Effect of leader’s traits on leadership performance in enterprises in vietnam

1 INTRODUCTION 53,900 in 2011; 54,200 in 2012; 60,700 in 2013 and more than 67,800 to the end of December 2014 This figure tends to growing up becauses of the The necessity of the research capacity and the quality of entrepreneurs, business leaders Leaders are people having power, influence, charismatic and Therefore, the study of of personality, leader’s trait and the influence inspirational abilities… to form the mighty empire, gather huge armies, of these factors on leadership performance is a significant issue of theory construct and transmit their affects from one generation to the next in and practice in conditions Vietnam centuries-lasting organizations or companies In general, discussion in Objectives of the study and research questions leadership have been involved not only scholars but also practicers In This study will help to clarify the influence of leader’s traits on particular, leader and leader’s trait approach are important ones In Vietnam, the study of personality, leader’s trait and the influence of these factors on leadership performance, particularly in enterprises is very leadership performance in enterprises in Vietnam Specifically, the thesis will respond to the following three research questions: • performance in the conditions of Vietnam? limited Business leaders have been considered in terms of capacity and education level through qualification In this context, multidimensional, • Due to the historical context, businessman and business leaders in Vietnam formed lately, were not highly appreciated and created conditions What leader’s traits are popular and their influence on leadership performance in enterprises in Vietnam? comprehensive, modern approached studies to leadership must be continued to complement the theories and basis for practical activities How documented leader’s traits have influence on leadership • What characteristics of enterprise (Industry, ownership, size ) and characteristics of leaders (age, sex ) moderate the influence of leader’s traits on leadership performance in Vietnam? for development in a very long period Along with economical innovation Research’s object, scope and method and management thinking, businessman class has been growing and taking Method research: combination of qualitative method (in-depth increasing important roles to the country's global integration However, interviews) and quantitative method (survey questionnaires) overall assessment, after nearly 30 years of innovation, businessman class The object of the study is the leader’s traits and their influence on is fundamentally weak in terms of knowledge, ability and managerial leadership performance in enterprises in Vietnam The research unit is the experience (Tran Thi Van Hoa, 2011) Specifically, results from the survey employee and middle-lever leader in different enterprises They were asked in more than 63.760 enterprises in 30 northern provinces show that only to evaluate their leader’s traits and their leadership performance 54.5% of enterprise owners have college and higher degrees (30% have Scope of the study: The different state-owner, private and foreign been trained in economics and business administration, 70% have not); enterprises which are different in term of industry, size, form from seven 45.5% of enterprise owners have secondary school qualifications and economic regions (North East, the Red River Delta, Northwest, North untrained (MPI and JICA, 2005) According to publication from the Central, West Central, Southeast, and West Southern) 1,000 questionaires General Department of Statistics, in the last years the number of business were sent, 806 ones is valid among 830 ones responded Survey was carried bankruptcies continued to increase from 43,000 in 2010 to more than out in months from April to August 2014 4 CHAPTER Structure of the thesis LITERATURE REVIEW Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the thesis includes chapters: Chapter Literature review Chapter Theoritical framework and research model Chapter Qualitative research: Leader’s traits in enterprise in Vietnam Research on leader’s traits and adjusted research model According to the different research perspectives, one or a certain Chapter Chapter 1.1 Literature review on international researches Quantitative research: Impact of leader’s traits on leadership group traits would have a positive impact to the leadership performance, performance in Vietnam help leaders succeed while others have the completely opposite effect Discussions and recommendations Research on leaders' qualities, Sankar (2003) said that "vision, goals, self-concept, strategies, work ethic, perception, code of ethics, behavior and the search for excellence" help leaders succeed in their work Similarly, some studies have shown the link between effective work with a number of personal traits such as courage, integrity, passion, compassion, optimism, kindness , humanity, purpose, sympathy (Bright, Cameron and Caza, 2006) Rooted in psychology, desides The Big Five Traits Theory suggested by Judge, Bono, Illies