Tác động của hành vi lãnh đạo tới sự hài lòng của nhân viên nghiên cứu tại các doanh nghiệp nhỏ và vừa vùng bắc trung bộ TT TIENG ANH

1 INTRODUCTION The need for the research: The issue of leadership has long received the attention of not only many scholars but also many practitioners In the past, studies have approached leadership capacity based on personal qualities and characteristics of leaders, but they found that outstanding personal qualities often solve the question of who is a leader which cannot explain the question of leadership effectiveness The biggest gap in the personality approach is to separate the leader from the concrete action environment, from the leader-to-follower relationship A clear trend is to shift research focus and broaden the scope of leadership research from individual leaders to their relationships with employees and contextual and situational factors affecting effectiveness leader Therefore, the behavioral approach has shifted the focus of research to understand, analyze and predict the actions that demonstrate leadership in the organizational environment Leadership behavior is one of the factors constituting a leader's capacity The fact that a leader has leadership qualities, has understanding and is able to apply leadership knowledge is only considered a "necessary condition" of leadership capacity, but a "sufficient condition" is for leadership qualities and that leadership knowledge, the leader demonstrates the behavior (action) of leading that organization in practice In addition, according to Kerstin Keen (2000) emphasized the relationship between leadership knowledge and leadership behavior Leadership behavior is formed through the application of learned knowledge and specific leadership work Therefore, it can be understood that knowledge is an input and behavior is an output in the leadership capacity of each individual So, to become a good leader, besides qualities and knowledge, leaders need to have effective leadership behaviors to lead and arouse strength, inspire, help employees develop and develop self-enhancement for employees This is a factor that directly affects the success of the leader in the process of running the organization The publication of many domestic and foreign researchers has also confirmed the position of leadership behavior, and pointed out types of leadership behavior, tools to measure leadership behavior, research on customer satisfaction employees, those satisfaction measures, prove the relationship between leadership behavior and employee satisfaction by empirical studies in different industries and countries SMEs in the North Central Region are possessing leaders whose leadership behaviors are typical of the Region (created by its natural, socio-cultural characteristics) How satisfied are employees in SMEs in the North Central area? There can be many different reasons, but one of them is definitely the “leadership behavior” of the SME leaders Although studying the impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction has become a trend of interest in the world for many decades, in Vietnam, in SMEs and in the North Central region, it is still is a fertile land that needs to be further explored because of the limited number of studies, limited research diversity, especially empirical research Stemming from all the above reasons, the author has chosen the topic "Impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction - Research in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the North Central region" for his research thesis The research results will be suggestions for leaders in SMEs in the North Central region in regulating endogenous factors to improve employee satisfaction Research purposes: Objectives of the study The main research objective of the thesis is to measure the impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction - research in SMEs in the North Central region, thereby proposing recommendations to strengthen leadership behaviors Effective leadership for leaders at SMEs in the North Central region brings satisfaction to employees Research questions To elucidate issues related to leadership behavior and the impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction in SMEs in the North Central region During the research process, the following research questions should be clarified: • How will people-oriented leadership behavior and task-oriented leadership behavior affect employee satisfaction at small and medium enterprises in the North Central area? • How will the typical leadership behaviors of leaders in SMEs in the North Central region affect employee satisfaction? • What recommendations should be made to encourage effective leadership behaviors in SMEs in the North Central area in order to bring about employee satisfaction Object and scope of the study: Research subjects The research object of the thesis is leadership behavior and the impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction in the enterprise Research scope Regarding research content: there are many different approaches to leadership behavior Within the framework of the thesis, the author limits leadership behavior as the concretization of leadership qualities as well as understanding of leadership techniques of leaders in specific organizational contexts In addition, the author conducts research on the basis of cultural formation in the North Central region, the impact of this cultural environment on the qualities and behaviors of North Central people in general and leaders in particular Thereby identifying typical behaviors of leaders in SMEs in the North Central area to include in the research model About research space: The North Central region includes provinces: Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue However, when conducting research, the author found that Nghe Tinh cultural sub-region is considered a representative cultural sub-region of the North Central region, research on Nghe Tinh cultural sub-region will clarify cultural sub-region of North Central Vietnam Therefore, within the framework of the thesis, the author focuses on the cultural sub-region of Nghe Tinh (including Ha Tinh province and Nghe An province) About the research period: secondary data was collected in years 2017-2021, primary data was collected from 6/2020 to 12/2020 3 Research Methods: Data collection method: secondary data source, primary