Impact Of Leadership On Hotel Business: A Case Study Of Hilton Hotel Cyprus

The Significance of Leadership Qualities in the Hotel Industry

The significance of leadership qualities of the managers in the hotel industry cannot be overlooked. In recent time, an economic downturn is making the hotel accommodation an expensive one and the leaders have the responsibility to bring the customers to the door. Managers’ good leadership qualities in the hospitality sector can bring good business. Regardless of the size of the company, good leadership is necessary for the success of the business (Storey 2016). In this research, the researcher aims to analyse the impact of leadership on the hotel business. In the hospitality sector, the managers play the role of the leaders to instruct and lead the staffs to attract and retain the guests. The managers of the hotel need to have the required skill so that they can effectively motivate the staffs. In this research, the Hilton Hotel of Cyprus is chosen hospitality industry in which the researcher sets the focus to identify the leadership impact on the organisation. There are five chapters in this research and each of the chapters is allocated to collect, discuss and analyse the data. In the first chapter, the research rationale, aim, objectives and research questions are given along with the structure of the overall research.

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The hotel industry has to provide consistent quality to the service to the guests across all units. The management of the hotel industry has to play the role of recruiting, selecting and training of the staffs. In the hospitality sector, the retention rate of the employees is low and the guest satisfaction is very important. The role of the managers in the hotel industry is to retain maximum staffs by giving them motivating factors and provide the guests with ample satisfactory factors. Lewis and Chambers (2017) further added that role of the managers in the hospitality industry is to instruct the staffs and be with the staffs in the training process so that they can meet the organisational objectives. Leadership qualities in the hospitality industry for the managers are very much similar to the qualities of the leaders in the successful business. The hospitality industry leaders need mainly two types of skills, business skills and people skills. According to Shoemaker et al. (2017), in the hotel industry, the business skills of the leaders are associated with the accounting procedure, computer technologies and business sense. People skills in the hotel industry are related to the fair play with the employees, the leaders must have the clarity to solve the issues of the employees and to make the exact type of customer relations. The leader in the hospitality industry is the one who must be respected by the staffs and the perception of the employees must be fair.

Leadership Qualities of Managers in the Hospitality Sector

The aim of any organisation is to survive and to sustain the existence of the organisation by improving the performance. Hotel organisations continually increase the performance in order to meet the objectives and needs of a highly competitive industry. According to Law et al. (2016), the managers in the hotel lead the employees in such a way so that the staffs can achieve the performance. In addition, the findings of the prior secondary articles explained the impact and role of the leadership in the performance of the organisation or employees’ satisfaction. Leadership is very important for the organisation as the leaders have the responsibilities to gain the high level of performance of the employees, to generate the marketing plan and to provide the guest satisfaction (Scheule and Sneed 2015). Most of the authors stated that leadership has a direct cause and effect relationship on the success of the organisations. In the hospitality sectors, managers determine the change in tolerance, culture and employee motivations. Managers in the hospitality sector reap the maximum of the organisation’s resources (Arendt and Gregoire 2015). The hotel industry is based on mainly human resources and the role of the managers is to manage, control and motivate the staffs in the workplace. This particular research explores the impact of leadership that can play the success of the hotel business as this study showcases leaders’ role in providing adequate training to handle the responsibilities efficiently in hotels.

Overview of Hilton Hotel in Cyprus

Hilton Hotels and Resorts provide resorts and hotel services to the guests and Hilton also has the flagship brand. Conrad Hilton founded this Hilton Hotels and Resorts in the year 1919 and in the year 2017, the Hilton hotel has its services in more than 85 countries. In Cyprus, the Hilton hotel is located in Nicosia’s city centre and historic old city. Hilton Cyprus is the ideal place to stay while visiting Cyprus. It is located in a Mediterranean climate and it has large outdoor pool. Hilton Hotel in Cyprus has the business centre and it provides the conference and event spaces for 2000 attendees (Hilton.com/en 2018). Hilton Hotel in Cyprus provides the amenities like sunbathe by the large poolside, fitness centre and beauty salon and tennis court. Hotel Hilton in Cyprus also provides the best opportunity to make choice for the guests to have bars and restaurants. In the Hilton Hotel in Cyprus, more than 250 staffs working on a rotational basis.  

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Overview of Hilton Hotel in Cyprus

What is the issue?

In the hospitality sector, the retention rate of the employees is very low as the staffs do not find the hospitality employment suitable for their career. The leaders in the hotel industry are the managers who generally try to retain maximum numbers of employees. Another issue in the hotel industry is lack of guest satisfaction. The leaders take the responsibility to keep the employees motivated and train the staffs so that the staffs must give their best within the working schedule to keep the guests happy (Jones et al. 2016). The leaders initiate the action in communicating the plans and policies to the staffs of the hospitality sector. In the recent economic downturn, the accommodation in hotels becomes expensive for the guests. The leaders need to take the necessary steps so that the staffs give their best and the staffs can motivate the employees.

Why is it an issue?

The managers in the hotel industry control and lead the staffs so that the staffs work under the guidance of the leaders. The leaders make the staffs confidence so that the staffs can provide the satisfaction to the guests. The staffs in the hotel industry must know their job role and the leaders give guidelines to the staffs to follow. In Hotel Hilton Cyprus, more than 250 staffs work and the staffs lack the morale to work under the supervision of managers. The managers fail to build the work environment where the staffs like to work in peace. Lack of employees’ motivation is the issue as the leaders fail to create a workplace environment and fail to give extrinsic motivations (Kandampully et al. 2015). Top-down communication from the leaders is not vivid in Hilton Hotel Cyprus; therefore, the staffs are facing the issue of co-ordination as synchronisation is not gained through the effective and proper motive of the leadership.  

Why is it an issue now?

In Cyprus, in the year 2017, hotel accommodation industry made Euro 3.23 million revenue (Altinay and Bowen 2018). However, the customers’ reviews of Hilton Hotel Cyprus in third-party online booking apps and websites are degrading. Maximum customers are disappointed due to the poor behaviour of the staffs and the quality of the ambience and food. The poor reviews have influenced the minds of the guests who are willing to visit Cyprus. The percentage of booking in Hotel Hilton Cyprus has been degraded due to the poor reviews of the customers. It is a big challenge for hotel management to repair the reputation management as it requires user-centric mentality, new staffs and logistical changes (Jauhari and Bharwani 2017). The leadership style of the managers fails to motivate the employees and the staffs are leaving the employment. As a result, the staffs’ behaviour towards the guests has been changed. The guests want an immediate response and the services as nobody wants anxiety and ambiguity while they travelling. In contemporary times, it has been seen that the level of performance of the front-line employees are declining in a gradual manner and naturally the issue has attracted the attention of business leaders.

