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Running head: LOOKING AT HOSPITALITY COMPOSITION 1

LOOKING AT HOSPITALITY COMPOSITION 2

Looking at Hospitality Composition

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Looking at Hospitality Composition

Introduction

Diversity is a broad term that is commonly used to refer to the differences and similarities in population characteristics within a given setting. Through diversity, there is an increase in the options available for individuals and organizations in terms of economic, social, and personal development. Globalization has been a major driving force in the development of diversity primarily due to increased patterns on immigration for labor and socio-economic growth. Some of the core issues that have been raised due to increasing diversity looks at increasing fairness in the workplace. Fairness is often based on gender, race, and age-related issues. As such, we shall review a key aspect of the hospitality sector – diversity – to explore the challenges, opportunities, and benefits present.

Discussion

Scope of the Issue

The modern environment has developed to be highly competitive especially due to globalization. This is an aspect that highlighted the increasing competition forces existing in the market that goes beyond the local market. In the hospitality sector, globalization has seen the rapid growth of many multinationals. The global environment has presented the opportunity for faster and cheaper travel which has seen an increase in the number of travels. As of 2018, there were 1.4 billion travelers that led to an increased need for hospitality brands to keep up (Yoong, 2019). With the increasing need for brands to leverage this rapid increase in travel, there has been increasing expansion to foreign markets which have highlighted the challenge of understanding the local culture and offering authentic customer experiences for increased competitive advantage.

Often, these companies have to look at the competition of human resources in the hospitality sector. Acquisition and retention of the top talent in various levels of the organization looks at a workforce that can work in different cultures. This creates a need for an increased need to develop strategies to deal efficiently with aspects of multiple demographic groups and help employees overcome barriers. With continuing growth in globalization, there has been an increase in the number of immigrant workers in the hospitality sector. According to BLS (2020), there were 28.4 million immigrant persons in the US workforce which is about 17% of the total workforce. In 2015, about one in five workers in the US hospitality industry were foreign-born and occupied the more labor-intensive roles (BLS, 2015).

To deal with the growing needs of the diverse populations in the society, there is a need for some market and product shifts in the US. The increasing rate of globalization and labor structure influenced by increasing immigration, the management of cultural diversity has become a major issue. Among the 21st-century hospitality industry employers, discrimination and stereotypes are some of the common assumptions that have created an insufficient understanding of the workplace. One of the common stereotypes relating to minority groups in the hospitality industry is that they are under qualified and as such, are mainly concentrated in the low-skill level organizational positions (Baum et al., 2007). As such, the minority group's skill level is being underused. The provision of language skill training is also not enough to meet the needs of the diverse workforce, especially when dealing with the global environment. This is seen by many failures by expatriates with the necessary language skills but fails to adapt to the foreign environment mainly due to cultural difference issues. For increased awareness of cultural differences and managing diversity, there is a need to increase cultural awareness and sensitivity to various population diversity needs. This can maximize the productivity of the organization and aid in cultural-specific training to meet the needs of hospitality organizations.

Benefits of Diversity

In the organization, diversity is a coin that has two sides to it - positive and negative. The negative aspects can be taken as opportunities for the organization to grow and attain greater benefits. Some of the opportunities that are presented to organizations include the growth of innovation, competitive advantage, and increasing knowledge transfer. (Baum et al., 2007). Additionally, organizations have better employee attraction and retention which reduces the labor costs. The fruitful aspects of managing diversity is important for organizations to increase the organization's supply circle which can develop business partnerships, especially when dealing with enterprises operated by a minority group. This, in turn, can enhance the aspects of quality and to reduce the organizational costs.

Focusing on the hospitality sector, there are four main perspectives that diversity can aid an organization to increase the image of the neighbors and communities. They include the increase in invaluable innovation, increasing knowledge transfer, better competitive advantage, and a positive brand image.

Innovation

Having a diverse set of employees brings with it lots of experience and backgrounds. This has the opportunity of increasing innovation for the provision of new ideas. Where employees have an understanding of the values of their colleagues, there is an increase in the appreciation of various kinds of benefits that creates differences. There are more effective solutions that are generated where there is the presence of a diverse workforce. Looking at a homogenous employee group against a diverse workforce, in the long-run, there is an outstanding performance level in the diverse group especially in taking up responsibilities (Apfelbaum, 2017). This is attributed to an increase in the creativity and novelty that is present in multicultural workgroups.

Knowledge Transfer

Where there is a combined effort of people in dealing with an issue, there is easier development and implementation of solutions. In the workplace, there is better communication and knowledge transfer. Often, knowledge transfer is easier when people share a common language or have a similar cultural background. This is due to increased misunderstandings from the cultural background of the employees. In this way, where there is limited diversity, there are increased obstacles in knowledge transfer about a market to the organization. However, where there is increased diversity, the organization can have increased information on the market through easier communication processes. This efficiency is greatly increased by the fact of having a workforce that can get in touch with the market dynamics in a quickly diversifying global environment.

