^^¬^^^^»^^+^^^»^+~*x~^+*+~*+3+~^»^*^*^^^*^*^*+^**+*+^*^*+^4^^^», @OUM OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA 1O&K3% RESEARCH PROJECT (BMBRS5103)
LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION STYLES OF INTERMEDIATE MANAGERS OF ESSONS GROUP VIET NAM
Trang 2Advisor’s assessment
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FLGURES - 55-5-5552 S914 410483018019 110100100000800010010000 5 LIST OF TABLIES - <5 n9 11111E1110000000000000010101801 0 5 ABSTR.ACTT - 5< << 5< 5< s4 E253 3198040010590 12100110740140007000100000021 056 6 CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 2< 55<5<s<Sseesssieesaierarseseranssee 6 1.1 Company IntroductiOn -. + cnteeererthhhrtttrrrrrrrrrrrtrrrrrrrrrerrrree 6 1.2 Research Introduction cece seeeee recess nee rseesenseeeneeeneeveeraeteereessenseestensennenee 14 1.2.1 xo ong 15 1.2.2 Purpose of the sfudy - chim nrrre 15 1.2.3 The scope of the research - ccnehnhhrrhrrrdrririrrrdrrrerrrrre 16 1.2.4 Research queSfIO'S 5-5 nhe rrrrrrrrrirrrrrrrere 16 CHAPTER II — LITERATURE REVIEW :ccscsssssessesssoserssecsnenscescensenesssensonens 16 2.1 Leadership definition 0.0.0.0 ccs ceneteeeeeeseeeseeteseeserseresessenenenenensnenenensanaes 16
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3.4 Research PartiCiparis - sec tren 31
Trang 44.2.2 Communication styles any§iS_ niehhererrrrtrrrrrre 36 4.3 Hypotheses Testing cntrthhntrrrrrtrrrrrrrrtrrrrrrrrrrrrrrirrrrrrrrrre 38 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION -csesằSeSeeseeieriniesieeeseereereereerene +238 5.1 Leadership Styles: .c.cccccscesesseeteesrererssestenesesnamenenerseasananetensonensaeensereney 39 5.2 Communication Styles: 2 cccccscseeeeneteeererseerssseneneneneneescnenensnsianeneraceneny 40 5.3 Leadership styles and Communication Styles cccsseteeereteeees se eeeeeteenes 41 5.4 Limitations and Further Research Recommendation - 50
Trang 5LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 ~12 : General Information about Essons Group Viet Nam Figure 13: The Organization of Essons Group Viet Nam
Figure 14: Proposed Research Model of Leadership styles and Communication Styles in Essons Group VN
Figure 15: A summary of demographic characteristics of the respondents
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Leadership styles analysis Table 2: Leadership Styles Summary
Table 3: Leadership Styles Allocation Percentage Table 4: Communication Styles Analysis
Table 5: Communication Styles Allocation Percentage
Table 6: Leadership Styles and Communication Styles relations Assumption
Trang 6ABSTRACT
This article focuses on discussing the existence of Leadership Styles and Communication Styles as well as the correlation between them The core of leadership contains power and traits; cognitive, affective, and technical competence overlay the leadership core The core and its overlaid competences express leadership existence Three main styles of leadership existence are Authoritarian (task — oriented) style, Democratic (charismatic) Style, Laissez-faire (human-oriented)
style Each leadership style has its own specific competence
Communication styles:
The way you communicate has a big impact on how you get on with people and get the things you want Good communication skills can help you avoid conflict and solve problems — they’re also important for making friends and having healthy relationships
There are three main styles of communicating — passive, aggressive, and
assertive
Passive communication involves putting your needs last You don’t express your thoughts or feelings, or ask for what you want When you use passive communication it feels like others are walking all over you because you don’t assert your own needs So you bottle things up and might feel resentful The assumption behind passive communication is ‘my needs don’t matter’ (you win/I lose — and I resent you for that) Aggressive communication is expressed in a forceful and hostile manner, and usually involves alienating messages such as ‘you-statements’ (blaming the other person and accusing them of being wrong or at fault) and labelling In addition, the person’s tone of voice and facial expressions are unfriendly The assumption behind aggressive communication is ‘your needs don’t matter’ (I win/you lose)
Trang 7communication increases your likelihood of getting what you want, avoiding conflict and maintaining good relationships (I win/you win) When you are assertive you can: express your own thoughts, feelings and needs make reasonable requests of other people stand up for your own rights say ‘no’ to requests from others at times, without feeling guilty
Poor communication often creates tension and bad feelings within relationships The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between leaders’ communication styles and Authoritarian (task — oriented) style, Democratic (charismatic) Style, Laissez-faire (human-oriented) style of inter-mediate managers of ESSONS Group Viet Nam
Asurvey was’ conducted among 12 Intermediate Managers of a firm organization The following three communication styles were operationalized: passive, aggressive, and assertive Correlation analyses were employed to test three main hypotheses
Findings In line with expectations, the study showed that Democratic (charismatic) Style and Assertive Communication Style are mainly Leadership Style and Communication Style, while Authoritarian (task — oriented) Leadership Style and Aggressive Communication Style are significantly less than the others
Implications: This study offers potentially invaluable input for leadership
Trang 8CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Company introduction
ESSONS (TAJAN) RUBBER INDUSTRIAL Corp
v The company is a member of ESSONS Group which was established in Taiwan, in 1978 by Mr Yu Chia Shun
Y Manufacturer of rubber and engineered plastic parts for Motorbike,
Automotive Industrial parts for O.E.M and aftermarket
Y Provide precise, custom molded seals specially manufactured to meet customers' requirements with Short-medium run, quick turn-around production capabilities
