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Executive Summary
There are different leadership styles within the UK restaurant sector. Among the predominant leadership styles within this sector are democratic leadership style, autocratic leadership style, laissez faire leadership style, and participatory leadership style. The research paper will explore these leadership behaviour orientations within the restaurant sector in the UK in terms of their relationship to employee motivation. The paper reviews the impact of these leadership styles on the effectiveness of employee motivation among several restaurants operating within the UK. This research look into helping different restaurants that operates within the UK to effectively implement the most consistent leadership style to guarantee success of different employee motivation strategies. The independent variable is employee motivation while independent variables are autocratic leadership style, democratic leadership style, laissez faire leadership style, and participatory leadership style.
Through primary research, the correlation analysis revealed that the highest coefficient of 0.678 was recorded in participatory leadership style. This was followed by a coefficient of 0.652 for democratic leadership orientation. The Laissez faire leadership orientation was represented by a coefficient of 0.498. The least coefficient of 0.439 was recorded on autocratic leadership orientation. From the findings, it clear that the aspects of team work, equity, and proper management have an influence on the effectiveness of organizational motivation. The main challenge identified in practicing different leadership behaviours is the ability to balance efficient and episodic as part of organizational efficiency matrix in a proactive manner in the framework for motivating employees. Apparently, the aspects of proactive employee management environment, healthy work environment, and organization commitment are crucial in motivating employees.
Introduction
This section of the research treatise will review research background, research problem, research objectives and research hypothesis with the aim of relating the same to organizational motivational strategies. The ultimate goal of all organizations is not just to survive, but also to maintain their existence through employee motivation to improve their performance. Past literature indicates that leadership as a functional unit in an organization is critical towards ensuring that the motivation objectives are met within the optimal resource use (Peterson, Smith, Martorana, & Owens, 2003). However, the revelations from some of the studies are conflicting. For instance, some of the findings indicate that leadership role and organizational motivation are dependent on each other. In contrast, some research findings reveal lack of quantifiable link between different leadership orientation and level of employee motivation (Weinberg & McDemott, 2002). The conflicting findings indicate the need for supplementary research to establish the clear link between leadership orientation style and employee motivation.
Wang, Tsui, and Xin (2011) agree that supplementary research should be carried out on the link between leadership orientation and employee motivation since the past contradictions from different research findings have made it difficult to establish the relationship. Furthermore, many previous research and studies have put their focus on the leadership role in other sectors (Youngs & King, 2002; Weinberg & McDemott, 2002). This means that limited findings on the link between leadership behaviour and employee motivation within the service industry such as the restaurant sector. The impetus of this treatise is to investigate the quantifiable influence of leadership styles on employee motivation in the service industry, especially the UK restaurant sector. Through research survey targeting 200 participants spread evenly across six restaurants, the results will be reviewed and most dominant leadership style identified and related to level of performance. This impetus was used to design the research questions listed in the next section.
Research background
In the last decade, the restaurant sector in the UK has experienced changes within the scope of leadership styles and approaches in managing operations. As a response to the increasing demand for better services, restaurants across the UK have been proactive in implementing strategies to ensure that the businesses are sustainable through proper employee motivation (Peterson, Smith, Martorana, & Owens, 2003). Therefore, it is critical to carry out an explicit research on the direct and indirect impacts of different leadership behaviour orientation on the effectiveness of different employee motivation strategies within restaurants in the UK. This study aims at reviewing different leadership behaviours and their link to different employee motivation strategies that restaurants apply to sustain business operations (Peterson, Smith, Martorana, & Owens, 2003). It will utilise best practice examples from six UK restaurants (represented by two restaurants each that are privately owned, jointly owned, and government owned).
Research problem statement
Leadership skills are one of the key factors within the hospitality industry as it revolves around a vibrant environment in terms of service orientation and concentrated labour (Gillet & Morda, 2003). Previous researches have showed that leadership style can influence the employees behaviour within the customer oriented industry. Leadership in the organization environment is dynamic since it focuses on how manager behave (Flaherty, Mowen, Brown, & Marshall, 2009). For instance, transformational leadership orientation can improve employee satisfaction, dedication, and general behaviour (Gill & Mathur, 2007). Despite these results indicating that various leadership orientations have different impact on the level of employee motivation, there is little knowledge on the ideal leadership behaviour that has the highest impact on employee motivation within the UK restaurant sector.
