Contemporary Leadership in Hospitality

Introduction

Hospitality industry is based on servicing so competitive advantage and long-term sustainability can be created by the firm on the basis of satisfactory servicing (Gagnon, & Collinson, 2014).

This essay is based on contemporary market environment and has given concern towards leadership in hospitality while giving consideration towards understanding the importance of contemporary leadership in hospitality.

Furthermore, this essay also allows evaluating the challenges which will be faced by the future leaders in the hospitality industry related to the workforce diversity while recommending the ways which will remain supportive to overcome from this challenge.

The thesis statement of this essay is to understand the contemporary leadership in hospitality and the challenges which are faced by the future leaders of this industry.

Body

According to the views of Ashikali, &Groeneveld (2015), in the current scenario, due to increase in complexity and competition in the hospitality industry related to political, cultural, economic and environmental dimensions, there are various challenges can be seen.

Moreover, it is analysed that hospitality industry is highly competitive in nature yet it also offers volatile business environment. Due to this reason, it is essential for the hospitality to find a way regarding how to differentiate them in the industry by offering superior service as well as unique experience at a consistent basis.

At present, due to increase in the trend of globalization, workforce diversity is increasing in the hospitality industry (Hage, & Posner, 2015). Additionally, as workforce diversity remains supportive to enhance the chances of organizational success, hospitality industry has increased the focus towards recruiting the employees from diverse culture.

Although there are various advantages of workforce diversity but there are also there are challenges too and if diversity does not manage within the hospitality industry in an adequate manner then it can create the internal issue for the firm which will make it difficult to provide customer satisfaction.

Contemporary Leadership in Hospitality

Contemporary leadership can be defined as the process which is used by the leaders in the current environment to influence the team members to perform in the direction of the organizational goal. In the context of hospitality industry, due to workforce diversity, leaders use the leadership style according to the situational need (Sleeter, et al., 2014).

According to the views of Van Wart (2013) transactional leadership style remains highly assistive to lead the team members as it supports to develop the trust for the leader in the mind of the employees. Transactional leadership style is focused towards supervision, organization and to improve the employee performance.

In this leadership style, leaders promote compliance through the followers on the basis of rewards and punishments strategy (Lee, et al., 2015). This concept remains highly supportive to motivate the employees to work in the right direction as a team while decreasing the situation of any kind of dispute.

At the same time, to handle the workforce diversity, leader gives concern towards developing the feeling in the diversified team that they all are working for the achievement of a common task while eliminating the situation of kind of biasness.

On the other hand, Phillips, & Malone (2014) identified that transformational leadership style focuses on motivating and engaging the followers while developing the future vision, which supports the leader to develop effective relationship between the team members so that they work together and learn new skills from each other.

In the views of Day (2014), handling the diverse culture in an effective manner enables the hospitality industry to increase the competitive advantage on the basis of sharing the skills, knowledge, ideas, views, perceptions, etc. In support of this, Huber (2017) determined that ii is essential to give concern towards innovation and creativity in the hospitality industry.

So, in this context, contemporary leadership style remains highly assistive to handle the team in an adequate manner so that generation of effective services can take place on the basis of the utilization of intellectual capital.

Diversity in the workplace enables to build great reputation for the firm which enables to maximize the profitability and new opportunities for the employees to learn something new. Increased skills of the employees remain supportive to improve the organizational performance.

At the same time, according to the views of Küpers (2016), to handle the diverse culture team, there is a need of focusing towards the issues which are related to individual team member.

Moreover, it is essential to develop the skills of handling the change in the employees, so that they become able to deal with handle the ever-changing environment and work towards the development as well as improvement of the organizational process. It will enable to adjust the needs of the society and the people in it.

Borkowski (2015) depicted that contemporary leadership remains highly supportive to design the strategies according to the contemporary organizational need instead of holding on to the traditional leadership theories of the past.

In this context, adaptive leadership style remains highly assistive in nature as it enables the leader to develop the solutions on the basis of new technology, different process, expert capability and better communication.

Utilization of these strategies remains assistive for the contemporary leaders to cope up from the challenges of unexpected resistance related to workforce diversity. Adaptive leadership style remains highly assistive to lead the change, particularly during the situation where uncertainty in the situation can be seen (Downey et al. 2015).

In support of this, Bond, & Haynes (2014) stated that in the contemporary market environment due to increase in the trend of globalization, the culture of workforce diversity is increasing in the hospitality industry.

Workforce diversity can be defined as variety of differences between the employees in an organization on the basis of age, race, gender, value, belief, ethnic group, personality, cognitive style, tenure, education, background, etc.

In the views of Eustace & Martins (2014), workforce diversity at the workplace remains supportive for the organization to improve the organizational performance as well as to increase the chances of success in the industry. In support of this, Ashikali, & Groeneveld (2015) stated that workforce diversity is not only beneficiary for the organization, but also it enables to increase the employee performance.

It supports to build great reputation of the firm while increasing the opportunities for workers as it allows learning new skills while exchanging different ideas, views and perceptions. According to the views of Van Wart (2013), an organization success and competitiveness remains dependent on the ability of its employees to embrace diversity while utilizing its benefits.

However, in the contrary, Küpers (2016) stated that it is identified that there are various issues which are related to workforce diversity which directly impacts the organizational performance. In support of this, Bond, & Haynes (2014) determined that actively handlings of workplace diversity issues remain supportive for the development and implementation of diversity plans.

It offers multiple benefits to the organization such as increased adaptability, variety of viewpoints, broader service range, effective execution, etc. In the contrary, it is identified that if the challenges of workforce diversity not handled in an adequate manner so it can inversely impact the organizational performance (Day, 2014).

