leadership and motivation in hospitality

hospitality leaders are self-management and strategic management. One issue

which may be taken with this study is that, although it is titled a leadership study

(Grooming future hospitality leaders: A competencies model), leadership per se

forms one specific domain within the eight other managerial competencies. As

such, we might argue that this is in fact a management paper containing a

leadership dimension.

The same criticism can be levelled at the study by Asree et al. (2010) who

modelled leadership competency, organizational culture, responsiveness and

performance of hotel firms in Malaysia. These authors used an adapted version of

Chung-Herrera et al.’s (2003) eight-domain ‘leadership’ competency model,

although the nature of the adaption was not reported (Asree et al. 2010: 507).

Authors Context (C), Aims (A) and Findings (F)
Chung-
Herrera et
al. (2003)

(C) Globally-based senior-level hotel executives
(A) To develop a leadership competencies model for the hospitality
industry
(F) Managerial competencies ratings indicate that leadership of
employees is regarded as a less-important skills domain; most-
important are self-management and strategic management
Brownell
(2005)

(C) Desk research to explore the use of assessment centre methods
for judging key leadership competencies in hospitality
(A) Competencies examined are abilities to: respond to change, foster
trust, and lead in multi-cultural work environments
(F) The assessment centre is recommended as effective for assessing
and predicting such leadership competencies
Brownell
(2008)

(C) Land- (hotel) and sea-based (cruise liner) hospitality leaders
(A) To identify the competencies hospitality unit leaders perceived to
be most critical for career development / compare between land- and
sea-based contexts
(F) Certain core competencies common to both groups; organizational
context likely influences the relative importance of specific
skills/attributes/abilities
Asree et al.
(2010)

(C) Management-level staff in Malaysian hotels

(A) To investigate whether leadership competency and organizational

culture influence business responsiveness (to employees and

customers)

(F) These variables do have positive relationships with responsiveness

Source: author

Table 3-4 Leadership-competencies approaches

Brownell has published three studies on leadership in hospitality contexts – two of

these (2005, 2008) employ competencies approaches while a third (Brownell

2010, see Section 3.7 below) uses a servant leadership perspective. In her 2005

study Brownell used desk research to explore the use of assessment centre