In most organizations, at the beginning of the 21st century, organization leadership was packaged as a linear function that is used in a straight feedback channel to pay messages to the subordinates (Olmstead, 2002, Nohria, Groysberg, & Lee, 2008). In the middle of the 21st century, the focus was shifted to transactional process that is characterised by direct interaction between the leader and the subordinate through encode-decode process. Organizational leadership as practiced in the current business environment encompass cultural balance, healthy employee relationship, and complete system of organization review (Olmstead, 2002; Nohria, Groysberg, & Lee, 2008). Several leadership behaviour orientations are proactively practiced in the UK restaurant sector. Among the predominant styles include participatory, democratic, laissez faire, and autocratic leadership.
The need for organization performance sustainability as influenced by good leadership informed the need for this research that aims at relating leadership behaviour and employee motivation effectiveness. Specifically, this research will attempt to link different motivation programs in the UK restaurant sector to organization leadership behaviour.
Research hypothesis
Null hypothesis
Different organization leadership behaviours have a direct impact on the level of employee motivation within the restaurant sector in the UK.
Alternative hypothesis
Different organization leadership behaviours do not have a direct impact on the level of employee motivation within the restaurant sector in the UK.
The research aims and objectives
Considering the significance of different leadership behaviours on employee motivation, this research treatise will attempt to analyse the extent to which these leadership styles influence the effectiveness of different organizations within the UK restaurant sector. The objectives are summarised below as;
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To review the significance of different leadership behaviour orientations within the restaurant sector in the UK.
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To review the impact of different leadership behaviour orientations on the level of employee motivation within the restaurant sector of the UK.
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To investigate different ways of measuring employee motivation within the restaurants that operates within the restaurant sector of the UK.
Research significance
The study will relate leadership behaviour to employee motivation within the restaurant sector of the UK. The case study restaurants will be reviewed in terms of long term and short term growth as part of their leadership strategy enacted by the management of such establishments. This study will also look into different leadership behaviours and their impacts at the restaurants within the UK restaurant sector. Therefore, the outcome of this research study may be instrumental in improving the general level of employee motivation through proper human resource policies and critical management in goal setting and execution.
Organizational leadership effectiveness influences the sustainability of organization operations since all factors of production are optimal at this point. Specifically, the outcome of this research will be instrumental to case study organizations in implementing effective leadership styles to guarantee optimal employee motivation, thus optimal performance. The research findings will also suggest to the case study organizations on the best employee motivation strategies that may be instrumental in creating an idea work environment for employees.
Research Justification
Employee motivation is a key component of leadership behaviour orientation and largely determines the efficiency of any particular organization. From the literature review, there is a gap on the irrefutable impacts of different leadership styles on the effectiveness of employee motivation within the UK restaurant sector. The rationale for the entire analysis is based on the above research gap.
Limitations of the study
There is little literature on the link between leadership behaviour orientation and the level of employee motivations within the restaurant sector of the UK. Although the study aims at addressing the above research gap, it will only add literature on the research topic within a specific business environment. The findings will reveal the underlying variables to effective employee motivation as influenced by different leadership styles. This means that the case study restaurants will have to review other significant factors that may interact with leadership styles to either increase or decrease the level of employee motivation (Olmstead, 2002). Therefore, there is need to regulate any emphasis on a trend that may emerge to ensure that the case study restaurants embrace practical leadership practices that guarantee optimal employee motivation.
Research timeline
Week 1: Research Commencement
This stage will involve reviewing the research topic and rationale for the proposed hypothesis. This stage may take one week, since choosing the topic will be dependent on available literature.
Week 2 & 3: Choosing the case study
Choosing the case study will be very challenging as research papers adopt different approaches. Specifically, I will have to choose the most convincing research variables from different research articles with a diverse approach to the research questions.
Week 4 & 5: Background research
Since materials are available for the research topic, I will have an easy time in merging the relevant material to the research question. This stage may take two weeks to accomplish.
Week 6, 7, & 8: Conducting the literature review
This stage will be very demanding, since different sources of information will be searched. The sources of information that will be probed include the internet, the university library, course notes and public libraries with relevant information on the topic of research. I will concentrate on scholarly papers, conference proceedings, and relevant books.
Week 9, 10, & 11: Conducting interviews, collecting data and analysing data
This stage will be the most difficult in the research study. I will have to balance direct interviews, questionnaires, and other methods of research to present information about the topic. Data collected through one-on-one interviews will have to be scrutinised in detail. The research will use open and closed-ended questions in examining the relationship between leadership behaviour and employee motivation. Each question asked will have to be comprehensive to ensure that respondents have an opportunity to give deep answers, which provide an insight into the research problem to solve through the use of Google docs software. Transcription will be done to each of the recorded interview process. For each response, from each participant, the recorded transcripts will be perused to coin relevant and most appropriate response. This part will be more time consuming than any other part of the research paper.
