Women's Leadership and Hotel Management in Thailand: A Study

This dissertation investigates the position of women in hotel management in Thailand, focusing on their leadership styles and the challenges they face. The research explores various leadership approaches, including democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire styles, and analyzes their effectiveness in the context of Thai culture and the hotel industry. The study examines the differences in leadership behaviors between male and female leaders, considering factors such as decision-making, problem-solving, and the impact of gender equality on organizational performance. The dissertation also delves into the factors contributing to women's success in hotel management, such as setting clear goals, leveraging their gender strengths, and effective communication strategies. The findings are based on literature review and research methodology including data analysis, findings from interviews, conclusions, and recommendations for future research and practice.

Dissertation
(Women in Hotel Management and Leadership style in Thailand: To investigate
the position of women in)

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................1
The different style of leadership between male and female........................................................1
Glass ceiling issue that the women leader face in hotel management........................................5
Factor that leads women leader to success in hotel management...............................................9
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................12
Types of investigation...............................................................................................................12
Research design.........................................................................................................................13
Research Approach...................................................................................................................14
Research philosophy.................................................................................................................14
Data Analysis ...........................................................................................................................15
Method of data collection..........................................................................................................16
Data Sampling...........................................................................................................................16
Validity and Reliability.............................................................................................................17
Accessibility issues...................................................................................................................17
Ethical consideration.................................................................................................................18
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDING.....................................................................18
Findings from interview............................................................................................................19
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................27
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................28
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................30
REFERNCES ................................................................................................................................33

Title: “Women in Hotel Management and Leadership style in Thailand: To investigate the
position of women in hotel management and leadership”.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
The different style of leadership between male and female
According to Kofi Annan, (2018), gender equality is one of the important aspect for
every business organization as this may lead to improve overall performance level and image as
well. As both male and female having specific skills and knowledge to perform their activities.
However, number of women in leadership position is less a compare to men within the
organization because of gender differences only. Thus, it is also important for management to
recognize the both women and men behaviours at the time of leading their staff members. Both
men and women are act different in various situation such as decision making, problems solving
and many more that occur at workplace. Along with this, every leader whether they are male and
female have specific skills to deal with any kind of situation. In this context, Thailand is the one
of the countries in Asian in which the majority of Thai is relate with Buddhism. In this all the
organizations are use effective leadership style to lead their workers. As Thailand is a high and
collectivism culture so that all the people and organizations are often avoid conflicts and issues
with another. They would like to pretend respect with others because they Thais people are able
to control their modest and emotions. On the other hand, according to various investigations it
has been found that male mostly qualifies as the best leaders while performing tasks and male
leadership stays much effective than a female leadership.
As given by same author that “the possibility that women and men differ in their typical
leadership behaviour is important because leaders’ own behaviour is a major determinant of their
effectiveness and chances for advancement”. The statement which was given by the author was
much effective till some aspect. As men have wider range of exploring or investigation over
number of situations but women in Thailand does have less chances of doing research over
different areas because of sex discrimination (Ahmad Bibi and Majid, 2017). In past few decades
as given in different investigation it has been found that women are much creative than men.
Thus, it can be said that women who are leading distinctive business organisations have raised
profit in much effective manner than men. Both men and women carries different mindsets and
perception depending over the situations. Therefore, this can be considered as major difference
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which makes leadership of both of genders antithetic form each other. Apart from this, relation in
between leadership styles and gender has recently become an important topic of doing
investigation.
According to Braden Becker., (2018), every single leader uses various leadership styles
to provide better direction, implement different plans and also motivating people at workplace
for enhance their working performance at workplace. On the other hand, it has also been
analysed that all the leadership styles like democratic, autocratic, laissez-faire, and others may
differ from each other when it is compared over two different genders (Male and Female).
Managing a hotel comes with many roles and responsibilities, thus, it is may be possible that
men may have high number of opportunities than a women in Thailand. As business people in
this country in past decades did not consider women as if they can work in an organisation at a
good designation because of high illiteracy rate among female gender. But, in previous years
women has improved themselves in different areas in Thailand. There are many female leaders
and entrepreneurs in Thailand have become much effective at workstation. In this context there
are some leadership styles between male and female in hotel management:
Democratic leadership: For women it is one of the effective style in which women
leader involve their staff members at the time of taking decision because they believe in
collecting different views and opinion. One of the main advantage of this style is that, female
leader encourage creativity and unique ways to make right judgement. With the help of this,
workers are highly satisfied with their job and also enhance their productivity level as well.