data source Data analysis method: all data is analyzed and processed raw, then the most relevant information will be selected for the research topic The thesis uses SPSS 22 software to process and analyze data Thesis structure: In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the thesis is structured into chapters as follows: Chapter 1: Overview of related studies and research gaps Chapter 2: Theoretical foundations, models, context and research methods Chapter 3: Qualitative research - Behavior of SME leaders in the North Central region - adjusted research model Chapter 4: Quantitative research- Impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction in SMEs in the North Central area Chapter 5: Discussion of research results and recommendations CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF RELATED WORKS AND RESEARCH CAPACITY 1.1 Overview of research works on leadership behavior 1.1.1 Overview of research on approaching leadership behavior according to outstanding behavior groups Many studies have been conducted according to the behavioral leadership approach The first study was conducted at Ohio State University in the late 1940s, building on the findings of Stogdill's (1948) Around the same time, another group of researchers at Michigan State University explored how leadership works in small groups A third line of research, begun by Blake and Mouton in the early 1960s, explores how leaders use task behavior and relationship behavior in organizations Ohio State University researchers, Hemphill (1949) and colleagues began a series of extensive and systematic studies to identify leadership behaviors related to group performance or an organization Ohio State University researchers, Hemphill (1949) and colleagues began a series of extensive and systematic studies to identify leadership behaviors related to group performance or an organization • Consideration leadership behavior • Initiating structure leadership behavior To measure these two groups of behaviors, Hemphill (1949) built "the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire - LBDQ" (the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire) with 40 questions LBDQ continues to be developed and perfected through the work of Hemphill, Coons, (1957); Shartle (1957); Halpin, Winer (1957); Fleishman (1957), LBDQs were sent to hundreds of people in educational, military, and industrial settings, and the results showed that several clusters of prominent leader behavior emerged Six years later, Stogdill (1963) published an abridged version of the LBDQ—this new form, known as the LBDQ-XII, became the most widely used tool in leadership research The Leader Behavior Descriptive Questionnaire - XII is designed to assess 12 aspects of leadership behavior, including: Representation, Need Reconciliation, and Demand Reconciliation behavior of patience (Tolerance of uncertainty, behavior of persuasiveness), behavior of leadership concern for employees (Consideration), behavior of commitment (Integration), behavior of concern for work (Initiation) of structure), motivating behavior (Tolerance and Freedom), nominal leadership behavior (Role asumption), performanceoriented behavior (Production Emphasis), predictive behavior (Predictive Accuracy), promotion behavior (Superion Orientation) The behaviors identified by LBDQ-XII represent the core of the behavioral approach and are at the heart of what leaders Instead of trying to describe the different behaviors that leaders display in the workplace, the University of Michigan researchers tried to identify how leader behaviors impact job performance groups effectively (Cartwright & Zander, 1960; Katz & Kahn, 1951; Likert, 1961, 1967) They concluded that four types of leadership behaviors are related to job performance: Supporting leadership, facilitating communication, emphasizing goals, and facilitating job performance Continuing to inherit and develop these two models are Robert R Blake and Jane S Mouton and with The Managerial Grid model - (The Managerial Grid) first appeared in the early 1960s and has been modified many times (Blake & McCanse, 1991; Blake & Mouton, 1964, 1978, 1985) It is a model that has been widely used in the organization The management grid has been renamed to the leadership grid The “Leadership Grid” model continues to use two groups of leader behaviors: task-interested behavior and people-interested behavior These two variables are divided into two levels, from level being the lowest to level being the highest and connected on a diagram From there identify positions on the map that represent different leadership styles 1.1.2 Overview of research approaches to leadership behavior in the leadership context One of the next research directions is to consider leadership behavior in situations such as: employee characteristics, the type of work organization that the organization performs, some factors of the external environment Effective leadership depends not only on the personal qualities or behavior of the leader himself, but also on the beliefs, needs, and willingness of employees to accept leadership According to research by P Hersey and Blanchard (1969, 1982) has placed leadership behavior with employee's development level: task-oriented leadership behavior (Leadership Directive Behavior), Leadership behavior oriented according to people (Leadership Support Behavior), Development level of Employees (Development level of Employees) Research by Fiedler (1964, 1971, 1976) places leadership behavior in favor of leadership context: Task-oriented leadership behavior, Human relations-oriented leadership behavior, Level of leadership facilitation of the leadership context 5 Following this line of research, Yulk (2002) also put leadership behavior in change: Leadership behavior towards task, Leadership behavior towards human relations, Behavior towards change In 2012, Yukl continued to add leadership behaviors in addition to the main groups of leadership behaviors, Yukl also added more groups of behaviors, which are change-oriented behaviors and external behaviors By providing contextual factors and how favorable or unfavorable situations are, case studies have shown the relative nature of leadership behaviors and the applicability of leadership behaviors this behavior in different contexts and situations of the organization 1.1.3 Overview of research approaches to leadership