Aalborg University
Semester project
5/27/2014

Table of Contents
1.
Introduction…………………………………………………………..…….2
1.1. Limitations ………………………………………………………………….4
2. Problem formulation…………………………………………………....4
3. Methodology…........................................................................5
3.1. Ontology……………………………………………………………………..5
3.2. Epistemology …………………………………………………………..….6
3.3. Research design………………………………………………..…………7
3.4. Research strategy………………………………………………..…….8
3.5. Ethnography………………………………………………………..………8
3.6. Sampling………………………………………………………………….……9
3.7. Data analysis………………………………………………….………….10
3.8. Trustworthiness...........................................................…..11
4. Theoretical framework……………………………………….……..12
4.1. International communication…………………………………..12
4.2. Cultural diversity…………………………………………………....13
4.3. Group identities and the concept for the self…………………………………………………………………………………..15
5. Analysis…………………………………………………………………………16
6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………..……..22
List of references…………………………………………………..……….24
Appendix …………………………………………………………………………..27
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1. Introduction
Increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds (Mazur 2010). According to Encyclopedia of New Venture
Management (Freedman 2012) today's new ventures take place in a business environment defined by rapid change in the world's social, economic, and governmental behavior. The world is transforming from one in which business was created and conducted primarily within political and geographic borders to one in which distance serves as neither a significant obstacle nor a significant advantage (Ibid). This transformation has major implications in the selection, planning, and execution of new ventures and in the planning and management of careers (Ibid).
As Freedman (2012) continues multinational or transnational corporations are both creating and responding to globalization, as they employ, buy from, and sell to. These organizations were among the first to recognize and respond to the shrinking world and in many ways continue as the leaders in adapting to globalization.
At the same time, when talking about the tourism sector, we understand one of the major elements of the global economy (Trevino 2012). Here, it has been experienced a rapid growth in the international tourist industry as a result of the increased mobility and communication that make global travel relatively inexpensive and easy (Ibid). Moreover, it has provided the modern tourist with an almost limitless choice of worldwide destinations (Ibid).
It is important to notice that Tourism encompasses one of the global and domestic economic sectors with the highest growth rates and is one of the world's largest workforce employers.
Moreover, international tourism has emerged as a key economic development component in many emerging regions and developing countries. Local and international tourism industries often comprise a significant portion of gross domestic product and employ a large percentage of the workforce (Trevino 2012).
The interest of the following study is the tourism workforce nowadays. The International
Labor Organization (ILO 2001 in Misra and Sadual 2008) in their wide-range report on the global tourism and hospitality industry provides evidence that suggests that the industry globally is reliant on what Wood (1997 in Misra and Sadual 2008) has described as so-called
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“marginal workers”, such as young workers, casual employees, students, relatively high number of part-timers and migrant workers.
Moreover, according to Luijters et al. (2008) organizational processes change strikingly as a result of increased cultural diversity: diversity in employees, ethnic backgrounds. Therefore, when speaking about identification at the working place, it means a feeling of being part of the group (Tajfel & Turner 1979 in Luijters, van der Zee and Otten 2008). No matter the cultural backgrounds Dutton, Dukerich and Harquail (1994 in Luijters, van der Zee and Otten
2008) argue that organizational identification alings individual interests and behavior with interest and behavior that benefit the organization. However, this is a statement that cannot always be supported with facts and related to every organization since each one is guided byt its own intra-organizational settings.
However, what is of importance here and what the study is focusing on is the influence of the cultural diversity over the internal communication of the organization and in this case one aprticular hotel, Radisson Blu Limfjord hotel, situated in Aalborg Northern Denmark.
Moreover, the topic is has been chosen because according to studies, the diversity is the result of changing population demographics, the resultant economic pressures on organizations to diversify their workforce in order to “mirror the marketplace” (Loder & Rosener 1991 in
Doherty, et al. 2010), and the need for organizations to attract a viable workforce to remain competitive in the trend towards globalization (Hoffman 1998 in Doherty, et al. 2010).
Indeed, there is consistent evidence that diversity can positevily influence individuals, goups, and organizational outcomes (Cunningham 2007 in Doherty, et al. 2010).
Nevertheless, even though there are evidences for the benefits from diversity at the work place, there is no suficient information on employee’s feelings regarding the topic. Moreover, cultural diversity influences the work process differently therefore each case need to be taken into consideration with its own particularities.
Additionally, generalizing the topic is not a desired outcome, nor it is possible to sum up a common understanding on it. Moreover, since we consider it from the point of view of the employee, we need to set up our limits to the people being part of the data collection, and their own understanding that will shape up the results of the project. Besides, the focus it will be set on how people adapt to and work in culturally diverse organization and if it affects them.
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1.1.
Limitations
The topic of internal communication which is shaped by cultural diversity in an organization is broad and can lead to any direction in sense of industry; organization, etc. Therefore, before continuing, it is important to set the limits of this project. The interest is put on a hotel, situated in Aalborg, Northern Denmark. The hotel is part of the international chain Radisson.
