Term Paper

Leadership Styles and Employee Emotional

Wellbeing: A Study on Tourism and
Hospitality Industry

Submitted by:
Syed Maruf Reza
Matric Number: ZP05646
DBA Program, UKM-GSB

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1. Introduction
Positive leader behavior has a vital role in the mental and physical wellbeing of employees of
the tourism and hospitality industry. Tourism companies can affect employee wellbeing both
in positive and negative ways through their impact on job stress. The main task is to
understand the means for maximizing the performance of the employee, while minimizing
the negative effects of job stress. Leadership of any company plays a crucial role in
influencing expected organizational outcomes and may serve as a means for achieving these
goals. In the hospitality industry, leadership style of the management plays a key role in
determining the overall performance and success of the companies (Dimitriou and
DiGaetano, 2016).

Leadership style is a vital management tool. If it is used properly, it can enhance positive
relationships with employees, improve the organizational climate, and increase service
performance (Kozak and Uca, 2008). One of the main elements of success for a tourism and
hospitality firm is to motivate their employees to reach their maximum potential. Effective
managers provide employees with guidance to encourages them to take ownership of tasks,
to think outside the box to solve new business problems, and to make decisions that can
enhance the performance of the team and the company (Bennett, 2009). Hospitality firms,
like other business entities, should embrace the importance of leadership style to achieve
their goals. They should apply its principles to augment organizational well-being.

In best management practices in hospitality firms, organizational and personal outcomes play
an important role. Leadership style affects employee well-being (Firth-Cozens and Mowbray,
2001). Good leadership seems to improve job satisfaction and decrease sickness absenteeism
and disability pensions. Thus, the goal of the study reported in this paper is to focus on the
effects of leadership style on employee well-being in the tourism and hospitality firms.

2. Problem Statement and Research Questions

2.1 Problem Statement

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The aim of this paper is to focus on the relationship between the leadership style of the
management of a company and the employee emotional wellbeing of that company in the
context of tourism and hospitality industry.

2.2 Research Questions

The paper will address the following research questions:
i. Is there any relationship between the leadership style and employee emotional
wellbeing?
ii. What is the effect of management’s leadership style on employee’s emotional
wellbeing in tourism and hospitality industry?
iii. What are the outcomes of the effect of the management’s leadership style on
employee’s emotional wellbeing in tourism and hospitality industry?

3. Literature Review
3.1 Leadership Style
Leadership styles vary, with quite a few focusing on the support followers receive from
leaders. This part provides a brief review of various leadership styles which are followed by
arguments that link leadership style with employee’s mental well-being. Out of various
leadership styles we will review the main four styles including transformational leadership
style, transactional leadership style, servant leadership style, and ethical leadership style for
their relatively more significance in enhancing employee mental emotional wellbeing.

Transformational leader is one who increases the followers’ level of consciousness about the
relevance and value of desired result and the methods of achieving that result (Burns, 1978).
The transformational leader motivates his/her followers to transcend their self-interest for the
wellbeing of the organization. They try to uplift the followers’ level of need on Maslow’s
hierarchy from the base-level concerns for safety and security to top-level needs for
achievement and self-actualization (Bass, 2008).

Transactional leadership sheds light on the exchange relationship between the leader and the
follower to reach their self-interests. According to Bass, ‘it may take the form of contingent

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reward in which the leader clarifies for the follower through direction or participation what
the follower needs to do to be rewarded for the effort, it may take the form of management-
by-exception, in which the leader monitors the follower’s performance and takes corrective
action if the follower fails to meet standards, or it may take the form of passive leadership, in
which the leader is waiting for problems to arise before taking corrective action or is laissez-
faire and avoids taking any action (Bass, 1999).’

Servant leadership is the most important leadership style that match with tourism and
hospitality industry which seeks to serve employee’s needs as their principal task. It serves
the employees' needs first (Ahmed et al, 2017; Mohammedamin et al, 2018). According to
Greenleaf (1970), "The leadership of the servant starts with a deep feeling that one wants to
serve, then they strive to lead by deliberate choice".

Ethical leadership is a style of leadership for enhancing the ethical behavior of employees
(Brown et al, 2005). Honesty, justice, respect, community and integrity are the four main
principles of ethical leadership. It is mentionable that all of these four basic principles of
ethical leadership are closely related with tourism and hospitality industry.