behavior in the influence between leaders and employees If the previous approaches stopped at the quality and capacity of leaders to influence employees so that they act and work under the guidance, the researches of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century have focused on The study focuses on the process of interaction between leaders and employees, emphasizing the development and self-elevation of employees The most discussed leadership models are: transformational leadership behavior, transactional leadership behavior, and liberal leadership behavior Transformational leadership is one of the studies of leadership behavior The first study was introduced by Downton (1973), who was the first to use the term "transformational leadership", but the term did not gain attention until James Burn's book, titled “Leadership” was published in 1978 Avolio, Bass & Jung (1995; 1999) pointed out the factors of “transformational leadership” including: influence, inspiration, intellectual stimulation intelligence, personal concern Transformational leaders are those who develop, excite, and inspire their followers to achieve results that exceed expectations by eliciting higher levels of employee needs, building trust and put organizational interests above personal interests Yukl (1989, 2006), transformational leadership behavior affects employees, makes them feel respected, trusted, admired, loyal, and towards leaders, thereby motivating to work better than originally expected Transactional leadership began in the 1960s, flourished in the 1960s and 1980s, and is still noticed in recent studies (Van Wart, 2012) Bums (1978) asserted that transactional leadership behavior is the process by which leaders provide rewards/punishments in exchange for employee effort and performance Transactional leadership involves a transaction, or exchange, that is a necessary component between a leader and an employee The leader relies on redundant rewards and manages by exception (Bass, 1985a) Caldwell and Spinks (1992) assert that this type of leadership includes behaviors such as: monitoring performance, providing redundant personal rewards, and providing redundant physical rewards when tasks are completed on time To measure transactional leadership behavior and transformational leadership behavior, Bass (1985) launched the "Multi-component Leadership Questionnaire" MLQ and post-measurement studies are also based on this first version There are two types of MLQ, one is for leaders to self-assess their style (Leader Form), the second is for everyone to evaluate their leadership (The MLQ Rater Form) A new approach to leadership behavior is the research of Greenleaf (1977) which first conceptualizes servant leadership behavior and puts it in the context of organizational activities Servant leadership is considered as one of the important leadership that has a significant impact on employee behavior (Farling et al., 1999; Laub, 1999; Liden et al., 2008; Russell and Gregory Stone, 2002; Sendjaya and Pekerti, 2010) Increased research emphasis on serving leadership behaviors is consistent with a shift in paradigm that places an increasing emphasis on ethical responsibility, sustainable development, and long-term values that deliver value to everyone , for organization and society (Bobbio et al., 2012) 1.2 An overview of research on employee satisfaction In recent years, employee satisfaction has been the subject of extensive research (Aydogdu & Asikgil, 2011; Belias, Koustelios, Vairaktarakis, & Sdrolias, 2015) Employee satisfaction impacts employee productivity, absenteeism, dedication, and employee health, which in turn leads to overall life satisfaction (Al-zu, 2010; Aydogdu & Asikgil, 2010) 2011; Vakola &Nicholaou, 2012; Agarwal, 2016; Giannouli, 2017; Tschuor, Raptis, Morf, Staffelbach, Manser, & Clavien, 2014) Employee satisfaction was first studied by scholars such as Maslow (1943), Adam (1963) and McClelland (1958) This was followed by the work of Herzberg (1968) and Alderfer (1969) and later the work of Kreitner and Kinick (2007) and many others These studies can be reviewed under the following themes: - Satisfaction with the nature, nature, characteristics of work, working time: Weiss et al., 1967; Smith et al., 1969; Hackman and Oldhan, 1980; Ronan, 1981; Christensen and Staines, 1990; Miskeli & Miskell, 1994; Boeve, 2007; Morris and Venkatesh, 2010; Antocic & Antocic, 2011; Abdulla et al., 2011; Khan et al., 2014; Koustelios and Mpagiati 1997; Lottrup, Stigsdotter, Meilby, & Claudi, 2015 - Remuneration, welfare and reward: Weiss et al., 1967; Smith et al., 1969; Phillips, & McFarlin, 1990; Koustelios and Mpagiati, 1997; Brasher & Chen, 1999; Crossman & Basen, 2003; Ricardo & Jolly, 2003; Williams, McDaniel, & Nguyen, 2006; Spector, 2007; Antocic & Antocic, 2011; SHRM, 2009, 2012; Zain et al 2009; Jehanzeb, Rasheed, Rasheed, & Aamir, 2012; Onorato & Zhu, 2015; Giannouli, 2017a - Working environment and conditions: Weiss et al., 1967; Koustelios and Mpagiati, 1997; Crossman & Basen, 2003; SHRM, 2009, 2012; Aarons & Sawitzky, 2006, Coetzee, 2007 - Opportunities for promotion and professional development training: Weiss et al., 1967; Smith et al., 1969; Koustelios and Mpagiati, 1997; Oswald, 2002; Ricardo & Jolly, 2003; Spector, 2007; Noe, 2008; Zain et al 2009; SHRM, 2009, 2012; Antocic & Antocic, 2011; Shah et al., 2012 - Relationship with leaders and colleagues: Weiss et al., 1967; Smith et al., 1969; Koustelios and Mpagiati, 1997; Spector, 2007; Boyad et al., 2012; SHRM, 2009, 2012; Antocic & Antocic, 2011; Abdulla et al., 2011 - Corporate culture, organization, management policy and future orientation: Ricardo & Jolly, 2003; Aarons & Sawitzky, 2006; Coetzee, 2007; Zain et al 2009; Zang & Li, 2013 - Communication and information: Ricardo & Jolly, 2003; Spector, 2007; Zain et al 2009; SHRM, 2009, 2012; Tsai, 2011; Shah et al 2012 7 - Personality, gender, age: Brush et al., 1987; Watson et al., 1987; Moyle & Parkes, 1999; Siu, Lu, & Cooper, 1999; Connolly & Viswesvaran, 2000; Niakas, 2010; Kooij; Tsai, 2011; Hill, & Henn, 2015; Riza, Ganzach, & Liu, 2015 1.3 Overview of studies on the impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction Leadership behavior and job satisfaction have long been a major area of research for organizations Many studies have examined the relationship between the two variables and concluded that