Fall Semester 2022

BUS 601 Human Resources Management

Section: 04

Submitted By:

Name ID
Pooja 2215130660
Rany
Dey
MD. 2225417660
Junayed
Hasan
Mehnaz 2135026660
Ferdous
Ashak 2225354660
Anowar

DENNY’S Submitted To:

A Grand Slam Success Story Dr. Nazmul Amin Majumdar

Professor, School of Business &
Economics
North South University
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1
Fast Food Industry:...........................................................................................................................1
Denny’s:..............................................................................................................................................2
Objective 1: Major characteristics of Fast-food Industry..................................................................6
 Food Quality...............................................................................................................................7
 Food Diversity............................................................................................................................8
 Quick Service.............................................................................................................................8
 Reasonable price........................................................................................................................8
 Quality Service...........................................................................................................................8
 Physical Environnent.................................................................................................................9
 Location......................................................................................................................................9
 Social Responsibility..................................................................................................................9
Objective 2: Key Points that Led Denny’s Diversity.........................................................................10
 Training....................................................................................................................................10
 Recruitment..............................................................................................................................11
 Performance appraisal............................................................................................................11
 Leadership Approach..............................................................................................................11
 Diverse BOD and Employee....................................................................................................11
 Advertisement..........................................................................................................................12
 Changing Organization Policy................................................................................................12
 Communication........................................................................................................................12
Objective 3: To Identify the Lessons that other Business Corporations can Learn from Denny’s
Experience............................................................................................................................................13
 Recognizing the Economic Consequences of Diversity:........................................................14
 Employee Interaction:.............................................................................................................14
 Accountability Distribution:...................................................................................................14
 Distributing Financial Resources:..........................................................................................15
 Diversity Task Force Formation:............................................................................................15
 Building Accountability:.........................................................................................................15
 Delivering the Action Plan:.....................................................................................................15
 Performing the Initial Diversity Assessment:........................................................................15
 Producing Employees with in-depth Diversity Training:.....................................................16
  Significance of Minority:.........................................................................................................17
 Analyzing the Diversity Strategy:...........................................................................................17
Objective 4: Identifying the effect that diversity might have on a company's performance..........18
Benefits of workplace diversity:......................................................................................................18
Conclusion:...........................................................................................................................................20
Recommendations:..............................................................................................................................21
References................................................................................................................................................22
Introduction

Fast Food Industry:

Nowadays, fast food is one of the most demanded goods. Fast food is a type of commercially
generated, mass-made meal that prioritizes speed of service. It is a term used in business to
describe meals offered at a restaurant or store that are packaged for takeout or take away and
comprise frozen, warmed-up, or precooked ingredients. From children to adults, it is a favorite
meal of all of us, and despite our best efforts to avoid it, we are powerless to resist its flavor.
Food that is cooked rapidly and served to customers is referred to as "fast food." Since we have
civilizations, fast food is a requirement of civilization. For individuals who didn't have much
money or were struggling, street vendors had always sold food that was ready to eat. In the
present, restaurants are doing the same things.
Since the 1950s, when they were first established in the United States, fast-food restaurants have
grown to the point that they now operate thousands of locations and bring in millions of dollars
annually. The population and the state have owned these trademarks as these restaurants have
spread across the United States, which is exceptionally large in terms of size and capacity. As a
result, it's frequently thought that this saying and the things it refers to are American in origin.
Because of this, when we talk about the history of fast food, we think of the United States. More
than $570 billion is spent on fast food globally, which is more than GDP of most of the
countries. In the United States, revenue increased dramatically from $6 billion in 1970 to an
astounding $200 billion in 2015. The industry is expected to grow by 2.5% annually in the future
years, which is less than the long-term average but better than it has been for a few years. In the
nation, there are more than 200,000 fast food restaurants, and it is estimated that 50 million
people eat there every day. The industry employs over 4 million people, and that figure is
increasing; in 2015, restaurant franchises added over 200,000 jobs.
Customers of fast-food place a premium on taste, price, and quality in that order. Despite the fact
that the cuisine is frequently heavily processed and produced on an assembly line, these
restaurants place a strong priority on consistency of experience, cost, and - you guessed it -
speed. In the 1950s and 1960s, fast food businesses, led by McDonald's, changed the restaurant
industry as well as agriculture and the food delivery sectors. In the 1930s, Kentucky Fried
Chicken was first offered. In 1952, he opened his first restaurant. Burger King's predecessor,
Insta-Burger King, existed prior to 1953.

