Workplace Diversity In Auckland City Hotel †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Workplace Diversity In Auckland City Hotel. Answer: Introduction The cultural diversity is referred to the different levels of the individual differences in the organization in relation to the sex, gender, ethnicity, social status, sexual orientation and others (Banks, 2015). The people from different backgrounds interpret the organizational events in a different manner and they look at the organizational problems in their own unique ways. The multi-cultural workforces bring strength for the company in which the diversity enhances the organizational productivity. The company practices as well as philosophy should be well-integrated with the diversity component and it should be supported by the organizational commitment. The organization should embrace cultural diversity with open-minded approach as well as being non-judgmental about the individual differences. This report would discuss about the organizational approach to workplace diversity and discuss about the relevant HR practices. The selected organization is Auckland City Hotel. The scope of the project would include the employment policies regarding the multi-cultural workplace. The operational as well as strategic goals of the organization along with maintenance of the service standards as well as quality assurance would be discussed. The project would also discuss about the financial viability as well as long-term growth of the hotel. The research methodology would include the secondary sources collected from the international publications, company website, books and others. Discussion: Diversity in the workplace Auckland City Hotel has great deal of cultural diversity since it has variety of people with different cultural background working together (Kim et al., 2016). The hotel has witnessed that the cultural diversity has benefitted a lot in several ways. The research findings have indicated that there are almost 15 kinds of nationalities that are working in the hotel. This ensures that the individual personalities are working in coordination so that they can achieve common organizational objectives (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). The hotel has witnessed a wide mixture of employees belonging to different race, gender, culture, working style and others. The company has started to embrace the cultural diversity since it is advantageous to the company in many ways (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). There has been an increase in the organizational productivity due to the fact that the individuals have been able to contribute differently in different circumstances. The multi-lingual staffs have ensured that the company would be able to provide good customer service as the hotel deals with different types of customers (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). The hotel is able to give unique experiences to the customers and make good decision-making initiatives (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). The company is able to fulfill the objectives by working on the same corporate goals and by working as a team. Auckland City Hotel has maintained good policies regarding the cultural diversity in the hotel. There has been self-awareness regarding the cultural differences in the hotel (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). The hotel does not make any biases as per their socio-cultural background and they give equal opportunities for all the members. They believe in the fact that if the employees are treated equally, then there would be an increase in the organizational productivity. Current HR policies concerned with multicultural workforce The multi cultural workforce brings different abilities, skills and diverse experiences to the organization, which is helpful in fulfilling the organizational goals (Nichols, Horner Fyfe, 2015). Auckland City Hotel has policies that initiate the equal importance to all the candidates while the recruitment process is going on (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). They do not discriminate between the candidates so that they can form static work environment. The recruitment policies also ensure that there is the selection of diverse workforce and there are different programs or creative strategies used by the company for on boarding a diverse set of employees (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). The company engages in performing culture assessment of all the individual departments of the organization with the help of interviews, focus group discussions and employee surveys (Heritage, Pollock Roberts, 2014). The culture changes in the organization are always driven by the senior management in the hotel and address all the relevant issues. The hotel aligns its recruitment activities as per the Equal Employment Opportunities provided by the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust (EEO), which was set up in the year 1992 so that the employees enjoy equal rights in the workplace (Diversity Works NZ, 2017). This organization helps in the better understanding of the diversity in the workplace and how it can be well integrated into the organization. The hotel works closely with this entity, which ensures that the organizational culture is supported by fairness, equality and the opportunity to help others to contribute against the diversity (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). It also improves the hotel capacity to see as well as connect with the outside world. The training and development used by the organization is one a basic one and it only includes the orientation about the basic job duties, organizational values and the job expectations from the candidates (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). However, there is no training for fostering the cultural diversity of the employees. The organization also doesnt have any training process for improving the communication gaps that are fostered by the multicultural team members. The ITO is the Industry Training Organization in the country which is recognized by the Associate Minister of Education (Tertiary Education) which is responsible for enhancing the national sill standards of the New Zealand labor industry (Nzqa.govt.nz, 2017). It also provides adequate information as well as advice to the employees and the new candidates. They are also responsible for monitoring of the quality training of the organization. The hotel works in close association with this association and makes sure that the employee s are well trained. Current industry best practices The modern-day organizations are gearing hard to accommodate the multiplicity of the viewpoints as well as supports cultures that drives decision-making and innovation in the organizations (Motoyama, 2016). These organizations strive to enhance the employee productivity and enhance the employee retention so that the organization is able to serve the customers well. The following are some of the best practices that are concerned with the multi-cultural workforces- Commitment of the top management of the firm so that they support a wide range of diversity initiatives Diversity is closely linked to the performance of the candidates so that there is an increase in the individual as well as organizational performance (McCarthy et al., 2013) More number of organizations is inclining towards accountability where the leaders are responsible for diversity measures by linking the employee compensation to the performance assessment (Klettner, Clarke Boersma, 2014). An increasing number of organizations are implementing management reporting systems in which the leadership are allowed to set appropriate goals and monitor the performance of the team members (Motoyama, 2016) An increasing number of corporate firms are looking beyond the compliance so that the individual differences are used to drive the business (Crane Matten, 2016). It is important to boost decision making, innovation and out of box thinking. Emphasizing on the creation of innovative ways in which the employees would be able to connect with each other. One of the major ways of doing so is the organization of the employee resource as well as affinity groups (Trevino Nelson, 2016). A network for mentoring