Scribd
Upload
100 views5 pages

Managing Cultural Diversity in Tourism

The document discusses diversity management in the workplace. It defines cultural diversity management and provides approaches and strategies for managing diversity, including focusing on discrimination and fairness, access and legitimacy, and learning and effectiveness. It also outlines the process of cultural diversity management and strategies for managing cultural differences, including ignoring differences, minimizing differences, and managing differences.

Uploaded by

Angelika Lastimado
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
100 views5 pages

Managing Cultural Diversity in Tourism

The document discusses diversity management in the workplace. It defines cultural diversity management and provides approaches and strategies for managing diversity, including focusing on discrimination and fairness, access and legitimacy, and learning and effectiveness. It also outlines the process of cultural diversity management and strategies for managing cultural differences, including ignoring differences, minimizing differences, and managing differences.

Uploaded by

Angelika Lastimado
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

TMHM9-Multicultural Diversity in Workplace for the Tourism Professionals

CHAPTER 5
DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
To promote greater inclusion of employees from various backgrounds in an
organization's structure, certain policies and programs are implemented. Organizations
are using diversity management methods in response to the growing diversity of the
workforce across the world.

CONCEPT OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT


Any substantial variation in race, nationality, language, ethnicity, or religion within
a community is considered cultural diversity management. It is also a management of
the differences and similarities of workers working at a workplace, as well as the degree
of "otherness" felt by an individual.
Diversity management has been defined in a number of ways.
Among them are the following:
1. Diversity management efforts seek to create an environment that works organically
for all individuals, not just for women and minorities.
2. Managing diversity refers to the establishment of organizational structures and
processes that effectively utilize diversity in order to provide equal and fair work
conditions for workers of all racial/ethnic and gender groupings.
3. Diversity management is defined as the process of creating and maintaining an
environment that allows all individuals to reach their full potential while achieving
business objectives.
TMHM9-Multicultural Diversity in Workplace for the Tourism Professionals

4. Managing diversity is predicated on the premise that the workforce is made up of a


diverse collection of people.
Examples of visible, and non-visible differences include gender, age, background, race,
disability, personality, and work style. It is founded on the idea that by capitalizing on
these differences, a productive environment can be established in which everyone feels
valued, their talents are fully used, and organizational goals are met.
5. Managing diversity involves enabling a diverse workforce to achieve its full potential
in an equitable atmosphere where no one group suffers.
Based on the above definitions, we may conclude that diversity management
encompasses all efforts made to manage and ‚respect people's cultural differences.
Diversity management takes precedence over affirmative action.

APPROACHES TO WORKPLACE DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT


Companies' diversity initiatives are guided by many ideas and methods. Some
methods are more valuable and have a larger effect on the company than others. The
three most common methods to workplace diversity management are outlined here.
1. Approach to Discrimination and Fairness
This strategy focuses on developing proactive programs to ensure equal
opportunity, fair treatment, recruiting, and adherence to Equal Employment Opportunity
criteria for everyone. Companies that use this strategy often provide mentorship and
professional development programs specifically for women and individuals of minority
groups, as well as training for other workers to recognize cultural differences.
The primary motivation for this strategy is to eradicate bias in the workplace and
to increase awareness of cultural differences. The success of this paradigm is
determined by the extent to which the organization is able to achieve its recruitment and
retention goals, rather than the extent to which the organization's work environment
encourages employees to bring into play their capabilities and viewpoints in order to
carry out their work more efficiently. Although, according to this paradigm, the personnel
is diverse, the task is not. The organization's work culture is [Link] worker
diversification, and leadership unable to capitalize on the potential advantages of
diversity.
2. Approach to Access and Legitimacy
The strategy emphasizes on employee acceptance and use of diversity in order
to serve to different client groups. Organizations using this approach feel that the
marketplace is culturally diverse and therefore may offer an opportunity or a danger to
them. So, organizations or businesses strive to improve the diversity of their workforce
because they recognize the importance of having workers who are multi-skilled and
TMHM9-Multicultural Diversity in Workplace for the Tourism Professionals