Y The first verse as-funded Rubber Manufacture in Vietnam with more than 18 years of experience in OEM supply
Y Became an OE Supplier of Motorcycle Industry in Vietnam since 1994
The Company received:
Y Honored the Best Supplier in 2006 by Yamaha Motor Vietnam Y In 2010 has been awarded the excellent supplier by MAHLE, China Head office of the Company
Tajan Rubber tndustrial Corp
“Established : Vear 1904 ucts:
-Production Area : 14.000 squere meter Rubber Parts for Motorcycles “Location: Bienhos Clty, Dongnal Province, Vietnam - Oo Rings
-Tota! investment : USD 6 Millions - Waaners -Empioyees : 500 ~ Ol) Seate
180/75 16949: 2009 Certified - Custom Moided Parts -ISO9001: 2008 Certified - Fabric Reinforced Olaphragms -One of the Beat Suppliers tor YAMAHA Motors + Valve Stem Soste - Rubber Gaekete
- Rubber-Bonded to Metal Parte
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The product market of the Group *Production Support * Taiwan Vietnam (North) FO% Vietnam Goeouth) OVictnam (North)
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Dim Measurement Machine&
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in industries
ESSONS 1?
F12: Typical Products of Essons Group VN
Trang 151.2 Research introduction 1.2.1 Problem statement
A leader must be able to communicate effectively When CEOs and other
senior executives in all industries and countries are asked to list the most
important skills a manager must possess, the answer consistently includes — good communication skills Managers spend most of their day engaged in communication; in fact, older studies of how much time managers spend on various activities show that communication occupies 70 to 90 percent of their time every day
(Mintzberg, 1973; Eccles & Nohria, 1991) With cell phones, e-mail, text messaging, if that same study were done today, it would yield even higher percentages The sheer amount of time managers spend communicating underscores how important strong communication skills can be for the manager desiring to advance to leadership positions; thus, mastering leadership communication should be a priority for managers wanting their organizations or the broader business community to consider them leaders
Connecting Leadership and Communication
Researchers seldom agree completely on how best to define leadership, but most would agree that leaders are individuals who guide, direct, motivate, or inspire others They are the men and women who influence others in an organization or in a community They command others’ attention They persuade others to follow them or pursue goals they define They control situations They improve the performance of groups and organizations They get results These individuals may not be presidents of countries or the CEOs of companies, but they could be They could also be employees who step forward to mentor less experienced or younger employees, managers who direct successful project teams, or vice presidents who lead divisions and motivate their staff to achieve company goals
Trang 16Through effective communication, leaders lead Good communication skills enable, foster, and create the understanding and trust necessary to encourage others to follow a leader Without effective communication, a manager accomplishes little Without effective communication, a manager is not an effective leader
In fact, being able to communicate effectively is what allows a manager to move into a leadership position An early Harvard Business School study on what it takes to achieve success and be promoted in an organization says that the individual who gets ahead in business is the person who “is able to communicate, to make sound decisions, and to get things done with and through people” (Bowman, Jones, Peterson, Gronouski, & Mahoney, 1964) By communicating more effectively, managers improve their ability to get things done with and through people
1.2.2 Purpose of the study
The primary focus of my research paper will be to examine two main areas of management—leadership and communication as it applies in ESSONS GROUP VN intermediate managers setting
1.2.3 The scope of the research
The primary objective of my research paper is to review the leadership and communication styles utilized by Intermediate managers of ESSONS GROUP VN It is also my goal to provide the necessary tools to Intermediate managers to help identify their current leadership and communication styles I believe that as managers once we become aware of our leadership styles, only then can we endeavor to improve Through my research I will describe and categorize the major types of leadership and communication styles, traits and characteristics of each
1.2.4 The methodology
The initial examination of this topic began with the review of materials taken from a leadership and communication course from HUTECH
Trang 17AND OUM University, which forms part of MBAOUM program Further information was sought from the Business Management Course, of which this paper forms part of the curriculum Additional information was reviewed from other sources, including articles, books, and online information There is a significant amount of information in written text on the subject of leadership and communication
A number of websites were also found to contain useful articles and research on the subject of leadership and communication The links provided on these websites provided additional relevant information and further areas of research
In addition to the aforementioned areas of research, surveys were given to a sample of the ESSONS (TAJAN) rubber intermediate managers with the intention of identifying their leadership and communication styles The information gathered forms part of this paper and the surveys themselves are located in the appendix The intention of the surveys is to expose areas of -weakness and strengths to work or build upon
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Leadership definition
What is leadership and how can it be defined?
