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Language and dialect, customs and service attitudes are just a few of the characteristics that make each culture unique. Consequently, the presence of people from different cultures during a service encounter may impact service quality, as what constitutes good service quality is perceived differently across cultures. As a country with a multicultural society, culturally diverse migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) play an increasingly important role in the Australian hospitality and accommodation sector. Within this regional context, this study aims to contribute to a more robust understanding of the influence of workforce cultural diversity on different aspects of front-desk accommodation service quality in the accommodation industry.

In this qualitative study, 31 semi-structured in-depth interviews with guests, front-desk staff and managers at service apartments in Western Australia were conducted, followed by validation interviews with five hospitality human resource management experts.

The results of the interviews suggest that cultural diversity of NESB staff affects several aspects of Australian accommodation front-desk services, including communication quality, staff-guest interaction and guest satisfaction. Findings point out that culturally diverse NESB front-desk staff may face cross-cultural communication barriers due to different foreign accents and the presence of local slang, improve guest-staff interaction and the overall guest experience in case of similar cultural backgrounds with guests and provide authentic representations of multiculturalism in Australia.

The study sheds new light on tourists’ shifting perceptions and expectations of authenticity, particularly in Australia, where cultural diversity has increased in prominence. Moreover, in the Australian accommodation service, many NESB employees who have learned American/British English have difficulty conversing with people with Australian accents, especially when Australian slang is also present.

本项定性研究针对西澳大利亚州服务公寓的客户、前台工作人员和经理进行了 31 次半结构化深度访谈, 随后对五位酒店人力资源管理专家进行了验证性访谈。

语言和方言、习俗和服务态度是能体现每种文化独特性的几个特征。因此, 在服务过程中人们文化背景的差异可能会影响服务质量, 因为不同文化对于良好服务质量的认知各不相同。澳大利亚作为一个多元文化社会的国家, 其酒店和住宿行业的发展愈发受到来自非英语背景（NESB）的多元文化移民的影响。因而, 本研究以澳大利亚为案例地有助于更深入地了解劳动力文化多样性对住宿行业前台住宿服务质量的多层面影响。

访谈结果表明, NESB 员工的文化多样性对于澳大利亚住宿前台服务的沟通质量、员工-宾客互动、以及宾客满意度等多方面都有影响。调查结果指出, 文化多元化的 NESB 前台工作人员：（1）可能由于不同的外国口音和当地俚语的存在而面临跨文化沟通障碍; （2） 接待相似文化背景的宾客时员工-宾客互动和整体宾客体验都会得到提升（3）代表澳大利亚多元文化的真实现状。

本研究为游客对原真性的看法和期望的转变提供了新的线索, 特别是在文化多样性日益突出的澳大利亚。此外, 在澳大利亚的住宿服务中, 许多学习过美式/英式英语的NESB员工很难与带有澳大利亚口音的宾客沟通, 更何况还需面对澳大利亚俚语。

El idioma y el dialecto, las costumbres y las actitudes de servicio son sólo algunas de las características que hacen que cada cultura sea única. En consecuencia, la presencia de personas de diferentes culturas durante un encuentro de servicio puede repercutir en la calidad del servicio, ya que lo que constituye una buena calidad de servicio se percibe de forma diferente en las distintas culturas. Como país con una sociedad multicultural, los inmigrantes culturalmente diversos de origen no angloparlante (NESB) desempeñan un papel cada vez más importante en el sector de la hostelería y el alojamiento en Australia. Dentro de este contexto regional, este estudio contribuye a una comprensión más sólida de la influencia de la diversidad cultural de la mano de obra en diferentes aspectos de la calidad del servicio de recepción en el sector del alojamiento.

En este estudio cualitativo se realizaron 31 entrevistas en profundidad semiestructuradas a huéspedes, personal de recepción y gerentes de apartamentos en Australia Occidental, seguidas de entrevistas de validación con cinco expertos en gestión de recursos humanos del sector de la hostelería.

Los resultados de las entrevistas sugieren que la diversidad cultural del personal de los NESB afecta a varios aspectos de los servicios de recepción de los alojamientos australianos, como la calidad de la comunicación, la interacción entre el personal y los huéspedes y la satisfacción de éstos. Los hallazgos señalan que el personal de recepción de los NESB culturalmente diverso puede (1) enfrentarse a barreras de comunicación intercultural debido a los diferentes acentos extranjeros y a la presencia de jerga local, (2) mejorar la interacción huésped-personal y la experiencia general del huésped en caso de tener antecedentes culturales similares con los huéspedes, y (3) proporcionar representaciones auténticas del multiculturalismo en Australia.