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Denny’s:
In 1953, Harold Butler and Richard Jezak opened the first Denny's restaurant in Lakewood,
Colorado. At that time, Butler said that” To get the best coffee, you need to make the most
excellent donuts, provide the best service, provide the best price, and be open twenty-four hours
a day.” (Denny's, n.d.) Currently, it is pervasive all across the country. The donut shop is
presently a restaurant chain with over 1700 locations, a somewhat different name, and a track
record of upholding Butler’s initial commitment. Danny's Donuts was the original doughnut shop
where it all began. The next year, the owners expanded their network of stores and expanded
their selection of entrées to include sandwiches. Eventually, the stores adopted the moniker
Danny's Coffee Shops. Jezak quit the business in 1956. The company developed 20 stores by
1959, and in order to distinguish itself from another chain called Doughnut Dan's, it changed its
name to Denny's in 1961. Denny's opened its first facility outside the United States in Acapulco,
Mexico, in 1967. Denny’s started trading their stock in NYSE under “DEN”. At that time, there
were 1000 Denny’s across the country. In 1987, TW Services Inc., a company with connections
to the now-defunct Trans World Airlines, bought Denny's, which at the time was the largest
chain of coffee shops in the nation (TWA). Denny's had its corporate headquarters at La Mirada
for a while before moving two years later, in 1989, to Irvine in Orange County. However, just a
year after, in 1990, TW Services decided to move Denny's corporate headquarters from Southern
California, where it was established, in order to consolidate with the parent company's
headquarters in Spartanburg, South Carolina. (Origins of Denny's Restaurant, n.d.) In 2010 they
added 136 new units, which is the highest domestic opening in history. It will include 100 flying
J/Pilot travel center conversion sites and six different locations universities. They also start to
offer 2,4,6,8 dollar-price menus, which make their national debut. In September, Denny’s will
open its 1600th restaurant. Denny’s celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2013. In 2019, it
introduced its first restaurant in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Denny's, n.d.)

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Present position of Denny’s
During COVID-19 pandemic Denny’s Corporation, franchiser, and operator of one of America's
largest franchised full-service restaurant chains has been affected badly (Denny’s Corporation
Provides Business Update in Response to COVID-19, 2020). On Tuesday, Denny's reported
fourth-quarter net income of $2.4 million, down from $18.6 million in the same period last year.
The earnings per share decreased from 31 cents to 4 cents. Analysts had predicted a loss of 5
cents a share for the company, which was a penny worse. According to FactSet, revenue
decreased to $80.1 million from $113.8 million and was thus somewhat below than the $81.5
million average projection (Maidenberg, 2021). Which have lead Denny’s permanently closing
15 stores (franchisees) in New York, laying off 524 workers (Taylor, 2020).

Products & Services of Denny’s

With 60 years of franchise experience,

Denny's has honed their craft and developed
enduring strength by focusing on the things
that matter most, making it the most well-
known name in United States. In addition to
the United States, Canada, Curacao,
Costa Rica, El

Salvador, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand,

and Puerto Rico, it also operated over 1,546
restaurants there. At most locations, Denny's
restaurants featured a

casual dining environment and reasonably

priced meals served around-the-clock. The
renowned Meat Lover's Breakfast and
Original Grand Slam were only two of the
well-known

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Denny’s Product and services:

The Goods and Services Denny's Offers Moons Over My Hammy, Ultimate Skillet, and the
famed Build Its Own Grand Slam, which sold more than 35 million units in 2010, are just a few
of Denny's well-known breakfast items. Denny's was first established as a doughnut company.
But Denny's is a regular eatery that offers much more than simply breakfast. According to a
statement released in 2020, Denny's Corp. has announced a new value menu with 10 all-day
meal selections starting at $5.99. Danny’s is offering in their menus, which include:
1. Scrambled Eggs & Cheddar Breakfast
2. Fried Cheese Melt Sandwich
3. Half Super Bird Sandwich
4. BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato) Sandwich
5. Crispy Chicken Bacon Ranch Sandwich
6. Cheeseburger
7. Plate Lickin Chicken Fried Chicken Dinner
8. Country Fried Steak Dinner
Source: (Ruggless, 2022)
Competitor of Denny’s:
The restaurant business is a highly competitive market in the world. This competition exists
between big companies, and they will maintain or control the restaurant chain. In the restaurant
business competition exists because of recognition and advertising, food quality, number of
products or services, product price, etc. If a company makes a very small mistake, other
competitors will take that position. Denny’s main competitor is:
1. BJ’s Restaurants
2. Jack in the Box
3. Brinker International
4. Cheesecake Factory
5. Fiesta Restaurant Group
6. Dine Brands Global
7. Domino’s
8. McDonald’s

