Antecedents and Outcomes of a Culturally Diverse Workforce in Hotels

Abstract

The topic of cultural diversity in hospitality firms has been somewhat neglected in the abundant research on cultural diversity in organizations. To overcome the gap, the purpose of the research was to examine the antecedents and outcomes of employing a culturally diverse workforce in hotels. Results from semistructured interviews showed there are four antecedents for the increase in cultural diversity and outcomes reflect significantly more benefits than challenges. Our findings suggest the benefits of cultural diversity come from the informational advantages, supporting the processing perspective. The challenges of diversity are rooted in the social categorization and in-group-out-group dynamics, lending support to the social identity theory. This study advances diversity literature based on research evidence of the various antecedents and outcomes in employing a culturally diverse workforce. Implications for diversity management are offered so the benefits may be sustained, and the challenges may be minimized in hospitality firms.

Keywords

cultural diversity cultural diversity antecedents cultural workers benefits cultural workers challenges diversity management

Introduction

The demographic composition of Australia shows that the country’s migrants originate from 130 countries and speak 200 different languages. In fact, permanent and temporary migrants and the Australia-born children of such migrants constitute half of the Australian population at any point in time (Hugo, 2011). In 2001, the majority of Australia’s migrant intake (52%) was from Europe. Within 10 years, this had dropped to 40%, while migration from Asia had increased from 24% to 33% over the same period (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016a). This shift in the source countries of migrants has contributed to increased cultural diversity among the skilled migrant intake, many of whom arrive looking for work.

In Australia and other developed countries, hotels are a potential source of employment for new arrivals (e.g., Janta, 2011). On the one hand, organizations require migrants, as hotels suffer from high employee turnover (Davidson et al., 2010; Lam et al., 2002; Mohsin, et al., 2015; Zopiatis et al., 2014). On the other hand, organizations employ migrants to attain competitive advantage (Ng & Metz, 2015; Zikic, 2015), as these culturally diverse migrants add value which is difficult to imitate and rare (Richard, 2000). Hospitality firms employ culturally diverse staff to match their diverse guest needs and to leverage the rare attributes of a diverse employee (Richard, 2000) in order to achieve competitive advantage (Cox, 1994). Due to the different backgrounds of these migrants, cultural diversity has emerged as one of the most important diversity dimensions of the hospitality workforce. Trends, such as globalization (Barbosa & Cabral-Cardoso, 2010; Bishop, 2013; Pittinsky, 2010), a transient workforce (Findler et al., 2007), and the rise of multinational enterprises (Greenberg, 2001; Sally, 1994) have encouraged the growth of a diverse workforce worldwide. This phenomenon requires a deeper understanding of the role of culturally diverse employees. Australia, as one of the most diverse countries in the world, represents a broad range of ethnic diversity forming a microcosm of the world, creating a “cultural melting pot.” Therefore, this study will help hotels devise policies to effectively manage and make the most of a complex multicultural workforce.

Cultural diversity studies in the hospitality context are scant, and the existing studies were conducted in North America and Europe with small sample sizes (see Baum et al., 2007; Christensen-Hughes, 1992; Devine et al., 2007). The results of these studies indicated that there are both positive and negative aspects to the employment of individuals from differing cultural backgrounds. Researchers have been encouraged to expand diversity research into different country contexts, as well as to focus on the functions and roles relating to the diversity of employees in a particular organizational context (Pitts & Jarry, 2007).

Given the growing complexity of the demographic composition of the Australian hospitality workforce, it is important to understand the role of culturally diverse employees in Australian hotels. The Australian hotel environment thus provides a unique and dynamic context for investigating the effects of a culturally diverse workforce. The outcomes from the employment of culturally diverse people in the hospitality industry are ambiguous. Where some see merit in diversity, others see not much other than challenges. Both the benefits and the challenges can be understood through theories, such as the information processing perspective and social identity theory. Therefore, the present study addressed the gap in the literature through these combined theoretical perspectives.

Literature Review

Antecedents of Workforce Diversity

The hospitality and tourism industry is labor intensive (Marchante et al., 2007) and one of the world’s most rapidly growing sectors, accounting for more than a third of the total global services trade (International Labour Organization, 2010). The total revenue of the global hotel industry was US$570.18 billion in 2017 (Statista, 2019). The hotel industry has been transformed not only into a global industry but, more importantly, into a highly competitive service-oriented and customer-focused market (Kandampully et al., 2015). The people-centric nature of the industry makes it highly dependent on its employees, who play a critical role in delivering quality service commensurate with the needs and expectations of its customers (Bharwani & Butt, 2012). The provision of quality service has become a long-term strategy (Yoon & Ekinci, 2003). A service-oriented strategy will lead to enhanced customer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive image (Anderson & Narus, 1990; Garbarino & Johnson, 1999), resulting in an overall improvement in company performance (Homburg et al., 2002). A service-oriented strategy may be achieved through culturally diverse employees.

Cultural diversity has been defined as “the representation, in one social system, of people with distinctly different group affiliations of cultural significance” (Cox, 1994, p. 6). Multicultural policies attract skilled migrants to Australia and Canada (Ng & Metz, 2015), as is evident from the steady increase of migrants in both these countries. Migration is influenced by various external trends such as political, social, economic, legal, historical, cultural, and educational and is affected by “push” and “pull” factors (Mejia et al., 1979). Push factors are generally present in sending countries, and pull factors pertain to receiving countries. Push factors include unemployment, low wages, poor working conditions, poor social security benefits, and the problematic structure of the economy (Zimmermann, 1996). The pull factors include the appeal of working abroad, gaining experience, and learning international languages (Iqbal & Gusman, 2015).

Among the U.S. researchers of diversity, there has been some attempt to identify the antecedents of a diverse workforce in general. The Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action program in 1965 was found to be an important antecedent of a diverse workforce (Avery & McKay, 2006). It was observed in the U.S. public sector that highly professionalized tasks and nonprofessionalized tasks attract more gender diversity than racial or ethnic diversity (Choi & Rainey, 2010). The community in which the organization and its employees are settled also contributes to diversity since communities often coalesce around cultural groups (Ragins, 2008). Organizational size also has a significant effect on workforce diversity. Large organizations, which require less formally educated or experienced employees, have more diverse employees and are diversity-friendly, as they have more resources and often have to handle diverse clients (Marquis et al., 2008). Based on a review of the literature, it is evident that antecedents of diversity have not been explored adequately. A clear understanding of the antecedents of diverse employees will help hotels formulate policies to strategically increase cultural diversity among employees.

