The intertwinement of professional knowledge culture, leadership practices and sustainability in the restaurant industry

Abstract

This paper contributes to research on the growing expectation of hospitality businesses to implement sustainability strategies. By using the theoretical framework of professional knowledge cultures, as discussed by Nerland [Nerland, M. (2012). Professions as knowledge cultures. In Professional learning in the knowledge society (pp. 27-48). Brill/Sense], together with concepts of leadership and management, the study presents a novel approach. The aim is to explore the knowledge culture and the processes of learning and leadership formation in the restaurant industry to understand how these impact sustainable decisionmaking in restaurants. Through a narrative method, a typical industry career is illuminated, which mirrors the route to becoming a leader while adopting sustainability strategies. One podcast interview was used as research material to introduce a new data source derived from social media. The sampling considers the relevance of the narrators' knowledge and experience of the chef's profession and is therefore representative of a naturally occurring data. The analysis, based on knowledge culture, leadership practices, and sustainability, shows that the size of the restaurant matters for financial and socially sustainable decision-making. This is explained by the production flow in large organizations, which depends on calculated and effective work methods. Environmental sustainability strategies appear as a personal concern and are thereafter transformed into the knowledge culture, identified as a normative leadership.

The Effect of Benevolent Leadership on Job Engagement through Psychological Safety and Workplace Friendship Prevalence in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry

“…On one hand, the shift in dominant leadership style encourages tourism hospitality organizations to focus on a more value-oriented model that places attention on the role and expectations of many stakeholders in order to assure innovation, creativity, and sustainability in tourism and hospitality enterprises [118]. Tourism and hospitality leaders are concerned with sustainable and responsible leadership practices, such as "benevolent leadership", which may have a direct impact on personnel and customer involvement in sustainable behaviors [119]. On the other hand, because of present economic pressures, practitioners may regard the benevolent leadership paradigm as too difficult to apply.…”

Sustainability and Green Accounting in Halal Tourism: A Comprehensive Literature Review

“…The green accounting model that can realize sustainable halal tourism is formulated based on studies conducted related to green accounting, halal tourism, and sustainability based on previous studies' findings (Bein & Kawczynski, 1997;Bell & Lehman, 1999;Hueting, 1987;De Azua (1995); Xepapadeas, 1997;Chan & Lam, 2001;Bebbington & Thomson, 2007;Reed, 2007;Jones, 2008;De Silva and Henderson, 2011;Gelderman et al, 2017;Greyling et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2017;Bayramoglu et al, 2018;Bhatasara & Nyamwanza, 2018;Gnanaweera & Kunori, 2018;Fuenfschilling et al, 2019;Maama & Appiah, 2019;Addae-Dapaah & Wilkinson, 2020;Fox & Alldred, 2020;Goffman, 2020;Osemene et al, 2021;Wellton & Lainpelto, 2021;Brown & Vacca, 2022;Edwards et al, 2022;Eppinger, 2022;Faghihi et al, 2022;Hagbert et al, 2022;Hofstetter et al, 2022;Van Assche et al, 2022;Venneman et al, 2022;Bruhn et al, 2023;Kall et al, 2023;Pache et al, 2023;Stolowy & Paugam, 2023).…”

Identifying core “responsible leadership” practices for SME restaurants

“…In the context of tourism SMEs, responsible practices are critical for financial performance (Tamajón and Font, 2013). In the restaurant industry, such practices (particularly in decision-making) play a pivotal role in sustainability (Wellton and Lainpelto, 2021) and avoiding business failures, specifically in small independent restaurants (Putra and Cho, 2019). Nonetheless, the direct relationship between RL practices and business performance is unclear (Elkhwesky et al , 2022a; Lynham and Chermack, 2006).…”