The Success of the Hotel Industry - Research Paper Example

Australian Hotels Association: Challenges and Benefits of employment of culturally diverse employees in Australian Hospitality (Hotels) Industry Name Institution Name Date Executive Summary Cultural diversity is an important component in organisations that targets international clients. AHA operates in the hospitality industry in Australia and assists hotels to formulate and implement measure advancing the business objectives. AHA is made of eight branches based on States and is required to engage with other stakeholders in advocating for the requirements of the hotel industry. AHA has to continue to engage the hotels in employing diverse employees since these employees have numerous benefits in improving the operation requirements. Employment of diverse employees results in both challenges and benefits to the management of the business establishment. In understanding the role of the diversity, 24 respondents from the eight branches were interviewed. AHA mailing list and telephone follow-up were employed in reaching these respondents. All the 24 respondents accepted to participate and were able to highlight the challenges and benefits of culturally diverse employees. These respondents recommend training, creating awareness and supporting the employees through formulating and implementing different frameworks targeting the employees. Hence, an integrated framework has to be employed in advancing the objectives and requirements of diverse workers in the workplace. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Research Report 4 1.0Introduction 4 1.1 Organisation Background 5 2.0Literature Review 5 3.0 Statement of the Problem and Hypothesis 7 4.0 Methodology 8 Reliability and validity 8 Interview 8 5.0 Findings Analysis 8 5.1 Position in the Hotel 9 5.2 The Benefits of Culturally Diverse Employees 9 5.4 The Challenges of Culturally Diverse Employees in the Hotel Industry 13 5.5 How to improve the contribution of culturally diverse employees in the hospitality industry? 15 6.0 Discussions 16 7.0 Suggestions and Recommendations 17 8.0 Conclusion 19 References 20 Appendices 22 Interviewing Questions 22 Consent Form 23 Research Report 1.0 Introduction The success of the hotel industry depends on the effectiveness and efficiency of the hospitality workers. The demands and numbers of customers in the hotel industry are increasing meaning that more jobs would be created. However, the turnover in these establishments is higher, which is a challenge to the operational requirements (Lu, Samaratunge & Härtel, 2011). The skill shortage forces hotels to employ employees from different backgrounds and in certain situations, the hotels employ employees from overseas. The employees from abroad come with specialty visas, which mean that the trend of cultural diversity continues to become an integral component in the hotel industry. The employment of culturally diverse employees in hotel industry contributes to both challenges and benefits. Without understanding the impact of cultural diversity means that it is a challenge to manage it. The hotel industry impacts the economy, and understanding the variables in the hotel industry in view of culturally diverse workers is crucial. Understanding the challenges and benefits affords the management and Australian hotels to formulate practices and policies that resonate with the changing business environment (Leveson, Joiner & Bakalis, 2009). Acknowledging the cultural diversity enables the management and organisation to review the different variables in ensuring the culturally diverse workers becomes an asset for the company. In the current research, information was collected from managers in the AHA based on the different branches. The purpose of the analysis is to understand the views of AHA towards employing culturally diverse employees with a focus on challenges and benefits. Obtaining the information enables the management to create policies and practices that acknowledge the diversity, and also allows the management to manage the culturally diverse employees appropriately. 1.1 Organisation Background Australian Hotels Association (AHA) is a federation of not for profit employer organisations that targets hospitality and hotel industry. AHA operates based on the legislations and standards of respective State Laws and Fair Work Act. The role of AHA is furthering and protecting the member’s interests throughout Australia, which can be seen as lessees or operators of hotels, owners, and other hospitality businesses. The areas that AHA concentrates include the gaming and wagering, entertainment, beverages, food, and accommodation. Other areas include social benefits, advocating the economic situations, training, education, promoting of business activity and maintenance of law. It means that AHA offers see the numerous requirements and foundations of hotel and hospitality industry. AHA traced its roots to 1839 when business owners realised the business challenges and importance of coming together to advance the wider objectives of hospitality and hotel industry. To advance the requirements of the owners, eight different AHA have been established in each territory or each state. These state based organisations and associations support and fund AHA national body through focusing on the National Board. Each of the state bodies meets frequently to advice on the future of the industry and strategies to influence the formulation and implementation of policies and procedures. AHA established Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA), which focuses on specific interests in the hospitality and hotel industry. 