Strategies for Managing Cultural Issues in Hilton Hotel: A Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of managing cultural issues within Hilton Hotel, focusing on the impact of globalization and the importance of cultural diversity. It begins with an introduction to the concept of cultural diversity, followed by an overview of Hofstede's cultural dimension model and its relevance to the hospitality industry. The report then explores the impacts of culture on workplace dynamics and consumer behavior, highlighting both the challenges and benefits of managing diversity and equal opportunities within Hilton. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to strategies for utilizing workforce diversity to gain a competitive advantage, including the roles of managers, recruitment and selection processes, cross-cultural training and development, performance management, and employee welfare. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and recommendations for Hilton Hotel to effectively manage cultural diversity and enhance its global operations. The report uses the case study of Hilton hotel to explain the concepts.

MANAGING CULTURAL ISSUES IN
HOSPITALITY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
THE THEORIES AND CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH MANAGING CULTURAL
DIVERSITY IN HILTON HOTEL.................................................................................................1
2.1 An overview of Hofstede’s cultural dimension model..........................................................1
2.2 Impacts of culture within workplace and upon consumer behaviour....................................2
2.3 Challenges and benefits of managing diversity and equal opportunities in Hilton Hotel.....3
STRATEGY TO UTILISE WORKFORCE DIVERSITY IN ORDER TO GAIN A
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN HILTON HOTEL.................................................................4
3.1 Role of managers to utilise workforce diversity....................................................................4
3.2 Recruitment, selection and staff retention of diverse workforce...........................................5
3.3 Cross-cultural training and development...............................................................................6
3.4 Performance management of diverse workforce...................................................................6
3.5 Managing employee welfare and benefit in a diverse workforce..........................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1Greet Hofstede’s cultural dimension model.......................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Globalization is a current trend and it has a great impact on the hospitality industry. Due
to this reason people with diverse background work even more together. Within this respect it
can be determine that managing cultural diversity is highly essential for company (Holden,
2002). Culture is a characteristics of a particular group of people and it can be defined by
everything related to their language, religion etc.
In this regard, the present study is based on the case study of Hilton hotel which is an
international chain of full service hotel and resorts. There are almost 530 branded hotels of
Hilton across the world in 78 countries. In order to manage all their branches within different
countries they are facing problem related to the diversity. Further, they require adopting various
strategies through which they can easily manage cultural diversity.
THE THEORIES AND CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH MANAGING
CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN HILTON HOTEL
2.1 An overview of Hofstede’s cultural dimension model
In order to manage cultural diversity Greet Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory
presented which entirely look upon the unique aspects of culture.
Figure 1Greet Hofstede’s cultural dimension model
(Source: Minkov and Hofstede, 2011)
1

Greet Hofstede’s is a professor who researched on different ways on the basis of people
from different continents and cultures interact with each other. It is totally based on the six above
presented six categories of cultural dimensions such as:
Power Distance: This dimension clearly represents inequality which is the fundamental facts
of any society (Minkov and Hofstede, 2011). It articulates the amount to which less influential
person or a member of society accept and also expect that whole control is dispersed unequally.
Individualism vs. Collectivism: It defines that how people’s objectives and set goals are
prioritized vs. the goals of organization. It gives an appropriate answer that whether people
prefer a close knit network of people or prefer to be left alone.
Masculinity vs. Femininity: Masculinity represents different rules for men’s and women’s
within society while femininity stands for a preference for caring for the weak, cooperation as
well as quality of life.
Uncertainty Avoidance: It defines a degree up to which a member of a society feels
uncomfortable with ambiguity (Ferraro, 2002). Further, this dimension presents that how
comfortable are people with changing the way they work and live.
Long-term vs. short term orientation: Dealing with society in search for quality can be
define as a long term orientation whether strong concern with establishing the absolute truth can
be define as a short term orientation.
2.2 Impacts of culture within workplace and upon consumer behaviour
Culture is one of the common factors which highly affect the overall working practices
and business operations of Hilton hotel. By having cooperative and friendly work culture,
employees of Hilton are able to perform all their tasks more effectively (Testa, 2009). Due to
this, they can effectively change the behaviour of customers and provide them quality services.
Differences in culture significantly impact both personal and corporate spheres of society.
It affects the organization in various ways such as decreasing sales margin due to the lower
performance etc. Hofstede clearly presented that the core element of any culture it its value. His
concept of national culture clearly presented a great breakthrough in understanding the
relationship between organization behaviour and cultural factors.
It is highly important for any of the marketers of Hilton to satisfy the needs of their
customers. There are different cultural factors such as beliefs, habits as well as principles of
individuals that is based on their family status highly affects their purchase decision. Moreover,
2

