As the world slowly adjusts to the ‘new normal,’ there’s a quiet revolution taking place in the heart of the hospitality industry. A recent study uncovers that hotel managers who frequently smile and share light-hearted humour with their team members inspire a higher level of performance, ensuring superior customer engagement. This insight could radically reshape how hospitality organizations hire, promote, and train their leaders.
This groundbreaking research, led by a multinational team and published in the respected journal Tourism Management [Link to the original research], examined the pulse of China’s burgeoning hotel industry. The findings underscored the importance of leadership styles – specifically those involving humour and positivity – in creating a more engaged and energetic workforce. This is particularly true among employees seeking varied experiences, less confined by traditional roles.
One significant finding is that a leader’s humour appears to lift team morale, encouraging more positive staff behaviour towards guests. This seemingly simple yet powerful engagement tool was observed to be less effective, with employees preferring traditional roles. Consequently, this result could inform tailored management strategies catering to diverse employee profiles, maximizing efficiency and customer satisfaction.
The hospitality sector is known for its high-stress environments. Frontline employees are expected to remain cheerful and professional, often in the face of unruly customers. This constant pressure, the study argues, necessitates innovative ways to re-energise the workforce.
A series of recommendations emerged from the research, aiming to provide practical solutions for hospitality organisations. These include integrating humour as a critical element in managerial roles to bolster employee-customer engagement, including ‘humour questionnaires’ in the recruitment process, utilizing co-worker evaluations of managers’ humour as supportive data for promotions, and including humour-related training modules in leadership development programmes.
The study’s co-authors, Dr Ahmed Shaalan from the University of Birmingham Dubai and Dr Marwa Tourky from the Cranfield School of Management emphasised the significance of these findings.
Dr Shaalan observed a strong correlation between leader humour and hotel staff displaying enhanced customer engagement, leading to heightened energy levels among these employees. “This confirms that leader humour could enhance customer service,” he noted. Consequently, he advocates for managers to adopt humour as part of their engagement strategy, acknowledging the hospitality sector’s vital role in the global economy.
His co-author, Dr Tourky, drew attention to the cultural values at play. Less traditional employees are more likely to accept leader humour as a form of communication. She explains that sharing engaging stories or jokes provides employees with additional interpersonal and emotional resources, making them feel more relaxed, happier, and energized to meet customer needs and offer extra assistance.
Thus, humour in leadership can significantly contribute to the performance of a crucial global industry, characterised by its capacity to deliver high-quality service and exceed customer expectations. This study’s findings could spur a transformation in the hospitality sector, ushering in a new era of leadership anchored in empathy, understanding, and a good old-fashioned sense of humour.
Written by: Supaporn Pholrach (Joom)
