Management and Leadership Across Cultures - Essay Example

?MLAC: Management and Leadership Across Cultures Table of Contents Introduction 3 Issues Faced By Hilton 5 Theories on Leadership, Motivation and Management for Managing Diversity 6 Strategies Implemented At the Hilton Hotels 10 Strategic Options 14 Recommendations and Conclusion 16 References 17 Bibliography 22 Introduction Internationalization has given rise to the increasing awareness of the managers of the hospitality and the tourism sectors to focus upon the various issues that relates to leadership qualities of the people in the organizations. Managers of the organizations need to possess the necessary skills as well as knowledge through which they can direct as well as motivate their staffs in the organization in diverse cultural backgrounds (LS Business School, 2011). It is worth stating that the practice of the leadership is generally universal across the cultures, however the way it is being implemented by the various organizations depends upon the diverse culture. When the literature on leadership is concerned then it is normally viewed that it presents certain conflicting views regarding the transferability of the behaviors of the leader’s behaviors and the processes in various cultures (Dorfman & Et. Al., 2002). With the rise in the globalization, a few of the successful business houses may escape requirement to work across the cultures. However, the well known fact states that even if the organizations don’t work with the foreign bodies abroad they would still face the challenges to recognize ‘mono-cultural workforce’. Most of the businesses in the South West are utilizing the foreign personnel at farms and care homes for the purpose of operating at the maximum effectiveness. When the business units tend to move towards the cross-cultural business environment then it becomes necessary for them to be aware of the way culture affects the workplace. If any organization faces the problem of cultural differences then this might impact the inter-personnel communication, the health and the safety procedures along with the project management (Kwintessential, n.d.). In this context, for the research paper Hilton Worldwide Hotels have been selected. Hilton Worldwide offers its travelers the best accommodations, values as well as services. It was in the year 1919 in Cisco when Conrad Hilton purchased his foremost hotel. At present, the hotel has been expanded geographically and thus tends to provide various facilities for the purpose of enhancing the experience of the guests. In the present day, the hotel has been thriving at becoming a pioneer in the global hospitality sector, extending the lodging sector from hotels and/or resorts to comprehensive stay suites along with hotel that has been priced reasonably (Hilton Worldwide, 2010). It is worth mentioning that there are around 530 hotels as well as resorts that are sited in 76 countries in six continents. It is the workforce of the Hilton who forms the part of the global family helping it to enhance the journey of the travelers (Hilton Worldwide, 2010). This report will aim at understanding the way the managers at Hilton Hotels approach the issues associated with management, leadership and motivation with culturally varied business environment. The report will be supported with relevant theories, models as well as concepts in order to evaluate the issues. It will further highlight the strategic option that is available so that the staffs and the guests can be administered effectively. Further, through this report recommendations on the method of improving leadership and management processes will be demonstrated. Issues Faced By Hilton The Hilton Group is well recognized as being one of the leading names in the hotel, hospitality along with gaming industry. It has invested its money into diverse online reservation travel enterprises. It has also expanded its operations such as of ownership of the companies producing its furniture. Although the company is in strong position and has numerous strengths, it also faces several challenges and issues related to management, leadership and motivation. The reason behind this can be visualized as being working at culturally diverse organization. It has been noted that the company may face workers’ strike and other related disruption in its operations. The reason behind this is the political and legal disruption. The issue related to strike can be considered as the leadership and management issue. In addition to this issue, the hotel may as well face various cultural issues since it is expanded into various countries of the world. Understanding the customers who are culturally diverse itself demonstrates a challenge for the Hilton Hotels. Such problems tend to erupt when the organization operating at diverse environment needs to work in group. Therefore, such kind of dilemma requires to be addressed and thus attempts needs to be made to solve them at the earliest. Theories on Leadership, Motivation and Management for Managing Diversity There are various definitions of the term ‘leadership’. It is defined in conditions of the traits, behaviors, role relationship, interactions, as well as the occupation of a management position. Various theories of the leadership can be explained for the purpose of understanding the influence of culture on the efficacy of the leadership. There are numerous approaches such as the trait approach, skill approach, style approach, and situation approach. However, in addition to this the new theories of the leadership are transformational, charismatic and the visionary theories (Ozdemir, 2010). It is because of the theories of the transformational as well as charismatic leadership that intend at providing insights into the features of the successful leadership. On the flip side, it has further been noted that the various theories of the leadership consists of numerous weaknesses because of which their capacity to explain the concepts of leadership tends to reduce (Yulk, 1999). There are various theories of leadership that can be used by Hilton Hotels in order to manage the cultural diversity at the workplace. It has been found that the transactional