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 9. Burger King
10. Dunkin
11. Subway
12. Starbucks
Source: (MarketBeat Staff, 2022)

Market Shares:
Company Market Share
1. Burger King 2%
2. Wendy’s International, Inc 2%
3. Domino’s Inc 1%
4. Jack in the Box, Inc 2%

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 5. Yum Brands Inc 9%
6. Doctor’s Associates, Inc 10%
7. McDonald’s Corporation 19%
8. Other 55%
Source: (Roj, n.d.)

The four objectives of this report are:

1. To identify the industry characteristics of Denny's
2. To find out the key points of Denny's Turnaround about diversity. 
3. How other companies will be benefitted from Denny's experience? 
4. To find out how the diversity affected Denny's performance.

Objective 1: Major characteristics of Fast-food Industry

Nowadays the fast-food industry is growing worldwide. People used to depend on others to adapt
to the competitive world. They are more willing to spend money on ready foods to save time. So,
the fast-food industry is growing more in the recent era. Now, this industry is worth 862.05
billion dollars. In the next six years, this industry will be growing by more than 6% from now.

The global fast-food chain started in ancient Rome, where they used to buy ready-cooked meals
from vendors. Later, in the 2nd century, people used to sell ready food middle of the town. From
ancient times the fast-food industry started growing. In the 19th century, White Castle began its

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fast-food business with hamburgers. McDonald’s started its business in 1940 with a new line
system. (momin, 2022)

This industry was popular with renowned brands like KFC, Dunkin Donuts, and Dairy Queen in
America. This industry expands its business to different parts of the globe developed with
different franchise businesses. Also, food geographically varies from country to country, one
continent from another. Franchises and locals created more chains to maintain their culture and
values. Asia, North America, and other continents rapidly adopted the revolution of the fast-food
industry.

The modern fast food chain industry begins in the USA. Franchising began in 1921 when W
Root beer brand franchised its famous syrup. But fast food was gradually popular in America
when the automobile became common. Americans needed faster food when they went more
mobile. McDonald’s started its operation in 1940 but was acquired by Ray Kroc in 1961 and
expanded its food chain globally. Later, 1960 Burger King, Jack in the Box, and Sonic began
their operations in the US. Most of the common fast-food restaurant types in America is a drive-
through windows, which were introduced in 1930.

According to statistics world’s top 50 fast-food restaurants are located in America. From 2017 to
2021 the size of service restaurants increased in California to 30847, in Texas amounted to
20779, in New York this amounted to 16917, and there are also thousands of store chain in
America. U. S bureau of labor statistics published that around 4 million people work in this
industry and the average weekly wage is $349.

With the increasing demand for the fast-food industry, there are also many characteristics for
running their business which is discussed here:

 Food Quality
Quality of food is an important factor for the fast-food chain industry. The food quality of a
restaurant always leads to customer retention and mouth-to-mouth promotion. It also depends on
food hygiene, the taste of food, and the presentation of food. Customer satisfaction plays a key
role in diversifying restaurants. Denny’s objective for quality of food is to, new arrival food or
their traditional food, Denny’s is proud to stand with their quality and serve the food in the
highest possible way.

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 Food Diversity
Food diversity measures the food variety offered to the customers to satisfy them. Food diversity
plays an important role to attract different customers with different taste bites. A different
employee from a different culture may put remarks on the organization's food diversity. Denny’s
took initiative to diversify its employee from a year early 1993. An employee from different
cultures from different places helps them to diversify their food which is able to satisfy diverse
customer need.

 Quick Service
Quick service refers to how quickly a company responds. Quick service can be in food service in
a restaurant or responding to the customer for giving information. Quick service enhances
customer engagement. Because customers choose a restaurant for quick services. Customers are
happy when they receive services earlier. In America, they enhance their quick services with a
payment system and take-out system. Denny’s is open 24 hours to give service to the customer.
If a customer is discriminated against, then upper management takes immediate action. Mr.
Richardson mentioned that, if possible, then terminate the employee if any allegation happens in
the restaurant.

 Reasonable price
Reasonable price refers to serving food at minimum prices in the market. There are different
types of targeted customers in the market. Different classes with different professions with
different spending targets. So, this is a challenge for the food chain industry to target them with
minimum cost-effective food. Here, Denny’s also makes prices reasonable for their slam
breakfast for students. Also, children get free food with an adult entree. Club members get a 15%
discount and a birthday gift from Denny’s.