leadership behavior has an effect on a wide range of job outcomes including employee satisfaction (Boehnke et al., 2003; Chang and Lee) , 2007; Griffith, 2004; Shaw and Newton, 2014; Siddique et al 2011) There are many studies supporting the existence of this relationship between employee satisfaction and leadership behavior (Halpin, 1954; Patchen, 1962; Nealy and Blood, 1968; Greene and Schriesheim, 1977; Katerberg and Horn , 1981; Wycoff and Skogan, 1994) However, within these studies is a debate about the nature of this relationship, whether positive or negative Previous research has shown that considering leadership behavior has a positive impact on employee job satisfaction, and structural leadership behavior has a positive impact negatively on job satisfaction (Nealy and Blood, 1968; House and Filley, 1971; Greene and Schriesheim, 1977) Some findings suggest that employee-oriented leadership behavior has a negative impact on job satisfaction (Halpin, 1954; Patchen, 1962; Hodge, 1976), while other studies show both behavior Both employee orientation and task orientation have a positive impact on employee job satisfaction (Katerberg and Horne, 1981) Research by Kylie Bartolo and Brett Furlonger, University of Melbourne, Australia (1999) has determined the relationship between leadership behavior and satisfaction The results of the study show that employee-oriented leadership behavior and task-oriented leadership behavior both have a positive impact on satisfaction However, employee-oriented behavior has no relationship with job satisfaction Ahangar (2009) investigates the relationship between transformational leadership behavior, transactional leadership behavior and laissez-faire leadership behavior with job satisfaction The results show that all of these leadership behaviors have a significant positive impact on employee satisfaction, the main difference being the size of the relationship According to research by Trottier et al (2008), Hiaz and Haider (2010), Quinley (2014) Transformative leadership behavior predicts more satisfaction than the other two leadership behaviors 1.4 Gaps and research directions of the topic As mentioned above, theories of leadership in general and leadership behavior in particular have been formed and tested in Western countries with a long-standing developed economy of management science This theory also needs to be proven relevant or needs to be changed to suit the culture, business tradition, level of economic development, level of governance in Eastern countries, where Vietnam- typical North Central region was chosen as the research background Through an overview of domestic and foreign researches, it shows that leadership behavior is one of the factors constituting a leader's capacity So, to become a good leader, besides qualities and knowledge, leaders need to have effective leadership behaviors to lead and arouse strength, inspire, help employees develop and develop self-enhancement for employees This is a factor that directly affects the success of the leader in the process of running the organization In studies on leadership capacity, it has also been shown that leadership behavior (action) is the factor that has the strongest impact on leadership results compared to leadership qualities, leadership knowledge (Tran Thi Phuong Hien, 2014; Le Van Thuan, 2019), it is leadership behavior that will help employees respect, trust, admire and be loyal to the leader, thereby creating excitement at work and bringing satisfaction for employees, even leadership behavior can affect employee productivity, engagement, organizational commitment or intention to leave However, there has not been a single study that independently studies leadership behavior and the relationship between leadership behavior and employee satisfaction Therefore, the study of leadership behavior of leaders to build an effective set of leadership behaviors, thereby contributing to improving the effectiveness of leadership is a necessary research direction, to study part of the gap in previous studies CHAPTER THEORETICAL BASIS, MODEL, CONCEPT AND RESEARCH METHODS 2.1 Theory of leadership behavior 2.1.1 Leader Leadership has long been a topic of interest for researchers Scholars and researchers around the world have given many different definitions for the term “leadership” and these definitions also change over time Leadership has been defined in terms of a position's personal qualities, behaviour, influence on others, interaction patterns, roles, relationships, and occupations Leadership is the process by which a leader influences and influences others to guide and facilitate activities and relationships within a group or organization 2.1.2 Perspectives on leadership behavior There are many different approaches to leadership behavior Leadership behavior in the thesis is understood as the concretization of leadership qualities as well as understanding of leadership techniques of leaders in specific organizational contexts Leadership behavior is what leaders in specific leadership situations that shape specific leadership behaviors Within the scope of the research, the author uses Stogdill's (1963) approach and behavior classification as the main basis for analyzing and evaluating the impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction According to research by Stogdill (1963), effective leadership behavior includes 12 behaviors and the author divides these 12 behaviors into groups of behaviors, which are people-oriented behaviors and task-oriented behaviors This approach is based on the authors' approach (Ohio, Michigan (1940), Blake and Mouton (1964) Human-oriented behavior includes the following behaviors: Representation, Demand Reconciliation, Tolerance of uncertainty, and Persuasiveness , leadership behavior cares about employees (Consideration), behavior engagement (Integration) 9 Task-oriented behavior includes the following behaviors: Initiation of structure, Tolerance and Freedom, Role asumption and Role asumption Productivity Emphasis, Predictive Accuracy, and Superion Orientation 2.1.3 Factors influencing leadership behavior According to research by McCrae and Costa (1999, McCrae, 2004) individual behavior of people is influenced by many factors, including personal factors and external factors (culture and problems) happens in life….) Research by Triandis (1989) also shows that differences in cultural