Answered You can hire a professional tutor to get the answer.
Qantas has turned the cultural diversity of its workforce into a competitive advantage.
1. Qantas has turned the cultural diversity of its workforce into a competitive advantage. Describe the strategies that have been implemented at Qantas Flight Catering that support cultural diversity and help lever this diversity for competitive advantage.
2. Using two to three sentences, explain how the Qantas Diversity and Inclusion Statement supports cultural diversity and the strategies that have been implemented in divisions such as Qantas Flight Catering.
3. With over 70% of the staff from non-English speaking backgrounds and 90 different nationalities working at Qantas Flight Catering, effective cross-cultural communication would be an essential skill for leaders in this workplace.
Outline three strategies that you would implement to ensure that you would lead by example and demonstrate effective cross-cultural communication.
APPENDIX - Qantas Flight Catering
At Qantas Flight Catering, the 66 nationalities represented on staff are using their cultural expertise to impress international clients.
About 5 million of the 15 million meals Qantas Flight Catering produces each year are sold to airlines other than its parent company, Qantas. Major clients include Asian airlines such as Cathay Pacific, Garuda and Singapore Airlines which have a preference for Asian menus featuring foods prepared in authentic styles.
At Qantas Flight Catering's Sydney kitchen, in particular, many of the chefs were born or trained in the home countries of these airlines and are able to prepare and present quality food in the styles these clients prefer. They also understand any religious requirements that may accompany the preparation of national dishes. "The Asian chefs are particularly relevant to us because of the growth of the Asian airline industry in Australia," says Peter Elwin, general manager of Qantas Flight Catering.
This growth has dovetailed with a new interest in Asian food among Australians and a health-conscious trend in society away from heavy dishes to lighter styles of food, Elwin says.
"Up until the last few years, airlines generally tended to run menus in the basic French/European classical styles, with heavy sauces and meat. There's been a move away from that towards lighter Asian styles. The other thing is that Australians have generally become more educated about Asian foods and tend to want to see authentic styles of this food.
Overseas airlines, of course, also want to feature authentic dishes. There are no half measures - if these airlines put national dishes on board that aren't authentic as far as their passengers are concerned, they'll get criticised for that. That's where we are able to assist them, through the skills of our work force."
According to Qantas Flight Catering's national manager of marketing and sales, Deborah Moffat, the organisation's multicultural work force is now recognised as a real marketing tool.
"There is an increasing amount of competition within the airline catering industry and what we're all trying to do is differentiate our product and make ourselves more attractive to a limited number of customers. For example, we're the only facility in Sydney that has a Japanese kitchen so that's something we can market to airlines like ANA, Japan Airlines and even Qantas, which operates to Japan."
Qantas Flight Catering has scored a number of small triumphs through its culturally authentic food. On one occasion, the Thai royal family seconded a chef from the Sydney kitchen to their private aircraft for a trip around Australia. On another occasion, the Emir of Kuwait, pleased that Qantas Flight Catering was able to source the special foods he wanted through one of its chefs, asked the chef to accompany him on the remainder of his international journey.
The competitive advantages created by the company's multicultural work force extend beyond the ability to offer authentic cuisines. Staff are also able to contribute through their understanding of the languages of international clients.
"Because our customers are from every continent on the globe, there can be communication problems with their head office staff or the flight crew on board aircraft. If you have people from the same background on staff then that communication becomes a lot easier," Elwin says.
"Our Japanese customers are a good case in point. We have Japanese chefs who are Australian residents working for us and they can communicate extremely well with our Japanese customers. The Sydney representatives of the Japanese airlines are all very comfortable with the English language but when people come down from the head offices of those airlines that may not be the case."
Qantas Flight Catering employs about 2,300 people nationally. At its most ethnically diverse centre, Sydney, about 70 per cent of the 1,200 staff are from non-English-speaking backgrounds.
The potential in this configuration for poor communication and fragmentation of staff into isolated ethnic groups led Qantas Flight Catering to introduce special training and support for these staff in the early 1990s.
The Sydney centre currently has two full-time teachers from the Adult Migrant Education Service on-site, running classroom and computer-based language training based on tasks the employees perform in the workplace. These tasks include reading technical manuals, writing reports, making manpower submissions, counselling staff and participating in recruitment interviews.
Initially, employees were reluctant to take part in the courses because they felt it would lower their status in the workplace by drawing attention to a lack of skills.
According to Moffat, perceptions have turned around to the point where staff are booking ahead to take the classes in their own time. The language benefits - and computer skills - they are deriving from the courses have produced a more cohesive work force overall and greater motivation and self-esteem among individual employees. An unexpected bonus of the training program has been that native English-speakers with poor reading/writing skills have also participated and derived similar benefits.
Another company strategy has been to invest in cross-cultural training with TAFE so that staff are more aware of what is polite and acceptable behaviour when they come into contact with flight crew and other operational staff of airlines from around the world. In the future, this type of training will include programs developed in-house which draw on the cultural expertise of staff. Staff chefs are also beginning to run cooking courses, with outside accreditation, to share their knowledge of different national cuisines.
This all adds up to increased productivity for Qantas Flight Catering. Effective management and employee co-operation have turned a potentially fragmented work force into one that brings a competitive advantage, through its ethnic diversity, to the tough business of international flight catering.
Below is Qantas' Inclusion and Diversity Statement found at:
https://www.qantas.com/content/dam/qantas/pdfs/about-us/corporate-governance/qantas-diversity-inclusion-statement.pdf
INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY AT QANTAS
At Qantas we value diversity of thought and experience and believe that our inclusive culture contributes to our success. We are a diverse workforce that reflects contemporary, multicultural Australia. We celebrate and promote this diversity as a strength of our business.
QANTAS IS COMMITTED TO:
•
