Managing Cultural
Diversity in Hospitality and
Tourism Industry
Cultural Diversity in the Hospitality and
Tourism industry
Tourism and hospitality industry depends more so on culturally diverse
workforce. This could be attributed to globalization, which has been a driving
force behind corporate strategic planning within the industry.
Is defined as the differences among people.
Cultural diversity means that the differences between people in gender,
traditions, language, etc. Nowadays, workforce in tourism and hospitality
industry becomes diverse because employees come from many countries. For
instance, an organization can include employees come from America, France
or Vietnam… Then creates a challenging issue for managers is how to manage
well a diverse workforce.
Appropriate actions should be taken by the
hospitality and tourism industry
• There should be provision of right measures, such as incorporating language
training facilities for the purposes of overcoming communication barriers.
Recruitment and training program within the industry ensures creation of
talented internationally mobile people capable of occupying management
positions within the international market. Employee sensitivity through cultural
diversity management of training needs requires appropriate design and
attention.
Two cultural theories to demonstrate issues of
cross-cultural differences
Cross-cultural Theory
Cultural Dimension Theory
Cross-cultural Theory
Portrays what happens to individual while adapting to a new culture. People,
who become competent in managing cross-cultural issues, can be able to
adjust and adapt to different environments.
Dr. Milton Bennett
Dr. Milton J. Bennett is the executive director of the Intercultural
Development Research Institute (IDRInstitute).
Well-known for his Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS),
which is used internationally to guide intercultural training design and to
assess intercultural competence.
Bennett has provided six stages of how individuals develop intercultural
competence.
Six stages of Development of intercultural
Competence
Denial stage
Defense stage
Minimization stage
Acceptance stage
Adaptation stage
Integration stage
Cultural Dimension Theory
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory is a framework for cross-cultural
communication, developed by Geert Hofstede. It shows the effects of a
society’s culture on the values of its members, and how these values relate to
behavior, using a structure derived from factor analysis.
According to Cultural dimensions theory people are different from six
dimensions.
Six demission
1. This theory argues that societies have different power structure.
2. dimension is individualism verses collectivism
3. Tolerance and avoidance
4. Masculine verses feminine.
5. Long-term verses short-term orientation.
6. indulgence against restraint
Culture shock
When people are exposed to different cultures, they go through culture
shock. This happens especially if individuals are not prepared to adapt to the
new culture (Hall Dowling, and Welch, 2008).
How issues of culture shock affects work
Issues of culture shock affects work in many ways. According to cross-cultural
theory, an individual who is experiencing culture shock will not relate well
with colleagues at the work place. Lack of good relationship may affect
individual’s commitment to work (Hopkins, 2009).
Secondly, individuals experiencing culture shock face communication
problems. In the work place, lack of proper communication may cause poor
feedback. Issues of culture shock may also cause low production (Kirton, and
Greene, 2000). In the work place, people work in groups and contribute
towards the same goals.
Managing culture shock in the work
environment
Managing culture shock is the first step towards adapting and coping in a new
work environment. This is what Bennet refers to as competence in the cross-
cultural theory.
1. Develop confidence and always remember about your personal strengths.
2. always keep an open mind.
3. Always maintain a sense of humor.
4. Being patients
5. Try to read new resources.
Encouraging cultural diversity in the work
place
In the hospitality sector, cultural diversity helps in ensuring that all people are
comfortable working together despite of their cultural differences. In order to
manage cross-cultural issues, restraints and hotels should make the initiative to
help their workers and visitors adapt in a new environment. As such, it is
important for organizations like restaurants to develop mechanisms, which will
encourage cultural diversity at the work place.
Foremost, restaurant and hotel management should provide mentors cross
culturally (Schneider and Barsoux, 2003).
The hospitality management should encourage leaders to prepare and present a
cultural profile of their workers (Schneider and Barsoux, 2003).
Leaders should promote cultural diversity by encouraging sports and other events
especially when doing orientation for new employees. During such events, people
can share history, stories, and experiences about their cultures.
