HOTO7016 Mentoring and Leadership Development Assignment Sample
The hospitality and tourism industry is known as the biggest contributor to the economic growth of any country. It can be seen that they have been majorly affected by the pandemic and different countries faced huge losses (Gursoy and Chi, 2020). The essay focuses on addressing the current challenges faced by Kerala in the hospitality and tourism industry.
The state can market its natural beauty as an attractive spot for tourism. Unique diversity and heritage are responsible for attracting humungous tourists all around the world. Other than that, Kerala has also been rated in the list of top favourite tourist spots for many travellers by BBC travel survey.
Tourists are the primary reason for providing employment and expenses to many people living in Kerala (Gandhi and Guha, 2020). The business was growing faster and then coronavirus struck, international borders were shut down and people were not allowed to leave their country. The rate of tourism decreased and that affected the lifestyle of many people.
Furthermore, different leadership theories or approaches will be discussed in the essay for analysing the impact of leadership style to manageissues especially during crisis. The approaches or styles used are critically analysed with the challenge to resolve the issue faced.
In this perspective, leadership is very essential for solving the issues faced in any sector or company as it helps in the smooth working of the organisation. In the last section of the essay, conclusions will be drawn based on the issue discussed.
Kerala’s Wayanad district that is been surrounded by undulating coffee and tea plantation and it is the most attractive British spot. Foreign tourists come to India to taste the local cuisine and culture as per JOSE, (2020). Many of them prefer to experience homestay as it enhances their informal interactions.
People living in Kerala offer homestay to this tourist and it is their significant source of earning. In this perspective, Menon and Menon’s husband has conceptualised ‘Turmerica’ as it attracts tourism by involving them in local flavours, they can learn to cook Kerala’s famous dishes and enjoy organic farming.
Tourists have an opportunity to roam in the plantations and relax in the Western Ghats (Varma, 2020). In the previous year, the couple hosted visitors from 22 diverse countries. In 2019 from November to March all the rooms were booked and had high occupancy during the peak tourist season of Kerala.
After that, Coronavirus came and affected the lifestyle of these people that earn from tourism. After Covid, many bookings made for their homestays were cancelled and lockdowns were imposed that affected the entire travel circuit as people were not allowed to move from one country to another as per Suman and Kumar, (2021).
In Kerala, they have tourists from North Indian stated in April and May but the pandemic has completely washed their season and no revenue was earned. Due to these sufferings, they have to keep only two staff persons out of five employees that help them in cleaning, cooking, and other services. They have managed to give them a salary in April but after Covid-19, they didn’t earn anything and it became difficult to pay their wages.
Another example that shows that tourism is being highly affected in Kerala is Joy Jude that has four tourist vehicles at Fort Kochi that are falling into savings so their escalating costs can be managed (Kibbe, 2019).
No income source was there but they have to pay electricity and water bills at their homestay every month for the entire duration of lockdown elaborated by Varma, (2020). It shows that the hospitality and tourism condition of Kerala was majorly affected and there was no option left for their survival as their income source was affected. The travel and tourism sector of Kerala contributes to about 10% of the state’s GDP and employs around 15 lakh people indirectly or directly.
There are different types of business in the hospitality and tourism industry in Kerala such as homestay owners, houseboat operators, tourist vehicle drivers, handicraft and souvenir shops, tour guides, cleaning staffs at hotels, and many more. It has been recorded that about 1.83 crores domestic and 11 lakh foreign tourists visit the state in the past five years (Gupta et.al. 2021). During the lockdown, the tourism figure was zero and no earnings were there.
Moreover, the impact of pandemic was very high on the tourism and hospitality industry. The revenue recorded in 2019 in the tourism sector was Rs 45000 crore. If the sector doesn’t reopen the losses would be about Rs 20000 crore during this year. No business was seen during March, April, and May; they lost their domestic tourists as well because people are more concerned about their safety and were avoiding visiting places.
The post-Covid scenario was much more different as the floods have only affected Kerala as per Ellikkal and Rajmohan, (2020). The state’s source markets for inbound travellers were highly affected in the entire world. The above evaluation of challenge predicts that Kerala has suffered highly post-Covid as many people’s significant source of earning was travel and tourism.
Leadership plays a crucial role in addressing the challenges faced by the tourism and hospitality industry in Kerala. It is the responsibility of leaders to communicate with their employees about problems and find solutions (Hallinger, 2018). Leaders need to motivate and influence their employees so they can adopt changes and address them innovatively.
The Effects of Covid-19 faced by Kerala and their economic growth was being affected. Any peoples lost their job as a small, medium, and large enterprises were not able to pay the salaries. In this perspective, a leader needs to encourage them to adopt the changing requirements.