background also have an effect on individual qualities, which in turn affect each person's behavior Figure 2.1: A reduced model of factors that form individual behavior Personal qualities Personal behavior Culture Source: McCrae and Costa (1999), McCrae (2004) Therefore, the author studies the influence of regional cultural factors on the behavior of an individual or a leader, through two groups of factors: • Features of natural conditions • Historical and cultural conditions 2.2 Stogdill's Leadership Behavior 2.2.1 People-oriented behavior As mentioned above, there are many different studies on personal behavior of people in general and leadership behavior in particular Within the scope of his thesis, the author chooses Stogdill's (1963) approach and gives leadership behaviors as the basis for the leadership behavior approach Representative behavior (Representation): According to Stogdill (1963) research, leaders show their representative behavior in ceremonies, signing documents, contracts with customers and partners, they is the symbol of the organization or business Their behavior reflects the image of the organization, the business they lead, and to some extent also shows the basic features of the organizational culture of that business Demand Reconciliation: In the process of leading an organization, leaders always have to deal with unexpected surprises that disturb the normal business operations of the organization, such as: conflicts between individual goals of members and the common goals of the organization, conflicts between responsibilities and interests between departments and individuals in the organization, conflicts of interests between enterprises and suppliers, Therefore, a leader is the one who resolves conflicts and conflicts within the enterprise as well as between the enterprise and related organizations and individuals, in order to ensure stability in the business organization (Stogdill 1963) 10 Tolerance of uncertainty: Leaders exhibit patient behavior in that they are able to accept risks in the development of the organization, they are patient with expectation and uncertainty Certainly, even if there are future changes to the organization that they themselves cannot predict, they still calmly, not panic and patiently monitor that change to have a plan of action Patience behavior is understood to mean that a leader can tolerate uncertainty and procrastination without worrying or becoming frustrated (Stogdill, 1963) Persuasiveness: Persuasive behavior shows leaders with confidence, strong arguments, grounded, they convince employees to believe in their decisions, believe in the development organization, helping employees believe that their actions will bring certain benefits to themselves and to the organization Leaders who demonstrate persuasive behavior also have the ability to inspire and motivate employees to work, so that employees are motivated to work and stick with the organization more Thus, the persuasive behavior of the leader is a demonstration of effective persuasion and a strong personal belief in the leader and strong belief in the organization (Stogdill, 1963) Leadership behaviors that care about employees (Consideration): Leadership behaviors that care about employees are understood as expressions that leaders care about the comfort, happiness, status and contributions of employees in the organization office They build a friendly, open, happy, safe organization Always listen to employees' opinions before making decisions, always respect and be fair to all members Keeping promises, explaining to employees about their actions, even they are ready to change if necessary Intergration behavior: The manifestation of this behavior is that the leader helps members to work together, maintains a close solidarity, and helps employees integrate quickly into the organization office If there are conflicts in the organization, they quickly resolve those conflicts to restore the stability of the organization (Stogdill, 1963) 2.2.2 Action towards the mission Careful Behavior (Initiating Structure): Leaders bring their ideas to the organization, letting people know their expectations Leaders develop a clear work plan, decide what will be done and how to it, analyze possible work for employees, set standards for work performance, and require employees to follow organizational rules and standards in their functions, they can clearly show their working regime with employees (Stogdill, 1963) Motivational behavior (Tolerance and Freedom): leaders assign specific tasks to employees and allow employees to handle and take initiative in work Let employees things the way they think is best, encouraging employee creativity Give employees another chance if their previous attempts failed Leaders trust and appreciate the efforts of employees (Stogdill, 1963) Role asumption: the leader does not perform his or her own leadership role but assigns leadership to others In fact, they are just "puppet" leaders They not overcome the challenges posed, not bear enough responsibility when things arise They let some members of the organization take advantage, authorize employees to some work that should not be authorized, they lose leadership in the organization Therefore, they have no influence over the organization and are inferior to maintain leadership positions (Stogdill, 1963) 11 Productivity Emphasis: It is the process by which leaders put pressure on organizational performance In order to achieve efficiency and progress, leaders always work hard, putting pressure on the organization to become a leading organization Besides, they also motivate, encourage and motivate employees to work harder to achieve better results (Stogdill, 1963) Predictive Accuracy: The ability to predict and predict accurately what is about to happen to an organization They can predict trends, laws of issues and events Therefore, leaders can make plans to cope and solve (Stogdill, 1963) Superion Orientation: shows the leader's actions to maintain an intimate relationship with his superiors, to have influence with his superiors, the leader is striving for higher positions Manifestations of this behavior are that the leader is very "fit" with the superiors, the proposals always receive the support of the superiors, they have the opportunity to advance at work (Stogdill, 1963) 2.3 Employee satisfaction 2.3.1 Perspectives on employee satisfaction