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1 Introduction

With increasing comparability of hotel services due to the availability of search engines filtering prices from various websites and the globalization of the competition within the sector, the need for hotels to distinguish themselves from their competitors is increasing. Friendly personnel, motivated to go the extra mile to meet the guests’ needs are therefore one core asset for hotels in current days. Hotels must find ways to keep up the intrinsic motivation of their employees in order to successfully face increasing competition and better informed customers. This paper focuses on the role leaders can play in the motivation process of their employees. Leadership is crucial in the hotel industry, since leaders are not able to completely control the work environment of their employees due to the external factor ‘guest’ being part of the service process. Leadership could be the key to help employees develop skills to deal with different guests and find motivating incentives in their daily work situations. This way leadership could increase the motivation of employees, which is the main focus of this paper. As an underlying construct, the concept of emotional intelligence of the leaders and its influence on their leadership effectiveness is taken into account.

2 Theoretical Background

2.1 Motivation

According to Ciompi, who is arguing from the viewpoint of affect logic, motivation is a specific (mobilizing and dynamiting) aspect of integrated feeling, thinking- and acting programs. Motivation describes therefore dispositions or impulses for certain behavioral programs which are immanent in all functional feeling, thinking and acting programs (Ciompi 1997, p. 85). Following this definition, all human behavior is led by special programs which include feelings, thoughts and actions. If an impulse for a certain program is given, one can describe the following actions, thoughts, and feelings as motivated. Nerdinger specifies that motivation explains the direction, intensity and persistence of human behavior. Direction means the choice of a certain behavior; intensity means the energy involved and perseverance describes the persistence with which a goal is pursued even despite obstacles (Nerdinger 2003, p. 1). Other authors do not see every action as motivated but describe motivation as actively directing the momentary life style towards a goal state which is judged positively (Lenzner and Dickhäuser 2011, p. 12).

One can differentiate three basic forms of motivation: negative motivation, positive motivation and individual techniques to motivate oneself. Negative motivation is the motivation described by Herzberg which leads to movement but not to really motivated action. Positive motivation means to give people the feeling that they are working towards a precious and achievable goal, which is important to the community (Jost 2000, p. 24). Gardner describes motivated individuals as goal directed, expressing effort in attaining the goal: showing persistence, attending to the tasks necessary to achieve the goal with strong desire to achieve the goal and enjoying activities necessary to achieve it (Gardner 2010, p. 8). In general, motivation can be defined as the influence on thoughts, feelings and actions, which serves to reach a desired end state. The desired end state is described by motives, which in their sum form the motivation (see Fig. 9.1).

Fig. 9.1
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Motivational process

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The research on motivation and its related theories may be put in line with the general management research. The Scientific Management was followed by the Human Relations Approach which had its origin in the Hawthorne Experiments conducted between 1924 and 1930. Those experiments lay the ground for a clear differentiation between machines and human work. With increasing research new fields of management where discovered, leading to the System View in the 1960s which tried to combine different perspectives and management disciplines into systems. After the paradigm shift in the 1980s, today’s management theories and beliefs are laid out on relationships and work life balance and can be described as the Personality Approach.

On an organizational background, one needs to differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. When a person is motivated to perform a certain kind of work for the sheer pleasure of it, then intrinsic motivation is taking place. In this source of motivation, the work itself acts as incentive as workers enjoy what they are doing (Barbuto and Scholl 1998, p. 1012). Intrinsic work values are whatever employees’ desire and seek directly from their work activity primarily to satisfy their psychological needs. Extrinsic work values are whatever employees’ desire and seek from their work organization and working context primarily to satisfy their social and physiological needs (Wang 1996, pp. 21–22). Extrinsic incentives are only effective for a short period of time. Long-term satisfaction is reached through motivators which focus on the intrinsic aspects of the work (Nerdinger 2003, p. 22). Intrinsic or self-directed motivation is linked mainly to the use of cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies and a positive emotional experience (Dresel et al. 2011, p. 2). There are four dimensions of extrinsic motivation: the convenience dimension (travel to work and work hours, freedom from conflicting demands, pleasant physical surroundings); the financial dimension (pay, benefits, job security); the social dimension (relationships with co-workers) and the dimension of career opportunities (promotion, recognition) (Wang 1996, p. 19).