In the context of, hospitality industry it is essential to develop effective relationship with in different teams as the services are inter-linked between the different departments. Additionally, diverse culture enables the firm to design effective strategy for offering adequate servicing to the consumers which can remain assistive to increase the satisfaction level.

Challenges Faced by Future Leaders

So, there is a need of managing the workforce diversity in an adequate manner. In support of this, it is analysed that in the contemporary environment there are various leadership styles which are used by the leaders to eliminate the challenges.

In support of this, Theodorakopoulos & Budhwar (2015) stated that diverse culture create huge issue at the workplace if it is not dealt in an effective manner as different people have different views, perceptions, believes, suggestions, etc. In this concern, Wood, et al. (2016) determined that communication is one of the major concerns which create barrier towards effective inter-personal relationship.

Ineffective communication creates the issue of confusion, wrong perception, lack of teamwork and low morale. While working in a team, diversity impacts the team performance as different person perceives a similar situation in a different manner.

In this context, Holmes (2016) stated that it is essential for the hospitality industry to change the service offering according to the consumer need. So, it is essential to have effective team work to handle the situational need in a timely manner.

At the same time, Ashikali, & Groeneveld (2015) determined that there should be positive working environment to increase the employee performance but due to cultural diversity instead of positive working environment there can be conflicting situation can be seen.

In most of the cases, it is identified that the conflicts take place due to different perception for a single situation.  However, it is identified that there are always some employees who show reluctant behaviour to accept the social and cultural change, which create the situation of challenge for the hospitality industry and create issue towards the development of competitive advantage (Emerson, & Murphy, 2014).

In like manner, it is analysed that different people have different culture, values and beliefs, due to this reason they perceive a single situation in a different manner. Moreover, language barrier plays the role of a big barrier while handling the different culture people.

Communication gap creates challenge for making the inter-personal relation more effective (Eustace, & Martins, 2014). Moreover, in different culture there is a different way of greetings, sharing feelings and many other parameters which can create difference between the people.

In this context, Sleeter, et al., (2014) stated that workforce diversity should be appreciated within the organization and instead of biasness there should be respect for different in individuals. Hospitality firms have realized the value in the perspective of acquiring the diverse workforce and they are well aware about the positive aspects of the diverse culture.

Due to this reason, firms are giving huge concern towards managing the diverse culture workforce so that the productivity of the employees will increase and they become able to satisfy the need of the consumers in an effective manner and can lead in the industry.

Recommendations

There are various ways which can be used by the future leaders that will remain supportive for them to handle the situation adequately. There is a need of overcome from the perceptual, cultural and language barriers in an effective manner to increase the chances of the success of diversity programs.

In like manner, there is a need of handling the situation of resistance to change by utilizing effective change management strategy. For this purpose, future leaders can use Kotter’s eight step model to implement the change as it supports to accepting the change due to intrinsic force which enables the employees to perform better while giving concern towards the achievement goal (Borkowski, 2015).

There is also a need of developing sense of belongingness between the employees as it supports them to work as a team rather than as an individual. In the views of Boehm, &Kunze (2015), open door management system remains highly assistive for the employees to share their views as well as issues with the management.

Utilization of effective listening skills will remain supportive to decrease the situation of personal grudges in the team. In like manner, according to the views of Silvestri, et al. (2013), future leaders need to build and implement customized strategy for maximizing the diversity effects in the workplace as it will enable the leader to motivate different team members on the basis of their needs.

Additionally, future leader should use the strategy of providing training to the team members so that they come to know more about the diverse culture, their perception, value and belief. In the other hand, Hage, & Posner (2015)stated that there is not only needed to develop effective diversity management in a team but also between the overall organization as a team has to interact with other teams too for the achievement of organizational goal.

So, future leaders need to make the strategy which can create a culture of diversity while learning skills of each others that will remain supportive to increase the efficiency of the hospitality firm while developing the personality of an individual (Eustace, & Martins, 2014).

In the context of hospitality industry, it is essential to have effective team work as it remains supportive to deliver satisfactory services to the patients.

Moreover, for successful management of diversity in the workplace only applying effective diversity training is not sufficient as there is a need of giving concern on other parameters as well to manage the diversity plan in an effective manner (Emerson, & Murphy, 2014).

Giving concern towards this parameter will remain supportive to increase the positive working environment for the employees which will support to encourage them to perform better towards the organizational goal.

In the views of Emerson, & Murphy (2014), there is huge competition in hospitality industry and it is identified that this competition level is tend to be increased in the upcoming years.

So, to overcome the level of competition, it is essential for the leaders to develop effective strategies which will remain assistive to take maximum utilization of the skills, knowledge and experience of the diverse culture people. At the same time, it enables to design the strategies to make the services more effective for increasing the level of satisfaction while decreasing the gap between expected services and offered services.

So, future leaders need to give consideration towards eliminating the challenges which takes place between the diverse culture workforce and impact the employee performance (Küpers, 2016).

Conclusion

From the above essay, it can be concluded that the theoretical concept in the context of workforce diversity remain highly assistive to offer detailed understanding regarding the topic.

It has supported to understand that although workforce diversity remains assistive to increase the organizational performance but there are lots of challenges which are faced by the hospitality industry due to diversity. So, there is a need of handling the challenges of workforce diversity in an adequate manner while implementing the contemporary leadership strategy.

It will enable the future leaders to eliminate the issues of workforce diversity, so that the diverse culture will remain assistive to increase the organizational performance as well as individual performance. This essay has supported to show clear picture regarding the topic while analysing the study on the perspective of various past researches.

Moreover, it has enabled to understand that if workforce diversity not managed in an effective manner, then it can create issue towards organizational performance but if the leader becomes able to handle it in an adequate manner then it can enable the firm to lead in the industry.

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