Effects of Cultural Diversity Within Hospitality Sector of Australia | Essay

Effects of Cultural Diversity within
Hospitality Sector of Australia

Culture diversity is that quality of diverse or different cultural present at same place and
at one particular time which is opposite of monoculture or homogenization of cultures. This also
means that different people who belong to different cultural, ethnic origin, colour and religion
are respecting each other’s difference (Kalargyrou & Costen, 2017). In certain parts of world
cultural diversity is celebrated like festival to show their unity in diversity. Like in Australia
Harmony Day on 21st March each year is celebrated where people of different communities come
together to participate in local activities. There is one message given from Harmony Day that is
“Everyone Belongs”.
Cultural diversity at workplace is evident when company is hiring employees from
different backgrounds irrespective of their religion, race and culture. Considering this, it is
evident that hospitality sector of Australia employs employees from different parts of world that
leads to culturally diverse team (Manoharan et. al. 2019). Therefore, this essay will cover impact
of cultural diversity in hospitality sector of Australia and how industry is preparing for this
opportunity, adapting to this challenge or managing the particular issue in different manner.
It is evident that with the rapid transformation and integration of economies over past
decade, there is significant rise in culturally diverse workplace especially in developed countries
like Australia, UK, UAE, etc. Thus, the post-industrial world is presenting range of new
developments, challenges and opportunities for almost all industries. Cultural diversity is the
difference which is represented into organisation where people of variety of status, race, gender,
ethnicity, language, nationality, sexual orientation and religion are working together (Sharma,
2016). For companies, it is very much essential to support the diversity at workplace as part of
boosting productivity among employees and to strengthen coordination.
There are both negative and positive impacts of cultural diversity on hospitality industry
of Australia. Most important impacts are increase in productivity, creativity, employee
engagement, improved company reputation and improve cultural insights (Manoharan et. al.,
2013). If companies are understanding importance of cultural diversity within workplace then
they would be able to improve their overall profits. Due to cultural diversity into hospitality
sector there will be increased amount of creativity as people can come and learn from each other.
If workplace is full of heterogeneous group then creativity will be limited while if there is
homogeneous groups then there will be diverse solution to one problem (Manoharan et. al.
2013).

Also, with improved creativity and innovation there will be surely increased productivity
with brainstorming and diverse workforce. If there is increased productivity then company’s
reputation will also be boost up. There be will diversity engenders goodwill for community and
industry. Cultural diversity in different ways affecting workplace which means that there are also
certain negative impact like that of creation of barriers, dysfunctional adaptation and
miscommunication (Agrawal, 2012). As culturally diverse workers will allow different thoughts,
customs, tradition, norms, opinions, value, belief and value which limit communication. This
impact integration across multicultural team can also be difficult into face of prejudice and
negative cultural stereotypes. Outright prejudice or stereotyping is very serious concern to
cultural biasness as this creates problems and difficulties for workplace diversity. One more
serious challenge arises while there is misinterpretation of professional communication due to
different cultures and languages (Syed & Kramar, 2010). If there is diversity at workplace then
there must be best quality of translations for effective communication and marketing.
Further, language barrier is one of the most common barriers to cultural diversity which
can hamper daily working. In Australia where each of them are speaking in English then also
there will be issue with range of accents or difficulty in understanding speaker’s native language
and use of idioms. People from America are having different accents so is with people of UK or
India or South Africa which can create problems with understanding of cross cultural
communication. It can also be added that there is different understanding of professional
etiquette is also a challenge for cultural diversified workplace (Adib & Guerrier, 2003). Each
person is having different values, etiquettes, attitudes and behaviours which sometimes are not
properly understood by others. Like for instance Japanese colleague will not leave work before
their manager leaves it or Swedish employee will be used to with 6-hours working in a day only.
Like professionals working in hospitality sector of Australia use to do handshake before and after
meeting and it is considered rude to not shake someone’s hand when he or she offers handshake.
It can also be included that if anyone is introducing themselves with their first name only then
other person can call them with that only.
These things should be kept in mind while working in Australia so that there are no
barriers to cultural diversity amongst people. It can be included that most of the Australian hotels
depend on multicultural workforce so that they could be able to keep pace with their operations.
Those hotels that are culturally diverse in Australia are likely to be in more profits as compared