2.0 Literature Review Diversity defines the characteristics that make people be subjective or objective different based on fundamentals such as language and race (Lu, Samaratunge & Härtel, 2012). Diversity focuses on the difference between people in two common ways, which are the visible factors such as physical abilities, mental abilities, race, ethnicity, gender, and age in addition to invisible factors such as learning style, personality, religion, income and education (Hutchings, De Cieri & Shea, 2011). Understanding these unique variables and characteristics are important in developing and implementing appropriate measures to ensure organisational effectiveness. Organisational diversity contributes to positive effects that include more systematic flexibility, quality, and creativity, attract people while also raising numerous negative effects that include intergroup conflicts, frustration, low job satisfaction, and higher turnover (Crossman & Clarke, 2010). When focusing on visible characterisation, the research has been based on gender diversity, race, and age. While the societies continue to develop, the focus continues to concentrate on the ethnicity and race diversity (Syed & Kramar, 2009). Furthermore, the focus of these studies has been in the US and fewer studies have been done in Australian (Hutchings, De Cieri & Shea, 2011). The skewed nature of the information means that ethnic diversity among Australian hotels and hospitality industry is minimal. The societies continue to become diverse meaning cultural workers influences the working conditions and requirements in the hospitality industry. The cultural workers can be productive depending on the provisions and support they receive at the workplace (Loosemore & Andonakis, 2007). Hotel and hospitality management continuously employ ethnically diverse employee workforce since these employees can advance the wider objectives of the establishment. If employees are managed appropriately, the establishment can benefit immensely. The advantages and benefits of ethnic diversity at the workplace are well documented. Cultural diversity leads to positive performance provided the employees are treated fairly, which improves the overall requirements of the organisation (Hutchings, De Cieri & Shea, 2011). The quality of ideas and solutions are comparatively higher compared with groups that are homogeneous in nature. In addition, diverse employees have the capacity and ability to access additional information from informational networks beyond the working environment. Hence, a range of experience and knowledge is evident in the cultural diverse teams (Mapedzahama et al. 2012). Therefore, cultural diversity is important since it contributes to positive reputation and provides avenues for effective ideas and solutions to numerous operational requirements. Even though cultural diversity has been associated with positives, there are also negatives. Cultural diversity at the workplace may be linked to unlikely employee promotion lower organisational commitment and lower career satisfaction (Johnstone & Kanitsaki, 2008). In addition, the diversity contributes to emotional conflicts and increased rates of absenteeism. It is imperative to note the levels of these negatives are limited to certain scenarios including the influencing variables (Hutchings, De Cieri & Shea, 2011). For example, an organisation that embraces “open-door” policy can easily address any complications and perceptions compared to alternative framework. It means that the management of an organisation can influence the entire requirements and purposes of ensuring the objectives and requirements of the organisation are met and fulfilled. 3.0 Statement of the Problem and Hypothesis Cultural diversity (ethnicity at the workplace) is an important component in furthering and advancing the objective of the workplace. The high workplace turnover means that analysing the hotel industry relative to workers diversity is crucial (Loosemore & Andonakis, 2007). However, it is important to analyse the benefits and challenges of ethnicity in the hospitality industry (Hutchings, De Cieri & Shea, 2011). The globalisation and internationalisation of hotel industry and the need of employing diverse employees mean that a specific research should be done to understand the merits and merits, and also to provide recommendations, and approaches to advance the hotel and hospitality industry. The following are the hypothesis the paper aims to complete: i. What are the benefits of culturally diverse employees in the hotel industry? ii. What are the challenges of culturally diverse employees in the hotel industry? 4.0 Methodology A group of questions was used to collect the information. A form of a interview questions was employed in collecting the views. Reliability and validity Credibility and trustworthy is important when it comes to collecting qualitative information because the subjective nature of the information may limit the capacity of the feedback (Loosemore & Andonakis, 2007). Trustworthily depends on credibility, transferability, conformability, and dependability. Triangulation will be used to cement the credibility objective while contextual analysis employed in transferability. The contextual analysis involves discussing and presenting information on the entire research process. The conformability is the neutrality of the findings while dependability informs on the consistency of the information and data. It means that these numerous fundamentals and frameworks are considered in completing the research project (Loosemore & Andonakis, 2007). Interview An interview of 24 respondents was conducted through using AHA mailing list. Three individuals were targeted in each of the branches and questions around the benefits and challenges of workers’ cultural diversity were asked. Numerous phases were involved which started with contacting the respondents through telephone and arranging for a face-to-face or telephone based communication provided the entire processes would be effective. The researcher was able to collect information from the 24 respondents and themes were generated from the conversations and exchanges. Graphs, tables, and other frameworks were employed in analysing the data and writing the report. 5.0 Findings Analysis The following section analyses the results obtained after interviewing the 24 respondents: 5.1 Position in the Hotel The following chart summarises the position of the respondents in the hotel industry Figure 1: Position in the Hotel Out of the 24 respondents, ten respondents were human resource managers while 5 were general managers. Three were operations managers; four were supervisors while two were chief executive officers. Even though the positions are diverse in nature, it involves engaging and interacting with the employees from the different cultural backgrounds. 