Issues Faced by Hotel Hilton Cyprus

What does the research shed light on?

This particular research sheds light on the issues faced by the staffs and the guests in Hotel Hilton Cyprus due to the negligence of the managers. The impact of leadership on the hotel services and on the organisational productivity is the main focus of the research. Various aspects of leadership in the hotel are to be the main focus of the research. The main purpose of the research is to find out how effective is the role of leaders to increase the overall performance of the hotel organisations.  

This research work aims to explore and evaluate the effectiveness of the business leaders in enhancing the organisational performance of the hotel businesses. This particular research aims to highlight the relevant aspects of organisational performance through the leadership. This research narrowly focuses on Hotel Hilton Cyprus to find out the leadership impact on the organisation.

  • To evaluate the effectiveness of leadership in enhancing the overall organisational performance in the hotel business
  • To recognise how good leadership in hotel business will help the organisation to sustain the reputation or to build a positive reputation in the market of operation
  • To explore the role of leaders in hospitality businesses of Hotel Hilton Cyprus
  • To recommend some possible solutions to improve the leadership qualities in Hotel Hilton Cyprus
  1. What is the effectiveness of leadership in enhancing the overall organisational performance in the hotel business?
  2. How can business leaders motivate the employees to enhance their level of performance?
  3. What is the role of leaders in hospitality businesses of Hotel Hilton Cyprus?
  4. What could be some possible recommend some possible solutions to improve the leadership qualities in Hotel Hilton Cyprus?

H0: Business leaders do not help to increase the organisational performance in the hospitality business

H1: Business leaders effectively increase the organisational performance in the hospitality business

This research explains the leadership aspects of the hotel industry. First of all, this research will be significant for the leaders and managers in the hotel industry as the leaders and managers will get a clear aspect of leadership on the performance of the hotel. In addition, this research will be further significant for the future researchers who can get the idea about hospitality industry leadership. The researcher has collected the data from various secondary sources. Additionally, the leaders of Hilton Hotel Cyprus can get the idea about what are the challenges they are facing and how they can fight back with the challenges.

Chapter one: Introduction

In this chapter, research rationale, aim, objectives of the research and research questions are given.

Chapter two: Literature Review

In this chapter, secondary data sources and scholarly papers have been discussed to present the theoretical framework of the research.

Chapter three: Research Methodology

In this chapter, the data collection process and data analysis technique have been discussed.

Chapter four: Data collection and Data analysis

In chapter four, the collected data has been analysed with analysis technique and adequate graph and table have been presented.

Chapter five: Conclusions and Recommendations

In the final chapter, the conclusion of the research has been given along with objectives have been linked with findings. Finally, a set of recommendations has been given.

Research Aim and Objectives

In the introduction chapter, the background of the research topic is given which is based on leadership impact on the organisational performance. This research is tried to set the missing link on the leadership with impact on the performance of the organisation. The focus of the research is on Hotel Hilton Cyprus. The aim, objectives and research questions have been set. In the following chapter, secondary sources of the scholarly articles have been explained.

In this chapter of literature review, scholarly papers have been reviewed based on the secondary sources. Secondary sources include the current knowledge comprising the substantive findings. The researcher has included the theoretical contribution of the scholarly authors regarding the leadership in the hospitality industry and its impact on the organisational performance. Leadership and organisational performance are described in the human resource context. Literature reviews are mainly secondary data sources and literature review does not report any original or experimental work. In this chapter, the researcher discusses two variables of the research with concept and theories and underpins the relationship between two variables. In the final section of this chapter, the gap in literature findings is given.

According to Arendt and Gregoire (2015), leadership can be defined as influence relationship between the followers and leaders which intend to reflect and real changes their mutual purpose. The role of leaders in the hospitality industry is to meet and exceed the expectation of the guests. The numbers of hotels in tourism or urban areas are increasing and the guests have many options to choose from them. The managers emphasise the value of the customer service to gain the guest satisfaction, excellent word-of-mouth publicity and the repeat business (Boyne 2017). In addition, leaders focus on the guest services so that the guests can admire about the hotels on social media and reviews sites (third-party apps). Effective managers in the hotel focus on achieving the consistent results with the goal to establish the team. The leaders in the hotel need to look far away from the existing process and the leaders need to understand the dynamic relationship of the business structure. As stated by Worsfold (2016), leaders need to make use of the talent of the employees in a best possible way by giving them the right set of the tasks. The leaders need to be successful in overseeing and establishing the team to make the systematic attempt to smooth the work of the hotel and to provide guest satisfaction.

The leaders can ask the HR department to hire the right staffs for the hotel and the leaders can assess the staffs for their skills. The leaders analyse the employees’ weaknesses and strengths and look for ways to improve the team performance. The hospitality industry deals with both services and human resources. Human resources are the staffs of the hotel and the services are associated with room services, technologies, food quality and linen quality of the rooms (Brownell 2017). The managers of the hotel can be autocratic or the managers can also be democratic; however, democratic leaders can take the decision after discussing with staffs and different departments of the hospitality sector. The leaders in the hotel industry act professionally with the guests and with the staffs. The leaders can provide leeway so that the staffs can take independent decisions. In addition, the managers in the hotel industry think about the motivational policies and rewards as rewards help the staffs to give the best (Huang et al. 2016). In order to increase the employee morale and retention, the leaders must make the workplace atmosphere in a way so that the staffs must feel that they are valued.

Autocratic leadership is to take control of all the business decisions made inside the organisation without making any consultation with others. According to Hargreaves et al. (2014), autocratic leaders hold high-level of power and they impose responsibilities on the employees. In case of close-level supervision, the autocratic leadership is helpful as the employees have to listen to the leaders only. However, creative employees feel unmotivated under the autocratic leaders as their morale may go down.

Democratic leadership process is associated with the decision-making with the fellow team members. Democratic leaders carry the responsibility of observing the decision which is to achieve desired outcomes (Tung 2014).

Laissez-faire leadership is about not exercising the control of the employees directly and the laissez-faire leaders do not provide continuous feedback to the leaders. The employees must be highly-experienced in laissez-faire leadership and the leaders leave the tasks on supervision of the teams (Moore 2016).  

Situational leadership

Dr Paul Hersey developed the situational leadership theory and this theory is flexible yet powerful. Situational leadership is about understanding the relationship between the level of readiness of the employees and the effective style of leadership for the specific task. Situational leadership demonstrates the critical leadership competencies which are adapt, diagnose, communicate and advance (McCleskey 2014). The fundamental principle of this theory is that no single type of leadership is best; however, effective leadership must be task-relevant and successful leaders always adapt to their leadership styles.

