Diversity Audit on the Marriott Hotel Brand

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze diversity at Marriott Hotel Brand. The ways in which, organization can approach the ideal situation where diversity of employees can be beneficial rather than detrimental for hiring arid retaining a diverse workforce. The data is collected and analyzed to determine effective methods of managing diversity in the areas of hiring and retaining employees in the workplace at Marriott hotel. One outcome was to make positive suggestions to manage a diverse workforce. Although, the study was considered “intervention” research, the researcher did not act as a change agent that was involved in the study. The researcher made suggestions as to how could hotel management help in making diversity improvements. Also, the researcher made suggestions for future study.

Background of the study

The research will be done on the challenges that are encountered when auditing diversity on the Marriott Hotel Brand. Since every organization has its own laws and policies with regards to the workforce diversity, so does the Marriott. However, there are some organizations like Marriott, in which rules are strict. The reason why the study has been chosen is to analyze the challenges of workforce diversity in Marriott. This is also the reason why the topic is of my personal interest. For this purpose, it is essential to learn about all the factors that are involved.

Managers and executives responsible for policies of inclusion of diversity in their organizations consider diversity management a business imperative (Gillborn, 2008). Due to the influences of globalization and changing demographics, workplace diversity, meaning inter-group differences in demographic characteristics, is and will become a reality that every organization will ultimately face. Professional of business diversity case suggested that business diversity is related with an expanded pool of talent, opportunities to reach a variety of markets, improved decision-making, and increased creativity. Applying the resource-based perspective to the field of workplace diversity, some researchers have suggested diversity is a rare, valuable, and imitable resource, and thus a source of competitive advantage. Previous studies based on business diversity, self-categorization and social identity perspectives, have concluded that, due to their needs for self-validation and positive self concepts, people prefer similar others and in-group members.

Marriott Hotel Brand

Marriott was founded by J. Willard Marriott in 1927. He expanded the businesses to a chain of restaurants and hotels. Today, Marriott International has approximately 3150 property Houses located in the United States and 67 other countries and territories.

Statement of the Problem

A diverse workforce is a key to the company to anticipate the changing needs of its customers, technological developments, and the demands of suppliers and the transformation of "stakeholders" of the environment (May, 2009). Researchers define diversity differently. The major differences are concerned with the content and types of diversity and the levels of analysis. In terms of content of diversity, some researchers make distinctions between high and less job-related diversity. Specifically, high job-related diversity refers to those characteristics that can significantly influence how people perform their jobs, such ...