VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY ----------***---------- NAN KAY ZAR PHONE MYINT THE MODERATING EFFECT OF BIG FIVE PERSONALITIES ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLES AND EMPLOYEES’ MOTIVATION IN MYANMAR MASTER’S THESIS 1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY ----------***---------- NAN KAY ZAR PHONE MYINT THE MODERATING EFFECT OF BIG FIVE PERSONALITIES ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLES AND EMPLOYEES’ MOTIVATION IN MYANMAR MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CODE: 8340101.01 RESEARCH SUPERVISOR: DR. TRAN HUY PHUONG Hanoi, 2022 2 COMMITMENT I declare that the master’s thesis titled " The moderating effect of big five personalities on the relationship between leadership styles and employees’ motivation in Myanmar" is the result of my research and has never been published in any work of others. During the implementation process of this project, I have seriously taken research ethics. I collected all data from a reliable source, analyzed it, and cited all references according to regulations.
I take full responsibility for the fidelity of my graduation thesis's number, data, results, and other contents. Yangon, Jan 12th 2023 Author of Thesis Nan Kay Zar Phone Myint 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Tran Huy Phuong for motivation and advice on my research with his deepest skills and experience. This project would not have been possible without the help of Dr.
Tran Huy Phuong. Then, I would like to thank Dr. Le Minh Hanh for her supervision, her time and her generosity. Secondly, I am grateful to those companies in Myanmar who completed the survey.
Thirdly, I would like to thank my classmates for giving support and feedback. My sincere thanks also goes to Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong (MBA program assistant) for motivating me. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for supporting me throughout my life.
Yours sincerely, Nan Kay Zar Phone Myint 4 ABSTRACT Purpose – This study aims to know which leadership styles (Transactional, transformational and participative) have an impact on motivation. The data are collected through quantitative surveys of 60 people Data were analyzed through quantitative, correlative design. Correlative design is used to test to know if and when variables are related. Key variables include leadership motivation and big five personalities.
Convenience sampling was utilized through an online survey to collect primary data. Findings – Three leadership styles do not have a positive relation with motivation in Myanmar. The results indicate that the big five personalities significantly moderate the relationship between leadership and employee motivation. While participative leadership has an effect on employees with high conscientious personality.
Extroverted employees and employees who are open to experience are not motivated by transactional leaders. Moreover, neurotic employees cannot be motivated by participative leadership styles. Research limitation/ implication – This research makes a contribution to leadership literature by uncovering which leadership styles can motivate employees of different personality categories in Myanmar. Due to limited time, this study has not screened other forms of leadership styles such as visionary or democratic leadership and it is limited to 60 respondents.
Practical implication- The results could be helpful for human resource managers to select the people that best fit with organizational leadership styles. Originality/ value - There are a few studies leadership studies in Myanmar but this study gives value to analyzing three kinds of Western leaderships in Myanmar. For leadership studies in Myanmar, there are some studies about leadership. The novelty of this study lies in its investigation of how big give personalities moderate the relationship between leadership and employee motivation that is focused on the specific context of the Myanmar labor market.
