Managerial Competence within the Tourism and Hospitality Service Industries

Global Cultural Contextual Analysis

John Saee

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781134170760
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Negocios en general

This book examines cross-cultural managerial competence across all managerial functions. Focusing particularly on the hospitality and tourism industry, editor Saee examines the cross-cultural implications of planning: workplace communication, recruitment/promotion, induction, training, supervision, industrial relations, management of change, customer service, financial management and marketing.

Incorporating well-structured discussion, this book demonstrates an excellent balance of theory and practical application, and takes an innovative angle on the analysis of the host countries managers, undergoing culture shock. This volume will be useful to students across many disciplines including cross-cultural studies, international business and tourism.

1 Intercultural communication competence and managerial functions within the Australian hospitality and tourism service industries

Human beings draw close to one another by their common nature, but habits and customs keep them apart.

(Confucian saying cited in Irwin and More, 1994)

1.1 Statement of the research study

This research study investigates the nature of intercultural communication competence and its application within the Australian hospitality and tourism service industries to managerial functions such as planning, workplace communication, recruitment/promotion, induction, training, supervision, industrial relations, management of change, customer service, financial management and marketing as well as managers’ perceptions of corporate culture.

“Intercultural communication” is defined in the study in this research as “involving interpersonal communication between people from different sociocultural systems and/or communication between members of different subsystems (e.g. ethnic or racial groups) within the same sociocultural system” (Gudykunst, 1987, p.848). “Competence” in this study is conceptualised in terms of the widely accepted definition of communication competence namely, fundamental competence: “an individual's ability to adapt effectively to the surrounding environment over time” (Spitzberg and Cupach, 1984, p.35). The central feature of this definition is the focus on adaptability, which is a widely accepted component of communication competence (Duran, 1992; Irwin, 1994, 1996; Lustig and Koester, 1993; Spitzberg and Cupach, 1984; Spitzberg and Duran, 1995; Wiemann and Bradac, 1989; Wiseman and Koester, 1993). Thus, for a manager working with a workforce and clientele of culturally diverse backgrounds it is important to develop an ability to be flexible and adaptable to different cultural contexts, by being sensitive to the cultural situation and acting accordingly (Adler, 1997; Fatehi, 1996; Jackson, 1993; Mahoney et al., 1998). (Chapter 3 discusses theories of intercultural communication and intercultural communication competence.)

Scholars and policy makers suggest that increased intercultural understanding and improved intercultural communication have become increasingly important to our world of blending cultures, experiences and business practices (Saee, 1998). These views have emerged from recognising increasing globalisation of economies and tourism around the world. More specifically, with reference to the Australian experience, statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1993 showed that the total export of Australian merchandise trade to Asian countries was around 58 per cent, and “continued to rise to 60.5 per cent (i.e. $43.3 billion) in 1995” (Sydney Morning Herald, 2 November, 1996, p.1). Meanwhile, inbound tourism to Australia totalled 3.2 million in 1995 (Bureau of Tourism Research, 1995).

Increasing numbers of people from the countries of Asia and other non-English-speaking countries are part of Australian workforces, including that of hospitality as employers, employees and clients. Tourism to Australia particularly of travellers from non-English backgrounds is rising at a phenomenal rate. In 1995, over half of the international visitors to Australia came from Asia, and six of Australia's top ten sources of markets were located in South East Asia. By the turn of the century, more than three in five visitors will live in Asia (Tourism Forecasting Council of Australia, 1996).

Overall, the reality of contemporary Australian cultural diversity (multiculturalism), coupled with the increasing globalisation of business, demands that Australian managers become interculturally competent to capitalise on increasing opportunities and benefits afforded by cultural diversity both nationally and internationally (Saee, 1998). However, little research undertaken to date in Australia has explored the challenges and complexities of intercultural communication, especially relating to the hospitality industry. The absence of either quantitative or qualitative research in relation to the nature of intercultural communication competence within Australian hospitality suggests that it would be useful to design a study to identify and isolate the key determining variables for effective intercultural communication by managers.