Management in the hospitality industry should always make the initiative to help
employees and diverse customers adapt to new working environment.
It is also important that people should accept and appreciate different cultures
(Reynolds and Valentine, 2004).
Effectively manage cultural diversity
To successfully manage your multicultural workforce, you should first be
aware that majority and minority cultures don’t always share experiences.
Also, the following strategies can help you break cultural barriers and enjoy
advantages from cultural diversity. The strategies include:
• Creating programs that improve awareness of cultural diversity
• Improving positive attitudes towards cultural differences
• Realizing the same points of view and relations among different ethnic groups
• Being flexible in communication
• Showing personal concerns and confusions when encountering cultural
obstacles
• Establishing cultural diversity committees
Effectively manage cultural diversity
Define organizational values and policies
Ensure you give proper answers to these questions before deciding fundamental policies and ethics of your organization: what the
organization eventually aims at; what image you want to promote to apply effectively cultural diversity workforce in hospitality
management; what kind of workforce you want in the future; what kind of workforce characteristics are vital for the performance.
Adopt employee relationship management system
To integrate workers from different cultures into the workplace, managers should create good relationship with them. Some
programs can help develop the relationship – they are, language teaching, celebrating different religious or traditional holidays of
employees, involving employees’ families into some company activities, etc. Indeed, creating such a family atmosphere helps
increase retention. To successfully create such an atmosphere through programs, managers first should try to know personaliti es
and background of their people.
Develop a diversity management training program
Training program is another factor that ensures effective management of cultural diversity.
Optimize cultural diversity training
The cultural diversity training involves understanding what it is, why it is important, understanding culture at all levels, from
individual, national to organizational levels.
Use language banK
Another effective tool is language bank. It is a program that workers are available to interpret different languages for othe r
workers who need translators.
Cultural diversity can be managed to give
competitive advantage
There is a possibility that cultural diversity can be managed for the purposes
of enhancing employee’s personal identity within the industry. Such a process
involves development of effective communication channels between
managers and employees.
Creation of free communication atmosphere enhances self-esteem and socio-
behavioural component and ultimately encourages articulation of views
matching all employees.
Various companies within the industry should adopt the use of training and
development for the purposes of equipping different employees from diverse
backgrounds (Mwaura 212-220). The processes help employees cope with
necessary changes, which include the existing stiff competition within the
market and other business challenges, which might be environmental.
Cultural diversity can be managed to give
competitive advantage
This enables parallel performance of individuals irrespective of various
environments where they are posted.
The unity provided through solid leadership is always necessary and beneficial
to the organization’s profitability.
Management ensures that all employees have the ability to rightfully
interpret the organization’s scopes as well as various ways of integrating
organization’s development programs. The management of cultural diversity
can also be developed to ensure cohesiveness within the various teams.
Benefits of cultural diversity in tourism and
hospitality industry
There are numerous benefits resulting from management of cultural diversity,
which include; innovative abilities, competitiveness and transfer of
knowledge to the various minority groups. The process also enables
development of better talents, which reduces labour costs and at the same
time, widens business relations through broad supply base.
Managing cultural diversity is also helpful in the process of knowledge
transfer. The differences portrayed owing to various cultural backgrounds do
not make people differ with others in the workplaces.
The level of competitiveness is improved through effective management of
cultural diversity.
Requires highly motivated staff capable of attracting more customers, which
can only be achieved through successful diversity management.
Fair hiring standards makes gives companies’ fair deal in the nature of
employees since it makes it easier to incorporate every culture required.
Important hiring of
Cultural Diversity in the
Hospitality and tourism
Industry
Diversity hiring
Is hiring based on merit with special care taken to ensure procedures have
reduced biases related to a candidate’s age, race, gender, religion, sexual
orientation, and other personal characteristics that are unrelated to their job
performance. turning off
The goal of diversity hiring is to identify and reduce potential biases in
sourcing, screening, and shortlisting candidates that may be ignoring,
turning off, or accidentally discriminating against qualified, diverse
candidates.
