Abstract
Abstract
Many employees in Jamaica’s hotel industry feel that leadership in managementprioritize operational success over employee motivation, which negatively impacts their
job satisfaction and can result in migration to other companies. The hotel industry in
Jamaica is important for the country's economic development, and leadership style plays
a crucial role in employee motivation. The goal of this phenomenological study was to
examine how Jamaican general managers' leadership styles impact employee motivation
in two hotels in Montego Bay. Specifically, this research aimed to understand the lived
experiences of hotel employees with their General Managers' leadership styles and how
those experiences shape their motivation. Currently, there is limited empirical research on
the impact of leadership in the tourism sector, especially in a Jamaican context and I
aimed to begin to lessen that gap. In this phenomenological study, 57 employees from
both hotels were interviewed. Ryan & Deci (2000)’s self-determination theory was used
to conceptualize the ways in which different leadership styles, particularly the
transactional, paternalistic, maternalistic and transformational leadership styles, regulate
motivation in employees. I demonstrated that the theory can be helpful in explaining the
impact of these leadership styles on employee motivation. The study found that
transactional leadership style influenced external motivation, paternalistic and
maternalistic leadership style influenced a more integrated regulation of motivation, and
transformational leadership style influenced intrinsic motivation. Understanding how
employees are motivated can help leaders in the tourism sector to retain a committed
staff.
Keywords: Leadership, employee motivation, tourism, Jamaica