Theory being ‘available only in a rudimentary form’ describes well the situation
(described later in this research) regarding the nature of social scientific
knowledge on the specific relationships that exist between leadership, motivation
and job performance in hospitality service contexts.
Against this background, and using the Model Generating approach, the research
can be viewed as contributing towards a middle-range theory of leadership and
motivation in a hospitality service context. Middle range theories predict / explain
only a subset of all organizational phenomena, or focus only on a sub-set of
organisations or individuals (Pinder and Moore 1979: 2).
1.3 Structure of the thesis
Following this introductory chapter, the work begins with an examination of the
field of generic leadership studies in order to provide a framework for categorising
the studies identified in the subsequent review of the applied hospitality
leadership research. Chapter 2, therefore, focuses on describing the major
theoretical developments in the generic leadership studies field, while also
drawing out relevant issues for this study. Chapter 3 then describes and critically
evaluates the applied (hospitality) leadership research literature with respect to
the core leadership theories described in Chapter 2.
Throughout Chapters 2 and 3, a number of variables related to employee work
motivation are identified. It is the task of Chapter 4 to identify a theory-based
organising framework to inform the development of research hypotheses linking
these variables. Accordingly, Chapter 4 begins with a review of the major
theories in the field of work motivation research. This review of work motivation
studies finds that no integrated framework of work motivation theory exists. As a
consequence of this, the overarching field of industrial and organisational (I/O)
psychology is examined and, from this, an organising framework for the research
is developed within which it is possible to (i) locate the variables of interest and
(ii) inform the development of specific research hypotheses.
Having developed a theoretical framework to guide the specifications of the
hypothesised linkages between the variables of interest, Chapter 4 concludes by
reviewing the applied (hospitality and service-related) organisational studies
literature to: (i) identify precedents for measuring the selected latent variables;