Recently, it has been analysed that women that are sitting on managerial posts in different hotels
in Thailand majorly uses democratic leadership style. Through this, hotels in which women who
are manager have earned much more profit and gained reputation than male managers. Here,
female managers asks for suggestions from staff, takes decisions on the basis of suggestions that
has been given by employees. It aid them in motivating staff and gives them an opportunity of
raising themselves or getting promoted in hotels only. It is better because, employees majorly
deals with all the problems in hotel industry, asking for suggestions from them in order to make
hotel much effective in nature (Li, Fagan and Bourguiba, 2016). With the help of this, women
managers in hotel industry becomes able to deliver high experience to customers as per their
needs and requirements.
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Autocratic leadership: Mainly this type of leadership style is used by male leaders due
to their aggressive nature. As they do not want any kind of interruption in their decision making
process. Along with this, autocratic leader (Male) make decision without discussing with their
team members. This type of leadership appropriate when company needs to make quick decision
but it is negatively affect on the staff members because of less involvement of workers
(Jermsittiparsert, 2016). On the other hand, it has also been analysed that women who have used
this type of leadership style have not been much successful in nature. Female managers mostly
carries humble nature, Therefore, most of them do not go for autocratic leadership style as
dominating others is not there nature. Apart from this, 100 out of 50% of male uses this style
because of their behaviour towards others. There are many cases where decisions which has been
taken by male manager in hotel industry have become wrong. This impacted negatively on profit
margins and reputation as well of hotels. But, in this case as well sometimes it becomes vital for
managers to take quick decisions and other leadership styles like democratic needs time because
taking suggestions from others requires time which may impact badly on quick decision making
process.
Laissez-Faire leadership: It is also an effective leadership style which used by Thai
women in hotel management for leading their team members. In this, female leader provide lot
of freedom to their staff members to perform their task in effective way. Along with this, it is
also based trust through which leader can easily give direction to team members if the need
arises. One of the main advantage of using this leadership style is to allow the people to perform
work at their own pace and at the same time also provide better flexibility to staff members. With
the help of this, Thai women can easily lead their team members to encourage them. This will
directly contribute in making strong workforce (Vasayangkura and Kunphoommarl, 2015). Hotel
industry requires much more working hours than any other sector. Thus, Thai women who are at
managerial position may use this type of leadership style in order to better serve to visitors in
hotels.
Along with this, gender differences and leadership styles become more important for
every business organization as employees whether they are men or women plays as a crucial role
in entire work forces but male workers are appointed on higher position then female. The main
reason behind this is that the female leader adopt democratic and participate leadership style.
Through which they can easily increase workers engagement within entire activities. Along with
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this, men leaders employs more strict than women because they focus on completing task from
their workers in any any kind of situation. Sometime, it negatively affect on overall performance
of the workers at workplace (Rurkkhum, 2018). So that women leaders are use transformational
leadership style to motivate, encourage their team members so that they can easily perform their
task. This will contribute in making positive work environment at workplace and at the same
time also shares clear vision to attain desirable results. In this context, there are some strategies
which use by women in hotel management are as follows:
Development over goals: It is important for women leader to set clear goals and
objectives for attaining business success. In this context, the transformational leaders needs to
develop their employees to achieving positive outcomes. Along with this, female leader should
set goals by transforming entire team members with the purpose of making them better and able
to attain predetermined targets (Novelli and Tisch-Rottensteiner, 2012). They also play role
model to inspire their subordinates towards the business goals and objectives. Women leader also
invest more time in giving better coaching to their team members for developing their values and
abilities.
Don't be transactional: Under this, women leader focus on overall performance of the
team members which may reduce the chances of arising issues at workplace. Along with this,
they also engage their subordinates by giving them direction. This will help in increasing
productivity level of all the team members (Mukundan and KA, 2018). In hotel industry, it has
been analysed that women managers have given equal opportunities to its subordinates. This
impacted positively in motivating employees and improving number of chances for organisations
to hit its targets.
Leverage your Gender: Women have higher oxytocin level than men. As they easily
connected with people and team members by sharing their views and opinion. Along with this,
women are more concern and care with their subordinates as they easily understand their needs.
This is the main reason that why women is more than men. In this they provide better guidance
and grow opportunities to their team members to meet the end goals and objectives. They also
better at the time of explaining their views and emotions verbally in front of their team members
(Dokkularb, 2013). In hospitality industry, it is much required for women to keep on making
effective changes so that they can keep their belief much effectual in nature in front of their staff
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members (Vechachart and Sulisworo, 2017). It is a quality of a leader which should be
considered by women being as a manager in hospitality industry.
Strength based tasks: It is also a best thing in which women perform as a
transformational leader and also assign task to the team members as per their capabilities and
abilities. For this, women leader determine the capabilities towards the performing the job
activities (Kessler, 2015). With the help of this, workers enjoy their task and also tries to put
their best for attaining desirable goals. On the other hand, organisation's targets can also easily
get hit by companies and can kept their focus over improving number of chances in enhancing
reputation in near future.
