Culture diversity in Chinese hospitality industry - Essay Example

GLOBALIZATION AND CULTURE DIVERSITY IN CHINESE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY d GLOBALIZATION AND CULTURE DIVERSITY IN CHINESE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY INTRODUCTION With the change in communication dynamics due to the rapid technological advancement of communication means, distances have become shorter and the world has become a ‘global village’ (Goyal, Van Der Leij and Moraga-Gonz\alez, 2006). This means that the interdependencies amongst countries have also increased, reviving many industries and introducing new business avenues all together (Keohane and Nye Jr, 1998). This paper will shed light on the globalization phenomenon, its implications on the global hospitality industry with a focus on China and the cultural diversity trends in the business. GLOBALIZATION Like mentioned earlier globalization refers to the increased interdependencies internationally and the borderless phenomenon that implicates lessened distances and faster communication, transit and logistics, to name a few. Globalization affects economic social political and cultural systems of the world and it is not unknown to have certain unique attributes of a countrys system being reflected in another’s. Globalization helps in global cohesion and promotes collaborative work amongst different countries, ultimately contributing towards world peace (Giddens, 2000). A healthy economic system is the one that has its roots spread throughout different corners of the world, making it a wholesome business that has a flavor of each. GLOBAL HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY The hospitality industry refers to a field of service sector that encompasses aspects like hotel lodging and other accommodation (Ottenbacher and Gnoth, 2005). Over time the definition has be improvised to include service like theme parks and recreation centers as well. The phenomenon of globalization mentioned above has greatly enhanced the importance of this sector. With boundaries closing in, businesses venturing into other countries and people moving to and fro between countries, globalization has given immense boost to this industry which has seen growth and expansion since era of globalization. Like mentioned above, globalization has an implication on businesses and travelling as well. People travel to their countries in order to tap a business opportunity or simply for leisure purposes. With more people moving away from home country due to greener economic pasture, they are likely to attract visitors from home country for some period or simply avail the hoteling and lodging services in their home country when they go for a visit. Thus, the growing importance and value of this industry has been glorified in the recent times due to globalization. At one point in time, the most attractive market for hoteling was the United States. Hotels were established in all major parts of the US, ultimately saturating the market at one point (EY, 2012). The globalization phenomenon supported the hoteling brands to expand across borders, maintain a chain of hotels in various countries that posed as attractive markets. Usually countries with business prospects and scenic tourist destinations qualify as an ideal hoteling opportunity. This is because businesses attract investors who visit the host country to ascertain the feasibility of their funding. Tourist destinations tend to attract travelling enthusiasts who have an urge to explore new locations and satisfy their urge to travel. That being said, every country has a different socio-economic and political setup. Thus, it is important for business owners to take into account the various differentiating factors that make a particular location unique and adapt accordingly. This has given birth to the phenomena of cultural diversity in the hoteling business. For a business to be successful, it is important that the service members are diverse in their background so that they can cater to customers from diverse backgrounds more effectively. It is also a positive step to have a healthy and diverse workforce in the hoteling business as it reflects the organization’s equal opportunity and non-discriminatory practices. Since hotels are temporary lodging areas, the guests are likely to belong to diverse backgrounds as well. Thus, staff with similar backgrounds are likely to be in a better position to cater to them more effective ultimately effecting the overall service quality. Lastly, culturally diverse workforce helps the management make better decisions to accommodate the needs of diverse guests. CHINA’S HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY China being the business hub of central Asia, one of the emerging markets has seen a significant boom in the hoteling industry in the recent times. When China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, it opened its doors to foreign businesses and global investors saw this is an attractive opportunity. The widening middle class and increasing population made China a huge prospective market for foreign products and services. The influx of foreign investment from that point has seen as positive trend as it also opens avenues for entering the surrounding markets. International events like 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai Expo have also played a major role in boosting the hoteling business in the recent times (Chinabusinessreview.com, 2014). The BRIC countries are seen as the most attractive business markets of these times. These countries consist of Brazil, Russia, India and china. Thus, this is also one of the reasons why hospitality industry is at the rise in the Chinese market at the moment. However, whether it’s a foreign or local set-up, it is important that the hotels have a diverse workforce as cultural diversity makes it easier for them to cater to people from various backgrounds who visit the country. With 80 million travelers in 2012, China exceeded US and Germany in becoming the largest source of travellers in the world, depicting the trend of growth of the market. That being said the Chinese market itself has been identified as the key markets for innovation where high end and middleclass hotels are expected to consolidate, budgeting options to become more innovative and sophisticated hospitality needs be catered to increasingly through the expansion of international chains to establish resorts and recreational arenas. The government of china has also highlighted tourism as one of the major growth sectors in its five years plans and facilitates foreign investment in the tourism sector by offering real estate discounts, tax exemptions and priority approvals for their set-up (Atkearney.com, 2013). With a focus on tourism, the country is bound to attract people belonging to diverse backgrounds from the world over.in order to cater to their needs on a better manner, it is important for the hospitality industry in China to have culturally diverse workforce that can help them provide customized service to their guests ultimately improving the service quality and image. International hotel chains that have established themselves in China to cater to the growing tourism and lodging needs have taken into account the uniqueness of the Chinese culture and employed local staff that gives the business the image of a country-friendly business that provides employment to the locals and strives to mingle with their cultural attributes while operating in the country. However, in order to maintain the integrity of the organizational philosophy, decision making practices etc., the senior management is often form the home country. Thus, there exists a gap in communication between the managers and the employees. Secondly, the prevalent focus on localizing the business has side-tracked the culturally diverse workforce that is important for the hospitality service industry that caters to a diversified pool of guests. TRENDS AND ISSUES The growing hoteling trend has had several implications on the employment f diverse workforce. Competent and adaptive expatriate managers and staff are employed to maintain a wholesome employee portfolio. However organizations meet with several difficulty factors in doing so. For example, language barriers amongst the staff and with the guests, cultural differences and lack of government support for foreign employees are some of the many factors that discourage culturally diverse hospitality employment. In order to improve these conditions, the Chinese tourism authority needs to strengthen its training program and take necessary steps to equip the foreign as well as local personnel in dealing with new and different cultural backgrounds. Support, in order to accommodate the foreign employees that help local businesses do their jobs well, should be provided by the government in order to ensure that they are made to feel welcome and supported in the home country, China (Gong, 2008). In order to succeed in the global market it is imperative that China equips its people with the tolerance and support for the non-Chinese people who are employed in the country. By building a good rapport with the foreigners working in their country, they are also in a better position to venture globally in order to offer their products or services. Three important issues faced by the managerial side of the hospitality industry are how to ensure that each member in the diverse team are treated equally regardless of their background, how to ensure that each member contributes equally to the common goal i.e. superior customer value and ;lastly how to enable a diversified team to work together despite their differences. For this purpose, many researches have been conducted to evaluate the importance of a well-rounded workforce and its drive to contribute equally to the organization. First, it is important to understand the importance and benefits of a culturally diverse team. Firstly it helps in bringing innovation to the organizational practices, since people of different minds unite even at the decision making level, the decision making is bound to be accommodative to the needs of the diverse guest base of a hotel. The transfer of knowledge becomes more effective as the people with the different background come together and get acquainted with their ways and needs in a better way. In this way they become educated about each other and can cater to not just the same but even different cultural background than theirs. As far as training is concerned, managers with the same cultural background as their subordinates are bound to transfer training practices more effectively as they are able to connect with them in a better fashion. Another advantage of cultural diversity is that of competitive advantage. The hospitality industry is a highly competitive one as more and more hotels enter the market to get their share of the