Managing Cultural Diversity for a Competitive Advantage in Hospitality Industry - Essay Example

A Critical Analysis of How to Gain Competitive Advantage and Managing in Hospitality Industry through Management of Cultural Diversity By of student] [Presented to] [Name of institution] [Date] INTRODUCTION The increasing reach of human beings has broadened their horizon. The boundaries mark the spread out area of a country. People are filled with non-satiating desire and urge for travelling. It could be the local destinations or even far off regions of the world. People are travelling the length and breadth of the world; its distant corners which were unexplored till the beginning of the 21st century. This wide practice of travelling to different parts of the world became popular especially after globalisation. The various corners of the world were exposed to the travellers which were yet to be visited by people, with information. With this the hospitality sector cam to be organised as one of the most industries of the time. The industry got expert management with a number of well trained professionals. The hospitality industry brings together numerous people with different backgrounds with versatile cultures under one common roof and binds them with a number of professional codes and ethics. According to Spencer-Oatey (2012) culture is a concept developed over centuries. The concept of culture originates when Cicero first used this word to mean cultivation of souls. Later in the 17th century culture again appeared in modern Europe which referred to the refinement of individuals through education. During the 18th and 19th century that culture was more often used to refer to the national aspirations or ideals. It was in the 20th century that culture emerged as a central concept in anthropology which deals with the entire range of human ways of life and living which cannot be directly attributed to something inherited by the genes. According to the use of the term in American anthropology, culture firstly implies the evolved tendency of human beings to classify and express their experiences in the form of symbols, to behave imaginatively or creatively. Secondly, culture is also referred to the distinct ways in which people live with a set of belief and express their experiences by shaping their lives along the lines of the derived experiences. According to the observations of Browne (2008) especially after globalisation different culture of the global community came to face each other, came to know about the existence of each other. With the establishment of multinational companies and their expanding operation in different countries, personnel are posted at international locations. Individuals with a distinct cultural identity and cultural practice work in a country with a different set or sets of culture. It is here where different cultures come to face each other, learn about each other. Different cultures exist in a common atmosphere. In the hospitality industry, it works with people from different regions of the world with their own set of cultures. This makes room for cultural diversities. According to Belshek (2004) cultural diversity is the coexistence of a number different culture in a particular environment. It is maintaining the cultures rather than discarding or ignoring any of them. The central idea behind the concept of maintaining cultural diversity is that every culture makes certain contribution to the nation which gets reflected in their prosperous condition. Besides this, it is also believed that every culture which originated from a definite belief and practice over long years should be acknowledged and given them their own space. Korjala (2012) stated that present day workforce is diversified. The cultural diversity in the workforce involves difference in the gender, people with different skin colour, age, ethnicity, gender, religion, education, skills, personality and even disabilities. As the hospitality industry involves a people from different places, they carry their culture along with them to lead to a diversified culture in the organisation. This causes a diversified culture in the hospitality industry like any other industry. Csaba (2012) points out those organisations have identified this trend and even the potential of the diversified workforce. These organisations have adopted a number of strategies to enhance the cultural diversity, to gain competitive advantage and benefit the organisation and the industry as a whole in the long run. DISCUSSION: REASONS FOR MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN WORKPLACE, THE PROCESS OF MANAGING AND ITS BENEFITS According to the study and observations of Merchant (2005) in the US travel and tourism industry eight million people are employed among whom 1.2 billion people are directly related to international tourists. This statement points to the fact that, the workforce of the industry is very much diversified in nature. Tourism is not like a usual industry but it highly specialises on service. It deals with people, their needs and wants and even their traveling fantasies. Taking into consideration the fact that it deals with the emotion of a number of people so, the employees needs a profound understanding to deal with them. Belshek (2004) stated that employees from different with different cultural background creates a similar environment within the organisation and better acquaints them with the probable situations. It Gong (2008) stated that it is this diversity which benefits the organisation by enabling cultural exchange on an international level. The author further recommends the recruitment of people from different walks of life, people belonging from different cultures and different parts of the world. A diversified culture creates an environment which lets the employees inculcate their skills and employ the same in their professional situations, in dealing with clients, conducting the operations more efficiently. The employees and on the other hand their clients could identify with each other and connect their commonness. Browne (2008) said that this facilitates the deal and thus it benefits the business. Such an environment in the organisation sets the company as one of the ideal companies to offer hospitality to their customers who understand and value cultural diversity. According to the observations of Bouchet (2000) this image of the company attracts customers and the supporting performances create goodwill for the company. These are some of the assets of the company which would ensure the longevity of the company and secure its reputation or position in the market. This in fact, attracts more clients with their positive image. Apart from this perspective, by welcoming people from all walks of life, from different religion, race, with different skin colour, gender, ethnicity, educational qualification, skills, disabilities and personality, the company projects and impression of a company which does not discriminates among individuals in providing employment. This creates even more impact among its stakeholders and enables the company to score high in the preference list of the customers. Ultimately, it enhances the business the prospects of the company. Merchant (2005) suggests that a business house should employ a diversified workforce. This workforce would enable the company to entrust the employees with responsibilities. The successful execution of the responsibilities would reinforce the confidence of the organisation in its employees and facilitate the business prospects of the company. Such an attitude makes the company more competent and increases their business. Korjala (2012) stated that due to increasing competition in the industry, the companies are chalking out strategies to attract more customers. It has been observed by the author that the customers today are demanding more than average treatment by the service providers. According to the observations of Appadurai (1990) customers have the potential of becoming the most effective ambassador and also could become the most influential critique. It is made easy by the social media and other networking sites where the customer can easily and most quickly spread his or her words. The companies need to assure that they do not engage in any such image hampering