it can be determine that culture is the major factor which totally affects the consumer behaviour
with respect to their shopping, services they required, food, price etc. Each and every individual
are having their own culture and beliefs which makes him/her comfortable towards the use of
any service at the time of shopping (Clausen, 2007). Some people desire to eat non-vegetarian
food as per their custom and religion while some of them prefer to have vegetarian food due to
their religion. Some of them likes to have Chinese while other like to have Mexican food. It
clearly determines the changing consumer behaviour as per their diverse culture and background
as well.
2.3 Challenges and benefits of managing diversity and equal opportunities in Hilton Hotel
By adopting effective strategies for managing diversity Hilton hotel can easily maintain
their sales. However, there are various challenges faced by them at the time of managing
diversity which are as follows:
Communication challenge: Hilton hotel is having their different branches in more than
70 countries. For the same, there are different languages as well as various cultural backgrounds
which increase the difficulties for proper communication between employees. Language is
considered as one of the crucial cultural factors. Greet Hofstede suggested that understanding of
other languages is almost a necessary condition for understanding the phenomenon of culture
(Hofstede and Hofstede, 2001). Workers of Hilton with diversity environment are often poorly
prepared to manage the high uncertainty. At the time of ineffective communication between the
staff members of Hilton some feelings may be provoked such as lack of confidence and even
hostility.
Discrimination issue: Today in this highly competitive environment it cannot be ignored
that cultural differences is becoming the top most concern for raising possibility of
discrimination issue among workers. It directly increases the lawsuit and claims and also
increases the cost of Hotel and lowers their retention rate as well.
Except all these challenges some of the most common benefits Hilton can get by
managing diversity are as follows:
Valuable innovations: Staff members from diverse background and experience can bring
more innovative services in Hilton group (Devine and et.al, 2007). They can improve their
services with the help of new ideas and different viewpoints of multicultural background
workers.
3

Effective knowledge transfer: It is another most common benefit which helps in
improving the performance of individual employee. Cultural diversity can be helpful in this
context as people come from different countries, shape, forms and they do not seek to be
different from others. When two strangers in Hilton come together, it is easier for them to break
ice by sharing their different ideas and concepts. It helps in increasing efficiency by transferring
knowledge.
Increasing competitiveness: Hilton hotel is highly responsible for providing quality
services to their customers and satisfy their needs (Iverson, 2000). Hospitality industry is one of
the fastest growing and extremely competitive one. In this regard, cultural diversity is the most
effective concept which helps Hilton in developing their capabilities as well as maintaining long
term relations with them. In case of following the fair standards in hiring they can gain an
advantage over their competitors. Moreover, they can even enhance their competitiveness by
diversifying supply base by developing partnership with minority owned vendors.
STRATEGY TO UTILISE WORKFORCE DIVERSITY IN ORDER TO
GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN HILTON HOTEL
3.1 Role of managers to utilise workforce diversity
Manager of Hilton hotel is highly responsible for managing workforce diversity as well
as employees. They always try to bring their workers together from different ethical
backgrounds, religions and age group. Manager plays a most important role in operating
workforce diversity (Chen and Choi, 2008.). He only confirms all the personnel policies from
hiring to promotions. Managing a diverse workplace begins with a strong policy of equality
within the company. Manager of Hilton follows all the policies regarding equality,
discrimination through which they are able to operate workforce diversity effectively. He always
uses to cross check that all their HR framework policies are effective as well as capturing
opportunities and avoiding threats (Clausen, 2006). However, the major role played by the HR
manager as they are highly responsible for hiring, compensation, equity, training as well as
policies and legalities.
Moreover, it can be determine that manager of Hilton is highly accountable for utilizing a
diversity scorecard. It helps in determining that how diversity interacts with other long term
objectives and how feedbacks could be implemented to assess it. Manager need to be realistic at
the time of setting goals and involve everyone who has responsibility for diversity. Through
4