5.2 The Benefits of Culturally Diverse Employees The following are some of the benefits the respondents pointed Figure 2: Benefits of Culturally Diverse Employees a. Language skills 20 respondents stated that language skill is important in employing culturally diverse employees. The respondents stated that employees coming from different cultural backgrounds could communicate in more than one language. It means that when employees can communicate with the customers in their respective languages, the customers may be more satisfied translating to improved service provision. Some of the comments from the respondents include: Respondent 6: employees from different backgrounds can communicate in different languages, which is an advantage to the organisation. A customer can request the services and products easily through the use of native language or professional language rather than the need for translating. Respondent 13: cultural diverse employees can use the terms and wordings that are common to specific culture meaning the communication process becomes efficient. These comments indicate that cultural diverse employees are beneficial in improving customer service and advances organisation objectives since the employees easily resonate and engages with the customers. b. Diverse knowledge and opinions 21 respondents pointed to the impact of diverse knowledge and opinions in advancing the requirements of the organisation. The diversity of the employees and their experiences and knowledge in different areas contributes to the overall improvement of organisation effectiveness. The culturally diverse employees come with different opinions regarding a subject matter meaning focusing on such specific knowledge improves the capacity of the organisation. The following are some of the comments from the respondents: Respondent 9: employees from different backgrounds come with different techniques and approaches of completing thing. The diversity of the employees means that they can provide customised services based on the origins of the clients/customers. For example, diverse employees can offer opinions about serving cuisines and satisfying the requests of the customers. Hence, hotels targeting international customers require culturally diverse employees to improve the knowledge, capacities, and opinions at the workplace. c. Cultural diversity and experience Cultural diversity and experience are integral in advancing the requirements of the workplace. 23 out of the 25 respondents stated that cultural experience and diversity is important to furthering the needs of hotels, and wider objectives of the hotel industry. The experience relates to direct engagement with the customers through customising the services, and the uniqueness of the customers is included in the different strategy objectives. Hence, the experience is important, but the cultural diverse, involved experience is crucial to furthering overall objectives of the hotel and hospitality industry. The following are some of the comments from the respondents: Respondent 1: employees from different ethnicities are able to engage with the customers easily because they have an understanding of customer’s backgrounds. For example, the ethnicity diverse employees can communicate and address areas that may raise problems and complications such as views of Middle East customers compared with the expectations of Western cultures. The diversity of the employees provides opinions and experiences on addressing the requirements of the customers appropriately. Respondent 24: some of the employees have firsthand experience of different nationalities meaning the services can be customised based on the uniqueness of nationality of the clients. d. Superior work ethics 15 respondents stated that the culturally diverse employees have superior work ethics. It may be attributed to the reason that made them move to Australia to seek for employment or fundamentals pushing the employees to work harder. Respondent 7: many employees come from disadvantaged backgrounds forcing these employees to work harder compared to Australian nationalities. Respondent 8: sometimes the Australian employees are lazy in addition to the lack of extensive experience and exposure to different cultures. Cultural diverse employees understand their unique strengths and weaknesses meaning the diverse employees can easily work to address the weakness, which translates to improved work ethics. It means that the unique nature of the employees forces the employees to work harder and to address the unique requirements of the workplace. The diverse employees try to address the shortcomings of their backgrounds through working harder and be responsive to changing workplace dynamics. e. Willingness to advance in the hospitality industry Eight respondents pointed to the willingness to advance in the hospitality industry. It is imperative to note that most cultural diverse employees come from Asian countries that hold different perspectives on working in the hospitality industry. The approach of Asian countries towards the hospitality industry is different in that the Asians view working in the hospitality industry as a profession, which is different from the case of Australians. These are some of the comments: Respondent 10: the training and development of the employees in Asian and Australian countries are different including the entire perception. The Asian countries employees embrace hospitality related work as a profession while the Australian believes it is a side hustle to complement the learning objectives. Respondent 13: the Australians feel that the hotels and hospitality work is for failed individuals or individuals who do not have a future in other employment opportunities. Hence, the Australians lack the urge and capacity to further hospitality industry related jobs for the long term. 5.4 The Challenges of Culturally Diverse Employees in the Hotel Industry The following graph summarises the views of the respondents when it comes to challenges associated with culturally diverse employees in the hotel industry. Figure 3: Challenges of Culturally Diverse Employees f. Intercultural complications All the respondents pointed to intercultural complications. These complications include language, beliefs, ethics, moral, and ideological perspective. The views of some of the respondents are: Respondent 