1 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY ---------- LE THI THU THAO TO EXPLORE WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN THE COLLECTIVIST CULTURE: THE BUSINESS CONTEXT OF VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ho Chi Minh City, April 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY ---------- LE THI THU THAO TO EXPLORE WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN THE COLLECTIVIST CULTURE: THE BUSINESS CONTEXT OF VIETNAM Major: Business Administration (Research) ID: 8340101 MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: Dr. Tran Mai Dong Ho Chi Minh City, April 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I would like to express my gratefulness to my supervisor Dr. Tran Mai Dong for his professional guidance, intensive support, valuable suggestions, instructions and encouragement during the time of doing my research. My sincere thanks to all lecturers of the MBA class who have given us knowledge, and guidance during the course.
My special thanks to all commentators Dr. Luu Trong Tuan and Dr. Ngo Quang Huan for valuable advice and suggestions. It is my pleasure to be an MBA class member as we had an unforgettable time studying together with my classmates during our course.
I would like to thank all of my classmates, friends and colleagues who enthusiastically helped me during the data collection, and special thanks to my manager who encouraged and let me have necessary time for my thesis. Finally, I am deeply grateful to my parents, especially my mother who always encourage me, do all best things and support for my studying until now. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Nowsday, women leadership has been researching by many scholars all around the world, especially Western countries when gender equality is increasingly recognized and the rights of women are more and more focused by the Government and the society. Moreover, in the age of global development, when people have a lot of opportutinities to approach innovations, women have more and more opportunities to develop their careers instead of doing family chores as before.
However, seems to be very little research related to Asian women, especially for countries with the collectivist culture with the longstanding root of Confucian and people are influenced by the values of Confucianism, which greatly affect the status of women in society. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore women leadership in the collectivist culture with the business context of Vietnam. This exploratory qualitative study was carried out in two phases, including indeep semi-structure interviews with 10 participants from multiple stakeholders and thematic analysis for new findings. After analyzing the collected data, this study indicated that Vietnamese female leaders are appropriate for transformational leadership style when working in higher positions in enterprises, especially privately owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises.
Furthermore, female leaders with open-mindedness and modern mindset will be more suitable for transformational leadership style. Keyword: Collectivist culture, Leadership, Women Leadership, Transformational Leadership. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION I hereby declare that I have written the present thesis ―To explore women leadership in the collectivist culture: the business context of Vietnam‖ independently, without assistance from external parties and without use of other resources than those indicated. The ideas taken directly or indirectly from external sources (including electronic sources) are duly acknowledged in the text.
The material, either in full or in part, has not been previously submitted for grading at this or any other academic institution. Ho Chi Minh City, April, 2018 Le Thi Thu Thao LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGE ABSTRACT STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH CONTEXT. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THE RESEARCH.
Vietnamese business leadership. Women leadership in Vietnam. RESEARCH PROBLEMS TO BE INVESTIGATED. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS.
9 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. SCOPE OF THE STUDY. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. OUTLINE OF THE STUDY.
UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, LEADERSHIP AND WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN VIETNAM. Definitions of culture. Culture Dimensions Theory. LEADER, LEADERSHIP THEORIES AND TRENDS.
Leadership theories and trends. CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP. WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS. CULTURE AND WOMEN LEADERSHIP.
WOMEN IN VIETNAM. WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN VIETNAM. COLLECTIVIST CULTURE IN VIETNAM. 38 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
MULTIPLE PERCEPTIONS OF STAKEHOLDERS. Perceptions of internal stakeholders on women leadership. Women leadership perception processes. Vietnamese women leadership perception.
SELECTING THE PARTICIPANTS. VALIDITY AND TRUSTWORTHINESS. LIMITATIONS OF METHODOLOGY. 59 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
WOMEN LEADER TRAITS. Feeling-based behaviors. IMPACT OF COLLECTIVIST CULTURE. In-group identification.
Envy at work. The perception of women as leaders. Vietnamese women leadership style - Transformational leadership. Collectivist culture impacts on women leaders.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION. REVISITING RESEARCH QUESTIONS. STRENGTHS OF THE STUDY. 109 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE TO POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS. DATA TRANSCRIPT OF CEO 1. 140 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SOE State-Owned Enterprise FIE Foreign Invested Enterprise POE Privately Owned Enterprise CEO Chief Executive Officers LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLE Table 2. Definitions of leadership (Yukl, 2010, p.
Classification of the participants. Interview participants‘ demographics. 60 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH CONTEXT 1.
INTRODUCTION Emerging economies in Asia have played an increasingly important role in the global economy (Cappelli, Singh, & Useem, 2010). As a result, there is a necessity to learn more about how business operates in Asia, particularly in term of leadership, one of the major determinants of organizational success (Hogan, Robert; Kaiser, & Robert B. Although cross-cultural leadership research has conducted in recent years (House, Dorfman, Javidan, Hanges, & Sully de Luque, 2014; House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004; Javidan, M., 2010), the clear demand for cross-cultural analyses of leadership persists (e., Bryman, 2004; Gardner, Lowe, Moss, Mahoney, & Cogliser, 2010). In particular, more research on the specific facets of leadership in Asian countries has been encouraged.
