The impact of transformational, transactional and non-leadership styles on employee job satisfaction in the German hospitality industry

This work examines the influence of different leadership behaviours of hospitality managers on employee job satisfaction to close open gaps in leadership research, especially in the German context. Bass's (1985) fullrange leadership model was selected as a framework of this study. A quantitative survey methodology was used to assess leadership influence on employee job satisfaction, and 101 hotel employees in Germany completed the survey. The data analysis involved three major stages: correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and MANOVA. The results from this study suggest that German hotel employee job satisfaction is strongly affected by leadership behaviour. In this regard, the influence of transformational leadership on employee job satisfaction differs widely from transactional and non-leadership behaviour. Earlier studies have indicated a situational or cultural impact on appropriate leadership style, and this study furthers this concept with a new geographic area (Germany), which can therewith be added to the hospitality leadership research.