Leadership is not easily defined, but there are many definitions in the literature to assist in describing it Sadly, leadership is most recognizable when there is a lack of it Leadership is not something that can be pigeon holed or definitive; it has many faces and styles Leadership is a process through influence of others by example, discussion, or direction to accomplish goals or tasks, or to achieve the vision of an organization or team Leaders also inspire individuals to become the very best they can be as people, as well as good team members or employees
Trang 18Good leadership is honorable and trustworthy, dedicated to a particular cause or organization Leaders create trends and characteristics within organizations or teams in which employees or colleagues will emulate and follow; thereby leading by example Good leaders are not self- serving but apply methods to achieve goals without misusing authority In other words the objective is to lead and not just have employees simply obey commands Good leaders want to empower their staff and colleagues and not only give orders
There are a countless methodologies and theories concerning leadership practices and styles that have been documented and discussed Leadership styles are often chosen based on the situation or the group you are involved with, or in some cases we are driven into certain situations which dictate the need for variations in a particular style
Leaders also have to handle diversity in the workplace Working with people that do not share your values can lead to conflict Strong leadership can promote a bias free environment, without prejudice, and thus reduce the need for conflict resolution
2.2 Leadership styles
Aleadership style is a leader's style of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people There are many
different leadership styles that can be exhibited by leaders in the political,
business or other fields
2.2.1 Authoritarian (task - oriented) style
The authoritarian leadership style keep main emphasis on the distinction of the authoritarian leader and their followers, these types of leaders make sure to only create a
distinct professional relationship Direct supervision is what they
believe to be key in maintaining a successful environment and
Trang 19follower ship Authoritarian leadership styles often follow the vision of those that are in control, and may not necessarily be compatible with those that are being led Authoritarian leaders have a focus on efficiency, as other styles, such as a democratic
style, may be seen as a hindrance on progress
Examples of authoritarian leadership is the wrong type of
information that can be edited communicative behavior: a police officer directing traffic, a teacher ordering a student to do his or her assignment, and a supervisor instructing a subordinate to clean a workstation All of these positions require a distinct set of characteristics that give the leader the position to get things in order or get a point across Authoritarian Traits: sets goals individually, engages primarily in one-way and downward communication, controls discussion with followers, and dominate interaction
Several studies have confirmed a relationship between bullying, on the one hand, and an autocratic leadership and an authoritarian way of settling conflicts or dealing with disagreements, on the other An authoritarian style of leadership may create a climate of fear, where there is little or no room for dialogue and where complaining may be considered futile
2.2.2 Democratic (charismatic) Style
The democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members by promoting the interests of the group members and by practicing social equality
The boundaries of democratic participation tend to be circumscribed by the organization or the group needs and the
Trang 20instrumental value of people's attributes (skills, attitudes, etc.) The democratic style encompasses the notion that everyone, by virtue of their human status, should play a part in the group's decisions However, the democratic style of leadership still requires guidance and control by a specific leader The democratic style demands the leader to make decisions on who should be called upon within the group and who is given the right to participate in, make and vote on decisions Traits of a Good Leader compiled by the Santa Clara University and the Tom Peters Group:
Honest — Display sincerity, integrity, and candor in all your actions Deceptive behavior will not inspire trust
Competent — Base your actions on reason and moral principles Do not make decisions based on childlike emotional desires or feelings
Forward-looking — Set goals and have a vision of the future The vision must be owned throughout the organization Effective leaders envision what they want and how to get it They habitually pick priorities stemming from their basic values Inspiring — Display confidence in all that you do By showing endurance in mental, physical, and spiritual stamina, you will inspire others to reach for new heights Take charge when necessary
Intelligent — Read, study, and seek challenging assignments Fair-minded — Show fair treatment to all people Prejudice is the enemy of justice Display empathy by being sensitive to the feelings, values, interests, and well-being of others
Broad-minded — Seek out diversity
Trang 21« Courageous— Have the perseverance to accomplish a goal,
regardless of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles Display a confident calmness when under stress
» Straightforward — Use sound judgment to make a good decisions at the right time
« Imaginative — Make timely and appropriate changes in your thinking, plans, and methods Show creativity by thinking of new and better goals, ideas, and solutions to problems Be innovative! Research has found that this leadership style is one of the most effective and creates higher productivity, better contributions from group members and increased group morale Democratic leadership can lead to better ideas and more creative solutions to problems because group members are encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas While democratic leadership is one of the most effective leadership styles, it does have some potential downsides In situations where roles are unclear or time is of the essence, democratic leadership can lead to communication failures and uncompleted projects Democratic leadership works best in situations where group members are skilled and eager to share their knowledge It is also important to have plenty of time to allow people to contribute, develop a plan and then vote on the best course of action
2.2.3 Laissez-Faire (human — oriented) style
Trang 22Laissez-faire leaders allow followers to have complete freedom to make decisions concerning the completion of their work It allows followers a self-rule, while at the same time offering guidance and support when requested The laissez-faire leader using guided freedom provides the followers with all materials necessary to accomplish their goals, but does not directly participate in decision making unless the followers request their
assistance
This is an effective style to use when:
¢ Followers are highly skilled, experienced, and educated
« Followers have pride in their work and the drive to do it successfully on their own
» Outside experts, such as staff specialists or consultants are being used
« Followers are trustworthy and experienced This style should NOT be used when:
¢ The leader cannot or will not provide regular feedback to their
followers ©!
