To act or not to act: Cultural hesitation in the multicultural hospitality workplace

Abstract

This article aims to describe the behaviour, feelings and emotions of hospitality professionals regarding the phenomenon of handelingsverlegenheid (which we translate as “awkwardness to act”) in intercultural professional settings. The overall purpose of this study is to understand how middle management employees of the rooms division department of a small-scale commercial learning hotel in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands lead their team in a cross-cultural working environment. Handelingsverlegenheid is strongly related to anxiety/uncertainty management (AUM) theory and implies a professional’s lack of proficiency in responding to a multicultural situation at work. This article describes how hospitality professionals experience this phenomenon. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with middle managers who were asked to share their feelings, thoughts and emotions about topics such as cross-cultural communication and leading a diverse team to provide an insight into handelingsverlegenheid and their personal experiences of it. The results suggest that low levels of cultural proficiency and lack of experiences communicating with others from a different culture are the main causes of the manifestation of handelingsverlegenheid in the workplace. Implementation of training to increase cultural sensitivity is important to develop required skills and capabilities of the employees. For further research, it is recommended to broaden the focus on handelingsverlegenheid in staff and guest interactions from one small-scale hotel to different types of hospitality organisations. For management practices, it is recommended to support operational staff and the experiences they have dealing with awkward situations stemming from cross-cultural situations at work.