Moreover, the project is not interested in investigating the employees’ situation in all of the hotels of the chain. On the contrary, the interest is put on the one situated in Aalborg and the reason for this is the culturally heterogeneous composition of the staff.
2.
Problem formulation
The reasons behind hiring workers with different background can be different, depending on the decisions of the management of the place of interest. The implications caused by the cultural heterogeneity on the hotel’s every day-to-day work are important and therefore they are to be taken into consideration. Moreover, what is considered of great importance here are the implications over the internal communication between the employees and more precisely the foreigners. The reason is that the problem with cultural diversity in the working place is not faced only by the managerial staff, but the employees are the one directly influenced by it.
Especially today, when globalization is a predominant factor and country borders influence less and less when people chose where to live, study and work, it is important to understand what the actual feeling is in such working atmosphere.
Therefore, the Problem Formulation of the project is:
What are the implications over the internal communication when co-workers belong to different national cultures?
(The case of Radisson Blu Limfjord in Aalborg, Denmark)
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3.
Methodology
The reason to ask a question is because we are seeking to find its answer. However, beforehand, it is needed to be established a way to do it. Nevertheless, the pursue for answer is not be random. On the contrary, the process is realized under the guidelines of a certain paradigm, which according to Guba (1990) is a basic set of beliefs that guides action, whether of the everyday garden variety or action taken in connection with a disciplined inquiry (Guba
1990). Moreover, by setting up the paradigm it is to be established the path to research the problem of interest.
Guba (1990) proposes to the readers different paradigms which are supposed to suit the need of different types of enquiries and approaches towards them. However, this project will be developed with a preference to the constructivist paradigm.
In order to establish the most appropriate way to do the research, it is needed to understand the basics and how researcher’s own understanding fit to the existing paradigms. Furthermore, as Guba (1990) explains it, all paradigms can be characterized by the way their proponents respond to three basic questions: ontological, epistemological and methodological. These questions are the starting point that determine what inquiry is and how is to be practiced and reveal the basic belief system that might be adopted (Ibid).
3.1.
Ontology
By answering the question what is the nature of reality (Guba 1990) it will be established the ontological view of the project. As earlier stated, the project is to be developed under the beliefs of the constructivism paradigm. Moreover, according to Guba (1990), in order to be proven the reason for setting constructivism as the paradigm leading the project, first it is needed to be put away the possibility for other paradigms to be chosen.
According to Guba (1990) the basic belief of the positivist is rooted in a realist ontology, that is, the belief that there exists a reality out there, driven by immutable natural laws.
However, the project is focusing on the relationships on the working place, the impact of foreign workers and the influence produced on the internal communication at the hotel, which
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was taken as a case. Human relationships are dependent on each other’s personality and the circumstances they are situated in, therefore positivism point of view cannot be taken into consideration. Moreover, relationships cannot be taken out of the context they are situated in if it is sought a better understanding. Besides, factors such as personality, culture, education, personal background, etc. are always influencing.
Furthermore, according to Guba and Lincoln (in Ballegard and Chor 2009) the basic argument of the social constructivist is that no ultimate truth about reality can be found because reality is constructed through people’s interpretations (Denzin and Lincoln 2005 in Ballegard and
Chor 2009). Therefore, the view of the constructivism is considered to fit the best the project because the results of the research are subjective to the collected data from the participants and their points of view on the topic.
3.2.
Epistemology
According to Guba (1990) the knowledge that the project is aiming to produce is constructed on the basis of communication between the researcher and the external world (interviewees, survey’s participants). Thus the knowledge is being co-created embracing different opinions, experiences and influences by different social and cultural groups.
The epistemology of the project needs to answer the question: What is the nature of the relationship between knower (the inquirer) and the known (or knowable)? Therefore, once again we need to establish our own preferences and prove them so that they will fit the necessities of the specific research. Moreover, there is a consensus with Guba (1990) that paradigms are human constructions, and hence subject to all the errors that inevitably accompany human endeavours.
The latter is another reason to be chosen constructivism paradigm before positivism. When the questions is regarding personal communication the project cannot be objective because the nature of all relationships between co-workers is strictly personal and is depending on the case that it has been studied. Moreover, a constructivist believes that a system will always be characterized by subjectivity, because it is only through subjective interaction that individual realities can truly be understood (Guba and Lincoln 2005 in Ballegard and Chor 2009).
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Therefore, the idea for the project derives from a personal interest and involvement as the project researcher is herself a foreigner, living abroad and having to interact on a daily basis with locals and other foreigners at the working and studying places.
3.3.
Research design
Social research needs a design or a structure before data collection or analysis. Moreover, it is important to state, that design here is different from method by which data are collected
(Bryman 2012).
Because of the topic of the study, it has been found the descriptive research as most suitable.
Descriptive studies are primarily concerned with finding out the answer of the question "what is”, which suits the problem formulation of the research project:
What are the implications over internal communication when present cultural diversity?
Three main purposes of research are to describe, explain, and validate findings. Description emerges following creative exploration, and serves to organize the findings in order to fit them with explanations, and then test or validate those explanations (Krathwohl 1998).