 Quality Service
In the foreign restaurant industry, quick service is not enough for targeting the market and
satisfying the customer. It is important to ensure good customer service to operate in the fast-
food industry. In a society, there are different cultures of people who live together. It is important
to serve them by considering their values and culture. There Denny’s restaurant has a problem

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with quality services mainly. Where people sued for their services for discriminating against the
minority and this led them to the downfall of their supremacy.

 Physical Environnent
The physical environment is external surroundings and conditions which can influence people.
The physical environment is also important in the fast-food industry to attract customers. It is
also an indicator of the goodness of a restaurant. The atmosphere can affect customers'
perceptions whether they revisit or not. Because customers seek an environment where they feel
comfortable for a while. However, Denny’s ensures a sound environment in their store. They
have a code and conduct for the supplier.

 Location
A location of a business is where the products are sold, or services are given to its targeted
customers. Businesses should open a place where there is a lot of opportunity and targeted
customers. This is also very important for the diversity of the business. Customers often buy
items that are convenient for them. Denny’s is operating now with 1800 stores at convenient
places. It is known as American Institution because 90% of its stores are in the USA. Also, they
have pick-up services and take-out services in different areas.

 Social Responsibility
Social responsibility refers to conducting business ethically and sensitively, respecting social,
and cultural economic values. Social responsibility is important for goodwill for the organization
and a way to wealth maximization. Denny’s parent company, Advantica, shows evidence that the
company appears in CSR. The company supports several charities that focus minority such as
save the children and the National civil rights Museum. It donates $1 from each grand slam
breakfast for the donation. It also targeted yearly $1 million for human rights organizations.

Literature review:
I Gusti Ayu Dewi Hendriyani published a research article where he tries to find the physical
environment as a factor that can influence the customer. He evaluates different variables of the
physical environment which keep the physical environment aesthetic. It tested the influence of
physical environmental factors that are important for change in customer behavior.

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S Khurram Khan Alwi discuss also on some factors of the fast-food industry. He pointed out
Brand characteristics, food quality, good service, price, and ambiance which can lead to
customer satisfaction. He mentioned, “A company can determine customer satisfaction level by
examining qualities of brand characteristics offered by the company”. “Maintaining service
quality is the most important aspect which helps to mold the product according to the services
and as per customer’s needs”. “Price reward or value proposition to the organization in exchange
for satisfaction”. (Alwi & Farooqui, 2019)

Objective 2: Key Points that Led Denny’s Diversity

Denny’s brings both cultural and structural changes for diversity. Cultural changes refer to the
transfer of values and goals toward the employee. This can be adopted by nature or through
training. This change should be from the board of directors to the server. Structural changes
indicate changes in job nature, promotion, policy changes, and other internal and external
factors.

In Denny’s, there were multiple practices of class discrimination. In 1991 a group of informal
investigation officers visited Denny’s where employees were unwilling to give them service
before payment. After two years, another incident occurred in Annapolis where an employee did
not provide service to a black service agent. Eventually, there was a lot of problem regarding
discrimination that had an impact on their overall company performance.

 Training
Training is a systematic process where employees are given technical knowledge-related jobs.
Training helps to be responsible for work and know about the company culture and values that

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help employees to maximize their output and adaptation. Denny’s had done training for its
diversity measures with the special trainee. They were focusing on cultural changes from the
Board of Directors to the server. Denny’s arranges a whole day to train their BOD through
video-based training. Manager-level training extended for two days extensive training with each
day 7-9 hours duration.

 Recruitment
Recruitment is a process to discover and search prospective employees by providing attractive
facilities for a specific position. Recruitment helps to find out the best employees who help reach
the organization's goal. So, Denny’s has a third-party recruiter agent and is liable to recruit the
best person to hire in the organization. Denny’s has 10 to 12 years of contract with this agent.
But there were some mistakes in their recruitment system. In their network, the majority were
male, and most of them were white. Denny’s terminated its contract and focused on hiring
minority African American firms and Hispanics to adopt diversity in their culture.

 Performance appraisal
Performance appraisal is an indication of evaluation of employee performance based on the
performance company rewards its employee and motivates them. Motivation helps to encourage
them to better output. Before diverse initiatives had been taken the company did not evaluate the
appraisal system. There was no incentive for the manager and employees. So, the company
introduces ten competencies to evaluate, and manage value, and diversity. Denny’s offers 25% of
management bonuses to minority women and its division.