and Gerhardt (2002), Peterson and Seligman (2004) presented virtues with 24 traits that help individuals, leaders success, satisfy with work: Winsdom, Courage, Humanity, Transcedence, Temperance and Justice Based on this category, Noel Balliett Thun (2009) developed the scale and measured their impact to leadership performance This category is more consistent with business and management Some studies focus on the qualities with negative impact (dark traits) Among this, study on Dark Triad including Narccisism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy is dominant Schaubroeck, Walumbwa, Ganster and Kepes (2007), examined the relationship between these three qualities to the staff’s physical and mental stress, their work attitude and the commitment to organizations Jonason, Slomski and Partyka (2012) considers these three qualities as a measure to assess the negative staff and Organizational citizenship behavior-individual (Josatisfaction, Trust, a sign to identify the strategies that they will use in the workplace Conciousness), Affective organizational commitment and General health One other interesting aspect that the researchers have also shown In operation area, Cavazotte, Moreno, Hickmann (2012) and that these dark traits are also positive and vice versa In it, Furnham, Strohhecker, Grobler (2013) and studies in materials and energy Trickey and Hyde (2012) has pointed out the negative characteristics have management Following Transformational Leadership approach, the tight ties to both the success and failure in specific work Judge, Piccolo authors and Kosalka (2009) argues that traits have two sides and affect leadership knowledge performance and effectiveness promote intelligence, personality, emotional intelligence, 360 degrees model is mentioned as another interesting study on Research on leadership performance measuring the influence of leader’s qualities on leadership performance Leadership performance is examined in different aspects and for (Strang and Kuhnert, 2009), through his senior, junior and colleague different purposes Based on the research findings of Thunn (2009); Piero, 1.2 Literature review on researches in Vietnam Cicero, Bonaiuto, Knippenberg and Kruglanski (2005); Reave (2005); In Vietnam, the researches not only on the leader’s traits but also Knippenberg and Hogg (2003); Koene, Vogelaar and Soeters (2002); on effect of leader’s traits on leadership performance is very limited, Mumford, Zaccaro, Johnson, Diana, Gilbert and Threlfall (2000) the according to some following approaches: author differentiate criteria measuring leadership performance into groups: staff-leading performance and general-leading performance The first is Marxist - Leninism perspective and Ho Chi Minh though Accordingly, the leaders - managers must constantly cultivate, train In particular, staff-leading performance includes: Perceived yourself to minimize defects, enhance strengths concentrated in humanity, leadership effectiveness; Job satisfaction and Motivation to work; righteousness, knowledge, courage and integrity (Tran Nguyen Tuyen, Commitment to the organization; Professional ethics 2015 ); righteousness and ability (Tran Sy said, 2004); virtuousness and General-leading performance includes: Organizational performance (net profit and controllable cost); Organization efficiency; Readiness to innovate and General communication Research on effect of leader’s traits on leadership performance: there are some notable research talent (Do Minh Cuong, 2006; Tuong lai, 2006 ) and reputable to be worth at the helm (Lanh Thi Bich Hoa, 2006) The second is psychology perspective of leader’s personality (Nguyen Ba Duong, 2004; Le Huu Green, 2006; Vu Anh Tuan, 2009), dignitary’s personality (Luong Xuan Ha, 2007) With this perspective, Mumford, Zaccaro, Johnson, Diana, Gilbert and Threlfall (2000) personality is the unity of virtue and talent, of which virtue is the original studied the effect of leader's traits to the quality of the decisions, critical and talent is important; unity of a politician, the organizer, the professor analysis, personal leadership performance; Reave (2005) have examined and an educator" (Vu Anh Tuan, 2009) the relationship between spiritual values and specific behaviors to The third is modern and qualitative approach The authors point out leadership effectiveness Balliett Thun Noel (2009) studied the effect of these following virtue: desire, thinking, stature (Vu Minh Khuong, 2009); group virtues to leadership performance through three groups of criteria: trend, persionality, stuff and capacity (Tran Thi Bich Tra, 2006); 23 psychological qualities necessary for leaders (Tran Thi Bich Tra, 2006); the CHAPTER personal qualities and leadership gender stereotyping (Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, 2008) THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH MODEL 1.3 Research gap Based on the assessment of the context and the need for research 2.1 Trait theory on leadership and leader’s traits in enterprises in Vietnam, the author Talented leaders always expressed his personal imprint on the proposes some research