Previous studies were mostly focused on Western organizations. 5 Keywords: Transactional, transformational, participative leadership, motivation, Big Five Personality 6 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1.5 Scope of the study……………………………………………….18 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.3 Leadership vs management ………………………………………………….2 Leadership theories and motivation……………………………………….4 Theory X and theory Y…………………………………………………………22 2.3 Big Five Personality……………………………………………………….4 Theories and their relevance in Myanmar.5 Literature review and research gap……………………………………………….6 Related studies and Conceptual model………………………………….7 Literature review and hypothesis development……………………………….1 Leadership and employee's motivation.2 The moderating effect of big five personality trait and the relationship between leadership style and employee motivation.3 The relationship between the big five personalities to motivation……………….34 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN 3.3 Population and Sample size………………………….7 Research Proposed Model…………………………………………………….40 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS RESULTS 4.1 Demographic of the respondents……………………….6 Factor loadings Question items…………….7 AVE of Factors (Transactional leadership, Transformational leadership, Participative leadership, Mediation, Motivation)………….43 Error! Bookmark not defined.9 Correlation Bivariate Model………….10 Stewardess and Kurtosis………………………………………………………….11Transactional leadership on motivation (Big Five personality moderation)…………….12 Participative leadership and motivation (Big Five Personality moderation)…………….13 - Conditional effect of Participative leadership on motivation at level of, neuroticism.14 - The moderating effect of Big Five personality on Transformational Leadership .21 The structural model of Direct, Indirect and Total effect…………………………73 4.23 Hypothesis result explanation……………………………………………….1 Result and discussion……………………………………………………………….3 Contributions to policy…………………………………………………………….4 Contribution to the theory………………………………………………………….6 Limitations and future studies …………………………………………………….119 8 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Variable measurement ……………………………………………………40 Table 3.2 Research proposed model……………………………………………….1 Demographic of the respondent……………………………………………41 Table 4.6: Cronbach ‘s Alpha Results…….7: Factor loadings question items….8: AVE of Factors (Transactional leadership, Transformational leadership, Participative leadership, Big five Personality, Motivation)…………………………50 Table 4.9 Correlation Bivariate model………………………………………………51 Table 4.10 Stewardess and Kurtosis…………………………………………………52 Table 4.11: Transactional leadership on motivation…………………………………55 Table 4.12: Participative leadership and motivation…………………………….13: Participative leadership on motivation at level of neuroticism…………58 Figure 4.14: The moderating effect of Big Five personality on Transformational Leadership……………………………………………………………………….15 Direct effect of Transactional leadership to motivation…………………62 Table 4.16 Direct effect of Transformational leadership on motivation…………….17 Direct effect of Participative leadership on motivation…………………63 Table 4.18 The results of hypothesis……………………………………………….64 9 LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 2.11 Research framework……………………………………………………36 Figure 4.62 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATION Abbreviation Explanation A Agreeableness C Conscientiousness E Extroversion FFM Five factor model M Motivation MLQ Multifactor Leadership questionnaires N Neuroticism O Openness to experience TRANS Transactional leadership PARTI Participative leadership TRF Transformational leadership 11 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Background Myanmar has opened up its economy since 2011(Edward Parker, 2016). During this time, it is predicted that there have been social-cultural, technological, and organizational changes (Bernhardt, De and Thida, 2014). Along with the changes, there are human resource problems in Myanmar.
The author chose Myanmar because the labor turnover rate in Myanmar is so high. For the garment and food sector, evidence suggests that the labor turnover rate is 57 percent and 39 percent respectively (UNDP 2014), (Thomas Bernhardt, S Kanay De and Mi Win Thida, 2014). The author chose the garment industry because the garment industry has grown between 2012 to 2019 before Covid (Eurocham Myanmar,2021). Myanmar focuses on export in garment.
In 2019, Myanmar export US$5.7 billion in garments. Myanmar exports mainly to European, Japan, and America. It is said that two third of the garment companies are foreign-owned and the rest are owned by locals (Eurocham Myanmar,2021). Most of the companies are owned by Chinese, East Asian, and Thai companies (Eurocham Myanmar,2021).
Even though some companies value human rights, there are still some companies that violate human rights. There were severe labor right violation in the Garment industry and workers are treated harshly (Russel 2022). The author would like to focus on this industry but data were hard to receive from that problematic area. Secondly, the reason for choosing the food industry is the revenue of food industry has an annual growth rate of 21.
On the other hand, the food industry accounts for 39% of turnover problem (UNDP 2014). According to Mizzima News (2017): popular news in Myanmar stated labor turnover rate in Myanmar distribution groups is high. Fifty new staff are ought to be recruited per month. Additionally, pharmaceutical industry is chosen because the pharmaceutical industry is essential in the Covic pandemic which start on 23 March 2020.
