TITLE Critical analysis on the leadership styles and its impacts on the employee motivation level - A case study

of Taj Hotel, Mumbai INTRODUCTION 1. OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH The major focus on the study is to analyze the leadership styles, leadership theories and its influence on the motivation level of employees in the hospitality industry. Taj Hotel is considered as the case study of the research. The managers of Taj Hotel are considered as leaders and the study discusses about the leadership style. The methods followed by the leadership to motivate their employees, the type of leadership followed by the managers will be identified from the study based on the perceptions of managers. The effectiveness of their leadership styles and its impacts on the motivation can be identified from the analysis of the motivation level of employees at Taj Hotel. The literature analysis on the leadership theories, leadership types and the impacts of leadership styles on employee motivation level will be helpful to analyze the information obtained from the managers of Taj Hotel. Based on the analysis of the collected information from managers and the employees of Taj Hotels and comparing the data with the previous literatures the objectives of the study will be fulfilled. The limitations and the general recommendations to improve the employee motivation in the hotel industry will be provided in this study.

RATIONALE OF THE RESEARCH The research work is majorly focused on identifying the leadership styles and methods followed among the managers of Taj Hotel, Mumbai and its influences on the employee motivational level. The analysis on the current study provides the perceptions of the managers of Taj Hotel on motivational methods followed by them in the organization. The impacts of the motivation level of employees will be obtained from the employees of Taj Hotel. Most of the existing studies performed the researches to identify the impacts of the leaders influences on the motivation level of employees but not majorly focused on identifying the type of leadership style effective to the hospitality industry. This research will
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be performed to fill the gap of identifying the appropriate leadership style for the hospitality industry and specifically to the Taj Hotels, Mumbai. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the methods followed by the managers can be identified by its impacts on the employee motivation level. RESEARCH FOCUS AIM The main aim of the study is to analyze the leadership styles and its influences on the employee motivation level in the hospitality industry. The research focuses on the case study of Taj hotels, Mumbai. OBJECTIVES To analyze the relationship between leadership style and employee motivation To analyze the leadership theories and their relation with motivation To identify the impacts of leaders on employee motivation To identify the influences of leaders on employee motivation at Taj hotel, Mumbai RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. What is the relationship between the leadership styles and motivation? 2. What are the methods and style of leadership followed by the managers of Taj Hotel to motivate the employees? 3. What is the level of employee motivation at Taj Hotel, Mumbai based on the managers perception? 4. What style of leadership influence the motivation level among employees at Taj Hotel, Mumbai?

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW Leadership style Townsend (2004) mentioned that the leadership style is based on the ability and experiences of the leader and it is not depending on the type of organization. The leadership style is the process of influencing the subordinates behaviour in order to attain the goals of the organization. The leadership and the leadership style are the playing major role in achieving the goals and the success of the organization. Voon et al (2011) mentioned that the effective leadership style can influence the job satisfaction level of the employees, motivation level, organizations productivity and commitment of the employees in the organization. Authoritative, coercive, democratic, affiliative, coaching and pacesetting are some of the leadership style followed by the leaders in the organizations (Kritsonis, 2004). Theory of leadership style The full rage leadership model was developed by Bass and Avolio and this model says that the transactional and transformational leadership are preferred type of leadership styles (Judge and Piccolo, 2004; Wu et al, 2006). The theory states that the transformational leaders motivate their employees by the individual consideration of followers and identifying the individual needs of their followers. But the transactional leaders focus on performance monitoring and the reward system to motivate the employees to achieve the organizational goals (Bodla, 2010). Bono and Judge (2004) and (Townsend, 2004) also argued that the transactional leaders are monitoring and controlling the employees through the economic means like incentives and the reward systems. Asgari et al (2008) argued that the transformation leaders are influencing followers by providing the importance of the tasks and outcomes with the social exchanges. The analysis shows that both transformational and transactional leadership from the full range model helps to motivate the employees. Sine the current study is focuses on the influence of leadership style on employee motivation, the full range model of leadership theory is more suitable to perform the research. Relation between leadership style and motivation