2.2 Theoretical Background: Emotional Intelligence

Research on emotions has been conducted from various perspectives which can be categorized into the historic and evolutionary approach (e.g. Ulich and Mayring 1992), action theory and cognitive approach (e.g. Schlegel 2003), attributional approach (e.g. McElryo 1982, p. 413) and the multiple perspectives approach (e.g. Oatley et al. 2006, p. 39). Due to the wide range of study fields related to emotions, it is no surprise that Kleinginna & Kleinginna found no less than 100 different definitions of emotions, which they tried to summarize in their own definition: “Emotion is a complex arrangement of interactions between subjective and objective factors which is transmitted by neuronal/hormonal systems which can cause affective experiences like feelings of arousal or lust/unlust, which can evoke cognitive processes like emotionally relevant perception effects, evaluations or classifications; which can start extended psychological adaptations to the conditions activating the arousal and which can lead to behaviour that is often expressive, goal-oriented and adaptive” (Hauer 2003, p. 38). Emotions can be experienced consciously or unconsciously and may cause an observable physical change. The experience of emotions leads to actions, which might be adapted to the situation having caused the emotion. For the further discussion of emotions in this work, emotions are defined as conscious and unconscious neuronal reactions to the evaluation of experienced situations. These reactions do cause a physical change in the body of the actor, which is not always observable and may lead to according actions.

Beginning in the 1990s, the idea of emotional intelligence began attracting a good deal of attention, both among psychologists and in the popular press (Shiota and Kalat 2012, p. 301). Earlier, emotional intelligence was not discussed because emotions were seen as “undesired influences on the logical-analytical behaviour and were left outside in order not to scratch the ideal of the rational acting manager” (Schlegel 2003, p. 13). Gardner did not use the term of emotional intelligence but by proclaiming a new set of intelligences, including interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences, he laid the foundation for the concept of emotional intelligence, which was mainly developed by Goleman. The core capacity of intrapersonal intelligence is access to one’s own feeling life—one’s range of affects or emotions: the capacity instantly to effect discriminations among these feelings and, eventually, to label them, to enmesh them in symbolic codes, to draw upon them as a means of understanding and guiding one’s behaviour. The other personal intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, turns outward, to other individuals. The core capacity here is to notice and make distinctions among other individuals and, in particular, among their moods, temperaments, motivations and intentions (Gardner 1993, pp. 239–240). Salovey subsumes the forms of personal intelligence proposed by Gardner under his basic definition for emotional intelligence, which structures these abilities in five sections: self-perception, suitability, goal-directed, empathy, and relationships (Salovey and Rothman 1991, pp. 280–282). In organizations, emotional intelligence is important because of it being a meta ability from which it depends how good we are able to use our other abilities, even the pure intellect (Goleman 1996, p. 56). In the interaction of two human beings the mood of the one who expresses his emotions in a stronger way will be consigns to the more passive one (Goleman 1996, p. 150). Emotions are the expression of the relationship between the person and the subject of the emotion. Not the objective characteristics of the subject will be felt or experienced but the form of this relationship (Ulich and Mayring 1992, p. 52). Somebody who is in a depressed mood, will find more convincing arguments and arguments of better quality than somebody in high spirits, because negative moods lead to a more thoroughly, more systematic proceeding. If someone is in high spirits, he or she will probably find more arguments and more creative, original ones (Caruso and Salovey 2005, p. 120).