Understanding Workforce Diversity: Theoretical Foundations

Two theories can provide conceptual frameworks for interpreting the underlying mechanism of why such benefits and challenges of diversity occur: information processing perspectives and social identity theory. The information processing perspective argues that diverse groups should outperform homogeneous groups because they are likely to have a broad range of knowledge, skills, and abilities, and bring different perspectives to a task (van Knippenberg et al., 2004). The potentially positive effect of diversity lies in the elaborate processing of information (Homan et al., 2008), particularly for tasks that involve the initiation and integration of different views and ideas, such as group problem solving (Tjosvold & Poon, 1998), that can be achieved by a harmonious team of culturally diverse individuals.

Social identity theory determines a psychological basis for intergroup discrimination (Haslam, 2004), and examines conflict and cooperation as two important features (Hogg, 2016). Social identity theory proposes that people classify themselves into in-group and out-group members based on categories, such as age, gender, or cultural background (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). Two of the important processes covered by this theory are social categorization and social comparison. As part of the social categorization process, individuals categorize themselves as in-group and out-group members based on surface level diversity. In the social comparison process, individuals compare themselves with others, and may develop biases as a result of such a comparison processes. The theory suggests that these categorizations provoke stereotypes about out-group members, leading to negative outcomes in organizations. The process of bias tends to encourage in-group members to feel superior to out-group members, resulting in status differential (Phillips et al., 2013). Additionally, these in-group/out-group dynamics can lead to negative team dynamics including less trust, communication, cooperation and cohesion, and more conflict in diverse groups (Williams & O’Reilly, 1998).

Outcomes of employing a diverse workforce. Workforce diversity results in both positive and negative outcomes (De Abreu et al., 2007; D’Netto et al., 2014; Shore et al., 2009). Researchers have found that a diverse workforce brings a number of positive features into the workplace. These positives reflect the information processing perspective (van Knippenberg et al., 2004), which recognizes the broad range of knowledge, skills, and abilities, and different perspectives diverse employees bring to a task. In a seminal work, researchers found that diversity may have positive effects, such as attracting people, promoting creativity, raising quality and increasing system flexibility (Cox, 1994). Stahl et al. (2010) also found that cultural diversity appears to be associated with greater creativity. Furthermore, culturally diverse employees can attract markets from similar cultural groups (Ely & Thomas, 2001), and diversity improves the corporate image (Kandola, 1995). In addition, diverse teams can offer wide-ranging knowledge and experience (van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007), leading to better firm performance (Gonzalez & DeNisi, 2009). All of the above benefits lead directly to positive organizational outcomes.

The information process perspective supports the “value-in-diversity” hypothesis, as studies have shown that differences in the group leads to positive outcomes (Phillips et al., 2013). Specific to the hospitality and hotel context, an early study of Toronto hotels by Christensen-Hughes (1992) found positive effects for employee diversity. He observed that migrants were a large source of potential labor, that multiple cultures enriched the work environment to meet the needs of a diverse group of customers, and that migrants could assist in attracting new markets, leading to increased diversity awareness. Soft skills are key skills within the hospitality industry (Alhelalat et al., 2017) and diversity awareness is considered to be an important component of soft skills in the hospitality industry (Rivera & Lee, 2016). Diversity awareness, combined with language capability, has been highlighted as important benefits of employing a culturally diverse workforce in hospitality (Choi et al., 2017; Devine et al., 2007; Markova et al., 2016). Innovation (Devine et al., 2007; García-Almeida & Hormiga, 2016), and new skills (Markova et al., 2016) are all potential benefits of diverse employees, as are loyalty, willingness to work hard (Baum et al., 2007; Devine et al., 2007), reliability, temporal and functional flexibility (Markova et al., 2016), commitment to the company, and strong motivation (García-Almeida & Hormiga, 2016). Specific to the hospitality literature, organizational recognition of the merits of cultural diversity can have a positive effect on the relationship between employees and guests.

In spite of many potential positive outcomes, diversity in a workforce is fraught with challenges. These challenges are identified in social identity theory as the biases that employees may develop in the context of diversity, leading to low cohesion. For example, a phenomenon predominantly occurring in the English-speaking countries is lack of English fluency among culturally diverse employees, which raises problems of communication internally with employees and externally with guests and negatively affects guest satisfaction.

The situation is different in non-English-speaking countries such as India and China. Due to the multiplicity of languages spoken in India, the common language of English assists communication among different linguistic groups and is also advantageous for international trade (Azam et al., 2013), albeit with a heavy accent (Budhwar et al., 2009). In China, English is regarded as lingua franca, and facility in English helps toward better employment (Jin & Cheng, 2013; Johnson, 2009). Although many Chinese residents learn English, only very few can actually speak English and, as is often noted, only with poor pronunciation (Wang et al., 2017). However, in the context of the Chinese hotel industry, it was found that front office employees were multilingual and the level of English fluency was higher than fluency in other foreign languages (Hai-yan & Baum, 2006).

Research has shown that members of a diverse workforce often experienced lower levels of promotion (Becton et al., 2008); rates of absenteeism were higher among Black employees than White employees (Avery et al., 2007); job satisfaction was low and conflict greater (Stahl et al., 2010), along with more frustration (van Knippenberg et al., 2004). There was less organizational commitment (Chen, 2002), with migrants tending to leave their jobs at higher rates than nonmigrants and Australian born workers (Halvorsen et al., 2015). English language skills were poor, and workers were isolated (D’Netto et al., 2014) or misunderstood (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). Based on the social identity theory, the positive bias toward their in-group and the negative bias toward out-group members (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) may deter culturally diverse employees from learning English and may make them feel isolated from others. Diversity theories and their advantages and challenges in employing diverse staff are presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Diversity Theories, Benefits, and Challenges in Employing Diverse Staff

Theory	Benefits	Empirical Evidence
Information processing perspective (van Knippenberg et al., 2004)	Language capability	Choi et al. (2017); Devine et al. (2007); Janta (2011); Markova et al. (2016)
	New skills	Markova et al. (2016)
	Higher quality of ideas, creativity and solutions	McLeod et al. (1996) Cox (1994)
	Flexibility	Cox (1994) Markova et al. (2016)
	Broad range of knowledge experience	van Knippenberg and Schippers (2007)
	Enrichment of the work environment	Christensen-Hughes (1992)
Theory	Challenges	Empirical Evidence
Social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979)	Communication and language problems	Baum et al. (2007); Christensen-Hughes (1992); D’Netto et al. (2014); Madera et al. (2014),
	Lower levels of career satisfaction	Greenhaus et al. (1990)
	Less organizational commitment
	Perception amongst employees that promotion or career progression is unlikely
	Higher rates of absenteeism	Tsui et al. (1992)
	Higher turnover, low job satisfaction, frustration, and intergroup conflicts in the organization	Cox (1994)
	More emotional conflicts in work teams	Pelled (1996)

