Managing People in International

Hospitality and Tourism Industries

Managing diverse workforces : the moral

ethical and business cases for individual
employee rights.

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 Learning Outcomes
 Examine the nature of diversity in the
Hospitality and Tourism workforce and the
potential problems posed by prejudice,
stereotyping and unfair discrimination.
 Understand the evolution and context of equal
opportunity and diversity management concepts.
 Analyse the moral / ethical, legal and business
cases for managing individual employee rights
and diversity effectively

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 The Debate Question

‘The only stakeholders that matter to a

business are the stockholders and anything
else is based on political correctness and is
unnecessary.’

This involves the argument between a free-market

Friedmanite economic model for business and the
more contemporary stakeholder view and the three
cases for individual rights for workers

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 Kluckhohn & Murray (1953)

In their book ‘Personality in nature, society, and culture’

say that in some respects :

 Every human being is like EVERY other human

being
 Every human being is like SOME human beings
 Every human being is like NO OTHER human
being

How can all these be true ?

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 Types of Diversity
People are different from each other in many ways:
 Age
 Gender
 Educational experience
 Ethnic origin – racial, religion or linguistic
 Disability – mental capacity or physical ability
 Sexual Orientation
 Background / social class

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The UK Hospitality Industry Workforce
GENDER

 Women dominate numerically 67%

 Women over-represented in housekeeping and
cleaning jobs
 More women in supervisory / management jobs
compared to other industries

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The UK Hospitality Industry Workforce

ETHNIC ORIGIN
 Ethnic minorities over-represented
• 4.9% of all UK workers non-white
• 10.8% of hospitality employees

AGE
 Young workers dominate compared to other
UK industries
 40% under 25yrs old

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 Wider picture

Diverse HTI workforces in many countries

e.g. ‘ In 1996, the percentage of foreign workers in
hotels and restaurants was 51.2 per cent in
Switzerland and 30.9 per cent in Germany. In
Spain, the coastal resorts employ a large number
of illegal immigrants.’
ILO, 2001 p.78

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Problems: Stereotyping,Prejudice & Discrimination

‘A stereotype is a category, or personality

type, to which we consign people on the basis
of their membership of some known group.’
(Huczynski & Buchanan 2001: p224)

Stereotyping May lead to :

Prejudice
and …..
Unfair and / or Unlawful Discrimination

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 Prejudice
Basic elements of prejudice are:
 A feeling of superiority
 Perception of others being different or alien
 A feeling of priority claims to certain privileges
and advantages
 A fear and suspicion of others

Much more likely in a diverse workforce ?

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 Discrimination
An outward display of prejudice involving :
 Treating someone less favourably’ (Hollinshead et al,
1999) e.g on grounds of sex, race, disability, sexual
orientation, age etc.’

 Preferential treatment on similar grounds

N.B. Prejudice doesn’t necessarily result in

discrimination but makes it more likely

Legislation can make some discrimination illegal

BUT it cannot remove prejudice

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 Outcomes

 Perceptions of fairness enhance morale / employee

commitment (e.g. Lemons & Jones 2000)

 Links between higher morale and greater productivity

 Prejudice & discrimination may lead to higher staff turnover

– ‘vicious circle’ in HRM

 Failing to adhere to legislation may cost the company

financially and in terms of reputation

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Reasons for Customer & Worker Diversity

Changing demographic profiles

Immigration
Multinational companies - move people about
Mobility of labour - within EU / free trade
areas
Changing social conventions - role of
women, age of entering higher education

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 Three Interrealated ‘CASES’
1. Moral / Ethical Case
 Universal Declaration – Article 23
 Legal frameworks evolved from this

• Legal Case
 Anti discrimination legislation but ! gaps (age, looks etc)
 Linked to moral / ethical and business cases

• Business Case
 Linked to legal and moral / ethical cases
 Basis of Diversity management approach
• Morale and Motivation levels of unfairly treated workers –
impacts on customer satisfaction (Bowen et al 1997)
• Stakeholder theory / benefits to organisations and wider
society of stakeholder approach
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

http://www.hrweb.org/legal/udhr.html

Article 23.
Everyone :
 Has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to
just and favourable conditions of work and to protection
against unemployment,

 without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for

equal work

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Everyone :
 Who works has the right to just and favourable
remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an
existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if
necessary by other means of social protection

 Has the right to form and join trade unions for the
protection of his interests

Legislation to back this up

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 Equal Opportunities (EO) Approach
 Based on legal framework from 1970’s onwards
 Often seen as unnecessary regulations borne out of PC
(political correctness) interference from government.
 Aims to achieve a more even spread of jobs across
different groups within community
 EO initiatives may aim to
• Eliminate unfair discrimination
• Introduce fair recruitment and selection practices
• Bring in procedures for dealing with alleged acts of
discrimination
• Provide training and development for groups typically
disadvantaged.
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 Criticisms of EO Approach

 Disturbs the vested interests too rarely

 Does not tackle the normal everyday working patterns
which are often indirect / covert forms of
discrimination,
 Emphasizes the moral and ethical case for fairness and
equity through legislation rather than the benefits of
eradicating discrimination and disadvantage.
 Reactive rather than proactive
 Defensive rather than positive

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'So long as equal opportunities was equated
simply with legislation, then its always going
to be about group parity, and getting the
numbers 'right'. This was a recipe for inertia
over the last fifteen years, this is pretty
much what we experienced.'
Ross & Schneider, 1992 p.36
in Cassell, 2001 page 406

