of cultural diversity on group activities and processes. However, multilingual workers are better suited to be the employees of a hotel and hospitality company.

This way, the employees can integrate much better in that they are likely to understand the values, attitudes and general welfare at least two culture. This can form web of interconnectivity and integration that the outcome would be as if the organization is one big community with understand. Such appreciation of different traditions and culture is extended to clients and this gives greater satisfaction. The company should also ensure that migrants are represented on recruitment as well as promotion panels. These initiatives increase accessibility to formal networks in an organisation and also help initiate formal networking in the company.

Besides, they should also enjoy the organizational support for their diversity. This is only possible if the organisation put in place structures that totally discourage discrimination, prejudice as well as intercultural conflicts in the workplace.

All the various cultural groups in the workplace should be represented and encouraged to uphold respect and to always value learning from each other. Kundu (2001) stresses on cross-cultural training and sensitizing of employees on the outcomes of discrimination and biases in diverse working population. Cross-cultural training helps employees of an organisation live and work harmoniously in another culture.

Communication of performance standards

The service industry players should establish and also communicate clearly the performance standards to employees. The performance standards should be based on important competencies which are relevant to each job. The workers should also be trained on how to provide feedback on identified undesirable conduct that the firm wishes to change or desirable behaviour that it wants to encourage.

Conclusion

Managing a multicultural workforce has become one of the most demanding tasks for most managers in service industry. Cultural diversity is projected to increase with the increasing globalization. Most organizations are putting in place structures and practices that could help attract and retain culturally diverse workforce. Hotel industry is developing cultural diversity policies and implementing new practices. Effective management of diversity in the workplace is seen to be profitable to a hotel services in ways like better services, job satisfaction and reduced worker turnover.

Different theories seem to have varied views about cultural diversity in the hotel industry although most theories seem to support cultural diversity. Cultural diversity comes with different issues and problems that have to be effectively handled by organizations.

Cultural diversity can cause discrimination, conflicts and communication problems. It is therefore important for hotel industry to develop cultural diversity policy and to govern it and help understand employees’ perception diversity and how the specific hotel service company deals with it. In addition, it is important to include the minority culture-groups into every activity of the company.

Reference List

Bakalis, S., Joiner, T., A., & Leveson, L., 2008, Managing Cultural Diversity And Perceived Organizational: Evidence From Australia. International Journal of Manpower, 30 (4): 377-392. New Delhi: Emarald Group Publishing Limited.

D’netto, B., & Sohal, A., S., 1999, Human Resource Practices and Workforce Diversity: An Empirical Assessment. International Journal of Manpower, 20 (8): 530-47. New Delhi: Emerald Publishers.

Haslam, S., A., & Turner, J., C., 2001, Social Identity, Organizations and Leadership. In M. Turner (Ed.), Groups At Work: Theory And Research (Pp. 25-65). London: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Hicks-Clarke, D., & Iles, P., 2000, Climate for Diversity and Its Effects on Career and Organizational Attitudes and Perceptions. Personnel Review, 29 (3): 324-45. London: Emerald Publishing Limited.

Kundu, S., C., 2001, Managing Cross-Cultural Diversity: A Challenge For Present And Future Organizations. Delhi Business Review, 2 (2). New Delhi: University Of Hartford.

Lindholm, E., 1997, Culturally Related Problems In Steering Of Foreign Subsidiaries: Subsidiary Operations Of Finnish Companies In Spain. Master’s Thesis, Helsinki School of Business Administration, Helsinki.

Özbilgin, M., F., & Tatli, A., 2008, Global Diversity Management: An Evidence Based Approach. London: Palgrave Macmillian. P. 42.

Sippola, A., 2007, Developing Culturally Diverse Organizations: A Participative and Empowerment-Based Method. Women in Management Review, 22 (4): 253-73. New Delhi: Emerald Publishing Limited.

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