Additionally, as Bryman (2012) states, social research is done because there is an aspect of our understanding of what goes on in society that is to some extent unresolved. However, it is needed to be taken into consideration from which point of view the problem will be considered.
The project will try to see the problem from the point of view of the people being studied.
Therefore, abductive reasoning is to be adopted in the project. With abduction, according to
Bryman (2012), the researcher grounds a theoretical understanding of the context and the people being studied in the language, meanings, and perspectives that form their worldview.
Moreover, the crucial step in abduction is that the research is being seen from the participants’ perspective.
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3.4.
Research strategy
Social sciences normally involve in general qualitative research. The social world is seen as a creation of individuals through their interaction with what surrounds them, which calls for the use of qualitative research methods
(
Hesse-Biber and Leavy 2010). Moreover, these are the data find appropriate to explain phenomenon related to humans and social aspects surrounding them, which are considered unable to be quantified (Jebreen 2012).
Having presented earlier the ontological and epistemological position of the study and also the research design, the research strategy, found most suitable, is to collect qualitative data. As
Bryman (2012) explains it, qualitative research can be construed as research that emphasizes on “words” rather than number. The aim of the research is to find out the implications on the internal communication at the working place from the point of view of the foreign employees there. Therefore, it will be based on what they say, on how they feel regarding the situation they are in and the atmosphere at the working place, on their perspective rather than on numeric data presenting any other kind of information.
Moreover, as already mentioned above, the project will concentrate on the employee’s perspective and the influence over the working process from different cultures present at the working place. Therefore, here we are not interested in testing theories or hypothesis.
Nevertheless, our aim is a depth research, where it is created a general understanding of the circumstance (Harboe 2011) from the point of view of the foreign employees.
3.5.
Ethnography
The main purpose of ethnography is to describe people collectively, drawing attention to social and communal ways of life, to behaviour and customs. It is found an appropriate method of studying social interactions, behaviours, beliefs, and perceptions that occur within groups and organizations but are not yet clearly understood. The central aim of the research is to provides insights to people’s view into the research question (Jebreen 2012).
Through ethnography, a setting of interest is being studied, in our case, the working atmosphere in hotel Radisson Blu in Aalborg. Moreover, the social world is studied as far as
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possible in its natural state, undisturbed by the researcher (Punch 2014). In its core ethnographic approach lies not only on observation of social life in natural settings
(“fieldwork”), but mostly on close-up experience and the participation of the observer in the personalized settings of an organization or community (Ibid).
For this particular case, the participation of the researcher was not disturbing the natural path of the everyday working process in the hotel. The reason is that this is also researcher’s working place and she is part of the staff there, therefore she is not seen as external to the setting.
The data in the ethnographic research is normally supplemented by interviews, observations and documents . However, in this case the main presented primary data is obtained through email interviews. The reason for this is the limited time for the project on one hand and one the other hand is the time differences in the schedules of the participants as for their work and education. Therefore, it was found a suitable for everyone way to collect their opinions by answering beforehand prepared questions. The questions were open-ended as the aim was not to lead the respondents to a certain answers but to leave them explain their opinion and show their point of view frilly.
3.6.
Sampling
The data collection methods are used on account of their suitability for qualitative research which was found most appropriate regarding the research question. Therefore, the analysis of the project will be based on empirical data. Moreover, non-numeric data (Jebreen 2012) are considered appropriate in explaining human and social aspects.
It has been decided that the project will be based on primary and secondary data. The primary data is collected in the form of e-mail interviews taken from employees at the Radisson Blue hotel situated in Aalborg. The project focused on purpose on the employees instead of also adding the opinion of the managerial staff. The reason is the lack of significant research made on the topic where the focus is the staff’s position and what is their position regarding the fact that they work in cultural diverse atmosphere.
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As already mentioned the primary data was collected by sending to asked beforehand and willing to participate employees at Radisson Blu Limfjord hotel in Aalborg. The hotel was not randomly chosen. The researcher has been working there for over an year and has an internal observation regarding the working processes, the relationships between the staff, the working processes and how much they are influenced by the existence of different culture. Therefore it was decided to place the research there because it was found suitable and easier to research and also there are connections already established with the rest of the staff.
However, independently on the selected research methods, it is recognized that no way of doing research is “better” than others as the choice of methods always depends upon the topic of the project as well as upon the researchers’ individual preferences (Silverman 2001 in
Ballegard and Chor 2009).
3.7.
Data analysis
Qualitative data consist of words and observations, not numbers. As with all data, analysis and interpretation are required to bring order and understanding. However, there are different ways of approaching the data (Taylor-Powell and Renner 2003).
The goal of analysing the gained data is to figure out and interpret the relevant statements.
The interviews will be analysed by a qualitative content analysis. Thereby the meaning of the transcription will be compared to the theoretical considerations of the project (Bryman, 2008, p. 529). This will be done to get a new view on the theories and estimate about their adaptability. Hence, here again in the analysis the hermeneutic principals are used. With a content analysis the authors aspire to exhibit a good degree of transparency. That means that the collected information can be followed easily by everybody while reading the transcriptions. A possible disadvantage of that kind of analysis could be that the quality is highly dependent on the quality of the interviews (Bryman, 2008, p. 529).
