Empowering leadership in hospitality and tourism management: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to review the empirical studies on empowering leadership in hospitality and tourism and proposes an associated research agenda. Design/methodology/approach A disciplined selection process using transparent inclusion and exclusion criteria resulted in a final sample of 25 empirical studies. The research results from these studies were systematically analyzed using content analysis. Findings The synthesis of these articles highlights that: studies on empowering leadership in hospitality and tourism are mainly based on motivational theories and theories with a social orientation; empowering leadership has been examined within various cultures mostly using quantitative methods; multiple instruments are used to measure empowering leadership; and empowering leadership is a variously defined construct that has been found to promote creativity and innovation, service performance and various employee attitudes and behaviors. Research limitations/implications The authors provide an integrated framework for empowering leadership in hospitality and tourism contexts, proposing theoretical implications and directions for further research. Practical implications This review identified growing research interest in empowering leadership in diverse hospitality and tourism contexts, as well as an increasing impetus to understand how leaders can effectively empower their subordinates. Originality/value The study provides a systematic understanding of empirical research examining the theoretical frameworks, antecedents, mediators, moderators and consequences of empowering leadership in various hospitality and tourism contexts. Significant opportunities remain for further research to address the gaps and limitations discovered.

Contemporary leadership in hospitality: a review and research agenda

“…These results are compatible with Arici et al (2021), who found a cluster on empowerment located in the center of the network and connected to the other clusters, even though it contained only a few studies. In analyzing our results in the empowering leadership cluster, we agree with Hoang et al (2021) that the focus on psychological outcomes (psychological empowerment, job autonomy, psychological contract fulfilment, self-efficacy) dominates at the individual level. This prevalence explains why self-determination theory and social learning theory are commonly used to study how empowering leaders foster service performance.…”

“…As in leadership research in the general management literature, we note the predominance of theoretical frameworks borrowed from psychology and sociology (such as COR theory, social exchange theory and social learning theory) to explain leadership phenomena in hospitality (Bavik, 2020; Eva et al , 2019; Hoang et al , 2021). This similarity can be explained by the focus on leadership’s consequences at employee level in terms of attitudes, behaviors and performance (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover, OCB, engagement, etc.).…”

“…Researchers must determine whether these styles address the distinctive conditions of hospitality and are in fact being used in it. Hoang et al (2021) suggest a potentially productive line in exploring leadership effectiveness during pandemics or natural disasters crises. All these topics could complement the research lines identified or create new ones.…”

A systematic and critical review of leadership styles in contemporary hospitality: a roadmap and a call for future research

“…Prior systematic reviews focused on the review of leadership in specific countries, such as Spain (Bark et al, 2014). Our review draws on recommendations from literature, Bavik (2020), Chon and Zoltan (2019) and Hoang et al (2021), who call for more reviews on leadership in hospitality and tourism to understand theoretical frameworks, antecedents and consequences. In their review, Gui et al (2021) affirmed that there is a need to conduct a review on leadership styles such as SEL because few scholars have quantified the findings of multiple studies and presented a quantitative approximation of the relationship between SEL and follower achievements in the hotel industry.…”

“…To date, there is no systematic literature review for leadership styles research in hospitality including hotels, restaurants, resorts, motels, casinos, nightclubs and food service operations. Prior systematic reviews have addressed other IJCHM 34,5 disciplines, such as nursing (Cummings et al, 2008;Wong and Cummings, 2007) and with reviews mostly focusing on one leadership style, such as empowering leadership in hospitality and tourism management (Hoang et al, 2021) and SEL (Eva et al, 2019), especially in hospitality management (Bavik, 2020;Chon and Zoltan, 2019).…”