Culture in the International HRM in Hospitality Industry - Essay Example

THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Research Objectives 3 Research Topic 4 Resources 5 Literature Review 6 Theoretical Framework 7 Methodology 8 Research Design 8 Procedure 9 Data collection Method 9 Data Analysis 10 Limitations 10 Timeline and Work Schedule 11 Proposed Research Report Structure 12 References 13 Bibliography 14 THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY Introduction In this document the author proposes the methods and the type of research study that she will undertake in fulfillment of her degree requirement. The author is currently interested in studying how cultural management and diversity is important from a human resources management perspective in the hospitality and the tourism industry. In this proposal the author discusses the research objectives, the research topic, the methodology that she wishes to adopt, the limitations of the study, and finally the dissertation structure and the time line for the study. Research Objectives In this section the author will give a detailed description of the research objectives. Research objectives are important because they will help keep the research on track and the author can use the set objectives and their achievement as a yardstick to measure the success of the research study To understand the important role that organisational culture plays in any industry. To understand the different techniques and methods that can be used by management and human resources personnel can use to make optimum use of the cultural dynamics in the organisation. To understand the relationship between organisational culture and the positive or negative impact it can have on the bottom line of the organisation. To understand the benefits that can be gained by an organisation by making use of the different cultural dynamics within the organisation in a positive manner. To understand the best possible methods that can be employed by the management and the human resources personnel in an organisation and to make recommendations, suggestions and a framework of best practices that can be used in the organisation. Research Topic The research topic that has been proposed by the author is "the importance of culture in the practice of international human resources management in the hospitality industry." This research will be carried out in the following manner. The author will first gain an in-depth understanding of the culture and the role it plays in any organisation. Next the author will study the practice of international human resources management in the hospitality industry. Finally the author will then study the impact of culture in international human resources management in the hospitality industry. Resources In this section the author will give a detailed description of all the different resources that she believes she would need to carry out the stated research study. In order to carry out this research the author will need access to an online library or for the secondary data that would be necessary for the literature review. Access to many different organisations in the hospitality industry. Since the author would like to be very specific in this study, the author will study four different international hotel chains such as The Sheraton hotels, The Hilton hotels, The Westin hotels and The Royal York Hotels. Ability to interview and survey mid level managers in the local and international locations of the named hotel chains. Ability to interview and survey human resources personnel in the local and international locations of the named hotel chains. Access to sufficient numbers of employees at human resources and mid level management in the hotels to the extent that the sample group will be demographically representative of the wider population. Resources such as stationary, availability to long distance phone services, email. Adequate time to carry out the research study, gather the necessary data and interpret the information that has been gathered. Literature Review According to Porter's cultural determinants model, international organisations will be well off if they understand the social structure, religion, language, political philosophy, economic philosophy and education levels of the employees that they manage. Social Structure The type of social structure that is seen consistently in a county or a region is very important to a business organization. This is because some social structures give priority to individualism, while others give priority to groups. In the Western cultures such as those found in the United States and Western Europe give pride of place to individualism, while Eastern cultures like those found in China and Malaysia give priority to group needs (Kirkman, Lowe and Gibson, 2006). And organisations that wish to manage their most important resources effectively should be very aware and understanding of these differences. Hofstede in his model too refers to this specific aspect (Hofstede, 2006). Religion The next aspect that is discussed by Porter in his model is religion as it plays a very important role in the manner in which employees are managed. This is especially true in Middle Eastern cultures and when managing employees who are followers of Islam. Even though Europe and North America are thought to be very secular in nature, individuals from these countries and business ethics is sometimes heavily influenced by Roman Catholicism and Protestantism (Robertson and Hoffman, 2000). Language This is another huge barrier in international business. While most of the multi national companies operate in English many of them have found the need to have divisions that operate in native languages (Hofstede, 1998). When we discuss language body language plays a very important role as they can mean very different things in different