Cultural differences are identified by two common measures: Schwartz’s seven culture-level values (1994) and Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions (2002). Schwartz’s (1994) seven cultural-level values comprise conservatism, intellectual autonomy, affective autonomy, hierarchy, mastery, egalitarian commitment, and harmony. Hofstede’s (2002) five dimensions comprise power distance index (high versus low), individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance index (high vs. low), and long-term versus short-term orientation. These two measures have been considered equally effectual (Drogendijk & Slangen, 2006), although there has been some criticism of the low number of Hofstede’s dimensions (McSweeney, 2002). Hofstede’s dimensions integrate culture into studies in a simple, practical, and usable way (Soares et al., 2007).

Tourism and hospitality cross-cultural studies have extensively used Hofstede’s cultural dimension scores, which range from 1 to 100 (Hofstede, 1983) as a benchmark (Jones & McCleary, 2004; Li, 2014). Based on these dimensions, Australia scores high (91) on individualism: “the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members,” and masculinity (61) which “indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success.” Australia scores at intermediate (51) on uncertainty avoidance, which is “to do with the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen?” and low (36) on power distance, which “deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal.” Australia also scores low (21) on long-term orientation which is about “how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future” (Hofstedinsights, 2018, p. 1).

According to Hofstede, dimensions which are low on power distance and long-term orientation have a positive impact on diverse employees, as managers and diverse employees work collaboratively, leading to innovative outcomes. Dimensions that are high on individualism and masculinity feature hiring decisions based on achievement and expect diverse employees to be self-reliant, which may result in challenges for them due to their difficulty with the English language. However, the unique, historical, demographic, and cultural features of nations somewhat compromise the results of Hofstede’s dimensions as benchmarks in relation to workplace contexts for diverse employees. The characteristics of the national context provide widely varying triggers that produce both negative and positive outcomes, depending on numerous workplace conditions and cultural combinations (D’Netto et al., 2014).

The hospitality industry can be particularly benefited by employing culturally diverse workers who are managed appropriately (Devine et al., 2007). Despite growing interest in diversity, there is not enough research that explores the outcomes (benefits and challenges) of employing a culturally diverse workforce. Given that the cultural composition of the workforce is fast changing, an understanding of the outcomes with a strong theoretical foundation will help both academics and practitioners. The antecedents of culturally diverse workforces in the hospitality have hitherto been insufficiently addressed in the research literature.

By exploring the antecedents and outcomes of cultural diversity in hospitality firms, we have provided a better understanding of the origins, benefits and costs that can enable managers to leverage cultural diversity to achieve competitive advantage. This present study integrated diversity theories such as the information process perspective and the social identity theory by exploring the antecedents and outcome of a culturally diverse workforce. This knowledge will enable managers to appreciate both the challenges and benefits of such a diverse workforce and implement appropriate HR practices to leverage the benefits of diversity. Detailed clarification of the antecedents and outcomes of cultural diversity in hospitality firms will enable managers to see that the benefits outweigh the costs, and encourage managers to adopt cultural diversity as a strategic practice.

In terms of diversity theories, researchers are predominantly U.S.-centric (Jonsen et al., 2011; Reynolds et al., 2014; Roberson et al., 2017). Almost all studies have been conducted in the United States and European contexts, which makes the results difficult to generalize to other locations globally. Given the economic contribution of the hotel industry (Manoharan et al., 2013), a clear appreciation of the influence of culturally diverse employees in hotels in other locations will advance the diversity literature as well as industry practice. The present study addressed the current gaps in the literature through the following research questions:

Research Question 1: What are the antecedents of a culturally diverse workforce in Australian hotels?

Research Question 2: What are the outcomes (benefits and challenges) of employing a culturally diverse workforce in hotels?

Method

The present study was philosophically underpinned by constructivism, which proposes that individuals do not create meaning but construct it in and out of interactions with the world (Crotty, 1998). Constructivism allows the researchers to develop and look for complex interpretations (Alhammad & Ku, 2016). Qualitative research involves collection of data regarding activities, events, occurrences, and behaviours, to gain an understanding of actions, problems, and processes in their social context (Phillimore & Goodson, 2004). Compared with quantitative research, qualitative research provides local grounding, richness and holism, sustained period and causality, and lived meaning (Miles & Huberman, 1994), and is useful for exploratory and explanatory purposes (Marshall & Rossman, 1995). Thus, the qualitative approach was particularly appropriate for this present study which explored the lived experiences and perspectives of managers of Australian medium-sized hotels (Miles & Huberman, 1994). In addition, we chose a qualitative research model to explore the deeper workplace processes that shape the workplace experience and performance of individuals, teams and organizations (Bluhm et al., 2011), and which is particularly pertinent to a study of an ethnically diverse workforce.

The interview protocol consisted of three parts. The first part sought data related to the hotel such as the existence and the brand. The second part covered the backgrounds of the employees such as their ethnic origins. The third part requested data relating to the antecedents and outcomes (benefits and challenges) associated with a culturally diverse workforce. The questions were based on the literature (e.g., Devine et al., 2007) and were driven by the study aim. To check the clarity and sequence of the questions, the interview protocol was submitted to two academic experts who confirmed that the protocol content was valid. The details of the interview protocol are presented in Supplement Appendix 1, available online.

The study was conducted in Australian medium-sized hotels, that is, hotels employing 20 to 199 workers (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2018). Medium-sized hotels contributed 37% of industry revenue and 305,000 jobs in Australia as of June 2015 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016b). Nevertheless, medium-sized hotels have been underrepresented in the literature (Manoharan et al., 2014), as earlier studies were conducted only in large hotels (Davidson et al., 2010; Patiar & Mia, 2009). As medium-sized hotels employ a large number of culturally diverse employees, an understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of a culturally diverse workforce would be of particular benefit to their formulation of human resources (HR) policies and practices.

