Multiculturalism as a Challenge for Contemporary Leadership – an Analysis within the Context of Hotel Management in the 21st Century

Abstract

Building a competitive advantage in the hotel industry today requires the kind of leadership that is open to multiculturalism of both customers and employees. The main goal of the article is to analyze the role and importance of multiculturalism in contemporary leadership and to define the responsibility of leaders in managing employees in a multicultural environment, in the context of 21st century hotel management. The authors prove that the challenges related to multiculturalism (of employees and clients) are very large, while leadership in the conditions of multiculturalism requires special qualities and skills of leaders. In the first part of the article, the authors explain the concept of multiculturalism and the importance of multiculturalism in managing human resources. The next part describes leadership in a multicultural environment. Then, solutions for managing people in modern hotels are presented. Next, the 21st century hotel is presented as a multicultural environment. The last part describes cultural diversity as a challenge for leadership in the context of the hotel industry.