Week 12 & 13: Research conclusion
Emerging themes will be identified and the findings will be interpreted and related to the research question. I will have to manage the data findings and interpretation within the scope of the research topic despite any research dynamics that may arise in the process. The final study will be reviewed to confirm its comprehensiveness in answering the research question before submission. This summarised in the Gantt chart below.
Summary
In summary, the first chapter has explored the background and main concepts that will steer the research paper towards establishing the relationship between employee motivation and leadership behaviour within the restaurant sector in the UK. The entire analysis will be based on the link between leadership styles and the level of employee motivation in different restaurants across the UK restaurant sector.
Literature Review
Introduction
The literature review part will explore different leadership behaviour orientations and employee motivation strategies that guaranteed organization effectiveness. The process of reviewing existing literature on the research project will be carried out through examination of different journal articles, books, and websites. Reflectively, leadership is the intrinsic ability to internalise a setting with the intention of empowering a group or team to proactively and creatively contribute towards problem solving (Casimir & Waldman, 2007, p. 48). In order to lead a multi-cultural group, a manager is expected to balance the dimension of power/distance to minimize the degree of inequality when fulfilling the group expectations. In order to achieve this, the leadership approach should embrace the low power/distance score to make the bridge between supervision and other subjects friendly (Weinberg & McDemott, 2002). As a result, there will be continuous teamwork that involves as many people of different cultures as possible. The decision made in such environment will not only be friendly to a larger percentage of the group, but also accommodating to different cultures within the local setting.
Leadership theories
Transformational leadership theory
Under transformation leadership, the leader has a proactive role of giving the subordinates in an organization to interact freely and equitably in the process of addressing different needs. This type of leadership orientation is characterised by flexibility since those who practice this leadership style must embrace the elements of commitment, team work, and proactive focus in transforming different aspects of organizational functioning (Bloom & Reenen, 2010; Weinberg & McDemott, 2002).
Leadership expectancy theory
This leadership theory is characterised by decision making process that is devoid of prejudices and negative emotions since it operates in a multi dimensional organization that has competing interests. The leadership theory offers the most viable performance management matrix since the entire idea is angled on ethical behaviour. Among the notable elements of this theory include valence, performance, effort that are balanced by the outcome (Montana & Bruce, 2008).
Leadership motivational theories
Incentive theory
This theory functions on the perceptions of a leader towards creating series of structures for rewarding performance to ensure that the subordinates are not only part of the leadership process, but also part of the performance engagement in an organization. For example, in a multidimensional organization, it is prudent for the leader to create a system that links the relationship between individual performance and rewards expected in order to motivate desirable performance levels (Weinberg & McDemott, 2002).
Arousal theory
This theory is functional in promoting the aspect of communication culture valance in developing the norms and expectations within each behaviour against the guideline for self regulation. For example, in a typical organization, arousal may lead to either positive or negative results when the command plan is incline towards self contempt and supportive approaches, respectively (Andreadis, 2009).
Other leadership theories
According to Andreadis (2009), expectancy theory in leadership functionality in an organization influences the behaviour of person(s) making decision away from personal prejudice, stereotype, or emotions (Andreadis, 2009, p. 45). Reflectively, applying individualism dimension as a leader in a multi-cultural setting will create a flexible group culture and feign a common communal connection among the parties functioning within a set of expectations. In order to make the individualism dimension as dynamic as possible, it will be critical to introduce strategies that will ensure that the score is very low. Therefore, the leadership approach will revolve around showing respect to all, promoting harmony through suppressing negative feelings, and introducing changes progressively without having to interfere with the existing traditions (Bloom & Reenen, 2010).
According to Huczynski (2012), what valence a certain object or activity and partly upon the needs of the state of the person at that time (Huczynski, 2012, p. 273). As the third cultural dimension, applying masculinity in a multi-cultural organization would involve creating a leadership system that balances the roles between the manager of the expectations and those operating within the expectations. The system will embrace the diverse roles and provide a structure for leadership based on skills and not just ideological or private inclination of a party. For instance, through creation of a task-orientation and transformational leadership skills, it will be easy for the manager to balance the discontent as a result of inferiority or superiority complex among the parties interacting. The skills will ensure that the group has a low score in the masculinity dimension (Davidson, Wood, & Griffin, 2009). Therefore, the elements of equality, job design, and collectiveness will become ideal for proactively managing expectation.
