Diversity Training and Its Value to a Tourism or Hospitality Organization - Assignment Example

Diversity Training and Its Value to a Tourism or Hospitality Organization al Affiliation Diversity training is an educational tool used by companies and organizations to improve their internal relationships and overall, the well-being of the employees. The main purpose of this training is to educate employees about their different backgrounds, cultures, customs, and their diverse points-of-view. This helps to prevent any disagreements. This training helps emphasize the advantages of employing people with different backgrounds and skills, in order to provide a well-rounded working environment. This training has also benefited organizations by taking advantage of the different skills that the employees possess. Evaluating the success of a diversity training initiative is important for every organization as it helps measure progress. A strategy evaluation can be conducted on any kind of business. It can also be used to assess how employees and employer evaluations are conducted or if employees know what they have been trained on. Evaluating a strategy that works best for an employee may not be that easy so different organizations employ different ways of training their employees. Keywords: diversity training, strategy, employees, organization, strategy What is diversity training? Diversity training is an educational tool used by companies and organization to improve their internal relationships and overall the well-being of the employees. The main purpose of diversity training is to educate employees about their different backgrounds, cultures, customs and their diverse points-of-view, which helps to prevent any disagreements (England, 2009). It helps educate employees and prevents conflicts related to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender. This training helps emphasize on the main advantage of employing people from different backgrounds and with different skills, which is to provide a well-rounded working environment. Diversity training has also benefited organizations by taking advantage of the different skills that the employees possess. This kind of training provides and builds a natural team, builds experience, strengthens the bond between employees, and eliminates unnecessary barriers. Diversity training increases awareness of a workplace and also develops and enhances skills among employees as it helps them communicate. Training is vital for any successful business transaction. Diversity training is a helpful tool to employees who are preparing to complete business transactions in other countries. Cultural differences in a country can be extremely difficult when it comes to communication. This is because of the language barrier, customs misunderstanding, and the different social norms that make it difficult for people to interact. Many companies advocate for diversity training for all their employees. According to England, diversity training “can foster sensitivity to, and tolerance of, differences among employees” (2009, p. 103). It also builds the confidence of employees especially in a company’s effort to create a diverse and harmonious working environment. In the case of a complaint involving harassment or discrimination in an organization, diversity training restores harmony. It also helps in ensuring that the needs of each employee are respected, rather than focusing only on employee obligations. Diversity training accomplishes two goals; first it creates an opportunity to talk about the challenges employees face due to their gender, religion, age, and skills to work together and secondly, it gives employees a broader, less personal perspective. Diversity training has been essential for employees in organizations. As a result of diversity training, there is increased job satisfaction, employees enjoy their work, and the training helps them understand what is expected of them. At the time of the training, the employees get involved and their concerns are solved, which leaves them satisfied (England, 2009). With diversity training, there are fewer law suits. Employees tend to sue the upper management because of discrimination, sexual harassment, and wrongful dismissal. The training helps employees understand a company’s policies. It also helps them accept and understand how to deal with different colleagues. Diversity training programs reduce the disproportionate representation of minorities. This is the most used way to reduce group conflicts, racial discrimination, and harassment. Many organizations have taken up diversity policies that state the value of an organization’s members, creating a harassment-free workplace with no negative behaviors. Diversity training has advantages and disadvantages in an organization. Some of the disadvantages include the fact that there are qualified and unqualified individuals, while diversity in an organization is a necessity; this can act for good or bad (England, 2009). Having a large multinational company requires recruiting many employees of a certain nationality or race depending on the location of the organization. If in the location, there is only one race, the employees may feel left out because the company may consider majority of employees in its operations and the minority maybe left out. This may create disagreements among employees, which is not healthy for any organization. An employer may promote employees from his ethnic group, which leads to employees from other different races being considered unqualified for the job in question. Another disadvantage of diversity training is productivity and unproductivity. A company with a diverse workforce is more productive as the people are from different cultural and religious backgrounds, which leads to generation of ideas and solutions that benefit the company. Nevertheless, this may have a negative effect on some employees. This is because they may be unfamiliar with the idea and this may slow down productivity. Diversity training can also cause economic potential and economic disaster. It is a fact that diversity training helps employees in business, especially in multinationals. This training helps the employees offer skills that can be useful in the organization. If an employee has no interest in an organization, the effect is an economic decline (England, 2009). On the other hand, organizational interest in employees leads to economic potential. There are several factors that make diversity training successful. Top among them are enthusiastic support and involvement of the top-level management that should clearly communicate the importance of diversity training as a business value. In training, its mission and objectives should be highlighted. What is the value of diversity training to either a tourism or hospitality organization? Many employers concerns involve cultural intolerance in the workplace. It’s important for employees to understand the different kinds of cultures as this encourages interaction. The tourism and hospitality sectors have established vast and diverse cultures. This has helped tourism and hospitality companies employ people from all walks of life. In tourism and hospitality organizations, diversity training serves to attain the vision of creating equal employment opportunities for people of different cultures. Diversity training is a training process that should be consistent with a local culture and norms of the local area. This training presents opportunities to incorporate the principles and practices that are useful to the tourism sector. The training helps employees know how to serve guests and guest relations. It creates diverse ideas that help develop the tourism sector. Diversity training has created diversity in the workplace, which allows flexibility and creative thinking. People from diverse cultures and backgrounds