Sample

The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) from each state and territory was contacted requesting support for the study. Six of a total of eight states, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), New South Wales (NSW), Northern Territory (NT), South Australia (SA), Tasmania (TAS), and Western Australia (WA), agreed to assist. Members were sent a letter supporting the study from the AHA CEO and the AHA mailing list was then used to contact potential participants. Because AHA in Queensland (QLD) and Victoria (VIC) were unable to support the project due to their busy schedule, additional support was secured through professional networks so that data could be collected from these states, thus producing a nationally scoped sample inclusive of all Australian states and territories. However, 45 individuals who responded to the initial communication were contacted to confirm their continued interest and arrange suitable times for face-to-face or telephonic interviews with a field researcher located in South Australia. Subsequently, 18 general managers declined due to their busy schedule. Ultimately, interview appointments were organized countrywide with 27 general managers, whose role was to oversee all the functions of their hotel or hotels. General Managers were identified as the key respondents for this study, as they were responsible for the HR management of their hotels because many medium-sized hotels had no exclusive HR department. Out of 27 general managers, 21 were male and 6 were female. The majority of the general managers were Caucasians (26) and 1 general manager was from India.

Data Collection

The first author conducted the face-to-face and telephone semistructured interviews between September 2012 and March 2013. The interview protocol was guided by the research questions, and included a set of key open-ended questions. This semistructured format stimulated rich and deep responses (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Twenty-seven interviews (16 face-to-face and 11 telephonic interview) were conducted, and the length of the interviews varied between 24 and 85 minutes. Consistent with current qualitative hospitality research (see Chan et al., 2018; Huang & Miao, 2016) interviews were stopped when theoretical saturation was reached. After analyzing the data from 24 interviews, data saturation was reached. As a confirmatory step, three more interviews were conducted, with the findings of these interviews proving similar to the earlier findings. The details of the data collection are presented in Table 2.

Table 2

Details of Data Collection

Hotels by Number	Location	Number of Employees	Star Category	Dominant Culture Group	Interview Length in Minutes
1	ACT	120	5-Star	Korean	25.16
2	NSW	40	3-Star	Filipinos	27.47
3	NSW	130	4-Star	Indian	39.20
4	NSW	181	5-Star	Indeterminate	38.31
5	NSW	100^a	5-Star	Indian and Chinese	27.51
6	NSW	120	4-Star	Chinese	40.52
7	NSW	180	5-Star	Brazilians	40.27
8	NT	100	5-Star	Filipinos and Thai	30.33
9	QLD	60	4-Star	Pacific Islanders	25.01
10	SA	42	4-Star	Indian	49.00
11	SA	90	4-Star	Indian	40.26
12	SA	95	5-Star	Filipinos	37.03
13	SA	150	3-Star	Greeks	38.09
14	SA	100	4-Star	Greeks and Italians	85.39
15	SA	71	4-Star	Greeks and Italians	37.42
16	SA	70^a	4-Star	Asians	29.34
17	SA	64	4-Star	Indigenous	24.28
18	SA	170	4-Star	Indians	62.23
19	SA	70	3-Star	Africans	27.06
20	SA	80	4-Star	Indians	33.13
21	TAS	40	4-Star	Non-Indigenous Australians	34.43
22	TAS	60	No Star	Indigenous Australians	32.54
23	TAS	47	4-Star	Non-Indigenous Australians	39.06
24	VIC	37^a	4-Star	Non-Indigenous Australians	25.34
25	WA	35^a	3-Star	Indians	31.32
26	WA	45^a	4-Star	Non-Indigenous Australians	35.31
27	WA	45	4-Star	Indigenous Australians	31.33

Note: ACT = Australian Capital Territory; NSW = New South Wales; QLD = Queensland; SA = South Australia; TAS = Tasmania; VIC = Victoria; WA = Western Australia; = Face-to-face; = telephone.

Total number of employees excluding the contract employees.

Data Analysis

Inductive thematic analysis was used to understand the antecedents and outcomes of employing a culturally diverse workforce. Thematic analysis is a suitable method for examining the views of various research participants, emphasizing similarities and differences, producing unanticipated insights and a rich, detailed, and complex account of data (Braun & Clarke, 2006; King, 2004). An inductive approach is a bottom-up exploration that allows the data to direct the process. The data from the interview transcriptions were coded, and a six-stage thematic analysis was conducted (Braun & Clarke, 2006), as presented below in Table 3.

Table 3

Stage and Description of Thematic Analysis Process

Stages	Description of Thematic Analysis Process
Stage 1	To become familiar with the data, interviews from the voice recordings were transcribed by the first author.
Stage 2	In the data reduction process, 6 initial codes emerged with respect to antecedents and 13 initial codes with respect to outcomes. The outcomes codes were divided into eight initial codes with respect to benefits and five initial codes with respect to challenges. At this stage of the research process, the researchers were not seeking to identify any aspect of the experience as a form of analysis, but only to fully understand the individual’s experience.
Stage 3	Recurring phenomena and relationships were identified in the coded data in order to combine the codes into overarching themes for antecedents of a culturally diverse workforce. Due to the complexity of the analysis with respect to outcomes (benefits and challenges), an initial thematic map was constructed in order to locate the codes in the appropriate overarching themes (see Supplement Figure 1 in Appendix 2, available online). The initial thematic maps facilitated an understanding of the relationship between the codes, themes and different levels of themes, such as main themes and subthemes, in case discarding became necessary (Braun & Clarke, 2006). No themes were discarded.
Stage 4	The themes were reviewed and refined in the fourth stage. Ultimately, 12 themes satisfied the initial criteria that had been used to code the data. The results of the refinement process are presented in the developed thematic map in Supplement Figure 2 (see Appendix 2, available online).
Stage 5	During the fifth stage, the themes were examined for consistency with the purpose, and named and defined so that their meaning was unambiguous. The themes related to antecedents were identified and refined to four themes, while the themes related to outcomes were grouped into benefits (five themes) and challenges (three themes). The final thematic map related to outcomes is encapsulated in Supplement Figure 3 (see Appendix 2, available online). The final thematic map helped define the themes and capture the overall view of each theme (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Stage 6	In the final stage, the themes were assessed and a report about the meaning of the data is presented in the following section.

To increase the validity of this study, an investigator triangulation process was employed (Decrop, 1999). The data were organized manually in a spreadsheet by the first author. The first author gave the coding categories and definitions to an independent coder who was not involved with the data collection. The second person independently coded all of the transcripts. The intercoder agreement was manually calculated by the formula (the number of coding agreements by the number of agreements and disagreements combined) proposed by Campbell et al. (2013). In total there were 92 agreements and 20 disagreements. The intercoder agreement was 82%, which is higher than the .70 minimum suggested by Cohen (1960). In addition, peer debriefing was conducted to test the validity of the interpretation of the data. The findings of the study were presented to the HR advisors from the AHA, to test the discussion and conclusions for bias and misunderstandings (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998). These advisors confirmed that the researchers’ analysis accurately reflected their views.