2.3 Communication definition
Communication is simply the process in which people share information, ideas, and feelings It can be either in the spoken word, written word, or in non-verbal ways, such as facial expressions, gestures or body stance It can even be pure silence The communication process is made up of various elements: sender and receivers, messages, channels, noise, feedback, and setting.”
2.4 Communication Styles
The three main Styles of Communication
Trang 232.4.1 Passive communication
is a style in which individuals have developed a pattern of avoiding expressing their opinions or feelings, protecting their rights, and identifying and meeting their needs As 4 result, passive individuals do not respond overtly to hurtful or anger-inducing situations Instead, they allow grievances and annoyances to mount, usually unaware of the buildup But once they have reached their high tolerance threshold for unacceptable behavior, they are prone to explosive outbursts, which are usually out of proportion to the triggering incident After the outburst, however, they may feel shame, guilt, and confusion, so they return to being passive Passive communicators will often:
# Fajl to assert for themselves
# Allow others to deliberately or inadvertently infringe on their rights
® Fail to express their feelings, needs, or opinions # Tend to speak softly or apologetically
@ Exhibit poor eye contact and slumped body posture
The impact of a pattern of passive communication is that these individuals:
© Often feel anxious because life seems out of their control ® Often feel depressed because they feel stuck and hopeless © Often feel resentful (but are unaware of it) because their needs are not being met
® Often feel confused because they ignore their own feelings ® Are unable to mature because real issues are never addressed A passive communicator will say, believe, or behave like:
Trang 24Ø=_“J*m unable to stand up for my righfs.” * “J don’t know what my rights are.” @ “I get stepped on by everyone."
® “J'm weak and unable to take care of myself.” & “People never consider my feelings.”
2.4.2 Aggressive communication
is a style in which individuals express their feelings and opinions and advocate for their needs in a way that violates the rights of others Thus, aggressive communicators are verbally and/or physically abusive
Aggressive communicators will often: @ Try to dominate others
* Use humiliation to control others * Criticize, blame, or attack others & Be very impulsive
@ Have low frustration tolerance
@ Speak in a loud, demanding, and overbearing voice ® Act threateningly and rudely
* Not listen well #* Interrupt frequently ®& Use “you” statements
@ Have an overbearing or intimidating posture
Trang 25@ Always blame others instead of owning their issues, and thus are unable to mature
The aggressive communicator will say, believe, or behave like:
rr @ re
“I’m superior and right and you’re inferior and wrong.” “I’m loud, bossy and pushy.”
“T can dominate and intimidate you.” “I can violate your rights.”
“Ill get my way no matter what.” “You're not worth anything.” “It’s all your fault.” “T react instantly.” “T’m entitled.” “You owe me.” “T own you.” 2.4.3 Assertive communication
is a style in which individuals clearly state their opinions and feelings, and firmly advocate for their rights and needs without violating the rights of others These individuals value themselves, their time, and their emotional, spiritual, and physical needs and are strong advocates for themselves while being very respectful of the rights of others
Assertive communicators will:
@ State needs and wants clearly, appropriately, and respectfully @ Express feelings clearly, appropriately, and respectfully
®& Use “I” statements
# Communicate respect for others # Listen well without interrupting
Trang 26œ Feel in confrơl of self @ Have good eye contact
® Speak in a calm and clear tone of voice # Have a relaxed body posture
© Feel connected to others = Feel competent and in control
@ Not allow others to abuse or manipulate them
@ Stand up for their rights
The impact of a pattern of assertive communication is that these individuals:
# Feel connected to others ® Feel in control of their lives
@ Are able to mature because they address issues and problems as they arise
* Create a respectful environment for others to grow and mature The assertive communicator will say, believe, or behave in a way that
says:
@ “We are equally entitled to express ourselves respectfully to one another.”