fluent in more than one language so that consumers may be better understood and
serviced, and thus, earn legitimacy with them.
Diversity is not just moral; it is also good for [Link] idea of celebrating
differences essentially categorizes workers into occupations that fit their specialty or
cultural background. However, diverse workers often feel exploited since possibilities in
other areas of the company are not available to them. Furthermore, in a bad business
situation or a reduction, special department workers are the most likely to lose their
jobs.
3. Approach to Learning and Effectiveness
This learning and effectiveness strategy seeks to integrate workers by
understanding that cultural differences are a significant source of organizational
learning. The distinctions are appreciated and incorporated into the fundamental
business operations.
The group that takes this method believes in open debate and tolerance for
diversity. The strategy seeks to foster a positive diversity environment and, as a result, a
culture of inclusion.
The company internalizes disparities among workers by putting itself in their
shoes to comprehend their various viewpoints and, therefore, finding methods to
increase performance. This learning helps to the organization's development, and,
therefore, team spirit is created among Workers from various cultural backgrounds.
They feel appreciated and respected. A bureaucratic, egalitarian framework is required
to support this strategy. Furthermore, corporate culture should promote transparency
and establish high performance expectations for workers.

PROCESS OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT


1. Diagnosis: Every business must evaluate the current state of things in terms of
policy, statistics, and culture, taking both the issues and the reasons into consideration.
2. Aims Setting: The second step is to set objectives, which often include important
topics such as the commercial reason for avoiding bias, identifying the crucial role of top
management commitment, and envisioning what the firm will look like after successful
diversity management.
3. Awareness Raising: This is an important stage in which public awareness must be
raised. Employees at all levels, especially supervisors, must be made more aware of
the value of diversity.
4. Policy Development: The new systems are being deployed with the participation of
all workers. These should not be imposed on anybody.
TMHM9-Multicultural Diversity in Workplace for the Tourism Professionals

5. Managing the Transition: It involves a variety of training activities. These may


include programs designed specifically for minority groups to assist them in
understanding the organization's culture and gaining essential skills. Specific diversity
management policies and procedures, with a focus on selection, assessment, and
coaching, as well as training sessions to improve cultural awareness and handle
different cultures, must be created.
6. To Sustain Momentum: To continue the process, a senior management functionary,
not necessarily from the HR department, but anybody who works with the trade union,
must participate.
7. To Assess Achievements in Terms of Business Benefits: The last step is to
evaluate the success or achievements of diversity management policies in terms of
business benefits such as improved customer relations, greater productivity, and
profitability.

STRATEGIES IN MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY


There are 3 strategies for managing cultural diversity in the organization. These are the
following:
1. Ignore Cultural Differences
a. The manager following this approach in the organization does not recognize cultural
differences and its impact on the organization. This strategy is mainly adopted by
parochial type of organizations. In such type of organizations, managers and employees
believe that our way is the only way to manage and organize.
b. In their view, diversity is just an irrelevant concept. Thus, the efforts for effective
diversity management, minimizing the negative impact of cultural differences or
increasing the positive impacts of diversity do not find any place here.
2. Minimize Cultural Differences
a. This technique is more likely to be used by ethnocentric groups. Management
acknowledges cultural variety, but mainly as a source of difficulty. Managers in
ethnocentric companies think that their style of organization and management is the
best. They believe that other people's management techniques are inferior. The
management believes that by reducing inequalities, they would be able to decrease
diversity. They do not consider the benefits of diversity.
b. As a consequence, such a business desires to hire/ have a homogenous workforce.
As a consequence of restricting the scope of having a culturally diverse team,
ethnocentric businesses are deprived of or unaffected by the benefits of a diversified
workforce.
TMHM9-Multicultural Diversity in Workplace for the Tourism Professionals

3. Manage Cultural Differences


a. Synergetic organizations are ones that use a disparities-management strategy. These
organizations recognize or comprehend the effect of cultural diversity, which may have
both good and negative repercussions. Managers who use this approach believe that
our methods of managing and acting differ from ours, but that neither is superior.
Rather, the best approach to manage and organize may be a creative combination of
our way and their way.
b. Synergetic businesses handle cultural diversity by educating managers and
employees how to recognize cultural differences and how to use those differences to
the company's advantage.

Common questions

Powered by AI

The 'Discrimination and Fairness' approach emphasizes ensuring equal opportunity, fair treatment, and compliance with equal employment opportunity norms. Its success is gauged by achieving recruitment and retention goals, but it often fails to leverage the distinct capabilities and viewpoints of employees in enhancing workplace efficiency. In contrast, the 'Learning and Effectiveness' approach integrates diverse perspectives into core business processes. It values open debate and the input from varied cultural backgrounds as sources of organizational learning, thereby fostering a culture of inclusion and continuous improvement. As a result, employees feel more respected and appreciated, contributing to organizational development and team spirit .

