Contemporary leadership in hospitality: a review and research agenda

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to provide a comprehensive, structured, objective bibliometric review of the main leadership styles investigated in the hospitality industry from 1977 to 2021 (September) and depicts this field’s conceptual structure. Design/methodology/approach Bibliometric analysis techniques such as bibliographic coupling were used using several software applications (VOSviewer, BibExcel and Pajek, among others) to identify trends and research gaps in this literature. The paper provides an overview of the evolution of research activity on different leadership styles that yields important insights into research trends, most-researched themes, main authors and key journals. Findings A total of 287 publications on leadership from the Web of Science and Scopus databases were summarized. The number of studies on leadership has been growing since 2013, evincing persistent interest in the topic. Eleven main streams of leadership research in the hospitality literature were detected and characterized, with transformational and servant leadership emerging as the most common approaches. Possible evolution of the topics and future research lines were also identified. Research limitations/implications The findings can guide practitioners and scholars to further explore and implement emerging leadership styles in the hospitality sector. The paper also presents future research avenues to advance the field of leadership. Originality/value The current review provides a valuable framework for examining key leadership styles, understanding the most-researched styles and illustrating leadership's critical role in organizational and individual outcomes in hospitality businesses.

Damping the Relationship Between Work Pressure and Presenteeism Through Servant Leadership in Hotels

“…The rising number of high-profile incidents involving greedy and selfish business leaders might be a cause for this heightened interest (Huang et al, 2016). Servant leadership is a leadership style promoted by service organizations that prioritizes the interests and needs of employees over the interests and requirements of individuals and organizations (Huertas-Valdivia et al, 2022;Elkhwesky et al, 2022). When compared to other leadership styles, servant leadership is very compatible with "serving others" (Kauppila et al, 2022), which is the key business necessity of service organizations (Qiu et al, 2020& Hu et al, 2022.…”

Transformational Leadership, Employee Engagement, Job Satisfaction, and Psychological Well-Being among Hotel Employees after the Height of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Serial Mediation Model

“…Each style has unique characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages. One of the most common leadership approaches that has attracted significant attention from hospitality academic researchers in recent years is transformational leadership (TLS) [ 17 ].…”

The mobilization of employees’ psychological resources: how servant leadership motivates pro-customer deviance

“…Servant leadership (SL) is a leadership style advocated by service organizations that put the interests and needs of employees above individuals and organizations (Huertas-Valdivia et al , 2022; Elkhwesky et al , 2022). Compared to other leadership styles, the characteristic of SL is highly consistent with “serving others” (Kauppila et al , 2022), which is the core business requirement of service enterprises (Li et al , 2021; Qiu et al , 2020).…”

“…Existing studies on the antecedents of PCD have predominantly focused on individual characteristics (Leo and Russell-Bennett, 2014), job characteristics with high autonomy (Dahling et al , 2012; Leo and Russell-Bennett, 2014; Morrison, 2006) and organizational ethical climate (Vardaman et al , 2014). However, from the perspective of management practice, managers are not only the makers and supervisors of organizational rules but also the main information source for employees to learn and imitate; thus, their leadership style is an important antecedent affecting followers’ job characteristics and behavior (Huertas-Valdivia et al , 2022; Lv et al , 2022). But few researchers have acknowledged which and how the leadership style affects PCD due to its dual attributes of being pro-customer and deviating from organizational norms.…”