According to Weinberg and McDemott (2002), healthy ethical communication culture creates structural goals which develop norms, expectations of specific behaviour display, and appropriate guideline controlling interaction with one another (Weinberg & McDemott, 2002, p.19). The uncertainty/avoidance index dimension within a multi-cultural setting as a leadership strategy is achievable through creating systems that address the sources of stressors and provide coping instruments. Therefore, a low score is ideal for a multi-cultural organization. This is achievable through minimal interference with the group structure, limited emotional response to emergencies, and proactive expression of an otherwise situation that might complicate changes. In order to balance the pros and cons of a lower score, there is need to concentrate on the cultural context for the manager to remain relevant (Lipshitz et al. 2007).
The last cultural dimension in leadership is the long term orientation. This is achievable through promotion of equality, creativity, and self-actualisation. Therefore, the leadership approach should create a uniform behaviour standard within the local context to ensure that decisions made do not interfere with the local traditions and expectations. In summary, the elements of respect, proactive attitude, and freedom of expression will create a steady management when the above dimensions are balanced (Cardenas & Crabtree, 2009).
As indicated in the Vrooms expectancy theory, motivation attracts different performance levels since the rewards may cue to the perceptions of employees in a positive way to perform optimally (Montana & Bruce, 2008). The visual representation in the form of rewards is important in creating a sustainable work environment (Lipshitz, Friedman, & Popper, 2007; Davidson, Wood, & Griffin, 2009). As a prerequisite for effective valence balance in an organization, it is necessary for the employees to develop confidence and common vision since the applicability of the theory functions on conformity (Weinberg & McDemott, 2002).
Different leadership behaviours
In the last decade, leadership responsibilities in organizations have changed as business environments experience management dynamics. As indicated by Montana and Bruce (2008), leadership orientation involves the patterns and approaches that organization or individuals take to manage a situation. In many organizations, the type of leadership style in use may influence the level of employee performance (Male et al. 2007; Weinberg & McDemott, 2002). In most cases, managers tend to apply the most appropriate leadership style depending on the type of organization in question to ensure that the aim and roles do not mismatch the expirations. Different leadership behaviours are explained below.
Autocratic leadership style
Autocratic leadership behaviour involves sole decision making process by a manager on behalf on an organization without consulting the other subordinates. The decision made by the individual is the communicated to the subordinates as the final choice when handing a situation. In relation to the UK restaurant industry, an establishment practicing this type of leadership style may give a manager the sole responsibility of making major decisions and communicating instructions to subordinates. As presented within theory X and Y, autocratic leadership style involves supervision after instructions with the belief that the employees are responsible to do what is right (Arslan & Staub, 2013, p. 34). Generally, this leadership behaviour is healthy in promoting maximum employee involvements as the expectations from each employee is communicated in a comprehensive performance outline (Male et al. 2007).
Democratic leadership style
As indicated by Andreadis (2009), democratic style of leadership functions in a consultative environment where all major decisions or actions in an organization are guided by the principle of equitable participation between the managers and subordinates. This type of leadership embraces the principle of having similar voting right when executing duties in an organization. The democratic leadership style means facilitating the conversation, encouraging people to share their ideas, and then synthesizing all the available information into the best possible decision (Anderson, 2009, p. 45). This type of leadership behaviour is characterised by flexibility in the decision environment since it consultative and active participation by all the stakeholders. Since this leadership style is dependent on consultation of all the stakeholders, it has disadvantages such as prolonged decision making process since all the stakeholders must contribute in the final decision (Huczynski, 2012).
Participatory leadership style
Reflectively, participatory leadership is a system in which employees of a business organization take an active role in the decision-making process as it relates to the way the business operates (Davidson, Wood & Griffin, 2009, p. 29). This type pf leadership behaviour is characterised by teamwork, high level of personal responsibility, and inclusive decision environment. This type of leadership behaviour is commonly practiced in many restaurants in the UK as it is friendly to the views of the subordinates.
Laissez faire leadership style
Basically, laissez faire leadership behaviour is characterised by, the manager taking a back seat in proceedings, leaving the staff in charge of their own specific sections or tasks (Lipshitz et al. 2007, p. 21). This leadership behaviour encourages high morale among employees since everyone is his or her own boss when decisions have to be made. Besides, this style is ideal in promoting creativity since each employee is empowered to add his or her input without having to seek approval from the seniors. However, this leadership behaviour may lead to redundancy, when the employees decide to abuse their roles in the organization since there are no structures for regulating any unbecoming behaviour (Mason, 2005). In relation to the restaurant sector in the UK, this leadership approach is not ideal since the sector operates in an environment where the needs of customers are very sensitive.
