Social Hurdles of sustainable hospitality management Flashcards
Tourism growth
- 1970s - 3000 tourists
- 2011 - 7.6 million tourists
Benefits of tourism growth
- employment opportunities
- regional development
Negatives of tourism growth
- environmental pollution
- health issues
- deterioration of natural and cultural resources
Solution to Pollution: Caritas Switzerland
- Recycling project: used cooking oil -> recycling plant (north Denpasar) + chemically and mechanically filtered -> transformed into biodiesel
- Resold as industrial diesel for hotel generators
- Reduced carbon emissions + positive/ green publicity
- sometimes dodgy middlemen sell old “cooking oil” to food vendors = new cooking oil -> health risks
Internal drivers and Barriers
- Environmental commitment (Driver)
- Threat of change, fear of unknown (Barrier)
External Drivers and Barriers
- Environmental regulations
- Stakeholder pressure: optimise company operation by understanding the different interests of stakeholders and their power relations
- Stakeholders have diverse needs -> very difficult to reach a consensus, potential contradictions and disagreements. e.g. found in company with highly centralized decision
- > SOLUTION: improve intercultural communication
Cultural Dimensions
\+ "Categorising is good" - Geertz Hofstede - Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner - Globe Project Team \+ "generalising is bad" -> existing "tendencies of overgeneralization and universalisation in today's social sciences" - Shi-Xu (2012) - Flybjerg (2001) - Hollinger (1994) - Smart (2003)
Geert Hofstede Model of 6 cultural Dimensions
- collectivism - individualism
- Power distance
- Femininity - Masculinity
- uncertainty avoidance
- long term orientation
- Indulgence - restraint
globe Project team
1) Institutional collectivism
2) In-group collectivism
3) Power distance
4) Gender equality
5) Uncertainty avoidance
6) Future orientations
7) Assertiveness
8) Performance orientation
9) Humane orientation
Indonesia
- Age and status hierarchy
- existing power relations
- centralized decision making
- conflict avoidance
- never say “no”
- short term orientated
- collectivism
- > nepotism, group think
Qualitative research
social aspects and cultural differences + increases understanding + explanation for human action
- immersion as full participant: Balinese culture and festivals -> better understand local values and specificities
- spectator role
+ site visits to recycling plant -> familiarize with project
+ attend Caritas-hotel X meetings -> observe intercultural communication
Primary challenges for Caritas
- Intercultural communication
- Contact person kept changing
- Collectivism and group thinking
Intercultural communication
how culture affects communication
- conflict avoidance
- ambiguous answers, never say “no”
contact person kept changing
since none of the managers’ job descriptions included anything involving “sustainability”, none of them felt responsible for the project
collectivism and group thinking
- interests of employees are protected and hotel management is afraid of upsetting staff with changes (many of whom have been round for a long time)
- prefer to sell used cooking oil in their own community, through personal contacts
suka-duka
- an employee welfare organisation
- monthly rep. collects money from each member of staff. This money, together with the money from sold cooking oil etc. is collected in the shared suka-duka fund, for the “good and bad” times
- > PRIMARY STAKEHOLDER
Short term vision
- Believe the works us too complex for humans to always be thinking of the future -> focus on quick results
- Potential financial benefit of oil recycling was not evident enough
- Lack of urgency and speed
Stakeholders
Since the traditional authority has been shifted to foreign leadership in many luxe hotels, the question of trust and dependency among stakeholders is often challenging
Principle Challenges
- Collectivism and groupthink
- > not hotel managers who make decisions, rather the suka-duka
SOLUTION to the problem
- Make direct contact with the F&B suka-duka teams to gain support of the communities
- improve intercultural communication through sociologists and consultants.
sustainable development
developing without depleting or degrading the environment
luxury hospitality
hotel/ restaurant with luxurious accommodations for guest
Balinese culture
- people are more ambiguous, focuses on harmony and peace
- collectivist society -> place interest of families first, focuses on the present
sociocultural awareness
awareness of the societies and cultures of target market
Bapakism
Bapak = leader, anak buah = children
- social relationship and concentration of authority “paternalism”
banjar
the civil community (island + Hinduism)
kira kira
Balinese mentality = “approximately”, applied to all situation
- lack of urgency
warungs
small food stalls (refined oil)
Balinese culture
- age and status
- avoids conflicts
- short-term oriented
groupthink
phenomenon that can entail poor decision making within a deeply involved group