HRM Issues and Cultural Management in TAJ Groups of Hotels in UAE

This report delves into the HRM issues faced by the TAJ Groups of Hotels, particularly concerning the absence of cross-cultural management within its UAE operations. The study highlights the importance of cultural diversity in the hospitality industry, emphasizing how it enhances employee morale, customer experience, and overall productivity. The report poses research questions about the significance of cultural management and its benefits, alongside the reasons behind TAJ Hotels' shortcomings in this area. It reviews literature on cultural management in hospitality, Hofstede's cultural dimensions, and the impact of power distance, individualism, and masculinity on workplace dynamics. The methodology section outlines the research philosophy (positivism), design (descriptive, exploratory, and explanatory), data collection methods, sampling techniques, and ethical considerations. The report aims to identify the challenges and suggest strategies to improve cultural management, thereby fostering a more inclusive and productive work environment within TAJ Hotels. This comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights into the critical role of cultural management in the success of international hotel chains.

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HRM issues in TAJ groups of hotel
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HRM ISSUES IN TAJ GROUPS OF HOTEL
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
Organization....................................................................................................................3
Rationale..........................................................................................................................3
Research questions...........................................................................................................3
Hypothesis.......................................................................................................................4
Literature review..................................................................................................................4
Cultural management in the hospitality sector................................................................4
Hofstede culture...............................................................................................................5
Power distance index...................................................................................................5
Individualism vs collectivism......................................................................................6
Masculinity vs feminity...............................................................................................6
Methods...............................................................................................................................6
Research philosophy........................................................................................................6
Research design...............................................................................................................7
Research data collection..................................................................................................7
Sampling method.............................................................................................................7
Data analysis technique...................................................................................................7
Ethical guidelines.............................................................................................................7
Research plans and timeline and key deliverables..............................................................8

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Reference List......................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
In the TAJ hotel chain of UAE, it has been found out that Cross-cultural management is absent in
the staffs of the hotel. Diversity is a significant issue among many hotels in the hospitality sector across
the world. Cultural management improves the cultural value of a workplace, and employee morale is also
maintained with the inclusion of cultural management in the workplace. With the absence of diversity in
the workplace of the hotels, the staffs of the hotels are affected by it as well as the overall productivity of
the hotel. With the inclusion of cultural management in the workplace, the employees of the company are
able to tackle customers from different background. With the inclusion of cultural management, the
company will also be helpful if it gathers information regarding the steps to be taken for the betterment of
the hotel. The customer experience in the hotel chains of UAE will also be not enhanced if employees
from a similar background are hired by the company. Cultural management is a significant aspect which
needs to be included so that the company can live up to its terms of having a culturally diverse workplace
and also provide optimum experience to its customers.
Organization
TAJ groups of the hotel are owned by TATA group, and it is a chain of luxury hotels, and it’s
headquartered is at Nariman Point, Mumbai. The TAJ group of hotels was incorporated by Jamsedji Tata,
and it is a subsidiary of the TATA group. At present, there are a total of 165+ total hotels in the country in
over four continents (Venkateswaran & Roy, 2018). There are a total of 32, 242 employees in all the hotel
chains. The hotels are situated in USA, UAE, Maldives, United Kingdom, Andaman, Nepal and many
other countries (Venkateswaran & Roy, 2018). The vision of the company is to expand its hotel chains in
other parts of the world. The present strategy of the company is to focus on increasing the number of
stakeholders of the company in the upcoming five years (Raheja & Singh, 2018). The main approaches
which are followed by the company are Re-structure, Re-imagine and Re-engineer. The future focus of
the company is to improve the guest experience of the customers in the various hotel chains of the
country and achieve a transformative growth in the market. The company also aim sin enhancing its
market leadership in the future and attract more customers from different customers of the world.
Rationale
TAJ hotel chain is one of the most identified hotel chains around the world, and it holds a lot of
employees. UAE is one of the most technologically advanced and powerful nations. With the problem of
cultural management in the TAJ hotel chains in UAE, it is imperative to assess the reasons behind it and
find an optimum solution regarding this.

