Visionary Leadership and Motivation in the Hospitality Industry

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Community management and organization
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Introduction
In an organizational context, Leadership is a key determinant of how organizations
functions, performances and sustains rapid competition. Research conducted by Haslam, Ryan,
Kulich, Trojanowski and Atkins (2010 p. 487-497) shows that when an organization receives
poor leadership, management issues and there are no shared values, employees become
demotivated and demoralized and therefore they end up failing to perform as expected. In the
case of underperformances, claim and blames are usually experienced in an organization with
employees and management blaming each other for the failure. Employees’ claim they are
underperforming due to lack of visionary leadership and other human resources support that can
transform their goals and objective. On the other hand, Leaders claim underperformance results
from employee’s motivation issues due to lack of effective compensations and reward packages
from management.
A visionary leader in the hospitality industry
According to Greer, Homan, De Hoogh and Den Hartog (2012 p.203) a visionary leader
is a person who can inspire team members to reach organizational goals at a stipulated time. In
the hospitality industry, a visionary leader focuses on the long- vision of the organization and
ensures that hospitality products and services are adequately resourced to seize opportunities in
the future. Furthermore, a visionary leader in the hospitality industry prioritizes the need of
people in order for them to work hard and bring benefits to stakeholders and organization.
An example of a visionary leader in the hospitality industry was Shirley Alexander, Lead
Consultant, Learning & Development, and Macro Vision Hospitality. Shirley Alexander worked
also worked as general manager at West Sussex Hotel. The visionary leader was effective as he
had a desire of “putting people first” and ensured there were effective communication channels

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within the organization for staff to express their concerns. Furthermore, the leader knew how to
verbalize his goals and dreams and explain to the team members for them to realize how their
efforts are needed to support the goals. In addition, Shirley Alexander as a visionary leader
shared his vision for future and effective listened to other team member’s thoughts and ideas and
then incorporated them into the larger goals. Furthermore, Shirley Alexander also helped the
team members to meet their personal goals hence motivating them to achieve the organizational
goals and targets.
The basic idea behind “content” theories of motivation.
The basic ideas behind “content “theories of motivation are to understand how staff can
be fully utilized in the organization in order to be more productive. Furthermore, “content”
theories of motivation try to explain why human need keep on changing and not how they
change in order for an organization to come up with measures of motivating staff and improving
their performances. Further research conducted by Chalofsky and Krishna (2009 p.189) shows
that encouraging an organization to “focus on the internal factors that energize and direct human
behavior” is also an idea behind “content” theories of motivation. The content theories of
motivation include; Alderfer's ERG theory, McClelland's three-needs theory, Maslow's hierarchy
of needs and Herzberg's motivator-hygiene theory. The main aim of the theories is to assist the
organization to improve its performances by motivating workforces through diverse ways such
as the provision of effective leadership, promotions and recognizing efforts of the staff.
The theories of motivations help managers in the hospitality industry by providing insight
into what makes an employee perform better. Furthermore, when a manager understands the
needs of employees it comes easier for them to capitalize their efforts to fulfill their needs in
order for them to perform extraordinarily. Research conducted by Zhao, Lu, Wang, Chau and