El estudio arroja nueva luz sobre las cambiantes percepciones y expectativas de autenticidad de los turistas, especialmente en Australia, donde la diversidad cultural ha cobrado mayor protagonismo. Además, en el servicio de alojamiento australiano, muchos empleados de NESB que han aprendido inglés americano/británico tienen dificultades para conversar con personas con acento australiano, sobre todo cuando también está presente la jerga australiana.

International students, who have a non-English speaking background (NESB), encounter many difficulties, in comparison to their local fellows of an English-speaking country. Literature demonstrates that leveraging various relational perspectives in a multicultural teaching environment has favourable implications to manage the NESB international students’ academic experience. Based on the observation and introspection approaches and a relevant literature review in relationship management, an ethnographic analysis is conducted to realise how such relational perspectives can be nurtured, in a way that the NESB international students expect and accept in a foreign country.

A literature review in relationship management and an ethnographic analysis based on observation and introspection methods was conducted.

Findings show that universities could assist the NESB international students by designing, delivering and monitoring innovative teaching and learning approaches and taking care of the associated academic and non-academic issues of the students, while leveraging the social, psychological and academic relational perspective(s).

Leveraging relational perspectives offers global implications. The implications of relational perspectives can be used from any setting. However, the relational appeal should be focused on the presented circumstances of a targeted setting only (e.g. the issues of a particular multicultural classroom).

This paper explores the experiences of non-English-speaking background (NESB) skilled employees working in Australian workplaces, their perceptions of managers' actions and how a lack of employee involvement and participation (EIP) practices and performance appraisal (PA) is perceived regarding career progression.

This exploratory research project is based on 26 semi-structured interviews with skilled migrant NESB employees based in Australia. Social exchange theory (SET) and labour market segmentation theory (LMST) are applied to help explain macro- and micro-level influences on NESB employees and their relationships with their line managers and the workforce.

Participants perceived line managers to be highly communicative and approachable; however, they indicated how a lack of EIP in decision-making and in their PA affected career progression opportunities for NESB employees. While they were satisfied overall with their jobs, the research indicated a need for improved practices and support from the broader organisation in these two identified areas.

There is relatively little research on how the challenges of an increasingly diverse workforce are managed, particularly from NESB employees' perspective. Therefore, this research fills a gap concerning NESB employees' experience in Australian organisations.

The aim of the research was to identify factors related to the increased cost of providing health services to clients from a non‐English speaking background (NESB), using a cross‐sectional analysis of the administrative records of clients using community health services in the Northern Metropolitan region of Melbourne for the 2001/2002 financial year. The higher cost of providing services to NESB clients was influenced by four factors: increased consultation time, group attendance to an appointment, increased interpreting cost and the type of service provider. Family members and multilingual staff play a significant role in providing informal interpreting services or low‐cost support for NESB consultations, and these activities should receive appropriate support. Additional funding is needed to support interpreting requirements when dealing with the health needs of NESB clients. Vertical funding equity would provide a better solution than the current horizontal equalisation funding.

To investigate the extent of over‐education for recently arrived tertiary educated male immigrants in order to ascertain if higher educated immigrants face assimilation hurdles in the Australian labour market.

Using immigrant longitudinal data (LSIA), this paper uses the job analysis/objective method of defining over‐education. Also, bivariate probits are used to account for selectivity into employment when studying the determinants of graduate over‐education. The over, required and under‐education (ORU) earnings function is utilised to find the rates of return to education investment.

It is found that English speaking background (ESB) immigrants to have similar rates of over‐education compared to the native born, while only Asian non‐English speaking background (NESB) immigrants see a rise in over‐education after tighter immigration and welfare policies were introduced. Returns to required schooling are substantial, but the penalty for excess years of schooling is large, though consistent with the stylised facts of over‐education.

Short time‐frame (up to five years) only allows for an investigation of initial assimilation.

Using panel data, this paper is the first to study the initial phase of highly educated immigrant assimilation into the Australian labour market from the viewpoint of job matching rather than just employment.

The purpose of this paper is to study the level of job satisfaction among Australian immigrants relative to the native-born over time as a measure of their labour market assimilation.

Using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia panel data set, six measures of job satisfaction are tested using the random effects Generalised Least Squares method with a Mundlak correction. Labour market assimilation is defined by “years since arrival” and also via cohort effects.

The authors find statistical evidence of general job dissatisfaction amongst immigrants in Australia relative to the native-born, driven mainly by non-English Speaking Background (NESB) immigrants, though this dissipates for long-term immigrants, irrespective of English Speaking Background (ESB) or NESB status. Econometric results strengthen these results though improvements over time are only strongly evident for NESB immigrants, whilst results for ESB immigrants remain mixed, and is dependent on the definition of “assimilation”.