3: conflict in language and ideologies creates more problems because some of these values are driven by the social and religious framework. For example, Islam is against pork and assigning a Muslim the activity of preparing port creates problems. Respondent 21: conflict in cultural views creates more problems to the developmental benefits in the hotel industry. g. Operational issues The operational issues were indicated by 23 of the respondents. These issues can affect the quality and outcome of any activity in the industry: Respondent 17: people from different ethnicity do things differently depending on the teaching and training. For example, making a bed is a simple thing, but people from Asia may make the bed differently compared with the Australians. The entire process may result in providing poor quality service, which affects the operational objectives. h. Lack of proficient in the English language In the hospitality industry, language is an integral component especially English in Australia since it is the official language. 22 respondents stated that lack of proficient in the English language inhibits fulfilling the demands of the customers. Respondent 13: Effective communication is important since it prevents conflicts and misunderstanding at the workplace. However, the lack of proficiency contributes to the ineffective completion of activities such as taking customer orders. Respondent 19: employees, customers and other stakeholders have to work together and assist each other in achieving operational goals and objectives. Achievement of these things is only possible when the employees can communicate and share ideas easily. However, the lack of neutral language means that the employees are forced to use sign language, which creates additional problems. 5.5 How to improve the contribution of culturally diverse employees in the hospitality industry? When the respondents were asked about strategies to integrate effectively culturally diverse employees in the hotel and hospitality industry, the managers and respondents pointed on numerous processes and measures, which can be implemented. These are some of the views and comments from the respondents: Respondent 3: the employees should be trained and development to understand better methods of advancing the requirements of the customers and other stakeholders. Respondent 6: the employees have to be encouraged to learn English since it the most common used language in Australia Respondent 11: the employees can be tasked with activities that do not require direct engagement with the customers such as laundry to address their communication challenges. Respondent 14: team building and team bonding are crucial to ensure each of the employees understand the strengths and weaknesses of the others and formulate measures that capitalise on the strengths. Respondent 17: duties should be assigned based on cultural ideologies of the employees. It requires certain levels of perseverance and understanding weaknesses in developing an appropriate framework for engagement. It means that activities such as preparing pork products should not be given to persons whose ideologies are against the products and services. 6.0 Discussions Advancing a diverse workforce is important to any organisation because it addresses numerous legislations such as the anti-discrimination laws and can advance the requirements of the organisations. Productivity improves when diversity is integrated into operational requirements of the organisation (Hutchings, De Cieri & Shea, 2011). Employees come with skills and experiences unique to specific areas, which mean these areas, are improved resulting in overall growth in productivity. The aspect of productivity is directly linked with bringing together ideas, opinions, and experiences. Language and ideological differences is a major problem and complication (Bell et al. 2011). The employees from different nationality and cultural background have different perceptions, and effective communication can address the complications. However, poor communication and language barriers limit the capacity of the employees to perform, and the solution is providing programs and frameworks to encourage diversity. The ideological differences have to be considered and measures put in place to acknowledge and respect the diversity (Shen et al. 2009). For instance, some people are against certain products such as port and alcohol and understanding the cultural background of an employee would allow the management to allocate the responsibilities appropriately. Hence, understanding and appreciating language and the ideological difference are crucial in creating an effective and transformative framework to further the requirements of the organisation. Opinions and experiences are important in creating a productive and responsive organisation. The origin of the employees contributes to making the right decisions based on available data (Solomon, Katz & Lovel, 2008). Bringing people from different backgrounds enables handling an issue in different ways, which forms a basis for making informed decisions and choices (Hutchings, De Cieri & Shea, 2011). Appreciating experiences and opinions is important and integrating these views to the management of the hotels is crucial. Hence, appreciating the diverse experiences and opinions are paramount in ensuring a responsive and productive organisation is established and maintained. 