Such a study is even more significant because contemporary theories of intercultural communication focus on the sojourners/migrants’ responsibility to develop intercultural communication competence rather than on any equivalent requirement on the part of members of the host culture. Thus the aim of this research study is to explore how Anglo Australian hospitality and tourism service industries managers understand and use intercultural communication in their managerial roles. An Australian hospitality and tourism service industries manager is defined in in this research study as an Australian citizen whose mother tongue is English and who holds a management position within the hospitality industry.

The hospitality and tourism industry is defined, in this study, in terms of a number of interrelated organisations namely, hotels, motels, clubs, restaurants, fast-food establishments, institutional catering organisations and leisure and tourism operations (Morrison, 1989). This definition is also consistent with the definition provided by the Australian Training Association (1998) in which it was argued that

The hospitality industry is made up of many different sectors including food beverage, accommodation, whether national or international markets, and tourism sector. The industry also includes motels, hotels, resorts, and restaurants, clubs, and casinos. The tourism sector of the industry deals with travel, domestic and inbound tourism, and includes travel agencies, tourist information offices, tour wholesalers, attractions, meetings and conventions and tour guiding.

(p.1)

Australian hospitality and tourism were chosen for this study on intercultural communication competence and managerial functions for the following three reasons:

1 The Australian hospitality and tourism represent a significantly high percentage of culturally diverse human resources.

2 The industry represents a high degree of globalisation in terms of ownership and international clientele, as well as global trade (Noriander, 1990).

3 The industry is becoming increasingly important to the Australian economy. In 2003/2004, tourism accounted for AU$32 billion of Australia's total gross domestic product (GDP). International tourism exports contribute 12.1 per cent of total export of goods and services. In 2003/2004, an increase of 1.2 per cent over the previous year. The Tourism Forecasting Committee predicts that the value of inbound tourism will increase from AU$18.5 billion in 2005 to AU$32.1 billion in 2014, representing an average growth of 6.3 per cent (ATEC, 2005).

Further, Russell (1997) reported that the “Tourism business contributed more than $28,500 a minute into the NSW economy” (p.1).

Equally, it is instructive to note that the revenue generated worldwide through the global tourism and hospitality is phenomenal. The World Travel and Tourism Council (cited in Adam, 1998) indicates that “tourism and hospitality global revenue stands at $4.7 trillion, and is expected to rise to over $9 trillion in 2006. The number of jobs in the industry will jump up by 50 per cent to 385 million” (Adam, 1998, p.30). This has obvious implications for the industries’ future potential in terms of increased revenue and employment opportunities.

This introductory chapter provides a brief discussion of a number of foundation conceptual issues regarding the study of intercultural communication in this research study. The nature of cultural diversity within Australian society and its organisations, especially within the Australian hospitality and tourism service industries, is reviewed. Managerial functions within these industries are identified and related to cultural diversity in Australia. An overview is provided of differing perspectives/theories of intercultural communication. In addition, the structure of the study is outlined, including a justification for the study and an overview of the research methodology.

1.2 Cultural diversity within Australian society and its organisations with reference to the Australian hospitality and tourism service industries

Post-Second World War Australian society and Australian organisations have undergone massive transformations in terms of the cultural diversity of their workforce.

The scale of cultural diversity of Australia's population is large: 42% of the population were born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas: approximately 23% were born overseas in a non-English speaking country or have at least one parent from such a country; about 17% speak a language other than English at home; in the last ten years more than 50,000 business migrants have settled in Australia; and about 21% of Australia's 800,000 small businesses are owned or operated by people of non-English speaking backgrounds.

(Beresford, 1995, p.19)

The influx of these people of diverse cultural heritage has enriched Australian society with a wide variety of cultures, arts, languages, philosophies, music, new cuisines, fashions, technology, skills, education and entrepreneurship (Saee, 1993).

