The moderating effects of gender and income between leadership and quality of work life (QWL)

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the moderating effects of gender and income on the relationship between leadership style and quality of work life (QWL). This study provides meaningful implications for the hospitality industry in terms of gender and income between leadership and QWL. Design/methodology/approach Data are collected from five-star hotel employees (n = 443) in Turkey. The hypotheses are tested using hierarchical linear regression. The independent and dependent variables used to test the hypotheses involving the dependent variable of QWL are centered prior to the empirical analysis to avoid potential multicollinearity. Findings Transformational and transactional leadership styles were significant predictors of QWL, controlling for the demographic variables (i.e. age, employment statistics and education level), but gender and income were not significant antecedents of QWL. When it comes to the interaction effect of leadership styles and gender, gender showed a statistically significant moderating effect between transformational leadership and QWL, but not between transactional leadership and QWL. Income had a statistically significant moderating effect between both leadership styles and QWL. Practical implications The findings of the study potentially affect hotel management by identifying the moderating effect of gender and income of the employees and demonstrating how quality of life of the employees can be improved by leadership styles of managers. Originality/value Previous literature has addressed the issue of leadership and its outcomes. However, there has been limited research on examining the relationship among gender, income, leadership style and QWL in the case of hospitality management.