directions are as follows: Firstly, the leaders need organization they lead The imprint is reflected not only the personality, to be considered at different levels and leading role instead of attaching to personal traits, but also leader’s talent, ability and contributions for its official position that they hold in the enterprise Secondly, specific development In the broad sense, leader’s traits are understood as the characteristics of the enterprises (intdustry, size, form…) and the leaders personal qualities of leader to distinguish with a different leader The (age, gender, education, experience ) should be considered as moderator personal traits can be positive or negative effect In business and factors on leadership performance Thirdly, leadership theory in the context management, the leader’s traits are proved the effect on leadership of Eastern culture is a puzzle piece to completed leadership theory performance and effectiveness Fourthly, documented theories need to be verified in the context of a There are many approaches and classification of personal traits growing economy with a variety of economic sectors, forms of ownership, Within the scope of the thesis, the author uses approach and classification forms of business organization Finally, leader’s performance need to be of Peterson and Seligman (2004) and Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka (2009) as considered in terms of economic development and social responsibility to the basis to analyse and measure the effect of leader’s traits (both bright ensure business efficiency also contributing to the socio-economic and dark traits) leadership performance in enterprises development Regarding the affecting factors: Personality and personal traits are However, within the scope of the thesis, the author intends to take formed and adjusted through the interaction between the individual with the Trait approach as the fundamental theory with the essential adjustments and natural and social environment Triandis (1989) has pointed out that applications as follow: selecting suitable trait classification, adding some differences in cultural context can also influence the personality and independent variables, adding some scale for dependent variables and behavior of each individual As McCrae, leader is influenced by many examining the new moderator variables This objective is based on previous factors including biological factors, natural environment and other external studies on culture and the influence of cultural context on leadership and factors (McCrae and Costa, 1999; McCrae, 2004) Accordingly, the author leadership performance has made a qualitative study to show the leader’s trait in enterprises in Vietnam's cultural context 2.2 Leader’s traits classification 10 Peterson and Seligman’s classification (2004): Using 10 defining In the thesis, the author developed 14 questions to measure these criteria (See Appendix 2), the authors have identified the bright traits four traits The questions are based on the definition of the Judge, Piccolo (positive effect) virtues with 24 traits as follows and Kosalka (2009) with reference to the studies by Rosenthal and Pittinski I II III 10 11 12 Table 2.2: Theoretical categorization of virtues and 24 straits Wisdom IV Transcendence Creativity 13 Beauty Curiosity 14 Gratitude Open-mindedness 15 Hope Love of learning 16 Humor Perspective 17 Spirituality Courage V Temperance Bravery 18 Forgiveness/Mercy Persistence 19 Humility/Modesty Integrity 20 Prudence Vitality 21 Self-regulation Humanity VI Justice Love 22 Citizenship Kindness 23 Fairness Social Intelligence 24 Leadership (Source: Peterson Seligman, 2004) According to Peterson and Seligman (2004), virtues with 24 were assessed positively in almost all cultures, been proven over time They have not only positive impact on leadership performance but also make people feel happy and optimistic The content and expression of virtues with 24 traits are presented in Table 2.3 to Table 2.8 In the thesis, the author uses 24 questions developed by Thun (2009) to measure these 24 traits Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka’s classification (2009): Based on the (2006); Morf and Rhodewait (2001); Baumeister, Campbell, Kruger and Vohs (2003); Sidanius and Pratto (2001); Altemeyer (2004); Goldberg (1990) 2.3 Leadership performance "Leadership performance is understood as the leader’s impact on junior (including job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, general health) and on general environment in the department or organization (organization efficiency and readiness to innovate)" Based on statistics, group and selection from previous research results; the author used the following five groups of indicators to measure leadership performance: (1) Job satisfaction, (2) Commitment to organization, (3) General health, (4) Organization efficiency, (5) Readiness to innovate Due to its compatibility with certain classifications of Cavazotte, Moreno and Hickmann (2012), in the final model, two dependent variable are expected and named staff-leading performance (including criteria 1, and 