 Leadership Approach
A leader is a person who leads people or an entity toward its success. A leader plays an
important role in an organization. A leader is the risk taker considering the upcoming success
and is liable for aggressive strategy and policy to progress and diversity. In Denny’s case, the
CEO of Denny’s parent company Jim Adamson refused to allow discrimination with excuses.
Hood Philips took initiative to change the recruitment policy, the Minority manager, and so on.

 Diverse BOD and Employee

Diversity refers to less race and gender within the organization. Diversity in BOD and employees
will help to bring diversity in culture. Denny’s diverse its employee through 50% are minorities

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which were around 46000. Not only in a lower-level employee, but Denny’s hired also 32% of
the minority was in the senior supervisory team. The company aims to receive diverse cultures in
its organization.

 Advertisement
Advertisement is the promotion of a product or something that brings it to the spotlight and
draws attention to the customer. It helps to introduce products or services that benefit the
customer. People are encouraged to buy an initial product at a certain point. Denny’s restaurant
also focuses on the commercial advertisement to the right move customer relations. Fortune's
article (Faye, 1996) titled Denny’s changes its spots, was Mr. Richardson's clear statement about
customer service equality. A restaurant and institution article (Rousseau, 1997) focused on their
diversity. The company also took the initiative of a $4 million campaign targeted at African
Americans, another fortune article in 1998 where the author mentioned how racial sinners
become role models for diversity.

 Changing Organization Policy

Changing policy indicates the rules and regulations that must be followed by the employees. A
company sometimes needs structural changes to change existing policies. Changing company
policy to eliminate the company's systematic or unsystematic problems can increase productivity.
Denny’s upper management also changes their policy. In 1992 there was no minority supplier in
Denny’s restaurant. After taking the initiative of diversity, the company spent $100 million in
products to minority suppliers, which was 17% of their supply purchase. In 1993 they also took
the initiative to give the franchise to the minority. These franchisees increased from 1 to 64
within the 9-year operation, which was 42% of its franchise.

 Communication
Communication is the major factor to diversify the organization. Without communication, an
employee will not get the actual message. So, it might hamper in production of the best output in
an organization. For example, when a company is taking the initiative to stop the dissemination
of services, the company is giving employees internal memos to encourage them to avoid
discrimination in services. On behalf of the chief executive mentioned that most of the
employees do not understand the actual message. As a result, greater output did not achieve.

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Literature review:
Stephen McGuire professor at California state university, Los Angeles with Co-author Bahram
Mahdavian wrote an article on ResearchGate. The article is titled “Denny’s Learns to Diversity”
where the author finds out their discriminating problem and how they will overcome this. The
author mentioned a point that it is a factor of response to lawsuits where Denny’s pledged with
NAACP and paid out $54 million to 295000 customer and their lawyer. According to the
researcher workplace, diversity and reverse direction are other factors discussed changes their
policy making and employee diversity. Lastly, the researcher shows their financial changes when
they faced a $54 million lawsuit, a financial problem, and the stock price went down. Total
revenue dropped below 2 billion, and debt also increased. From that situation, Denny’s
turnaround to the success. (McGuire, Mahdavian, & yavari, 2015)

In Denny’s, from BOD to Franchisee had an impactful DEI practitioner. Today’s consumers hold
companies accountable not just for who they hire but with whom they do business. Partnering
with companies owned by multicultural groups, including people of color, people with
disabilities, veterans, women, and/or members of the LGBTQ community, leads to the same kind
of innovation, growth, and outperformance you see from a diverse employee base. (John, April,
& Fasika, 2021)

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Objective 3: To Identify the Lessons that other Business Corporations can

Learn from Denny’s Experience

All cultures act in their specific manners and this impacts the relative to which one culture can
cooperate with people from different cultures. Organizations that fail to effectively manage
diversity will go through adverse economic and social side effects. A workplace culture that
permits low employee turnover, confidence, discrimination, harassment, absenteeism, and
disturbance to work groups results in a lack of efficiency. Organizations with effective diversity
will have a leading edge in worker efficiency and maintenance. (MCARTHUR, 2004)

From Denny’s experience, other business corporations can learn about the key strategies that
were responsible for Denny’s success which is mentioned below:

 Recognizing the Economic Consequences of Diversity:

Diversity can bring back an organization if it is managed in the right way. The acknowledgment
to value employees is vital in this aspect since they can feel they are working effectively, and
they have been compensated for it.