as well as the transformational leadership has been quite effectual in motivating the employees in the organizations. Both the kinds of leaderships are not equally exclusive and can be seen to be at a continuum. As opined by Bass (1985), both the transformational as well as the transactional leadership comprises of complementary constructs instead of polar constructs. Worth noticing in this regard is that the transactional leaders tend to make utilization of the reward systems as one of the control related mechanisms so that the exchange relationship that has been established can be carried out for the purpose of outwardly motivating the followers. The case of transformational leaders has however been a bit different when compared to the transactional leaders. The transformational leaders tend to make use of the rewards as one of the crucial components of the systems that has been designed for the purpose of increasing the commitment level of the followers and to motivate the followers internally (Liu, 2007). In this context, it can be stated that Hilton Hotels need to have transformational leaders who can motivate the followers internally. This kind of leaders put more stress upon their symbolic skills for revealing the visions and thus creates certain meaning for their followers. These leaders tend to encourage their followers to do more of the task than expected and thus this leader’s show their confidence that the followers are capable of doing the assigned task (Matveev & Lvina, 2007). Motivation problems in an organization are also linked to the culture. Five foundations of motivation can be considered for the purpose of finding the association between the culture and the motivation. The employees in an organization are motivated by mission, a share of value creation, agenda control, learning and reputation. There seems to be a close linkage between the culture and the motivation. It is through the sturdily incorporated culture that employees can be effectively motivated (Towers, 2006). Motivating the employees can also be considered as one of the factors to be considered for gaining success in the organization. The organization can develop in a healthy way if the employees are motivated. The reason behind this is that employees are the key to the success of the firm and if the foundation is strong then the overall structure tends to be stronger. There are various ways to motivate the staffs in a culturally diverse organization. One of them has been the Herzberg’s theory of motivation. Since Herzberg has been the leader in the theory of motivation so this theory can be considered for the purpose of the overall study. According to him, the two areas leading to the job satisfaction are hygiene as well as the motivational factors. The hygiene factors include company policies along with working conditions, salary, interpersonal relations and supervision. The motivational factors include recognition, achievement and advancement; work itself and responsibility (Arab British Academy for Higher Education, n.d.). It can be depicted that even if the hygiene factors may not be the central factor leading to the satisfaction of the employees, this factor needs to be considered first for creating the environment leading to employee’s satisfaction as well as motivation. The Hilton Hotel generally follows the significant aspects of the motivation theories. However, if Hilton Hotels consider the above motivation theory as stated by Herzberg then it will be easier for them to manage the culturally diverse workplace (Arab British Academy for Higher Education, n.d.). In this context, it can be stated that Hilton Hotels need to focus upon the hygiene factors in order to motivate the personnel who face the issues related to cultural diversity. The leaders can play an essential role in this regards. The organizations are facing tremendous changes because of the development of the global business activities affecting the management of the businesses. Therefore, in order to succeed and for the purpose of gaining the competitive advantage the businesses are requiring the managers having global management experience i.e. multicultural experience. Managers need to adopt managerial philosophies as well as the style of behaviors for achieving the success in managerial performance. There are various management approaches assisting the organizations to manage the cultural diversity. They are bureaucracy, Theory X and Y as well as management systems. If an organization pursues bureaucratic management style then in relation to the cultural aspects, it can generate misinterpretation among the people from diverse cultural backgrounds. The differences in the management style may differ across the different cultures and thus bring misunderstandings if they are not managed in a proper manner. Similarly, the other two theories i.e. Theory X and Theory Y as well as management systems may also bring misunderstanding if they are not managed well. There isn’t any unique theory that can dominate the thinking of the management. New perspectives are developed for the purpose of facing the challenges of the organization in a proper manner in the dynamic global business environment. This depicts that the management style of Hilton Hotels may vary from one culture to another and the choice of the style needs to be aligned with the organizational objectives (Olum, 2004). Since the organization has sought tremendous changes in the cultural setting, it becomes crucial for the organization’s leaders as well as the supervisors to comprehend cultural diversity and its likely impact upon the organization. When one group of people are represented in one social systems with that of unusual group affiliations having cultural importance then it is referred as cultural diversity. The researchers have made an attempt to classify the diversity into primary as well as secondary dimensions. The primary research consists of age, gender, race, physical abilities and sexual orientation. It is through the primary dimensions that help the individuals to shape their self-image along with the world view that is fundamental in nature. It also has a greater influence upon the groups