Path-goal theory

The leaders always select behaviours which are suited for the employees in a specific environment so that the leaders can guide the team members through the path to achieve the goals. Path-goal theory determines the employee and characteristics of the environment and the leaders follow a specific type of leadership. The leaders always focus on the motivational factors which can help the employees to get success in the workplace to gain the organisational objectives (Northouse 2018). Employees describe the leaders based on the expectations, perception of ability and control desire. The leaders can design the task and support the team members. In addition, the leaders can provide goals to formal authority system and the leaders can segregate the workgroup based on the needs of the organisation. According to Chemers (2014), in order to make the team supportive, the leaders show the enthusiasm, comradeship and devotion towards team members.

Organisational performance is associated with analysing the performance of the company as per the set objectives and goals. As defined by Coccia (2016), organisational performance contains the result compared with output intended for the stipulated time frame. The authors further described that organisational performance focuses on the three desired outcomes, shareholder value, market performance and financial performance of the organisation. Shareholder value is associated with while the organisation makes the shareholder richer and this is the ultimate measure of the success of the company (Lee 2017). In addition, market performance is related to the company achieves the market share through the performance. Organisational performance helps to achieve the firm to get the lost market share and organisational performance assists to upgrade the new products or services in the pipeline. Product or service development boosts the sales or customer satisfaction. Moreover, financial performance is related to with the company’s financial health and the finance team needs to understand the Return on Investment, assets and value added. In hospitality industry, financial performance measures the operation of the company in monetary terms. Hospitality sector can measure the financial performance just by gauging the value added (Alfalla-Luque et al. 2015).

Performance is a key focus of any hospitality organisation as performance helps the firms to make progress and grow. Organisational performance can improve the shared values of the company and value system of the hospitality organisations is developed to deal with the development (Carlos Pinho et al. 2015). The main area of the organisational performance is to show the growth of the firm and in the hospitality industry, it is very much associated with the human resources. Human resources are the integral and inherent practice in the hospitality industry and the relationship between the hosts and the guests are seen as being more fragile to show the interaction in the hotel sector (Su et al. 2015).   

Organisational effectiveness means congruence between organisational objectives and observed outcomes. Organisational effectiveness can be defined in different ways and it is associated with efficiency, productivity, turnover of the employees, employee absenteeism, goal consensus, stability, communication and conflict of the employees (Hannan and Freeman 1993). Hannan and Freeman stated that the effectiveness of the organisation is degree to which organisation can realise the goals. The model of effectiveness has multiple and frequently changing in the goals. The goals of the organisation are few in number to be manageable and it is defined to be understood. The authors described organisational effectiveness in three different perspectives; goals involves in specificity, multiplicity of organisational objectives and temporal dimension. According to Terziovski and Samson (2017), effective organisation tries to deal with reaching the goals to evolve with the ecology. The organisation spends money for the most and best solution; however, if the organisation does not have the money; it will have the less expensive mode to achieve the results.

BSC model of organisational performance

Kaplan and Norton developed the BSC model by linking the business unit strategy to the performance of the organisation. BSC framework has four measurement criteria including four non-financial and financial measures. Four measurements are customer satisfaction, financial results, internal business process and learning and growth. This particular business performance matrix permits the managers and leaders to understand the organisations can satisfy the customers with services and products. The financial matrix includes the financial viability of the shareholders and customers. Internal business process is associated with satisfying the stakeholders and customers’ business process (Kaplan and Norton 2001). In addition, learning and growth discuss the vision of sustainability to change and develop. Learning and growth are associated with the employee training, corporate culture attitude for both self-improvement and individual. Customer satisfaction is associated with the achieving the vision of the customers through service delivery. As stated by Rettab et al. (2017), the scorecard of the BSC model demonstrates the successful adaptation of the mission and strategy of the organisation.

Performance of the hotels depends on four factors majorly and all these factors depend on the human resources. Leaders drive the performance of the hotel and hotels fall into the category of the service industry.

  • Competitive pressure is generated by the industry and competitive pressure increases the performance of the hotel in two ways; first, performance can be compared across the industry and existence of organisation is depended on generating the competition through the use of comparative information. Competitive pressures come from others hotels in the same area when the hotel is under-performing compared to others (Hailey et al.2015). Competitive pressures can be normalised by good leadership and staffs’ initiative to provide the best services.
  • Accountability mechanism allows the guests to put pressure on the hospitality sector performance. The guests give the reviews on the third party apps, social media and on the website of the hotels. Poor reviews can lead to reducing the numbers of booking. Therefore, the management needs to improve the services and quality of the rooms, staffs’ behaviour and food of the hospitality. The leaders’ effective strategies can improve the performance of the hotel.
  • Externally imposed targets and performance benchmarks lead the hotel to improve the performance of the staffs and leaders. Benchmarks are set by the public agency and third-party apps from where the guests book the hotels (Waggoner et al.2016). The third-party websites and mobile apps set various categories in which the guests can review and rate the hotels.
  • Management pressure to improve the performance of the staffs generates the best quality performance of the staffs. The staffs do the responsibilities like take telephone calls, front desks, concierge and reservation of the hotels and making guest relations.

Leaders are invaluable when it comes to formulating and communicating new strategic directions, as well as motivating employees and increase their dedication to organisational goals or objective. Leadership acts as the catalyst that makes all other elements work together; without leadership, all other business resources lie dormant. Some of the ways in which leadership can benefit an organisation include the setting of a clear vision and mission and communicating it effectively (Williams 2017). It is needed to make employees clearly understand their individual roles and responsibilities towards achieving organisational objectives. The leaders have effective planning and a structured approach to achieve organisational goals. The leaders inspire and motivate team members to perform to their full potential and bring out the best in every team member. On the other side, as stated by Yahaya and Ebrahim (2016), good leadership can also help a team remain focused during a time of crisis and boost the morale of the team. Leaders include vision, strategy, motivating people, building a culture, ensuring compliance & ensuring the working of a hotel. Leader formulates a vision and strategizes the same and then motivates people using various leadership styles to achieve the same in a hospitality organisation. Managers in the hotel have the authority and with that come to the responsibility which in turn leads to the blame if things go wrong. As stated by Anderson and Sun (2017), though a leader is not responsible to execute, they are responsible for the safety of his people. Managers in the hotel have to ensure that all related risks are mitigated via appropriate strategy.