7.0 Suggestions and Recommendations The following are some of the recommendations and suggestions to address complications and challenges that may be associated with working with culturally diverse employees: AHA should advise the hotels and hospitality sector to widen the recruitment base. Relying on the immediate geographic area is not advisable and limits the requirement of diversity (Saltmarsh & Swirski, 2010). Organisations should use an array of recruitment methods such as online job boards to increase the number applicants. Targeting publications on minorities is also important in ensuring the diverse population is engaged in furthering the cultural diverse recruitment process. AHA should encourage hotels and establishments to offer language training. Improving diversity may include providing and supporting the employees to learn English as a second language (Abdelkerim & Grace, 2012). Having such a program and framework affords an organisation to remove the language barriers, which may limit recruitment purposes (Hutchings, De Cieri & Shea, 2011). Furthermore, it is possible to access and engage qualified applicant whose limitations are language barriers, which may be addressed through the training program. Creating awareness and encouraging participation to openings in the hotel industry is important. The current staffs had to be informed of the opportunities and encouraged to apply or participate in these opportunities. Current staff should be allowed to apply for promotion to encourage internal growth and also motivation. Focusing on these approaches is important in that it reduces overall recruiting experiences (Syed & Kramar, 2009). Therefore, creating awareness and encouraging the culturally diverse employees to participate motivates the employees and also creates a positive reputation. Cultural diversity at the workplace is one thing and discussing the benefits is also another important aspect (Hutchings, De Cieri & Shea, 2011). For example, telling the Asian employee the reason of being positioned as a sales representative or customer care is to engage and address the requirements of Asian customer in addition to other customers (Syed & Pio, 2010). The employees are also required to understand their job descriptions and other fundamentals, which can be employed in furthering the objectives and requirements of the hotel industry. These recommendations indicate that AHA should play the leading role in developing policies and frameworks to further the requirements of diversity. Implementing measures such as widening the recruitment base, establishing language training, creating awareness and engaging the employees are important. The purpose is to highlight what are unique rather than focusing on differences. Hence, an inclusive framework is crucial in benefiting from the culturally diverse workforce. 8.0 Conclusion The culturally diverse framework in recruiting and managing employees in the workplace has both benefits and challenges. The benefits include language skills, diverse knowledge and opinions, cultural diversity and experience, superior work ethics, and willingness to advance in the hospitality industry. The shortcomings include intercultural complications, operational issues, and lack of proficient in English. The discussions and presentation by the respondents both to the benefits that can be obtained through concentrating on the strengths while also implementing measures that can counter the weaknesses. AHA as a leading non-profit organisation should encourage the hotels to embrace numerous measures and frameworks to encourage culturally diverse workforce. Some of these recommendations include widening the recruitment base, offer language training, creating awareness and embracing cultural diversity through encouraging the employees to apply for in-house benefits. Therefore, a single framework cannot suffice, but different strategies are required in furthering the diversity objectives at the workplace. References Abdelkerim, A. A., & Grace, M. (2012). Challenges to employment in newly emerging African communities in Australia: A review of the literature. 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Rethinking the in/visibility of race within the Australian nursing workplace. Nursing Inquiry, 19(2), 153-164. Saltmarsh, S., & Swirski, T. (2010). ‘Pawns and prawns’: international academics’ observations on their transition to working in an Australian university. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 32(3), 291-301. Shen, J., Chanda, A., D'netto, B., & Monga, M. (2009). Managing diversity through human resource management: An international perspective and conceptual framework. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(2), 235-251. Solomon, F., Katz, E., & Lovel, R. (2008). Social dimensions of mining: Research, policy and practice challenges for the minerals industry in Australia. Resources Policy, 33(3), 142-149. Syed, J., & Kramar, R. (2009). Socially responsible diversity management. Journal of Management & Organization, 15(05), 639-651. Syed, J., & Kramar, R. (2009). What is the Australian model for managing cultural diversity? Personnel Review, 39(1), 96-115. Syed, J., & Pio, E. (2010). Veiled diversity? Workplace experiences of Muslim women in Australia. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 27(1), 115-137. Appendices Interviewing Questions The following is the interviewing questions used to guide the data collection process: ii. What is your position in the hotel? iii. What among the following do you think are the benefits of culturally diverse employees (and comment)? a. Language skills b. Diverse knowledge and opinions c. Cultural diversity and experience d. Superior work ethics e. Willingness to advance in the hospitality industry iv. What are some of the challenges of culturally diverse employees in the hotel industry (and comment)? a. Intercultural complications b. Operational issues c. Lack of proficient in the English language v. What do you think should be done to improve the contribution of culturally diverse employees in the hospitality industry? Consent Form Australian Hotels Association: Challenges and Benefits of employment of culturally diverse employees in Australian Hospitality (Hotels) Industry I have been provided with a copy of the Information Letter, expalijing the project. I have been given the opportunity to ask questions and any questions have been answered to my satisfaction. I understand that participation in the project involve: Participation in an interview Answering array of questions on cultural diversity and hotel/hospitality industry I understand that the information provided will be kept confidential, will only be used for the purpose of this project and I will not be identified in any written assignment or presentation of the results of this project. I understand that I am free to withdraw from further participation at any time, without explanation or penalty. I freely agree to participate in the project. ---------------------------------------------------- Name ---------------------------------------------------- Signature ---------------------------------------------------- Date Read More