Different leadership theories and approaches can be used by different organisations to resolve the problems. Based on the above analysis that is being faced by people earning income from homestays, democratic and transformational leadership style is most useful.
Democratic leaders seek the participation of every employee and ask about their opinion regarding the problem before coming to any conclusion. Every participant or employee has been allowed to suggest their opinions so to find the best possible solution. The process aims at having group equality and ideas can be shared freely elaborated by Jan DeBell, (2019).
Leaders also suggest their employees and offer them guidance so they can enhance their work efficiency. It has been declared by a researcher that the democratic leadership style is the most effective as it results in higher productivity, best group collaborations, and group morale as well. In this leadership style, group members feel more engaged in the process and suggest their perspectives.
Furthermore, creative ideas shared by people receive encouragement and rewards. Democratic leaders possess specific traits such as courage, creativity, competence, intelligence, honesty, and fairness. It is their attribute to inspire respect and trust among their followers.
Good leaders must have the ability to grow the business during a crisis using their problem-solving skills. Democratic leaders know that their employees and workforce are the major reason for their organisation’s success so they involve them in the entire decision-making process as per Tang, (2019).
The significant benefit of using a democratic leadership style in this situation is that the team members will get diverse innovative ideas and suggestions. It will help them in solving the problem by choosing the best suitable options from the suggested ones.
On the other hand, transformational leadership style approaches motivate, encourage and inspire employees to bring innovative and creative changes that help in shaping the future of the organisation.
This kind of leadership doesn’t follow the concept of micromanaging they give authority to take decisions in their business as per Alqatawenh, (2018). Transformational leadership offers its employees free space to be creative.
The primary aspect of this style is to look for creative solutions for the old problem. The leadership approach is primarily used to solve the problem and address future needs by identifying the best solutions. They can make difficult decisions, adapt to changes, the capability of taking a risk, and creative in their ideas.
Furthermore, the primary focus of transformational leaders is to transform others and support them in bringing change. The followers working under transformational leaders have the urge to work more in comparison with their skills and talents and always try to stretch their abilities. Their working criteria are to inspire employees so they can think beyond expectations to work for a shared vision (Busari et.al. 2019).
They believe in providing them intrinsic motivation such as inspire, motivate, and influence them. The major aim of choosing this leadership approach is they lower the cost of productivity, engages with their employees, can adapt to change, and create enthusiasm.
Figure 1: Transformational leadership model.
(Source: Cherry, 2020)
The transformational leadership theory has been segregated into four components that include intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration, inspirational motivation, and idealised influence. In intellectual stimulation, leaders challenge their status quo along with encouraging creativity among employees as they want that their followers explore new things as per Nguyen et.al. (2017).
Individualised consideration means they support every individual and encourage them. In this, followers feel free to share their issues and opinions with their leaders.
Inspirational motivation aims at inspiring their followers to go after the same passion and motivation to fulfill their goals. Finally, idealized influence means leaders serve as role models for their followers and they imitate the qualities of their leader to follow their passion.
The primary reason for selecting democratic and transformational leadership style is they both aims at bringing change and motivating employees.
The major difference between both the leadership styles is democratic focuses on taking decisions after consulting with employees and transformational focuses on handling the power to employees for making decisions elaborated by Wilson, (2020).
These two are the best suitable styles of leadership as per the challenge addressed. In this perspective, transformational leaders support their group members in following their creative ideas and passion.
The impact of Covid-19 on the hospitality and tourism industry can be solved by adopting some strategies and techniques.
The above-defined leadership styles can help in solving the difficulties faced by the state. People living in Kerala are highly dependent on tourism for earning. In this concern, democratic leadership can be used and different business in tourism needs to arrange a meeting. They need to discuss the problems faced by different businesses.
After monitoring the problems, the group members can suggest some opinions and perspectives as per their thinking ability (Duggan, 2018). Democratic leaders must analyse all the suggested opinions and select the best idea that can be adapted to handle the current situation effectively.
On the other hand, transformational leaders discuss the issues faced by the business organisation and allow employees to tackle the situation and make a decision.
It is best suitable for adopting changes as per future requirements. In Kerala, the different business operates under tourism and hospitality industry. Every business has its requirements and taking the authority to take a decision is best for them. For instance, people offering homestays to foreign tourist must choose to increase the health safety concerns so tourist feels safe stated by Yeh, (2020).
They must use sanitizer to keep their homestays hygiene and germs free. Other than that, houseboat operators must check the temperature and sanitize every tourist so the virus can’t spread. It is not possible to sanitize each seat again and again so they need to enhance the temperature checking facility to recognise that every customer is healthy.
Democratic leaders conclude by selecting the best suitable outcome. The disadvantage is that one suggestion doesn’t fit in every business so the rising of conflicts can be increased.