3) and General-leading performance (including criteria and 5) To measure these two groups, in thesis author selected 15 sub-criteria developed by Noel Balliett Thun (2009); Koene, Vogelaar and Soeters (2002); Piero, Cicero, Bonaiuto, Knippenberg and Kruglanski (2005); Reave (2005); Knippenberg and Hogg (2003) 2.4 Research model inheritance the previous research, these authors has considered the multidimensional aspects of traits, proposed and measured the effectiveness of some new ones In particular, Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka (2009) pointed out four dark traits including: Narcissism, Hubris, Social Dominance and Machiavellianism The author used the model composed by Cavazotte, Moreno, Hickmann (2012) as the fundamental research model However some adjustments were carried out to obtain research objectives and suit for the study context In particular, the author: • Used trait approach and classification of Peterson and Seligman (2004); Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka (2009) 11 • 12 Added new and specific indicators to evaluate the leadership study focused on the research of business leader and leader’s traits in performance, however, still based on initial model of Cavazotte, different forms of business organization, cultures and countries Qualitative methods: In-depth interviews were carried out to Moreno, Hickmann; • Supplemented some leader’s traits affected by the external affirm the suitability of fundamental theory, characteristics of Vietnam environment in the context of Vietnam to and assessed the culture affecting individual’s traits and dominant traits of Vietnamese in moderation of some new factors on the effect of leader’s traits on general and leader in enterprises in particular Content of the in-depth leadership performance; interviews is presented in Table 2.9 Information of experts interviewed, Based on the above acknowledgement, the author proposed the time, location and duration of the interview is presented in Appendix Quantitative Research Methods - Survey questionnaire: used to research model to study the effects of leader’s traits on leadership performance as in Figure 2.2 below measure the effect of leader’s traits on leadership performance Details of the scale selection and development are presented in Table 2.10, 2.11 and Wisdom Courage Humanity Transcendence 2.12 Staff-leading performance - Job satisfaction - Commitment to organization - General health Temperance was developed and adjusted over the preliminary quantitative survey with a sample size of 55 in Hanoi Besides the introduction, final questionnaire consists of main sections with 84 questions presented in detail in Justice Narcissism General-leading performance Hubris - Organization efficiency - Readiness to innovate Social Dominace Appendix Sampling survey: About 1000 staffs and mid-level managers in different enterprises were asked to get their assessment of their senior’s traits and leadership performance Due to resource limitation, the author Machiavellianism Leader’s traits in conext of VN Questionnaire development and adjustment: The questionnaire used convenience sampling method but to ensure representativeness, the Moderating variables Age, Gender, Ownership author tried to investigate in seven main economic regions from seven (Source: Author) North Central, West Central, Southeast, and West Southern), in different Figure 2.2: Research model (In plan) 2.5 Research method Secondary information for literature review: In months (from Dec 2013 to May 2014), using website ScienceDirect.com, the author studied on the first 1,000 closest results to the term "Leadership and Trait theory" and then continuously update newer and relevant researches The economic regions (including North East, the Red River Delta, Northwest, enterprises in term of industry, business forms, ownership Survey time: Survey was carried out in months from April to August 2014 About 1,000 questionaires were sent, 806 ones is valid among 830 ones responded 13 14 CHAPTER organizing monarchy government, intuitive thinking also lead to emotional QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: LEADER’S TRAITS IN thinking After the 19th century, the influence of Western culture became ENTERPRISE IN VIETNAM AND ADJUSTED RESEACH MODEL clearer and stronger, but narrow and quite faint in Vietnam cultural progress The impact of political factors: political psychology with an 3.1 Vietnamese’s dominant traits affected by external factors Based on finding of Triandis (1989) and McCrae (2004), the author studied the effect of environment on the Vietnamese’s characteristics absolute ideology of the king and the monarchy government guided to passive thinking or passivity On the other hand, community and village The impact of natural environment: The natural condition in culture also appeared privatization trend of political relations (Lai Phi Hung Vietnam is diverse in topography, climate and land; different between et al, 2013) Leaders often dominated by family and other relationship regions Vietnam social is diverse in the unity of an agricultural when making