Over communicate: Female leaders are effective in verbally communication as it
consider as a major key aspect to attain success. For example: when team members are feel more
comfortable to being transparent with their leader than it reduce the chances of arising issues and
problems at workplace. With the help of this, employees easily increase their productivity level
at workplace (McCargo, 2015). Verbal communication should be much effective among women
manager and its employees as then only hotel may hit it targets or make right changes as per
requirements. Hotel management course can help females in improving number of chances in
getting employed in hospitality industry.
Glass ceiling issue that the women leader face in hotel management
According to Jone Johnson Lewis, (2017), glass ceiling effect implies with resistance to
efforts of women and minorities to arrive highest ranks in multinational corporations. The term
was heavily used in mid of 1980s; at this time women entered the workplace at large range and
found themselves unable to advance beyond a certain level of management. Along with this,
Glass ceiling is metaphor for hard to see various informal barriers which keep women stay away
from promotions, pay raises and further opportunities. It can be also seen while describing the
limits and barriers which are usually faced by racial people or groups. In Thailand the approach
was invented in economic organisations but later stated to applied to invisible limits in which
women are not allowed to raise and put their opinions. There are several function of cultural and
societal sanctions that may affect women career growth and development. There are different
kinds of obstacles which a women working in the field of Hotel Management can face this can
be related to personal and professional and moreover all the factors are explained below for
better understanding:
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Work/ Family conflict: It is considered as one of the common issues in which women
face problem in maintaining a proper balance between work and family. In modern world, after
doing hotel management course in Thailand there is a higher chances for women to get a
professional job in a famous hotel (Chantamool, Laoakka and Phaengsoi, 2015). Unfortunately,
it has been analysed that a percentage of women has been in puzzled up while working and
considering their family as a responsibility. Hospitality sector demands long working hours and
asks for heavy dedication towards a job duties. Thus, this situation may bring ample number of
stressful barriers for women that are working in this sector. Modern world has given equal
opportunities to both men and women. Then also, families mostly consider female as their major
care givers.
After when a women reaches home putting her full efforts over task which has been
given by seniors, spouse and children both asks for full attention which create much more
difficulties and create imbalance in both work and personal life. This can be taken as a good
example of glass ceiling issue for women leaders while working in hotel industry (Trupp and
Sunanta, 2017). On the other hand, this anticipation has carried a negative perception of women
over jobs in hotel industry and stopped them doing jobs in hotel management. It is mandatory for
families and company to keep their full support over women so that they can create proper
balance among work and personal life.
Equality opportunity: It has been analysed that companies in today's world have given
equal opportunities to employees. But in reality, scenario is totally different where employer
chooses men over women because they can put full efforts and can give more working hours.
Apart from this, it has also been analysed that recently the “business case” for promoting women
and other diverse groups has become more popular. Essentially the business case utilizes a
Gendered division of labour in hotel industry human resource management perspective. With the
help of this, equal opportunities can be given to women in hotel industry. On the other way, it
has been found that in past few years business people in hospitality section and in other sector
used to give jobs to men instead of women as they used to think that males were much more
efficient than females. But, according to a study, it has been analysed that women in Thailand are
much more effective than male staff in hotels.
On the other hand, it has also been found that diversity which is related to effective
management, a notion in which all nations has had a long history creates a number of strong
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arguments for the utilization of women workers for the corporate good. This scenario has raised
number of chances for women and given equal opportunities to them in hospitality industry. On
the other hand, it has also been analysed that, there are many campaigns like “Say No to
Violence” and “Media Monitor” influenced women in going for equal jobs and opportunities.
This has improved many number of chances for women and treated in the same manner as men
were doing in business world (Dimitriou, 2017).
Gender discrimination: This is being considered as one of main barrier that has been
seen by women of Thailand while choosing Hotel management course for their near future. In
last few years, sex and gender discrimination is clearly seen in the hotel industry. Traditional
gender-based labour divisions is one of obstacles which is related to career development of
women (Lathabhavan and Balasubramanian, 2017). In past decades, there are many examples
present in all over world where women have already cleared that they are not weak from men.
This empowered them with various decision taking skills. But issues related to sex
discrimination still exists in the market. This has impacted negatively on performance level of
females in this sector. It has been analysed that large number of women of Thailand got
employment in hotel industry, especially in non-managerial side in a company. Here, jobs which
has been offered by hotels to women are : semi- or unskilled, low paid and classically segregated
over male and female gender. If it is compared over wages, it has been found that women gets
paid much less than men. Therefore, this can be considered as a male dominated organisational
culture in distinctive hotels. This has raised number of benefits for customers and impacted over
number of areas. Another issue that has been faced by women in hotel industry is that they are
subject to high levels of sexual harassment from both guests and staff because of low literacy and
educational level. There are many cases where women staff first got raped and then murdered in
hotel by both guests and employees or management of hotels.
