Introduction
Purpose of the study
There are several types of leadership feedback attributions in organizations. For instance, addressing feedback with anger may result in abusive supervision. On the other hand, addressing feedback as evaluation that is based on the results of poor performance may not give the ideal picture for proactive organizational behaviour module.
As a result, the subordinates may feel disengaged and might not display optimal performance. Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and involvement are critical elements within an effective organizational culture (Wang, Tsui, & Xin, 201, p. 98).
As a manager within an organization, job satisfaction should be the top priority towards the subordinates. Reflectively, job satisfaction translates into effective workforce since satisfied employees will meet their needs while fulfilling the organization’s work values.
Besides, strategies promoting job satisfaction accommodate equity among the employees, in terms of rewards and treatment (Slack, 2012, p. 23). It is therefore important to review the impact of corporate leadership on employee motivation in Spanish hotel chains.
The analysis will be based on the causal attribution theory, goal setting theory, and abusive supervision theory.
Previously, the leadership feedback channel was depicted as a linear process in which a supervisor directly conveyed messages to the subordinates and tracks their performance.
In the twenty-first century, the feedback models are interactions of transaction processes where both the supervisor and the subordinates have an influence on each other as they interact within the realms of organizational cultural context.
Employee motivation captures the concepts of efficiency, efforts, ability, and strategies in place to accomplish an effective organizational behaviour (Chan & Mcallister, 2014, p. 46). The need for leaders’ feedback efficiency necessitates more research in the area of feedback systems and their impacts on organizational behaviour within the hotel industry in Spain.
It is for this reason that the research will attempt to provide a framework for employee motivation as directly influenced by the type of leaders’ feedback and response by the subordinates. The dependent variable is the feedback attribution while the independent variables are personal ability, social ability, and structural motivation.
Research rationale
Employee motivation effectiveness determines the level of performance of an organization and business sustainability amidst competition, in terms of effort and ability of the subordinates.
This research will assist the organizations within the Spanish hotel industry to implement effective leadership feedback styles that promote efficiency and sustainability of employee performance. It will be a compilation of best leadership feedback style practices among establishments with effective employee motivation system.
The study will also provide recommendations on how organization can effectively manage their employee motivation strategies, as part of the active leadership feedback channel, in order to guarantee job satisfaction among the subordinates.
Insufficient information exists concerning different leadership feedback styles and their influence on employee motivation within the Spanish hotel industry. The study will not be a magic bullet in the leadership feedback style and effective employee motivation proposal.
It will only provide structures that must be combined with the values and goals of a particular organization to ensure effective behaviour as a management strategy. Therefore, organizations within the Spanish hotel industry cannot implement the recommendations without reflecting on external and internal weaknesses in different organizational behaviour systems and leadership feedback styles.
If too much emphasis goes to emerging trends, then the case study organizations will not learn about the fundamentals of the practice that got those firms to their market positions.
Research questions and hypothesis
Research hypothesis
Null hypothesis: Different leadership feedback styles have influence on the quality of employee motivation within the Spanish hotel industry.
Alternative hypothesis: Different leadership feedback styles do not have influence on the quality of employee motivation within the Spanish hotel industry.
Taking the role and importance of different leadership feedback styles into consideration, this particular research study aims to analyse the degree to which different leadership feedback styles influence the level of employee motivation within the Spanish hotel industry.
The research study also has particular sub-objectives that are mentioned below:
- To analyse the importance of different leadership feedback styles on employee motivation within the Spanish hotel industry.
- To explore the different leadership feedback styles adopted by three selected hotel operating in the Spanish hotel industry.
- To investigate the impact of different leadership feedback styles on the quality of employee motivation strategies in the Spanish hotel industry.
Research questions
- How effective are different leadership feedback styles in the orientation of employee motivation within the Spanish hotel industry?
- What is the relevance of leadership feedback style in different employee motivation strategies within the Spanish hotel industry?
- How effective is the role of an organizational culture as a leadership orientation in employee motivation sustainability within the Spanish hotel industry?
Literature review
Organization motivation effectiveness and business performance
Over the last few years, the roles and responsibilities of managers within a company have significantly changed. According to Spector (2008), leadership feedback style can be explained as the overall leadership approach practiced by managers towards their subordinates.
Further, there are several types of leadership feedback styles in terms of managing the subordinates of an organization. Management style can undoubtedly have a huge impact on how the employees perform.
For example, employees in multinational organizations are free to decide their way of working and their managers follow a relaxed leadership feedback style, since it is suitable within such business environments (Chan & Mcallister, 2014, p. 48).