The goal of qualitative work is not to generalize across a population. Rather, a qualitative approach seeks to provide understanding from the respondents’’ perspective (Taylor-Powell and Renner 2003).
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3.8.
Trustworthiness
Although many critics are reluctant to accept trustworthiness of qualitative research, according to Shenton (2004) frameworks for ensuring rigour in this form of work are existent and therefore in his opinion it is needed to focus on and satisfy four criteria.
When addressing the first of it, credibility, what is aimed through the project is to be shown a true picture of the phenomenon which has been studied and presented to the readers. To allow transferability (Shenton 2004), the project tried to provide sufficient details of the context of the specific situation the participants are found in so that the reader to be able to decide whether the findings can be justifiably applied to other setting and if they express clearly the factors that influence all factors involved in the research.
Finally, to achieve confimabillity (Shenton 2004), researchers must take steps to demonstrate that findings emerge from the data and not their own predispositions.
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4.
Theoretical framework
The project makes use of theory as well as of empirical data. The theory of the project presents what is already known in relation to the topic area. The reviewed literature helps set up a framework for the topic.
There were used different articles and textbooks which present diverse aspects that were found interesting and relevant to the topic of the project. As already presented earlier, the project is being developed from a constructivist’s point of view. Therefore, hermeneutic principles are used for interpreting the meaning of the different texts used.
4.1.
Internal communication
The question of internal communication is central for the project as what is sought here is to understand the influence of various national cultures over it when they are put to work together.
Traditionally internal communication is seen to be focused on announcement of management conclusions into messages for mass distribution to the employees at a given organization
(Quirke 2008). However one of the important implication, internal communication has, is the power for motivation of the workforce (Ibid). According to Quirke (2008) in order a continuous improvement to be reached in an organization, it is required better communication.
According to Harris and Nelson (2008) communication is one of the most dominant activities occurring in any work setting. Moreover, they see it is as both a primary perspective for understanding how organizations function and a guide for how employees should behave in organizations because the authors recognize the social nature of work.
On the other hand, Holtz (2004) explains organizational communication as reactive.
Communication that produces business results needs to be ongoing, providing regular, updated information about everything from the company’s plans to expectations about how employees will contribute to the success of these plans (Ibid).
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When focusing on the internal communication in a working place, different angles could be taken as a starting point. However, the main idea of the project is to focus on the foreign workers therefore it is not needed to rationale over the analytical communication in the organization, which explains the rationale behind decisions management takes, the conditions that led management to make those decisions, and the results the company’s leaders expect to achieve (Holtz 2004). On the contrary, what is of interest for the project are employees and the communication between them. Holts (2004) explains communications as the agreement of the sender and the receiver about the message that has been communicated. Moreover, the project puts interest exactly on this part of internal communication, and the reason is the international atmosphere in the specific hotel which is taken as an example. Moreover, as
Vervic et al. (2012) state internal communication is quite often equated with employee communication or it could be simply defined as all forms of communication within the organization (Ibid). Therefore, Frank and Bromwell’s (1986 in Ragusa 2010) definition of internal communication as transactions between individuals and groups at various levels and in different areas of specialization is found relevant to the reseracher’s understanding.
Moreover, these transactions are intented to design and redesign organizations and coordinate day-to-day activities (Ibid). Thus, what strikes as curious is the fact that internal communication in Radisson Blu in Aalborg is taken in different languages, between people coming from different cultures who have different backgrounds. Therefore, the aim is to understand how they see and understand the working situation they find themselves in and does it affect the way they communicate between each other.
4.2.
Cultural diversity
Cultural diversity is the pillar of this project research. According to Young (1998 in
Halverson and Tirmizi 2008) some of the key challanages in managing multicultural teams are related to how people relate to each other, how they communicate with each other, and differences in their cultural orientation. Again Halverson and Tirmizi (2008) point out that according to Shenker and Zeira (1992) cultural differences can contribute to increased conflict and misperceptions, which result in poor performance. However, the project will not focus on how to mange multicultural teams, but the relationships between employees presenting different cultures is of a central interest. Moreover, the aim is not to judge the participants in
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the study regarding their national identity and therefore assume about their behaviour. On the contrary, the aim is to understand how in this particular case people with different cultural belonging work and mostly how they communicate between each other.
Therefore, what it considered of importance here is to define how the team communicates and is cultural diversity plays a role in the creation of the communication, no matter positive or negative.
According to Bailey and Cohen (1997) quoted in Halverson and Tirmizi (2008) a team is a collection of individuals who are interdependant in their tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes, who see themselves and are seen seen by others as an intact social entity, embedded in one or more larger social systems and who manage their relationships across organizational boundries. Moreover, in teams there are shared goals (Offermann and Spiros
2001). However, for all this to be reality it is needed first to realize successful meployee communication.
