Different cultures have varyingt perspectives. Some perspectives and attributes can affect the operations and performances of an organization. For example, some cultural practices and attributes can dictate what to do and what not to do. Companies should focus on managing this diversity in people for the betterment of giving a good value to the operations of the company.
According to Anca and Vazquez (2007, p. 13), companies should focus on identifying dominant as well as rising values in the people. These values should be enhanced for the betterment of maintaining cohesiveness. This cohesiveness in workplace is vital for organizational performance.
Hospitality industry provides a perfect means of effective management of diversity in workplace. This is because this industry attracts employees from diverse backgrounds. This is as opposed to regional companies whose workplace staff is likely to be from one region.
Hotels and restaurants are most visible in hospitality industries. The paper looks at ways and means of managing workplace diversity in an international hotel. There also some difficulties that are associated with management of workplace diversity, especially diversity based in culture. There exist a number of benefits accrued out of management of workplace diversity.
This paper discusses a number of benefits that are attached to management of workplace cultural diversity in a hotel. Management of this diversity can optimize user experience. It is possible to facilitate exchanges of cultures among people in an organization.
Management of this diversity can help in identifying as well as removing barriers associated with equal opportunities. Workplace diversity can enhance team performance and operations of the organization when it is managed well. It can encourage the employees to enhance their talents and provide an opportunity for managers to retain the talents.
Holden (2002, p. 95) writes that management of cultural diversity in workplace is the same as managing innovative knowledge. People in the organization have different talents, the same way they have different cultural perspectives. Management of talent ensures that performance of organizational operations is enhanced. In countries such as China, cultural influences on performance are huge (Holden, 2002, p. 158).
There are some means of managing this workplace diversity in the organization. Phillip (2006, p. 36) lists some of means as enhancing a psychological contract, enhancing personal motivations, giving referrals to the employees and building employment relationships plus confidence in employees.
This paper specifically analyzes management of recruitments and utilizations of people and personnel from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. A typical international hotel has people from the whole world visiting and spending some nights in it. For this therefore, the kind of employees in the organization to serve these people must be well trained.
They must be thinking on the same line so as not to cause confusion on the visitors. The cultures of these people must be enhanced and given an organizational outlook. This is where cultures belonging to the employees are directed to have similarity with organizational policy. There are however various difficulties that come with various practices of managing workplace diversity.
Management of workplace diversity in an international hotel
Diversity in cultures in a hotel is a major factor. According to Deresky (2002, p. 34), management of diversity in culture in an international hotel or restaurant provides a classic example of international human resource management.
The same way an organization can put measures of managing people from different countries is the same way an organization can manage people of varying cultural and religious backgrounds. Two most popular areas of management of diversity are in recruitments and utilizing people from different backgrounds.
Recruitment as an area of management of diversity
Recruitment in an organization is a way of adding human resource in the organization. It helps the company add to potentiality of performing in the competitive market. For an international hotel, recruitment is a way of adding human resource and knowledge in the company to manage visitors in the hotel/restaurant. Recruitment is critical and should be done with utmost care.
The company has a choice to either put people of homogenous backgrounds or people of diverse cultural backgrounds. A well thought out recruitment process is capable of putting committed employees in the organization. Committed employees would put a working staff that is loyal to the management.
According to Healey (2002, p. 22), management of diversity is a crucial way of managing cohesiveness in an organization. This cohesiveness helps in removing some common barriers that come with organizational management. A workforce that does not operate from one front is capable of developing some conflicts.
These conflicts can affect the performance of the organization. For an international hotel, group conflicts can alter how people and especially visitors value the organization. This cohesiveness and elimination of group conflicts can only be done if the recruitment process is fair and well balanced.
Strategies of managing cultural diversity in recruitment for competitive advantage
External recruitment for cultural diversity
Price (2005, p. 570) qualifies external recruitment as the best form of recruitment in managing diversity. In a study involving 29 heads of departments in a health care provision center, use of external recruitment method was noted as the best. External recruitment is pitted against getting employees from relatives and friends of organizational employees.
Price (2005, p. 570) notes that 21 of the participants supported this kind of recruitment on the basis that it will give fair representation in terms of cultural and religious diversity. Soliciting workforce amongst members of the workforce would mean that the kind of cultures in the employees would be increased.
In a hospitality industry, getting people outside makes the organization have a pool of cultures. Competitive advantage comes when a pool of talents is brought into the organization through different cultures in the organization.
Agency recruitment for cultural diversity
Price (2005, p. 568) adds that external recruitment is largely carried out by agencies. The agencies carry out advertisements for available jobs and conduct interviews. Zanoni and Janssens (2007, p. 1386) write that agency recruitment is recognized as ideal form of recruitment.