Cultural Diversity hiring strategy important?
Workforce diversity is a fast-growing trend in the business world and with
good reason. In addition to being a good moral choice, diversity recruiting
also provides many tangible benefits for performance, innovation, and
productivity. Some of the known perks include:
• A broader range of skills and experience on your team;
• Increased language and cultural awareness;
• Larger and more varied candidate pools;
5 Reasons why diversity hiring matters
1. It grows your talent pool
Organizations that embrace diversity hiring benefit from a larger talent pool than those who don’t. Their
vacancies will gain interest from a wider range of candidates – because more people can relate to them –
with different backgrounds.
2. It improves employee happiness, productivity & retention
Employees who feel that they’re accepted and appreciated for who they are – no matter what their gender,
age or ethnic background – are happier. And happy staff is more productive and less likely to leave
prematurely.
3. It improves innovation & creativity
When people from all walks of life come together, beautiful things happen. The combination of different
experiences, working styles, and (cultural) backgrounds sparks new ideas and collaboration.
4. It’s positive for your employer brand
This seems obvious and is similar to why diversity hiring leads to a larger talent pool. If your brand is known
for its diversity, it will appeal to many different customers, candidates and potential business partners.
5. It increases your workforce’s range of skills, talents & experiences
And as such, hiring for diversity will help you better understand your customers’ needs. The more diverse
your workforce is, the greater the chances are that your employees will be able to cater to individual
customer needs.
Cultural Diversity Policy
The purpose of the Cultural Diversity Policy is to ensure awareness and
understanding of the cultural differences of clients, carers, families,
employees and associates of Inspire Ability.
Zero tolerance policy
Generally, a zero-tolerance policy is used to describe an “all-or-nothing”
approach to problems.
Zero tolerance policy in workplace
The effectiveness of zero-tolerance policies in the workplace has always been
a topic of debate.
Their benefits? They can help you increase productivity, save money, prevent
workplace harassment and sexual harassment, curb bad behavior, and reduce
stress levels by encouraging your employees to work together rather than
against each other.
Should Adopt Zero Tolerance Policies
Ensures rules and regulations are clearly communicated to all employees;
If you have a zero-tolerance policy, every single one of your employees will
know what happens if they break a rule or fail to follow through on an
assignment.
Increases employee accountabilit;
Because your employees know the consequences of breaking a rule, they’re
encouraged to do everything possible to avoid such punishments.
Promotes pride and camaraderie among co-worker;
No one wants to be seen as “that guy,” so when an employee sees their peers getting
reprimanded for a mistake he or she makes on a project, they’ll feel compelled to step
up and prevent the same thing from happening again.
Should Adopt Zero Tolerance Policies
Allows you to manage employee performance more effectivel;
With a policy in place that holds everyone accountable, you can easily monitor the
performance of each member of your team and provide appropriate feedback that will
help them improve.
Enforcing policies without being overly-
authoritarian
Introduce new rules gradually, one at a time, so employees have the
opportunity to adjust
Give specific examples of how a particular rule was broken instead of being
vague or general
Providing reasons why certain actions violate existing policies, even if they’re
just educated guesses
Don’t punish employees for not knowing policies exist
Don’t enforce a policy with no explanation
Don’t treat every violation as a major offense regardless of its severity
Be efficient when determining policy violations
Enforcing policies without being overly-
authoritarian
Don’t take disciplinary action unless the entire incident has been thoroughly
investigated
Don’t hold back on discipline if the situation is severe
Enforce policies consistently across all employees regardless of position, rank,
etc.
Always consider the circumstances of an infraction before deciding on
punishment
Consider talking with employees about what happened after disciplinary
action has been taken
Final thoughts
Thank you!
Reported by: Polo, Nathaniel Pago.
Nogales, Jessa
Bshm 202 E
