Tourism and hospitality leadership in times of crisis: critical moderators.

Abstract

Tourism and hospitality organizations and destinations are increasingly struggling to resolve and manage diverse crises. Crises can be defined as unexpected and undesirable events, that cause pressure, represent a threat, provoking uncertainty, and fear. A different leadership is needed, with a strong capacity to deal with uncertainty, vulnerability, and complex chaotic contexts, to make urgent, quick decisions. This study used several complementary methods and techniques to achieve the proposed objectives. An empirical study was conducted, applying a survey, using semi-structured interviews with leaders in the tourism sector. In this sense, this work aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of crisis leadership and crisis management in disruptive scenarios, in tourism and hospitality. Also contributes to enriching crisis leadership research, when the crisis is increasingly frequent, much more globalizing, and harmful, and contributes to capitalizing on learning and developing research to help mitigate the future negative impact of another crisis.