In relation to the composition of the Australian workforce, a report released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (1996) showed that the Australian-born labour force was made up of 6,789,400 workers while some 2,227,300 Australian workers who participated in the workforce were born outside Australia. Non-English-speaking background workers (NESB) comprised 15 per cent of the total workforce (EMD, 1994).

In terms of the composition of the Australian hospitality and tourism service industries’ workforce, statistics released by the Bureau of Tourism Research (1995) showed that around 536,000 persons are employed in the hospitality industry. In 1996, this represented 6.2 per cent of total jobs in Australia (Australian National Training Authority, 1996). The statistics on the breakdown of the hospitality workforce by ethnicity are currently unavailable. However present indications suggest that a significant percentage of the hospitality workforce is comprised of people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Cox and Smolinski (1994) write of the beneficial effect on organisational performance of the effective management of cultural diversity, including greater innovativeness, increased problem-solving capacity, marketing success and attraction of higher-quality staff. Notwithstanding these potential benefits, it has been argued that Australian management has failed to capitalise on its multicultural workforce (Cox and Smolinski, 1994; Karpin, 1995).

1.3 Cultural diversity and managerial functions in Australia

A number of researchers have argued that effective management of a diverse workforce does not just contribute to the welfare and wellbeing of all employees but, more importantly, the return of such “investment” is very rewarding to the development and growth of the overall organisation (Deresky, 1994; Fernandez, 1993; Morrison, 1992).

Managing cultural diversity includes a process of creating and maintaining an environment that encourages all individuals to reach their full potential in pursuit of organisational objectives (Jenner, 1994; Thomas, 1994). In addition, management of diversity is about building specific skills, creating policies and drafting practices that produce the best from every employee. This will not be possible without effective intercultural communication management. By and large, communication is the key to the effective functioning of an organisation. As Thayer (1990) has stated “without communication, nothing can be achieved in an organisation and … everything an organisation does and is, is dependent on communication” (pp.6–7).

The association between management and communication can be approached by determining the amount of a manager's time spent on communication. Managers typically spend between 70–80 per cent of their time each day involved in communication processes in the workplace (Harris and Moran, 1991). This includes writing, talking and listening. In fact, all business ultimately comes down to transactions which depend almost entirely on how well managers understand each other (Harris and Moran, 1991). Thus communication underpins all managerial functions. Effective communication is therefore essential for maintaining and enhancing organisational performance in a culturally diverse workplace (Putnis and Petelin, 1996).

Both the Karpin inquiry (1995) and research by the Office of Multicultural Affairs (1994) concluded that, in general, Australian managers failed to utilise cultural diversity in their organisations. In this research study, it is argued that this deficiency will be reflected in Australian managers’ key managerial functions of planning, workplace communication, recruitment/promotion, induction, training, supervision, industrial relations, management of change, customer service, marketing and financial management and in their perceptions of corporate culture (OMA, 1994). (See Chapter 2 for a description of each managerial function.) No specific research has been conducted on management practices in the Australian hospitality industries, nor has a single research study investigated intercultural communication competence and its application to managerial functions in Australia. However, some studies of the Australian hospitality industries have highlighted a broad range of managerial problems (Beresford, 1995; James Cook University, 1992). Given the absence of a single study of intercultural communication competence and its potential application to managerial functions within these industries, this research was designed specifically to explore these issues.

1.4 Cultural diversity and communication within the Australian hospitality and tourism service industries

Tourism and migration to Australia have presented considerable challenges for intercultural communication processes. More specifically, there is a growing cultural and ethnic diversity of hospitality and tourism consumers in Australia. “Inbound tourism alone accounted for 3.2 million international visitors to Australia in 1995 who spent over $11.9 billion in various hospitality related activities” (Bureau of Tourism Research, 1995). Similarly, an increasing number of Australians of culturally diverse backgrounds themselves travel, eat out and engage in other leisure activities serviced by the hospitality industry.

