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Internationalization of the hospitality industry
Edited by Maureen Brookes, Levent Altinay and Judie Gannon
1. Introduction
Based on world-wide demographic, economic, political, technological development and changes many organizations have expanded beyond their national borders ([21] Gröschl et al. , 2008; [5] Brodbeck et al. , 2000). One of the key players in this movement towards globalization is the hotel industry ([39] Littlejohn, 2003; [44] Olsen and Zhao, 2008). Due to internationalization, hotel organizations are confronted with the issues of managing increasingly culturally diverse workforces.
Aside from the cultural diversity challenges that accompany the globalization process of many multi-national hotel companies, some of the dramatic demographic developments (e.g. aging populations in Europe and Asia) combined with being a labor intensive industry ([4] Barrows and Powers, 2008) enforce the issues of managing increasingly diverse human resources in hotel organizations around the globe. According to [20] Gröschl and Takagi (2008, p. 16) the basic notion of managing diversity is "an evolving dialectic from inequality, fair representation and assimilation to respect, co-existence and performance".
Outlined in the subsequent section, the concept of diversity management has been hailed as an effective managerial response to the challenges of managing increasingly diverse workforces. Responding to challenges with sound diversity management strategies and concrete practices requires commitment by top management and is often reflected in clear and transparent corporate diversity policies. The policies are necessary to provide direction and guidance for management and employees crucial in an area as complex, multifaceted and comprehensive as workforce diversity.
To date, however, little research has been conducted in the area of corporate diversity management in the global hotel industry. Several studies have focused on either specific geographic regions (see, for example, [17] Gröschl, 2004), specific types or dimensions such as persons with disability (see for example, [16] Gröschl, 2007) the processes of training and development of diversity (see, for example, [54] Weaver et al. , 2003), and other hotel related sectors such as the restaurant or casino industry (see, for example, [46] Schaap et al. , 2008; [56] Woods, 1995). In order to develop this under-researched area, this study explores major internationally operating hotel groups and their corporate diversity statements, communicated via their firms' corporate web sites. An understanding of these statements is critical for...