Organizations that do not have an efficient plan for managing diversity will probably encounter
all or some of the following outcomes: loss of efficiency, lost opportunities, employee turnover,
and potential employment law mistakes. To avoid these outcomes, top management needs to

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acknowledge this lack as a business issue and recognize the need to develop a successful strategy
for managing diversity for success. (MCARTHUR, 2004)

 Employee Interaction:
Whenever the board focuses on the Managing Diversity for Success strategy, employee
correspondence can happen. Depending on the areas and the number of employees, a few
techniques for correspondence will be utilized. By assuring that the employees are familiar with
the organization’s plans for diversity initiatives, the MDS cycle is an amazing chance to upgrade
efficiency and development. Also, ensure that employees understand strategies, techniques,
safety rules, and other significant data. (Kilbourne, 2018)

 Accountability Distribution:
The administration should monitor, execute, plan and assess the company’s diversity initiatives.
Develop the action plan and implementation timeline and assign responsibilities. (Human Capital
Singapore) While choosing the individual to lead this cycle, be sure that the individual is a
respected employee who reliably exhibits a commitment to the standards of incorporation, and
that the individual is a decision-maker with the power to lead and carry out ideas.

 Distributing Financial Resources:

The process of Managing Diversity for Success should be executed at an expense. By allocating
a diversity budget, the board makes it exceptionally obvious to all parties involved, including
sellers, staff members, and clients that the administration is significant about achieving changes
to upgrade efficiency and opportunities for development.

 Diversity Task Force Formation:

A council or task force on diversity is required for the company. A task force typically has a set
purpose and set duration, and it concludes with a report of the discoveries arranged for
management. The diversity council is a vital corporate partner in the creation, execution,
management, and assessment of the activity plan. Making a diversity council provides a valuable
chance to connect directly with staff individuals, who often act as the organization's "diversity
champions". Members from the board of trustees ought to be selected carefully, and the group’s
goals should be established.

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 Building Accountability:
The most vital phase in laying out responsibility regarding the association's diversity efforts is
for the CEO to clarify what objectives and accomplishments are expected from the diversity
plan. All employees should make progress toward achieving diversity business success, but long-
term manageability is only possible if the administration is considered for integrating diversity
throughout all business activities and is assessed on their ability.

 Delivering the Action Plan:

The components of the diversity action plan will change depending on the organization’s
essential objectives, size, accessible time for council work, and human and financial resources.
To give employees a clear message that MDS is a consistent cycle and not a one-time movement
is one of the fundamental components for progress during the Managing Diversity for Success
process. The objective is to achieve genuinely authoritative change to help the business, workers,
providers, and clients.

 Performing the Initial Diversity Assessment:

Including all employees in the diversity assessment gives data about the company as well as its
group of employees, for instance, gender, position, age, years of service, race, etc. The diversity
evaluation results give a gauge of data to measure future progress. Using the diversity evaluation
results to design future initiatives guarantees the association's diversity efforts created on a solid
data. (MCARTHUR, 2004)

 Producing Employees with in-depth Diversity Training:

Reminders and group talk simply express that achieving diversity is the duty of all employees.
Employees are required to get an opportunity to take part in diversity training to develop their
perception of diversity and to take in the fundamental aptitudes to achieve diversity business
targets. Effective diversity training gives individuals the abilities that they can use to manage
workplace diversity, its ideas, and its effects. Begin with mindfulness working to ensure that all
individuals comprehend the business and moral purposes behind completing a diversity
technique. A second-stage diversity program should additionally develop employee aptitudes and
data to add to business achievement.

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Organizations similarly can figure out how training and development can help employees to have
a superior execution. Diversity targets and an action plan needs to set. A few strategies
recommended by Denny's are:

 Achievement will be a matter of fact if enthusiasm for efficiency is the driving factor.
 Believe in the ‘Customer is King’ theory.
 Consistently try to go beyond expectations.
 Awareness of qualities and shortcomings and avoid hesitance to request guidance.
 The results are undeniably unmistakable when extraordinary personalities cooperate to
accomplish a common goal. Teamwork is an amazing way to deal with connections and
trust.
 Surround yourself with people who speak to different social foundations, considering and
experience. It is a fundamental piece of development as a pioneer.
 Give positive yet genuine criticism and be a good listener.
 Distinguish a tutor, be a guide, and urge others to coach. It is an incredible method for
showing proactive kindness.
 Be energetic, enthusiastic, and willing to give back to the community.