decisions This expression is also very close to emotional civilization, relying on nature and in harmony with nature Adapted with thinking Based on the documented traits, the author categorized and those natural conditions, Vietnamese also have some characteristics as follows: high adaptability, community, small-scale production, lack of planning, seasonality, passivity affirmed through in-depth interview The experts’ opinions highly concentrated on "emotional thinking", considered it as an important The impact of economic - social – religious environment and characteristic of the Vietnamese and needed to be implemented into the exotic elements: Vietnam has agricultural culture People desire to live in model Second trait is the "Initiative - The ability to turn things around" peace, natural harmony, emotion appreciation, tolerance, have philosophy Contrasting to passivity, many people think Vietnamese has very actively of balance and harmony It is this philosophy leading to high adaptability impacted on natural conditions to serve life and production activities (dikes under all circumstances (Tran Ngoc Them, 1999) Throughout history, the system, water resource ) and has flexible responds to changes and long-term commitment between the individual and the community make challenges Finally, "Harmonious thinking" also needs to be added in the people appreciate emotion or “emotional thinking” Oriental monarchy research model because it is considered differently in the way that people existing for thousands of years in the history Vietnam makes people live in think between the West and the East in general and in Vietnam in habits, trails Great majority of the cultural values are created once and particular forever, without modification, creativity and innovation 3.2 Dominant traits needed to be implemented into research model The impact of religious and exotic elements: At the “crossroads of "Emotional thinking": In leadership, emotional thinking is civilizations” (Tran Quoc Vuong et al, 2006) Introduced into Vietnam with known as "Being dominated by relationships, emotion; decision without human spiritual values and encourage goodness, Buddhism also contribute significant reasons"(Dictionary Vietnamese, Publisher Encyclopedia, to the Vietnamese’s emotion appreciation Vietnamese culture is also 2010) ascending affected Chinese culture, especially the Confucian with "Initiative - The ability to turn things around": According to humanity Passively receiving and passive thinking in studying and referenced dictionary, initiative is "be master of his actions, not easily to be 15 16 the governed by situation or others” Turning things around has both CHAPTER meaning as making the changes and countering threats to opportunities So QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH: IMPACT OF LEADER’S TRAITS "The ability to turn things around is adaptability, impact, change the ON LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE IN VIETNAM unfavorable factors into business advantage." "Harmonious thinking": Harmony means adaptation of part to 4.1 Reliability of the scales each other, in any system or combination of things or in things intended to The scales are tested the reliability by Cronbach’s Alpha and form a connected whole On one side, leaders (in general) and leaders in Corrected Item – Total Correlation Next, the retained variables are enterprises (in particular) with "Harmonious thinking" not solve the continuously analyzed using factor analysis method (EFA) issues deeply and thoroughly On the other side, when choosing the plan or Reliability Statistics solving problems, the most importance is seeking for compromise, Cronbach’s Alpha in the range 0.7 - 0.8 is good but accepted at least conformity and stability in the organization / enterprises rather than judging 0.6 Besides, the variables with the Corrected Item – Total Correlation lower which is right or wrong than 0.4 will also be excluded (Nunnally, 1978; Peterson, 1994; Slater, 1995 The author also developed and affirmed 12 scales to measure cited in Hoang Trong - Chu Nguyen Mong Ngoc, 2005) traits include "Emotional thinking", "Initiative - The ability to turn things Scales for leader’s traits: all the variables have Cronbach’s Alpha around" and "Harmonious thinking" as discussed above Expression and from 0.686 to 0.927 The author retain 47 observed variables having scale for "Emotional thinking" are shown in Table 3.2; "Initiative - The Corrected Item – Total Correlation higher than 0.4 and excluded other ability to turn things around" in Table 3.3 and "Harmonious thinking" in variables Detailed statistics is in Table 4:11 and Appendix Table 3.4 3.3 Adjusted research model and research hypotheses Based on the results of qualitative research, the author adjusted the research model as in Figure 3.1 and developed groups of hypotheses: • Scale for leadership performance: all the variables have Cronbach’s Alpha from 0.736 to 0.874 All of 15 observed variables are included because of having Corrected Item – Total Correlation higher than 0.4 Statistics in details is provided in Table 4.12 and Appendix Hypotheses