When sports teams don’t perform the coach is usually fired and when sports teams do well, the coach is recognised, however, the leaders certainly don’t perform in the arena. The managers in hospitality sector instruct the staffs to perform the best so that the hospitality organisation brings greater revenue. On the contrary, as opined by Romager et al. (2017), in the service industry, the organisations need to improve the expertise skills and notions as these are associated with the service quality. The leaders in the hotel industry should focus on the recruitment and selection, communication and training of the staffs. Staffs’ induction and training can bring the guest satisfaction. Better working system, environment, work culture, developed customer service and team working can make the hotel sector effective to have organisational performance. In addition, as explained by Beal (2016), leaders in the hotel can start the butler service as the butlers look after the guests within the hotel rooms and the butlers provide personalised services for the guests. In addition, the staffs can provide concierge services in the hotel as the concierge helps the guests by providing various tasks, including booking hotels, cabs, arranging spa and making restaurant reservation (Wang et al. 2016). Therefore, the managers in the hotel instruct the staffs to perform the best to smooth run the organisational resources for grabbing the competitive advantage. Moreover, the leaders look on sides, financial performance and environmental protection.

Most of the scholars proposed theoretical ideas and concepts of organisational leadership and enhanced performances of the human resources. The authors also discussed the leadership styles and innovations which are needed in the hotel industry. Moreover, leadership is a standout amongst the most critical viewpoints in an organisation trying to change through organisational leadership and learning, with the motivation behind empowering leadership development. Leaders assume an essential part in contributing information and empowering a learning domain in the association. The interconnections between leadership styles, organisational advancement and organisational execution can be created. Additionally, scholarly researchers have discovered that distinctive leadership styles may prompt diverse levels of organisational performance. However, the scholarly papers failed to propose which leadership style is appropriate in the hotel sector and to carry out the day-to-day responsibilities.

This chapter deals with the scholarly articles and the researcher reviewed the findings of the scholarly papers and theoretical frameworks. The secondary research papers talked about the leadership styles to deal with the hospitality chores and works. Organisational performance is associated with the leadership styles. Secondary data will help the researcher to meet the research objectives. In the following chapter, the data collection process and data analysis technique are discussed.  

In this chapter, a systematic plan for data collection and data analysis is provided. Research methods are of two types; qualitative and quantitative. Choice of research methodology is upon research objectives. This research is based on a business topic and the researcher has selected the data collection and analysis process which could provide the help to collect the data. In this research, the researcher has set the hypothesis and two variables of the research are the leadership (independent variable) and organisational performance (dependent variable). Research methodology sets the specific technique to collect the data for the research to analyse the information of the topic.

In this particular research, the researcher has followed the research onion as it provides the progression through which the data collection process can be designed. The usefulness of research methodology lies in its adaptability in a variety of contexts. Research onion is the layered approach to which the researchers can collect the data and analyse it. Three major layers of the research onion are the axiology, ontology and epistemology. As stated by Saunders et al. (2009), each layer of the research onion states the research process and approach.

According to Hughes and Sharrock (2016), research philosophy explains the nature and source of the knowledge. The author further stated that research philosophy helps to collect and analyse the data based on phenomena. Research philosophy assists the researchers to formulate the assumptions and beliefs of the research. Research philosophy lays the outer layer of the research onion. There are mainly four types of research philosophy:

  • Pragmatism
  • Realism
  • Interpretivism
  • Positivism

Pragmatism

Realism

Interpretivism

Positivism

The researcher can collect the data using a mixed method (both qualitative and quantitative)

The researcher needs to choose the method fit for the topic

The researcher must set the sample small and investigation needs to be qualitative

This data collection process is highly structured and samples need to be large

Justification for selecting Interpretivism philosophy

Interpretivism develops the research in subjective perspective and interpretivism mostly provides stress that human beings are different from physical phenomena. Leadership is based on the leaders and interpretivism deals with human beings who are equal to the physical phenomena. The leaders can belong to different cultural background and the leaders in the workplace have to control the employees who might come from the different background also. Leaders and employees both can bring the different social realities. As opined by Taylor et al. (2015), the aim of the interpretivism is to establish a richer understanding and new context in business and social research. Interpretivism also helps the researchers to look at the organisations from the understandings of the different groups of people so that organisational performance can be identified.

Palinkas et al. (2015) stated that the research approach can be defined as the procedure which consists of the stages of assumptions to understand the method of data collection, interpretation and analysis. Research approach discusses the research methodology in two different perspectives; approach of collecting data and approach of analysis of the data with reasoning. Research approach is of two types;

  • Inductive research approach
  • Deductive research approach

Inductive research approach goes from specific to general in data analysis and the researchers try to explore the phenomenon (Woiceshyn and Daellenbach 2018). On the other side, deductive research deals with collecting the data from general to specific and the data collection process evaluates the proposition of the hypothesis.

Justification for selecting Deductive approach

 The researcher has set a hypothesis for this research and confirming or rejecting of the hypothesis can be done through deductive approach. At first, the researcher has discussed the theories of both leadership and organisational performance. Deductive research approach provides the verification of the research theory (Bryman 2016).The researcher has observed the hypothesis of the study through theories and collected data. In the final stage of the deductive approach; the researcher confirmed or rejected the hypothesis.

According to Levine et al. (2018), research design is the systematic method of collecting the data from the respondents to use the data for analysis. Research design is mainly the scientific study to do the overall synchronisation of the two variables. There are mainly three types of research designs:

  • Exploratory research design
  • Explanatory research design
  • Descriptive research design

Exploratory design helps the researcher to review the background of the research and the explanatory design allows the researcher to identify the relation between the numerous variables that can be used for conducting the research work (Lewis 2015). Finally, descriptive design helps the researcher to get to know the contemporary issues related to the topic of the research.

Justification for selecting descriptive design

In this research, the researcher has collected the data from the respondents using a small sample. The descriptive design is used to explain the features of the population being studied and descriptive research design tries to find out the data which can solve the research problem. Descriptive research design can collect the data in three possible ways; observational, survey and case study (Fusch and Ness 2015). Descriptive research design has helped the researcher to explain the people who took part in this research. The researcher followed the observational design where the researcher observed the sample so that the researcher could collect the observational data and drew a conclusion from this.

In research methodology, data collection process is the most important part and data needs to be collected measuring the information through targeted variables. There are two types of data; primary data and secondary data. According to Edson et al. (2016), primary data are raw data which are collected directly from respondents and these are first hand-raw data. On the other side, secondary data are collected from the secondary sources like printed and online data sources. The researcher has collected mixed data collection procedure in order to conduct this research which means the researcher has collected both primary and secondary data.