Impacts of the leadership styles on employee motivation
Reflecting on Lewins three-step theory, the unfreezing, transformation, and refreezing determine the level of performance in an organization. According to this theory, the first step involves realization that a challenge exists in the organization. The second step involves transformation of this challenge into a development goal after which implementation step concludes by developing a solution for the challenge (Liu, Combs, Ketchen, & Ireland, 2007). The best way to motivate employees is by giving them responsibilities for achieving something and the authority to do it in their own way. Through this approach, employees will be empowered and they will feel trusted and valued by the management personnel (Davidson, Wood, & Griffin, 2009; Male et al. 2007).
Naturally, human beings would wish for motivation through mutual consent and internalised empowerment and appreciation. Empowerment unleashes plenty of energy and motivation. Reflectively, the motivation and energy aspects of appreciation function simultaneously at micro and macro levels to facilitate optimal functionality or productivity (Andreadis, 2009). Empowering the employees will ensure a stable and sustainable win-win situation as employees will be motivated to work without much supervision from the management or their supervisors. As opined by Maslow, in the hierarchy of needs theory, primary needs are basic before tertiary needs and must be addressed in that order (Vaccaro et al 2012, p. 36).
The needs include safety, physical needs, love, self esteem, and room for actualisation. Job satisfaction is as a result of a systematic and continuous environmental and personality interaction that fosters the right attitude as indicated in the objectives of this hospital. In the case of the surgery department, social and highly skilled employees should be allocated the right duties than keeping them in a secluded environment. When assigning duties, personality checks are necessary to promote self satisfaction while the same time improves performance. In addition, periodic self evaluation and interdepartmental rotation ensure change of environment (Vaccaro et al. 2012; Andreadis, 2009; Davidson, Wood & Griffin, 2009). Overtime, the results will reliable, effective, and profitable to such an organization.
Role of training in an organizations motivation as a leadership element
Self evaluation skills on individual concentration level during training encompass actual and expected outcome. Through designing relevant program training model, concentration evaluation will remained active in developing dependence of interest attached to an activity, creating proactive relationships, and monitoring their interaction with physical aspects of team evaluation. Eventually, this pays off since that individual will learn to appreciate the essence of learning and need to stay active. Thus, despite training coordination being rated as a high self management assessment strategy, actionable planning is of essence to create solution oriented task and strategy implementation secession for quantifying performance levels (Davidson, Wood & Griffin, 2009).
Since training engages in active process of learning through skill evaluation, facilitation, and rewarding collective learning results, the ideal module for quantifying success will rely on the set objectives. The three building blocks of training evaluation include learning intra personal performance, learning processes, and practices leadership that reinforces performance. Better performance translates into organization growth especially when the training process is continuous (Davidson, Wood & Griffin, 2009).
Naturally, human beings would wish for motivation through mutual consent and internalised empowerment and appreciation. Empowerment unleashes plenty of energy and motivation. Reflectively, the motivational and energy aspects of appreciation functions simultaneously at micro and macro levels to facilitate optimal functionality or productivity (Davidson, Wood & Griffin, 2009). Empowering employees ensures a stable and sustainable a win-win situation as employees will be motivated to work without much supervision from the management or their supervisors. When properly incorporated within and without different departmental segmentations as an active component of the company goals and vision, the complete interaction between the management and other staff will contribute to value addition, good performance and healthy working environment.
Upon empowering employees to participate more in the decision making process, culture of independence in reasoning and consultative approach when handling work related duties will be internalised. In fact, the employees will appreciate the need for free consultation rather than doing the same as a condition imposed on them by their superiors. In the process of carrying out consultative functionalism, the mind will be tuned to appreciate the need for flexibility in decision making science which is compatible with the goals and vision of the organization (Davidson, Wood & Griffin, 2009). In addition, the entire workforce operating under the consultative approach is likely to positively embrace change element that may be introduced in the organization aimed at ensuring optimal output by the employees. Optimal performance translates into sustainable business and promotes organization development (Andreadis, 2009).
Motivation and employee engagement
This Vroom Expectancy Theory suggests that employees earn motivation from what they expect in terms of rewards. The theory bases its argument on operant conditioning. The employees look at the rewards. If the reward is good, the employees put in effort to earn it. Th
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