How Can Intercontinental Hotels Group Improve Its Businesses Position in Diversity - Case Study Example

Tourism diversity Name: Institution: Date: Introduction The intercontinental hotels group (IHG) is a multinational company in the tourism and hospitality industry. It is a British multinational organization that was founded in 2003. However, the original trace of the IHG can be traced back to 1777. The organization currently has about 710,000 rooms in about 4800 hotels which are located in nearly 100 different countries. The organization has diversified in many different ways and has managed to create different brands for itself. Among the major brands for IHG include the Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, Holiday inn and Holiday Inn Express, Hualuxe, Stay bridge Suites and the intercontinental. The intercontinental hotels group has its headquarters in Denham, Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom. They however, have major offices in Dunwoody, Georgia in America and in Singapore to cater for the operations of Asia, Middle East and Africa. The reports provided in the year 2014, showed that the company employed 7,797 employees all from different countries, races and background. In a society based set up where intellectuals reside and are free to air their view, opinions and emotions disagreements and emotions are likely to flare bearing in mind that people are of different character from diverse backgrounds, religion ,races and even nationalities brought together to pursue and work towards achieving goals that are formulated by the company’s management. The drawing up of rules, regulations and procedures, the aim should be to specify clearly and concisely spell out the rules that are necessary for the efficient and safe performance of work and for the maintenance of good relations between the employees and the management [Jef09]. Form of diversity in the tourism and hospitality industry for intercontinental hotels group IHG has promoted diversity in the organization from the management team to the employees and finally to the wide variety of customers that they serve. Among the aspects that promote diversity in the organization are in strategic sourcing relationships, community relations, recruitment, hotel ownership, marketing and franchising. In order to achieve proper diversity and inclusion in the organization, it is important for the organization to promote the right working environment and a culture that makes all others feel welcome and appreciated in the organization. The benefits of a strong organizational culture are that it provides the company with a means through which they achieve their objectives. Management integrates the wide range of culture, ideas, and products with the human resources available to achieve maximum potential of the organization [Joa02]. The study will focus on two main forms of diversity that are used by IHG to improve on the performance of the organization. The forms of diversity are recruitment and employee development and the strategic sourcing and resourcing relationships. The human resource management of the organization has been provided with the powers to recruit new employees into the business to fill in the gaps that present themselves and undermine performance in the organization. The recruitment and promotions of individuals in the organization is done on the basis of suitability for the job. The best qualified individual for the job is employed and proper training is conducted on them to ensure that they understand the job specifications and what is expected of them. During the recruitment process, discrimination on the basis of race, colour, national origin, gender, age, marital status, religion, sexual orientation, ethic group or disability is highly avoided in the organization. The organization takes to develop training and refresher programs to the employees of the organization to help cater for the diversity in the tourist that they receive in the organization. Among the training programs provided to the employees is the language training where they are trained to communicate and understand a variety of languages so that they can reduce the language barriers that exist between the tourists and the employees. Finally, to ensure that there is appropriate conduct and ethics that are followed in the organization, there are laws and regulations that have been developed to promote the highest form of integrity in the organization. For instance, when an employee becomes disabled in the course of duty in the organization, they continue with the employment. If they cannot continue operating in the same position, they are allocated new positions where they can provide the better services in the organization [Nic12]. IHG also uses the strategic sourcing and resourcing relationship to improve performance. The tourism and hospitality sector is a very competitive sector that is rapidly evolving. The sector is comprised of large companies that have diversified their operations and functioning to improve their brand name and attract and retain more customers. IHG has hotels in different countries and different geographical areas in the world. The different areas usually have cultures and beliefs that they undertake in their daily life. To encourage diversity in the organization, the management has come to appreciate the different cultures and thus they try to incorporate the culture in the geographical region in which the organization is set. Similarly, when it comes to sourcing for the different requirements of the organization, the local suppliers are provided with the first priority so that the local culture can be upheld in the organization. However, the organization provides the suppliers with equal opportunities to supply their goods and services to the organization. Benefits and gains from accounting for diversity in the tourism and hospitality businesses Accounting for diversity in the tourism and hospitality sector has many benefits for the organization. The main reason as to why the hospitality and tourism companies promote diversity is to cater for the diverse cultures of tourist that they receive daily. Among the identifiable benefits of promoting diversity in the organization include managing and reducing risks, enhancing customer satisfaction and growth in customer arrivals [Nig12]. The tourism and hospitality industry is usually faced by three major risks namely the reputational risk, security risk and the regulatory and policy risks. The security risks are the threats that may occur on the organization that may increase the insecurity in the tourists and make them avoid visiting such areas, the reputational risks refers to the name of the brand and how the consumers’ view the brand. A good brand name improves the performance of the organization as it helps to attract and retain more customers. Finally the regulatory and policy risks are the controls that are developed by the regulatory authority in the region to control the actions and performance of the organization. Strict policies will undermine performance of the organization. The diversification of an organization helps them to manage and reduce these risks and improve on the performance of the organization. A satisfied customer will pass on the good name to other customers. It is for this reason that the organization should work towards ensuring full satisfaction of the customers that they receive in the organization daily. Diversification usually helps in improving customer satisfaction as the employees serve the customers each according to their needs. With full satisfaction, a good brand name is created and the organization starts to enjoy growth in customer arrivals. Finally, the organization also enjoys growth in revenue as they are likely to increase the market share as well as attract more tourists into the organization. Cost consequences to businesses not accounting for diversity The Human Resource Management department is responsible to providing refresher training programs for all the employees. Training of new and existing employees has been incorporated as part of the organization culture. Although the organization incurs more costs during the training and development activities, the benefits that are ripped from the training are numerous. The already existing employees need to be trained to ensure that the service provision is always at its peak while the newly hired employees need to be trained to help them understand the systems of the corporation. The tourists are the main reason why the tourism and hospitality companies come into the business. Without the tourist they cannot make any profits and thus their objectives may not be achieved. The employees are the ones who interact directly with the tourist and thus without the promotion of diversity among the employees that would be gaps in the provision of services. Among the gaps include poor rendering of services and language barriers. The promotion of diversity in the organization helps to improve on service delivery as well as reduce or completely iron out the language barriers. Recommendations to improve the businesses position in diversity The development of policies in the organization will go a long way in improving the business position in diversity. In the development of the policy, the stakeholders should be included in the development of policies that promote diversity. Among the issues which the policies should consider include the recruitment process, procurement, community relationship and the marketing strategies that are undertaken. The policies should be developed in such a way that they encourage the growth and development of the organization as well as providing an opportunity to all members regardless of the background and social state. Finally, the diversity of the board should also be encouraged in the organization. IHG operates in nearly 100 different countries and thus the benefits of this form of regional diversity should be reflected by the employees through the leadership of the board. To encourage diversity in the board, the organization should seek to develop a board that has diverse skills, level of experience and a diverse geographical representation. REFERENCES Jef09: , (Jeff, 2009, p. 11), Joa02: , (João & Dmitry, 2002), Nic12: , (Nicola & Chris, 2012), Nig12: , (Nigel, George, & David, 2012), Read More