in the workplace and in the society. The secondary elements on the other hand influence the individual’s self-definition and self-esteem. It includes educational background, work experience along with marital status, income, location and religious belief among others. It is important to consider the influence of the diversity on the performance of the organization. According to the Cox Model, the various aspects such as the individual, the group and the organization tend to interact for the purpose of impacting the set of individual related outcomes thus influencing the outcomes of the organization. In addition to this, the affective as well as the achievement outcomes get influenced with the individual as well as the organizational outcomes. At this point, as explained by Cox, the term ‘affective outcome’ tends to determine the way people feel and think regarding their jobs as well as their employers. It is a well known fact that an individual who feels that he is being valued at the organization will tend to contribute more towards the achievement of the goals of the organization. Diversity in the organization may have certain direct effects. For instance, the various processes such as the creativity, communication and the problem solving tend to get affected because of the diversity. It is to be stated that these processes are quite important to the organization and diversity may complement or offer challenge to beat to these processes (Moon, 1997). Strategies Implemented At the Hilton Hotels In this context, Hilton Hotels is taken for the purpose of analysis. It has been evident that under the leadership of Stephen F. Bollenbach, who is the chief executive officer of the company, the Hilton Family of Hotels has outperformed and has grown to include around 2800 hotels consisting of 485000 rooms in approximately 80 countries. It was when he exercised leadership that the company was successful in becoming the pioneer in the hospitality sector (Ehotelier, 2006). It has been evident that in order to manage the culturally different employees in the organization, various programmes are being initiated so that they can accomplish their objectives and thus gain a position in the world market by making use of the employees’ potential. It has further been evident that the hotels focus on the development of the local website that would consist of local contents. It is through the global marketing alliance that exists between the Hilton International and the Hilton Hotel Corporation that helped them to extend the number of hotels that is run by both the companies all over the world to more than 2700 out of which around 500 are branded. This kind of localization strategy helps the company to manage its business in an effective manner (Thorney, 2005). In order to celebrate along with the encouragement of the diverse workforce, the hotel celebrated a week long international celebration where various activities were held. The events were planned in such a way that it provided the team members a chance to increase the consciousness level of their cultural as well as ethnic heritage. It also assisted them in increasing their awareness regarding other cultures. As opined by Dorothy Hayden-Watkins who has been the senior vice president of diversity "This is more than fun and games; our objective with these events is to raise awareness of our diversity efforts and principles” (Hilton Worldwide, 2009). He further opined that by arranging for such events the diverse workforce in the organization can be motivated to a greater extent and thus they can serve the business as well as the customers in a better manner. The motivated staff’s can further help the Hotel to maintain the competitive position in the era of competition. He further affirmed that by respecting the different cultures and views, a positive work environment can be created and thus this tends to affect the output of the Hilton Hotels. During such events, at the headquarters of the Hilton in Beverly Hills, the employees engaged themselves in various activities and the cafeteria of the hotel also demonstrated the cuisine of the seven continents. Other activities included testing knowledge of various customs and traditions, diversity games, arts and crafts display and others. The event also highlighted the ‘Middle Eastern cultures’, ‘Asian and Pacific Islanders heritage’, ‘European cultures’ and ‘Native American and Hispanic heritage’ (Hilton Worldwide, 2009). It has been noted that Esprit programme is operated by the Hilton International under which the HR management framework resides. Esprit is the Spirit of Hilton that tends to motivate the staffs and make the jobs more pleasant and rewarding. It is worth to be mentioned that the main elements in the success of the Esprit are idea of recognition, rewards along with respect. It supports the various training and development initiatives along with the reward programme providing the employees wider scope to learn and grow. Furthermore, it is to be mentioned that one of the important elements of the business strategy of the international hotel based chains has been to play a vital role in developing the country in which it operates. Almost all the international hotel chains try to recruit great number of the staffs locally and also try to build national capability and capacity. One such example has been the Hilton Groups that initiated the Elavator programmes for the purpose to fast-track development. It has also tried to employ graduates from specific nationalities that are relevant to their regions. Out of the 18 General Managers in Egypt, 13 are now Egyptians. It has also initiated various other programmes that can assist them in managing the diversity. One such programme is Hilton Hotels Corporation’s Diversity Policies. It has been developed by the Corporation’s Board of Directors as directed by its Diversity Committee. The mission statement of the policy stated the creation and maintenance of the diverse workplace culture so that the business value of the corporation gets strengthened and asserts the hotel as the leader in the hospitality sector in the world economy. It is worthwhile to mention that this diversity proposal at