When Jimmie Paschall became senior vice president of external affairs and global diversity officer of Marriott International in 2008, it was actually her second stint at the company. Paschall got her start in a Marriott gift shop, working part-time while attending classes at Howard University in Washington, DC. After graduation, Paschall parlayed her gift-shop job into a full-time position, working her way up the ranks eventually to become director of human resources for Marriott’s lodging division. She left the company in 1999 to pursue another career opportunity but was enticed to return to Marriott nine years later. As global diversity officer, Paschall works to broaden the company’s diversity efforts among its 300,000 associates, as well as its property owners, franchisees, suppliers, and customers. Her activities include building a system to capture the best practices in diversity and to identify how to generate and manage diversity in Marriott’s global operations. Paschall also has a role in the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities and its national program “Bridges . . . from school to work,” which provides access to job opportunities for people with disabilities. As mentioned, diversity at Marriott extends beyond recruiting and retaining a multifaceted workforce. Several years ago, the company established its Diversity Ownership Initiative, which is aimed to help guide minority business owners through the process of hotel ownership. Marriott set itself the goal of having in five years 500 Marriott properties owned or operated by women or minorities. To date, more than 400 of its properties are woman or minority owned or in development. Marriott also pledged to spend at least $1 billion with diverse suppliers by 2010, and within four years it had exceeded its goal by nearly double. In addition, the company recently expanded its definition of diversity to include businesses in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.

• Global diversity officer Jimmie Paschall said that as a college student working in a Marriott hotel gift shop she received good advice from a colleague: If you can obtain many different experiences in the hotel business, you’ll become skilled at seeing an issue from many sides. How do you think the ability to see an issue from several perspectives would be an asset to Paschall in her current role? 

• The text discusses both the challenges and the advantages of managing diversity. What special challenges and advantages might managers at Marriott face in the lodging industry? Do you think Marriott is a true multicultural organization? Why or why not?