pie, each trying to differentiate itself on the basis of the services being offered. Thus, a hotel with a diverse workforce is in a better position to understand the needs of the customers and thus, they offer better and customized service ultimately generating a loyal guest base. In this way, diverse cultural backgrounds amongst the employees help in giving the business a competitive edge over the other market players. Lastly, culturally diverse workforce has a massive impact on the image of the organization. The guests are likely to feel more at ease when they see that the hotel they are lodging in has people that are from the same cultural background as theirs. Apart from putting them at ease, the market value of the business also increases as it is deemed as a no discriminatory organization that is an equal opportunity employer. The advantages of having a diverse workforce cannot be ignored in this era of business transparency. Any negative employment move from a hotel can be immediately portrayed in the media to tarnish an image they have managed to build over years, in a matter of few days. This brings us to the challenges of having a diverse workforce that need to be dealt with effectively in order to reap the benefits of this phenomenon of hospitality industry. Most important challenge is that of communication gaps. With people belonging to different backgrounds and speaking different languages it becomes difficult for managers to communicate their point to them effectively. Managers who have a weak understanding of diverse employees are bound to misunderstand gestures and behavior of people and this may lead to communication complications that ultimately affect the service quality. Another challenge is that of discrimination, which is one of the most sensitive workplace issues of this age. Being visually oriented beings, humans sometimes tend to bring forward their subconscious biasness through their actions when they see someone who is different from them. This kind of discrimination may lead to hostile behavior, inadequate instructions, lack of support and ultimately declined sense of workplace cohesion. Since a hospitality business is expected to be warm and open to diversity, discrimination can negatively affect the whole business concept if prevalent. Discrimination could exist between employees, between the managers and subordinates and even between recruitment officers favoring diversity and the locals from the host country. Training efforts are also faced with various difficulties in a diverse workforce as the managers usually fail to understand that a uniform training session may be inadequate for people belonging to different backgrounds. SOLUTIONS In order to tackle the above challenges some effective means to establishing a truly diverse and unified hospitality workforce are: Establishing an employee relationship management system is important as managers need to understand that members from different backgrounds cannot be made to feel equal on their own. Thus, it is imperative that a relationship building system is in place that promotes cohesion and interaction amongst employees, involvement of the minorities and acceptance for each other. If the workforce is united and committed towards a single goal it will reflect in their service as well. Secondly, diverse training programs need to be initiated to cater to the understanding needs of the different employees. By customizing the training for like-culture employees, the message is more likely to get across more effectively as it will be communicated to them at the level of their understanding. Lastly, a fair employment policy needs to be established to tackle the challenge of diversified workforce. Cultural stereotypes and ethnocentrism are two other trends that affect the workplace negatively. Stereotyping refers to judging one on the basis of a pre conceived notion based on experience or prevalent concept (Brunsch, 2005). For example, Asians are thought to be hard workers and Middle Eastern people are thought of as terrorists. Ethnocentrism refers to believing that one’s culture is superior to another’s (LeVine and Campbell, 1972). These qualify as grounds for discrimination that could lead to the biasness of the whole process of recruiting a diverse team. Thus, managers need to hone their judgment skills to scout for talent and recruit individuals that best compliment the organizational philosophy. The use of culturally sensitive tests and culturally diverse recruitment teams are two effective means of ensuring that the basis of employment is one’s talent and capabilities. CONCLUSION The growth of the Chinese market as an attractive business and tourism hub cannot be ignored. However, the prevalent lack of cultural diversity has been tackled in order to make the lucrative hospitality industry in China a fruitful one. By following the proposed solutions, businesses can ensure that the communication gaps are minimized and the service quality level is maintained. The Chinese culture is a strong one indeed and by breaking the shackles of localizing in order to establishing itself, the foreign organizations are bound to face many challenges locally. By adequate communication of the company policies, equal opportunity practices and the tourist attractiveness as a result the challenges can be borne with a safe hand and the businesses can also prosper as a result. REFERENCES: Gong, Y. 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