In general, employee satisfaction is seen as the overall feeling about the job, or the attitude about different aspects of the job (Spector, 1997) There are many different definitions of employee satisfaction In fact, the employee's satisfied or dissatisfied state is evaluated through different criteria In this thesis, employee satisfaction is understood as "the state when they have a feeling of enjoyment, comfort and show a positive response to aspects of their work" 2.3.2 Criteria for assessing employee satisfaction In the thesis, to measure employee satisfaction, the author uses the ESI questionnaire Employee Satisfaction Inventory (Koustelios, 1991; Koustelios and Bagiatis, 1997) to assess the employee's job satisfaction level- ESI measures criteria: Job characteristics, Salary, Promotion opportunities, Satisfied with the leader, Satisfied with the working environment, Satisfied with the organization in general The author finds that there are groups of criteria (Satisfaction with salary, job characteristics, satisfaction with promotion opportunities) that are similar to satisfaction with the internal environment, groups of criteria (satisfaction with the internal environment) with the working environment, satisfaction with the leader, general satisfaction) is satisfaction with the external environment, this determination is similar to the study of MSQ (Weiss et al., 1967) as presented presented above Therefore, in the final model, the author expects to have dependent variables and adjust the name as follows: * Satisfaction with the business includes (satisfaction with the working environment, satisfaction with the leader, general satisfaction) * Satisfied with the value received and the opportunity for personal development (salary, nature of work, promotion opportunities) 2.4 Overview of the situation of SMEs in the North Central region 2.4.1 Overview of the socio-economic situation 2.4.2 Overview of the situation of SMEs 2.4.3 Management and leadership issues in SMEs in the North Central region 2.5 Research model of the impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction 12 2.5.1 Model building base Based on the research overview, the author selects and uses the research model of Kylie Bartolo and Brett Furlonger, University of Melbourne, Australia (1999) as the basis for building a research model for the thesis The two authors studied 256 firefighters in Victoria and New South Wales Leadership Behavior Questionnaire version 12 (LBQXII) was used to measure employees' perception of superior leadership behavior (Stogdill, 1963) However, the author does not use this model originally, but has some additions to suit the context and research objectives Specifically, these adjustments are as follows: Using Stogdill's (1963) approach to leadership behavior as the main basis for analyzing and evaluating the impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction, and divide these 12 leadership behaviors into groups: people-oriented behaviors and task-oriented behaviors, Using the ESI scale - Employee Satisfaction Inventory, (Koustelios, 1991; Koustelios and Bagiatis, 1997) Adjusted to measure employee satisfaction, Research on cultural factors in the North Central region to add some specific leadership behaviors of the region, thereby considering the impact of behavioral groups This micro to employee satisfaction 2.5.2 Expected research model Based on the research overview, theoretical basis, and research objectives, the author proposes the proposed research model of the impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction as follows: People-oriented behavior Task-oriented behavior Representation Initiation of sutructure Demand Reconciliation Tolerance and Freedom Tolerance of uncertainty Role asumption Persuasiveness Production Emphasis Consideration Predictive Accuracy Intergration Superion Orientation Typical leadership behavior of the leader of the North Central region Satisfaction with the business Satisfied with the value received and the opportunity to develop Figure 2.1: Research model of the impact of leadership behavior on employee satisfaction Source: Recommended by the author 13 2.6 Research Methods 2.6.1 Research design The research of the thesis includes main steps: preliminary research and formal research 2.6.2 Selecting and developing a scale - Leader behavior scale: Based on the results of the research overview, in this study, the author selected to use the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire - The Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ-XII) - Stogdill (1963) to measure leadership behavior In addition, in the group of independent variables, there is also a group of typical behaviors of small and medium-sized business leaders in the North Central region, considering the influence of social culture on leadership behavior This is one of the new contributions of the author, because the author discovered and developed the scale from the results of theoretical synthesis and interviews with experts and leaders - Employee Satisfaction Inventory - Employee Satisfaction Inventory (ESI), the author uses the Employee Satisfaction Inventory (ESI, 1991; Koustelios and Bagiatis, 1997) with adjustment to assess the level of employee satisfaction in employee work 2.6.3 Qualitative research - Researching documents by collecting data from related scientific works In addition, the process of document research is also used to make statistics of leadership behaviors in specific leadership contexts, here is the natural, cultural and social context of the North Central region The author conducts research on the basis of cultural formation in the North Central region, the impact of this cultural environment on human qualities here, thereby affecting the behavior of people in the North Central region in general and leaders in particular Thereby finding out typical behaviors influenced by cultural environment - With the method of collecting expert opinions: the author consults with scientists, teaching and research experts on leadership, management, and culture, from which to perfect the terminology used as well such as completing the model and questionnaire The author also conducts in-depth interviews with leaders and employees in SMEs in the North Central region Detailed information about experts, leaders, interviewed employees, interview time and duration, and interview