Spirit to Serve Diverse World

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The Challenge Of Managing Diverse Teams

“Research has consistently shown that diverse teams produce better results, provided they are well led. The ability to bring together people from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures, and generations and leverage all they have to offer, therefore, is a must-have for leaders” (Ibarra and Hansen 2011: 71).

In my previous blog I discussed my views on leadership and ethics and how J.W. Marriott followed the path of ethical leadership. In this blog am going to put light on how diverse teams and management will produce effective and efficient results, by using the example of JW Marriott and its diverse management in hospitality industry.

Diversity refers to any sort of difference between individuals. These could be differences in the ethnic origin, age, gender, disability, family status, education, social or cultural background, personality or attitudes -in fact, anything that may affect workplace relationships and achievements. (Mullins 2013:155)

Homan and Greer agreeing to statement says that These differences among teams have been observed to affect a huge array of important team outcomes, including team performance, satisfactions, creativity and innovation. (Homan and Greer 2013)

How Relevant are ‘Diverse Teams’ in Industry in the UK Today?

Social scientist have stated that teams and organizations whose members are heterogeneous in terms of skill set, educations, work experiences, opinions on problem, cultural background, and so forth, have a higher potential for innovation than teams and organizations having homogeneous members. Diverse teams are way more effective in producing better financial results and innovation. (Web.a.ebscohost.com 2015)

.Marriott has established a culture, which focuses on the value of Marriot’s people and acknowledges the worth they bring to the organization. Today there are 146,000 employees from different nations, from different cultural backgrounds, speaking different languages work under the Marriot Banner.

Marriott is known as a great place to work and it ha s mad a commitment to diversity, social welfare and responsibility. It has included in the names of Fortunes’ lists of most admired companies. (Csaba, 2015)

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Figure 1

In figure 1 study shows that when compared to other countries UK is doing a better job in managing workforce diversity in hospitality industry.(Hunt, Layton, Prince 2014)

The UK hospitality industry has shown a noticeable growth in recent years. British Hospitality Association conducted a labor force survey in 2010, according to which the hospitality and leisure industries workforce numbered approximately 2,150,000, leading to increase of 14% over 2005.

Is Managing a ‘Diverse Team’ the Most Important Skill for the Hospitality Industry

Academy of Management Executive states, ‘managing diversity serves as a competitive advantage for an organization’. Diverse management focuses on several areas including social responsibility, cost, marketing, creativity innovation, problem solving and so forth, and provide benefits to these areas, which forms a sound management leading to competitive advantage for the company. (H.Cox, Blake, 1991 Vol. 5 No. 3)

Benefits include:

  • Increase in productivity
  • Increase in productivity
  • Language skills
  • Language skills

(Johnson, 2014)

The Forbes study measured diversity in terms of gender, age and geography. The only countries to track employment by ethnicity are the U.S. and the U.K., where the hotel and catering sector ranked 1 in ethnic diversity. (Knutson, 2012)

If the diverse workforce is not managed effectively, it can minimize an individual employees performance and can destroy organization as well. Some organizations face several challenges while managing diverse workforce which include:

  • Resistance
  • Poor Communication
  • Disorganization

(Johnson, 2014)

How Might a Manager use Knowledge of Diversity to Produce Better Results?

Culture Diversity has become a very common in hospitality industry. Managers should use Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions to get an insight of culturally diverse groups and managing diversity in an organization.

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 Figure 2

By using Hofstede model comparison has been done regarding differences in values of employees working in hotel industry in UK and India. Comparison is made in terms of power, authority, social inequality, ways of handling an issue and emotions of an individual. There is a noticeable difference among employees working in India as compared to those working in UK hospitality industry.

In diverse groups process of problem solving and decision-making results in good performance because the wide range of ideas and perceptions obtained from employees holding diverse life experience.

J.W. Marriott made a statement: – “We are broadening how we think about global diversity and inclusion, reaching across cultural borders to compete for customers and talent worldwide. In the competitive marketplace, we must continue to embrace the unique talents and experiences of our employees-who speak more than 50 languages in 66 countries and territories- to help us meet the changing needs of our customers.”

To date, there are 500 Marriott hotels which and operated under development by women or ethnic minorities. Approximately 3,000 Marriott mangers start their career in hourly positions.(Marriott.co.uk, 2015)

Managerial style differs from one manger to another, as it is a personal quality. Marriot’s managers have to maintain the balance between the organizations’ requirements and the style they want to adapt to get the desired performance. It is important for mangers working in Marriott to not only acquire skills and strategies to adjust and work in a effective manner with diverse workforce , but it is also necessary to provide the training to the members of the diverse workforce to work efficiently.

Conclusion 

Diversity matters. The most important asset any organization does have is people. This world is diverse and interconnected. So the organizations, institutions in any industrial sector require understanding, awareness and acceptance of the diversity to get desired results. Diversity can in terms of age, ethnic origin, gender, culture, and social background. These differences require a good understanding and acceptance by managers, to get better results. Many organizations, like Marriott use several training programs for cultural awareness to provide an understanding and to raise consciousness of these differences among the team members. Managing the diverse workforce will lead to better results and will serve as a competitive advantage for the organization. Since the rewards of diversity are increasing, Adapting the skills and strategies to manage diversity is a best plan to gain positive outcomes.

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5 thoughts on “Spirit to Serve Diverse World”

  2. Well structured and grasp reading stuff. How will you motivate and share your vision from people coming from different backgrounds and be able to communicate your ideas?

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