This paper extends the immigrant labour market assimilation literature by introducing job satisfaction as a measure of assimilation.

The primary purpose of this paper is to compare time availability and its allocation amongst Arts students. In addition it aims to match time availability and use with informants' resource preferences and the variables of language background and residential status.

A sample of 109 students completed quantitatively‐based electronic and paper‐copy surveys. Empirical data from primary informants form the basis of analysis.

The paper finds that over 90 per cent of informants have non‐study commitments and over half have commitments of six or more hours per week. The largest single group (35 per cent) has obligations of six to 14 hours per week. There is only a weak correlation between a higher number of commitments a lower amount of “out‐of‐class” time to engage with study obligations. Conversely, fewer extra‐curricular obligations does not automatically lead to a higher number of hours devoted to study. Differences in resource use are small: paper copy resources are universally popular, regardless of time commitments and allocations. Non‐English‐speaking background and international students tend to have fewer non‐study commitments and devote more time to study in general than English‐speaking background and local informants.

Research covers one of full‐time student informants' four units and does not elicit responses from all units studied by informants.

While employment has been examined as a factor affecting student performance and time availability, few studies have matched time availability and declared time allocations to study. Further, time availability as a key feature of academic study is matched against variables highly relevant to today's student populations: resource mode use; language background; and residential status.

A problem for many organisations today is what is referred to as the “knowing‐doing gap” or the difference between possessing the knowledge and the actual application of it. This paper aims to explore the perception that differences exist with regard to soft or tacit knowledge‐knowing and utilisation in the IT workplace, but at the level of gender and ethnic‐culture specifically. Through a statistical examination of electronic survey results from two ICT organisations in Australia, the study explores the validity of such claims.

Continuing from previous grounded theory research, a series of workplace scenarios testing for such knowledge utilisation were created. After trialling the initial scenarios on a pilot population, they were further refined and made part of an online survey questionnaire. Some 119 employees of two Australian ICT organisations rated how they would deal with soft knowledge situations both in principle and in practice. The sample was not selected along gender or cultural lines beforehand; however statistical analysis was conducted to determine if differences to situation‐handling existed.

The paper provides empirical insights into how genders and cultures deal with soft knowledge situations in different ways. The findings do tend to support certain stereotypes such as females generally appearing more passive, relationship and high context oriented and less individualistic. Whilst males appeared more achievement‐oriented and individualistic, Anglo‐males were closer to females for relationship and high context ideals.

Due to the limited sample size the research results may lack generalisability. Furthermore criticism of Likert scales also exists, as does the use of language other than English as a representation of ethnic culture.

The study adopts a novel use of soft knowledge inventories when applied to the parameters of gender and culture.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse similarities and differences in perceptions of learning among students from diverse cultural backgrounds, using the responses of 2,200 undergraduate students surveyed at an Australian University.

A survey questionnaire is designed to elicit perceptions about the impact of prior learning, competence in language and communication, quality of student‐staff relations and cultural interactions, on student learning. It draws from disciplines including cognitive psychology, social sciences, higher education and economics. The questionnaire is implemented to approximately 2,200 undergraduate students at one of the Australia's largest and most diverse universities. The results are analysed through quantitative techniques.

There are statistically significant differences between the experiences and learning perceptions of students born in Australia, Asian countries and elsewhere. Differences emerge in prior learning and preparation before entry into university, self‐confidence and the ability to participate in classroom discussions, interacting with peers, and engaging with teaching staff from similar and different language backgrounds.

The quantitative approach to exploring the student experience provides data across a broad spectrum of issues but does not probe into causal factors. A mixed method approach provides such information.

Students from diverse backgrounds need to be provided with appropriate institutional and academic support to acculturate to their new learning and language environments.

The paper provides valuable insights into the learning experiences of students from diverse backgrounds, an increasingly important area as the number of students seeking higher education across boarders and cultures continues to rise.

The tertiary education system has become an international phenomenon in recent decades, and, increasingly, Australian institutions are employing academic staff and postgraduate students from other countries. This now poses a number of challenges. International academics are reporting that cultural differences and stresses are impacting on their work. This has required an examination of both curricula and assessment practices in the tertiary sphere. Having academic staff from diverse backgrounds working in tertiary institutions arouses interesting patterns of interaction with other personnel, students, learning materials and learning contexts. This chapter examines a large number of international academics from Non-English Speaking Background (NESB), who are working in various Australian university faculties and disciplines. The study analyses the key factors influencing the NESB international academics’ employment. Seventy-five participants working in six Australian universities participated in this study.