Marquardt and Horvarth (2001 in Hlaverson and Tirmizi 2008), define multicultural teams as taks-oriented groups comprising people of different cultural backgrounds. This is the exact explanation of the team which was met in Radisson Blu, combining students with different backgrounds.
Therfore, if speaking about multicultural teams and differnet cultures presented is considered also important to focus on diversity. Diversity within organizations presents significant challenges and opportunities according to Harris and Nelson (2008). Moreover, diversity, quoting Denisi & Griffin (2005 in Harris and Nelson 2008) is what exists in a group or organization when its members differ from one another along one or more important dimensions, including gender, ethnic origin, age and many other factors.
Diversity issues are now considered significant and are projected to become even more important in the future due to increasing differences in the population of many countries
(Mazur 2010). For this reason, many organizational cultures with wide range of differences co-exist in a national culture (Brannen 1994). In other words, members of a team represent both the national cultures that they come from (Halverson and Tirmizi 2008) and at the same time the organizational culture they work in.
Even though quite often it is assumed that different cultures coexist with difficulty in one organization, according to Brannen and Salk’s (2000 in Halverson and Tirmizi 2008) research
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cultural differences do not necessarily have a negative impact on team performance. Again
Brannen and Salk’s (2000) work indicates that uncertainties experienced by teams determine which individual attributes will influence team behaviour. Moreover, it is higlighted that organizational context plays a central role in deciding the relative importance of those identities (Halverson and Tirmizi 2008).
4.3.
Group Identities and a concept for the self
What does it mean to be who you are when you are among others? An identity, according to
Burke and Stets (2009) is a set of meanings that define who one is when one is an occupant of a particular role in society. Moreover, people posses different identities because they occupy different roles in society (Ibid).
On the other hand, a group identity is a personal affiliation with other people with whom one shares certain things in common (Cox 1994). As Cox continues, such identities are central to how cultural diversity impact behaviour in organizations. Moreover, social identity theory informs that individual identity – the self-concept in phycological terms – is partly defined by various group afiliations (Tajfel 1978, Ashforth & Mael 1989 in Cox 1994).
Brewer and Miller (1984 in Cox 1994) capture the aspect of of the importance of group identities in the description of the social identity theory such as: an individual’s personal identity is highly differentiated and based in part on membership in significant social categories , along with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership”.
Moreover, nowadays factors such as globalization of business are also part of the reality that is redefining how people work together (Chao and Moon 2005). According to Chao and Moon
(2005) the classic use of the term culture as a “grouping” mechanism for nation-states necessities elaboration or extension is no longer applicable in a world that is becoming increasingly intertwined. Nevertheless, the perceived importance of culture as an antecedent to behaviour is currently thought to be on an upswing (Erez & Early 1993; Shackmann 1997 in Chao and Moon 2005) and is seen as the missing link (Schein 1996 in Chao and Moon
2005) to furthering our understanding of the dynamics of organizational behaviour.
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5.
Analysis
In the Analysis part, it will be discussed and built a relationship between the theoretical framework of the project and the data that has been found in relationship to the topic. The following text is based on the empirical data, which were collected by doing four qualitative e-mail interviews.
The data analysis part of a project, according to Grover and Vriens (2006) is the last part of the research that helps the researchers draw their conclusions and answer the research question. It will be proceed according to Grover and Vriens (2006:195) which means that the data will be presented and discussed and it will be sought possible answer to the problem formulation.
All the information that has been gathered is to be used for answering the Problem
Formulation of the project which is:
What are the implications over the internal communication when co-workers belong to different national cultures?
However, the study made in Radisson Blu in Aalborg does not allow focusing so deep into the personal and cultural characteristics of the participant. Nevertheless, it gives a starting point in understanding the positions in which we find all these mentioned before different cultures when they work together. Nevertheless, it is impossible to divide the personality and the influence of culture over it, but it will be assumed that even though every person is influenced by its own culture, after moving abroad he or she has started to learn to live with the new cultural settings and thus combine both types of knowledge for it advantage.
This research study focuses on the cultural differences among employees in the tourism sector and more precisely it uses as example a hotel where cultural diversity is highly presented in the personnel. According to Nowak (2008) the presence of different cultures in the tourism sector’s workforce in inevitable and understanding the dynamics across cultures in its complexity is very important even though quite confusing.
However, before understanding how different cultures work together, we need to mention what culture is and its possible influence. Morever, according to Diller (2007) culture is difficult concept to grasp because it is so basic to human societies and so interwined with our
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natures that is seldom acknowledged or thought about by those who have internationalized it.
As Diller (2007) continues, there is a notion of culture as the ways people have learned to respond to life’s problems. Obviously the term in its complexity can be quite confusing
(Nowak 2008). It incorporates different factors which makes it, together with cultural differences, difficult to define. Nevertheless, as Nowak (2008) continues, when different cultures collide on the workplace this might have a great impact on the whole well-being of a company.