 Significance of Minority:
Companies can take in the importance of minorities in their divisions. By doing this, employees
will feel that they are self-working there and they will give more effort into their occupation.
From Denny's, companies can similarly take in the importance to have a right execution
assessment system where delegates feel they are not isolated for being the minority but rather
compensate in case they have a fair execution.

 Analyzing the Diversity Strategy:

To restate, Managing Diversity for Success is a continuous cycle, not a program. The goal for
MDS is to develop diversity as a hierarchical and business value. To make MDS, it is
fundamental that the administration surveys each fragment of the diversity technique to
determine triumphs, setbacks, and new opportunities keeping in mind the ultimate objective to
alter the diversity framework. Conveying the outcomes and future targets of the diversity
philosophy should be stretched out past worker groups to integrate additional partners and

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general society. The purpose of this communication strategy is to discuss business goals and
achievements relating to the diversity philosophy for MDS. The goal is to be perceived by
employees, suppliers, clients, and individuals overall as an extensive affiliation that puts a high
value on diversity that is reflected in the business items and administrations.

Literature review:
Elizabeth McArthur wrote an article in 2004 whose title is “Managing Diversity for Success”.
According to McArthur, culturally diverse groups are more effective both in job performance
and in the interaction process than that of homogeneous groups. In her article, she also
mentioned major four steps on how to develop an effective strategy for managing diversity.

“5 Steps for Successfully Managing Diversity” is a web article written by Chris Kilbourne in
which five key steps are mentioned on how to manage diversity successfully. In all those steps,
he mainly emphasized in employee interaction; how they should emphasize on communicating
with each other and how they should be encouraged to work in diverse groups. He also added
that employees should be viewed as individuals and that they should be judged on their work and
not on their personal factors.

Objective 4: Identifying the effect that diversity might have on a company's

performance

Denny’s and its parent company Advantica bring some cultural changes in their company. They
conduct an intensive diversity training program where everyone participates from top line to
bottom line employee of the company. Researchers have suggested that diversity has enhanced
performance by broadening the group’s perspectives. There is a strong empirical confirmation
that successful diversity management and a resulting improvement in organizational
performance are positively correlated (Ozbilgin and Tatli, 2008). Even though diversity offers
many benefits to both companies and employees, companies can face some challenges also.

Benefits of workplace diversity:

Diversity helps in the expansion of an organization’s perspective, approach, strategic tactics,
launch of a new product, development of a marketing plan, creation of a new idea, design of a
new operation, and assessment of emerging trends (Adler, 2002).

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 • Enhance creativity:

A diverse workplace increases productivity, increases creativity, and improves problem solving.
Organizations with a diverse workforce can make a greater variety of solutions to problems in
service, sourcing, and allocation of resources. Employees from diverse backgrounds bring
individual talents and experiences in suggesting ideas that are flexible in adapting to fluctuating
markets and customer demands. Denny provided a diverse training among all employees so that
they may show their own individuality.

• Creating Dynamic Leader:

If managers are successful in embracing diversity, then organizational agility, founded upon
creativity and innovation, can ensue (Cox & Blake, 1991). Leaders who can manage
multicultural people. Therefore, it will make a dynamic leader of any organization. Those who
can adapt to any unpredictable situation and can control any cultural background people.
Previously there were white males, and rarely white females were presented as candidates for
employment. But Deny’s hired a firm which was owned by African Americans. Being a dynamic
leader, they can manage diverse cultural people.

• Decision making skill:

Restaurant managers received the most extensive training which is two nonconsecutive days of
training lasting seven to nine hours each. There were more than 100 certified diversity trainers
on staff. The training covered diversity awareness and diversity skills which helps the manager
to take any decision properly. It will be beneficial for the company.

• Benefit the business performance:

A diverse workplace also allows an organization to effectively execute its plans (Kapoor, C.
2011). A proper planning can bring success for the company. The increase in productivity allows
employees and managers to reach their goals within the organization.

On the other hand, in a diverse workplace all employees feel valued and accepted by the
company. So, employees will be happier in their workplace and stay longer with the company.
As a result, the turnover rate becomes lower.

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 • Open Workplace for All:

Diversity of workforce means that workplace is open for all. It works as a motivator for the
workforce. Previously women were rarely appointed. Women and racial minorities have been
shown to report greater perception of discrimination in the workplace and more positive diversity
attitudes (Bezrukova et al., 2012; Soni, 2000; Strauss & Connerley, 2003). There was not only a
gender discrimination but also racism existed in that company. But in a diverse workplace
different type of gender, culture, age can participate and work together. A diverse workplace also
improves communication with an organization’s clients.

