Leadership in Hospitality Industry

“The concept of charisma has fertilized the study of leadership. The term has taken on a number of different, but over planning meanings: leaders’ magical qualities; emotional bond between leader and led etc.” (Paul et al, http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0025-1747.htm).

A lot of theories of charismatic leadership appeared. These theories did not emphasise the role of charisma, instead they take a look at leader’s vision and values. For example, “Berlew (1974) suggested that leaders who attempt to bring change in organizations were similar to charismatic leaders trying to effect changes in society”

(http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0025-1747.htm).

House (1977) defined charismatic leadership as “a 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 leader’s 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://www.emeraldinsight.com).

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://www.emeraldinsight.com).

Hospitality Leadership

“A 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 behaviour” (Mullins, 1998, p.397).

A good manager should have solid character traits, leadership skills and good management ethics. The good question is: “What is the difference between managing and leading?”

One leadership teacher defined it as follows:

|MANAGER |LEADER |

|Administers |Innovates |

|Is a copy |Is an original |

|Maintains |Develops |

|Focuses on |Focuses on people |

|system+structure |Inspires trust |

|Relies on control |Has a long-range |

|Has a short-range view |perspective |