Leadership Styles of Resort Hotel Managers and Employee Work Engagement: Evidence from Resort Hotels in the Philippines

Abstract

The research problem of the study is the relationship between the leadership styles used by the managers of the resort hotels and the work engagement of the employees in the chosen resort hotels in Bulacan, Philippines. The study follows transformational and transactional leadership theory that embraces a quantitative descriptive-correlational design. The survey data were gathered in 130 employees working in 13 hotels accredited by the Department of Tourism by using the validated questionnaire on five leadership styles (authoritarian, participative, delegative, transactional, and transformational) and three work engagement dimensions (vigor, dedication, and absorption). Patterns and relationships between the variables were analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The results have shown that the most common managerial style is authoritarian and that the employees have a moderately positive rate of work engagement. Regression findings, however, do not have significant predictions of leadership style on the employee work engagement. The results indicate that the contextual and organizational factors can have rather a significant influence on employee engagement in resort hotels than the leadership style itself. The research not only provides an empirical evidence in a developing-country resort setting, but also presents a practical message to hospitality managers who aim at increasing the levels of employee engagement by adopting a combined leadership and human resource approach.