bring new ideas that develop the tourism sector, and at the same time, they create opportunities to learn new things. This kind of training improves performance in the workplace. The tourism sector attracts many people hence the need for employee training to satisfy guests. I order for a tourism organization to grow, employees must handle tourists properly and need to get greater exposure to different cultures. Diversity training is interesting and beneficial to the tourism industry. Both the employees and management of tourism organizations get experience and this creates equal opportunities for everyone to experience diversity. Misunderstandings between employees and guests occur regularly. With diversity training however, these situations are slowly ending. This is because it fosters better communication between employees and guests and creates a more harmonious work environment. Using one example (an existing case study) from an organization of your choice, explain the processes and content of diversity training and the participants in the training There is growing awareness of the nature and impact of harassment, violence, and discrimination in organizations. For this reason, organizations have come up with measures to curb this problem. As technology continues to grow, discrimination, prejudice, and stereotypes are a major problem in the society and organizations. Coca cola is an international company that comprises of employees from diverse cultures and nations. The coca cola management has come up with a diversity training program for its employees across the board (Anderson & Billings-Harris, 2010). This training has enhanced the brand image and its legacy over the years. Top of Form Bottom of Form It’s also helps drive innovation and increase productivity and this makes it easier to solve problems that arise. A couple of years ago, the coca cola company settled the hugest settlement ever known as a result of a case regarding racial discrimination (Mello, 2011).This became an eye opener for the company and it came up with a diversity training program for all members in the organization. This training program has reduced employees’ conflicts and strengthened their ability to work together, respect, and value each other. Describe and explain an evaluation strategy for evaluating the success of the diversity training initiative. Evaluating the success of a diversity training initiative is important for every organization as it helps measure progress. Evaluating a strategy that works best for an employee may not be that easy. Different organizations have different ways of training their employees. Evaluation can occur during or after diversity training. A strategy evaluation can be conducted on any kind of business. It can also be used to assess how employees and employer evaluations are conducted or if employees know what they have been trained on (Barksdale & Lund, 2001). Strategy evaluation is used to closely monitor the employees’ progress. It is a business tool used in all levels of a company. This method may be used to improve productivity and make operations smooth. It can also be used to evaluate sales in a company. First, develop a training objective for each and every employee. During the training process, ask the employees to state the learning objectives that they have acquired during the training. Take the objectives and pin them on a chart and at the end of the training, go back to them and have the employees state their objectives. Secondly, ask the employees to create two or three action points that are related to the training. Have each of the employees chose a partner to work with and after the discussion, go back to back to the training room and have them present the action points they come up with (Barksdale & Lund, 2001). During the training, ask questions to check whether the employees understand what they are taught. If there is a misunderstanding, clarify on the on issue. Fourth, incorporate a problem solving session, where employees talk about their problems and solve them together without any discrimination. Finally, come up with a training evaluation form. Give each employee a form and request for feedback on areas that are related to the employees. After the employees fill the forms, go through them and determine areas of training that need to be improved. Name and discuss two reasons why organizations don’t use diversity training. Most diversity training efforts in many American companies are ineffective. Some organizations have even opted not to train their employees. This is because of various reasons the organization or the employee may have. Diversity training may not be regarded as useless, but it is not a mandatory training program. Some companies however advocate for compulsory training for the employees, supervisors, and managers, on how best to relate with each other. To some employees, mandatory training is like forcing them to accept diversity, regardless of their personal reasons or experiences (Borkowski, 2009). Forced training may have unintended consequences. Employees shouldn’t be forced to accept the training. This however does not mean that they shouldn’t try. If employees don’t embrace diversity training, a company may experience difficulties handling clients or other employees. When diversity training is offered on voluntary terms, a company’s business goals are achieved and productivity increases, but with the use of force, employees are unhappy and this reduces the amount of productivity. Diversity training sometimes leads to some employees looking down upon other employees because of their religion, race, gender, or nationality. Many companies are against the training because employees, especially the majority, may get ideas and use them against other employees who are of a minority group. Hemphill and Haines support this by asserting that “some diversity trainers encourage people to discuss things in a group that they would not otherwise talk about and that later has been used as ammunition against them” (1997, p. 50). The minority employees may also feel that employees from a diverse group have more chance of opportunity, which affects their working relationship or destroys one they once had (Tesone, 2010). The workplace has a diverse number of people from different walks of life. It becomes difficult to accommodate the numerous demands from these people. Employees requests based on religion, nationality or any other aspect become tiresome, as the management is forced to respect the people ideas. Translating training materials may also be costly as this translation caters for all the employees in the organization. Poorly managed diversity training does more harm than good. Lack of support from the top-level management may also demoralize employees. Reference List Anderson, R. & Billings-Harris, L. (2010). Trailblazers: How Top Business Leaders are Accelerating Results through Inclusion and Diversity. New Jersey: John Wiley &Sons, Inc. Barksdale, S. & Lund, T. (2001). Rapid Evaluation: Tools, Worksheets, and Job Aids to Help You Develop an Evaluation Strategy, Use the Right Evaluation Approach, Understand and Analyze evaluation Data. Alexandria: American Society for Training and development. Borkowski, N. (2009). Organizational Behavior, Theory, and Design in Health Care. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, LLC. England, D. C. (2009). Essential Guide to Handling Workplace Harassment & Discrimination. Berkeley: Nolo. Hemphill, H. & Haines, R. (1997). Discrimination, Harassment, and the Failure of Diversity Training: What to Do Now. Westport: Quorum Books. Mello, J. (2011). Strategic Human Resource Management. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Tesone, D. V. (2010). Principles of Management for the Hospitality Industry. Burlington: Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More