Human Resource Management and Development: the Hospitality Industry - Research Paper Example

Introduction The concept of diversity has been interpreted differently by different human resources managers across different industries (Burke & Cooper, 2005). To be a successful human resource manager, one must understand the finest details the concept of diversity entails. Many are the managers who literally take diversity to mean just race and gender (Nelarine, 2002). The simple definition of diversity, however, is ‘otherness.’ This means any differences portrayed by different employees in a particular workplace. According to Burke and Cooper (2005), these differences include but not limited to: race, gender, individual sexual orientation, personality, culture, age, academic background, level of expertise (knowhow and experience), physical ability and vulnerability to illnesses, and health among others. To keen human resource managers, these differences affect the production processes in different ways. Particularly in the 21st century that has made the world a global village through processes such as globalization, dealing with people with different qualities thus explained has become almost mandatory. If one assesses the workforce of a particular company using each of the differences given above, one is sure to realize that the employees are so much diverse and they need a competitive human resource management. This paper focuses on what diversity means to the responsible human resource management and to the company’s productivity at large. In particular; how does diversity impact human resource management and development? To unravel this question, it is better to understand what (1) human resource management, and (2) human resource development means. Human resource management is simply arranging, grouping, and assigning duties to the workforce a company has in such a way that production processes are made efficient and ultimately productive (Burke & Cooper, 2005). Human resource development means all processes of selecting and recruiting and motivating the employees. Both human resource management and development are inseparable as they complement each other (Burke & Cooper, 2005). Human resource management is a complex task and diversity makes it even more complex (Nelarine, 2002). As this study will explain, there are various ethical and legal issues that are tied to human resources management. The study mainly focuses on the hospitality industry as both a reference point and a special object of study. Further, a case study on Cityside Financial Services has been conducted to derive a real life experience on ethical and legal issues in talent management. How diversity impacts human resource management and development Diversity in the workplace means presence of differences of characters that for the staff (Nelarine, 2002). There are various advantages of these differences both at personal level and at institutional level. Some of the major advantages are as follows: Promoting flexibility in the organizational operations Diversity promotes flexibility, on an organization’s part, in undertakings such as marketing and innovation (Nelarine, 2002). For example, having people with different levels of experience and from different disciplines provides options when the organization requires representation beyond its market boundaries and/or introduction of new procedure (Nelarine, 2002). Similarly, delegation of different problems and consultations are made internally and therefore the company becomes self sustaining. This makes human resource management simpler a task especially when different employees mobilize themselves and complement each other (Burke & Cooper, 2005). Creativity Diversity promotes creativity among individual employees (Nelarine, 2002). Arguably, a group of employees who have the same values and have similar abilities will certainly continue doing similar things. On the other hand, diversity promotes mutual competition (Nelarine, 2002) in a fight for recognition and becoming different. Some human resource managers have resorted to promoting diversity as a strategy to attract creativity and innovativeness that, at a point, may reduce costs and money besides being a score for a human resource management team (Burke & Cooper, 2005). Better solutions to problems The resource management definitely seeks to derive a workforce that solves various solutions and seals every problematic loophole. Similarly, the overall performance of the management depends of the kind of workforce developed. Diversity in the workplace has proved a better option in achieving these scores. Better still an aggregate of diverse employees engage in inherent mutual consultations due to inherent differentiation of insights in various disciplines (Nelarine, 2002). This way, the organization in question is offered a variety of options and selects the best solutions to the problems it faces. Employees manifesting diverse characters are able to challenge opinions and often come up with new and better alternatives. Capturing the best talent The process of recruiting can be complicated especially when the resource management team is looking for the best talent. This occurs when, for example, the applicants occur from same areas and have similar qualities. More often than not, the recruiters use the existing workforce to advertise for new job positions. When diversity among employees exists, it is easier to receive various suggestions of potential employees who feature different levels of talents to choose from. At such an instance, the interviewers are not only able to differentiate levels of expertise among applicants – if applicants occur from differing backgrounds, they tend to compete and therefore expose their ability in the best possible way (Nelarine, 2002) –, they are also able to pick the best talent. Economics of time and money There are several direct and indirect ways in which diversity at workforce saves time and money especially in the recruitment process (Nelarine, 2002). First, employees become creative as discussed above. This way, they come up with new better operational and technical ideologies which may save money that would otherwise be used to employ more employees. Similarly time that otherwise would be wasted in this role is saved. Secondly, diversity in workplace promotes healthy competition among employees. The achievements of different employees are easily recognized and, seen as