location are presented in Appendix 1, Appendix 2.6.4 Test investigation In order to complete the survey form before conducting the official survey on a large scale, the author conducts a preliminary survey in a narrow scope with sample size of 60 The purpose of the preliminary survey is to complete the questionnaire, Avoid mistakes and misunderstandings in the process of answering ballots, avoid typos and typographical errors The results of the pilot survey were combined with the results of expert interviews to complete the questionnaire before the official survey 2.6.5 Quantitative research The survey form and completion of the questionnaire: The structure of the questionnaire, in addition to the introduction, the questionnaire consists of parts (Details of the questionnaire are presented in Appendix 3) 14 Research object: Leadership behavior of the leader and the impact of this leadership behavior on employee satisfaction in the enterprise Research Unit: The research unit is the leader in SMEs in the North Central region However, when conducting qualitative research with the aim to examine how Regional culture affects human qualities and behaviors, thereby identifying typical behaviors of Regional leaders North Central Coast to supplement the research model The author finds that the Nghe Tinh cultural sub-region is considered a representative cultural sub-region of the North Central region, studying the Nghe Tinh cultural sub-region will clarify the North Central cultural sub-region (details in Chapter 3) Therefore, the author focuses on sampling research in Nghe Tinh cultural sub-region (including Ha Tinh province and Nghe An province) In addition, with limited time and resources, the author will limit the scope and scope of the study in these two provinces Direct investigation of these leaders into their leadership behavior is not objective and therefore difficult to be precise Therefore, the selected object of investigation is an employee directly under his/her authority They were asked about their immediate leader's leadership behavior and their job satisfaction The questionnaire is sent directly to the interviewees who are employees of SMEs in the North Central region (represented by SMEs in provinces of Ha Tinh and Nghe An) Regarding sample size, according to J.F Hair et al (1998), for EFA exploratory factor analysis, the sample size must be at least times the propositions in the scale In the research model of the thesis, there are all 93 observed variables used in factor analysis, so the minimum sample size to be achieved is: 93 × = 465 observations Data analysis After receiving the answer sheets, the author removes the questionnaires that not meet the requirements, encodes the necessary information in the questionnaire, enters the data, and uses SPSS software to analyze the data whether collected Next, the author conducts descriptive statistics of the collected data Then, carry out the following steps: evaluate the reliability of the scale through the Crobach alpha reliability coefficient, exploratory factor analysis EFA, test the multivariate regression model CHAPTER QUALITY STUDY - BEHAVIOR OF SME LEADERSHIP IN THE NORTH CENTRAL - ADJUSTED RESEARCH MODEL 3.1 Typical leadership behavior of a leader in the North Central region 3.1.1 Influence of cultural factors on the quality and behavior of people in the North Central region The North Central region includes provinces: Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue According to Ngo Duc Thinh (2004), Phan Huu Dat (2019), this culture can be divided into sub-regions: Thanh Hoa cultural sub-region, Nghe Tinh cultural sub-region and Binh Tri Thien cultural sub-region The border between Nghe Tinh and Binh Tri Thien cultural sub-regions is Deo Ngang 15 When analyzing the above cultural sub-region, Ngo Duc Thinh and Phan Huu Dat both said that Thanh Hoa cultural sub-region is intermediate, transitional between the Northern and North Central cultural regions With similar properties, the culture of Thua Thien Hue belonging to the Binh Tri Thien cultural sub-region also has the transitional nature of the North Central Coast culture and the South Central and Southern South culture Thus, the culture of Nghe Tinh sub-region can be considered as a worthy representative of the culture of the North Central region Researching the Nghe Tinh cultural sub-region will also contribute to clarifying the culture of the North Central region For those reasons, when studying the influence of cultural factors on the individual behavior of people in the North Central region, the author only focuses on studying Nghe Tinh culture (Xu Nghe) to analyze the influence of this cultural sub-region to human behavior here The author studies the influence of regional cultural factors on the behavior of an individual or a leader, through two groups of factors: • Features of natural conditions • Historical and cultural conditions 3.1.2 Typical qualities and behaviors of people in the North Central region Through the study of secondary documents, based on groups of factors which are the characteristics of natural conditions and historical and cultural conditions of Nghe Tinh region (including provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh), the author has groups of typical qualities and behaviors were identified: The trait of "inquisitiveness" and the behavior of "inquisitiveness Aspiration to rise up" shown in Table 3.1, the quality of "Overprotective and caring"- The behavior of “partisan, partial” is shown in Table 3.2, the quality of “Criticism, stubbornness”- the behavior of “Integrity – conservative” is shown in Table 3.3, the quality of “Frugal, eating well and wearing durable” - The behavior "Frugal, simple" is shown in Table 3.4, the qualities "Honesty, stubborn, brave" - The behavior "Integrity, loyalty, courage" is shown in Table 3.5 On the basis of the recorded behaviors, the author consults experts, leaders, and employees The results of the interview show that: Firstly, they completely agree that the typical behaviors of the people of Xu Nghe and the typical behaviors of the people of Xu Nghe are enough to represent the typical behaviors of the North Central In the process of leading and operating SMEs, leaders of SOEs in the North Central region also often exhibit these behaviors more often than leaders born and raised in other regions Secondly, the consensus should