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Research questions
The following are some of the research questions:
Q1. Is cultural management important in hospitality industry?
Q2. What are the various uses of cultural management and how companies are beneficial from the
implementation of cultural management in the workplace?
Q3. Why TAJ hotel is lagging behind the inclusion of cultural management in UAE?
Hypothesis
H0: Cultural management has an impact among the employees and overall performance of a company.
H1: Cultural management does not have an impact among the employees and overall performance of a
company.
Literature review
Cultural management in the hospitality sector
It has been seen in the present moment that a lot of companies around the world are investing in
the inclusion of diversity in the workplace. Cultural management has been identified as one of the major
factors by the help of which the overall production of the company is improved by a considerable margin
(Sakdiyakorn & Wattanacharoensil, 2018). In organizational science, the various roles of cultural
management have been extensive studies to know how organizations are being helped by the inclusion of
cultural management in the workplace. According to (Sakdiyakorn & Wattanacharoensil, 2018) it has
been seen that hospitality sectors around the world lack the inclusion of cultural management in the
workplace. With the help of cultural management, there is an increase in team effectiveness in the
hospitality sector. The staffs of a hotel from diverse background work together to give the optimum
customer experience and also help the company in reaching its goals (Eissner & Gannon, 2018). It has
been proved over the years that cultural management in the workplace have befitted an organization in
achieving the success which it aims to achieve (Quintana-García, Marchante-Lara & Benavides-Chicón,
2018). In the hospitality industry, it has been seen notably that cultural management in the workplace has
improved the productivity of the employees and the customers of the hotel industry have been satisfied
from the service which has been provided to them.
According to (Filimonau & Mika, 2019), hospitality plays a significant role in the economy of
any country around the world. The hospitality industry has been identified as the dominant player in the
various growths and developments of a country. So, it is essential that proper care is taken on the industry
and the various process by the aid of which the productivity will be improved in the hospitality sector

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must be looked at by the hotel companies. In Dubai, a generous part of the revenue of the country is
generated form the hospitality sector. So, TATA needs to stay ahead of its competitors else it will be
losing its market in UAE. A combination of certain factors such as demographic, psychological and
human resources contribute to the satisfaction of employees in their jobs and also helps in job retention.
According to (Jain, 2018), it can be said that cultural management in the workplace gives the employees
feel like home at the workplace, and they find a sense of belonging to the company. With the help of
cultural management, a better workplace morale among the employees is maintained, and the employees
of the company work hard towards reaching the goals and missions of the company.
According to (Ingusci, 2018) with the inclusion of globalization, there has been an urgent need
for the inclusion of cultural management and inclusion of different cultures in the workplaces of
companies. With the implementation of a particular process like hiring employees from different cultural
background, it will be possible for the hospitality sector to include employees from different backgrounds
in the workplace (Quintana-García, Marchante-Lara & Benavides-Chicón, 2018). It has been seen that
employees are more comfortable in working a diverse workplace and the hospitality industry also receive
a positive review from the employees regarding the betterment of the workplace and the various ways by
the help of which the customers will be happy with the services of the hotel (Ingusci, 2018). With the
inclusion of cultural management in the workplace, there will be a constant share of culture among the
employees of the hotel which will be giving the option to the employees to tackle with the customers
from different background. In the hospitality industry, it has been seen that employees of the organization
have to deal with employees from different backgrounds and most of the time they face problem
inadequately communicating with the customers (Chung & D’Annunzio-Green, 2018). Many times it has
been seen that the customer is not happy with the service which has been provided to them. This leads to
the fact that the review which will be given by the customer about the hotel will be wrong. This might
hamper the business of the company, and the hotel loses a lot of customers in the future (Quintana-García,
Marchante-Lara & Benavides-Chicón, 2018).
Hofstede culture
Power distance index
There is a presence of psychological gap between the staffs of the hospitality industry. Some of
the workers in the industry feel that they have power over the others. This happens mainly due to the
reason that unequal powers have been distributed among the employees and they cannot work as a team
which leads to low production of the employees (Khalife, 2019). The customers of the company are not
entirely satisfied by the service which have been provided by the hotel since there are absence of unity
among the employees. With the inclusion of cultural management in the workplace these differences in