Primary data for this research has been collected through a semi-structured interview of the respondents. The researcher has used the questionnaire research instrument to collect the data from the respondents. The researcher has prepared 10 open-ended questions to collect the data for the interviews. The researcher has conducted telephonic and Skype interviews of the respondents to collect the observational data. The researcher has used the intranet software of Hilton Hotel Cyprus in order to get information about the respondents and the permission of the respondents has been taken to conduct the interview. According to Cleary et al. (2014), primary data are reliable as the data collection procedure can be checked and analysed. The researcher gets the raw and first-hand experience and information along with the information is up-to-date. The researcher can ask the questions in the interview based on the research objectives. On the other side, primary data is taken from the population and information can be biased sometimes. Semi-structured questions will open up the ideas diverting from the set of open-ended questions. The researcher has followed the themes like organisational performance and leadership to discuss with the interviewees. Most importantly, interviews provide the advantage of correcting the speech and developing the relationship with the respondents (Marshall et al. 2017). Interview process helped to select the suitable candidates for this research and the researcher has got the sufficient information. The survey has not been worked for this research as survey provides inflexible design to collect the data from the very beginning. Survey questions are MCQ type and general questions have not been appropriate for this research.

The researcher has also collected data from the secondary data sources like various books, journals, articles, online sources and government reports. The researcher has collected data based on Cyprus travellers’ visits to different hotels and resorts through online materials.

The researcher has chosen the managers of Hotel Hilton Cyprus as a sample population. In Hotel Hilton Cyprus, there are mainly six types of managers exist. The researcher has intended to collect the data from the managers using the interviews. The researcher has collected the data from four different types of managers from Hotel Hilton Cyprus. The researcher has taken permission from the managers before conducting the interviews, based on telephone and Skype. The researcher has selected four managers using non-probability sampling. Non-probability sampling technique is used where the researcher does not include all the individuals in the population equal chances of being chosen (Broad 2014). The researcher has selected four managers, hotel manager, front office manager, restaurant and beverage manager and housekeeping manager for conducting the interview. The interview data has been recorded for the research purpose.

Sample population

Sample size

Sample technique

Sample frame

Hotel managers

4

Non-probability sampling

Semi-structured interview (Through telephone and Skype)

Table 3.1: Interview sample

(Source: Self-developed)

Quantitative data are mainly numerical data and this research data comes from the survey mainly. Quantitative data helps mainly in statistical analysis (Sutton and Austin 2015). Quantitative data includes the frequencies and calculation of the variables. In this research, the researcher has used qualitative data analysis technique. Interviews data are mainly qualitative data as these are based on observations of the respondents. Qualitative data are the development of ideas which assist us to understand business or social phenomena giving emphasis on views, meanings and experiences (Sekaran and Bougie 2016). The researcher has used the thematic data analysis technique as this analysis is qualitative analysis method. The thematic analysis puts stress on the examining, pinpointing and recording the themes within the data (Smith 2015). The researcher has divided the qualitative data findings into five themes and these themes have been based on the specific research questions. Thematic analysis has been conducted based on the secondary data findings and the interview responses. The researcher has used NVivo software for qualitative data analysis as it helps to find the themes to maximise the ideas and insights.

Qualitative research is mainly based on the interpretive, subjective and contextual data; therefore, the findings of the research like less likely to be questioned. The findings of the research need to be consistent, believable and applicable. In this qualitative research area, reliability means the consistency and the researcher has tried to produce the same results in repeat mode. The researcher has validated the findings of the research from all the four managers’ perspective so that the conclusions must bring the correctness. Validity means the accuracy of the findings (Marshall et al. 2017). Face validity is the logical validity where the researcher can apply the subjective assessment of the measure.  

This particular research is based on the human participants and the researcher has conducted interviews through telephonic and Skype. Before conducting the research, the researcher has sent the consent paper to the respondents and the interview respondents knew why the interview has been taken. The interviewees have signed the consent paper before faced the interview questions. The researcher has followed the Data Protection Act 1998 declaring all the data has been stored in private and the names of the respondents have not been made public. The researcher ensured that confidentiality would be maintained and any kind of coercion would not be performed. The researcher has cited all the references materials collected from the internet and any kind of information and facts have been treated as a legally punishable offence. In addition, the researcher has taken permission from the university also before conducting the research on human participants. The researcher also ensured that all the data would be destroyed once the research process is done.

Main activities

Week 1

Week 3

Week 5

Week 7

Week 8

Week 10

Week 12

Topic selection

?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Components of literature review

 

?

 

 

 

 

 

Research methodology

 

 

?

 

 

 

 

Primary data collection (Interview)

 

 

 

?

 

 

 

Analysis and interpretation

 

 

 

 

?

 

 

Findings

 

 

 

 

 

?

 

Conclusion and Recommendation

 

 

 

 

 

 

?

submission of project

 

 

 

 

 

 

?

Table 3.2: Gantt chart

(Source: Self-developed)

The researcher has collected both primary and secondary data to conduct the research. Therefore, a vast amount of data has been collected to segregate the data into themes. The correct form of data collection has led the researcher to analyse the data in an effective way. In the following the chapter, the collected data is analysed based on the themes. Data analysis is the most important part of the research as it leads the researcher towards conclusion and recommendation.

In this particular chapter, collected data through interview and the secondary sources are analysed using the thematic data analysis. The researcher has collected qualitative data from the semi-structured interview, in this chapter; thematic analysis is done by segregating the collected data into five themes. The researcher has divided the themes based on the research questions. The researcher has started the analysis of the data after generation and experimentation of the data from the interview and the secondary sources. The data needs to be interpreted during the analysis. Under each of the theme, the researcher has given a table or graph to support the analysis. NVivo software supports the qualitative data analysis and the researcher coded the themes using this particular software. This software has helped the researcher to find the keywords and the researcher found the transcript of the interviews.

Analysing qualitative data collected from the interviews is an issue; however, it is required the innovation process. The researcher has divided the qualitative data into five different themes.

The effectiveness of leadership in the hotel sector to mitigate the issues

The hotel industry is growing fast in Cyprus and it is expected to grow at high speed assuming that almost 1 in 12 people would be employed in the hospitality sector in Cyprus by the end of 2022 (Boukas and Ziakas 2018). In Cyprus, the hotel industry is flourishing as this place is known for international tourism. Numbers of travellers reached 3.5 million in 2016 and tourism is one of the largest economic values for Cyprus. Many of the international hotel chains have their hotel and resort in Cyprus. The managers in a hotel in Cyprus have to make a plan so that the hotel can compete with other hotels. The travellers mainly make their bookings through third-party apps using the online platform. Key tourist areas of Cyprus are mainly five and those are Paphos, Famagusta, Limassol, Nicosia and Larnaca (Visitcyprus.biz 2018). Hilton Hotel is located in Nicosia area and Hotel manager of Hotel Hilton stated during the interview that Nicosia is the commercial and business hub of Cyprus with the world-famous archaeological museum. The occupancy rate of the hotels in Cyprus has been increasing. Staffs’ behaviour, technology and leadership have been influencing the hotel industry and visit of numbers of guests is improving.

