Here are some questions to consider: 1. What are the ethical responsibilities of leaders during times of crisis and uncertainty? 2. How can leaders balance short-term responses to a crisis with long-term organizational sustainability and well-being? 3. What leadership approaches and behaviors help build trust and fairness perceptions among employees during difficult times? 4. How do different leadership styles (e.g. transformational, servant, authentic) compare in addressing challenges like those from the pandemic? 5. What communication strategies are most effective for leaders to share information, address concerns, and rally support during a crisis? Exploring these types of questions could provide useful insights into the role of ethics and different leadership approaches

1. A Review of Leadership
By,
Deepu Kurian, Ph.D.
© Deepu Kurian

2. Leadership
• Times are changing and so are our views on leadership.
• Leadership matters, greatly (Dorfman et al., 2012), and actions from
leaders, good and bad, have the potential of impacting our daily lives
(Eberly et al., 2013).
• Leadership is one of the most researched topics in social sciences
because of the strong impact leadership can have on organizational and
individual outcomes.
• Based on their philosophical paradigm, every individual has a different
take on what it means to be a leader.
• Drucker (1996) offered a simple definition of a “leader as someone who
has followers”, but the reality can be more complex.

3. Brief History
• Early research on leadership was based on the study of people who
were already great leaders and such studies followed the umbrella of
Great Man Theory
• From the beginning to the mid twentieth century, leadership research
was dominated by attempts to show that leaders possessed some
intrinsic qualities or characteristics that differentiated them from
followers
• The search was directed toward identifying the traits possessed by
political, educational, military and industrial leaders (Gandhi, Napoleon,
Hitler, Lincoln, Ford and so on)

4. Brief History (Continued)
• Empirical research in the 1950’s including the University of Michigan
leadership studies and Ohio state leadership studies challenged the
personal trait and unidimensional views of leadership
• Since 1950’s, various researchers focused their studies to determine
whether leadership is a process or a personal quality while some other
researchers group them based on the focal point of research - the
leader, the follower, or their relationship (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995).
• Critiques of the leader trait paradigm prompted scholars to look beyond
leader traits and consider how leaders’ behaviors, relationships, and
other situational factors predicted their effectiveness as a leader (Derue,
Nahrgang, Wellman, & Humphrey, 2011).

5. Brief History (Continued)
• The more recent views of leadership consider things like social
contribution of the leaders, effective motivational techniques, ethics
and morality, transformational abilities to assist in change and
adaptability, and the sociology of organization itself (Northouse, 2016).
• Over the past couple decades, reviews of leadership theory also
highlight that the future direction of leadership research must move
away from a hierarchical, leader-centric approach to a more integrative
and positive approach (Avolio, 2007; Dinh, et.al,2014; Meindl, 1995).
• Finally, Society now demands that organizational leaders not only
generate a profit, but also maintain high levels of integrity, morality, and
fairness while they do so (Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, &
Peterson, 2008).
•

6. Leadership Theories (Dinh et.al, 2014)
Continued

7. Leadership Theories (Dinh et.al, 2014)
Theme Theories Theme Theories
Follower-Centric Leadership Theories Followership theories Leader Emergence and Development Leadership development
Romance of leadership Leadership emergence
Aesthetic leadership Leading for Creativity, Innovation and Change Leading for creativity and innovation
Leadership and Information Processing Leader and follower cognition Leading organizational change
Implicit leadership Leading for organizational learning and knowledge
Attribution theories of leadership Identity-Based Leadership Theories Social identity theory of leadership
Information processing and decision making Identity and Identification process
Power and Influence of Leadership Power and influence of leadership Other Nascent Approaches Emotions and leadership
Political theory and influence tactics of leadership Destructive/abusive/toxic leadership
Leadership and Diversity Leadership and diversity Biological approaches to leadership
Cross-cultural leadership E-leadership
Leader error and recovery
Entrepreneurial leadership
* Leadership theory emphasizes many outcomes, from how leaders are perceived to how leaders affect unit
performance; it involves actions of group members as well as those of formal leaders; it has been applied to levels
that include events, individuals, dyads, groups, organizations, and political systems; it has focused on immediate
and delayed effects; and it often incorporates contextual differences (Dinh, et.al,2014)
*No unified theory of leadership currently exists. And there is no universal approach to understanding leadership
either.

8. Importance of Leadership in Hospitality
• Reputation of tourism and hospitality industry as an employer remained
very mixed with excellent practice in some organizations located
alongside widespread perceptions of poor pay, challenging working
conditions and limited opportunities for growth and development,
particularly for women and minorities (Baum, 2015).
• Hotel supervisors or middle-level managers have the most interactions
with frontline employees and their leadership practices influence
employees’ attitudes and behaviors (Lou, Manburg, and Law, 2017).
• Leadership as an organizational contextual factor could influence how
employees feel about their work environment and the organization as a
whole (Men & Stacks, 2013).

9. Research – Leadership & Organizational Justice
• Employee’s perception of justice at workplace is a significant factor in many
individual and organizational outcomes (Baldwin, 2006).
• Domain of organizational justice emerged from studies on relative deprivation
in the social psychology of legal phenomena (Byrne & Cropanzano, 2001).
• The extent to which employees perceive workplace procedures, interactions
and outcomes to be fair.
• Three classes of events that are evaluated in terms of justice: outcomes,
processes, and interpersonal interactions (Cropanzano, Byrne, Bobocel &
Rupp, 2001).
• Individual level perceptions of justice
• Dimensions of organizational justice – three or four

10. Thoughts
• Employee’s relationship with the leader is the most powerful
connection that an employee can build in an organization (Hui, Lee, &
Rosseau, 2004) and that relationship often determines the employee’s
perceptions of organizational justice (Colquitt, Scott, Rodell, Long,
Zapata, Conlon, & Wesson, 2013).
• Managers may have the greatest impact on overall fairness perceptions
by focusing on the fairness of their personal interactions with
subordinates
• Leaders should make sure that employees are aware of the policies and
procedures, and provide opportunities for employees to connect and
communicate to their supervisors and managers.

11. Critical Thinking Exercise
• Think about the last two years, the COVID -19 pandemic, the
government responses, lockdowns, and the impact on hospitality
industry.
• You heard about various leadership theories, In your opinion which
leadership style would be the best in the times of uncertainty.
• Finally, why did you choose a specific style and what was your rationale?

12. Reference
• Dinh, J. E., Lord, R. G., Gardner, W. L., Meuser, J. D., Liden, R. C., & Hu, J.
(2014). Leadership theory and research in the new millennium: Current
theoretical trends and changing perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly,
25(1), 36-62. https: //doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.005.
• Kurian, D (2018). The influence of HRD practices on employee’s
organizational justice perceptions. International Journal for HRD Policy,
Practice & Research 3 (2): 49‐61. doi: 10.22324/ijhrdppr.3.110

13. Questions
“Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to
management and politics and a mere technique.”
James MacGregor Burns