build in metrics they are able to measure the progress towards specific, long term as well as short
term goals (Maxwell, McDougall and Blair, 2000). Further, he holds the quarterly training for
entire staff on the benefits of diversity within their hotel.
3.2 Recruitment, selection and staff retention of diverse workforce
Upper management team members are not only responsible for diversity management.
The entire human resource manager has a great deal of responsibility in managing the overall
diversity of the Hilton. They can consider it within different areas such as: hiring, compensation
quality, training, employee policies, retention, legal regulations etc. The major role of HR
manager is just to make sure that all the employee concerns are being met as per the legal
regulations and set policies as well (Christensen and Rog, 2008).
It is considered as a most important responsibility of HR team of Hilton hotel that all
their human resource practices must be escorted by anti-discrimination.
Diversity in recruitment process: However, there is a process which is based on the past
experience due to which many diverse candidates are not able to apply for their desired jobs. A
proactive approach will be necessary to use as well as locating the diverse talent that fits into the
organization job. Further, it can be determine that at the time of recruitment there should not be
any type of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, gender. All of them need to be recruited on
the basis of their knowledge and capabilities and effective salary and compensation need to be
provided.
Diversity in selection and hiring process: At the time of hiring it is important for HR
team of Hilton to hire diverse people. Posting for recruitments should be communicated in a
clear manner that hotel does not discriminate. At the time of selection they should avoid all the
pitfalls such as using grades exclusively for hiring someone (Gröschl, 2011). Most of the
hospitality firms nowadays allow candidates to replace the educational requirements for a
position with work experience.
Diversity in employee retention: It is highly important to avoid cluster of diverse people
in some departments. For avoiding such diversity one of the most effective ways is to avoid
extensive clustering and offer intercultural social events. It is the best part where workers can
from different department can network with each other. Moreover, it is highly important for
Hilton to communicate that they value diversity when it comes to promotion. It motivates
workers to work hard as they feel that hard work determines their promotion not discrimination
5

or office policies (Lorbiecki and Jack, 2000). In order to retain all their employees they usually
involve all the new interns into the training session for the harassment free work. This training
session clearly presents that this training will increase the chances for reporting any type of
harassment case timely and more effectively.
3.3 Cross-cultural training and development
Organizing cross cultural training and development programs are considered as a best
strategy to utilise workforce diversity. It is the most effective way through which Hilton hotel
can easily gain a competitive advantage. With the help of these training programs workers of
Hilton hotel are able to learn about themselves. They are exposed to facts and information about
their own culture and mentalities and they are able to learn more about others. By organizing
cross cultural training Hilton can easily reduce the level of diversity within their workplace. It
promotes the self confidence level of individual as well as teams through empowering them
(Clausen, 2007). All the employees are having certain barriers such as their own perception and
stereotypes. These are the common factors which hinder the understanding of other people. By
lowering down these barriers and ensures the mutual understanding trust can be developed. In
addition to this, it helps in developing interpersonal skills as well as listening skills. Further, it
can be stated that cross cultural trainings makes people more responsible towards the team work
also. By this, people begin to see their roles within the workplace more clearly.
3.4 Performance management of diverse workforce
By operating the workplace diversity in a more effective manner, employees of Hilton are
able to perform their tasks appropriately. It helps in boosting the sales of company and keeping
their employees satisfied. By providing equal employee opportunities Hilton is able to keep their
employees motivated (Groseschl and Doherty, 2000). They can actively participate in different
situations and activities as well. By maintaining a productive diverse workforce, they are able to
maintain their performance. All of them are required to contribute in the success of their firms. In
order to manage diversity, managers of people in minority group required to be aware about that
performance management must be taken into consideration. Moreover, the lack of clear job
description can also contribute to a perceived lack of high work performance. In order to
effectively know more about the work priorities it is essential to make them clear about their
accountabilities.
6

