Question

You own a ‘Kiwi-Waffles’ restaurant in Auckland. ‘Kiwi-Waffles’ is a franchise that allows customers to customise their waffles using a range of potential toppings like different flavours of ice-cream, chocolate sprinkles, etc. Kiwi-Waffles’ head office has provided all their stores with a standardised greeting that staff should use when first addressing customers. This greeting is “Hello, and welcome to Kiwi-Waffles!”

Recently you heard one of your staff members, Katie Chen, use an alternate greeting “Ni Hao Ma, welcome to Kiwi-Waffles.” When you asked her about it, she said she wanted to pay tribute to her Chinese heritage by partially greeting customers in Mandarin. You are concerned that this is against the head office’s rules.

1. From the list (a) – (e) below, choose TWO potential approaches you could take to this situation as Katie’s boss. Discuss BOTH of your choices, and identify which ONE you believe to be most appropriate under the circumstances:

(a) Competing

(b) Avoiding

(c) Compromising

(d) Collaborating

(e) Accommodating

2.Discussion of SOME of the different potential attitudes towards diversity in this case (i.e. ethnocentrism, ethnorelativism, monocultures, and pluralism).

Answer 1

1. As the franchise owner of ‘Kiwi-Waffles’, I would take the two potential approaches below to resolve the conflict with Katie Chen:

- Collaborating – This approach is used to find a solution that meets the needs of all the parties. Since cultural diversity is an important factor to run the restaurant seamlessly, I would work with the franchisor to use Mandarin as part of the standardized greeting to welcome customers with Chinese background. Also, it is a great idea to customize the greetings message to cater to the different types of customers from a varied background.

- Accomodating- This approach forsakes my own needs or desires and put the needs of others before mine. I give in or persuaded to give in. In this case, I give-in to accommodate a culturally diverse workforce. I would take the stand for Katie Chen to the franchisor and recommend to use Mandarin for welcoming Chinese customers.

2. Some of the different potential attitudes towards diversity in this case are:

- Ethnocentrism- This is attitude is based on the belief that a person’s culture or sub-culture is superior than others. Probably, Katie Chen would have thought that Mandarin or the traditional

Chinese language is superior to others.

- Monoculture- A monoculture has one way of doing things and as the name suggests there is a standard set for practicing culture. This creates conflict in the workplace. If the restaurant owner had thought that there is no space for accommodating Mandarin in the welcome message, then it would lead to serious conflicts among the women and workers from a diverse culture.

- Pluralism- This view is that a country or business organization would accept several cultures or sub-cultures. If Katie Chen’s suggestion to include Mandarin in the welcome message is accepted, then she feels integrated with the organization eventually leading to commitment and loyalty for the restaurant.

- Ethno-relativism- This belief is based on the concept that all cultures and sub-cultures are equal to other cultures. As the owner of the restaurant, I would prefer both pluralism and ethno-relativism to handle the diverse workforce effectively.