Monique Johnson was thrilled about her new position as vice president of human resources for Niche Hotel Group (NHG).
The hotel chain has distinctive properties in cities throughout the United States, attracting a young, international clientele with casual but elegant surroundings and popular sushi bars.
Besides the chance to stay at these establishments as she toured the country, Monique would have opportunities to meet the members of NHG’s talented and diverse workforce.
In addition, she was proud to advance NHG’s practice of valuing diversity, including respect for all people regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability status, sexual orientation, and gender identity. She felt sure those values would be upheld because the commitment came from the top. In fact, NHG’s chief executive, Mike Jepsen, had asked Monique to meet with him every month to review the company’s performance in attracting and developing talent.
For several months, Monique’s work progressed as she had expected. Then she heard some disturbing news. One of the hotel’s managers, April Lee, called her to say she had received complaints that an assistant manager in the hotel’s sushi bar had been embarrassing some of the male servers. When April met with the servers to investigate, they described being teased because they were gay but said they had not bothered to complain. Two of the servers admitted that they believed complaining would be futile. As white, male employees, they said, they doubted they would be taken seriously, because NHG’s management tended to favor its female and minority employees. April worried that the servers might quit, take legal action, or both before the situation could be sorted out. Monique reviewed with April the basic legal requirements and company policy for handling this type of problem, and she offered to fly out to April’s hotel after her monthly meeting with the CEO.
That Thursday, Monique briefed Mike about the situation at April’s hotel. Mike sighed, “Here we go again.” In response to Monique’s puzzled look, he explained, “We’ve had mandatory diversity training three times for every NHG employee. But it’s never enough. Sooner or later, someone hurts someone else’s feelings, and we have to bring back the trainers. I guess we just have to keep doing it until everyone respects everyone else’s differences.”
“You’ve done diversity training three times without creating a positive climate for diversity?” replied Monique. Mike nodded his head ruefully and then asked if she had a better idea. “Maybe it’s time to stop focusing on categorizing people and to start thinking about how each of us is working as part of a team, how each of us is contributing to our mission. Maybe we need to train in something else—say, communication—
how we talk and how well we listen.”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Do you think communication training would be an effective way to create a more inclusive and tolerant workplace? Why or why not?
2. Why do you think diversity training has not always prevented problems at NHG?
3. NHG is in the hospitality industry, which spans many types of skills and workers, in addition to a diverse array of geographic and cultural regions. Do you think achieving inclusiveness on such a vast scale is possible?
Why or why not?