Hilton Hotel Corporation has been established so that the hotel can produce quantifiable and qualitative outcome that would be far better than just merely going further than the founding and maintenance of the diverse workplace. The hotel believes at implementing the diversity principles in their day-to-day business operations. It is worth to be mentioned that most of the workforce as well as the management levels of the Hilton Family of Hotels consist of minorities along with women. In addition to this, the hotel has ‘proprietary diversity training programmes’ at top to bottom level of the management. The company also centers upon the identification of the top performers and thus tries to nurture internal line managers. The hotel policy has been designed in such a way so that the talent of the organization can be retained for a longer time and thus aims at bringing cohesiveness among the employees. When the team members outperform, they are rewarded for their good performance and for the achievements of the targets. Whenever any team member joins Hilton, they are communicated regarding the total compensation package (Boardman & Barbato, 2008). It has further been noted that communication plays a vital role in the organization. If the employees are allowed to express their suppressed feelings they tend to work more effectively. Hilton Hotels have developed Hilton Exchange which is a forum where the representatives of the team members tries to express their ideas and thus communicate inside the organization. The Hilton Exchange works as the staff liaison committee operating at the hotel level and thus arguing on important developments as well as decision on important matters in the organization (Boardman & Barbato, 2008). When the organization such as Hilton Hotels operate at various nations it becomes utmost important for the organization to manage the diversity of the cultures and work in a coherent manner. At such times, it becomes essentially important to consider various theories and thus manage such problems that tend to hamper the effective operation of the organization. When people of various cultures need to work in a group, conflicts are certain to occur in that organization. This triggers the need of an effective leader who can manage such conflicts. It is the leadership style which is a new area requiring cultural intelligence to lead various cultures. The way, individuals have unusual view as well as belief regarding the favored styles of leadership, similarly cultures also possess different preferences for certain leadership related approaches. For instance, the Dutch leaders and organizations practiced participative leadership style where the managers tend to make others involve in the decision making process and considered it as an important way of working. Conversely, Romania depicted the participative leadership style as one of the weaknesses among the firms and authoritative leadership was conceived as one of the strengths for this country’s organizations. Therefore, it becomes central to have knowledge, flexibility and motivation so that the suitable leadership style can be used for any kind of context. When one has the proper knowledge of the kind of leadership style to apply for a particular culture then the benefits that are derived may be numerous. The companies may gain profits and competitive advantages over the other firms. In addition to this global expansion becomes possible since one has the ability to lead the culturally diverse workforce in an effective manner (Romania Insiders, 2011). Strategic Options In order to identify as well as manage the strategic threat in the most effective manner, there is requirement of the collection of strategic options. Instead of creating growth options the management can focus upon the creation of the options for strategies so that the strategies can be redirected in the established line of business (Raynor, 2007). The other strategic options that can be made available for Hilton Hotels are to make use of the Six Sigma concept. It tends to focus on the right kind of training at the right time and place in the right amount and quality so that the right results can be delivered that aligns with the already existing plans and budgets. It is important for the leaders of the Hilton Hotels to innate a culture of trust so that all the energies are redirected into constructive as well as positive work. Through Six Sigma, Hilton can aim at continuous improvements in its managerial problems that may crop up at any point of time in the organization. It is a known fact that behavior as well as the culture can affect the success of Six Sigma projects and in the degree of achievements. If the behaviors and cultures are not recognized and managed in a proper manner, Hilton may loose huge amount of time. Therefore, behaviors and cultures need to be managed effectively so that Six Sigma can be effectively applied and cross-cultures can be efficiently served across the country (Mathews, 2004). Recommendations and Conclusion Diverse workforce tends to reflect the transforming world and the marketplace. When the organization consists of the diverse work teams then it tends to provide value to the organization. It can be recommended to the Hilton Hotels that it should try to respect the individual disparity so that they can gain various gains. If diversity management is implemented at Hilton Hotels then a fair and safe environment can be created and each individual worker will get the benefits to access the challenges and the chances. Various tools of management need to be used so that a single individual gets educated regarding the diversity and its issues. Adaptation to the diversity is quite important. Although, Hilton has been trying its best to manage the diverse culture workforce in the organization, however it needs to educate and teach all the members on the ways to adapt to the diversity issues so that they can be successful. It is a known fact that the culture can even bring barriers in good performance because it tends to reduce the effectiveness of the communication among the employees and the various stakeholders. 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