People buy a lot of medicine in the Covic 19 situation. There was high demand in the pharmaceutical market. 12 Myanmar's expenditure on the pharmaceutical also rise 11% every year. It is also expected that the pharmaceutical market value will reach 1.1 billion dollars by 2023 (International Trade Administration,2022) Furthermore, the Pharmaceutical industry is prosperous in ASEAN region (International Trade Administration,2022) Most of foreign companies import medicine to Myanmar.
There are a lot of pharmaceutical distributors in Myanmar. Employees in Pharmaceuticals are important because they are responsible for the distribution of medicine and the help of customers. There was a shortfall in the health workforce in Myanmar (Yu Mon Saw, 2019). If employees in the pharmaceutical industry are motivated, they can perform well to serve the customers.
In addition, the author chooses the education industry in Myanmar because the author would like to motivate employees from this industry for the growth of education. Myanmar's education quality is still poor compared to neighboring countries (Aung Moe, 2017). Employees in this sector are also crucial for educational development. As mentioned above, one of the reasons for turnover problems in Myanmar could be inefficient leadership, communication problems (Brandenberg,2017) and overlooking employee rights (Berger, Dale Camego, 2018).
Therefore, leaders should engage, communicate with employees to understand their values better (Berger, Dale Camego, 2018). The organization should put effort into supporting work and engaging work culture (HR, 2019). According to Luc de Waegh (2019), leadership is a skill needed in Myanmar. Leadership has an impact on motivation as well as long-term factors of organizational success (Swe & Lu,2019; Lynch, 2015; Ryan & Syed, 2013; Griffith, 2004).
Additionally, leadership can prevent turnover problems (Ryan Pendell 2021).2 Research Objectives To investigate which leadership styles directly enhance motivation in Myanmar. What is the moderating effect of personality on the relationship between leadership styles and motivation? 13 2. Are there direct relationships between leadership styles and motivation? 1.4 Operational definitions Leadership: “Leadership is the process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly towards the achievement of group goals.” Koontz and O'Donnell, 1968 Motivation: “Motivation refers to the way in which urges, drives, desires, aspirations, strivings or needs direct, control or explain the behavior of human beings.” McFarland (1980) Big five personality traits: Big five personality traits, known as the five-factor model, states that personality can be divided into core traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.5 Scope of the study This study aims to investigate leadership styles, employee motivation and moderating roles of big five personalities. The study included employees from the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare industry and food industry.
The study was carried out from April 2019 to July 2022.6 Research Structure This study consists of five chapters. Chapter One includes: statement of the problem, research objectives, research questions, research contribution, operational definitions and scope of the study. Chapter Two includes: theoretical review and related literature. Chapter Three introduces research design, methodology, and measurement of variables.
Chapter 14 Four is about data analysis and Chapter Five includes: the conclusion, limitations and areas of future study. 15 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction This chapter provides an overview of theories and previous research on leadership and motivation. First and foremost, this paper discusses theories that are various leadership theories, motivational theories linked to leadership and big five personality theories. Leadership theories include contingency theories, trait theories, behavioral theories and situational theories and the difference between leadership and management.
Additionally, past literature review of leadership theories (transactional, transformational, participative) to motivation, theory X, and theory Y. Most of all, theories and their applicability in Myanmar.2 Leadership Leadership is defined as "the capacity to translate vision into reality” (Benneis, 1976). Gates (2019) said "Leaders empower others in the next century".“Taking a conscious approach to leadership will best meet the needs of both the shareholders and the delivery engine — the people you employ. Leaders will do their best for society by giving attention to human needs.
A good leader does not waste human effort because he or she knows how to lead the team. "A more human” leader requires positivity, purpose and empathy. These key traits will put you on the road to genuine connections with team members (Marie, 2010).