In the beginning of the project it was mentioned that factors as globalization brings people to new places and make them meet new people. The reason for this, according to Freedman
(2012), is generally seen in the rapid change in the world's social, economic, and governmental behaviour. Moreover, according to Steers, Sanchez-Runde and Nardon (2010) change is everywhere. However, globalization is exposing most countries to more interactions and relationships with people and products from different places (Moran, Harries and Moran
2011). Therefore according to Moran, et al. (2011) nowadays exists a global person e.g. someone aware and interested in the issues of people around the world.
Thus, when addressing the participants who are being studied in the project, because of the situation they are in and because they are all foreigners to the place they live, based on the answers they gave to the first questions of the e-mail interviews (App. 1), they are seen as representation of this “global person”, meaning someone involved and living among different cultures but still presenting their own personality.
The first questions of the e-mail interviews were designed to understand the current situation the participants are in; where they live, if it is abroad what the reason was for it. Moreover, the participants of the interviews were not chosen randomly, but the aim was to obtain the opinion on the topic from mostly foreigners working at the Radisson Blue and at the same time to compare their point of view to a local’s one However, due to different reason explained in the methodology part, there is not a lot primary data obtained however, the interviews were taken from mostly from students who came to study in Aalborg and found a job to go along with their studies.
Therefore, with the first three questions from our e-mail sent interviews, it is presented the only personal information which the participants were asked. Thus, to conclude, the analysis here is based on the answers of people with Hungarian, Greek, Bulgarian, Slovakian and
Danish nationalities. However, it was considered information of a great importance since the
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aim is to discuss how different nationalities work together and give existing examples from the real life. According to Nowak (2008) in a multicultural environment the employees’ cultural backgrounds would affect how they act, communicate, work in teams, and determine their approach to time and task completion.
Nevertheless, as the project is seen from a constructivist’s point of view, it is believed, as
Guba (1990) explains, that there exist multiple mental constructions which are socially and experiencially based, local and specific and depend on the person who holds them. Therefore, it is assumed that even though employees who have been interviewed have different cultural belonging, what it is taken into account as important is their expressed opinion on the topic according to the answers they have given. Moreover, they are perceived as individuals who are having common experience at the shared working place.
Moreover, in case of backing up the previous statement with the data from the interviews, the answers of some of the participants regarding the subject are:
“I think that is personal, but in general the restaurant and the hotel are working smoothly no matter the language and the nationality” (App. 1, part. 3)
“Maybe just sometimes, it depends what is needs to be done and maybe how fast.
...”(App. 1, part. 4)
Therefore, here it could be seen that co-workers at Radisson Blu relate to each other and their work is not dependant nor they show many signs of influence of the cultural diversity at the hotel even their diverse backgrounds.
Another factor that was also concidered important to notice about all the intervewees, apart form nationality is the language they use at work, which is considered a significant factor in a culturally diverse athmosphere. Moreover, the reason is, that making the communication happen between all the employees, it means providing everyone with a shared understanding of the organization’s working proces (Quirke 2008). However, this talks would be challanging if people do not understand each other. On the other hand, language also concerns the way of providing employees with the necessary information for the working process. Therefore, all the participants were asked regarding these two topics. The employees who has been interviewed expressed that they all speak a different national language from the one they are supposed to use at the working palce in Aalborg. Besides that, because of the situation of the
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hotel it is assumed that the official language of the hotel’s communication is Danish as it is the official country language.
This assumption was confirmed by the answers given in the e-mail interviews.
“…and the documents are all in Danish…”(App. 1, part. 5)
“… yes, in general Danish is the official language to be communicated in in the hotel…”(App. 1, part. 3)
Nevertheless, it is central to take into account that Denmark offeres education in English language. Therefore there are many international students who come here without previous knowledge in Danish and they expect and look for job where they could speak only English.
On the other hand the level of proficiency in English among locals is also high, therefore foreign students do not feel pressure of learning the local language, especially when they are supposed to stay in Denmark only during their education at the university.
Following this line of thoughts and looking into the answers of question n. 6 where the participants were asked if they speak the local language. All the answers, apart the one given by a Dane, state that they cannot communicate on the local language. Therefore, here is raises the question of the efficiency of the internal communication between all the Danish employees and the non-danes.
According to Quirke (2008) making the connections between employees means providing them with shared understanding of the organization so the question is how is this completed many different languages are spoken.
The answer to this doubts is found in the responds given to question number 6 (see App. 1).
According to them, there are no significant problems in using language different than Danish and at the same time this does not influence nor the employee communication neither the working process.
“Of course, the official language of the hotel and the communication between the employees is Danish. This is for those who speak Danish actually. There are many employees who don’t speak it. So, all the employees who do not speak Danish use
English to communicate. And because the restaurant of the hotel is Italian and the owner and some of the staff are also Italians, Italian language is also used.” (Appendix 1, p. 1, q.
7)
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Moreover, the opinions of the rest of the respondants are similar in expressing their position regardi ng the usage of English language at the working place instead of Danish.