distinct as the employee, they are rewarded. Additionally, diversity in the workplace keeps social monotony away (Nelarine, 2002). Such employees are socially motivated and may opt to remain in the service to the organization for long periods of time. This way, the human resource management panel saves time and money that was used at the times of recruitment of such employees and too, the amount that could be used in hiring be used to hire new employees. These advantages are not guaranteed, however. Presence of diversity develops a new perspective of the workforce that requires special handling (Nelarine, 2002). The human resource management must engage in what is referred to as managing diversity for these advantages to be realized (Burke & Cooper, 2005). Indeed, managing diversity is at the core of the net performance by the organization in question. As a matter of fact there are various consequences of unmanaged diversity. These are the opposites of the advantages above. Examples are: constant personality conflicts; demoralization of workers; loss of employees and thus losses of money and time that was initially used to recruit them; various legal actions against the organizations; production inefficiency; and various complaints (Burke & Cooper, 2005). Three specific issues posed by diversity Managing diversity and affirmative action As described above, managing diversity has become a pivotal issue of concern in human resource management. Particularly in industries with hypersensitivity on the issues of diversity such as the hospitality industry (Tanke, 2001; Nelarine, 2002), managing diversity is the pillar of overall management let alone human resource management. In its simplest terms, managing diversity means involving every member of the organization’s workforce in all stages of major decision making processes. This involvement can be direct or indirect but every stakeholder must be involved in one way or another. The human resource manager or the overall manager holds a sensitive position and thus he or she is at the center of the organizational stability (Nelarine, 2002). Sometimes it becomes difficult and challenging to involve individuals with different qualifications in different disciplines for a particular role requiring specific talents. Affirmative action refers to advocacy on favoring particular classes of people who have been discriminated for long in history. These may include such issues as the place of women in an industry or a society, orphans, single parents, the disabled, the poor and so on (Nelarine, 2002). These classes of people are sometimes given priority with their disadvantaged life experiences as added advantages over equally qualified individuals who are free from historical stereotypes. Affirmative action differs with societies depending on the kind or ordeals in their respective histories. Affirmative action poses problems in the context of diversity management. For example, is it really fair to dismiss a person qualified for a particular post because another person has been treated badly in history (Nelarine, 2002)? It becomes hard to address such favoritism in performing usual managerial functions such as motivating employees, setting salary scales and their increment criteria, and making performance assessments fairly. For example, in hospitality industry, personality conflicts are common in this context (Tanke, 2001). As a manager, one should make it a company’s policy how particular groups must be treated such that before a new employee is employed (Nelarine, 2002), he or she is made to understand and agree with such policies. Equal treatment versus fair treatment Diversity poses problems in differentiating between and addressing the questions of equal treatment and fair treatment. Equal treatment does not necessarily mean fair treatment. For example, subjecting all employees to similar amount of working hours translates to equal treatment but does not necessarily imply fair treatment (Klarsfeld, 2010). Consider a female working night long while her family relies on her for emotional support as well as attending to various domestic routine daily chores and a male working for similar hours and time. The two are treated equally but unfairly. Human resource managers face difficulties in assigning various duties for the question of fairness (Burke & Cooper, 2005). As a suggestion, it would be advisable to establish complete profiles of employees which should be revised frequently. Proper arrangements should be made to address changes in the employee’s profile. For example, flexible work arrangements should be a major concern given the diversity witnessed in specific employees’ profiles. Gender and racial bias in hospitality industry preference Hospitality industry has indicated great gender biases at the recruitment and service levels (Tanke, 2001). The competitiveness of an employee is largely determined not on merit but on his or her capacity to attract customers. Allegedly attractive females become the most preferred by various hospitality premises (Tanke, 2001). From such an observation, it is clear that males stand little chance to be considered eligible for a particular post (Tanke, 2001). Particular races have as well faced various stereotypes in their job search and at workplace. What is even worse, these stereotypes occur from all the stakeholders involved including the employer, workmates and the customers. This affects the productivity of such employees such that the respective company may perform poorly and become less competitive in the market. Racial segregation, however, is being washed away especially in the light of globalization (Tanke, 2001). Today, according to Klarsfeld (2010), the test of times has confirmed equal abilities of different employees and that complexion has nothing to do with the capacity of individual employees to produce equally or more than those from a different race. Unfortunately, various companies still indicate racial biasness for the selfish interest of the company productivity (Klarsfeld, 2010). It is, however, a special challenge to involve people from a different race in the core developmental agendas on a company’s part. But that should be perceived as a problem with a solution. It is the highest time managers, holding strategic positions in particular organizations, transformed the working community in integrating and embracing the reality, that all people are equal (Klarsfeld, 2010). Case study: