Impact of Effective Leadership on Organisational Performance of Hotel Business: The Case of Hilton Hotels Cyprus

Running head: DISSERTATION
Dissertation
Topic: Impact of effective leadership on organisational performance of hotel business: The case
of Hilton Hotels Cyprus
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:

1DISSERTATION
Acknowledgement
I am thankful to all the individuals who have been my constant support to complete the research
work based on ‘Impact of effective leadership on organisational performance of hotel business:
The case of Hilton Hotels Cyprus’. I would like to share my heartfelt gratitude to my professor
______ who has been my constant support. I want to share my thanks to my friends and families
who have been shown care all the times. I am very grateful to the managers of Hotel Hilton
Cyprus who provided their valuable responses during the interviews with patience to complete
the research. Completion of this research gives me much pleasure.
Thank You.

2DISSERTATION
Abstract
This research highlights the effectiveness of the business leaders in enhancing the organisational
performance of the hotel businesses. This particular research sheds light on Hotel Hilton Cyprus
as this hotel has been seen that perception of the guests are changing and 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. This research has five separate chapters and
in the literature review section, concept of the two variables, leadership and organisational
performance have been discussed with theoretical framework. In addition, the leadership theories
like situational leadership and path goal theory have been explained. Furthermore, organisational
performance concepts like Hannan and Freeman model have been illuminated.
In order to collect the data, the researcher has followed interpretivism philosophy,
deductive approach and descriptive design. Secondary and primary, both types of data have been
used by the researcher. The data has been collected conducting the interviews of the four
managers of Hotel Hilton Cyprus. The researcher has used qualitative data to analyse the
findings using thematic data analysis. In chapter four, the researcher has segregated the findings
into five different themes to analyse the data of leadership and organisational performance of
Hilton hotel Cyprus. The leaders of Hotel Hilton Cyprus face the issue when the maximum staffs
leave the organisation, issue of lack of employees' retention rate, leadership roles and strategies;
therefore, leadership style is prescribed in the Hilton hotel. Guest satisfaction, team working and
leading by example from the leaders can improve the condition of Hotel Hilton Cyprus. The
leaders can also start training which can help to start communication.
Table of Contents

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Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................8
1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................8
1.2 Background of the research...................................................................................................8
1.3 Research Rationale..............................................................................................................10
1.4 Research aim........................................................................................................................12
1.5 Research objectives.............................................................................................................13
1.6 Research questions...............................................................................................................13
1.7 Research hypothesis.............................................................................................................13
1.8 Research significance..........................................................................................................14
1.9 Structure of the dissertation.................................................................................................14
1.10 Summary............................................................................................................................15
Chapter 2: Literature review..........................................................................................................16
2.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................16
2.2 Concept of leadership in the hotel industry.........................................................................16
2.3 Theoretical framework of leadership...................................................................................17
2.4 Concept of organisational performance in the hospitality sector........................................19
2.5 Theoretical framework of organisational performance.......................................................20
Figure 2.1: BSC model of organisational performance.........................................................22
2.6 Factors driving hotel organisation’s performance...............................................................22
2.7 Impact of leadership on organisational performance in the hotel industry.........................23

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2.8 Conceptual framework.........................................................................................................25
Figure 2.1: Conceptual framework........................................................................................25
2.9 Literature gap.......................................................................................................................25
2.10 Summary............................................................................................................................26
Chapter 3: Research Methodology................................................................................................27
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................27
3.2 Research onion.....................................................................................................................27
Figure 3.1: Research Onion...................................................................................................28
3.3 Research philosophy............................................................................................................28
3.4 Research approach...............................................................................................................29
3.5 Research design...................................................................................................................30
3.6 Data collection process........................................................................................................31
3.7 Sampling..............................................................................................................................33
3.8 Data analysis........................................................................................................................33
3.9 Reliability and validity........................................................................................................34
3.10 Ethical considerations........................................................................................................34
3.11 Timeline.............................................................................................................................35
3.12 Summary............................................................................................................................36
Chapter 4: Data findings and analysis...........................................................................................37
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................37

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4.2 Thematic Data analysis........................................................................................................37
Figure 4.1: Tourists arrival per year in Cyprus hotels...........................................................41
Figure 4.2: New development needed in the hotel sector focused on leaders.......................43
Figure 4.3: Tourist arrivals per month in Cyprus hotels........................................................46
4.3 Discussion and summary.....................................................................................................47
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations............................................................................48
5.1 Conclusions..........................................................................................................................48
5.2 Linking with objectives.......................................................................................................49
5.3 Recommendations................................................................................................................51
5.4 Future scope of the study.....................................................................................................57
Reference List................................................................................................................................58
Appendix........................................................................................................................................68

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List of Figures
Figure 2.1: BSC model of organisational performance.................................................................20
Figure 2.1: Conceptual framework................................................................................................23
Figure 3.1: Research Onion...........................................................................................................25
Figure 4.1: Tourists arrival per year in Cyprus hotels...................................................................39
Figure 4.2: New development needed in the hotel sector focused on leaders...............................41
Figure 4.3: Tourist arrivals per month in Cyprus hotels................................................................44

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List of Tables
Table 3.1: Interview sample..........................................................................................................31
Table 3.2: Gantt chart....................................................................................................................33
Table 4.1: Occupancy rate in Cyprus hotel (2012-2017)..............................................................36
Table 5.1: Action plan for guest satisfaction.................................................................................51
Table 5.2: Action plan for team work............................................................................................52
Table 4.3: Action plan for leaders’ perspective.............................................................................53
Table 4.4: Action Plan for top-down communication...................................................................55