# “J am confident about who I am.”
# “J realize I have choices in my life and I consider my options.”
@ “T speak clearly, honestly, and to the point.” * “J can’t control others but I can contro] myself.”
@ “I place a high priority on having my rights respected.” @ “I am responsible for getting my needs met in a respectful manner.”
Trang 27®' “| respect the rights of others.”
® “Nobody owes me anything unless they’ve agreed to give it to me.”
*& “I’m 100% responsible for my own happiness.”
Assertiveness allows us to take care of ourselves, and is fundamental for good mental health and healthy relationships 2.5 Communication and Leadership Styles
Several authors have noted that communication is central to leadership (Awamleh and Gardner 1999; Den Hartog and Verburg 1997; Frese et al.2003; Kirkpatrick and Locke 1996; Riggio et al 2003; Shamir et al 1994; Spangler and House 1991; Towler 2003) But, except for studies devoted to oratory skills and content in highly specific speech-like contexts, few have attempted to operationalize the communication styles leaders use in their daily transactions with subordinates Even fewer have attempted to find out what the relations are of these communication styles with general leadership styles and outcome variables This is somewhat surprising, given that one of the core elements of leadership is a leader’s interpersonal communication style In this study, I will consider leadership from this communicative perspective, and I will define a leader’s communication style as a distinctive set of interpersonal communicative behaviors geared toward the optimization of hierarchical relationships in order to reach certain group or individual goals In line with Daft (2003) and McCartney and Campbell (2006), I make a distinction between the interpersonal aspects of leadership, which revolve around communicative activities in interpersonal relationships, and the managerial aspects of leadership, which revolve around non-interpersonal activities such as planning, organizing, decision-making, problem- solving, and controlling, and J will focus our work on the first of these two, i.e., a leader’s interpersonal communicative behaviors The goal of
Trang 28this paper is to operationalize a leader’s interpersonal communication style, to uncover the relations between common leadership style measures and our measure of a leader’s communication style, and to find out about
-the differential and incremental prediction of several important leadership
outcomes using both common leadership style measures and our leader’s communication style measure
The Nature of Communication Styles
Although there are a great number of instruments to measure somebody’s interpersonal communication style, several authors have noted the lack of parsimony and integration in the burgeoning area of communication style studies (McCroskey et aj 1998) Several authors have attempted to redress this state of affairs by integrating diverse communication style scales with the interpersonal circumplex model (Leary 1957), which consists of the following two main interpersonal (communicative) dimensions: friendliness/affiliation and dominance (Dillard et al 1999; Hansford and Hattie 1987; Sorenson and Savage 1989) Others have suggested that there are more than two communication style dimensions For instance, Gudykunst et al (1996) factor-analyzed 96 items from existing communication style instruments (Booth Butter- field and Booth Butterfield 1990; Norton 1978; Singelis 1994; Takai and Ota 1994; Wiemann et al 1986) and 62 additional items based on Hall’s (1976) and Gudykunst and Ting Toomey (1988) conceptualization of low- and high- context communication, and arrived at eight factors: Inferring Meaning, Indirect Communication, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Dramatic Communication, Use of Feelings, Openness, Preciseness, Positive Perception of Silence However, according to De Vries et al (2009), some of the scales based on these factors (e.g., Inferring Meaning, Use of Feelings, and Positive Perception of Silence) do not pertain to interpersonal
communication styles, but to intrapersonal cognitions and feelings with
Trang 29respect to communication, and consequently may be less useful in assessment situations or in cases in which an observer (e.g., a subordinate) has to rate somebody else’s (e.g., a leader’s) interpersonal communication style
To arrive at a framework of communication styles, De Vries et al (2009) carried out a lexical study to uncover the main communication style dimensions The basis of a lexical study is the idea that anything which can be said about a construct, such as somebody’s communication style, will become encoded in language (Galton 1884; Goldberg 1990) Factor- analysis of a sample of all
dictionary words which pertain to communication should provide the best description of the nature, number, and size of the principal communication style dimensions Having carried out a lexical study using 744 adjectives and 837 verbs, De Vries et al (2009) arrived at seven main communication style dimensions, which they labelled: Expressiveness, Preciseness, Niceness, Supportiveness, Verbal Aggressiveness, (Expressed) Emotional Tension (or, reversed, Assuredness), and Argumenta- tiveness Regression of the Communication Style Scale (CSS) of Gudykunst et al (1996) on the lexical communi- cation factors revealed strong correspondence between Gudykunst et al.’s Openness and Dramatic Communication on the one hand and lexical Expressiveness on the other, Gudykunst et al.’s Preciseness and lexical Preciseness, and Gudykunst et al.’s Interpersonal Sensitivity and lexical Niceness The so-called intrapersonal communication scales of Gudykunst et al (1996) were less well covered by the lexical scales Conversely, lexical (Expressed) Emotional Tension, Verbal Aggressiveness, and Argumentativeness were less represented in Gudykunst et al.’s scales