Results and Discussion

The purpose of the present study was to examine the antecedents and outcomes (benefits and challenges) of employing a culturally diverse workforce in hotels. The first of the two overarching themes, antecedents of culturally diverse employees, included four subthemes. The second theme, outcomes of employing a culturally diverse workforce, was further classified into benefits and challenges. The results showed that benefits included five subthemes and challenges included three subthemes.

Antecedents of Culturally Diverse Employees

Four subthemes were identified as antecedents to the cultural diversity in the participant hotels’ workforces: cultural communities and/or geographical locations, referrals from employees, previous experience and training, and government visa conditions. Three participants, however, were unsure why there was identifiable cultural diversity among their employees. The dominant cultural group in each hotel is listed in Table 2. In the text, we list some illustrative quotes. Additional quotes are included in Table 4.

Table 4

Additional Quotes Highlighting Antecedents and Outcomes (Benefits and Challenges)

Antecedents	Cultural communities and/or geographical locations	It is the local population, because a lot of people don’t come into Tasmania. (GM, Tasmania hotel, Interview 23)
	Referrals from employees	Generally, what happens is, one or two of them start working in the hotel, and usually, they ask their brothers and friends who are looking for employment, and they say come put your application in, and it generally works like that. (GM, WA hotel, Interview 9)
	Previous experience and training	We have the Indian people who are well educated and they are looking for a career in hospitality. (GM, NT hotel, Interview 8)
	Government visa conditions	People come to SA as there are some visa benefits and also some state government benefit and incentives to draw compared with other states. (GM, SA hotel, Interview 20)
Outcomes (benefits)	Culture and cultural awareness	Our region is culturally diverse, and you need to be reflective and you need to cater for those people from the community as well. By having the different nationalities working in different areas then you are catering to that clientele. (GM, SA hotel, Interview 11)
	Language proficiency	We have employees from different parts of the world, and customers do arrive from all these places saying when a housekeeping staff can speak in their language the guest experience is totally different. (GM, NSW hotel, Interview 6)
	Wide range of knowledge	It’s the skills, the experience they bring; we have got so many people from so many different parts of the world, and customers arriving from the world, so it’s not unusual, . . . so the service is different; some people we have teach what it is all about but to other people it comes naturally. (GM, ACT hotel, Interview 1)
	Work ethic	They are very hard working, with good work ethics, something to be seen across the board. I think they are looking for the opportunity; they are looking to find a place in fact. (GM, TAS, Interview 21)
	Commitment to profession	Group of Indian guys studying university, you know that they all, they are reliable, they don’t get on their booze. Certainly, there is benefit of being stable type people and obviously hard working polite, you don’t have that problem. (GM, SA, Interview 18)
Outcomes (challenges)	Intercultural issues	There could be challenges . . . when we get employees from the same ethnicity for example in our hotel: front office employees coming from the same country hate each other. (GM, SA hotel, Interview 19)
	Substandard English skills	If any challenges it is the language sometime they don’t quite understand may be a question or if you are trying to give some information by the guest that could be a challenge but they pretty quickly they overcome that. (GM, TAS hotel, Interview 21)
	Operational challenges	With food hygiene certain parts of the world how they defrost meats and so on. different to Australian standards things like that we need to be very mindful someone coming from other nations we need to ensure that No. 1 the training meets the Australian standards regarding to cross-contamination, levels of hygiene, and food handling and maintenance. (GM, SA hotel, Interview 14)

Cultural community and/or geographical location. Slightly more than half of the participants (16 out of 27) highlighted the fact that community and location were the primary antecedents of the dominant culture(s) of their workforce. Cultural diversity varied according to location and the available pool of labor. This was pointed out by a general manager (GM) from NT, who stated: “it is because of the overall demographic of Alice Springs. There is a strong cohort of Filipino and Thai visa holders.” It is clear that employees were sourced from the cultural community associated with the hotel or in the geographical region irrespective of remoteness. For example, hotels in South Australia, located in remote places such as Berri (242 km from the capital city Adelaide), exhibited substantial diversity due to migrant settlement in the area, compared with hotels in Victor Harbor (84 km from Adelaide) which is populated largely by longtime resident South Australians rather than migrants. This finding is consistent with earlier research by Ragins (2008).

Employee referrals. Approximately one quarter of the participants (7 out of 27) commented that job references by existing employees increased cultural diversity in the workforce since existing employees tended to refer their friends and family members from the same cultural background and/or the same geographical area. This was highlighted in an interview by a GM in SA hotel, who stated as follows: “If there is a vacancy and someone is looking for work, obviously people recommend their friends or families, so we do get people come through like that.” This finding, consistent with earlier research, suggests that employees often recommend their friends or kin (Breaugh & Starke, 2000), which can be of benefit to hotels located in areas dominated by Non-Indigenous Australian/Caucasian employees, even though it may increase diversity only from the same cultural group.

Previous experience and training. It was argued by 3 of the 27 participants that skills and qualifications fit are important antecedents for a culturally diverse workforce. Managers confirmed that culturally diverse employees possessed strong hospitality skills, and some had formal hospitality qualifications. For example, a GM in NSW hotel (Interview 6) commented as follows:

more and more of these types of people are applying for hospitality and, truthfully, they seem to be good, particularly about the skills that are needed in hospitality. They are very obliging, very helpful, and we enjoy having them here.

Thus, previous experience and training act as antecedents of a culturally diverse workforce in hotels, as culturally diverse employees had previously gained training and experience motivated by their willingness to study hospitality and take it up as a profession. This is a new finding.

Government visa conditions. Most participants indicated that they understood how visa conditions influenced the inflow of migrants to specific states. On arrival, migrants tended to find a job and stay in a state. A GM in a SA hotel (Interview 11) explained as follows: “Government encouraging them to come to SA; that is the starting point. I think people stay because they like it: they find a job; salaries and wages are quite good within an industry which is highly regulated.” This finding is consistent with the existing literature (Ng & Metz, 2015), and reflects multicultural policies, such as the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme visa (subclass 187; Department of Immigration and Border Protection, 2017), stipulating that a migrant must work in a “regional” state for a minimum of 2 years. This encourages migrants to seek employment in hotels. Furthermore, community ties and employment status encourage migrants to remain living longer in the regional areas of Australia (Hugo, 2008; Wulff & Dharmalingam, 2008), so a job in the hotel may strengthen their decision to stay longer.