parts of the world, and therefore can be misconstrued very easily to the point that team morale and people management becomes very difficult. Education The differences in education standards of the employees who are being managed has a huge impact on the businesses as in international business organizations have to rely on the education standards of the host country, which sometimes can be lower than the parent country. This challenge is usually faced when organizations try to operate in the Middle East and Africa and as a result have to bring in human resources from other countries and region to gain a competitive advantage (Hofstede, Van Deusen, Mueller and Charles, 2002). Ethnocentrism Work ethics differ greatly from one country and region to another and therefore things that may seem ethically correct to one group of employees may not be ethically correct from the perspective of another group of employees. This can cause many complications to human resources management teams and even managers when managing culturally diverse workforces as often found in the hospitality industry (Javidan, 2006)). Theoretical Framework In order to build the theoretical framework for the research study, the author will make maximum use of the information and knowledge that has been gained from literature review. Methodology In the next few sections the author will describe the methodology that will be used for the research study in terms of the research design, the research procedures, the data collection methods and the data analysis methods. Research Design As stated in the previous section the author will be carried out in many different phases The first phase will consist of the literature review, the information gathered from the literature review will then be used to build the hypotheses The assumptions and hypotheses will then be used to develop and design the statements for the questionnaires Separate survey questionnaires will be used to gather primary data from the mid level management employees and the international human resources personnel. The information that is gathered through the administration of the questionnaires will then be used to confirm or reject the hypotheses. Conclusions will then be drawn based on the confirmation or rejection of the hypotheses. Recommendations, suggestions and best practices will then be developed based on the information. Procedure The author will first use the hypotheses that are built to design and develop three sets of questionnaires for each of the sample group segments. The same questionnaire will be used whether the segment is local or international. This initial set of questionnaires will then be piloted on a group of the author's peers amounting to not more than 15 individuals and feedback will be gathered from the peers as well as the supervisor. The questionnaires will then be fine tuned and redesigned based on the feedback that has been gathered after piloting the questionnaires. Data collection Method The author will create a list of all the mid level management and international human resources personnel in the four hotel chains. The author will decide on proportionate numbers to be sampled in each segment Then names will be randomly picked by the computer from the two different segments in the proportions that were decided. Next all those selected to be sampled, will be contacted and requested to participate in the study on a voluntary basis. Those agreeing to participate in the survey will be sent questionnaires via email and requested to complete it and return it. Telephone interviews will be conducted with each individual participating in the study to further understand and probe the information that has been provided in the research study. Data Analysis The questionnaire will consist of statements that have to be rated by the respondents on a Likert scale. MS Excel will be used to input the results into spreadsheets and then it will be analysed and interpreted by the author. Limitations The author anticipates several limitations to the research study and has listed them all out below. Gaining access to sufficient numbers of individuals for the primary data collection is the biggest limitation that the author anticipates on encountering Since the time line allowed for the entire research study is only six months the author feels that certain aspects of the research study such as the completion of the questionnaires, surveys and interviews in sufficient numbers maybe compromised due to the time constraint. Since this is a research study with an international element it is important for the author to gain access to employees in different regions such as Australia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe and Asia. However if this is not possible the study may not be truly significant as expected to be. Executives in the organisations are not included in the research study and since they make some very important decisions with regard to personnel management the study may not be very reflective in nature. Timeline and Work Schedule Given below is a list of the tasks and the corresponding deadlines for each task. The author has added in 7 - 14 days in addition to the required time to ensure that unforeseen circumstances will not stall the progress of the research study. ACTIVITY DEADLINE Brainstorming and deciding on a topic for the research 15 - Jun Carrying out an initial study of the secondary research that would be necessary for the research proposal 30 - Jun Writing the research proposal and the initial project plan 05 - Jul Submitting the proposal and awaiting supervisor feedback 15 - Jul Incorporating the feedback that has been received 30 - Jul Researching and collecting secondary information to complete the literature 10 - Aug Designing and developing the hypotheses 01 - Sep Preparing first draft of the questionnaire 15 - Sep Selecting