Outcomes Associated with Communication Styles
Although it appears that there are more than two main
Trang 30communication style dimensions, until now, when investigating communication styles, most scholars have focused on the two styles that are most closely associated with the interpersonal circumplex, i.e., friendliness and dominance Communication styles have been an especially welcome topic for scholars interested in doctor-patient communication (Bultman and Svarstad 2000; Hailey et al 1998; Street 2002; Van Dulmen and Bensing 2002; Yedidia et al 2003), teacher—pupil communication (Noels et al 1999; Prisbell 1994), parent-child communication (Bugental et al 1999; Hawes 1996; Ritchie and Fitzpatrick 1990), and communication among married or dating couples (Bienvenu 1970; Christensen 1988; Noller and White 1990)
Results of doctor-patient studies suggest that especially a supportive (i.e., friendly and caring) communication style is associated with higher satisfaction among patients (Buller and Buller 1987; Schmid Mast et al 2007), while a dominant style is associated with less satisfaction among patients and less favorable outcomes, such as malpractice claims (Ambady et al 2002; Buller and Buller 1987; Burgoon et al 1987; Levinson et al.1997) Results of classroom studies suggest that a supportive communication style is associated with greater satisfaction among students (Prisbell 1994) and that a dominant (controlling) communication style is associated with less intrinsic motivation (Noels et al 1999) In the family setting, however, children
were found to be more attentive and task-oriented when parents used an
unambiguous and dominant communication style (Bugental et al 1999; Rasku Puttonen 1988)
The above studies seem to indicate that satisfaction is more often
associated with a friendly communication style, while a dominant
communication style may be associated with performance, but only in some instances (e.g., strong dependence situations) One important
Trang 31intermediate concept, which may be determined by communication styles on the one hand, and which determines team performance (Srivastava et al 2006) and may determine satisfaction, is the concept of knowledge sharing Knowledge sharing has been defined as the process where individuals mutually exchange their (tacit and explicit) knowledge and jointly create new knowledge (Van den Hooff and De Ridder 2004) Knowledge sharing may be an interesting variable in relation to communication styles, because the exchange process assumes a communication process Even when people have ready access to the internet or a firm’s intranet, people are more likely to turn to other people for information than to impersonal sources (Levin and Cross 2004) Consequently, the communication style of a team member is likely to have an effect on the willingness and eagerness of team members to share knowledge with each other Ina study by De Vries et al (2006), team members were found to be more likely to be willing to share knowledge with team members who were more agreeable and extraverted in their communication style Consequently, not only satisfaction is likely to be affected by the communication style of a communication partner, but also the likelihood that one shares knowledge with a communication partner Leaders’ Communication Styles
The question is: are the findings of the communication style literature replicable in the leadership context? The leadership style literature may be characterized by referring to two main phases: approximately 30 years of studying leader consideration and initiating structure from 1953 until the middle of the 1980s and approximately 25 years of studying charismatic-transformational leadership from the middle of the 1980s until the present Studies on leaders’ communication styles have kept up with this shift in focus In a review of the relations between interpersonal communication behaviors and leadership consideration and initiating
Trang 32structure, Penley and Hawkins (1985) conclude that consideration (or: human-oriented leadership) is mainly communicative, while initiating structure (or: task- oriented leadership) is much less so According to Penley and Hawkins (1985), the close correspondence between human- oriented leadership and communication is due to the fact that consideration is heavily saturated with rela- tional aspects of communication, such as interpersonal concern and warmth, while task-
oriented leadership is much more saturated with the actual content of the
infor- mation provided instead of the style of communication
Given the explosion of studies on charismatic-transformational leadership, it is surprising that the number of studies linking communication to charismatic-transformational leadership is relatively sparse and directed mostly at oratory skills and content (Awamleh and Gardner 1999; Den Hartog and Verburg 1997; Frese et al 2003; Kirkpa- trick and Locke 1996; Riggio et al 2003; Shamir et al.1994; Spangler and House 1991; Towler 2003) For instance, with respect to communication styles, charismatic leadership training studies have looked at the effects of training inspirational delivery style on the trainees and their public (Frese et al 2003; Towler 2003), showing positive effects of the training on the trainees and on the attitudes and performance of their public An experimental study by Awamleh and Gardner (1999) focused on the effects of vision content and delivery style on perceptions of charismatic leadership and effectiveness The study showed that an expressive (enthusiastic) delivery style had a much stronger effect than
the content of the speech Because charismatic leadership has been found
to be strongly related to human-oriented leadership (De Vries et al 2002) and because human-oriented and charismatic leadership are much more saturated with relational content than task- oriented leadership