In study involving minority employees in the organization in terms of cultures, it was discovered that the use of agency recruitment goes for diversity in areas such as culture, religion and experience. This is opposed to using human resource department in the organization to get people. Such a case may prompt employing people who are favored by some people in the organization and so resulting to homogenous kind of organizational culture.
Utilization of personnel from different backgrounds
Cox and Blake (1999, p. 53) write that there are some positive and negative issues that come with taking people from varying cultural backgrounds. However, it is recognized that utilizing people from varying cultural backgrounds is beneficial for enhancing balanced organizational performance (Cox and Blake, 1999, p. 53).
It has become a trend in international management especially in considering people from different countries. Utilization of people from diverse cultural backgrounds is a way of management of competition in the company. This is because with diverse people, there are diverse talents (Cox and Blake, 1999, p. 45).
The contemporary globalization trends, especially the business trends are making organizational managers turn to differences in cultural backgrounds in the organization. Utilizing people who come from different backgrounds is beneficial because it makes the organization have a fair image among its publics.
Wetherell (2008, p. 46) adds on this and writes that an organization that is full of homogenous people in terms of cultural backgrounds maintains the status quo. However, an organization that utilizes people of different backgrounds is capable of improving in performances. This is because there would be multiple talents carried by people of different backgrounds.
Strategies of utilizing people of diverse cultural backgrounds
Selective training opportunities for competitive advantage
Lau (2006, p. 300) uses the example of preferential trainings for parents in hospitals by use of cultural adaptations. Some training is more adapted to particular cultures than others. In a hospitality organization, some communities or cultures are more suited to some professions than others.
Lau (2006, p. 300) notes that adaptability is not the same in various cultures. For example, there are some communities known for customer service while others are known for manual operations. This is good for gaining a competitive niche.
Some people would be used for capturing the market in some ways or means while other communities would be used for other ways. However, all trainings should be evidence-based (Lau, 2006, p. 305). Managers should first carry out pilot studies on adaptability of some cultures in different operations.
For example, managers should carry out pilot studies to note the people best suited for customer service, cooking or generally food services. By use of these studies, different cultural people would be trained differently. The trainings should be highly tailored to achievement of organizational goals.
Research findings on management of cultural diversity: Umans (2009, pp. 90-101)
In a research study to find out cultural diversity in management teams of top organizations, it was found that culturally homogenous companies are faced with challenges of moving the company forward (Philip, 1996, p.84). On the other hand, companies which have diverse workforce are full of talents and can move the organization forward.
Demographic diversity has a direct link with performance of an organization. The more the workforce is culturally diverse, the more the probability of having a competitive advantage.
However, the research found out that competitive advantage and performance may not be the case if there is a bad conceptualization of cultures. For this therefore, the research recommends that the management of organizations must be prepared to handle all cultures in the organization. This way, all people will understand that tailored cultural training is for the welfare of the company and the workforce Amaram (2007, p. 4-9)
Many people have come to contend with the need to have workforces in organizations that are culturally diverse. This kind of acceptance has been positive in management of social and engineering sectors. The research concluded that with such kind of acceptance, it should form as a basis to for all organizations.
The research also shows that there is perceived correlation between maintaining a culturally diverse workforce and organizational performance. The research points to a number of ways of maintaining this cultural diversity in the organization.
First, management should aim at improving personal motivation in people, enhanced trainings. The company should tailor trainings according to capabilities and cultural orientations. Different people on the basis of cultural origins should be utilized differently so as to have a culturally diverse knowledge and operations in workforce.
Benefits and challenges of cultural diversity
The diverse backgrounds of people in the organization are vital in a number of ways. First, it can be used in promoting a desired user experience. Second, it can be used in facilitating cultural exchanges especially in a tourism company. Third, cultural diversity can be used in identifying as well as removing problems of equal opportunities in the organization.
Fourth it can be used in enhancing team performance in the organization. And fifth, cultural diversity can be used in enhancing a competitive force through retaining various diverse talents. The competitive force would make the company have a competitive niche for the company in the competitive market. However, there are various challenges that come with having a culturally diverse workforce in an organization.
For a hospitality organization such as a hotel, different people based on cultures may fail to have a common organizational policy. There may be constant agreements which may affect operation of the organization. It is possible for the visitors to the hotel to go with different real image for the organization. This will essentially hurt retention of customers.
Conclusion
An organization is built by people. These people are in management levels as well as in lower levels of operations. Those people tasked with real operations should be highly experienced. This is because their performances are directly linked with success of an organization. It is recommended that his workforce should not only be experienced, but also be of different cultural backgrounds.
This is to ensure that there is a pool of talent in the organization. This paper has discussed various means of managing cultural diversity in the organization for the purposes of gaining competitive advantage. The paper also discusses various research and challenges that are associated with management of cultural diversity.
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