issues. A company with cultural diversity gives the impression of open to new ideas and non-orthodox in their approach. This makes them acceptable to larger number of people and more importantly it gives instils more diversified elements in the organisation itself. Crotts (2004) said that when it allows people from different cultures to work together, there’s an exchange of ideas, concepts and views. This also helps the company is forming more compact and accurate strategies and gain competitive advantage over their counterparts. Gong (2008) makes an observation and stated that cultural diversity has become one of the most important issues in the hospitality industry of the United States. People from different parts of the world are recruited in the companies and this makes for a huge culturally diverse workforce. The author has acknowledged the need for cultural diversity for a number of reasons. Along with its need the author points to the need of managing it. Firstly, especially after globalisation and diminishing boundary of the nations, the hospitality giants have realised the needs and intensity of competition in the international market apart from the domestic market. Domestic companies are fast expanding into international markets and competing with a number of such companies. This makes it important to make the company competitive and a stronger competent company for the international rivals. With economic developments, the developing economies have become major consumer for the hospitality industry. There is a complete diversified population of the customers. Secondly, with the increasing number of diversified customers the companies are making their workforce equally if not more diversified. Customers have individual characteristics, needs and wants which are strongly guided by their cultures. So, to have the hand on the pulse, the hospitality units are including a mix of employees with different cultural backgrounds to have an idea about the popular market demand or trend. This will keep the companies in the knowhow of the market demands and enable them to meet them and gain maximum customer satisfaction. This customer satisfaction would attract more customers and add to the success and prosperity of the company. Thirdly, incorporating diversity in the cultural composition of the workforce is not an easy job and most importantly, it has to be managed. A culturally diverse workforce means a number of people with different cultures, beliefs, attitudes and nature. Gardenswarzt & Rowe (2009) said that when these different types of people work under a same roof there would be instances of rift, disagreement and even at times clashes which if not managed well could result into internal crisis for the company. The management is needed particularly to ensure that the employees do not engage in internal strife, which would be against the interest and image of the company. Fourthly, maintain a diversified cultural workforce would set a good and inviting example to the customers who could rely on them for meeting their expectations. Apart from this it would assure them that their values and chore cultural beliefs would be given due importance and they would not have to compromise with them. For instance, strictly orthodox people would be very much speculative while checking into a hotel about the atmosphere and systems of operation of the hotel. This speculation gets dissolved when there is an employee belonging to the same culture. It is so because then the customer gets assured if the company has an individual from the same culture then they must be aware and conscious about it. This further gives them a sense of security of being in a known company. The employees are individually trained by specialists to deal to with the customers and provide a personalised and customized treatment. They are also trained to well address their concerns and make them comfortable of their stay at the property. It is a part of the entire management of cultural diversity. Sixthly, it is important because without adequate training the employees could mishandle the situation which could even take an ugly turn destroying the reputation of the company. Such an impression causes long term damage to the company. So, employees should be given adequate training for dealing with the customers. Finally, the author stated that cultural diversity should be managed to make the company more competent. The extremely increasing competition of the present time has made it necessary for every company to increase their efficiency and keep a check on it. Friday and Friday (2003) said that maintaining cultural diversity enable the company to prepare its employees and draft out a more effective strategy to attract more and more customers. Csaba (2012) points out the fact that managing a large diversified workforce is problematic and so they are executed by specialised managers and leaders. This issue becomes more relevant for the multinational companies which have their presence over a number of nations of the world. Managing the cultural diversity of the workforce is becoming a challenge for most of the companies. The managers have to manage the internal environment of the company in accordance with the external environment of the company and undertake related changes to suit the need of the time. Kundu (2001) said that one of the prime requirements and crucial elements to manage a culturally diverse workforce is managerial leadership. The leadership must ensure that there is so dissatisfaction among the employees which could make them feel discriminated. The employees of same designation should be paid equally and on the same day. The policy for promotion needs to be transparent and evaluative in the real sense otherwise it could develop discord among employees. Gröschl (2011) said that the manager should keep motivating the employees. This boosts up their morale and inspires them to work more efficiently. Besides this, it also makes the employees feel important to the company and this very sense of importance makes them work more efficiently. Herzberg’s theory of motivation states that employees are motivated only when their personal needs and requirements are satisfied. On fulfilment of an employee’s personal needs an employee becomes satisfied. It is then that the employee thinks of working more efficiently for the company out of the sense of gratitude and development of a sense of commitment towards their professional responsibility. It is one of the strategies to manage cultural diversity. Individual employees, rather satisfied individual employees does not think about the cultural differences rather sees them under a positive light and thus facilitates harmonious existence of the diverse cultures. The manager also should take care to express interest in the individual culture of the employees show respect toward the different cultures. CONCLUSION From the above study it could be concluded that after globalisation there has been an upsurge in people’s tendency of travelling. This further resulted into a well established and functional travel and tourism industry and hospitality industry. Over the years and with time the companies expanded into international markets and the number of multinational companies increased by many fold. Due to which personnel from one country is designated into another country. The companies got to face culturally diverse customers. In the due process the hospitality companies even started recruiting employees from different religion, gender, with different skin colour, age, ethnicity, gender, education, skills, personality and even disabilities. This made the workforce culturally diverse. It was found that this culturally diverse workforce provided more competitive advantages to the companies and so more and more companies build up culturally diversified workforce. This diverse workforce is managed with a set of effectively strategies and with managerial leadership which ensured harmonious existence of the culturally diverse workforce and periodical progress of the company. 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[Online] Available at (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/globalpad/openhouse/interculturalskills/global_pad_-_what_is_culture.pdf) [Accessed on June 2, 2014] Read More