Trang 33CHAPTER III RESEACH MODEL,AND HYPOTHESES 3.1 Research Model Hypothesis 1 + Hi Hypothesis 2 Communication style Hypothesis 3 Figure 14: Proposed Research Model of Leadership stvles and Communication Stvle in Essons Group VN 3.1.1 Dependent Variables: ® Communication styles (CS) 3.1.2 Independent Variables:
@ Hypothesis 1: The Authoritarian Leadership Style is more strongly related to Aggressive Communication Style than to Passive and Assertive Communication Style
@ Hypothesis 2: The Democratic Leadership Style is more strongly related to Assertive Communication Style than Aggressive and Passive Communication Style
@ Hypothesis 3: The Laissez — Faire Leadership Style is more strongly related to Passive Communication Style than Aggressive and Assertive Communication Style
Trang 343.2 Research Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1: The Authoritarian Leadership Style is more strongly related to Aggressive Communication Style than to Passive and Assertive Communication Style
We do expect, however, the determinants of charismatic leadership and human- oriented leadership to be different While human-oriented leadership will be mainly determined by a supportive communication style, charismatic leadership will be determined by all communication styles that have a positive connotation, 1.€., expressiveness, preciseness, assuredness, supportiveness, argumentativeness, and a lack of verbal aggressiveness
Leadership, Communication Styles, and Outcomes
The literature on communication styles and outcomes and on communication styles and leadership styles implies that communication styles are meaningfully
related to a number of outcome variables and to some, but not all, leadership
styles The question is whether communication styles of a leader are similarly related to outcome variables as the traditional leadership styles In comparison with the communication styles literature, there has been an abundance of studies associating outcomes with charismatic, human- oriented, and task-oriented leadership To combine these studies, several meta-analyses have been conducted to investigate the relations between leadership styles and both organizational and individual outcomes (DeGroot et al 2000; Fuller et al 1996; Judge and Piccolo 2004; Lowe et al 1996; Stewart 2006) For instance, the meta-analysis of Judge and Piccolo (2004) revealed positive relations between both transformational and charismatic leadership and subordinates’ job satisfaction, satisfaction with the leader, motivation, leader effectiveness, and group performance Judge and Piccolo (2004) did not find any significant differences in results between charismatic and transformational leadership, which shows that these constructs are by-and-large interchangeable A meta-analysis on leader’s consideration (e.g., human-oriented leadership) and initiating structure (e.g., task-
Trang 35oriented leadership) also revealed positive effects on outcomes for these two styles (Judge et al 2004) Most notable, leader’s consideration was more strongly related to subordinates’ job satisfaction, satisfaction with the leader, and leader effectiveness than initiating structure
Lately, there has been an increased interest in the predictors of knowledge sharing (De Vries et al 2006; Srivastava et al 2006) Especially leadership may play a central role in inspiring and supporting knowledge sharing behaviors Consequently, both charismatic and human-oriented leadership are likely to have a positive effect on both knowledge collecting and donating behaviors Srivastava et al (2006) looked at the relation between empowering leadership and knowledge sharing Encouragement of self-management, a concept akin to empowering leadership, has been found to be very strongly related to human- oriented and charismatic leadership (De Vries et al 2002) Srivastava et al (2006) found a positive relation of empowering leadership on knowledge sharing, which suggests that both human-oriented and charismatic leadership will be related to knowledge sharing
The question is: To what degree do these results reflect the relation of communication styles with these outcomes According to the literature on communication styles (see above), we may expect to find significant relations with satisfaction In line with the study on team communication styles and outcomes (De Vries et al 2006) there may also be significant relations with knowledge sharing Consequently, in general, we expect the communication styles to be significantly related to the outcomes in this study Based on the notion that especially charismatic leadership and human-oriented leadership represent communication styles, we propose the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2: The Democratic Leadership Style is more strongly related to Assertive Communication Style than Aggressive and Passive Communication Style
Trang 36Note that we expect charismatic and human-oriented leadership to be positively related to these outcomes Again, as noted in hypothesis 1, we expect the effects of a supportive communication style to resemble the effects of human- oriented leadership However, because we expect charismatic leadership to be characterized by a profile of high scores on expressiveness, preciseness, supportiveness, assuredness, and argumentativeness, and low scores on verbal aggressiveness, these communication styles will tend to correlate with the outcome variables which are related to charismatic leadership