Literature review:
In the twenty-first century, the corporate world has intensified its focus on diversity and
inclusion. The major reasons for this shift are increase in the participation of women workers,
involvement of people belonging to different backgrounds and multiple generations. Daniels
(2001) states that with more than 75% of Fortune 1,000 companies adopting diversity initiatives,
the management of diversity is no more a choice but has become a crucial business imperative.
Moreover, inclusion of immigrants got new sociopolitical impetus in view of increasing
workforce diversity (Ortlieb & Sieben, 2014). Further, study conducted by Miller and Katz
(2002) shifted the discourse from managing diversity to leveraging diversity, which emphasized
that merely adopting the practices to manage the diverse workforce will not be serving the
purpose, rather organizations should take a step further and adopt initiatives that help
organizations to leverage or capitalize diversity for achieving and sustaining higher performance.
Several other authors have explicitly stated that current diversity efforts have led to the
emergence of the concept of inclusion (Sabharwal, 2015). As a result, the term ‘inclusion’ was
paired with diversity in the 1990s (Holvino et al., 2004). Therefore, the concept of inclusion
needs to be examined along with diversity so that important questions about leveraging the
potential of diverse workforce can be answered.

This contribution will help researchers to gain nuance understanding of diversity and inclusion.
Moreover, it seeks to analyze recent literature in the area of diversity and inclusion from 2010 to
2017, which will enable researchers and practitioners to gain insights into the emerging research
trends.

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Conclusion:

Diversity refers to any attribute that can be utilized to set one group or individual apart from
another, whether the attribute is visible or not. When there is workplace diversity, it means that
the workplace is diverse in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity and that its employees have
unique characteristics that set them apart from one another (Robbins, 2003, Buckingham, 2012).
Denny’s thought that fostering diversity at work may help organizations become stronger. He
created diversity among the clients, staff, vendors, franchisees, and other partners as a result.

Denny’s changed the company's entire appearance with great thought and planning. The
workforce at Denny's is positively impacted by a few symbolic modifications. With the
implementation of a new system, diverse incentives have been set up. Previously, there was no
value placed on diversity, and no incentive for managers to hire diverse candidates. So, the
company built a process that evaluated ten core competencies, one of which was valuing and
managing diversity. According to their latest study, African American traffic in Denny's
restaurants increased to 61 million visitors in 2000, from 51 million in 1998. In addition, sales
reached a record $2.23 billion. They demonstrated once more that businesses can gain from
focusing on diversity. Denny’s paid the appropriate attention, particularly to the incentive, so
that businesses could locate qualified women's and minority talent. Even though there are a few
minor problems, businesses must reconsider their strategies if they want to succeed.

The Supplier Diverse Program was one of the main methods they employed to increase the
company's diversity base. It serves as the crucial link between various suppliers and corporate
divisions as a central referral service. They made sure that eligible minority vendors had an equal
chance to engage in the procurement process and compete. They were able to assist minority
suppliers through this initiative in several crucial areas, including mentoring, community
involvement, and second-tier development. On the other hand, Advantica has also made huge
strides in supplier diversity.

Recommendations:

1. Highlighting innovative and modern fast-food items: Denny's should provide some
quick meals to keep its customers satisfied to remain competitive with some of the new
top competitors like Panera Bread and McDonald's.

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 2. Unique and creative diversity trainings: As part of new employee orientation
programs or advanced training programs for restaurant managers, the company needs to
provide more diversity training. Projects that teach about diversity can aid employees in
understanding prejudices and social presumptions to the best of their abilities. These
courses can also demonstrate management's effective cross-cultural communication.
3. Maintaining certain degree restrictions on diversity: Denny's diversity has been
extremely rewarding, but they should also check the employees' backgrounds for any
prior infractions or criminal histories.
4. Practicing Human Resource Management Not Personnel Management: They must
practice human resource management, not personnel management. Denny's adventure
began with practicing personnel management. They were racist and discriminated against
minorities for this reason.
5. Innovative and New Assessment Systems: Denny's needs to often evaluate employee
performance in order to keep track for performance reviews.
6. Providing strong recruitment: In order to advance diversity, Denny's hiring practices
should be extensive and universal.
7. Managing the Diversity Foundation: Although diversity is incredibly useful,
everything in excess is unpleasant, as we are all aware. Therefore, it must stay within a
certain range of variability. Throughout the unlikely situation when they create diversity
in every element, it can have a fairly negative impact.

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