managing diversity at Cityside Financial Services Ely (2006) provides a brief analysis of Cityside Financial Services and summarizes that the Bank has been successful in managing diversity in its operations. But there are various areas of concern in which the company fails and/or does not perform rationally about. After studying Ely’s article (2006), two issues – one ethical and the other legal issue – are identified and discussed in study. These are (1) fair treatment of employees (ethical) and (2) racial and gender bias (legal). They are expounded as follows: Fair treatment of employees Service delivery is largely an ethical issue especially at personal level or at an organizational level. Addressed above, equal treatment does not mean fair treatment. For example, the management at Cityside Financial Services has succeeded on one part – by ensuring employment of the black community and advocating for similar changes in the industry countrywide (Ely, 2006) – but has failed when it comes to the parity in the jobs allocated. Ely (2006) indicates that particular sectors were to be operated by people of a particular race. Specifically, individuals from African-American lineages were to work on less influential dockets – they were cashiers –, and in feeble sector – they were to work in the Retail sector. Ely (2006) specifically quotes the manager, Wilkins saying: ‘If you are black, and you want to become an officer, you come over to Retail.’ The sense created by the ‘If you are a black…’ thing is purely stereotypic. In the meantime, the officers in the External Deposits – which was superior to the Retails side – could only be from the white race. It is unfair that the blacks cannot work in particular dockets in the same company whether qualified or not. Further in Ely’s article (2006), conducting an interview with an officer in an affiliate organization, Wilkins is surprised at how stereotypic the management can be. The officer in the interview suggests that, in their organization, the blacks are ‘just not the ones’ to take particular posts meaning that whether they are qualified and interested in the work, the Blacks cannot be allowed to take those posts (Ely, 2006). That is pure malice and from ethical point of view, it is the decision of the management to ensure fair treatment in workplaces. Racial and gender bias Addressed above, affirmative action is a move to ensure the social groups that have victims of historical injustices are treated equally. Gender parity in workplaces has become a legal issue in most governments’ policies (Klarsfeld, 2010). Women have been accepted as equal members of the society and have to be rendered equal opportunities at the workplace. Cityside Financial Services has been able to employ large numbers of women but as Wilkins observe, there is still some deficit that need to be addressed to ensure the workforce indicates gender parity (Ely, 2006). Similarly, the company’s policy that, despite having the relevant qualifications, the African-Americans cannot work in particular sectors of the company is not only illegal, it is morally awful. Specifically, every person stands the right to apply any job and complexion is never a legal criterion as to be a barrier. In many countries, an individual is allowed to sue the employer if the employer uses race negatively whether on any person. As aforementioned, most managers have an ill believe in the race as a factor to determine the ability of a person in a particular post. It serves right to say that such managers are misguided and are a mockery of the modern day workplace environment. The policies thus used in Cityside Financial Services are illegal and need to be reviewed and amended. Suggesting interventional strategies as a human resource manager Fair treatment of employees Interventional strategy to fight unfair treatment of employees must be one that discourages various stereotypic beliefs. Strategies will include introduction of performance contracts such that the focus remains on the productivity per person and not gender, age, race and so on (Burke & Cooper, 2005). Using performance as the sole criteria levels the ground for everyone. Another approach would be to review the salary and remuneration policy. This will include ensuring that employees are delineated into job groups and not departments. Employees of the same job group would earn relatively similar amounts of income – it would not matter anymore in which department one works in. The third approach would be designing a motivation scheme whereby employees’ achievements are rewarded and celebrated. Racial and gender bias To counter racial and gender bias, the main approach would be to review job recruitment policy such that merit on qualification remains the only option (Burke & Cooper, 2005). The policy must match the national policy on employment and this will be specifically important to discourage racial segregation at the recruitment level. The policy so established will also be strategically designed to promote higher numbers of females are recruited with an aim to attain gender parity that the constitution depicts. For example the policy may require that at any one time, recruited employees must contain a particular percentage of a particular gender. For both issues above, there would be no need to hire an expert. Since the new approaches will be integrated in the company’s constitution and it would only be a matter of making decisions that satisfy the constitution. However, for a company such as Cityside Financial Services, it would be advisable to hire new experts where the main reason would be to attain independence in diversity management – the company’s management too much consumed by the stereotypic beliefs in racial disparity. List of references Burke, R.J. & Cooper, C.L. (2005). Reinventing Human Resources Management: Challenges And New Directions. London: Routledge. Ely, R. (2006). Managing Diversity at Cityside Financial Services. Harvard Business School, 405-047; p. 1-4. Klarsfeld, A. (2010). International Handbook on Diversity Management at Work: Country Perspectives on Diversity and Equal Treatment. Boston, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing. Nelarine, C. (2002). Building Workplace Equality: Ethics, Diversity and Inclusion. (2nd ed.). New York: Cengage Learning. Tanke, M.L. (2001). Human Resources Management for Hospitality – Food and Hospitality Series. (2nd ed.). New York: Cengage Learning.  Read More