Managing Cultural Diversity in Hospitality Organization - Essay Example

Managing cultural diversity in Hospitality organization Contents Introduction 2 Discussion 3 Strategies and policies 3 Challenges 3 Benefits 4 MCD polices 5 Managing culture shock 5 Training, top-down 6 Recruitment 7 Comparison 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Hospitality organization provides different types of service to its customers. Hospitality industry includes hotels, private clubs, restaurants, travel and tourism, event planning etc. The hospitality firms deals with a large number of customers and employees around the world. In the present situation managing cultural diversity has become an important issue in the hospitality organizations. Cultural diversity means the presence of many cultures, sub cultures and values in a multi cultural society. The current trend of globalization has a great impact on all the companies of hospitality industry. People of diverse backgrounds have to work together for achieving the same goal and objectives of the company. But diverse cultural backgrounds have different values and rules which often create many conflicts within the organization. Hospitality companies experiences cultural diversity and its related issues. Therefore managing cultural diversity of the company in an effective way has become an important tool for achieving its corporate goals. The concept of cultural diversity is multidimensional and complex phenomenon. It is an important issues associated with the long term success of the company. The hospitality companies are growing internationally. They have to face various cultural issues in different countries of the world. It is important to recognize the cultural background of its workforce as cultural negativity influences the success and performance of the company. The cross cultural barriers of the hospitality company develop many challenges. Managing different cultures in the workplace helps to honor the differences of the cultures and motivates them to work in best way benefiting the hospitality company. Discussion Strategies and policies To manage the diversity in the workplace Hospitality Company follows different strategies and policies. The executives of the company must be involved in different cultural infusions and become committed to practice those cultural strategies and policies. For understanding the present state of cultural diversity the company can assess the issues related to variable cultures. This assessment helps the management team to evaluate the issues of diverse work culture. Strategies of interviewing the leaders of the hospitality company give ideas about the diverse culture of the company. The companies can implement the strategy of knowing the employees perception out diversity management in the hospitality company with the help of its managers, leaders and supervisor. This strategy provides the statistical data regarding cultural diversity and training the work process. The strategies and policies to educate and train the employees regarding the workforce diversity help to design successful plan to deal with the cultural problems. It will highlight the benefits of various cultures. Hospitality Company can launch the survey of cultural diversity which is customized according to the employees. It will provide a vast report of the entire workforce of the company. Challenges Hospitality Company faces many challenges for its workforce diversity. Cultural gaps give rise to many cultural challenges. It leads to misunderstanding and misinterpretation of employees, customers etc of different cultures. Various problems like racism, ageism, and sexism develop for diversity of culture which creates problem in the hospitality company in achieving its goals and objectives. Communication becomes a huge challenge for the employees belonging from different cultures for their different perception and language. Work attitude gets affected for these different cultural problems. The employees of the Hospitality organization require high level of commitment. It is associated with the cultural background of the employees. Generally they feel loyal towards their culture rather than the whole organization which is a mixture of various cultures. Often the hospitality firms have such employees who discourage the diversity of workforce. The introvert employees who do not share their value, believes, ethics etc which create difficulties in managing the diverse workforce. Change in the values and believes effects the thought process of the employees which results in conflicts. Benefits The success and competitive advantage of the hospitality company depends on its effectiveness of embracing cultural diversity. When the hospitality organization successfully handles diversity in the workplace then it can develop different diversified plans benefiting the company and its customers. Cultural diversity helps the organization to build cultural competency. It enables the employees of the company to become knowledgeable about different cultures which helps them to deal with the customers belonging from various cultures. It broadens the approaches and view of the people working in the hospitality company to deal with various problems. Diverse members of the organization can serve the customers sharing similar culture. Cultural diversity helps to improve the services of the hospitality company. Managing cultural diversity helps in innovating creativity of the employees by enhancing the positive sides of their culture. The difference of the individuals are recognized and understood which provide opportunities and values to its employees by removing organizational barriers. This results in encouraging the people to work together under a workplace having diverse individuals. The hospitality company observes the things from different perspective with its employees of different culture. MCD polices As per the authors Tim Barnett, Orlando C. Richard, Sean Dwyer and Ken Chadwick different policie3s are implemented by the hospitality company for managing the diversity among its employees. Cultural diversity helps to enrich the business process of the companies if this industry. Hospitality Company always has to deal with people of various cultures. Therefore they have to keep employees who are aware of those cultures and their customs. The writers state that maintaining diverse workforce is a challenging job of the hospitality company. They implement various policies like providing training to its employees, recruiting good and influential people, implementing various organizational strategies for creating a perfect blend of different cultures. The hospitality company often organizes meetings for bringing its employees belonging from different cultures together so that they can interact and build a strong bond among each other (Richard, Barnett, Dwyer and Chadwick, 2004). Managing culture shock According to the author Stephen Bochner, Colleen A. Ward and Adrian Furnham Cultural shock means the feeling of confusion, uncertainty and anxiety among the people who are doing business or living in countries different from their own place. This type of shock arises from unfamiliar language, local customers, behavior and norms which vary significantly among different cultures. As per the authors the hospitality company needs to