EXPRESS: Rethinking Hospitality Leadership: Cultivating Human-Robot Co-working Harmony through Rapport Leadership

The integration of collaborative robots (cobots) into the hospitality workforce signals the need for a fresh leadership approach to facilitate smooth collaboration between humans and robots. Drawing from a thorough literature review and the synthesis of leadership theories, this conceptual study proposes a framework for a novel leadership style – rapport leadership – tailored to foster harmony among human and robot colleagues in the hospitality sector. Rapport leadership comprises four key elements: technological agility, emotional assurance, dynamic authority, and flexible adaptability. Compared to existing leadership models, rapport leadership represents a paradigm shift, introducing new mindsets, sources of inspiration, empowerment strategies, and ethical standards for future hospitality leaders. The findings offer practical insights for hospitality leaders seeking to embrace this new leadership approach to navigate and excel in a collaborative human-robot co-working environment.