Every businessman will provide their suggestion as per their losses and choosing one for all of them can’t be successful for every profession as per İnce, (2018). Every business profession must try to attract domestic tourists as Covid-19 can stop the movements of people from international borders in the future also.
They should adopt every precaution that can reduce the spreading of the virus in Kerala so people get attracted to them. In this concern, democratic leadership can be used to take precautions as it will be the same for every profession. It includes wearing a mask and gloves is mandatory for both tourists and employees, using hand sanitizer, follow social distancing and avoid touching unnecessary objects.
Moreover, using the transformational style of leadership, leaders can influence their followers to adopt agility and flexibility in their operations as the future is unpredictable. Business organisations must have the ability to adapt to the changing demands to manage the requirements effectively.
In this perspective, the state must focus on reducing the number of Covid cases by ensuring the highest safety as it will help them in attracting a massive crowd of tourists (Thibault et.al. 2019). It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that the public is following proper Covid-19 rules so the number of Covid cases can be reduced. Other than that, these decisions can be taken under democratic leadership as it remains the same for all organisation.
Transformational leadership is used for making decisions for different businesses as per their requirements so they can handle their business at their convenience. It can be done because this leadership style allows individuals to take the authority of making decisions as per their situation and business requirements. Other than that,
the leadership style is beneficial because it focuses on adopting innovative changes based on future requirements (Pasha et.al. 2017). It will be helpful for the organisation to adopt changes by monitoring the past and present situations faced by the tourism sector in Kerala.
References
Books and Journals
Alqatawenh, A.S., (2018). Transformational leadership style and its relationship with change management. Verslas: teorija ir praktika, 19(1), pp.17-24.
Busari, A.H., Khan, S.N., Abdullah, S.M. and Mughal, Y.H., (2019). Transformational leadership style, followership, and factors of employees’ reactions towards organizational change. Journal of Asia Business Studies.
Ellikkal, A. and Rajamohan, S., (2020). EFFECT OF COVID-19 LOCKDOWN ON KERALA’S JOB MARKET. AIJR Preprints.
Gandhi, M.K. and Guha, C., (2020). Covid-19 Effect on Tourism Industry in India. European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine, 7(11), pp.47-56.
Gupta, V., Cahyanto, I., Sajnani, M. and Shah, C., (2021). Changing dynamics and travel evading: a case of Indian tourists amidst the COVID 19 pandemic. Journal of Tourism Futures.
Gursoy, D. and Chi, C.G., (2020). Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality industry: review of the current situations and a research agenda.
Hallinger, P., (2018). Bringing context out of the shadows of leadership. Educational management administration & leadership, 46(1), pp.5-24.
İnce, F., (2018). The effect of democratic leadership on organizational cynicism: A study on public employees. İşletme Araştırmaları Dergisi, 10(2), pp.245-253.
Jan DeBell, C.D.A., (2019). Democratic leadership. Dental Assistant, 88(2), pp.6-7.
JOSE, J., (2020). Travel geography of Kerala: a historical perspective.
Kibbe, M.R., (2019). Leadership theories and styles. In Leadership in Surgery (pp. 27-36). Springer, Cham.
Nguyen, T.T., Mia, L., Winata, L. and Chong, V.K., 2017. Effect of transformational-leadership style and management control system on managerial performance. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.202-213.
Pasha, O., Poister, T.H., Wright, B.E. and Thomas, J.C., (2017). Transformational leadership and mission valence of employees: The varying effects by organizational level. Public Performance & Management Review, 40(4), pp.722-740.
Suman, R. and Kumar, V., (2021). A Preliminary Study of Impact of Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on Tourism Sector of India. Anais Brasileiros de Estudos Turísticos-ABET.
Tang, K.N., (2019). Leadership styles and organizational effectiveness. In Leadership and change management (pp. 11-25). Springer, Singapore.
Thibault, T., Gulseren, D.B. and Kelloway, E.K., (2019). The benefits of transformational leadership and transformational leadership training on health and safety outcomes. In Increasing occupational health and safety in workplaces. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Wilson, D.E., (2020). Moving toward democratic-transformational leadership in academic libraries. Library Management.
Yeh, S.S., (2020). Tourism recovery strategy against COVID-19 pandemic. Tourism Recreation Research, pp.1-7.
Online
Cherry. K. (2020). Transformational leadership. [Online]. Accessed through: <https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-transformational-leadership-2795313>
Duggan. T. (2018). Transformational and democratic leadership style. [Online]. Accessed through: <https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/improve-organizational-effectiveness-through-transformational-leadership-8820.html>
Varma. V. (2020). Tourism hit by Covid-19, Kerala hopes its fight will trigger revival. [Online]. Accessed through: <https://indianexpress.com/article/india/kerala/kerala-tourism-hit-by-covid-19-6435445/>
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