(…the oficial language of communication between the employees) It should be
Danish, but in my opinion English is kind of official among the employees. But anyway everything is written in Danish. (App. 1, p. 2. q. 7)
“……Anyway, yes, in general Danish is the official language to be communicated in in the hotel; however employees who cannot speak Danish use English….”(App. 1; p. 4, q.
7)
“With the people who doesn’t speak your own language I use English” (App. 1; p. 6; q. 7)
According to the employees the existing language barriers do not influence them significantly. However, it needs to be taken into consideration the subjectivity of their answers and that they are influenced by their own perceptions reagrding the problem.
Howeverr, even the Danish employee’s statement is:
“
Maybe just sometimes, it depends what is needs to be done and maybe how fast.
However, in general there are no problems when native and non-native speakers are working together.” (App. P. 5; part. 4, q. 8)
Another important factor that has impact over the internal communication is considered to be the self-identification at the working place. As Cox (1994) explains and it was already mentioned at the Theory part of the project, identities are central to how cultural diversity impact behaviour in organizations.
All the participants, according to the given answers seem comfortable with the working situation. The conclusion is based on the given statements where no one is forced to use the language of the official communication but quite the opposite the language that is found suitable.
“I speak a little bit Danish, and I use also English and Italian because my boss is Italian so it is easier.”(App. 1, part. 1, q. 6)
“Of course, the official language of the hotel and the communication between the employees is Danish. This is for those who speak Danish actually. There are many employees who don’t speak it. So, all the employees who do not speak Danish use
English to communicate. And because the restaurant of the hotel is Italian and the owner and some of the staff are also Italians, Italian language is also used.” (App. 1, part. 1, q. 7)
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However, what is considered as more important information here are the answers given to the last two questions of the e-mail interviews. The questions were:” In your opinion, when there are people from different cultures at the working place, does this affect the working process?” and “ At your working place, is the employee communication affected by the variety of cultures?
According to the answers that were received the general feeling towards the working atmosphere at the hotel are positive and expressing feeling of friendly working setting where the communication between the employees is going in general efficiently and even effortlessly.
“Sometimes it is difficult to work with people from different cultures, but in general there are no problems, in my opinion.” (App. 1, p.4, part. 3, q. 9)
“I don’t think so. I like the fact that there are people from different countries. And I think that is more important how people work than where they come from.” (App. 1, p.5, part.
4, q. 9)
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6.
Conclusion
The objective of the project was to understand what the implications are over the internal communication when employees come from different countries and therefore they create a culturally diverse working setting.
According to Downs et al. what is commonly paid attention to is how communication processes can be linked to organizational results such as commitment to the organization and job satisfaction among employees, productivity, the effectiveness of implementing a change, and finally stability. However, what it was considered important in this case was to understand moreover how employees feel like when do not speak the same language, when they have differnet backgrounds, when they use a language they are maybe not completelly fluent at but still it is their only way of communication. According to Quirke (2008) there is a strong link between the quality of internal communication and greater profitability. Moreover, better communication creates more employee satisfaction (Ibid).
Internal communiocation is the linkage between the employees and the managerial staff, but moreover between employees themselves. Moreover, in the service sector, where the service delivery process requires a lot of collaboration and effectiveness it is vital that the relationships between employees go effortlessly and provide the necessary quality.
Basing the conclusion on the received primary data and the analysis it could be assumed that in Radisson Blu in Aalborg the cultural diverse team manages to provide the required service and moreover they themselves do not experience troubles working in a culturally diverse setting. The majority of respondants expressed satisfaction towards the relationships between co-workers. Besides that, their answers spoke of lack of troubles understanding and foloowing the internal rules and communication in the hotel, even though Danish language is an issue for most of them.
Regardless the presence of different cultures within the hotel in Aalborg, having in mind the answers of the participants in the study, there are no significant problems that were mentioned or infered. Clearly the fact that so many languages are spoken at the same
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working place means possibility of miss communication. However, having in mind the place of interest for this project, and also considering that nowadays the effects of globalization starts to bring all of us closer together and thus the cultural differences seems less important.
Nevertheless, the conclusions are based solely on the research udnertaken for the specific case of Radisson Blu in Aalborg. Therefore, they are subjective to the specific working setting there.
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Appendix 1
E-mail Interviews
Participant 1
1.
What is your nationality?
Answer: I am Hungarian, but actually with double nationality. I am half Hungarian, half
Italian.
2.
Where do you live currently?
I live and study abroad in Northern Denmark.
3.
If you live abroad, what was the reason to do it?
To study
4.
At your working place, are there many people with different nationalities?
At my working place there are many nationalities one can see.
5.
If yes, are they more than the Danes?
I think we are half-half, local and internationals
6.
Do you speak the local language? If not, which language do you use at your working place?
I speak a little bit Danish, and I use also English and Italian because my boss is Italian so it is easier.
7.
Which is the official language of the employee communication at your working place?
Of course, the official language of the hotel and the communication between the employees is Danish. This is for those who speak Danish actually. There are many employees who don’t speak it. So, all the employees who do not speak Danish use English to communicate. And because the restaurant of the hotel is Italian and the owner and some of the staff are also Italians, Italian language is also used.