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power can be easily decimated. With the inclusion of cultural management in the workplace the
employees will be able to communicate with each other in a proper0 way and there will be equal
understanding band distribution of power among them.
Individualism vs collectivism
With the absence of cultural management in the workplace the employees in the hospitality
industry fail to work as a team and they care more about individual performance. According to (Kotera,
Adhikari & Van Gordon, 2018), in UAE the individualism index is significantly low. This suggests that
with the inclusion of proper hiring the employees of the hotel will be working together towards the
betterment of the company. It is very important for the hotel to understand the fact that the employees are
the major part of the hotel industry and they must ensure that a proper unity is maintained among the
employees so that the productivity of the employees are improved in the workplace.
Masculinity vs feminity
With the implementation of diversified recruitment in the hotel the employees in the hotel will be
of almost equal number from different gender. The employees in the hotel must understand both the
women and the men are equal assets for the company and both of them are capable of performing similar
tasks and they will be given similar opportunity by the company. The masculinity index in UAE have
been seen to be 52, which suggests that many men in the country are fine with women been given the
similar opportunity (Nakphin, Po-In & Kongrungchok, 2019). The recruiting team of the hotel must
ensure that they hire employees from both the levels so that they can implement the policy of cultural
management in the workplace of the hotel.
Methods
Research philosophy
Research philosophy can be defined as the analysis as well as the development of a study. There
are three different kinds of research philosophy which are followed for the conduction of research:
positivism, interpretivism and realism (Nakphin, Po-In & Kongrungchok, 2019). With the help of
positivism an in-depth knowledge of the topic will be learned, interpretivism manages the various
activities and functions which are carried out for the research paper and realism will be fooling a mixed
resea4ch on the topic which will be very helpful in doing the research paper correctly. The research which
will be conducted on this report requires a positivism approach as a piece of in-depth knowledge about
the issue of cultural management needs to be understood. The other two research philosophy will be
considered for this research process since those philosophies have various perceptions depending on the
individual who will be selected for the qualitative research process.

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Research design
Descriptive, explanatory and exploratory are the various process which is selected for performing
a research paper. The descriptive research design which is followed gives the scope of defining the central
concept of the research paper. The exploratory research design will help understand the starting stages of
the research, whereas the explanatory research method will help in understanding the link between the
dependent and independent variable. In this paper, the use of explanatory research will be conducted to
understand the link between the two variables and the other two methods will be neglected as they do not
cover the requirements of the research topic.
Research data collection
There are mainly two types of data collection method, namely the primary data collection method
and secondary data collection method. For the conduction of this research primary data collection will be
used in which personal interviews will be conducted with the participants of the hotel staffs. Secondary
data collection will not be used since it does not give an in-depth idea about the problems regarding the
issue of the hotel chains. The primary data collection method is always wanted ahead of secondary data
collection method as it gives a full idea about the various problems related to the research topic.
Sampling method
The various information regarding the problems in the hotel chain will be collected with the help
of selecting 25 staffs from the hotel. This sample of people will also be including a manager of the hotel.
A series of questions will be asked to the employees based on which the answers of the staffs of the hotel
will be recorded. The staffs of the hotel will be interviewed separately, and it will be ensured that their
response is kept anonymous.
Data analysis technique
The questions which will be asked to the employees of the hotel will all be related to the hotel
issues and nothing else. The various problems which are faced by the employees in their daily function at
the hotel will be asked to them. Their feedback regarding the various services which are offered by the
hotel to them will be asked. After gathering all the replies of the employees, a detailed analysis will be
done about the dominant factors which need to be focused on and the factors which need to be
overlooked.
Ethical guidelines
Keeping in mind the ethical guidelines of a research paper the replies which will be gathered from
the employees will be kept anonymous, and no identity of the employees will be revealed. The employees

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will also not be asked any kind of personal questions, and they will not be forced in answering any
question they don’t want to.
Research plans and timeline and key deliverables
KEY DELIVERABLES TIMELINE
Literature review 0-3 weeks
Data collection 4-5 weeks
Data analysis 6-7 weeks
Final business 8th week

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Reference List
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enterprises in the hospitality sector. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes
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Eissner, S., & Gannon, J. (2018). Experiences of mentoring in the UK hospitality sector. Journal of
Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism, 17(3), 296-313
https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2017.1406283.
Filimonau, V., & Mika, M. (2019). Return labour migration: an exploratory study of Polish migrant
workers from the UK hospitality industry. Current Issues in Tourism, 22(3), 357-378
https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2017.1280778.
Ingusci, E. (2018). Cultural management climate and job crafting: the role of age. The Open Psychology
Journal, 11(1) 10.2174/1874350101811010105.
Jain, D. (2018). The Influence of Demographic Factors on the Satisfaction Level of Hospitality
Employees with Special Reference to Age, Marital Status and Gender Cultural management .
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