Benefits of Employing a Culturally Diverse Workforce

Analysis of the data produced five subthemes related to benefits: culture and cultural awareness, language proficiency, wide range of knowledge, work ethic, and commitment to profession. These themes are discussed in detail below.

Culture and cultural awareness. Approximately three quarters of the participants (20 out of 27) highlighted culture and cultural awareness as advantages of employing culturally diverse workers. First, these factors have an impact on the guest experience, as explained by several managers:

Having an ethnically [culturally] diverse group in our hotel simply represents the multicultural nature of Australia; this gives a first-hand experience about the country to the foreigners. (GM, NSW hotel, Interview 6)

Second, culture and cultural awareness enrich the work environment. For example, social activities within the hotel, can have a positive impact on team unity. A participant stated as follows:

At lunchtime you can sometimes have people from ten different ethnic backgrounds sitting at one table, all having lunch and talking. I think probably if they had been homogeneous, they might sit as a group or split. (GM, Queensland hotel, Interview 9)

The present study is foremost in identifying culture and cultural awareness as benefits of employing a culturally diverse workforce. Culture and cultural awareness add benefit to both customers and employees. The number of culturally diverse employees working in hotels reflects the Australian multicultural setting, and can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage, because diversity can bring in a breadth of tacit knowledge and is valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate (Richard, 2000). In addition, culturally diverse employees broaden the group’s perspectives leading to enhanced performance (Patrick & Kumar, 2012).

Language proficiency. About half of the participants (15 out of 27) highlighted language skills as a benefit of employing culturally diverse workers. They found that employees from different backgrounds often spoke English and were also fluent in at least one other language and sometimes more than one language. Speaking to a hotel guest in the guest’s language is a significant enhancement of the service, as a manager spontaneously commented as follows:

If you can have two or three people on the front desk, each speaking two languages, it just blows people away. From a hospitality point of view, when they have a problem they can come and speak to someone in their own language, and just understanding people’s background helps a lot. (GM, SA hotel, Interview 14)

The language proficiency of culturally diverse employees is an important characteristic which has positive outcomes. Skill in another language often has a positive impact with guests. Although earlier research indicated that the language capabilities provided by culturally diverse employees often went unused (Devine et al., 2007), in the present research, language skills were considered to be a benefit of employing culturally diverse workers, and culturally diverse employees’ linguistic skills were well used in hotels. Having employees with multilinguistic abilities can be a substantial source of competitive advantage, particularly if they are also proficient in English. The positive findings related to language skills are also reflected in the literature (e.g., Choi et al., 2017; Markova et al., 2016).

Wide range of knowledge. Over a third of participants (8 out of 27) felt a wide range of knowledge among employees was important in hotels, as new ideas, for example, in terms of food and beverages could be offered to guests. One of the participants commented as follows:

Diversity of opinion and diversity of knowledge particularly help when working in hospitality. Especially the knowledge and background of where certain foods come from and what products match with that food. I think that is the real advantage. (GM, Tasmania hotel, Interview 21)

Culturally diverse employees are unique, bringing broad experience and a wide range of knowledge, which can provide hotel guests in Australia with novel, diverse cultural experiences. It has been observed that tourist satisfaction is high when local tour guides combine both local and international knowledge and are empathetic when presenting guided interpretations for international tourists (Huang et al., 2015). In the context of a hotel, migrants might bring international experience and knowledge (Guo & Al Ariss, 2015) to their work, which might benefit the business.

A wide range of knowledge helps hotels improve their operational outcomes. As McLeod et al. (1996) pointed out, the quality of ideas and solutions produced by diverse groups is higher than the quality of ideas from homogeneous groups. The benefits of diverse knowledge and opinions, along with a sound work ethic, were also identified in the Australian manufacturing industry (D’Netto et al., 2014). Tse and Ho (2009) found that customers in two hotels in Singapore value service featuring characteristics of their native cultures. Increased heterogeneity of the staff, therefore, offers many positive outcomes, and our findings confirm earlier research (e.g., Christensen-Hughes, 1992; Markova et al., 2016; van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007).

Work ethic. A group of participants (5 out of 27) felt that culturally diverse workers generally exhibited a stronger work ethic than local employees. They appeared more committed and were hard working. This was underlined by several managers, one saying:

I tend to think Australians by nature are a bit lazy and, you know, ethnic groups seem to have a better work ethic. I am not saying in all instances, but I would say probably if you took the average across different cultures, so we are very pleased to have different groups. (GM, SA, Interview 19)

This finding is consistent with earlier research on work ethics in the hotel industry (Baum et al., 2007; García-Almeida & Hormiga, 2016; Markova et al., 2016). A strong work ethic in a diverse group leads to enhanced job satisfaction and job involvement (Khan et al., 2015), and a positive organizational impact.

Commitment to the profession. Three out of 27 participants highlighted the fact that employees from some cultures appeared willing to commit to hospitality as a profession, which meant that they brought to their work a difference in attitude featuring a sense of professionalism, and a willingness to learn and to contribute to the team, as indicated by a general manager from NSW:

The hospitality business in India and Asia is very different from what it is in Australia. Most people [from Australia] don’t look on it as a profession, most people look at it as a side job or do it while they are studying and also if they failed in everything else. In India, China and a lot of areas, it is a profession people study and want to get their degrees in, and it shows in the attitude towards the work. (GM, Interview 7)

The theme of commitment to the profession was supported by the fact that the majority of culturally diverse employees have undertaken hotel management courses at university, which had a direct impact on organizations in terms of reducing the turnover, which is a new finding. The casualization of employees in Australian hotels has been well documented (Cairncross & Kelly, 2008; Davidson et al., 2011), and the higher level of turnover is often attributed to the number of casual employees, who take multiple jobs to meet their economic needs (Davidson et al., 2010). It is highly probable that when culturally diverse employees display their commitment to the profession by taking hospitality courses, turnover in hotels is reduced. The present study shows that cultural diversity is a source of value, as the accounts about the workforce highlighted a positive work ethic and a commitment to hospitality as a profession.

Challenges of Employing a Culturally Diverse Workforce

Analysis of data produced three subthemes related to challenges: intercultural issues, substandard English skills, and operational challenges. These themes are discussed in detail below.