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8.
In your opinion, when there are people from different cultures at the working place, does this affect the working process?
No, we can understand each other and we have no problem communicating and working together. But I believe, eastern Europeans are more hard working.
9.
At your working place, is the employee communication affected by the variety of cultures?
I don’t think so
Participant 2
1.
What is your nationality?
Greek
2.
Where do you live currently?
In Denmark
3.
If you live abroad, what was the reason to do it?
To study and hopefully find job
4.
At your working place, are there many people with different nationalities?
Not so many. However, there are almost as many foreigners as Danes
5.
If yes, are they more than the Danes?
As I already said before, we are kind of divided
6.
Do you speak the local language? If not, which language do you use at your working place?
I try to speak as much as I can the local language but only the basics so far. It is quite difficult, therefore I use also English, and it is much easier for me.
7.
Which is the official language of the employee communication at your working place?
It should be Danish, but in my opinion English is kind of official among the employees.
But anyway everything is written in Danish.
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8.
In your opinion, when there are people from different cultures at the working place, does this affect the working process?
-
Nom I don’t think it is affecting the productivity of the employees in any case. Maybe sometimes it doesn’t feel right to speak only English to some customers that would prefer the native language but it takes only a few seconds to make sense and deliver the right service to the client so the working process, in my opinion, is not affected really much.
Now between the employees I think that there is not a problem with the use of different languages and that we come from different places. We still do our job.
9.
At your working place, is the employee communication affected by the variety of cultures?
I think it is but in a small degree
Participant 3
1.
What is your nationality?
Bulgarian
2.
Where do you live currently?
I live in Denmark
3.
If you live abroad, what was the reason to do it?
First of all to study, I came here to do my Master studies, but I also hoped to find job
4.
At your working place, are there many people with different nationalities?
Depends in which part of the hotel, in which department. In the restaurant, where I work, there are mostly foreigners, including our boss.
5.
If yes, are they more than the Danes?
Again, depends on which department of the hotel we speak about. But maybe there are more Danes in the hotel, but not in the hotel’s restaurant where I work. I think we are mostly foreigners in the restaurant.
6.
Do you speak the local language? If not, which language do you use at your working place?
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Still not very good, therefore I prefer to speak in English in order to be sure in the conversation’s content. However, sometimes I feel the need to speak Danish; all the hotel’s communiques are in Danish therefore someone should always translate it to me.
7.
Which is the official language of the employee communication at your working place?
I kind of answered this one before, too. Anyway, yes, in general Danish is the official language to be communicated in in the hotel; however employees who cannot speak
Danish use English, or their own language. There is one case where one girl of the employees speaks only Slovakian language. However there are more Slovakian in the staff so she communicates only with them.
8.
In your opinion, when there are people from different cultures at the working place, does this affect the working process?
I think that is personal, but in general the restaurant and the hotel are working smoothly no matter the language and the nationality
9.
At your working place, is the employee communication affected by the variety of cultures?
Sometimes it is difficult to work with people from different cultures, but in general there are no problems, in my opinion.
Participant 4
1.
What is your nationality?
Danish
2.
Where do you live currently?
Home country, Denmark
3.
If you live abroad, what was the reason to do it?
I live in my home country
4.
At your working place, are there many people with different nationalities?
Most of the staff are from somewhere else but Denmark
5.
If yes, are they more than the Danes?
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Yes, definitely
6.
Do you speak the local language? If not, which language do you use at your working place?
Yes, I speak Danish and use Danish with the other Danes at work, but there are so many internationals so we have to speak also a lot English.
7.
Which is the official language of the employee communication at your working place?
If you mean the language we use to speak to each other, it depends who you speak to. But in general with everyone different. You can hear Danish, English, Spanish, Italian and
Russian spoken among the workers in the hotel.
8.
In your opinion, when there are people from different cultures at the working place, does this affect the working process?
Maybe just sometimes, it depends what is needs to be done and maybe how fast. However, in general there are no problems when native and non-native speakers are working together.
9.
At your working place, is the employee communication affected by the variety of cultures?
-
I don’t think so. I like the fact that there are people from different countries. And I think that is more important how people work than where they come from.
Participant 5
1.
What is your nationality?
Slovakian
2.
Where do you live currently?
Denmark
3.
If you live abroad, what was the reason to do it?
First of all better education in Denmark and to find a better job
4.
At your working place, are there many people with different nationalities?
Yes, a lot
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5.
If yes, are they more than the Danes?
I have never counted but I think si
6.
Do you speak the local language? If not, which language do you use at your working place?
I don’t speak Danish, it is too difficult. I use English and Italian
7.
Which is the official language of the employee communication at your working place?
With the people who doesn’t speak your own language I use English
8.
In your opinion, when there are people from different cultures at the working place, does this affect the working process?
Not all. We all do our job and this is the important
9.
At your working place, is the employee communication affected by the variety of cultures?
No, maybe sometimes there is a problem understanding each other, and the documents are all in Danish, but in general there are no problems
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