A study on identifying leadership behaviors and styles of prospective kitchen chefs

Leadership involves setting common goals within a group, influencing others' behaviors, and directing them toward a target. Leadership behaviors and styles can vary depending on the individual and professional characteristics of the leaders. Kitchen organizations are structured in a way that requires division of labor due to their inherent nature, with sections such as cold, hot, pastry, bakery, soup, breakfast, and butchery. Therefore, individuals working in various positions within the kitchen, such as head chefs, sous-chefs, section chefs, and line cooks, must possess leadership qualities. This study aimed to determine the leadership behavior tendencies and leadership styles of students studying gastronomy and culinary arts at Artvin Çoruh University. Consequently, the study group comprised students in gastronomy and culinary arts programs at Artvin Çoruh University. The saturation (complete enumeration) technique was applied during sampling, and 128 candidate students were included in the study. It was found that participants demonstrated higher participation in “people-oriented leadership” behaviors. Significant differences in leadership behavior tendencies and leadership styles were observed only between genders. Male participants indicated higher adherence to structural and political leadership styles than did female participants. In conclusion, adopting a people-oriented leadership style by students of gastronomy and culinary programs could be an advantage in their careers, as they are likely to lead many people throughout their professional lives.