Furthermore, even though leader emergence has received attention in recent years (Javidan & Carl, 2005), the emergence of women leaders has been understudied in general (Gardner et al., 2010), and in cross-cultural leadership research in particular (Bullough, Kroeck, Newburry, Kundu, & Lowe, 2012). In the context of global economy, Vietnam is not an exception when women's participation in decision-making at various levels and multiple fields is also increasing encouraged through specific strategies and policies. However, there is a little documentation of Vietnamese women in leadership. Vietnam has recently achieved significant improvements in gender equality and women‘s advancement.
Vietnam firstly elected a woman to parliament in 1976 and Vietnam ranks first in Asia, second in Asia-Pacific (after New Zealand) and eighteenth in the world with 33.1% for the representation of women in the National Assembly (Nguyen, 2007). Additionally, 20% of women are in higher positions in organizations LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 and of these, 25% own a private enterprise (Nguyen, 2007). A recent study by Grant Thornton (2013) shows women‘s leadership in business is growing and 30 percent of Board of Director roles in Vietnam are held by women compared to the global average of 19 percent. However, these figures did not reflect the improvement in women leadership.
Women have different views from men on different issues. Promoting women's participation in leadership positions and the policy-making process will help to reflect different perspectives and perceptions of decision-making, then decisions and policies also more comprehensive and more relevant, especially with policies that affect women. In additions, Bass and Avolio (1994) used the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to show that women managers have more idealized influence, are more inspirational and individually considerate than men. Furthermore, Carless (1998) examined 120 women and 184 men employed as bank managers and found that female managers were more transformational than male managers, when they rated themselves and when they were rated by their superiors.
To be noted, the study of Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, and Van Engen (2003) found that women engaged more in transformational as well as the active component of transactional leadership, while men engaged more in a passive type of transactional leadership as well as in laissez- faire leadership. Therefore, transformational leadership is the main leadership style which I want to investigate in Vietnamese women leaders. This chapter would like to provide an overview of this research by drawing a general picture of subsequent chapters and the research as a whole. The chapter examines the background and justification for the research in which understanding of the Vietnamese context and women leadership are explored.
The chapter also defines the research objectives, research questions and theoretical framework. In addition, the chapter discusses the general aspects of research methodology and scope of the study. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 Furthermore, the chapter identifies the contributions of the study and introduces the organization of the study. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THE RESEARCH 1.
Vietnamese culture Vietnamese culture is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia, with ancient Dong Son culture regarded as one of its most important ancestors (Embassy of Vietnam in the United State of America, 2011). According to Columbia University, due to the thousand years of Chinese domination, Vietnam was heavily influenced by Chinese culture in politics, politics, social ethics and Confucian ethics, and art. Vietnam is considered part of the East Asian cultural field. The values that have arisen from Vietnam's communist political system as well as from globalization have gradually blended with lasting imprint on Confucian values and norms of behavior.
Recently, values that have emerged from globalization (such as personal freedom, individualism) have also begun to affect the attitudes and behavior of traditional Vietnamese (Ashwill and Diep, 2005; Doan, 2005, Duc, 2008, London, 2011, Hallinger and Truong, 2014). Nonetheless, to be noted by Dao Duy Anh in ―Khổng Giáo Phê Bình Tiểu Luận‖ (Short Critique of Confucianism) and in the research of Dam (1999), the core values of Confucianism remain deeply rooted in Vietnamese society. Collectivism culture is defined as ―societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout their lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty‖ (Hofstede, 1997). From this concept, collectivist behaviors tend to cooperate and bond to their in-groups as well as family and their performances are viewed as a result of collective effort and interpersonal relationships.
Cross-cultural studies have shown that collectivist tend to have a stronger attachment to their organization and tend to integrate individual goals to common goals (Earley, 1989; Triandis, 1995). In collectivist societies, personal LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 identity is grounded in group-based values. A person defines ―who I am‖ primarily in reference to relative social groups (including family, clubs, school, church, company, community and political associations). In additions, highly collectivistic people find and seek faith, intellectual stimulation in their in-group, which are usually their families.
Hofstede (1991) & Park et al. (2005) states that the main collectivist values include loyalty, harmony, cooperation, unity and conformity. Because of the Confucian roots, Vietnamese culture is strongly orientated around family and community. According to Bich (1999); Bodley (2011); Hofstede (1991); Jamieson (1993), collectivism is a central tenet of Confucianism, and remains strongly evident in modern day Vietnamese culture.
Vietnamese business leadership Vietnam‘s transition (Doi moi) officially initiated in December 1986 when regulations 1and policies aimed at ‗socialist-oriented market economy‘ took effect at the Sixth National Communist Party Congress (Nguyen, Truong and Buyens, 2011). These reforms related to 9 restructuring state-owned enterprises (SOEs), liberalization of the economic system and break the monopoly of the public sector (Warner et al.