Free Paper Example: Cross-Cultural Communication and Sustainability in Hospitality

Cross-Cultural Understanding

Over the decades, each ethnic group or state has its own culture that describes doing things. The first discussion was on cross-cultural communication. The values and beliefs of people in a society determine their culture. Besides, attitudes also assess communication. When two people from different areas with different cultures meet, they learn a new way of doing things. Mostly culture borrowing happens if the persons have similarities in the language they speak or their ancestors’ origin can be traced from the same region. The global business is also affected by the cultural interactions between the different states and countries. In the seminar, we also discussed the communication barriers in society, such as lack of knowledge of other languages and insufficient understanding of their culture that affects communication efficiency. The Internet has led to more cultural interactions because many business transactions are now online. Any business with a diverse workforce needs to initiate cross-cultural training to help the employees know how their colleagues' culture reduces conflicts in the organization. Cross-cultural communication allows us to recognize the goodness of cultural diversity in society and understand how our colleagues perceive the world around us.

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Moreover, there exist factors that determine cultural values. The first factor is individualism, and it focuses on personal rights, goals, and privileges. Individualism encourages personal love, forgetting other members' rights in society, whereas collectivism stresses group goals, vision, freedoms, and benefits (Deborah, 1983). Unique rewards and recognition motivate individualistic persons. Individualistic culture promotes independence and selfishness, whereas the collectivist culture promotes togetherness, dependence, and helping others. In a business, individualistic workers like working alone with their colleagues and focus on achieving personal targets and goals. Placing individualistic workers in a team demotivates them and encourages their poor performance due to weak coordination and cooperation. Collectivist workers prefer working as a team and love team-building activities. Collectivists set team targets and goals and organize themselves as a team to achieve the goals. For instance, in India, people are collectivists, and they like working as a team which thus why divorce cases are fewer than in the neighboring countries.

Further, we learned about the various cross-cultural communication barriers in society. The cross-cultural barriers in organizations are a threat to the organization's success and peace. Misunderstanding in the workplace is the first barrier to cross-cultural communication. The difference in the values and beliefs of persons leads to anxiety that causes misunderstanding. Further, stereotyping is also a barrier to cross-cultural communication, and it refers to false and incomplete judgments about other people. Thirdly, ethnocentrism also affects communication negatively. Ethnocentrism refers to undervaluing others' culture and behavior and taking your culture as the standard one (Evan, 2002). The seminar was very educational, and it helped us live well with other members from different societies. Our company is a multinational company and has a workforce from all parts of the world, and thus this seminar was beneficial to me. Currently, I know the importance of embracing other cultures; hence this helps contribute to peaceful relationships with other members.

Restaurant Sustainability

In the seminar, we discussed what restaurant sustainability is and the various forms of sustaining restaurants. Restaurants are food premises where people go and pay to eat. Restaurant sustainability the discussion refers to the activities that the food premises take to reduce their adverse effects on the environment and contribute positively to environmental conservation. The activities include water conservation to minimize water wastage. Besides, the restaurants may involve themselves in farming to ensure there is enough food, conserve energy, and take appropriate measures to stop food wastage. Nowadays, the customer evaluates the business values before deciding where to go and get food, and thus restaurant sustainability activities attract many customers. The knowledge that I have gained as a hospitality student is that I have to serve according to customers' expectations in creating customer loyalty. Due to the competitive business environment, restaurants are innovating ways of becoming more sustainable to attract many customers and remain competitive. Recycling materials and maintaining an efficient supply chain also make restaurants more sustainable. Restaurant sustainability leads to brand loyalty that allows the business to make many sales that lead to high revenues. The restaurant's sustainability activities also lead to employees' low turnover rate. The employees feel proud of working in a business that contributes positively to environment conservation, thus motivating them.

Water sustainability contributes to the general conservation of the environment. During rains, the restaurants can buy and install tanks to collect the running water. The action will minimize water wastage as much water would have dried. The restaurant can also build underground tanks to manage the running water. Further, buying low-flow spray used in irrigating crops and flowers is useful in conserving water. The restaurants can also buy and install low-flow toilets to minimize water storage and treat used water (Amin, 2019). In the seminar, a video on technology used for treating water illustrated how technology plays a significant role in conserving the environment. The devised technology recycled the bathing water. Organizations and individuals need to install the Grey Water Recycling System as a measure of conserving water. Energy serving is also another essential factor in environmental conservation. Restaurants can buy and install incandescent lights to save energy. In the seminar, we learned about the different ways of saving energy, such as switching off the bulbs when the light is not in use.

