Managers' Wellbeing 5/7 : Hospitality Managers' Burnout Phenomenon and literature

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2.4 Hospitality managers’ burnout phenomenon and literature:

As with most managers, HMs lead teams, as well as handling administrative work. They face the additional challenge of being expected to be present on-site, entertain customers and listen to unhappy guests at any time of day or night (Buick & Thomas, 2001). They also need to be attentive to the subjective needs of their subordinates; they are expected to inspire, solve problems and be flawless, regardless of time and available resources (Chu et al., & Murrmann, 2012; Young & Corsun, 2009).

Indeed, countless studies claim that leaders and managers across all occupations should possess specific qualities to create a positive atmosphere. They should be able to foster trust, offer autonomy and empower their employees (Hartman, 1999; Marques, 2007). Should they fail to do so, they will be the cause of their teams’ lack of productivity, illbeing and stress (Seltzer & Numerof, 1988; Chullen, 2014).

Katzell, Korman and Levine (1971) emphasise that hospitality-related professions have higher turnover than non-service industries. In their 2015 annual hospitality report, Deloitte states that the hospitality industry in the UK and US suffer from twice the average turnover, at levels of 30% and 31% respectively (Deloitte, 2015).

HMs’ turnover is significantly higher than for middle managers in non-service industries (Vallen, 1993; Ingram & Brown). However, hospitality employees were not considered in research on burnout before 1989 (Krone, Tabacchi & Farber, 1989; Roberts, 1995) and it was only in 1996 that hotel executives started to be considered too (Levinson, 1996; Maxwell, 1997). Moreover, to date, the current researcher has been unable to find an empirical study on these leadership attitudes, their application and validation within the population of HMs or their relation to burnout. This gap might be because, within the sector, there is little acknowledgement of burnout, or the physical and psychological fatigue among managers. According to O’Neill and Xiao (2010), as well as Kim, Shim and Umbreit (2007) HMs who experience EE or identify signs of burnout prefer to leave the industry for less stressful positions in which EL labour and interactions with people are not as frequent.

In the field, burnout is still perceived as an individual failure, as described by Maslach and Leiter (1997, pp.18):

“That is, people burn out because of flaws in characters, behaviour or productivity. According to this perspective, people are the problem, and the solution is to change them or get rid of them.”

Of the few related studies, Heskett et al. (2008) re-edited their original 1994 article in which a specific service profit chain demonstrated the impact and importance of leadership in organisations’ results. However, they did not explain what was being done or what was recommended to enable managers to thrive and experience the necessary wellbeing and positive state of mind to cope with all the tasks so crucial for employee and customer satisfaction.

PS: This is an extraction from:

Hospitality managers’ well-being: Emotional exhaustion, disengagement and the relationship with work orientation and life satisfaction

Hrafnhildur Krumma Jonsdottir

Student n°: U1637298 School of Psychology,

University of East London, Water Lane, London

Programme: MAPPCP Term: 2-2019 Submitted on May 14th 2019

Module leader: Dr Rona Hart

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