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International Journal of Hospitality Management 32 (2013) 295–298

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International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman

Research note

Interpersonal communication skills and the young hospitality leader: Are they prepared? Jeffrey C. Lolli ∗
Widener University, One University Place, Chester, PA 19013, United States

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Keywords:
Interpersonal
Communication
Entry-level leaders
Hospitality
Subordinates

a b s t r a c t
Interpersonal communication is a skill that is crucial to successful leaders (Brownell, 1992; Scudder and
Guinan, 1989); however, English et al. (2007) found that most college graduates tend to be deficient in these skills when entering the business world. In the service industry, a manager interpersonally communicates with guests, subordinates, peers, and superiors. In particular, a manager interpersonally communicates most often with their subordinates. The purpose of this study was to determine entry-level hospitality leaders’ perceptions of which interpersonal communication skills are important and whether their college curriculum prepared them to be competent interpersonal communicators when communicating with subordinates. The results indicated that participants believed that a lack of: (1) overall leadership experience, (2) exposure to dealing with a diverse audience, (3) giving feedback, and (4) dealing with confrontational situations contributed to why they rated the importance of all the interpersonal communication skills evaluated higher than their level of preparedness.
© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Hospitality managers spend as much as 80% of their day interpersonally communicating with others (Woods and King, 2010).
A manager interpersonally communicates with guests, subordinates, peers, and superiors. In particular, a manager interpersonally

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