Leadership styles vary, with quite a few focusing on the support followers receive from
leaders. For example, by providing followers with intellectual stimulation and individual
support, transformational leaders inspire them to sacrifice individual goals in pursuit of group
goals (Burns, 1978). Like ethical leaders, servant leaders also use compelling communication
and practice role modeling (Brown and Trevino, 2006). On the other hand, unlike ethical
leaders, servant leaders minimize pride through self-reflection and emphasize the success of
all organizational stakeholders (Graham, 1991). However, for its unique features ethical
leadership deserves research attention, especially in the tourism and hospitality industry
where the increasing number of ethical scandals and related lawsuits are a clear result of the
lack of its existence and implementation.

In the tourism and hospitality industry managers are highly motivated to empower employees
and develop them into high involvement individuals and teams by focusing on quality,

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service, cost effectiveness, and quantity of output of production. Indeed, in many European
and Asian countries, managers in the tourism and hospitality industry are observed to spend
much time nourishing social relationships with tourism and hospitality employees with an
aim to increase their effectiveness in an industry where guest expectations are rising. This is
deemed the way to inspire both trust and loyalty in employees. In the tourism and hospitality
industry managers’ use of different leadership styles is likely to have direct effects on
employee performance. Therefore, effective use of leadership style should enhance the
effectiveness of both managers and the tourism and hospitality firms at large (Erkutlu, 2008).

3.2 Employee Emotional Wellbeing

Many experts define employee well-being in many different ways. The concept is quite broad
which includes both physical and mental health (Liu, Siu, & Shi, 2010), and ‘context-free’
versus ‘context-specific’ aspects of health (Warr, 1987; Kelloway & Barling, 1991).
Employee emotional well-being refers to the mental health of the employee which includes
employee stress, burnout, job insecurity etc. and results in employee job satisfaction,
employee commitment, and employee task performance. In other words, emotional well-
being may be conceptualized as subjective well-being (Keyes et al., 2002), and deals with
emotions that employee experience (Warr, 2006), employee’s perceived mental health, or
reports of psychosomatic symptoms. Research associating leadership with employee stress is
more recent.

It is necessary to consider the definition and measurement of well-being; findings of a

research project in this field may differ depending on how well-being is defined and
measured. In reality there are various paths through which leadership may be associated with
various forms of employee well-being (Wegge, Shemla, & Haslam, 2014).

Job stress, an important part of employee emotional wellbeing, consists of physical and
psychological responses that occur when an individual perceives personal resources are taxed
(Sager and Wilson, 1995), and he or she is unable to successfully cope with either the
demands being made of him or her (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) or the demands of his/her
environment (Erkutlu and Chafra, 2006). It results in job pressures, including tension,

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anxiety, and fatigue (Jex, 1998). Role ambiguity is one of the key contributors to job stress
(Ingram et al., 2011). However, there is evidence which suggests that there is a close
relationship between leadership and job stress in the tourism and hospitality industry.
Goswami and Dsilva’s (2019) study of six five-star hotels in Mumbai reveals that if leaders
communicate poorly, show favoritism, and fail to properly recognize performance of the
employee employee’s job stress increases as a result.

Burnout refers to the state of an employee which describes his or her sense of well-being in
the context of an organization. In other words, we can define burnout as a state of prolonged
physical and psychological fatigue, which is a consequence of extended and extensive work-
related stress. There are three elements of burnout which includes emotional exhaustion,
cynicism, and professional inadequacy (Maslach, Jackson, 1981).

Job insecurity refers to the employee’s concern about the continued existence of the job in
the future (De Witte, 1999). This is a facet of job-related sense of employee emotional
wellbeing, which describes the uncertainty of the job’s existence and duration. Usually, it is
measured by the means of statements carrying job-related doubts or fears. This indicates that
job insecurity is basically negative and undesirable to the employees. It also depicts that job
insecurity is a stressor and it is considered unpleasant for the employee.

4. Hypothesis Development
From the above discussed literature review the following research hypothesis can be
developed:
H1: Management’s leadership style has a direct effect on employee’s emotional
wellbeing.
H1.2: Employee’s emotional wellbeing has a direct effect on employee’s job
satisfaction, job continuation, or task performance.
H2: Employee’s job satisfaction has a direct impact of employee’s job continuation.
H3: employee’s job continuation has a direct impact on employee’s task
performance.