understand the local etiquette and the cultural factors solving the conflicts. Cultural shocks can be managed with time. It helps the employees of the hospitality company to learn and about with local culture of its customers. This helps the company to develop firm strategies according to the local culture of its customers which will satisfy their needs. One of the important views of the writers is to provide appropriate training to its employees for efficiently handling various cultural shocks. Cultural shocks are differentiated by cultural distance. The hospitality organization has to deal with the people of different cultures. If the company reduces the distance of different cultures by performing different activities and implementing policies then it will be successful in adopting and managing cultural shocks. According to the authors, giving emphasis on philosophical and ethical theories helps to understand characteristics of different cultures and on the basis of that the hospitality firms can set up its organizational internal environment in such a way that its diverse workforce feels comfortable in working (Ward, Bochner, and Furnham 2001). Training, top-down According to the authors Simon Wonga and Loretta Pangb for managing cultural diversity in the hospitality company appropriate and effective training is required for its employees. It helps to enhance the creativity of different cultures benefiting the organization. Training and top down approaches of managing diversity in workforce involves in the implementing different strategies. Through this type of training the top level executives and the CEO of the hospitality company spread different messages for establishing unity in different cultures which helps to reduce the gaps of cultural diversity. As per the writers various approaches of the top down training is associated with leadership development, initiatives of social responsibility, training and equal opportunities of employment. This issue helps in the development of the hospitality company. As per the authors by this type of training helps the employees to overcome different drawbacks of their cultures. Through this training process the hospitality company provides motivation from the top level of management. The writers also states that through these processes the hospitality company improves flexibility among its diversified workforce. It helps to support the employees to understand the characteristics of different cultures and motivates them to respect the positive sides of the cultures (Wong and Pang, 2003). Recruitment As per the author Orlando C. Richard cultural diversity has a huge impact on the performance of the hospitality company. Recruitment plays an important role in managing the diversity of various cultures. The hospitality company often follows the resource based framework to increase efficiency in its workforce. In the modern era of globalization the hospitality companies are present though out the world. Therefore they need to hire people who can easily manage the work process of the company. Recruiting and retaining good people in the hospitality company helps to motivate the other employees. As per the author every company of this industry has certain organizational culture. For managing different culture of the employees the firms recruit people by maintaining a balance in the employee strength. Effective recruitment helps in building a strong relationship among employees belonging from different cultures. Hiring diverse people helps to improve the competitive advantage of the hospitality company. This type of company experiences customers of diverse culture. Therefore the company having efficient employees who are aware of characteristics of different cultures can manage its customers effectively and its helps to reduce the cultural gaps of the people. By performing ethical recruitment process helps to increase the productivity of the company with the help of combing various cultures (Richard, 2000). Comparison The hospitality company follows various policies for maintaining its diversified work force. Many strategies and policies are implemented by the company for this proposes. As per the authors Orlando C. Richard, Tim Barnett, Sean Dwyer and Ken Chadwick different meetings of the company helps to brings its employees of different cultures together. It helps to build a strong relation among them. Whereas the writers like Colleen A. Ward, Stephen Bochner and Adrian Furnham believes that managing cultural shock is an important issue of this type of company as Hospitality firms are expanding their business rapidly for which they have to deal with various cultural shocks. This issue affects the business of Hospitality Company very much. That is why managing cultural shocks essential for the company. Training is a significant way of dealing with the issue of cultural diversity. The authors Loretta Pangb and Simon Wonga are in favor of providing training to the employees effectively for managing various cultures. Top down training approach of the hospitality company helps to develop various leaders who motivate the employees of working together overcoming their cultural differences. Similarly the writers like Orlando C. Richard support this idea of training and development. He also believes that recruiting efficient employees helps to maintain a balance among its employees. Conclusion Hospitality organization needs to manage diversity of culture. It is very vital thing of the companies dealing in the hospitality sector. The organization experiences diversity in its customers as well as employees. In the modern era of globalization hospitality company expands its business and operations throughout the world. Therefore it becomes necessary for the company to have diversified the work force satisfying the need of its customers and providing them excellent service. But managing cultural diversity is one of the important challenges for the company. The hospitality organization deals with the employees of different cultural background. The cultural differences often create many problems in the company which affects its whole business process. Success of the company is based on managing diverse culture and enhancing the benefits of those cultures. Managing cultural shock helps the employees to adapt in different cultural environment. Providing appropriate training to the employees of Hospitality Company improves the understanding capacity of its staffs by providing sufficient knowledge. The company provides equal opportunities to its employees reducing the cultural gaps. Development of flexibility among its staffs involves in managing the diverse workforce. References Richard, O. C., 2000. Racial diversity, business strategy, and firm performance: A resource-based view. Academy of management journal. 43(2). Pp. 164-177. Richard, O. C., Barnett, T., Dwyer, S., & Chadwick, K., 2004. Cultural diversity in management, firm performance, and the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation dimensions. Academy of Management Journal. 47(2). pp. 255-266. Ward, C. A., Bochner, S., and Furnham, A. 2001. The psychology of culture shock. New York: Psychology Press. Wong, S., and Pang, L. 2003. Motivators to creativity in the hotel industry—perspectives of managers and supervisors. Tourism management. 24(5). Pp. 551-559. Read More