On the other hand, government and public sector firms follow a stricter leadership feedback style due to the high level of bureaucracy (Wang, Tsui, & Xin, 2011, p. 101).
According to Grenny (2012), each type of leadership feedback style serves a purpose grounded on the kind of operations and business environment and the situation.
The highly efficient management styles are those that can help the managers to develop a good operating environment for all the individuals involved and motivate employees to put in their maximum efforts (Grenny, 2012, p. 11).
Moreover, it is believed that management styles also have an impact on the quality of organizational behaviour within distinct industries such as the Hospitality Industry (Chan & Mcallister, 2014, p. 46; Sinclair, 2010).
According to Jian et al. (2012), management style has a strong impact on employee motivation and ability to learn in an organization. Besides, highly effective managers differ in leadership styles based on knowledge and skills, the type of task, and time restrictions among other factors.
These actions inspire and encourage optimal performance among employees (Jian, Kwan, Qiu, Liu, & Yim, 2012, p. 685). On the other hand, Martinko et al. (2013) note that leadership feedback styles differ in different sectors and industries. The authors are categorical in stating that different operation systems determine the type of leadership style a company is practicing.
Irrespective of the leadership style, the authors conclude that leadership feedback styles have an impact on organizational behaviour in terms of motivation and performance among the subordinates (Martinko, Harvey, Brees, & Mackey, 2013, p. 123).
Proper communication between the management and employees determine the success of any organization (Wang, Tsui, & Xin, 2011, p. 95). In fact, different leaders’ feedback styles have different impacts on the organizational communication channel. Thus, the choice of a management style is directly proportional to the effectiveness of communication in that particular restaurant (Moss & Martinko, 2008, p. 126).
Organizational and leadership ethics determine the level of participation by the employees and interventions passed through a feasibility test for implementation to initiate a cultural shift in the organization.
Besides, communication ethics defines content policy based on the need to address work related habits in order to create a friendly workplace environment (Tepper, 2007, p. 268). As a result of properly structured organizational behaviour ethics, the work environment becomes holistic, that is, soft and socially friendly to the staff.
Besides, healthy ethical communication culture creates structural goals which develop norms, expectations of specific behaviour display and appropriate guideline controlling interaction with one another (Jian et al. 2012, p. 687).
Aspired ideals of a stable organizational behaviour model include the need for an organization to strive to develop a good culture by fostering a strong alignment with the monitored path of achieving its goals, missions and vision.
The model has written rules of engagement, expected behaviour, and repercussions for deviation. The aspect of organization behaviour system should be made effective in order to minimize conflicts of interest.
Thus, the concept of aspired and profiled structures must be laid down to aid exchange of information, professionalism and pro-activeness in issue based interaction between the supervisor and the subordinates (Wilhelm, Herd, & Steiner, 2003, p. 540; Spector, 2008, p. 31).
The part of principles in an effective organizational behaviour model encompasses laid down rules to enable the organization to be more efficient. This is in the form of a well organized hierarchy of workforce from management with administrative roles to service providing workers.
Managers are empowered by the organization’s constitution to perform the role of prefects and offer leadership solutions upon consultation with one another. To control group behaviour, desirable leadership attributes are necessary, which are possessed by the managers gained over time in experience (Moss & Martinko, 2008, p. 129).
Therefore, “actions are most often attributed to four causes: effort and ability (both internal and dispositional causes), luck, and task difficulty (both external and situational causes)” (Slack, 2012, p. 24). Whenever there is a strong professional relationship nurtured on the values of appreciation and respect within an organizational communication model, hidden talents are easily displayable for business sustainability (Tepper, 2007, p. 269).
The concept of leadership can be broadly defined as the intrinsic ability to internalise a setting with the intention of empowering a group or team to proactively and creatively contribute towards problem solving (Moss & Martinko, 2008, p. 129).
The main characteristics of leadership include adaptability, empowerment, commitment, contribution and critical problem solving skills. The aspect of adaptability effects the adjustments that may be required in exercising influence over a challenge.
Through these adjustments, a person exercising leadership may be in a position to model a unique setting that reassures and discerns the wants and desires of the subordinates. The aspect of empowerment involves inspiring self-esteem and confidence among the subjects to align their feelings to specific intuition or instinct.
These elements determine the effects of an organizational behaviour system on subordinate performance in terms of effort and ability (Powell, 2005, p. 19).
Spanish hotel industry organizational effectiveness
Several literatures indicate that the Spanish hotel industry is steadily growing in terms of scope and production (International Market Bureau, 2011, p. 2). The scope involves the increasing number of employees, while production involves management techniques that have been employed to ensure sustainable growth (Ernst & Young, 2012, par. 8).