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 5. Research Framework
The research framework depicts that leadership style of the management of a tourism and
hospitality firm has direct relationship with the employee’s emotional wellbeing. If the
manager follows a more employee-centric leadership style, e.g. servant leadership or
transformational leadership, then it will have a positive impact on the employee emotional
wellbeing and will result in high job satisfaction or job continuation, or high task
performance of the employees. In opposite, if the management of a tourism and hospitality
industry follows a management style which gives less emphasis on the employee’s interest,
e.g. transactional leadership style, then it will have a negative influence on the employee
emotional wellbeing and will result in low job satisfaction, low job continuation rate, and low
task performance of the employees.

Job Satisfaction

Leadership Style Employee Emotional Wellbeing Job Continuation

Task Performance

Figure: Relationship between management’s leadership style and employee’s emotional wellbeing

In addition to this, job satisfaction of the employees of a tourism and hospitality firm has a
direct impact on the job continuation rate and task performance level of the employees of the
firm. I the employees remain highly satisfied and motivated toward the company their job
continuation rate will increase dramatically and will result in their high task performance. In
opposite if the employees of a tourism and hospitality firm are lowly satisfied it will increase
the chance of the employee’s job switching rate and will impact the employee’s task
performance negatively.

6. Research Methodology

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The paper will be descriptive research by nature. To explore the relationship between the
management’s leadership style and employee’s emotional wellbeing primary data should be
collected from various tourism and hospitality firms. The study will focus on collecting data
from the mid-level management and the front-line executives to depict the relationship and
the effect of that relationship on the employee’s overall performance. A questionnaire will be
designed and the random sampling method will be followed in collecting the primary data.

7. Originality of Research Idea

So far, many research studies focus on the relationship between a specific leadership style of
the management (e.g. transformational leadership, or servant leadership) and the employee’s
overall wellbeing. However, to the best of my knowledge, no research study focuses on the
management’s overall leadership styles’ effect on employee’s emotional wellbeing and their
impact on the employee’s performance. From this point of view, this study will shade the
light on a new area of knowledge and contribute to both the academia and the tourism and
hospitality industry.

8. Expected Research Contributions

This paper will have a significant contribution to both the academia and the tourism and
hospitality industry.

8.1 Contributions to Scholarship

This paper will focus the relationship between the management’s overall leadership styles
and the employee’s emotional wellbeing. Nowadays, employee’s emotional wellbeing is
getting much attention from the academia. Some earlier research studies focused on the
relationship between the leadership style and the overall wellbeing of the employees. But
those research studies did not focus on the relationship between the leadership style and the
employee’s emotional wellbeing specifically. Regarding this point of view, this paper will
have a strong interest from the academia. It can be expected that this paper will create a new
avenue of knowledge based on which future researchers will develop new concepts or
theories on the relationship of these two important constructs: management leadership style
and employee’s emotional wellbeing.

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8.2 Managerial Implications
In addition to its theoretical implications this paper will a add a true value for the industry
specially for the tourism and hospitality industry. In tourism and hospitality industry
employee’s emotional health is very crucial as they need to deal with the customers directly.
They have to provide services to the tourists who have divergent types of needs. Employee’s
psychological health has a significant role in meeting those divergent needs. Hence it can be
assumed that the tourism and hospitality firms will take the outcome of this paper seriously
and will implement that outcome to adopt a more employee centric leadership style so that
they can engage their employees in a better manner and enhance their overall performance in
satisfying their tourists.

9. Conclusion
Tourism and hospitality industry is a very vibrant and dynamic industry. The environment of
this industry is getting changed very fast. New trends generate new challenges for the
tourism and hospitality firms. As service providers, the tourism and hospitality firm’s
employees play a vital role in the success of any tourist firm. Hence, employee’s mental or
psychological health is very much important in tourism and hospitality industry. From the
literature review it can be understood that management’s leadership style can play a decisive
role in enhancing the employee’s emotional wellbeing which will result in high employee job
satisfaction, increased rate of job continuation, and increased task performance of the
employee. As a result, the concerned tourism firm will be able to achieve its long-term goal,
customer loyalty. This paper will shed light on this vital issue and will contribute positively
to the academia and the tourism and hospitality industry based on which further research can
be conducted in future.

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