Conceptualising the impact of culture and language upon hospitality service management

Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and definitions of culture and its relationship to language and cultural sensitivity in hospitality management services. Design/methodology/approach–The paper takes the form of a critical literature review followed by a phenomenological exploratory pilot study, using template analysis. Findings– Previous studies indicate that the more individuals understand and embrace notions of intercultural sensitivity, then the better they become at being able to recognise and discriminate between cultural differences. Furthermore, as a by-product, there is an increased appetite and tendency towards adopting cultural perspectives other than ones' own. However, the operationalisation of this process encourages benchmarking along linear scales, which is problematic and over-simplifies the dynamic and fluid nature of effective …