approaches that can improve our understanding of the linkages between
phenomena in the workplace (see also Antonakis et al. 2004b: 60). Measuring
the relationship between leadership and job performance also addresses a
significant knowledge gap in the hospitality leadership literature (Section 3.
describes how no published studies have measured the relationship between
leadership and job performance in a hospitality context).
1.2 Aims, objectives and research design
Against this background, the research aims to:
explore and evaluate the contribution of motivational leadership to employee
work motivation in hospitality services.
The research design locates motivational leadership within the broader
organisational / motivational context by also measuring how a number of non-
leadership phenomena contribute to employee work motivation.
The specific objectives of the research are to:
- critically evaluate the field of hospitality leadership studies to identify relevant
issues and inform the research design; - develop a theoretical framework to:
a. locate the variables of interest in relation to existing organisational
psychology theories;
b. articulate the likely linkages between variables; and
c. guide the formulation of specific hypotheses; - identify/generate measurement scales for the latent variables;
- refine the measurement scales; and
- test and evaluate the relationships between variables using survey data
collected from hotel restaurant waiting staff.
Literature reviews of the generic and hospitality-specific leadership literatures
satisfy the requirements for Objective 1. The theoretical framework (Objective 2)
is developed by integrating the identified variables of interest within the broader
frameworks of work motivation and organisational psychology / organisational
behaviour research. With regard to Objective 3, the applied hospitality and
services-related leadership and organisational studies literatures are interrogated