Year

Occupancy rate

2012

64.5%

2013

63%

2014

61.6%

2015

65.3%

2016

71.3%

Table 4.1: Occupancy rate in Cyprus hotel (2012-2017)

(Source: Statista.com 2018)

Apart from the bright side of the tourism in Cyprus, the hotel manager of Hilton explained that the hotel industry has been facing the issue of continuous changing demands of guests. In a previous time, the guests come to the hotels through travel agencies or they themselves came to the hotels. In recent time, the guests can observe the reviews of the hotels before booking through third-party websites or mobile app. Technology has made the guests impatient and understanding of the guests’ demand is changing. Housekeeping manager of Hilton hotel also described that the perception of a luxury hotel is changing and the well-designed hotel is not enough as the guests want personalised services. The role of the leaders is to find out the guests’ perception of the hotel and the leaders need to instruct the staffs and help the staffs to achieve the objective. Moreover, the hotel industry has been facing the competition from the alternatives accommodation like Airbnb. Airbnb is one of the biggest threats for the luxury hotels and the valuation of Airbnb reached $10 billion which is much bigger than the large hotel chains in the world. Airbnb provides alternative accommodation and offbeat living and the guests are attracted by this (Styles et al. 2017). Leaders are changing their behaviour to instruct the staffs and the leaders are making the routine of the staffs so that they can provide guest satisfaction. The leaders in the hotel industry have taken the alternative pattern of interaction with the staffs and subordinates so that the staffs can provide their hundred per cent in their working period having extra fringe benefits. The managers are choosing alternative media to advertise about hotels adding the extra benefits which can be avail by the guests while staying. ‘Being-there’ or ‘hands-on’ is prevalent leadership style which is effective for the staffs’ job satisfaction as the staffs think that leaders’ stand beside them (Fairhurstand Connaughton,  2014). On the other side, literature sources described that in the hospitality industry autocratic leadership is as common as the unpredictable demand of the guests and staffs’ behaviour is the main reason.

Leadership leads to the positive reputation of the hotel

Cyprus economy relies on the service industry and on the tourism industry. WTTC published a report, in which it is mentioned that the tourism sector provided $6.1 billion in GDP (almost 6% of total GDP) in Cyprus economy (Visitcyprus.biz 2018). However, total contribution in the travel and tourism sector in Cyprus economy was almost 19% in the year 2016, as stated by the front office manager of Hilton, Cyprus. The scenario of tourism was not the same in the last five years as the hotels were depended on leisure and the business guests throughout the year. However, the hotel business leaders started the campaign named ‘Sun and Sea’ and it started the seasonality in Cyprus tourism (Cyprusprofile.com 2018). The peak season of tourists’ arrival in hotels in Cyprus is between May and October. Cyprus is mainly known for the summer destination. The hospitality business managers and the leaders divided the accommodations into a few categories namely, hotels, hotel apartments, traditional building, tourist village, resorts, guest houses and camping sites to attract the guests. As stated by Antonakis and Day (2017), ineffective and improper marketing was part of the leadership in Cyprus hotel business in past, however; the leaders changed the marketing by re-evaluating the marketing.

Hotel manager of Hilton hotel averred that Hilton brought the changes in the innovation of the hotel services as Hilton applied the concept of customised services for the guests. The leaders always try to improve the value of the hotel business apart from the quantity. The leaders of hotel business have the vision also as not everyone can understand the big picture. This findings can be linked with literature review section, Hargreaves et al. (2014) stated in the article that leaders need to trust the staffs in the hotel business to execute the vision to achieve the target. In addition, Hilton hotel of Cyprus brought the reputation from the brand image of Hilton which they carry with them. In addition, in Nicosia, the hotel manager of Hilton provides values to the staffs to follow, such as guest satisfaction, use of ICT technologies, leisure booking and inspiration. The leaders of the Hilton hotel bring the inspiration to the mind of the employees. However, in particular scenario, the organisational performance cannot be brought in the right order as sales and online presence of hotel has created an issue for Hilton. The leaders in hotels need to communicate with the staffs as good leaders are the good communicators along with good listeners (Tung 2014). In the literature review, it has been found that reputation of the hotel depends on social media, search, reviews and ratings on apps and word of mouth publicity. Therefore, leaders’ role is associated with the claiming of the business listing on third-party apps and gets noticed by adding the best quality photo.  

The hotel manager in Hilton Cyprus explained that leaders’ role in the hotel business is based on two skills; people skills and business skills. In the literature review section, the authors also stated about people skills and business skills. The leaders need to have the people skills which are included the respect, fair play and problem-solving abilities among the employees. The leaders in the hotel business have good relations with the staffs and the staffs show respect towards the leaders. Leaders in the hotel industry delegate responsibilities, encourage achievement, provide good attitudes and create an enjoyable workplace for the staffs. In the hotel industry, Hilton housekeeping manager faced lower retention of the employees and the reason behind it may be lack of stability and poor wage of the employees. As stated in the literature review by Wang (2016), leadership qualities of the managers in the hotel industry are based on bringing the mutual respect, negotiation skills, get equipped with technologies and guest relations. People skills of leadership increase the organisational performance of the hotel. In the article, the authors stated the future trends in the hotel industry and the managers of the hotels have to focus on these categories.

In hotel Hilton of Cyprus, the management has been facing the issue of poor guest satisfaction and poor reviews of the hotels in third-party apps and websites. The leaders have taken the strict stance and if the staffs are wrong, the managers have taken the appropriate actions. The leaders in the hotel sector show the qualities of the business skills and these skills include the accountancy procedure, business sense and using computer technologies (Zumitzavan and Udchachone 2016). The leaders’ quality lies in the communication through verbal, online or written and business sense is needed for the marketing plan of the hotels. Front Office manager of Hilton Cyprus focused on the matter of guests as the manager thought that staffs must have an understanding of the guests’ behaviour and these experiences are cultivated from the career.

In the hotel industry, hotel sector creates the own dynamic and culture which may help the organisation to gain the development and overcome the issues. On asking the leadership performance in hotel Hilton, the hotel manager explained that Hilton hotel has adopted the system perspective which is helpful in improving the culture of excellence and it guides the journey to the excellence (Zervas et al. 2017). The leaders in the hotel sector pursue the performance excellence and it requires the commitment of the staffs. The leaders ask the staffs to work on time so that the strategic planning of leadership; market focus and customer-centric goal can be achieved (Fraj et al. 2015). In order to be successful in the organisation; teamwork has its vital role. The staffs are working with and this achievement thinks about additionally the business all in all. In the hospitality business, nobody is working only for the advantage of an individual or for the leader itself, each part regardless of his or her position contributes for the acknowledgment of the business’ fundamental objective, to give a certification to guests’ aggregate satisfaction.