2.3 Leadership

Leadership definitions can roughly be differentiated into goal-oriented, influence-oriented, vision-oriented and coordination-oriented. The goal-oriented definitions of leadership focus on company goals, which are the reason for the existence of leadership in the work environment. Most authors focus on the goals and the achievement thereof only, without taking into account the process of leadership and how the goals are reached. The influence-oriented leadership definitions take into account that individuals need to be influenced in order to work towards company goals and that those goals have to be seen as common objectives. Leadership is—according to this perspective—the influencing process necessary to have employees reach company goals. While taking a broader perspective than the goal-oriented perspective, those definitions do not clearly state the difference between individual and company goals and how leaders can reduce this difference. While clearly stating the importance of formulating visions, most vision-oriented definitions of leadership do focus on visions only and do not explain the process of translating goals into visions and the process of turning visions into reality. Coordination-oriented definitions of leadership show the complexity of leadership and its tasks but do leave out the process of leadership as well as the relationship between leaders and followers. As a working definition, leadership is defined as the process of translating company goals into visions, which are understandable and shareable by different stakeholder groups and influencing employees to share those visions and coordinately work towards them.

Over the decades, different theories have tried to answer the question what effective leadership is and how it can be achieved in a generally valid way. In the first decade of the twentieth century, trait theories of leadership were dominant, assuming that certain characteristics of a person influence the quality of leadership. But the impossibility to define a valid set of leadership traits, as well as other shortcomings (Gill 2011, p. 67) lead to the failure of the trait theories as general valid and useful theories of leadership. In the 1930s, behaviour theories were developed which assumed that the success of leadership depends on the behaviour of the leader. Despite its early promise, the considerable body of behavioral research found that a particular leadership style was not universally effective; a style that was effective in one setting was not always effective in a different setting. As well, behavioral theories tended to rely on abstracted concepts of behavioral types that were often difficult to identify (Glynn and DeJordy 2010, p. 123).

Subsequently, situational leadership theories were developed in the 1960s (Hungenberg and Wulf 2006, p. 331). In contrast to trait and behavioral theories, situational theories explicitly assume that leadership can vary across situations and that there may not be a universally effective way to lead; different contexts may call for different kinds of leadership. Those theories usefully contextualized leadership and modeled it as more supple, adaptive, and situational flexible than trait or behavioral theories (Glynn and DeJordy 2010, p. 123). The situational and contingency theories were developed further when a paradigm shift in leadership research occurred during the 1980s, moving away from the idea that leadership is about ‘engineering’ outcomes, to a more relationship-based approach (Riggio 2011, p. 123). Generally, the newer models treat leadership as a change process and the leader as a primary catalyst of change (Glynn and DeJordy 2010, p. 125). The idea is that in today’s organizations, with flatter, hierarchical structures and technologically-savvy and knowledgeable workers, leadership is a joint venture between those in positions of authority and those doing the work (Riggio 2011, p. 125).

2.4 Hotel Industry in Germany

Hotel services are related to goods, such as cleaning of hotel rooms and service of meals as well as related to persons, for example when providing information or during spa treatments (Henschel 2001, p. 80). The main distinguishing characteristics of services are that the ‘product’ is immaterial, that services are highly bound to a specific place, services cannot be provided in advance, they are not storable and they are characterized by the simultaneous contact of consumer and supplier while the consumer usually is part of the service in question (Beinlich 2000, pp. 26–27). Additionally, services do have an increased risk at purchase and make a quantification difficult, services can hardly be standardized and are highly individual (Henselek 1999, pp. 5–6). Furthermore, service is an experience for the guest and a performance for the server. It is intangible and the guest and the server are both part of the transaction. This personal element makes service quality control difficult (Barrows et al. 2012, p. 515).