be that these typical leadership behaviors should be included in the model to assess their impact on employee satisfaction in SMEs in the North Central region 3.2 Additional typical leadership behaviors in the model Behavior "Avid to learn - Aspiration to rise up": According to the Vietnamese dictionary (Encyclopedia Publishing House, 2015), In Vietnamese, "inquisitive" is "inquiring, asking questions to learn" Aspiration to rise is "the great, great and good wishes and desires of people with a strong urge from which there is a determination to achieve those wishes, overcoming all obstacles" In the enterprise, the behavior "Hard to learn - Aspiration to rise up" is understood as the total efforts and exploration of the Leader in learning to improve his/her own capacity, and at the same time encouraging and motivating Support and create 16 conditions for employees to self-improve and develop professional competencies and qualifications, thereby helping businesses and organizations cope with changes and pressures from the business environment , take a shortcut to advance knowledge to affirm the value of the business - enrich yourself, the organization and the country "Partisan, local" behavior: it is the act of gathering a number of members in the organization with whom they have family, clan or some kinship relationship with the leader to performing actions for bad purposes: recruiting, planning, promoting incompetent, covering up, oing for bad behaviors to create wings for leaders in organizations and businesses Behavior "Intolerant, conservative": understood in the process of managing decisions that are often rigid, arid, inflexible, flexible, showing limited adaptability Do not listen to advice, suggestions of colleagues, their own ideas, the way they it "Frugal and simple" behavior: is the process of labor, tireless, dedication and devotion to organizations and enterprises, is the making of scientific guidelines, policies and decisions , creativity, effective use of the organization's resources, which is a simple and ethereal lifestyle, being close and idyllic in communication for all members of the organization as well as outside the organization The behavior "Integrity, loyalty, courage": are the actions that leaders show in the process of running the organization or business, that is: speaking together with doing, being consistent with the set goals, Loyal to the organization, dare to do, dare to endure, dare to make a difference, bravely overcome temptations in life The author develops 24 scales to measure groups of typical leadership behaviors of leaders in the North Central region as presented above The expression and scale of groups of behaviors are shown in Table 3.6, Table 3.7, Table 3.8, Table 3.9, Table 3.10, respectively 3.3 Complete the proposed research model and research hypothesis 3.3.1 Complete research model On the basis of research overview, theoretical basis, research objectives, qualitative research results, the author has completed the research model (Figure 3.1) and proposed the following groups of research hypotheses: The first group of hypotheses: The group of people-oriented leadership behaviors affects the satisfaction of employees' value received and opportunities for personal development The second group of hypotheses: The group of leadership behaviors towards people affects satisfaction with the business The third group of hypotheses: Task-oriented leadership behavior affects employees' satisfaction with the value received and opportunities for self-development The fourth group of hypotheses: Task-oriented leadership behavior affects satisfaction with the business Hypothetical group 5: The behavior group of the North Central region leader affects the employee's satisfaction with the value received and opportunities for personal development Group of hypothesis 6: The behavior group of leaders in the North Central region affects satisfaction with enterprises 17 CHAPTER QUALITY RESEARCH – IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR TO EMPLOYEES SATISFACTION AT SMEs in the NORTH CENTRAL REGION 4.1 Check the scale As the author mentioned in the above content, 17 independent variables measured by 83 observed variables and 10 variables measuring employee satisfaction will be tested The scales are evaluated through reliability testing by Cronbach Alpha coefficient and calculation of correlation coefficient of total variables Then, the retained variables will continue to be analyzed using the EFA exploratory factor analysis tool Testing the reliability of the scale: The coefficient α in the range 0.7-0.8 is good to use A coefficient α greater than 0.6 is a qualifying scale for use In addition, variables with total correlation coefficients lower than 0.4 will be excluded (Nunnally, 1978; Peterson, 1994; Slater, 1995 quoted in Hoang Trong- Chu Nguyen Mong Ngoc, 2005) Scale of leadership behavior: Cronbach's Alpha coefficients of latent variables are all 0.762 to 0.923 satisfactory Of the 83 observed variables, the author kept 81 observed variables with the Item-Total Correlation coefficient greater than 0.4, removed observed variables with the total correlation coefficient less than 0.4 including: HG2, HQ1 Details are in Table 4.9 and Appendix Employee satisfaction scale: Cronbach Alpha coefficient is in the range of 0.872-0.93, satisfactory In which, these 10 observed variables all have the Item- Total Correlation coefficient greater than 0.4, so the author keeps these 10 observed variables unchanged Details are presented in Table 4.10 and Appendix Testing the validity of the scale: next, the EFA exploratory factor analysis method is used to evaluate the validity of the measurement In this measurement, variables with Factor loading less than 0.5 continue to be excluded The method of coefficient extraction is the Principle components method and the Varimax rotation and the stopping point when extracting factors with Eigenvalue ≥ The scale is accepted when the total variance extracted is equal to or greater than 50% and the factor weight is from 0.5 or more (Hair et al., 1998) Leadership behavior scale: After removing 22 variables, the results of the 5th EFA analysis were satisfactory in all criteria (Annex 8, Appendix 9) The results of the analysis are presented in Table 4.12 First, the results of Bartlett's KMO test show that the KMO coefficient = 0.945>0.5 and Sig Bartlett's = 0.000