Academic Writing EGE5850

Summary : Interpersonal communication skills and the young hospitality leader: Are
they prepared? by Jeffrey C. Lolli

Student ID: 1509348

Student: Dheeraj Sharma

BA in Hotel and Hospitality Management

March 2015

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 SUMMARY

According to Lolli (2013), a successful manager at all times must possess concrete
interpersonal skills. It is known that a lot of time is wasted while communicating effectively,
and therefore, an adequate communication skill is very vital for proper functionality of an
establishment. Hospitality industry is a very diverse settlement which accommodates and
provides jobs to people from all over the world, making it a combination of various ethnic and
religious groups. With the provision of such a workforce, it may lead to various contradictions
when following a single method of delegation. Therefore, a manager must have professional
interpersonal communication skills. Nevertheless, fresh recruits more or less lack such
critical skills. A written mode of communication is presumed to be more important than
interpersonal in colleges or other type of educational facilities, which is from where these
problems arise.

The baby boomers or the generation that was brought up along with the intervention
of high tech gadgets has a reduced passion towards interpersonal communication skill and
prefer written communication methods more (Lolli 2013). Texting, Short message service,
social media communication channels and certain others are involved in written
communication styles. Undisputedly, this reduces their ability to communicate and express
themselves when talking in person. In order to gain more insight, Lolli conducted a Delphi
technique to understand more. He questioned various managers and leaders of the
hospitality industry, who reverted back by claiming that physical expressions such as body
language, conduct and the ability to listen to a person all comprise of interpersonal
communication. These all characteristics are necessary when managing a diverse workforce,
as each and every one of them require a different method of communication.

Lolli (2013) surveyed managers and various people at a managerial level of

hospitality field with context to interpersonal communication skills as well as the fact about
how much prepared are the fresh graduates of this generation regarding such an approach.
Lolli went through this with the help of a mailing approach. In several universities,
interpersonal communication skills are not given a high priority, while, written skills have a
higher weightage. Thus, the fresh and new graduate managers are not capable of
communicating face to face with much efficiency, due to this particular reason.

If the students have a higher chance of practicing and putting these skills to effect
with a diverse workforce, then these managers would have more awareness regarding
interpersonal communication skills (Lolli 2013). The universities should have programs that
undergo the significance of interpersonal communication skills and should be regarded as an
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important and integral part of management studies. These skills are quite effective when
handling customers and clients.

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 Reference

LOLLI, J.C., (2013). Interpersonal Communication Skills and the young hospitality leader:
Are they prepared? International Journal of Hospitality Management. 32(1). pp 295-298.