Managing Diversity in the Workplace

This assignment focuses on managing diversity within a multicultural workforce. It examines various aspects of diversity, including cultural differences, knowledge sharing, and communication challenges. The analysis draws upon relevant research articles and case studies to understand best practices for fostering inclusive workplaces that value diverse perspectives and promote ethical conduct.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The cultural diversity of a workplace contributes to its higher organizational productivity and
higher level of organizational success. This report would analyses the approach of Auckland City
Hotel towards its highly diversified employee base. The current HR practices and processes
would be evaluated. All the relevant aspects of recruitment, selection, staffing, training and
development would be considered, which would be aligned to the cultural diversity of the
workplace. The impacts, advantages and disadvantages of multi- cultural workforce would be
analyzed. The concluding part of the report would enumerate some practical recommendations
that would be helpful in identifying the organizational issues related with cultural diversity.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................3
Discussion...................................................................................................................................... 3
Diversity in the workplace......................................................................................................... 3
Current HR policies concerned with multicultural workforce....................................................4
Current industry best practices..................................................................................................5
Implications of current employment practice of Auckland City Hotel.......................................6
Benefits of employing multicultural workforce.........................................................................7
Disadvantages of employing multicultural workforce...............................................................8
Recommendations.........................................................................................................................9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................... 9
References................................................................................................................................... 11

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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

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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

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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 doesn’t 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 employees 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

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 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

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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 organization’s 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,

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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
o 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,
Sułkowski & Magala, 2016). This would prevent the employees from achieving their full
potential and attaining the organizational objectives.
o 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, Sułkowski & 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 (Przytuła ,2017). This may create a skill gap
in the workforce, due to which the organization may not be able to fulfill the service
standards.
o 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, Sułkowski & Magala, 2016). There are also
instances when the multi-culture work culture implies that there would be high

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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

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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
improving the English-speaking capabilities of the employees. This would ensure that the
company has sufficient opportunities for increasing the revenue generation.

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References
Al-Esia, Z., & Skok, W. (2014). Arab knowledge sharing in a multicultural workforce: a dual case
study in the UAE. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 4(4), 1-10.
Auckland City Hotel - Hobson. (2017). Achhobson.co.nz. Retrieved 15 October 2017, from
http://www.achhobson.co.nz
Banks, J. A. (2015). Cultural diversity and education. Routledge.
Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Diversity Works NZ (2017). Diversity Works New Zealand. (2017). Diversity Works NZ. Retrieved
15 October 2017, from http://www.eeotrust.org.nz
Heritage, B., Pollock, C., & Roberts, L. (2014). Validation of the organizational culture
assessment instrument. PloS one, 9(3), e92879.
Kim, J., Kim, P. B., Kim, J. E., & Magnini, V. P. (2016). Application of construal-level theory to
promotional strategies in the hotel industry. Journal of Travel Research, 55(3), 340-352.
Klettner, A., Clarke, T., & Boersma, M. (2014). The governance of corporate sustainability:
Empirical insights into the development, leadership and implementation of responsible
business strategy. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(1), 145-165.
McCarthy, J. M., Van Iddekinge, C. H., Lievens, F., Kung, M. C., Sinar, E. F., & Campion, M. A.
(2013). Do candidate reactions relate to job performance or affect criterion-related
validity? A multistudy investigation of relations among reactions, selection test scores,
and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98(5), 701.
Motoyama, Y. (2016). Global companies, local innovations: why the engineering aspects of
innovation making require co-location. Routledge.

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Nichols, P., Horner, B., & Fyfe, K. (2015). Understanding and improving communication
processes in an increasingly multicultural aged care workforce. Journal of aging
studies, 32, 23-31.
Nzqa.govt.nz (2017). Nzqa.govt.nz. Retrieved 15 October 2017, from http://www.nzqa.govt.nz
Przytuła, S. (2017). Expatriate vs. Self-initiated Expatriate in the Multicultural Workplace of
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Springer International Publishing.
Rozkwitalska, M., Sułkowski, Ł., & Magala, S. (Eds.). (2016). Intercultural Interactions in the
Multicultural Workplace: Traditional and Positive Organizational Scholarship. Springer.
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it
right. John Wiley & Sons.