Leadership in Hospitality Industry
Introduction
In the beginning of this report it would be essential to say what leadership is and its history. According to James MacGregor Burns, тАЬleadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earthтАЭ (http://" onclick="return false">
The study of leadership has been important to humans since the dawn of the civilization. The concepts of leadership, leader, and follower are represented in Egyptian hieroglyphics written 5000 years ago. Between 400 and 300BC the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle wrote about leadership and the requirements, characteristics, and education of leaders (http://" onclick="return false">
Leadership is central to the human condition (Wren, 1995) and has been found to be important to all societies, although specific patterns of behavior vary over time and across cultures (Bass, 1990)(http://" onclick="return false">
Although we can see that leadership is being an ancient notion there was no evidence of existence of the word leadership in the English language until the yearly nineteenth century. According to Bass (1990), the appearance of the concept of leadership in political, sociological, and organizational writings was usually accompanied by a unique and ambiguous definition (http://" onclick="return false">
History of leadership
Leadership can be defined by three phases:
- LeaderтАЩs traits
- LeaderтАЩs behaviors; and
- LeaderтАЩs qualities
From the turn of the twentieth century through the 1940s, leadership research focused on identifying traits that distinguish leaders from non-leaders (http://" onclick="return false">
This research was based on the idea that leaders were born, not made, and the key to success was simply in identifying those people who were born to be great leaders (http://" onclick="return false">
In the early 1950s a second major thrust appeared. This thrust looked at leader behaviors in an attempt to determine what successful leaders do, not how they look to others (Halpin and Winer, 1957) (http://" onclick="return false">
Two primary, independent factors were identified by these studies:
- Consideration; and
- Initiation structures.
тАЬThe impact of this work was in part the notion that leadership was not necessarily an inborn trait, but instead effective leadership methods could be taught to employeesтАЭ (Saal and Knight, 1988). A lot of progress was made in identifying what behaviors differentiated leaders from followers so that the behaviors could be taught (http://" onclick="return false">
Another impact of this work has to do with the broadening of managementтАЩs focus to include both people-oriented activities along with task-oriented activities (http://" onclick="return false">
Another approach dealt with the interaction between the leaderтАЩs traits, the leaderтАЩs behaviors, and the situation in which the leader exists (http://" onclick="return false">
Contingency theories make the assumption that the effects of one variable on leadership are contingent on other variables. In other words, meaning that leadership could be different in every situation. Although he found that certain leadership styles were more effective in certain situations, the contingency approach was more theoretical.
Culture as well plays an important role in leadership research. According to Schein, 1985, culture related issues must be clearly identified in order for leaders to be successful. It is important to notice that one of the aspects of the culture is change. Therefore, leaders must be able to adapt to the change in order to be more successful. Also some words have to be said about culture management as another important aspect of leadership. тАЬCulture management deals with the ability of leaders to know and understand what the organizational culture is, modifying that culture to meet the needs of the organization as it progressesтАЭ (Horner, http://" onclick="return false">
Leadership and motivation
The study of motivation is extremely important as all the above theories depend on it. This study тАЬsuggests that leadership is less a specific set of behaviors than it is creating an environment in which people are motivated to produce and in the direction of the leader. By creating the right environment, one in which people want to be involved and feel committed to their work, leaders are able influence and direct the activities of othersтАЭ (Horner, http://" onclick="return false">
Moreover, there are some need theories that people have needs for certain results. One of these theories is MaslowтАЩs hierarchy of needs, which suggests that some needs are more basic than the others and people are motivated to satisfy them (Horner, http://" onclick="return false">
LetтАЩs look now at another need theory, which called MurrayтАЩs (1938) manifest needs theory. His view about peopleтАЩs needs what that that people can experience a variety of needs, such as need for achievement or need for power and that is not necessary that everyone would have the same needs.
There are also some additional motivation theories such as expectancy theory, equity theory, goal setting, and reinforcement. Each of this has implications for the approach leaders can take to dealing with followers (Horner, http://" onclick="return false">
Therefore, тАЬleadership is not only the process and activity of the person who is in leadership position, but also encompasses the environment this leader creates and how this leader responds to the surroundings, as well as the particular skills and activities of the people being ledтАЭ (Horner, http://" onclick="return false">
The transformational-transactional leadership
тАЬTransactional leadership stems from more traditional view of workers and organizations, and it involves the position power of the leader to use followers for task completionтАЭ (Burns, 1978). тАЬTransformational leadership, however, searches for ways to help motivate followers by satisfying higher-order needs and more fully engaging them in the process of the workтАЭ (Bass, 1985).
