Cross-cultural management skills for hotel management in Central America

¶ … Tourism Management

The impact of technology and the increase of international travel and exploration, the global environment has provided a landscape that depends on the knowledge of other culture. The differences among the human race are everywhere and the denotation of such individualities create challenges for those wishing to attain a successful career based in international exposure.

The purpose of this essay is to explore various themes and ideas that relate to cross-cultural management theory applied in a practical and pragmatic manner. This essay aims to answer the following question:

Which international skills, knowledge, behaviours and experiences will be advantageous in the development of my future career?

My future career selection is not quite clear at this time but I have narrowed it down to becoming involved in hotel management in Central America. This essay will first examine the basics of culture to help give a theoretical background to my proposed set of characteristics that involve the successful execution of my career. The essay will then describe and highlight how to practically apply those skills etc. To the situation at hand to eventually produce an argument that suggests that a firm understanding in the ideas and theories related to cross cultural management are integral to becoming proficient and successful in their practical application.

Understanding Culture

The subjective nature of culture is at the heart of this discussion and provides many of the varying approaches to its definition. In order to understand the idea of culture, the word itself must be further analyzed to determine the root impulses of its application. "Culture" stems from the Latin root "cultura" meaning cult or worship, (Branine, 2011). So what is a cult? A cult can be defined in many aspects but essentially there are several key characteristics of a cult.

Cults are based upon a single idea or guiding point that directs the nature of the cult. Cults are products of groups and collective ideas. Cults are insulated and contained abstract organizations that attain to principles and ethics that are based upon a certain item or not. Some cults are materialistic and worship real and hardened material items. Other cults are more spiritual in nature and worship certain gods or deities or sets of gods and deities.

The impact of religion and culture is an area that is strongly enforced in approaching an understanding of culture. The mysterious nature of life itself and the unknowable forces that surround us need to be incorporated in our lives and religion as a cultural expression allows this irrational and often emotionally charged human impulse. The ability to understand the similarities in all of these approaches attempts to standardize culture in some ways as well.

Culture can exist at many different levels and cults may be large, small or even personal. The cult or worship of oneself is a practice that can be displayed in the overly-narcissistic attributes that are part of Western culture in many ways. Regions and geographical areas all are blending or protecting their cultural barriers from one another and viewing this from a macro-view, national cultures eventually develop and produce a somewhat useful model to apply theory and ideas towards practically approaching the cultural differences that are to be expected within an international career.

National culture provides and interesting viewpoint to examine the inquiry that is the subject of this essay. Mead & Andrews (2009) explained this concept to help in approaching such a task. They wrote "the relationship between internal and external factors is complex, and problems of responding to external factors are further complicated when the company is making international investments and is operating in more than one national environment. National culture is only one of the factors involved, and the manager needs skills of distinguishing when it is, and is not, significant."

Culture cannot be understood as a thing itself. It is merely a reference frame in which to generalize a certain group of people. The nature of culture is to collectivize and then normalize certain behaviors to a desired ideal or principle. These end game principles are the key to understanding how a group of people can identify with the culture. These points of interest contain the emotional and attitudinal influences and controlling factors of the group in question. This baseline fact is important to understand when delving into any new culture or environment that one is not familiar with. This type of awareness is essential to developing useful skills that will provide value and worth in an international career situation.

Culture can be applied in many ways and its flexible nature suggests that some cultures are more flexible or open to others. Morality is often contained within a collective group's culture and the temptation to project one's own moral authority onto someone else in different culture creates a schism in communication. Differences in approaches to life must not only be expected but also tolerated in some fashion or another. Accepting people for who they are as an individual can help in understanding a personal culture. Respecting the individual is not a common practice within most cultures or religions. Some Eastern philosophy based on Buddhist ideas do promote a more personal culture but even these ideas become skewed when hierarchical monasteries promote a collective culture all of their own. The inherent prosecution of the individual within the Judea -- Christian and Mohammad -- based religions suggest that these cults also favor a more collective or group-based ideal that sacrifices individual freedom for the better of the group.

Regardless of the details of any given culture the idea of certain shared values are included within the definition. "The implication is that the religion practiced by the group expresses a system of ethical belief, and is essentially idealistic. This means it may not be descriptive of how they actually behave. The international manager needs a basic understanding of the religious beliefs of the people whom he/she is managing, and to look for instances when behavior does express these beliefs, and when it does not, "(Mead & Andrews). Religion does play a heavy role in any given culture, even the absence of a religion suggests a spiritual ideal that must transcend material reality. This abstractness represented in religion is the source of much of the abstract quality of culture itself.