The 'Manage Cultural Differences' strategy adopts a synergetic approach, recognizing the potential benefits and challenges of cultural diversity. This strategy leverages differences to create innovative organizational methods, acknowledging that combining diverse management styles might yield the best results. In contrast, the 'Minimize Cultural Differences' approach, typically seen in ethnocentric organizations, views cultural variety predominantly as a source of trouble, leading to efforts to reduce these differences without appreciating their value. As a result, the minimizing approach often results in a less diverse and more homogeneous workforce, potentially stunting organizational growth and adaptability compared to the synergetic approach .

Diagnosing the current state of cultural diversity within an organization involves evaluating existing policies, statistics, and workplace culture to understand both the challenges and root causes of diversity issues. This aligns with the overall diversity management process by setting a foundation for establishing objectives, raising awareness, and developing policies. The diagnosis informs the setting of realistic aims, such as eliminating bias and committing top management to diversity goals. Additionally, it ensures that new policies and systems stem from an informed understanding of the existing organizational environment, crucial for managing transitions and assessing the business benefits of diversity strategies .

Managing the transition involves training activities that help minority groups understand organizational culture and develop essential skills. This supportive environment minimizes resistance to change and facilitates smoother integration of diverse employees, ensuring that everyone is prepared for and receptive to new diversity policies. By incorporating specific procedures for selection, assessment, and coaching, the transition management process enhances cultural awareness and competency across the company. This preparation is crucial for embedding diversity principles into the company's operations, which ultimately leads to improved business outcomes, such as enhanced customer service and increased productivity .

Diversity management goes beyond affirmative action by aiming to create an environment that organically works for everyone, facilitating the full potential of all employees to achieve business goals. It involves ongoing processes that respect cultural differences and capitalize on them for organizational benefit. On the other hand, affirmative action primarily focuses on increasing opportunities for historically marginalized groups, typically through compliance-driven recruitment and retention efforts. While both strategies aim to address workplace inequality, diversity management emphasizes integrating all employees into the organizational culture rather than focusing solely on equal representation .

The effectiveness of the Learning and Effectiveness approach heavily depends on an organizational culture that promotes openness, transparency, and high performance expectations. A supportive corporate culture encourages employees to openly discuss and integrate diverse perspectives into business processes, fostering an environment where differences are valued and contribute to learning. Additionally, a bureaucratic framework that supports egalitarianism is essential, as it ensures structured processes for recognizing and utilizing diversity as an organizational asset. Without such a culture and framework, the potential for diversity to enhance organizational learning and effectiveness may not be fully realized, inhibiting the strategy's success .

Policy development is a critical step in managing the transition to an inclusive workplace as it involves creating new systems with input from all employees rather than imposing them. This participative approach fosters buy-in and ensures that policies are relevant and supportive of an inclusive culture. It is closely integrated with raising diversity awareness, as increasing awareness prepares employees at all levels, particularly supervisors, for the changes these policies entail. By aligning policy development with awareness initiatives, organizations can effectively manage transitions, enabling a smoother adoption of diversity practices and reducing resistance to change .

In parochial organizational settings, where cultural differences are ignored, the approach leads to the belief that their management style is the only viable way, treating diversity as an irrelevant concept. This can result in a lack of efforts towards effective diversity management and diminish the positive impacts of diversity. Such an organization misses out on the creative and performance-enhancing benefits that a diverse workforce offers, often leading to a homogeneous work environment susceptible to groupthink and with limited innovation. This hindrance prevents the organization from fully realizing its potential in a globalized market .

The Access and Legitimacy Approach to diversity management emphasizes the inclusion of diverse workers to cater to a varied client base, recognizing the diverse nature of the marketplace as both an opportunity and a potential threat. Companies using this approach often focus on employing a workforce with specific cultural or linguistic skills to better serve diverse client groups and establish legitimacy. However, this can lead to workers feeling pigeonholed into roles that match their cultural backgrounds, thus limiting opportunities for advancement in other areas of the organization. In times of economic downturn or restructuring, these specific roles might be deemed non-essential, leading to higher job vulnerability for employees in such positions .

Sustaining momentum in diversity management requires continuous engagement and support from senior management, involving not only HR but also leaders across all organizational levels. This stage is pivotal as it ensures that diversity initiatives are continuously reinforced and adapted to changing circumstances, maintaining their relevance. Corporation leaders need to work alongside trade unions and employee representatives to integrate diversity into the organization's strategic goals. This ongoing commitment highlights diversity's strategic value, impacting areas such as customer relations and profitability. Without sustained momentum, diversity efforts risk becoming stagnant, leading to minimal long-term impact .

You might also like