Exploration of management styles and communication practices of hotels in Gauteng province

Abstract

The management style and the communication practice of a hotel management often determine to an extent the behaviour of employees and eventually, the quality of service as well as the performance of the hotel. The objective of this study is to explore the management styles and the communication practices of hotel managers by investigating how it is perceived by hotel employees in Johannesburg and Pretoria, in South Africa. A cross-sectional survey design was used in which a five point Likert scale self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 250 respondents who were randomly selected from 60 hotels. The results show that there is a racial imbalance in the distribution of managerial positions within the hotels. The democratic management (32.8%), paternalistic management (25.2%) and the walk around management (23.2%) styles were perceived by respondents to be the most utilised management styles in hotels. Majority of the respondents (72 %) either agree or strongly agree that the main purpose of communication in their company is to get employees to behave in the way top management wants them to do so. In addition, the majority of respondents (60%) also indicated that the communication style of their superiors either never or rarely lead to employee empowerment. The one-way communication from management to other employees (top-up) is the most predominant form of communication among Pretoria and Johannesburg hotels