Analysis of innovative work behavior from the perspective of transformational leadership: A research on hotel enterprises

This study aims to examine innovative work behavior from the perspective of transformational leadership, in hotel enterprises, which is one of the important elements of the tourism sector. In addition to evaluating the effect of transformational leadership on innovative work behavior, innovation activities in hotel enterprises will be tried to be revealed. Due to the limitations of theory and practices in the literature, the universe of the research, in which exploratory and descriptive research approaches are used together, consists of 5-star hotel businesses operating in the province of Istanbul, which is in the list of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. A qualitative research design was used in the study and the research data were analyzed by semi-structured interview technique. As a result of the research, it was determined that the dimension that hotel managers are most prone to transformational leadership is the dimension of individualized consideration. It has been determined that the dimension in which hotel managers have the least tendency to transformational leadership is inspirational motivation. It has been determined that managers who approach innovation positively are focused on creating customer satisfaction, keeping up with technology, conducting effective advertising and marketing activities, providing a competitive advantage, and increasing profitability. Therefore hotel managers, who approach innovation negatively, find their innovative activities risky and costly and do not approach innovative activities positively due to budget constraints. In addition, it has been revealed that there are innovation activities in 15 hotels out of 25 hotels in the last 2 years. Managers, respectively, see employees, managers, customers, competitors, suppliers, and others as a source of innovative ideas. As a result of the analysis, three stages have been determined to take place in innovative work behavior in hotel businesses which are premises, actions, and implementation. The results obtained from the analysis of hotel managers' approaches to innovation in the context of transformational leadership characteristics that there is no clear and significant relationship between managers' transformational leadership characteristics and their approaches to innovation, both in positive and negative terms.