The hospitality industry in Germany can be separated into hotels with at least nine beds, other lodgings, drinks-focused restauration, food-focused restauration and external caterers and canteens (Dehoga Bundesverband 2013). In 2011 there were 3,620,576 companies in Germany, of which 46,820 were of the hospitality industry (Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland 2013). From those hospitality industry companies, 16.3 % were hotels as defined above. The hospitality industry made a total of 23,793 million euros revenue, 30.9 % of which were generated in hotels. The hospitality industry had a total of 514,581 employees, 23.6 % of which were working in the hotel industry. In order to gain a clear focus for this paper only employees working in hotels in Germany will be considered, the relevant industry being referred to as hotel industry. What is remarkable about the hotel industry in Germany is its low income level combined with the long working hours. On average, an employee in the hotel industry earned 12.18 euros per hour in 2012 the average for Germany was 21.30 euros (Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland 2013).

From many studies it can be argued that working in a hotel environment, where visibility, overwork and performance are standard values, produces distress, dissatisfaction and strain within the work and home domains (Tromp and Blomme 2014, p. 86). The trend of the hotel industry is a mixed one. The turnover in the hotel industry in Germany grew nominal by 2.1 % in the first 6 months of 2014. This can be seen as a positive development after the growth of only 0.8 % in 2013 (Deutscher Hotel- und Gaststättenverband 2014, p. 1). The number of employees in the hotel industry has grown by 3.020 since the previous year, which represents a relative change of 1.2 % (Deutscher Hotel- und Gaststättenverband 2014, p. 5). The total number of hotels in Germany is on a decreasing trend since 2004 (39.208 hotels) to 2012 (36.608 hotels) (Deutscher Hotel- und Gaststättenverband 2014, p. 6).

3 Methodology and Model Development

Based on the literature reviewed, three hypotheses are formulated. H1: Employees in the hotel industry in Germany are mainly intrinsically motivated. H2: The motivation of employees is positively related to the effectiveness of leadership of their leader. H3: emotional intelligence leverages the effect of leadership on motivation. Transformational leadership is believed to be the most effective currently known leadership style. Therefore as well as for the sake of comparability in leadership research, it is decided to use the MLQ-5X which is based on this concept for the measurement of leadership. To measure emotional intelligence, the MSCEIT (Mayer, Salovey and Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test) is chosen, which is the most comprehensive measure of the ability model. To measure motivation an own questionnaire is developed, using enjoyable, interesting, challenging and matching the employees competencies as intrinsic factors and prestige, development, salary and recognition as extrinsic factors. Those factors have been identified by a meta-study across various studies of motivation (e.g. Lesser and Madabhushi 2001; Stuhlfaut 2010; Mundhra 2010; Ke et al. 2012; Herpen et al. 2005). With those measurement methods selected, a tentative model is drawn (Fig. 9.2).

Fig. 9.2
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Tentative model

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Before testing the model with a quantitative study, it was presented to different experts from hotel theory and practice as well as scholars from the field of emotional intelligence. All experts basically supported the model. Data for this study were collected in two time periods to reduce common biases when same source data are used to assess both the predictors and the criteria (Hassan et al. 2013, p. 137). At the first step, the leadership/motivation questionnaire was posted on the facebook page of the ahgz (allgemeine hotel-und gaststättenzeitung), the general newspaper for the hospitality industry in Germany, it was posted within a hotel user group at the online business network xing, it was sent out twice as an advertisement within a daily newsletter for the hotel industry and sent out once within the online newsletter of a hotel journal. This way, all employees and leaders in the hotel industry in Germany did have the chance to get access to the link. Due to the distribution over the internet and the self-selection, it has to be assumed that only German participants filled out the questionnaire.

This first distribution of the questionnaires was done between September 24th, 2013 and October 15th, 2013. Concerning the MSCEIT a separate link had to be purchased which could not be embedded in the leadership/motivation questionnaire. Furthermore, this questionnaire was only supposed to be filled in by leaders. Therefore it was decided to send the link to a sample of German hotels, asking them that one of their leaders answers the questions. In order to draw a random sample, the price-comparing website trivago.de was chosen, which displays all hotels which are bookable online, so each hotel does have the possibility to be displayed on this webpage. The webpage divides Germany into 9 regions and 45 sub-regions. From each sub-region three hotels where chosen, namely number 2, 5 and 11 on the displayed list. The order of the display depends on the availability of the hotel, its price as well at its listing on other web pages.