Further, Australia's tourism industry directly employed approximately 5 per cent of Australia's workforce in 1990 (Bureau of Tourism Research, 1993). Using the Australian Tourism Commission's 2000 international visitor targets (6.5 million overseas visitors), the Department of Tourism projected that by 2000, the tourism industry could employ 571,000 persons or 6.3 per cent of the total workforce. Migrants are estimated to contribute annually around 46,000 persons of the total new labourforce between 1991 and 2001 (James Cook University, 1992). Notable is the fact that “the hotel industry is facing increased cultural diversity in terms of ownership. There is a high degree of globalisation of hotel ownership taking place throughout the world” (Noriander, 1990).

Effective communication management in a culturally diverse workplace such as the Australian hospitality and tourism service industries is important to the performance of major managerial functions including planning, coordinating, leading, staff motivation and industrial relations. More particularly, the role of communication in the hospitality industry cannot be overemphasised (Brownell, 1991; George, 1993; Powers and Riegel, 1993; Sparks, 1994). However cultural diversity within the hospitality and tourism industries, as for any other Australian culturally diverse industry, poses communication problems. Potentially, some key problems that affect managers’ intercultural communication competence result from factors such as: incorrect cultural assumptions; stereotyping; ethnocentrism; insensitivity to others’ cultures; prejudice; discrimination; fear of the unknown; threatened identity; fear of rejection; fear of contradiction to one's belief system; misunderstanding of roles; perceptions of different values and behaviour; inaccurate interpretation of verbal and nonverbal behaviour; and uncertainty about gender roles within the cross-cultural setting. In addition, communication problems can arise due to a mismatch between corporate culture and a culturally diverse workforce (Saee, 1998).

Because the hospitality industry is labour-intensive and service-centred, it is a people enterprise. To realise the industry's potential, management needs to understand how ethnicity and culture affect human behaviour in general, and intercultural communication in particular. “Examples of situations where culture can influence both management and a multicultural workforce in the workplace are: communication problems in recruitment/promotion policies, planning, supervision, motivation for professional development and employee counseling in the hospitality industry” (Tanke, 1990, pp.46–47). Gaining an understanding of these issues in the Australian hospitality and tourism industries is the focus of this research study.

1.5 Theoretical perspectives on intercultural communication

In terms of communication within Australian culturally diverse organisations, including the hospitality and tourism industries, there is first of all a popular view, promulgated by government policy makers and researchers, which emphasises the importance of English-language competence in a multicultural workforce. They suggest that acquiring the ability to speak and write English is enough: that is, any barriers between management and ethnic workers can be overcome by the use of a common language – English (Eyles et al., 1989; Jupp, 1989; Harris, 1996; ROMMPAS, 1986). A major flaw in this view is that it represents a message-centred view of communication which is inadequate for complex contexts involving many human interactions such as the provision of hospitality services. The “English is enough” view does not take into account, for instance, the significance of cultural dimensions which both parties (i.e. migrant and Australian managers) need to contextualise as part of their meaning-centred view of communication, as people attempt to share their intentions (see Chapter 3).

In the past several decades, new theoretical perspectives have been developed to try to illuminate the nature of intercultural communication competence where migrants and the members of a host culture interact. These theories of intercultural communication have their origins in transdisciplinary areas of research and have been derived from the social sciences including cultural anthropology, sociology, general psychology, social psychology, philosophy, education and applied management.

Hall (1955, 1959, 1976) offers a cultural anthropological perspective on intercultural communication, in which he divided cultures of the world into “high-context” and “low-context” cultures and suggested that context influences interpersonal communication and hence intercultural communication (see Chapter 2). Irwin (1996) claimed that an understanding of the context in communication is crucial to avoid unnecessary frustration and misunderstanding. This raises a relevant point for investigation in this research study, namely, how do Australian hospitality and tourism managers consider differing cultural contexts when communicating with their culturally diverse employees and clientele?

From sociology, Hofstede (1980) provides a more empirically based analysis of world cultures known as the cultural dimensions model. (See Chapter 2 for a fu...