The last hypothesis concerns the direction of the effects we propose for this study Several authors have noted that attributional processes play a key role in leadership ratings Conger and Kanungo (1988, p 79) note, for instance, that “charismatic leadership is an attribution based on follower’s perceptions of their leader’s behavior.” One of the most important attributional processes is a recognition- based process (Lord and Maher 1993) Recognition-based processes involve the perception of leadership behaviors on the one hand and the matching of these behaviors with relevant implicit leadership theories on the other hand Implicit leadership theories seem to be to a large extent culturally universal (Den Hartog et al 1999), and thus, of these two subprocesses (i.e., behavior perception and matching using an implicit leadership theory), the perception process of actual observable behaviors seems to be most important in the judgment of a person’s leadership style
An example of the influence of observable communication behaviors on the perception of leadership is a study by Naidoo and Lord (2008) on the relation between leader speech imagery and followers perceptions of charismatic leadership Use of speech imagery, which links to sensory experiences, was positively associated with ratings of charismatic leadership In a similar vein, Awamleh and Gardner (1999) found both communication content and delivery style to be positively related to perceptions of charisma and perceived leader
Trang 37effectiveness This study’s communication styles reflect more observable behaviors (i.e., all items pertain to communication acts) than the leadership styles, which contain attributional—not directly observable—elements (e.g., “My leader trusts his/her subordinates” for human-oriented leadership! and “My leader has a vision and image of the future” for charismatic leadership) Consequently, we believe attributed human- oriented leadership and charismatic leadership to be mediators of the relation between the communication styles and the outcomes in this study and thus we propose the additional third hypothesis: Hypothesis 3: The Laissez — Faire Leadership Style is more strongly related to Passive Communication Style than Aggressive and Assertive Communication Style
The advantage of this study’s model, which links communication styles to leadership, is that models based on personality traits, which can be considered to be the primary determinants of leadership styles, predominantly either omit the most central feature of leadership, i.e., interpersonal communication, or do not capture it adequately Although studies have shown that personality traits are related to leadership (De Hoogh et al 2005; Judge and Bono 2000; Lord et al 1986), it is doubtful whether the questions used in standard personality research, such as pertaining to eating, movie watching, or holiday habits (all taken from the NEO-PI-R, Costa and McCrae 1992), are able to capture the behaviors exhibited in leader-subordinate interactions Although communicative behaviors can be regarded as a subset of personality, what exactly constitutes this subset has not been properly investigated until recently (De Vries et al 2009) By relying on a measure derived from lexical research, this study will be able to more adequately capture somebody’s communication style in general and a leader’s communication style in particular, and to explore the links with several important outcomes
Trang 383.3 Instruments
3.3.1 Method - Participants
A survey was distributed to the Intermediate Managers of ESSONS GROUP YN The Board of Management was in the process of assessing the organizational culture, and investigating the leadership and communication styles of leaders was part of the overall research The sample of this study consists all of the Intermediate Managers of ESSONS GROUP VN, mainly in Dong Nai main factory The questionnaires were personally given to each respondent and received feedback during April, 2016 I sent questionnaire via email to those who works in office with email address, they completed and sent back For those who do not have email address, I delivered the questionnaire directly to them and waited for getting back Only completed questionnaires were collected and used to analyze All of participants were occupied a leadership position Participants indicated that 65.8% of them was male and the rest is female The age of the participants who completed the survey ranged from 22 to 38 with a median of 30 years; 100% completed a university education
3.3.2 Instruments
The questionnaire total consists of 61 questions The questionnaire will be organized into 2 parts which are Leadership styles and Communication
styles In each part, there will be detailed questions related to the topic of each
part and organized in the easiest way for the respondents to give their feedback - Firstly, in part 1- Leadership styles, there are 18 questions being used to measure the agreements or disagreements of ESSONS GROUP VN Intermediate Managers about their leadership styles Items were presented in Likert-type format with a scale ranging from | through 5 where J = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree
Trang 39- Secondly, the questionnaire which measured a leader’s interpersonal communication style was based on the outcomes of a lexical study, which identified three main communication styles are passive, aggressive, and assertive There are 43 questions being used to divided into 3 styles of communication styles measure the Yes/No of ESSONS GROUP VN’ Intermediate Managers about their communication styles
3.3.3 Procedure for Data Collection and Analyze
First, 61 questionnaires with clear instruction and guidelines were delivered to respondents 10 of 18 surveys were sent by email and the rest of 18 were sent directly to individuals 12/18 were returned (66.6%)
Second, all data of 12 returned questionnaires were analyzed by Excel All of 12 samples were valid
Finally, Multiple Correlation Analysis is conducted to examine the relationship between independent variables such as Authoritarian, Democratic, Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles and Passive, Aggressive, Assertive Communication Style of the Intermediate Manages of ESSONS GROUP VN
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS AND RESULTS 4.1 Demographic Characteristics of the respondents