The sample was drawn on September 21st, 2013 and the link to the online version of MSCEIT has been sent out the same day. The second data collection was done approximately 1 year after the first data collection. Since a complete list of all approx. 35,000 hotels in Germany is not existent, an independent website was chosen (www.hotelier.de), which lists 23,800 hotels in Germany. Every 23rd hotel from this list was selected so that a list of 1034 hotels in Germany was randomly chosen. This list was compared with the list of 130 hotels, which have been contacted within the first round of data collection and three hotels, which were on both lists were excluded. An e-mail was sent out to the human resource departments of the remaining 1031 hotels with both links to the questionnaires, asking them to distribute the link for the motivation/leadership questionnaire among all employees and the emotional intelligence questionnaire only to leaders with a team of at least four followers. This e-mail has been sent out to all hotels on October 20th, 2014. A first reminder has been sent shortly after, on October 22nd. The second reminder was sent out 1 week after the first e-mail has been sent out, on October 27th. A total of 451 respondents filled in the motivational and the leadership questionnaire, the MSCEIT has been filled in by 181 managers.

Before the results are analyzed, the reliability of the results is tested by calculating Cronbach’s alpha for the different questionnaires. For the newly designed questionnaire of motivation an alpha value of 0.896 is calculated, showing good to excellent reliability. For the leadership questionnaire MLQ-5X the handbook states the alpha value at 0.86, it is calculated at 0.851, which indicates a good reliability. For the emotional intelligence questionnaire MSCEIT a reliability of 0.91 is quoted in the handbook. The calculated value of Cronbach’s alpha is 0.899, which is slightly below the indicated value but still represents an excellent reliability of the tool.

Since in the model motivation is measured with all eight factors and no differentiation between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is made, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) is used to determine whether employees in the hotel industry are mainly intrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation was measured through the factors enjoyable, interesting, challenging, and matching competences, extrinsic motivation was measured through the factors salary, recognition, development and prestige. Each factor was measured through different questions and at the end the participants were asked to define their personal order for all of those factors. All answers were measured within a five point Likert scale, the values for the factors were calculated by summing up the responses to the respective questions and adding the value for the rank the factor has been put in, where rank one gave eight points, rank two gave seven points and so on. The sum for each factor was then divided by the number of questions, in order to have each factor scaled from 1 to 5. The values of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have been calculated as the median of the factors. The median was chosen over the mean to make the result dependable from outliners.

Table 9.1 shows that the median of the intrinsic motivation is higher than the median for the extrinsic motivation, as well as almost all factors for intrinsic motivation have a higher median than the factors for extrinsic motivation. The lowest median was measured for salary which also has the lowest standard deviation, confirming the assumption that motivation of employees in the hotel industry in Germany is mainly non-monetary. The intrinsic motivation of employees in the hotel industry in Germany can be stated as higher than the extrinsic motivation. An ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) test was executed to test if the difference of both values is statistically significant. The null-hypothesis, that there is no difference between both values can be rejected, the calculated difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is statistically significant (F = 6.325; p = 0.012).

Table 9.1 Descriptive analysis for employee motivation
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Within the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), the significance of the latent variables is tested with a critical ratio test, which shows satisfactory results. The full latent model with all the measurement models does not show an adequate model fit, with all values outside of the suggested range of adequate model fit. The modification indices suggest many covariances, of which only the onces within the measurement models are drawn. Those amendments lead to a better but still not adequate model fit (see Table 9.2). Before making further amendments to the model, the moderating role of emotional intelligence between leadership and motivation shall be explored further.