Intercultural issues. Intercultural issues are to be expected with employees from culturally diverse backgrounds. Participants (10 out of 27) highlighted that cultural differences could cause issues from time to time. This was emphasized by general managers from QLD, NSW, and SA, one of whom said as follows:

Certainly, the challenges are their understanding of our culture and our understanding of their culture. Things that might be normal where they live may not be normal here and they have to change their ideas. We are also conscious of how to speak to them. (GM, Interview 6)

There can also be issues among members of the same general cultural group, as noted by several of the participants, as one commented as follows:

When the group gets very large, they tend to talk in their language and that affects the guests, particularly if they are in the public areas (reception, lobby and in the floors) and that’s something we try to avoid particularly. We don’t want the guests to think someone is talking about them. (GM, Interview 9)

Intercultural issues were raised as challenges with both employees and hotel guests. The present study is foremost in identifying intercultural issues as challenges in employing a culturally diverse workforce. Increased diversity may pose unanticipated staffing challenges—for example, multiple employees belonging to a particular culture may request religious leave at the same time. One respondent also commented on the ill feeling between employees from the same geographic area with different cultural outlooks. It was also observed that continually hiring employees from the same culture encouraged employees to speak among themselves in their own language, alienating both guests and other employees.

Substandard English skills. As most employees in culturally diverse workforces are from non-English-speaking countries, communication is a potential challenge for managers. Six of the 27 participants confirmed that many of their culturally diverse staff lacked sound English language skills. This had impacts at different stages of the communication process. A manager from SA raised the problem of misunderstanding in the workplace:

The challenges would be around language and interpretation mostly. Talking to the guest, understanding the instructions, given. You know, we speak fast sometimes, and look, not quite understanding two words in a sentence means completely misinterpreting what the intention was. (GM, Interview 12)

A lack of English language proficiency among employees was a significant issue that usually produced negative operational results and personal and professional dissatisfaction. The findings are consistent with earlier research about the problem of lack of English fluency in English-speaking countries (Baum et al., 2007; D’Netto et al., 2014; Madera et al., 2014). Most migrant employees generally participate in fewer personal networks, do not readily network with Australian employees, and encounter social integration difficulties. The lack of interaction is frequently based on language issues that, perversely, limit the opportunities to improve their English or become familiar with local customs and the local operational system. This element of human behavior should be considered when managing culturally diverse employees.

Operational challenges. Three of the participants pointed out employing staff from different cultural backgrounds could cause operational difficulties. Managers identified differences between the operational standards and procedures in Australia and in their employees’ home country. A general manager from a hotel in SA noted as follows:

When it comes to the generic skills for the housekeeping staff, making a bed might be slightly different; the standards of cleanliness may be different; the use of chemicals will be different; bleach was used in the water for a cleaning product whereas here it is not. Ensuring the staff . . . have good chemical training. There is no cross contamination of cloths, etc. (GM, Interview 14)

The present study is foremost in identifying operational issues as a challenge in employing a culturally diverse workforce. Operational issues that emerged were related to a lack of understanding about Australian standards or English language.

Earlier studies used small sample sizes with fewer than nine participants (see, Christensen-Hughes, 1992; Devine et al., 2007) to understand outcomes of employing the culturally diverse people. However, the present study methodologically improved on previous work by using a larger sample (27 general managers) and by examining the employment of ethnically diverse people outside the United States and European contexts (e.g., Jonsen et al., 2011; Reynolds et al., 2014; Roberson et al., 2017) broadening the context to Australia. Thus, this study contributes toward a better understanding of diversity beyond the more commonly reported North American and European contexts.

Theoretical Implications

This study addressed the gap proposed by Manoharan and Singal (2017) and Kalargyrou and Costen (2017) through a theoretical lens. In the present study, the antecedents of a culturally diverse workforce in Australian hotels were based on the interplay of cultural context and individual initiatives. Cultural context, such as cultural communities and/or geographical locations and government visa conditions, interacts with individual initiatives such as previous experience and training and referrals from employees.

Information Processing Perspective

The benefits gained through employing culturally diverse workers can be explained through diversity theory, such as the information processing perspective. In the present study, benefits such as language skills and diverse knowledge and opinions leading to informational advantage, were associated with an information processing perspective, as the theory suggests diverse employees are likely to have a broad range of knowledge, skills, and abilities, and bring different perspectives to a task (van Knippenberg et al., 2004). Diverse knowledge and opinions, when integrated, encourage group problem solving, leading to better organizational outcomes. The process improves organizational creativity, problem solving, and performance (Herring, 2009). By identifying the concrete processes and mechanisms through which diversity can benefit in the hospitality context, we have enriched the understanding of the benefits of diversity in the hospitality context and contribute to the information processing perspective.

Social Identity Theory

The findings about challenges, such as difficulties with the English language, can be explained through social identity theory that argues that people assume different identities based on the social group with which they most identify. The strength and salience of an individual’s social identity then determine how that individual expresses and perceives values, beliefs, and attitudes about others (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). It follows that individuals who share a similar social identity will be more comfortable interacting with others of the same identity (the similarity-attraction paradigm; Roberts & Creary, 2013). This categorization leads to intergroup communication problems (Dubé-Simard, 1983), which may lead to operational issues. Most of the North American diversity literature has focused on Caucasian, African American, and Latinos as the three key ethnicities. However, our findings bring to fore the fact that in the Australian context, Indians and Asians are the dominant ethnic groups. While Asians and Indian Americans, often grouped together, are considered the “model minority” in the United States (Lee, 2015), our study has started the process of unpacking the diversity of cultural groups within the Asian migrants, enriching and extending the social identity literature.

Practical Implications for Diversity Management

The findings of the present study offer new knowledge as well as confirm earlier studies on diversity. The present study’s findings will be relevant to English-speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. This will assist practicing hospitality managers to implement effective diversity management practices in recruitment, training, and performance management. Regional hotels can implement appropriate diversity recruitment practices to attract culturally diverse employees. However, the results have to be implemented with caution in non-English-speaking countries, as the study was conducted in Australian hotels.

Implications for Diversity Recruitment

Recruitment practices may include placement of job advertisements through online recruitment sites that attract culturally diverse employees, and encouragement of employee references (Breaugh & Starke, 2000; Manoharan et al., 2014). Hotels may also able to attract culturally diverse applicants through support provided for settlement in regional areas. The HR department can offer help new arrivals by providing information regarding accommodation and local knowledge. In cases with visa conditions, regional hotels can collectively lobby through hotel associations to offer skilled visas to a particular state to increase the number of migrants with hospitality skills.