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Oluseyi et al (2009) mentioned that motivating the employees is one of the strategies of the manager or leader to improve their performance. Porter et al (2003) stated that the leadership styles from the leaders help to motivate the employees to improve the outcome of the organization and also reduces absenteeism. Although various methods improve the employee and organizational performance, the motivation is the important factor followed by the leaders to direct them towards the goals (Oluseyi et al, 2009). The leadership vision improves the motivation (Chathoth and Oslen, 2002; Boxall, 2003). Full range model of leadership theory mentions that the transformational leaders have the ability to understand the need of their followers to motivate them towards the objectives (Eyal and Roth, 2010). This leadership style motivates the followers by providing the creative thinking, reframing their problems, challenging them and stimulation them to ask questions to achieve the organizational needs and individuals needs (Givens, 2008). Transformational leadership also reduces the job stress (Gill et al, 2010). Support to the team spirit and enthusiastic activities are also the methods followed by transformation leaders to motivate their followers (Parry et al, 2001). Mathibe (2008) argues that the transactional leadership style under the full range follows the method of providing financial incentives like salary, rewards, awards and regular incentive based on the employees performance to motive the employees in the hospitality industry. Blayney and Blotnicky (2010) & Wong and Chan (2010) identified that transformational leadership is more effective in hotel industry. But Tsai and Su (2011) argued that transactional leadership is effective in service oriented organizations. Laurie (2001) mentioned that the managers in the hospitality industry with the effective leadership style can develop the positive work ethic among the employees and this motivates them to reach their targets. Bahamon (2002) mentioned that the managers in the hospitality industry have the responsibility to motivate the employees to perform better. This research identified that the impact of leadership styles on improving the working environment motivated the employees in the hospitality industry. This shows the influence of transformational leadership on motivating employees. Chew et al (2006) performed a research and identified that the managers is the hospitality industry motivating the employees to fulfil the organizational expectations. The analysis on the literature shows that both transactional and transformational leadership styles mentioned in the full range leadership theory model are important to motive the
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employees in the organization. Although the two leadership styles of leaders mentioned in the full range leadership theory followed different type of methods, both methods are useful to improve the employee motivational level. The study not only helps to find the leadership style appropriate for the hotel industry but also helps to identify the effective tools of motivation to motivate the employees in this industry. The result of the is study helpful to understand the effectiveness of the leadership followed by the mangers of Taj Hotel and they can change their leadership style or the method used to motivate the employees if any problems identified in their leadership style. The recommendations presented in the study will be helpful to other organizations in the hotel industry since the result of the study is based on the case study of one of the leading hotel in India. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY METHODOLOGY The phenomenology approach will be more suitable for the study since the researcher do not have enough information about the leadership styles followed by the managers to motivate the employees. This phenomenological approach will be effective to analyze the human experiences. The qualitative approach will be used for the study since the human experiences like the leadership style, motivation process and methods are qualitative in nature. The primary data collection will be opted since the information about the leadership style and motivation process followed by Taj Hotel managers can be obtained from the managers. The motivation level of employees will be obtained from the employees of Taj Hotels. Taj Hotel, Mumbai is one of the leading hotels in India. The Taj division has resorts and luxury full service hotels (Taj hotels, 2011). The study focused on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai since analysis on the leading organization will be effective to provide the result on the hotel industry. The information required for the study will be obtained from the managers working in Food and Beverage (F&B) division and HR division since the F&B managers has direct relationship with the employees in their day to day activities and HR managers focusing on the development of employee relations by providing salary, incentives, rewards, awards, etc. The information about the motivation level can be obtained only from the employee of Taj Hotels. The researcher is having previous working experiences in Taj Hotels. Since the
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researchers had one year experiences in the F&B department and 3 months training experiences with the HR managers, the researcher can easily get the permission to perform the research. The face to face interview will be performed to obtain the required information from the mangers from F&B and HR departments. METHODS The research will be performed by the utilization of phenomenological paradigm and the qualitative approach since the study focuses on the experiences of managers with their employees. The face to face interview will be conducted with the managers since the face to face interview will be effective than other interviews to get the human experiences like the motivation level and leadership styles. A semi structure questionnaire will be developed based on the roles of managers in motivating the employees like analyzing the problems of employees in the organization, providing the challenging work environment, monitoring performances. The interview questionnaire also contains the methods followed by them to motivate the employees like increment, incentives, awards, rewards, influence of personal behaviours, etc. Based on the answers provided by the managers some extra questions can be raised to know more information required for the research. The motivation level of employees in Taj hotels can be obtained from the employees through the survey technique. The survey process will be performed with large sample size (100 employees) so that the structured questionnaire will be more suitable to obtain the information from large sample size and helpful to save the data collection time. The structured questionnaire contains the questions related to the type of motivational method like rewards, awards, incentives, etc majorly focused by the mangers and their motivation level in the organization by the impact of their managers. POPULATIONS The information about the leadership styles and the methods followed to motivate the employees can be obtained only from the managers of the hotel since they have the responsibility to manage the employees and set different methods for motivation. As discussed earlier the F&B managers and the HR managers will be selected for the data collection since they have direct relations with the employees in their day to day activities. The face to face interview will be conducted with managers in both departments. The employees will be selected from the restaurants to perform the survey.
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SAMPLING TECHNIQUES The managers and the employees of Taj Hotel will be selected by the purposive sampling method. The data collection will be performed only about the Taj Hotel and specifically from the F&B managers, HR managers and the employees. Since the information should be purposively collected from these managers and employees in Taj Hotels, the purposive sampling method will be more suitable than other methods. The managers who have good relationship with the researcher will be used for the data collection process. SAMPLE SIZES There are 25 managers (3 F&B Managers,3 Assistant F&B Managers,19 Restaurant Managers and 3 HR managers) of Taj hotels at Mumbai will be selected using purposive sampling technique. Since the face to face direct interview will be conducted with managers, the researcher is expecting responses from all the 25 managers. Totally 100 responses from the employees will be considered for the research. The survey will be performed with more than 100 employees since some of the employees may not provide responses due to various organizational issues. The researcher is expecting responses from minimum of 100 employees.

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