The Moderating Effect of Leaders’ Experience on Leadership Styles and Crisis Management in the Jordanian Hotel Sector

Abstract

Crisis management is vital for hotels to survive in the present competitive business climate in Jordan. Previous research into leadership and crisis management produced inconclusive results. Therefore, the influence of a leader’s experience on the relationship between leadership styles and crisis management needed to be further investigated and analyzed. A quantitative study involving a self-administered questionnaire was carried out using respondents in management roles at 3 to 5-star hotels operating in Jordan. The Smart-PLS 3.0 was used to analyze the survey data. Results show that transformational and transactional leadership has a positive and significant relationship with crisis management practice. Furthermore, a leader’s experience plays an important role in improving the relationship between a transformational leadership style and crisis management. However, the results show that although, leadership style is important, a leader’s experience can be of even greater value if they possess a transformational leadership style. From the perspective of contingency theory, when managing a crisis, the style of leadership is contingent on situational factors and a leader with experience may have an extra advantage in influencing his/her subordinates to practice crisis management.