Managing People in the Hospitality and Service Industry Assignment

1. Conceptualise the issues surrounding the people management practices in hospitality organisations.

Task : Managing Diversity and Sustainable HRM in Hospitality: Strategies, Challenges, and Sustainable Solutions

The hospitality industry faces unique challenges in managing a diverse workforce while ensuring sustainable people management practices. This focus of this assignment is on critically conceptualising the role of diversity in hospitality organisations and sustainable human resource practices. This assignment would require you to propose strategic interventions and explore their implications for hospitality organizations.

Instruction

a. You are required to prepare a report which addresses the task above.

b. The report should:

• explain the key issues surrounding workforce diversity in hospitality organisations
• discuss the challenges associated with such diversity from the perspective of both employers and employees
• recommend innovative and sustainable people management practices that may be embedded in organisational practice to address the challenges associated with workforce diversity
• demonstrate inclusion of appropriate theory and/or models and other valid supporting information.
• include specific, relevant and contemporary examples drawn from the hospitality industry
• appropriately cite/reference all sources used and meet the conventions of academic writing
• be between approximately 2000 to 2500 words (excluding references and cover page)
• be word processed using font type Calibri and font size of 12 and have 1.5 spacing.

c. To complete the report, you are required to conduct Interviews:

• Interview at least THREE (3) hospitality employees (e.g., hotel staff, restaurant workers) and TWO (2) hospitality managers/supervisors to understand their perspectives on working in a diverse workplace and what they believe are sustainable actions or strategies that may be implemented to ensure a successful management of diversity.
• The output of these interviews MUST BE incorporated into your report.

Experts Answer on Above Questions in Managing Diversity & HRM

Issues surrounding workforce diversity in hospitality organisations

Malaysia is known for having people from different ethnicities, nationalities, religions, tenders and age groups. The workers in the hospitality industry in Malaysia are therefore from different backgrounds which helps in improving customer service and creativity, but at the same time, it also creates challenges for the management. Issues in the form of communication barriers, cultural misunderstandings, religious accommodation, unequal career opportunities and managing foreign workers are quite evident among managers. The hotel and restaurants are also required to provide equal treatment and comply with Malaysian employment regulation in managing their workforce.

Challenges with workforce diversity

Employer perspective

From the point of view of the employer, the challenges are to manage employees from different cultural and language backgrounds, resolving workplace conflicts, providing equal opportunities to each and every employee from diverse backgrounds, retaining skilled employees and achieving compliance with Malaysian labour laws and diversity policies.

Employee perspective

From an employee point of view, they face challenges in understanding the viewpoint language of their colleagues, feel discriminated against because of culture, nationality, religion or gender, difficulties in adopting to different working styles and balancing long working hours with personal commitments.

Innovative and sustainable people management practices

It is possible to manage people within organisation through innovative and sustainable practices by way of implementing diversity and inclusive training for all the employees, utilising transparent recruitment process on the basis of merit, mentoring programs for employees to ensure better collaboration between old and new employees, providing flexible working arrangements for employees to manage their personal and workplace possibilities, conducting regular employee engagement surveys and developing inclusive leadership training for supervisors and managers.

Application of relevant theories/models

Social identity theory

Identifying employees on the basis of their culture on nationality creates workplace bias which can be addressed using inclusive HR practices.

Hofstede cultural dimensions

By way of understanding cultural differences among employees, it would be possible for the managers to improve communication and leadership in multicultural workplaces.

Equity theory

It is a natural tendency that employees perform comparison of their rewards and treatment with others. Adapting a fair pay and promotion strategy can help managers in improving motivation among employees and reducing dissatisfaction.

Contemporary Malaysian hospitality examples

Sunway hotels and resorts – the hotel promotes diversity by way of practicing equal employment opportunities, and regular employee development programmes.
Marriott Hotel Malaysia – it makes arrangements for diversity and implicit training for its employees and employs multicultural teams.
Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur – the hotel makes significant investment in supporting employee learning, career development and inclusive workplace practices.
Genting Malaysia – it employs a highly diversified workforce by having structured HR policies and continuous staff training.

Findings from the interview

The interview was carried out with hospitality employees that revealed findings that employees accepted that a diversified culture not only supports innovation, but also provides opportunities to learn from colleagues. Although language barriers are there, they can be manageable over a period of time if supported with diversity training. The interviewed employees appreciated fair treatment irrespective of their nationality.

The interview with the hospitality managers indicated findings that appropriate diversity management helps in improving customer service because the employees from diverse backgrounds understand the needs and expectations of different customers effectively. It is important to have good multicultural communication skills in order to manage a diverse workforce as agreed by most of the interviewed managers. By providing regular training and teambuilding activities, it would be possible to reduce workplace conflict efficiently. And managers have also agreed that proper employee recognition and equal opportunities helps in managing and retaining employees within the workplace.

Want Detailed Answers with References?

An analysis of the Malaysian hospitality industry above revealed findings that workplace diversity is a common area that businesses need to manage in order to remain competitive. The specific areas to consider on communication barriers. Discrimination and employee retention. With our Malaysian assignment helpers, you can expect a similar kind of Malaysian business analysis across a range of HRM areas. Along with this, we also provide support with Sunway University Assignments across different modules with our qualified Malaysian assignment helpers.