A male dominated organisational culture: This is being considered as another issue
which created problems for women in hospitality industry. Apart from this, it has also been
analysed that there are many organisations that today also believes that men can simply perform
much higher than women and do not gives equal opportunities to employees (Kumar, 2015).
Thus, it can be considered as one of a kind approach which impacted negatively on performance
level of women staff members. On the other hand, it has also been found that companies in this
sector cannot take risks because of high competition. Therefore, it is much required for
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organisations to focus over this issue as it may raise number of chances of hotels to grow in
competitive environment. On the other hand, hospitality industry have also tried to make changes
as per the requirements and tried to adopt equal based organisational culture but higher influence
of men has became one of crucial barrier for them.
According to Tajeddini, Walle and Denisa, (2017), hospitality industry of Thailand, there
are only a hundred of women that are sitting on a high managerial job in distinctive hotels. Apart
from this, in hotel industry workforce, an average of 55.5% of women are found on various
positions such as directors of sales section, housekeeping or are in marketing department and
men are sitting on managing department. Thus, it can be said that female in hotel industry are not
sitting on higher positions in hospitality industry. But in last few years, as employment in this
gender improved which impacted positively and changed the whole scenario for hospitality
sector of Thailand. Still there are many glass ceiling issues that can be seen which has been faced
by women in Hotel management like they do not get same opportunities as men do. They do not
take initiatives as well which makes them less effective in nature. Becoming a leader is not an
easy task to do thus, it can be considered as something which may impact over different areas.
Women in Thailand have lower earnings than men workforce. It ranges approximately 65% to
80% of wages which were being paid to men (Women's economy and labour in Thailand, 2015).
On the other hand, women that are in hotel management have faced number of problems and
created many differences. Majorly, this gender have faced intense attitudinal barriers.
This has created discrimination among business world as well because of higher
influence of women. Apart from this, it has also been found that there are several personality
related characteristics under hospitality sector which stays common in nature among both men
and women. Some of them are : courtesy, consideration, tactics, perceptiveness, skills related to
communication and many more (KUSIRISIN, 2014). Thus, these are some of characteristics of
both gender which may aid them in bringing up the equality. In a report, women managers in
hotel industry have given high performance than male managing people. Organisational,
management related knowledge, financial, maintaining people and economy related aspects are
some of major concerns where women kept themselves much stronger than men.
Apart from this, women frequently carry out the most undesirable and lowest status work
in hospitality. Along with this, hospitality industry of Thailand does not occupied women
employees even in present era, as they think that women employees cannot perform well in this
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sector. Although, the sector requires night shifts, instant decisions, travelling one place to
another and handling various nature of clients etc. Although, the companies have classified
themselves into different departments, such as – human resources, finance, advertising, sales etc
(Wongthong, 2013). Moreover, many women who are working in areas, i.e. such as operations,
finance and reservations have hard times breaking through the manager or director level or any
higher positions.
In reality, the hospitality industries have no shortages of women employees but senior
management positions seem to be mostly taken by men. The reason behind generating glass
ceiling issue is - gender discrimination, a male dominated organizational culture and work and
family conflict as most of the female employees are bound with their family traditional or
cultural thus they are unable to give more time to their jobs through which they cannot obtain
high position in hotel management industry (Crainer, 2012).
Factor that leads women leader to success in hotel management
According to the Alyssa Gautieri, (2017), women in top management position is
important concern in the hotel management which help in increasing the female employees
within the hotel. For attaining the same, management needs to provide them better opportunities
to them so that they present themselves best in front of team members. Still, inequality between
men and women are highly occur at workplace as all the power, top position and decision-
making is highly belong to men. In Thailand, number of hotels managed by men and women are
found in the low level of the management. This is the reason women are work on lower level and
responsible for housekeeping services, front office and marketing and well. But in this context,
women are equal ability as compare to men as they having creative and specific skills to perform
their task. Women also more polite with their staff members than men in which they easily
understand workers issues and concern at workplace. Apart from this, women majorly nurtures
in much better way than a men. Thus, in hotel industry women may communicate with
consumers in much effective and efficient way than male managers. Apart from this, caring,
adopting and supporting behaviour of female majorly has helped women in improving number of
chances of becoming much more successful hotel managers than men. According to an
investigation hotels that have women in managerial positions are more successful in facing the
increasing competitiveness and adapt to changes more efficiently.
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