The leaders in hotel industry guarantee the collaboration and partnership implies participation. If there’s participation between the managers and the subordinates, at that point this demonstrates communication exists inside the work-group. Team working is the way to empower partnership; consequently, leaders need to know these imperative perspectives in keeping up the great connection in the gathering. Furthermore, the housekeeping manager clarified amid the interview that each staff should feel their significance. The staffs to function admirably in a work environment, each commitment they give ought to be valued and loved (Molina-Azorin et al. 2015). In the event that the staffs have offered benefits to share their thoughts, the more they will be enlivened to work with extraordinary quality. In Hotel Hilton, the leaders should demonstrate that they are great cases for their staffs, and this will upgrade partnership inside the group (Nieves and Segarra-Cipres 2015). Team building and other gathering exercises will expand partnership and participation in the work-group.

In many of the scholarly articles, the authors commented that leaders are born after spending years to understand the concept of leadership. Strong leadership needs the regular accepting of the feedback, continuous learning and consistent practice (Karatepe and Karadas 2015). During the interview, the restaurant and beverage manager mentioned that the staffs need to understand the vision of the leader as instruction cannot bring a positive future. The staffs within the hospitality sector must find the mentors so that the leaders can motivate the staffs to work on their best. The hotel manager of Hilton Cyprus told that the staffs must be committed so that they can provide perfect guest satisfaction. The leaders in the hospitality sector can build up the emotional intelligence with the staffs so that the leaders can share the empathy with the staffs. Many hotels fly on the sweat and exploitation of their employees. It starts with room cleaners and ends with the night porter and everyone in between. Staffs that associate with the hotel will take extra pride and care when tending to the place. The hotel management needs to spend money first on cleanliness and experience (Wilson and Elison 2018). Keep a constant eye on all metrics that are associated can be helpful from a leader’s perspective. It means the management proposes to buy the best vacuum cleaners, build a great kitchen, buy good tools for cleaning staff, great supplies for everyone, and have modern and efficient technology everywhere. Good leadership increases the efficiency of the employees. In 2016, hotels of Cyprus have more than 71% occupancy rate. In Cyprus, there were 223 hotels in 2017 and leaders play important role in increasing the organisational performance (Cyprusprofile.com 2018).

To be effective in the hospitality business, the staffs must be focused on guaranteeing consumer loyalty. The leaders can request to take the necessary steps to keep clients upbeat and furthermore make repeat business. The managers’ aptitude is the best in the accommodation business are those with magnificent communication skills (Story 2016). The leaders can convey successfully both orally and in composing. An incredible hospitality staff must have great technological abilities and knows about an extensive variety of digital applications that are utilised inside the business. The hotel manager of Hilton discussed excitement as enthusiasm of the hotel business is energetic about their employments and endeavour to do the most ideal work.

In Cyprus, most of the travellers visit to enjoy the sea and the sun. Therefore, the hotel accommodations are needed for the health, wellbeing and cultural travellers. To be successful in hospitality, one must have first class relational abilities, as the very nature of the business is to give spectacular guest benefit. Some of the time, hotel staffs have solid leadership abilities and can delegate tasks making noteworthy commitments to an organisation’s general achievement (Fairhurst and Connaughton 2014). Effective hospitality leaders know about guidelines of wellbeing and cleanliness as they apply to service place, lodgings, and different area where individuals invest time and energy. In the hotel industry, Hilton Hotel Cyprus mainly faces the issues of hotel sales and online presence. The Hilton management thinks that the brand image of the hotel will help the hotel to run; however, lack of online presence and poor reviews of the guests brought issues. The leaders face the issue when the maximum staffs leave the organisation and the organisation faces the issue of lack of employees’ retention rate. The managers’ in Hilton are not sure about their roles and strategies; therefore, leadership style is prescribed in the Hilton hotel. The leaders of the Hilton hotel may not focus on the financial performance; therefore a blueprint is needed to describe the financial plan of the hotel.

Conclusions

Hilton Hotels and Resorts have their regional development teams and Cyprus region is headed by Marybelle Arnett, Vice President Development of Hilton. Hotel Hilton Cyprus has been facing the issue of poor review rating of the guests on the websites and third-party apps. The leaders of the Hilton hotel are taking the decisions regarding the extraordinary results. Findings of the interviews explained that leaders in Hilton Cyprus try to establish the shared beliefs, goals and values. Effective leadership begins with the inspiring others and leaders must have the vision to articulate the mission and objectives to the leaders. Hilton hotel has been facing the issue of poor guest review and the leaders are taking the effective measures to provide guest satisfaction. The vision of the leaders does not always belong to the leaders as discussions are done before making any strategy. The leaders of Hotel Hilton Cyprus stated about sharing creativity. The leaders in the Hilton hotel Cyprus model with an example so that the staffs can learn from the leaders. The issue of organisational performance can be solved by the leaders’ proactive measure. Organisational performance of Hilton hotel is associated with business performance and financial performance. The leaders take an active part in managing both financial and business decisions.  

The leaders’ visibility towards the vision of the organisation is needed so that the leaders can ask the staffs to do what is needed. The brand image of Hilton helps Hilton Cyprus to have maximum guests. The leaders need to completely believe in setting goals and how it will benefit the organisation and its employees. The leaders give employees all the resources necessary to complete their duties, however, leaders need to create the will and enthusiasm required to engross them, the chances of generating great results decrease over the period. The leaders listen to the audience, both formal and informal feedback, body language, quality of work are all incoming signals. The leaders of Hilton Hotel Cyprus are trying to set up a roadmap and channel efforts towards fixing things. Hilton Cyprus has been facing the issues of poor guest satisfaction, high staff turnover and lack of online presence. In addition, the financial performance of Hilton Cyprus is not up to the mark. Leaders in Hilton are trying to upgrade the rules for the staffs so that the staffs can do their best.

Objective 1: To evaluate the effectiveness of leadership in enhancing the overall organisational performance in the hotel business

This objective has been met in the literature review section and in themes 1 and 4. During the interview sessions, the leaders of Hilton hotel stated about their planning and experiences about leadership which can provide the organisational effectiveness. The leaders in Hilton Group already thought of the rewards scheme so that the employees become productive to give a highest organisational performance. Hilton Cyprus has not yet started any multi-faceted staff incentive scheme so that they can reward the staffs. The hotel manager of Hilton hotel Cyprus told that effective leadership is about instructing the staffs and leading the staffs towards achieving organisational objectives. Hilton Hotel Cyprus does not have any bonus scheme and personal discounts for the staffs. Hilton Hotel Cyprus has personal recognition programme for the staffs that can provide extra motivation to the staffs. The leaders take personal leadership style and each of the leader’s style is different. The leaders need to make sure everyone knows holding back information will be detrimental to the team. Managers lead the staffs in hotel business by example and consistently reinforcing desired behaviours. The team leaders ensure all learn and respond to important new discoveries. The leaders of the Hilton hotel show trust as it is very important in all team relationships.

