Title: A study on empowerment leadership and service recovery in the restaurant industry.

Level: Student thesis, final assignment for bachelor’s degree in business administration

Authors: Ellinor Strinnholm and Emma Söderstjerna

Supervisor: Svante Brunåker and Monika Wallmon

Date: 2020 – June

Aim: This study interprets empowering leadership's impact on frontline staff's initiative in service recovery in the restaurant industry.

Method: Through a qualitative-phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews have been conducted with both frontline staff in the restaurant industry as well as managers. Through a thematic analysis, connections were made between themes in the respondents' statements and Spreitzer's four dimensions.

Result & Conclusions: The results indicate that frontline staff do not feel that Spreitzer's four dimensions of empowerment leadership, are met. Instead, the study found that authoritarian leadership in various forms is implemented at all restaurants in the study, despite the fact that empowerment leadership is in demand.

Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes with frontline staff's views on empowerment leadership as well as key drivers for increased staff performance. In addition, the problems in the restaurant industry are highlighted today and how these can be linked to a certain kind of leadership.

Suggestions for future research: For future research, we recommend exploring further why empowerment leadership is not implemented in the restaurant industry today.