In order to ensure a diverse, productive and engaged workforce, performance
management is a multi-faceted tool that capitalizes on differences (Hearns, Devine and Baum,
2007). People are easily be engaged with different services whenever they feel like represented
among their peers and colleagues. By providing them promotion, better performance appraisals,
bonus and promotions without any discrimination their motivation level increases (Gröschl,
2011). For the diverse workforce assignments can be provided to them that challenge them and
maintain their enthusiasm for increasing performance.
3.5 Managing employee welfare and benefit in a diverse workforce
Increasing productivity within any hospitality firm is becoming the major challenge for
their managers and leaders as well. Hilton can effectively address all such challenges and
increase productivity by adopting some of the best strategies. One of those strategies involves
managing workplace diversity effectively. Here, management takes the welfare of its workers by
means of offering them proper compensation, health care and employee appraisals etc. It makes
employee feels like they belong to hotel and an important part of hotel irrespective of their
cultural background (Testa, 2009). It is the best and most effective way which helps them in
remaining loyal towards company and increasing the productivity and profit as well. In this
regard, it can be determine that by providing effective compensation employees can be easily
retained. They feel satisfied and motivated through which they can provide quality services to all
their customers.
CONCLUSION
From the above whole study it has been concluded that Hilton hotel can easily attain
higher competitive advantage by managing their diverse workforce effectively. For the same,
they follow all the legal consideration related to the equal opportunities as well discrimination
policies. Further, it has been founded that by managing diverse work culture effectively
employees are able to improve their performance and feels like a part of firm. They can
effectively transfer their knowledge and present several valuable innovations and new ideas to
all.
7

REFERENCES
Chen, P.J. and Choi, Y., 2008. Generational differences in work values: a study of hospitality
management. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 20(6).
pp.595-615.
Christensen, H, J. and Rog, E., 2008. Talent management: A strategy for improving employee
recruitment, retention and engagement within hospitality organizations. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 20(7). pp.743-757.
Clausen, L., 2006. Intercultural organizational communication: Five corporate cases in Japan.
Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.
Clausen, L., 2007. Corporate communication: A ‘negotiated’ cultureperspective. International
Journal of Cross Cultural Management. 8(7).pp. 317—332.
Devine, F. and et.al., 2007. Managing cultural diversity: opportunities and challenges for
Northern Ireland hoteliers. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management. 19(2). pp.120-132.
Ferraro, G. P., 2002. The cultural dimension of international business. New Jersey: Prentice
Hall.
Gröschl, S., 2011. Diversity management strategies of global hotel groups: a corporate web site
based exploration. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 23(2).
pp.224-240.
Groseschl, S. and Doherty, L., 2000. Conceptualising culture. Cross cultural management: an
international journal. 7(4). pp.12-17.
Hearns, N., Devine, F. and Baum, T., 2007. The implications of contemporary cultural diversity
for the hospitality curriculum. Education+ training. 49(5). pp.350-363.
Hofstede, G.H. and Hofstede, G., 2001. Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors,
institutions and organizations across nations. Sage.
Holden, N. J., 2002. Cross-cultural management: A knowledge management perspective.
London: Pearson Education.
Iverson, K., 2000. Managing for effective workforce diversity: Identifying issues that are of
concern to employees. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. 41(2),
pp.31-38.
Lorbiecki, A. and Jack, G., 2000. Critical turns in the evolution of diversity management. British
journal of management. 11(1). pp.S17-S31.
8

Maxwell, G., McDougall, M. and Blair, S., 2000. Managing diversity in the hotel sector: the
emergence of a service quality opportunity. Managing Service Quality: An International
Journal. 10(6). pp.367-373.
Minkov, M. and Hofstede, G., 2011. The evolution of Hofstede's doctrine. Cross Cultural
Management: An International Journal. 18(1). pp.10-20.
Testa, M.R., 2009. National culture, leadership and citizenship: Implications for cross-cultural
management. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 28(1). pp.78-85.
9