of Enz (2001) and Stamper and Van Dyne (2003). This research will investigate
how work values – alongside motivational leadership – influence employee
attitudes and job performance.
Humanistic theories, then, propose that by ‘humanising’ the work environment,
individuals can meet organisational and personal objectives at the same time. In
this way, it is hoped that individual and organisational needs can be balanced.
Once again, a link can be identified between transformational leadership and the
humanising paradigm; specifically, in the form of transformational leadership’s
contribution to personal objectives through its provision of ‘work meaning’ for
individuals (further discussion of work meaning is provided below in Section 2.4.4
on transformational leadership). The relevance of this point centres, once again,
on concerns that hospitality service work (in comparison with less manual work)
may not hold a great deal of intrinsic ‘meaning’ (a feeling that the work itself is
important and the extent to which employees experience positive attitudinal
responses to their work).
In summary, drawing upon the humanistic leadership theories, this research will:
seek to measure the influence of hospitality service employees’ work
orientation (work values) on employee attitudes (and the subsequent influence
of attitudes on job performance);
assess the extent to which employees’ work values moderate the relationships
between leadership and a range of individual and organisational outcomes; and
assess the contribution of motivational leadership to employees’ work meaning.
Once again, a fuller discussion of work meaning is provided in the section on
transformational leadership (Section 2.4.4).
As with the earlier trait and behaviour theories, humanistic perspectives have
come to be regarded by some as generating useful key principles but suffering
from being relatively simplistic (see, for example Anderson 1997: 273). Such
criticisms perhaps reflects the emergence (during the 1960s, around the same
time as the humanistic theories were being developed) of more pluralistic
approaches that have subsequently become increasingly favoured over the
previous monothetic conceptualisations (based on either traits or behaviour).
The following section examines how the situational/contingency approaches
demonstrate plurality in attempting to account for attributes of specific work