тАЬTransformational leaders can initiate and cope with change, and they create something new out of old. They build strong relationships with others while supporting and encouraging each individualтАЩs developmentтАЭ (Horner, http://" onclick="return false">
A very interesting theory of тАЬSuper Leadership is offered by Manz and Sims (1991). They challenge the traditional paradigm of leadership as one person doing something to other people (Manz and Sims, 1991). Instead, they suggest, тАЬthe most appropriate leader is one who can lead others to lead themselvesтАЭ (Manz and Sims, 1991, p.18). They suggest that leaders become great by unleashing the potential and abilities of followers, consequently having the knowledge of many people instead of relying solely on their own skills and abilities (Horner, http://" onclick="return false">
To understand better what is transforming leadership lets look at it as at the тАЬbodyтАЭ, which consists of the heart, and head and hands. There are three aspects of leadership: supervisory, strategic and inspirational. They are going to be discussed more detailed further down.
The heart
тАЬThe most universally encountered aspect of leadership is the тАЬinspirationalтАЭ leadership of the heart. The essential, distinguishing the feature of inspirational leadership is that it never resorts to the use of coercive power or authorityтАЭ (Nicholls, http://" onclick="return false">
There are two ways of affecting people minds by creating a тАЬvisionтАЭ. First one is that it clarifies understanding, and the second one is that it encourages alignment. So we can see that by its impact on the peopleтАЩs personal beliefs, the leaderтАЩs vision builds the psychological ground for common action
(Nicholls, http://" onclick="return false">
Nichols defines it as тАЬthat activity which stimulates purposeful activity in others by changing the way they look at the world around them and relate one anotherтАЭ.
The head
A strategic leadership can be called a тАЬnominalтАЭ head of the organization. The leaderтАЩs responsibility in this kind of leadership is the creation of an effective organization (Nicholls, http://" onclick="return false">
There are two principal components of the strategic leadership: path-finding and culture-building. First relates an organization to the business environment and the second one helps to people into membership of an organization. The role of the organizational leadership is to identify what organization it will be and where it is going. A very important thing to say is that managers must look beyond the routine daily operations in order тАЬto find a better wayтАЭ (Nicholls, http://" onclick="return false">
The hands
A supervisory leadership is the job of the mangers hands. Every manager is familiar with this kind of leadership in his or her particular situation. In other they are familiar with the job that has to be done and the people that will do that job.
Charisma
The concept of charisma comes to us from Romans. Also in the New Testament it refers to gift from the Holy Spirit. Max Weber used this term for theological use. He viewed charisma as тАЬa pure form of authority based on of the gift of diving graceтАЭ (Weber, 1968).
Contemporary conceptualization of charismatic leadership have become inclusive of more leaders as the concept changed over the time (http://" onclick="return false">
тАЬThe concept of charisma has fertilized the study of leadership. The term has taken on a number of different, but over planning meanings: leadersтАЩ magical qualities; emotional bond between leader and led etc.тАЭ (Paul et al, http://" onclick="return false">
A lot of theories of charismatic leadership appeared. These theories did not emphasise the role of charisma, instead they take a look at leaderтАЩs vision and values. For example, тАЬBerlew (1974) suggested that leaders who attempt to bring change in organizations were similar to charismatic leaders trying to effect changes in societyтАЭ (http://" onclick="return false">
House (1977) defined charismatic leadership as тАЬa leader who has a high degree of charismatic effects on followers. According to House, followers of charismatic leader become more self-confident and can set and accept higher goals.
All of the contemporary charismatic leadership theories include elements related to a leaderтАЩs emphasis on a purpose, vision, or mission (House and Shamir, 1993).
Gender differences in leadership styles
Over the past two decades there is a debate about whether female and male managers have different leadership styles.
Though the early 1990s the research showed that there were no gender differences in leadership styles. Even though a lot of researches support the view that there are no gender differences in leadership styles, some differences were identified. Those differences were identified based on self-reported data collected from a sample of male and female accountants (Burke et al, http://" onclick="return false">
According to Powel (1993), intuitive reasoning suggest that early socialization patterns develop different qualities in women and men that would likely result in variations in leadership styles. The earlier research found a lack of for the notion that women utilize different leadership styles than do men (Bass, 1981) (Burke et al, http://" onclick="return false">
Hospitality Leadership
тАЬA major influence on effective performance in the hospitality industry is the nature of the manager-subordinate relationship. This entails the process of leadership and the choice of an appropriate style of managerial behaviourтАЭ (Mullins, 1998, p.397).
A good manager should have solid character traits, leadership skills and good management ethics. The good question is: тАЬWhat is the difference between managing and leading?тАЭ
One leadership teacher defined it as follows:
MANAGER | LEADER |
Administers
Is a copy
Maintains
Focuses on system+structure
Relies on control
Has a short-range view
Asks how and when
Has an eye on the bottom line
Initiates
Accepts status quo
Does things right | Innovates
Is an original
Develops
Focuses on people
Inspires trust
Has a long-range perspective
Asks what and why
Has an eye on the horizon
Originates
Challenges it
Does the right thing |
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