Abstract
Managing human resources in the hospitality industry is a challenging task. In today's competitive environment, an increasing number of organizations invest in promoting diversity in the workplace. The concept of diversity as a value is based on the recognition, acceptance, and respect. It implies understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing and valuing the individual differences. Therefore, it is very important to understand “how diversity impacts individual and team processes and outcomes in the workplace”. This chapter introduces the notion of diversity in hotel industry: its role, its interrelationship with satisfaction and teamwork. Emphasis is given on the fact that the right to difference and diversity should be incorporated not only in the whole range of processes, strategies, and actions of the company but also within the corporate culture.
TopDiversity In Hotel Industry
In today’s competitive environment, an increasing number of organizations invest in promoting diversity in the workplace. Therefore, it is very important to understand “how diversity impacts individual and team processes and outcomes in the workplace” (Harrison & Sin, 2006, pp. 191). The role of diversity in workplaces has been widely discussed in the field of organizational studies. Diversity has been claimed to impact team effectiveness (Harrison & Sin, 2006), whilst diverse work teams were found to attain high value to organizations. Literature highlights that diversity provides benefits that increase success. Given the multicultural and globalised perspective of the hospitality industry (Korjala, 2012), diversity management practices can offer organizations advantages in facilitating transactions with customers (Hicks-Clarke & Iles, 2000), and by committing to diversity, businesses’ reputation and corporate image can be effectively enhanced (Roberson & Park, 2007).
Hospitality plays an important role in the economy of a country– often constitutes its backbone. According to Reisinger (2009), hospitality and tourism organizations operate in a very complex multicultural tourism environment and thus they cannot afford to neglect understanding and capturing individuals’ perception on culture nor underestimate the role of the national culture. While most managers recognize the value and importance of culture, they find it difficult, if not impossible, to successfully link culture to diversity so that it becomes viable and leads to the achievement of the strategic objectives. Literature highlights that traditional organisational cultures and systems include factors that create significant barriers and constraints to successful diversity management. In general however, the organizational competitiveness lies significantly on the ability to manage cultural diversity in a workplace and communicate effectively across cultures (Okoro & Washington, 2012, pp.58).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Teamwork: The ability to effectively work and cooperate within groups.
Job Satisfaction: The degree to which individuals are content with their job, or aspects of their job.
Diversity: The set of all the dimensions where the employee is differentiated with respect to the role, functioning and personality.