Original title: Transformational leadership and service innovation performance: the role of knowledge sharing and innovation culture in the hospitality sector employees
The study asks how hotel leaders can help frontline staff improve the service guests receive. It finds two routes: staff share useful knowledge, and the workplace builds a culture that supports new ideas. Knowledge sharing is the stronger link between leadership and service innovation. Psychological safety—feeling able to speak up without fear—changes how strongly these routes operate.
Imagine a busy kitchen where the staff are trying to make dinner service smoother. A manager can encourage new ideas, but improvements may depend on whether cooks share useful tips and whether the kitchen’s habits support trying changes. In this paper, the manager’s encouragement is leadership, shared tips are knowledge sharing, and the kitchen’s habits are its innovation culture; feeling safe to speak up changes how those routes connect to better service.
Hotel guests notice small service changes, but those changes depend on frontline staff having ways to act on ideas. The findings suggest hotel managers should support knowledge sharing and a safe workplace, while recognising that safety can change how leadership connects to innovation.
The abstract reports survey data from frontline employees in Indian hotels and resorts, so it does not establish that leadership or psychological safety caused service innovation. It does not report whether the findings apply to other countries, industries, or types of employees, or how the safety threshold was determined.
Ask anything about this paper. Answers come from its abstract, and say so when the abstract doesn't cover your question.
Transformational leadership and service innovation performance: the role of knowledge sharing and innovation culture in the hospitality sector employees — Sekhar Pal, MK Rao — Humanities and Social Sciences Communications — doi:10.1057/s41599-026-09275-5
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.