Competitive Advantage

With increasing competitiveness, there is a need for companies to remain efficient in their processes. This means there a need for a reduction in labor costs as well as a need to increase the mass of sales. For hospitality organizations to deal with these perspectives there is a need to have better-motivated employees, a reduction in turnover, and better strategies to attract and retain customers. The dynamic market place looks at strategies to better serve diverse groups of customers. As such, building on diversity enables the organization to have the capacity of developing an understanding of the needs and wants to the customers by building a long-term relationship. According to Baum et al. (2007), a diverse environment that has a fair proportion of minority employees attracts more minority customers especially in the hospitality industry thus helping an organization have an increase in market share and loyalty.

Also, the hiring standards enable an organization to have an increased advantage over the competition through better recruitment and retention practices. In the hospitality industry, organizations can have enhanced ability to diversify its supply base through partnerships with minority-owned businesses for purposes of improved quality and cost-effectiveness. As such, an organization that has a sensitivity to individual differences offers a better competitive advantage.

Building Reputation and Image

According to Fernandez (2006), focus on hospitality organizations shows that the industry has maintained a passive approach to developing an optimistic reputation for the public. There is a need to have some actions geared towards establishing a positive brand image for the industry that will be aided by the recruitment of a diverse workforce. By having increased diversity, organizations can attract young people into the industry. This is important for creating an association with the market that the hospitality organization is serving which can increase the possibility of the organization being readily accepted and recognized by diverse populations.

Challenges of Cultural Diversity

One of the key challenges that arise when considering diversity in the hospitality sector is the barriers to communication among employees in the workplace. Language is a crucial element in a successful workplace environment. The background differences create some difficulty in the communication gap. This means that communication competence has to considered from a point of developing communication skills. Communication skills are developed over time rather than coming naturally. As such, employees from diverse backgrounds may have difficulty in understanding each other efficiently in the short-run. Moreover, intercultural communication has some specific challenges as compared to uni-culture communication. As such, intercultural communication often has difficulty in interpretation of behavior which can create uncertainty to the response of communication (Baum et al, 2007). This has an effect of developing suspicion, low self-esteem, and sometimes hostility among the individuals that are not understood in the organization.

Discrimination Issues

Discrimination issues are often accompanied by cultural differences that develop among workers. There is the presence of direct and indirect discrimination among employees that often is reported by organizations with a diverse workforce (Baum et al., 2007). This discrimination may go beyond colleagues and have roots in the management of the organization. This can be seen in practices such as hiring from specific groups or failing to offer career development among specific groups within the organization. Also, this can be seen through practices such as limiting minority groups to low-level skill jobs even where they are over-qualified for the positions.

Difficulties in Training

The purpose of diversity training is create an enhanced environment that builds respect among work colleagues and creation of sensitivity awareness. For the development of a diverse workforce, there is a need to deal with issues of ethnocentrism in employees. Using multicultural education and training practices plays a crucial role in the creation employees’ knowledge base and the development of an enhanced surrounding for an organization. The language and cross-cultural training is a necessary and insightful way by which minority employees especially those targeted for expatriation can have some skills for the diverse workforce in their destination. There are no single training curricula that are readily available to offer the necessary skills and awareness necessary for interacting with all global cultures. Often, most programs look at increasing the awareness of diversity and higher-level management in dealing with a diverse workforce. As such, hospitality organizations have to look at strategies for increasing the knowledge of the employees to support upper-level management.

Conclusion and Recommendations

To deal with the issue of diversity in the hospitality sector, organizations have to develop various adaptation techniques. To begin with, organizations can develop employee relationship management approaches. This looks at the integration of minority workers in the workplace that looks at the cultural differences of the employees for the creation of good relationships. The programs can look at building relationships that looks at developing the linguistic base of the minority groups, integration of employees' families in the workplace activities, celebration of different groups' traditional holidays or religious activities, and increased emphasis on the role of minority employees in the organizational activities. There is also a need to increase the individual-to-individual relationships in the workplace by developing an understanding of the various backgrounds and personal experiences.

There is also a need to have a diversity education management program for increasing the competitiveness of the employees. Hospitality organizations have to prepare managers and expatriates for cross-cultural sensibilities. This aspect looks at eliminating the cultural barriers that managers have to face in the international hospitality industry. There is a need to create awareness of the ethnocentric viewpoints. This is focused on own beliefs which may create bias or stereotyping. The managers have to be willing to go beyond the present ethnocentric viewpoints to learn various cultural environments. This management program of diversity should be included at all levels of the organization.

References

Apfelbaum, E. (2017). The Trouble With Homogeneous Teams. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-trouble-with-homogeneous-teams/

BLS. (Bureau of Labor Statistics). (2020). Foreign-born workers: Labor force characteristics - 2019. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/forbrn.pdf

BLS. (Bureau of Labor Statistics). (2015). “Industry employment and output projection to 2024,” Monthly Labor Review.

Baum, T., Devine, F. & Hearns, N. (2007). The implications of contemporary cultural diversity for the hospitality curriculum. Education +Training, 49(5), 350-363

Fernandez, G. (2006). The proactive approach needed to attract minority workers. Nation’s Restaurant News, 40(12), 18, 48

Kalargyrou, V., Costen, W. (2017). Diversity management research in hospitality and tourism: past, present, and future. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 29(1):68-114. DOI: 10.1108/IJCHM-09-2015-0470

Yoong, K. (2019). Global Expansion for Hotel Brands. Retrieved from https://www.hospitalitynet.org/opinion/4094211.html