Vision-based leadership at Southeast Asia's leading service enterprise: Etic or Emic?

Corporate leaders are exhorted to espouse vision, but little is known about how vision is realized by leaders at different levels in Southeast Asian service sector. The present study tests relationships between perceived vision communication, motivation of employees and organizational alignment among supervisors, and satisfaction of their immediate subordinates at a headquarters branch of one of Southeast Asia's leading hotel and resort groups. Motivation of employees directly predicts improvements in employee satisfaction. Aligning organizational systems is negatively correlated to perceived motivating behavior among hotel supervisors. Surprisingly, vision communication has no significant relationship with employee satisfaction. Future research directions and managerial implications are discussed.