According to a September 2016 international visitors survey, 7.2 million international people visited Australia in that year, an increase of 10% on 2015 (Tourism Research Australia, 2016). HR managers should utilize the language advantage of culturally diverse employees, along with their awareness of customers’ cultural norms. Employees’ background can be considered when rostering, especially for international group arrivals. Multilingual front desk employees, who have the greatest interaction with customers, present a tremendous opportunity to deliver quality and value (Hartline & Jones, 1996). Hotels can also use the varied knowledge and opinions of culturally diverse employees to organize special events and cultural events, and to improve food and beverage operations. Where employees exhibit a strong work ethic and commitment to the profession, managers may discuss organizational succession planning and employees’ career paths. Effective rewards systems maintain and boost staff morale (Manoharan et al., 2013).

Implications for Diversity Training

Investment in training in hospitality industry leads to positive outcomes (Rodríguez & Gregory, 2005). Many challenges of employing culturally diverse workers can be mitigated through diversity training initiatives, such as perspective taking. Perspective taking, defined as an “active contemplation of others’ psychological experiences” (Todd et al., 2011, p. 3), has proved to be effective in breaking psychological barriers developed between in-group and out-group members, as recognized by social identity theory (Lindsey et al., 2015). To overcome the lack of English language skills, identity-conscious practices (Ali, 2016) can be implemented, where English training will be given to culturally diverse employees. Further evidence is provided for the proposition that informal identity-conscious practices improve hotel outcomes such as innovation when ethnic diversity is high (Manoharan et al., 2019). Hotel managers can design regular English training (Devine et al., 2007; Madera et al., 2014), which would not only improve English but also have an impact on quality customer service, consistency in job performance and satisfaction, over and above commitment to the organization (Kim et al., 2009; Roehl & Swerdlow, 1999). Operational challenges may impact service standards in hotels, but may be resolved by effective induction and training programs (Manoharan et al., 2013).

Implications for Cultural Awareness

Intercultural issues have the potential to increase conflict, and disrupt communication and cohesion among team members. These challenges are not insurmountable and can be overcome through cultural awareness (Weaver et al., 2003), and skill-building training (Bezrukova et al., 2016). Organizing social activities in the hotels would also assist in reducing challenges caused by cultural diversity. These programs could be either formal, as in a 1-day program, or informal, such as celebrating cultural holidays (Madera, 2013) or just having a glass of wine with the manager (Vassou et al., 2017). Hotels can install a “cultural diversity notice board” and encourage employees from diverse cultures to contribute information about festivals, greetings, pictures, and short stories. This will enhance employees’ familiarity about other cultures in the workplace. Strong organizational policies can mitigate the issues related to employees’ informal interaction in their native languages, and these can be communicated to the culturally diverse employees during selection and performance management (Manoharan et al., 2013). “Cultural sensitivity” and “cultural awareness” capabilities are significant attributes in the current international work environment (Bennett, 2009) and these competencies are important in a multicultural team, as they help employees work appropriately and successfully (Sucher & Cheung, 2015). In addition to the aforementioned practices, general managers can link diversity management practices to firm strategy formation leading to a sustained competitive advantage (Yang & Konrad, 2011).

Limitations and Future Research Directions

The present study used semistructured interviews in Australian medium-sized hotels to explore the antecedents and outcomes of employing culturally diverse workers. Results should be interpreted with caution in making comparisons with other countries and industries with the understanding that they may have limited generalizability. The present study was qualitative and did not address how these outcomes of culturally diverse employees impact the performance of the hotels. Future studies may use quantitative methods to research the effectiveness of these outcomes on organizational outcomes and focus on large samples. Additionally, to complement the data for the present study that were collected in 2013, antecedents and outcomes of diverse employees could be studied through a longitudinal qualitative approach, which will enable the researchers to identify if the antecedents and outcomes are similar over time, the diversity initiatives which worked (or did not work), and the suggestions from the managers to improve hotel outcomes. Upcoming studies could be enhanced by including the perspectives of department managers (e.g., housekeeping) and frontline employees, using multilevel research approaches to capture the climate perceptions of employees. The present study focused on the cultural diversity of employees. Forthcoming studies could focus on other diversity dimensions such as gender and age.

Australian hotels rely on culturally diverse workers to meet their labor needs. As recognized in social identity theory and the similarity-attraction paradigm, employees with similar cultural backgrounds will be drawn to one another because of aspects of their shared identity (or repulsed by other aspects). The effects of social identity and similarity-attraction in a diverse workplace like a hotel would benefit from further investigation. Social identity is not one dimensional, and there may be other ways employees look at themselves that managers could use to help establish harmony in a diverse workforce. The manager could also benefit from understanding the effects of their own social identity on their relationships with employees.

Conclusion

Given the fact that cultural diversity is characteristic of the Australian hotel workforce, it is important for managers to appreciate both the benefits and challenges of managing culturally diverse staff. The present study, using a strong theoretical underpinning (e.g., Kalargyrou & Costen, 2017; Manoharan & Singal, 2017), examined the antecedents and outcomes of employing culturally diverse workers in medium-sized hotels. In the process, this study focused on workplace diversity outside of the U.S. context, as proposed by Reynolds et al. (2014) and Roberson et al. (2017). Managers can implement appropriate diversity management practices to attract culturally diverse employees. The positive outcomes of workforce diversity represent unique resources that can give the organization a competitive advantage, while negative outcomes can be mitigated by formal and informal diversity management practices.

Supplemental Material

sj-pdf-1-jht-10.1177_1096348020986906 – Supplemental material for Antecedents and Outcomes of A Culturally Diverse Workforce in Hotels

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-jht-10.1177_1096348020986906 for Antecedents and Outcomes of A Culturally Diverse Workforce in Hotels by Ashokkumar Manoharan, Michael J. Gross and Shruti R. Sardeshmukh in Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors like to thank the journal’s Editor-in-Chief and anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback to improve the manuscript. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Australian Hotel Association’s Chief Executive Officers in South Australia, Northern Territory, Managers Tourism Accommodation Australia, New South Wales, Western Australia, and Tasmanian Hotel Association. The authors also like to thank Dr Jayani Upekha Andrahannadi for her help.

ORCID iDs

Ashokkumar Manoharan

Michael J. Gross

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Ashokkumar Manoharan (e-mail: ashokkumar.manoharan@flinders.edu.au) is a senior lecturer at the College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia. Michael J. Gross (e-mail: michael.gross@unisa.edu.au) is a lecturer at the School of Management, University of South Australia, Adelaide. Shruti R. Sardeshmukh (e-mail: shruti.sardeshmukh@unisa.edu.au) is an Associate Professor at the School of Management, University of South Australia, Adelaide.

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