Investigating the Leadership Competencies Challenges of New Leaders from the Perspective of General Managers in the Norwegian Hotel Industry

2022

The aim of this thesis was to gain an understanding of the leadership challenges and the essential

skills needed for new leaders based on the leadership competencies in the Norwegian hotel

industry. We specifically focused on the challenges for newly graduated hospitality students with

positions as middle managers in the hotel industry who are eager to be general managers in the

future. This study was conducted to explore how the lack of competencies can cause challenges

for new leaders and hence which competencies are important to obtain. No previous studies have

explored leadership challenges based on leadership competencies for new leaders in the

Norwegian hotel industry. This thesis adopted qualitative methods to conduct semi-structured

interviews with general managers at Norwegian hotels to obtain their perceptions of challenges for

new leaders based on these leadership competencies in the Norwegian hotel industry. The results

demonstrated that leadership challenges exist with regard to communication, problem-solving, and

self-management skills. Some aspects of teamwork and financial skills also present challenges but

IT knowledge presents no challenge. These skills were divided into four dimensions: social or

interpersonal, cognitive, meta, and functional competencies, which are similar to Bharwani’s

conceptual competence framework for general managers in hospitality. However, this thesis adds

another competency domain, local cultural competence. In addition, the study revealed that the

skill of creativity and the combination of education and experience as a competence are essential

for aspiring new leaders. The competencies were found to be essential for all leaders but may be

interchangeable depending on the needs of the hotels, and some may be less demanding than

others.

Keywords: leadership competencies, leadership skills, leadership challenges, new leaders,

Norwegian hotel industry.

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