about the effect of leader’s traits on staff-leading Check validity of scales performance Next, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to assess the validity Hypotheses about the effect of leader’s traits on organization-leading of the scales In this test, variables with the extraction less than 0.5 continue performance disqualified The author chose Principle Components Analysis for Extraction • Hypotheses about the difference in staff-leading performance Method, Varimax with Kaiser Normalization and Initial Eigen values is over • Hypotheses about the difference in organization-leading performance Scales are accepted when Rotation Sum of Squared Loading is greater than • 50% and the extractions are 0.5 or more (Hair & CTG, 1998) Scales for leader’s traits: After removing scales, 3rd EFA result analysis was accepted in all criteria, presented in Table 4:13 (see Appendix 18 17 and for details) First, KMO and Bartlett's test (KMO at 0.934 in accepted range 0.5 [...]... new leader’s traits in enterprise in Vietnam today • Curiosity – Love of Learning is opposite to effect of (FX5) Detected the homogeneity of the two leadership performance groups and named as Staff-leading and General-leading performance • Point out the differences in leadership performance and effects of leader’s traits on leadership performance in enterprises differentiated by ownership Distributions... Harmonious thinking have affect on staff-leading performance only Of which, influence of ((FX4) Emotional – Harmonious thinking is opposite to the initial hypothesis • The thesis also points out the significant difference in leadership performance and effect of leader’s traits on leadership performance in Stateowner, private and foreign enterprises In particular, private and foreigner enterprises are recognized... ownership In particular, the author has pointed out: love of learning, creativity and innovation; (3) Train discipline and • 3 groups of (FX2) Humanity – Justice, (FX5) Self-Regulation – persistence, scientific thinking and working methods, professionalism Beauty, and (FX6) Curiosity – Love of Learning have effect on leadership Recommendations of leadership style in enterprises: (1) Heighten performance. .. changes in training and fostering entrepreneurs, business leaders in Vietnam along with raising awareness of the role of considered as entrepreneurs, in a broad sense They are individuals taking businessman certain positions, doing corporate management and governance implementing supporting policies for improving productivity and The development of entrepreneurs, leaders in enterprise class; improving investment... Emotional – Harmonious thinking on staff-leading performance are lower in turn 0.107 • and 0.141; (FX1) Narcissism – Hubris – Social Dominance and (FX2) Humanity – Justice on General-leading performance are higher at 0.103 leader’s traits and leadership performance • owner enterprises: In case of other factors being stable, effect of (FX4) Vietnam • 0.118; (FX5) Self-Regulation – Beauty on staff-leading is... dark traits classification of Judge, Combine emotional and reasonable decision-making; consider Piccolo and Kosalka (2009) consisting Narcissism, Hubris, Social humanity in management decisions; develop a system of regulations, rules, Dominance and Machiavellianism as a basis to assess the influence of principles and processes to make decisions and solve problems leader’s on leadership performance in. .. criticism; listening to the feedback on managing decisions Avoid using pulling and campaigning tricks causing employee’s depression and inhibition; having bad effect on working environment… The thesis systematized leadership theories and knowledge about leader and leader’s traits from which selected the bright traits classification of Peterson and Seligman (2004) including Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Transcendence,... 22 performance in turn 0.109 and 0.105; lower General-leading performance CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS in turn 0.064 and 0.106 The differences in private enterprises in comparison with Stateowner enterprises: In case of other factors being stable, effects of (FX3) 5.1 Distributions and limitations Distribution in theory Initiative – The ability to turn things around and (FX4) Emotional... 0.076), of which, only the impact of the (FX1) production, research and development (R&D), innovation, creativity Narcissism – Hubris – Social Dominance on staff-leading performance is negative • Two typical groups of traits for Vietnamese business leaders complemented in the research model including (FX3) Initiative – The ability to turn things around and (FX4) Emotional – Harmonious thinking have... staff-leading is lower at 0.82 and on general-leading performance is higher at 0.078 Effect of (FX6) Selected suitable traits approaches and classifications; transformed compatibly and successfully applied scales in the context of The differences in foreign enterprises in comparison with StateEmotional – Harmonious thinking on staff-leading performance is lower at Clarified the definition and standardize some