Transformational leadership: Relationship to job stress and job burnout in five-star hotels

Abstract

Due to the significance of transformational leadership in the hospitality industry, and the imperative need of managers to communicate effectively with all employees in the work environment, this study aims to (1) shed light on the importance of transformational leadership in the hospitality industry; (2) study the implementation of transformational leadership for guest and non-guest contact employees in five-star hotels in Egypt, and (3) scrutinize the perception of transformational leadership and its effect on job stress and burnout. To our knowledge, this is the only study that has investigated this topic both in guest and non-guest contact departments in five-star hotels (113 hotels). A total of 327 valid questionnaires from 500 questionnaire distributed were used to conduct the data analysis (155 questionnaire represented guest contact department and 172 questionnaire represented non-guest contact department), giving a response rate of 65.4%. The findings revealed the perception of transformational leadership does not have significant variance, whether in guest contact department or in non-guest contact department. Although employees in guest contact department showed that their direct managers “often” implement transformational leadership, in non-guest contact department, they showed that their direct managers “sometimes” implement transformational leadership. The findings also revealed a significant and negative correlation between transformational leadership and job stress in five-star hotels. However, this negative relationship between transformational leadership and job stress is higher among guest contact employees than non-guest contact employees. Likewise, the statistical test revealed a significant and negative correlation between transformational leadership and job burnout in five-star hotels. But this negative relationship between transformational leadership and job stress is higher among guest contact employees than non-guest contact employees. The outcomes of this study raised major critical recommendations that have to be directed to top managerial level in the hospitality industry.