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 The Business Case - Fairness

 Bowen et al 1997 –
 ‘the case of Charlie the baggage handler’

‘Although the issue of fairness applies to most organisations,

service organisations must be particularly concerned because
of the impact on customers’. (page.7)

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Business Case – Diversity Management (DM)

“Diversity (Management) requires an understanding

that there are differences among employees and that
these differences, if properly managed, are an asset
to work being done more efficiently and effectively.”
(Bartz et al, 1990: 321) in Kandola and Fullerton,1998

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 Diversity Management (DM)
 Goes beyond just the moral and social
arguments for tackling discrimination to focus
upon the business reasons.
 Recognises that people from different
backgrounds and walks of life bring fresh
ideas and perceptions which can result in
better products/services and more efficient
ways of working.

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 Effective DM
Harnessing differences to create environment in
which:
 Everybody feels valued
 Everybody’s talents are being fully utilised
 Organisational goals will be met

BUT how is this different from EO Approach?

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 Business Benefits of Managing Diversity

Benefits of : (Avoids) costs of :

 Improved corporate  More management
image with potential time spent on
employees and grievances
customers
 Losing an industrial
 Attracting ethical tribunal case
investors
 New business ideas
from diverse
workforce
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Business Benefits of Managing Diversity

Proven benefits Debatable benefits

 Organisational  Team effectiveness

savings  Customer service
 Wider pool
 Increased flexibility

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 MOSAIC framework - DM
M a strong company mission which makes diversity a long-term
business objective
O objective and fair processes for recruitment, training,
appraisals etc
S having a skilled workforce which is aware of the value of
diversity
A active flexibility in the criteria of benefits offered
individual (as opposed to group) focus which means valuing
I all employees for their differences
an empowering culture which is trusting, supports risk and
C where there is an absence of prejudice and discrimination

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 EO/DM Summary
EO DM
 Moral / ethical & legal  Based on the ‘Business
case Case’
 For disadvantaged  For ALL individuals
groups  Seeks to improve
 Sets targets and uses opportunities for all
positive action  Driven by business need
 Driven by legislation, for culture change
policy and procedures

See more in Torrington, Hall & Taylor, 2002 p.371

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ASPECT EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES MANAGING DIVERSITY

Purpose Reduce discrimination Utilise employee potential to

maximum advantage

Case argued Moral and ethical Business case-improve profitability

Whose Personal department All managers

responsibility

Focuses on Groups Individuals

Perspective Dealing with different Integrated

needs of different groups

Benefits for Opportunities improved Opportunities improved for all

employees for disadvantaged groups, employees
primarily through setting
targets
Focus on Recruitment Managing
management
activity
Remedies Changing systems and Changing the culture
practices 28
What evidence of EO / DM in the
Industry ?

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 Stakeholder Theory
The traditional view of business / economics
Milton Friedman – (1970)
“the purpose of a company is to make profits for
stockholders, which means that stockholders are the
one and only stakeholder group that managers should
take into account when making decisions”
The Contemporary Stakeholder Perspective

  Many changes in the external environment of business

 changes in way managers perceive organisations /jobs
 stakeholder concept has been increasingly studied

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 Stakeholder Theory ( Corporate Ethics)
Freeman(1984) and Carroll (1989) indicate :
 organisations benefit from understanding the needs
and concerns of a broad set of stakeholders.

 concept first appeared in 1963 in an internal memo

at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI).

 originally defined as those groups without whose

support an organisation would cease to exist.

share owners employees,

customers suppliers
lenders society
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 Stakeholder Theory
SRI researchers argued that :
‘unless executives understood the needs and
concerns of these stakeholder groups, they could
not formulate corporate objectives which would
receive the necessary support for the continued
survival of the firm’.

Freeman (1984) argues that a manager's task is to :

‘protect and promote the rights of the various
stakeholders of the company’

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 Models of managing diversity

 Organisational vision
 Top management commitment
 Auditing and assessment of needs
 Clarity of objectives
 Clear accountability
 Effective communication
 Co-ordination of activity
 Evaluation

Kandola & Fullerton (1994) 33

 Models of managing diversity

 Clarify your motivation

 Clarify your vision
 Expand your focus
 Audit your corporate culture
 Modify your assumptions and business model
 Help your people pioneer
 Apply special consideration test
 Continue affirmative action
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Thomas (1990)
 Models of managing diversity

Matching people and jobs

Matching and rewarding performance
Informing and involving people
Supporting lifestyles and life needs

Jamieson and O’Mara (1991)

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 Models of managing diversity

You are expected to study:

 McEnure (1993)
 Cox & Blake (1991)
 Motwani et al (1994)
 Ross & Schneider (1992)
 Harrington (1993)
 Bartz et al (1990)

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 Useful sources
Creating a Work-Life Balance: A Good Practice Guide for the Hospitality
Industry, (2001)
(Department of Trade and Industry
Roy C. Wood (2003) Diversity Management
Chapter 4 in ‘Brotherton (2003)

Other sources – links from Web CT

HCIMA Management Briefs 1-8 : Diversity Management

‘www.dti.gov.uk/work-lifebalance/
www.dti.gov.uk/work-lifebalance/pdfs/pdf_wlb1_4_03.pdf
Lecture 6 Week 7 additional references and WebLinks (see handouts section)

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