This requires organizations within the industry to put in place suitable management techniques to ensure effective retention and attraction of employees. Moreover, proper communication between the staff members and top management is considered as an important factor behind the success of any business (Vaccaro, Jansen, Bosch, & Volberda, 2012, p. 33).
Organizations function best when the intra and intercommunication systems are perfect. Therefore, successful organizations manage information continuously. The practice of information management involves the science of processing information to facilitate informed decision making among managers.
Thus, in reviewing performance based on feedback received, it is important to handle the voluntary information with care to boost trust and confidentiality which form the pinnacle of organizational behaviour (Peterson, Smith, Martorana, & Owens, 2003, p. 796).
Therefore, it is critical to balance the feedback with the goals of such an organization as a remedy towards inclusiveness and active participation which translates into desirable performance.
Research Methodology
Research philosophy
The researcher will be fully involved in preparing both quantitative and qualitative research phases, implementing the survey and interviews and analysing the data gathered.
A sense of neutrality will be maintained and the researcher will conduct research as an explorer, whose goal is to establish the link between leaders’ feedback styles and effectiveness of organizational behaviour systems within the Spanish hotel industry.
The large scale questionnaire survey for the quantitative phase will help identify which competencies and feedback styles are most common, while the qualitative phase will help focus on actual management methods used and communication channels in different organizations (De-Rada, 2005, p. 63).
Research Approach
Use of the qualitative research approach will facilitate understanding of the individual attributes that contribute to poor performance. Attributes of the subjects under study will be qualitatively studied through observation where the researcher will collect data using an observation schedule during the interview process.
This will allow the researcher to enter observed qualitative behaviour indicative of lack of motivation in an organization. Quantitative methods used in this study will generally apply to the analysis of the collected data where analytical tools such as chi square, regression and correlation methodologies will be used.
These methodologies will help in identification of statistical patterns in the data on motivation collected from organizations using questionnaires and interviews (De-Rada, 2005, p. 69).
Research Strategy
Data, to will be collected through one-on-one interviews, will be scrutinized in detail. Each question asked will be comprehensive to ensure that respondents have an opportunity to give deep and answers that provide an insight into the research problem.
Transcription will then 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.
Factually, instances of divergent or convergent opinions by one or more respondents will be marked appropriately (De-Rada, 2005, p. 66).
Validity and reliability determine the accuracy of collecting data in research. In order to achieve validity in the questions presented in the questionnaire, it is essential to carry out question pre-testing (De-Rada, 2005, p. 67).
On the other hand, reliability quantifies the magnitude of consistency of research instruments and the outcome created by the same. The way in which an event is experienced is related to the way in which the person, who has experienced this event, can give a different perspective.
However, in this qualitative study, the researcher will have the opportunity to get the perspective of the participants. Utilising these experiences as a framework from which to develop the study, the work is likely to reflect the unique understanding that the personal experiences bring to the development of case studies (Persily, 2013, p. 29). The interviews will be conducted by the researcher because of common characteristics of culture and sector.
Data used
This research will target employee randomly chosen from organizations within the Spanish hotel industry, since they have the knowledge of the feedback attribution and systems management strategies that promote employee motivation. A sample space of 100 participants will be interviewed.
The sampling criterion that will be used in the initial sampling plan represents the true picture of the activities on the ground. Adaptation of this sample plan as authentic would not compromise the aspect of comparative study in decision making, that is, it gives room for comparison to another set of data.
Methods and techniques used
Research survey technique
This research will be conducted using research survey study approach. The researcher chose qualitative approach rather than quantitative, because the scope of the research is focused, subjective, dynamic, and discovery oriented. The qualitative approach is best suited to gain proper insight into the situation of the case study.
Besides, qualitative data analysis is more detailed than quantitative one. Moreover, this approach will create room for further analysis using different and divergent tools for checking the degree of error and assumption limits. The researcher will use direct interviews with open ended and close ended questionnaires to target respondents (De-Rada, 2005, p. 67).
Use of the qualitative research approach will facilitate understanding of the individual attributes of organizational employee motivation effectiveness as influenced by the leaders’ feedback attribution.
Attributes of the subjects under study will be qualitatively studied through observation, where the researcher will collect data using an observation schedule during the interview process.
These methodologies will help in identification of statistical patterns in the data on motivation collected from organizations using questionnaires and interviews. For interviews, as long as an interviewee agrees to be recorded, the interview will be recorded.
This will ensure that all points made by the interviewee are documented and available for consideration in the analysis.
Research Plan
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.
Open-ended and closed-ended questions will be used. 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.
References
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