sample group 25 - Sep Piloting the questionnaire on a group of peers developing second and last draft of the questionnaires based on the feedback that has been received 30 - Sep Administering and gathering the questionnaires, and inputting the findings into spreadsheets for analysis 05 - Oct Analyzing and interpreting primary data 15 - Nov Developing the final report 30 - Nov Submitting final report 31 - Dec Proposed Research Report Structure Here the author gives an overview of the proposed research report structure Chapter One - Introduction - This is the first chapter of the research report. This chapter will include the research topic, the methodology, the justification, the limitations of the research study etc. Chapter Two - Literature Review - This chapter includes an in depth literature review and will be the basis of the theoretical framework for the study as the hypotheses will be built on the findings in this chapter. Chapter Three - Methodology - The author will build a few hypotheses that will then be tested on the chosen sample group through the gathering of primary. This chapter will also describe the questionnaires that will be used. Chapter Four - Findings - In this chapter the author will present the data that has been gathered and analyzed. The data will be presented with the help of excel spreadsheets and tables and bar charts. Chapter Five - Data Interpretation and Conclusions - In this chapter the author will discuss the data that was gathered and the correlate it to the findings that were made through the secondary data that was gathered in the literature review. Chapter Six - Reflections, Limitations and Future work - This is the last chapter of the research study and therefore the author will look back at the entire study and evaluate the successes and failures of the project. References 1. Hofstede, G (2006) "What Did GLOBE Really Measure Researchers' Minds versus Respondents' Minds," Journal of International Business Studies, 37(6), pp. 882 2. Hofstede, G. Van Deusen, C. Mueller, C. and Charles, T. (2002) "What Goals Do Business Leaders Pursue A Study in Fifteen Countries," Journal of International Business Studies, 33(4), pp. 785 3. Hofstede, G. (1998) "A Case for Comparing Apples with Oranges: International Differences in Values," International Journal of Comparative Sociology 39(1), pp. 16 4. Javidan, M. (2006) " Conceptualizing and Measuring Cultures and Their Consequences: A Comparative Review of GLOBE's and Hofstede's Approaches," Journal of International Business Studies, 37(6), pp. 897 5. Kirkman, B. Lowe, K. and Gibson, C. (2006) "A Quarter Century of Culture's Consequences: A Review of Empirical Research Incorporating Hofstede's Cultural Values Framework," Journal of International Business Studies 37(3), pp. 285 6. Robertson, C. and Hoffman, J. (2000) "How Different Are We An Investigation of Confucian Values in the United States," Journal of Managerial Issues, 12(1), pp. 34 Bibliography 1. Anderson, R. Alistair and Avny, Giora. (2008). "Organisational culture, national culture and performance in international joint ventures based in Israel". International Journal of Business and Globalisation. 2 (2), pp. 133-146. 2. Baum, Tom. (2006). Human resource management for tourism, hospitality and leisure: An international perspective. Cengage Learning EMEA. 3. Brotherton, Bob. (2003). The international hospitality industry: Structure, characteristics and issues. Butterworth-Heinemann. 4. Buch, K and Wetzel, D. K (2001) "Analyzing and realigning organizational culture," Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 22(1), pp. 40-44 5. Bures, A. L and Vloeberghs, D (2001) "Cross Cultural patterns of internationalization and Human Resource Management issues," Competitiveness Review: An International Business, 11(2), pp. 48-56 6. Canen, A. G and Canen, A (1999) "Logistics and cultural diversity: hand in hand for organisational success," Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 6(1), pp. 3-10 7. Chen, Wei and Clarke, Alan. (2007). International hospitality management: Concepts and cases. Oxford. Butterworth-Heinemann. 8. Holden, N (2001), Cross-Cultural Management: A Knowledge Management Perspective, Financial Times Management 9. Kusulvan, Salih. (ed.) (2003). Managing employee attitudes and behaviours in the tourism hospitality and hospitality industry. Nova Publishers. 10. McSweeney, Brendan. (2002). "Hofstede's model of national cultural differences and their consequences: A triumph of faith - a failure of analysis". Human Relations, 55 (1), pp. 89-118. 11. Mead, R (2004) International Management: Cross-Cultural Dimensions (3rd edn). Wiley, USA 12. Millett, Bruce and Willcoxston, Lesley. (2000). "The management of organisational culture". Australian Journal of Management and Organisational Behaviour, 3 (2), pp. 91-99. 13. Mullins, J., Walker, O. C and Boyd, H. W (2006) Marketing-Management: A Strategic Decision-Making Approach (6th edn). McGraw Hill, Irwin Series in Marketing, USA 14. Nickson, Dennis. (2007). Human resource management for the hospitality and tourism industries. Butterworth-Heinemann 15. Ogbor, J. O (2004) "Critical theory and the hegemony of corporate culture," Journal of Organizational Change Management, 14(6), pp. 590-608 16. Riad, A. Ajami, et al. (2006). International business: Theory and practice. 2nd ed., New York. M.E. Sharpe. 17. Rugimbama, Robert and Nwanko, Sonny. (2003). Cross-cultural marketing. Cengage Learning EMEA. 18. Thomas, D. C (2003) Readings and Cases in International Management: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (1st edn) Sage Publications Inc 19. Treven, Sonja. (2001). Human resource management in international organisations. Management, 6 (1-2), pp. 177-189. 20. Yu, Lawrence, Yu, Larry. (1999). The international hospitality business: Management and operations. New York. The Haworth Press, Inc. Read More