Table 9.2 Model fit: full latent model
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In order to test the moderating effect emotional intelligence has on the influence of leadership on motivation, a hierarchical regression analysis is conducted as suggested by Xiaqi et al. (2012, p. 263). The analysis consists of three steps. In the first step the control variables gender, age, and time in the hotel industry were entered. In the second step, the “main effects“, leadership and emotional intelligence were entered. In the third step, the product of leadership and emotional intelligence was entered to test the moderating effect, as suggested by Xiaqi et al. Table 9.3 represents the results of the analysis according to the steps.

Table 9.3 Hierarchical regression analysis
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The control variables gender, age and time in the industry do not have an impact on the measured motivation, as they explain only 1.5 % of the variance. The results show that emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between motivation and leadership (β = 0.300, p < 0.01). Leadership and emotional intelligence taken together explain 21 % of the variance of motivation on a statistically significant level.

In order to test this moderating effect with structural equation modelling, the paths between the latent variables are changed. If only a path between leadership and motivation is drawn, a statistically significant relation (β = 0.663) between motivation and leadership is shown. In a next step, arrows are drawn from leadership to emotional intelligence and from emotional intelligence to motivation. If the relation between motivation and leadership is reducing when emotional intelligence is included in the model, the moderating effect of emotional intelligence can be seen as substantiated. When calculating the model with the new paths, the regression coefficient between leadership and motivation decreases to −.717 and does no longer show statistical significance (p > 0.05), while the relations between motivation and emotional intelligence (β = .369) and leadership and emotional intelligence (β = .145) are statistically significant.

Since the moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the relation between leadership and motivation has been substantiated, the latent model with all three latent variables will be further pursued (Fig. 9.3). In order to increase the model fit, other adjustments have to be made. Once all the suggested covariances have been drawn between the factors within the measurement models, the model fit is not adequate with a χ2/df ratio of 13.224, a CFI value of 0.733 and a RMSEA at 0.165. The factor of intellectual stimulation is shown as not statistically significant (p > 0.05) which is why this factor is removed from the model and the model recalculated, the model fit now reaching a satisfactory level at most indicators (χ2/df = 4.445; CFI = 0.934; RMSEA = 0.087). All estimates kept in the model are statistically significant (p < 0.05). The model will be analysed and interpreted in more detail below.

Fig. 9.3
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Full latent model

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The first noticeable difference in this model compared to the tentative model is that in the latent model the arrow between leadership and motivation is missing. As explained at the analysis of the moderating effect of emotional intelligence, once the path from leadership to motivation has been drawn over emotional intelligence, the direct path between leadership and motivation became insignificant (p < 0.05). This is a proof for the moderating effect emotional intelligence has on the relation between leadership and motivation. The path between leadership and emotional intelligence shows a regression coefficient of β = .145 (p < 0.05) and the path between emotional intelligence shows a regression coefficient of β = .369 (p < 0.01). This means that leadership and emotional intelligence are positive related, if one goes up the other will follow in the same direction. The same is true for the relation between emotional intelligence and motivation. This way, leadership does have a positive effect on motivation which is strengthened by emotional intelligence, as has been hypothesized before.

What has not been expected was the full mediating effect of emotional intelligence. Before emotional intelligence has been entered to the model, a direct and significant relation between leadership and motivation has been measured. After emotional intelligence has been entered into the model, the direct relation between leadership and motivation has dropped significantly and lost its significance (p > 0.05). This effect could not have been guessed before and enhances the importance emotional intelligence plays for leadership and especially for motivation of employees through leadership. In other words, the lack of emotional intelligence cannot compensated by leadership when it comes to motivation of employees, while a lack of leadership effectiveness can partially be compensated by emotional intelligence, since the path between motivation and emotional intelligence shows the greater covariance at a higher significance.

