Diversity Management at Hyatt Hotels: Challenges and Approaches

Diversity Management
Hyatt Hotels
2019
Student’s Name
5/20/2019

Diversity Management 1
Introduction
Developments in the organizational globalisation have increased the participation of
diverse workforce which in turn creates the necessity of effective management of the
diversity. Diversity management has become the critical aspect for the hospitality and
tourism industry (Barak, 2016). In relation to the above aspect Hyatt Hotels is a leading
global hospitality company that has diversified portfolio consisting of 19 premier brands. The
company aims to retain the best employees, build relationship with the guest and create value
for the shareholders (Hyatt, 2019). The report will reflect upon the challenges faced by Hyatt
and impact of diversity at the business of the company. It will also cover the approaches
adopted by Hyatt Hotels to manage the diversity.
Challenges faced by Hyatt in managing diverse
workforce and customers
Management of the workforce diversity becomes a challenging job for the company
because the company experience difference in opinions of its employees and the resistance to
work as a team. It is analysed that the company faced the challenge of inclusion of diverse
workforce to form the teams because of the linguistic barriers and the cultural differences
among the workforce. The employees were not comfortable in working with each and other
and were not showing respect to each other’s culture. The linguistic and the cultural carriers
created lack of communication which in turn lower the morale of the employees and
decreased the productivity of the company. The difference in the generation gaps created
isolation for some employees and difficulty in accepting the perception of others (Groschl,
2011).

Diversity Management 2
The cultural awareness, sensitivity and intercultural communication were the major
challenges faced by Hyatt. The company was not able to satisfy the diversifying needs of the
customers and favouritism of specific culture was becoming a sensitive issue among the
culturally diverse customers. These cultural differences create the emerging need for the
company to understand and emphasize diverse cultures and the diversifying needs of the
guests and employees of the hotel. The company faced the challenge of negative attitude and
behaviour among the diverse workforce which in turn creates difficulty in creating
harmonious relation and enhance the productivity of the hotel (Michielsens, Bingham, &
Clarke, 2013).
Approach adopted to manage diversity
In response to the above diversity challenges the company focuses on creating
welcoming environment for both the colleagues and the guests. The company has launched a
programme named as Hyattalks under which the company the company forms the team with
the leadership to share the insights and the knowledge of the diverse workforce. It raises the
issues and the ideas for empowering the workforce. The company embraces equity and
fairness in its approach by listening to the ideas given by the employees and implementing
them at the workplace. Hyatt is considered as a great place to work because it provides the
opportunity to the employees to grow themselves and learn new skills. The company has
been ranked as 14th in managing the diversity at the workplace. It enjoys significant retention
of the employees because the company focuses on constantly engaging in internal surveying
and benchmarking to ensure that the programmes designed for the employees perfectly hit the
motive of making them happy (Mest, 2017).
The company focuses on inclusion and diversity and provides the business advantage
to the company. It focuses on making the mix work under which it recruits and retain the best