DIVERSITY TRAINING IN HOSPITALITY

Abstract

Hospitality has been highlighted as the breeding ground for diversity and culture exchange, and by its nature, the industry facilitates the interaction between people serving and those being served, ideally resulting in an enriching experience for both. The exchange of cultures activated by interpersonal interaction has increased in recent years due to factors that have resulted in an increase in travel and migration, such as low traveling costs and social media influence. People are also migrating in record numbers for their work, increasing the diversity in the workplace for hospitality workers. This increase in diversity within the internal and external environment for hospitality workers allows them to find more meaning in their work and enjoy the multicultural nature of their profession. However, the same enrichment factor also leads to significant challenges in adjustment and satisfaction from the jobs within hospitality, leading to increased intentions to quit. To manage the negative aspects of organizational diversity and to enhance the positive ones, researchers have utilized diversity training as a tool in most industries similar to hospitality and have found positive results. Diversity training has been documented to equip individuals with specific skills and competencies that enable them to deal with diversity in their environment. Additional evidence from nursing and healthcare research showcases that professionals recording challenges with understanding non-verbal and physical cues, way of speaking (slow/fast), or interaction quality (frank/shy) were able to better understand their audience after the intervention of diversity training during their coursework or at their workplace. Research from organizational studies also demonstrates that diversity training enabled expatriates to have a faster and better adjustment at their new workplaces, leading to more work satisfaction and quality of life. The increasingly diverse landscape demands organizations to equip their employees with competencies that enable them to deal with complicated and challenging situations which contradict their traditional understanding of monotonous environments, which otherwise can lead to an increase in turnover intention. However, hospitality literature presents a scarce discussion of diversity training for equipping employees to handle diversity and mitigate turnover intention, demanding the investigation of the initiative in the industry.