As can be seen in the emotional intelligence measurement model, there is still potential among the leaders in the hotel industry in Germany to improve their emotional intelligence skills especially when it comes to using and managing emotions. The need to improve those skills has been substantiated by the role they play in the relation between leadership and motivation. As seen in the hierarchical regression analysis, leadership and emotional intelligence explain 21 % of the variance of employee motivation in the hotel industry so there are likely to be other factors which does have a significant influence on employee motivation which have not been touched within this paper. Another aspect are the tested gender differences. Men and women were found to have no statistically significant difference when it comes to leadership, but women were found to be stronger at emotional intelligence. Before entering emotional intelligence to the model, both genders were therefore likely to have the same leadership effect on motivation. Since emotional intelligence has a direct impact on employee motivation, female leaders are likely to have a higher positive impact on the motivation of their employees than male leaders do.

4 Discussion

Within the hotel industry, employee motivation is one of the key success factors, which allows hotels to differentiate themselves from others through attentive staff and personalized service. The research in this paper confirmed the hypothesis that employees in the hotel industry in Germany are mainly intrinsically motivated which stresses the importance to find non-monetary ways to feed this type of motivation. Motivation is created through incentives within the perceived situation for the employee and this situation is hardly controllable for the employer due to the guest as external factor influencing it. Those circumstances enhance the importance of effective leadership, which has to be strong enough to lead an employee even through situations where a leader is not personally present. It has become clear that modern leadership techniques focus on the employee as an individual and on the relationship between leader and employee. This is probably due to the increased importance of the employee as an individual over the past decades but also to Generation Y entering the workplace with their increased needs for feedback, individual attention, flexibility and work-life-balance.

Leadership has been proven to be positively related to motivation of employees, a relation that is moderated by emotional intelligence. Emotions are created unconsciously and can be stronger than rational thoughts and therefore overrule rational behavior intentions. If emotions are not recognized and managed properly, they may have a negative impact on the leadership situation. Emotional intelligence consists of recognizing emotions of oneself and others and managing those emotions and can therefore enhance the effects of transformational leadership. Leadership and emotional intelligence explain 21 % of the variance of motivation and therefore underline the needed focus of the hotel industry on the emotional intelligence of their leaders.

Managers in the hotel industry should take into account that Generation Y, which represents the young workforce currently between 15 and 35 years old, does have an increased need for feedback and recognition and act accordingly. They should furthermore try to be a role model for their followers and display behaviour, which they wish their followers to copy. This behaviour has the prerequisite that a manager is able to reflect and analyse his or her behaviour and changes it accordingly. Managers should focus on their emotional intelligence, either through official trainings or through internal reflection. They should always consider that their emotions and how they are handled have an impact on the team, its motivation and their leadership. Furthermore leaders should be aware that employees, especially female employees, are mainly intrinsically motivated and should try to keep that motivation up and avoid the crowding out effect. Managers should keep in mind that about 20 % of the motivation of their employees is explained by their emotional intelligence and leadership and therefore continuously pay attention to their behaviour.

Summarizing, managers and leaders in the hotel industry should be aware of the potential lying in their behaviour on the motivation of employees and therefore analyse their behaviour and amend it where necessary to reach greater employee motivation which is crucial in the hotel industry. Further research is suggested focusing on the leveraging effect of beneficiary contact on leadership and motivation in the hotel industry. This might be one of the factors other than leadership and emotional intelligence influencing employee motivation. Those other factors should be researched further in order to allow a better understanding and therefore management of employee motivation. Furthermore, research should be conducted on leadership factors, which were left out at the model studied in this research, such as cultural differences existing in the hotel industry in Germany. In this context, differences between the culture of birth and the culture of education should be made.

The found effect could be studied in other countries to understand the general relation between leadership, emotional intelligence and motivation better. It should also be analysed if the mainly intrinsic motivation in the hotel industry in Germany is due to the fact that the industry does not offer many extrinsic incentives or due to the fact that females are per se more intrinsically motivated and overrepresented among the hotel employees. Other studies also suggest making a differentiation between transactional and transformational leadership, and studying the effects of both concepts, since surprising results might be found. It would also be advisable to substantiate or neglect the results of this study by repeating it with a larger, more representative sample.