Values is another concept that contributes to the idea of culture. Values are also subjective in nature but provide a shared manner in which to approach the human problems that nature presents to us. Values shape shift and alter all the time as new leaders present new concepts that call for such transformation. Understanding that culture is malleable and can be crafted and altered through certain methods responds to the necessary understanding of cross cultural management that relates to the essence of culture itself.

Key Paradigms of Examining Culture

In order to determine a list of skills and behaviors that are beneficial to the career path of an international hotel manager, it would be prudent to find the needs to address these qualities. One such paradigm to examine culture is through the level of formality. The level of strictness within a culture's set of rules is a primary concern to international managers. By finding out the levels of error, a proper approach may be taken. Avoiding offensive behavior in some nations is more beneficial than in others were laws and customs might provide practical barriers to making profits and conducting business operations and creating a competitive advantage within the hospitality marketplace. Each nation has certain seemingly-arbitrary rules that must be followed in order to be accepted within that group at a commercial level. The formality behind these rule is key information for developing a strategic approach in succeeding in that international territory.

Another useful way to approach this problem is by examining a culture by its short-term and long-term history and accomplishments. Established nations that have been for hundreds of years are to be expected to have a more distinguished and therefore approachable culture. Newly formed nations, relatively speaking are developing in their own ways and often times cultural clashes can relate in instability and in the worst case regional, cultural conflict of a violent nature. These culture clashes are somewhat unavoidable in a globalized market place and understanding this problem with an open mind and a positive transformative manner is needed in order to overcome some of these conflicts of interest.

Skills, Knowledge, Beahaviours and Experience

The aforementioned analysis leads one to believe that several key skills are necessary to become successful at cross cultural management within the hospitality industry. Hotel managers within this industry need a baseline of good values that result in the skill application of reason, empathy and common sense. These qualities all represent the ability of the manager to first be able to manage oneself. Self-mastery is the first step in the management process. Identifying the values and principles to oneself is critical due to the many incoming and bombarding cultural influences that will arise when in location in that foreign country.

Open mindedness is another characteristic that will serve me well on my career path. By accepting my own ignorance and naivety I will be better prepared to expand my realms of consciousness to new levels of understanding that are in harmony with the foreign country. The challenge rests in not losing oneself in the other culture at the expense of violating the principles of the self. Accepting ideas as useful or beneficial to one cultural group does not mean accepting them as my own internal values. The blending of the two cultures must result in some sort of give and take that meets in an agreeable fashion. Empathetic behavior respects the choices and values of another human being and treats them with an appreciation for diversity.

To safeguard the temptation to allow all things with an open mind it is also necessary to apply some sort of logical or common sense approach dealing in a foreign culture. The complexities and newness of such a transition is traumatic in nature in many ways as new sights sounds and experiences will alter the perception of the world in a new and transformative manner that will no doubt stress some of the higher cognitive abilities of my mind. Applying my own simple approach to this challenge relies on my ability to practice the "Golden Rule." Essentially this rule states to treat others as you wish to be treated.

Allowing the freedom of speech, action and voluntary action are sometimes difficult when moral trespasses seem present. Morality as opposed ethical treatment are distinct in the sense that morals are merely guidelines and customs that facilitate the ethics of a community or culture. Viewing a foreign culture from this perspective can assist in digesting the many new experiences that are to be faced on such a career path dealing in the hotel and hospitality industry.

The artistic skills necessary in dealing with others is rooted in the ability to communicate. Communication comes in a variety of ways, but language skills become obviously important in the hospitality and tourism industry. The ability to communicate with another person in their native tongue provides a practical business advantage besides demonstrating a welcoming and empathetic demeanor. Knowledge and information are essentially the most important tool a manager has at their disposal, and the amount of dialects one is able to speak creates opportunities for new forms of data to be collected.

Knowing the customer becomes a useful skill gained through experience to improve the quality of work in a hospitality career field. Traveling as a tourist or a visitor and having that experience can create a great deal of empathy for the customer base I will be serving in this career field. Understanding the emotional, economic, and psychological aspects of traveling can be very beneficial to a hotel manager. By traveling to foreign countries, experiencing cultures from a tourist standpoint and staying in their lodging facilities I stand to learn much about how I will be accommodating people in my line of work. The challenge to this approach is the economic considerations and likely my travel will be limited due to the work regulations. However taking every opportunity to travel and experience other cultures from a visitors standpoint enables will most likely enable me to perform my job at a higher level with more of an understanding of the customer.

The knowledge and skill of understanding the global economy is also key in understanding the larger schemes of business. Every successful organization has, at its core the ability to drive home an organizational goal or objective that resonates with success. Finding the tactical and operational level approaches that work well in this industry stands to serve me well and can increase and improve my own personal business acumen.