Objective 2: To recognise how good leadership in hotel business will help the organisation to sustain the reputation or to build a positive reputation in the market of operation

This objective has been met in the literature review section and in theme 2. During the interviews, the leaders have been asked about organisational reputation followed by Hilton Cyprus. In addition, hotel managers of hospitality sector believe that the employees like the firms they are work for and the employees feel a strong sense of commitment towards the organisation. The leadership of the hotel industry follows the basic factor of meeting the guest satisfaction. Leaders in Hilton Cyprus cannot meet the basic requirement of the reputation as the guests are not satisfied with the services of a hotel. The poor ratings and reviews are the result of disappointed guests. The managers have failed to instruct the staffs to do their basic work. The perception of Hilton hotel must be credible so that the reviews must be authentic and good. From the employees’ perspective, transformational leadership style and democratic leadership styles provide the employees with a sense of encouragement. Leaders in Hilton hotel Cyprus know when to switch the leadership style with trust and commitment. Reliability is a major part of building a good reputation. Leaders personify the company with many different stakeholders.  

Objective 3: To explore the role of leaders in hospitality businesses of Hotel Hilton Cyprus

  This objective has been met in the literature review section and in theme 3. Leadership role in the hospitality industry of the managers is based on mainly motivating and making productive of the human resources. The staffs in the Hilton hotel Cyprus are unmotivated and the leaders are not sure about their leadership style. The leaders in the hospitality industry need to be innovative and the leaders should have a vision. The leaders of the Hilton hotel have the inner values which inspire the employees. Hilton Hotel Cyprus builds and cultivates trusting relationships for both survival and success. Leaders are responsible and the leader is destiny. Quality of leadership determines the destiny of teams, groups, organisations, nations and the world. Good leadership brings the company forward; bad leadership can cost opportunity, money and time. In leadership of hospitality industry, the employees are expected to be leaders are be enthusiastic, talented and charismatic. The leaders can expect to be knowledgeable, hardworking and motivated so that they can share the traits of hotel leadership. The leaders try to retain the staffs as turnover of the staffs are time-consuming and costly.

Objective 4: To recommend some possible solutions to improve the leadership qualities in Hotel Hilton Cyprus

  This objective has been met partially in theme 4 where the leaders’ perspective of hotel business strategies has been explained. First of all the managers talked about make use of the human staffs as they are the key factors of the company’s effectiveness. Second important thing for the managers of Hilton Hotel Cyprus is to develop the guest satisfaction. The leaders talked about guest satisfaction, teamwork and improvement of financial condition.  

  However, the possible recommendations for Hilton Hotel Cyprus are given in the following sections with an action plan.  

  1. Improving guest satisfaction through providing training to the staffs

Hilton Hotel Cyprus has been facing the issue of poor guest satisfaction and the reviews of the hotel have been degrading. The guests do not find the luxury elements and the satisfactory factors of the hotel are missing. The reason is possibly the poor staff training and the staffs are not aware of the guests’ satisfaction. The leaders need to understand that the guests’ experience starts long before the guests arrive at the hotel; therefore, best quality images must be uploaded to the website and in the apps. The leaders of the Hilton Hotel Cyprus must make a PR team respond to guest feedback. The staffs must be given training so that the staffs can connect with the guests on a personal level. The training can be provided on an on-the-job basis where the leaders will tell the employees how to behave with the guests.

Activities

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

Month 5

Conducting a meeting with all managers

?

Making a PR team respond to guest feedback

?

Connecting with guests

?

Conducting training

?

Using guest feedback to make decisions

?

Table 5.1: Action plan for guest satisfaction

(Source: Self-developed)

  1. Developing team working

The leaders in the Hilton Hotel Cyprus have failed to make a positive team bonding. In the hospitality industry, the employee retention is very low and the team members come from the various ethnic group. Therefore, the hotel manager in Hilton hotel Cyprus needs to develop diversity within the team so that the employees can work with all types of staffs. The team members must come first in case of any decision is taken. Effective team working will help to resolve the problem solving of the staffs when the staffs work in hospitality sector dealing with guests who may come from different regions. The leaders should encourage the staffs to think free. Team working can improve the organisational performance as it will improve the human resources and productivity.  

Activities

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

Month 5

Conducting a meeting asking all staffs to be present

?

Developing diversity within a team

?

The members come first

?

Asking team members to solve problem and conflict

?

Encourage in free thinking

?

Table 5.2: Action plan for team work 

(Source: Self-developed)

  1. Leading by example from the leaders’ perspective

  In the hospitality sector, the leaders must lead by examples as it would help the hotel to develop organisational efficiency. Good leaders must lead by examples and leaders’ responsibility taking ability makes the leaders’ stand apart. In the Hilton hotel Cyprus, the leaders need to motivate always and management’s truthfulness can make an accurate representation of the motivation. Extrinsic motivation can be given by starting the financial rewards. Leaders’ courageous mentality will make the staffs courageous also. The leaders need to acknowledge failure and the leaders need to be persistent.  

Activities

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

Month 5

The leaders can start giving small training

?

The leaders can hold a meeting

?

Leaders need to persistent

?

The leaders will delegate the work

?

The leaders can start online tutorial to provide an example

?

Table 4.3: Action plan for leaders’ perspective

(Source: Self-developed)

  1. Top-down communication from leaders

 In the Hilton Hotel Cyprus, the communication of the leaders does not come to the staffs always. Top-down communication puts stress on a managerial hierarchy where the communication transfer from the highest level to the company staffs. Communication develops the transparency within the organisation where the staffs get to know their key responsibilities and the expectations become clear of the leaders as well. Starting the intranet software will create the feedback process even faster and the organisational performance will increase.

Activities

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

Month 5

Conducting a formal meeting

?

Developing a communication strategy

?

Asking the leader to take a democratic leadership style

?

Multiplying the message

?

Having intranet software

?

Table 4.4: Action Plan for top-down communication 

(Source: Self-developed)

This particular research has been put the focus on the leadership impact on the hotel business. Leadership can influence organisational performance in the hotel business. This research narrowly focuses on Hilton Hotel Cyprus. The future researchers can get help while doing the research based on ‘Appropriate Leadership Styles in hospitality sector’. In the future, the researchers can get assistance about the importance of leadership qualities of the managers in the hospitality industry.

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