and socializing is usually provided to the employees, which ensures that there are sufficient employee engagement activities in the organization. There are several organizations that are providing the diversity orientation program for the new joined employees which would discuss how the employees can leverage the diversity programs to achieve the organizational goals (Motoyama, 2016). Implications of current employment practice of Auckland City Hotel The hotel authority has improper communication mechanisms that exist between the various departments (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). There is presence of lots of cross-cultural employees, but there are inadequate channels of communication between the employees. This prevents the smooth functioning of the organization and there is inadequate team work that is reported in the organization. There are instances when there are language barriers between the employees as the employees from one country is unable to interpret the words of the employees coming from diverse backgrounds (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). The current organizational framework of Auckland City Hotel focuses more on the jobs and there are insufficient team interactions, in which the cross-cultural teams would be able to talk with each other and share their points of views. This often prevents the organization from realizing the team effectiveness (Auckland City Hotel, 2017). The hotel has bureaucratic management style in which the employees have least saying in the organizational decision-making. This often forces the government to make incorrect decisions as they do not consider the viewpoints of the employees. The organization does not provide professional training sessions to the front line employees, which are important for enhancing operational excellence. Apart from the basic organizational induction, the employees are not trained on soft skills, customer service etiquettes and other essential parameters, which help them to face customers in a better manner(Auckland City Hotel, 2017). The lack of training degrades the service quality of the organization, which in turn reduces the organizations capability to achieve organizational mission. Benefits of employing multicultural workforce The organizations have a lot of potential benefits when it comes to employment of the cross-cultural labors. They present a diverse pool of talents as well as corresponding ideas that is based on the different kinds of background of the employees (Barak, 2016). The following are the benefits of recruiting cross cultural employees- Operational and strategic goals- The cross-border employees have their own perspectives of understanding the strategic mission of the organization (Nichols, Horner Fyfe, 2015). One aspect of the organizational mission may be understood well by one employee while the other segment of the mission may be well-interpreted by the other employee (Nichols, Horner Fyfe, 2015). Their overall team effort helps the organization to meet its desired objectives. The level of coordination of the team members is also different from each other and one shortcoming of one member is well substituted by others. Maintaining service standards- The cross-border team ensures that there are multiple language experts in the same team (Nichols, Horner Fyfe, 2015). For example, in Auckland City Hotel, there are employees from almost 15 nationalities such as Japanese, Chinese, Chile, Peru, Malaysia, Thailand and others. There are also multiple nationalities guests arriving at the hotel, who would be satisfied if they are able to interact with the hotel staffs in their mother tongue language (Al-Esia Skok, 2014). This would enhance the customer satisfaction rates and hence would automatically increase the service standards of the hotel. Financial viability / sustainability- The research shows that the gender diversity has high impact on the organizational performance in which the high gender diversity of the company has been shown to give high performance returns (Nichols, Horner Fyfe, 2015). Disadvantages of employing multicultural workforce Operational and strategic goals The cross-cultural workforce would ensure that there would be certain level of issue concerning the language diversity. In the absence of communication proficiency in English, it would be difficult for the organization to coordinate between multiple team members and foster team work (Rozkwitalska, Su?kowski Magala, 2016). This would prevent the employees from achieving their full potential and attaining the organizational objectives. Maintaining service standards- A multicultural workforce often leads to faulty training modules since it is not possible for the organization to give customized training to the workforce (Rozkwitalska, Su?kowski Magala, 2016). The training provided by the organization may be suitable for one section of the workforce, while the other employees may not be able to utilize it fully (Przytu?a ,2017). This may create a skill gap in the workforce, due to which the organization may not be able to fulfill the service standards. Financial viability / sustainability- The individual differences may cause a decrease in the organizational productivity, which may result in a decreased operational excellence. This would in turn mean a loss of revenues as there would be more number of dissatisfied customers (Rozkwitalska, Su?kowski Magala, 2016). There are also instances when the multi-culture work culture implies that there would be high spending of the company and this may naturally increase the cost of retaining the manpower. Recommendations Auckland City Hotel should foster the cultural differences in the workplaces so that the employees are able to understand as well as appreciate each other. It should implement sensitivity training which would make the employees to act and communicate properly in the corporate scenario. There should be various kinds of topics that should be covered in the sensitivity training such as appropriate terminology, proper etiquette, and improvement of the communication styles and the elimination of the sexual harassments in the workplaces. The hotel should be open to hiring of the persons with physical as well as mental disabilities as they have immense potential in contributing well to the organizational growth. The advent of the new technologies is helpful in the recruitment of disabled persons in the organization. It has been seen that the disabled workers have unique set of talents as well as abilities, which should be well appreciated by the organization. The third recommendation for Auckland City Hotel would be foster more training and team meetings, in which the employees of the organizations would have a chance to interact with each other. This would enable the diverse workforce to interact with each other and know about their differences well. This would also ensure that there would be an improvement of the interpersonal relationship between the employees, which would enhance team productivity. Conclusion The management of the multicultural workforce is a tough affair and it requires perseverance as well as effort to ensure smooth functioning of such teams. Auckland City Hotel had several issues in managing their cross-cultural teams. There are many benefits of the multicultural workforce and these are responsible for enhancing the organizational productivity. The combined team effort of the cross-border team ensures that the organization is able to fulfill its mission. However, there are some issues concerned with the multi-culture team as well. I feel that the challenges concerned with the multicultural workforce can be solved with the help of focus on training and development, which should address the cultural diversity at the workplace. Adequate care should be taken so that the employees can contribute to improving the customer service quality of the hotel. The company should also try to address the issue of the language barriers by recruiting an interpreter or with the help of im proving the English-speaking capabilities of the employees. This would ensure that the company has sufficient opportunities for increasing the revenue generation. References Al-Esia, Z., Skok, W. (2014). 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