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

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