redesign and enrichment, writes that:
...most of the jobs in the hospitality industry do not lend themselves to
such improvements. The challenge for us is not so much to change
the job, but to provide the managerial leadership that would create an
environment in which the employee’s real needs are satisfied.
(1983: 92-93)Against this background, it is argued that inspirational, motivational leaders are a
key organisational resource for motivating service staff in hospitality
organisations.
Within the broader field of organisational psychology, researchers have been
studying leadership for around 100 years (Antonakis et al. 2004a: 4) generating a
body of work containing thousands of empirical studies (Alvesson and
Sveningsson 2003: 359), hundreds of definitions (Rost 1991), dozens of theories
(see e.g. Lowe and Gardner 2000; Yukl 2010) and several overarching research
paradigms (Van Seters and Field 1990; Bryman 1992).
In recent years considerable attention has focused on the ‘new leadership’
approaches (charismatic / transformational leadership theories) (Lowe and
Gardner 2000; Antonakis et al. 2004a) that emerged during the 1980s and have
focused on leader charisma, vision and inspiration. The pattern of leadership
research in hospitality contexts has followed this trend with transformational
leadership theory emerging as the dominant research approach in this area.
Transformational leadership valorises (among other leader attributes)
inspirational-motivational behaviour and posits this as a key platform from which
leaders can engender improved employee performance.
This research aims to evaluate the role of motivational leadership in enhancing
hospitality service staff motivation and performance. Conceptually and
empirically (through the use of structural equation modelling with latent
variables), motivational leadership is located within a wider organisational /
motivational context. In this way the research seeks to build a nuanced
understanding of the role of motivational leaders in influencing employee work
motivation (measured using both employee work attitudes and job performance)
in hospitality services. Such an approach also addresses calls in the broader
leadership (Lowe and Gardner 2000: 496-498) and organisational studies (Johns
2001; Rousseau and Fried 2001) literature for more integrated research