Further, using LED lights also saves energy. Installation of light sensors is also helpful in saving energy at night in the streets and roads when no people require the lights. Prigge (2017) illustrates how light sensors work and their benefits.

Waste sustainability also contributes positively to environmental conservation. The reduction of waste products that a restaurant makes contributes to ecological resource conservation. Large purchases of the products will also minimize the polythene and plastic materials hence conserving the environment. The packaging will be on crates, and the crates are reusable, therefore reducing waste disposal (Chait, 2019). The composition is also useful in waste minimization as the garbage becomes manure. Lastly, the plastics can be recycled and used again; hence is a measure of minimizing waste.

Hotel Sustainability

In the seminar, we learned that hotel sustainability refers to organizing a hotel in a way that conserves the environment. Hotel sustainability may involve activities like installing low-pressure water systems to conserve water and soil. In the seminar, we learned how to design hotels and the levels of designing hotels. Further, we knew the meaning of LEED and LEED certification. The professor taught us the P's of sustainability. The first P represents the Planet that involves environmental conservation in which nature is given priority. In the seminar, we learned about the Fairmount Green Partnership program. The second P represents the people. For a hotel to gain customers, it has to have a social responsibility to society (Schroeder, 2015). The third P is profiting from the sales that a hotel makes when people consume the food.

First, the hotel's sustainability activities involve making the environment friendly to the customers. Other ways of making hotels sustainable include energy conservation. Many hotels make their energy and use energy-saving bulbs to reduce energy wastage. Hotels install tanks, low-pressure taps, and systems to conserve water. Hotels also use local commodities to support the surrounding environment and to be socially responsible. Further, hotels recruit competent staff and train them to handle customers to create an eco-friendly environment carefully.

In the seminar, we discussed the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design. We learned about the indoor environment quality and its importance in the hotels. Further, we discovered the innovations in the hotels that make a hotel remain competitive in the market. The professor also talked about the need for designs in hotels that are impressive to the customers and water efficiency. Besides, the professor illustrated an example of LEED, which is the Vancouver Public Library. The roof is green in color. Lastly, the lesson was on the LEED registration process. The first step is project registration, followed by technical support. The last step is building certification.

National Restaurant Association

In the seminar, we learned the benefits of being a member of the National Restaurant Association, a professional body for hospitality members. Moreover, we learned the importance of being a member of the American Hotel and Lodging Association. The two bodies fight for the rights of the members of the hospitality industry. The professor discussed networking as an essential tool that members should have when seeking jobs in the hospitality industry. Meeting new people and making friends with them will make people have more contacts that are helpful when looking for jobs. Further, due to the insufficient knowledge of the market and the hospitality industry environment, the connections that a person gets from networking are the aiding tools in getting a job quickly. Networking increases one's chances of securing a job soon and easier.

The National Restaurant Association started in 1919 in the United States (Meltzer, 2018). Each state has its own independent National Restaurant Association, and the headquarters office of the association is in Washington, D.C. The National Restaurant Association is essential to all hotels in the United States that its crucial role in providing food for customers with high hygiene standards. Hotels should ensure health safety for both the staff members and potential customers. Besides, the National Restaurant Association provides education training to their enrolled members. The National Restaurant Association also plays a significant role in creating awareness for its members about networking through networking platforms. Lastly, the National Restaurant Association is vital in offering research sources to its members. The current Chief Executive officer who also acts as the president and the National Restaurant Association director is Dawn Sweeney. There are currently various membership categories in the National Restaurant Association: Allied, Nonprofit, faculty, student, restaurant, and international. The first benefit of enrolling as a member of the National Restaurant Authority is that it provides professional certificates to its members. Secondly, the National Restaurant Authority offers the members with premium quality resources in food service. The association educates its members on the hospitality industry's essential tips and forecasting significance in the industry. Lastly, the association equips its members with the right marketing strategies and knowledge.