UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------ Nguyen Hong Mai PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL, BURNOUT, AND QUALITY OF WORK LIFE: EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------ Nguyen Hong Mai PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL, BURNOUT, AND QUALITY OF WORK LIFE: EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Trang Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Acknowledgement I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Trang for the continuous support of my research, for her patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this study.
In addition, I would like to thank my family and my friends for supporting me spiritually throughout writing this study. Therefore, I dedicate this work as a gift to them all. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Abstract The present study investigates the impacts of psychological capital on burnout and quality of work life of employees in Vietnam. The study based on positive organizational behavior theory to propose a model in which psychological capital has impacts on burnout and quality of work life.
This research also examines the roles of burnout in quality of work life. The model was tested with a sample of 302 employees working for firms in Ho Chi Minh City by means of structural equation modeling. The results show that the proposed model fits the data well and all hypotheses were supported. The test confirms that psychological capital has positive impacts on quality of work life and negative impacts on burnout of employees.
These findings verify the importance of psychological capital in work and lives in a transitioning market. Hence, psychological capital is important for enhancing employee’s quality of work life and reducing job burnout. In addition, firms should pay attention to this type of capital in their recruiting, training and career development programs. Keywords psychological capital, quality of work life, burnout, Vietnam 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES 1.
LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS .4 Quality of work life .5 Moderating effects of demographics .1 Design and Sample. 19 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULT .4 Quality of work life .2 Limitations and directions for future research. 34 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Conceptual model.
8 Figure 2: Structural results (standardized estimates). 30 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Sample characteristics. 18 Table 2: Measurement scale. 21 Table 3: Means, standard deviations, and standardized CFA loadings of items.
26 Table 4: Unstandardized structural paths in the model. 29 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Introduction In today’s world, one of the fundamental strategic parts of an organization is human resource. Human resource can increase the resource capability of an organization in order to meet its objectives and for future growth (Armstrong, 2010).
Human is also one of the most significant functions in economic productivity (Gavin & Mason, 2004). In order to get through the tough business environment and maintain sustainable growth, firms need to find out new methods to human resource management (Luthans, Norman, Avolio & Avey, 2008). Researchers have focused on two components of the working people in recent years (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2012). The first component is the positive organizational behavior and its derivative psychological capital, which is described as an individual’s psychological state of development (Luthans et al., 2008) and the quality of work life is the second component (Sirgy, 2006; Wright & Cropanzano, 2004).
Researchers show that there is a relationship between psychological capital and quality of work life (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2012; Nguyen, Nguyen & Minh, 2014) and a relationship between psychological capital and burnout (Luo & Hao, 2010; Luthans, Luthans & Luthans, 2004). Nevertheless, little information remains on the relationships between psychological capital, quality of work life, and burnout, notably in developing countries. Moreover, the role of psychological capital and quality of work life of staff members has not gained much awareness by researchers in developing nations like Vietnam (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2012; Nguyen, Nguyen & Minh, 2014). Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the roles of psychological capital in quality of work life and burnout of 6 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com employees in Vietnam.
In addition, this research also investigates the moderating roles of age and gender in the relationships between psychological capital, quality of work life, and burnout. In the 1990s, Vietnam started to build its economy after many years of war and post-war readjustment. Highly skilled workforce is required during the process of change toward a market-oriented economy and integration into the global economic main stream. However, it is very challenging for Vietnam’s employers to attract and retain qualified employees (Bodewig, Badiani-Magnusson & Macdonald, 2014).
Therefore, understanding the relationship between employee psychological capital, burnout and quality of work life will help firms in designing appropriate policies for staffs and will allow them to recruit qualified people. All of this could result in a happier and healthier workforce leading to a healthier, more successful and profitable organization. This study is organized around the following key points: introduction; literature review and hypotheses; research method, data analysis, and results; discussion and implications; limitations and directions for future research. 7 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Literature review and hypotheses 2. Conceptual model Figure 1 proposes a conceptual model clarifying roles of psychological capital in burnout and quality of work life, the model proposes that psychological capital of employees will have negative impacts on burnout and positive impacts on quality of work life. In addition, burnout will have negative impacts on quality of work life of staff members. This study also examines the moderating effects of demographic characteristics (age and gender) on the relationships between psychological capital, quality of work life, and burnout.
Demographics Gender Age H4ab Burnout Psychological Capital H2 Quality of Work Life Figure 1. Conceptual model 8 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Psychological capital Psychological capital is a multidimensional construct referring to a positive psychological state of development of an individual (Luthans, Youssef & Avolio, 2007). Not many organizational behavior researchers have paid much attention to trait-like personality and state-like psychological capacities of employees.
Trait-like personality is more likely to be solid over time and is not specific to any task or situation, however state -like psychological capacities are more likely to adapt over time and are more specific to certain situations or tasks (Chen, Gully, Jon-Andrew & Kilcullen, 2000). Psychological ownership (Avey, Avolio, Crossley & Luthans, 2009) and psychological capital (Luthans et al., 2008) are conceptions that outline state-like psychological capacities of staff members. These conceptions can be discovered in the literature of positive organizational behavior. This study focuses on psychological capital of employees.
Hope, efficacy, optimism, and resilience are four positive constructs that have been determined to best fit the criteria of the definition of positive organization behavior until now (Luthans, 2002; Luthans et al., 2007), whereas various positive constructs have been studied (Cameron, Dutton, Quinn & Wrzesniewski, 2003; Nelson & Cooper, 2007). Psychological capital is defined as “an individual’s positive psychological state of development that is characterized by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) 9 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain success” (Luthans et al. According to Luthans et al. (2008), psychological capital has received both conceptual and empirical support.
Snyder, Irving, and Anderson (1991) defined hope as a “positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (1) agency (goal- directed energy) and (2) pathways (planning to meet goals)” (p. Hope indicates “the belief that one can find pathways to desired goals and become motivated to use those pathways” (Snyder, Rand & Sigmon, 2002, p. This psychological source progressively contributes hope that the objective will be achieved. Agency and pathways thinking are both significant and reciprocal factors of hope.
Applying hope to the professional level in a company, hopeful employees express the remarkable ability to develop numerous pathways to attain their goals. The second positive construct of psychological capital is optimism. It was characterized by Carver and Scheier (2002) that “optimists are people who expect good things to happen to them; pessimists are people who expect bad things to happen to them” (p. This explanation describes the expectancy framework used to distinguish optimistic people and pessimistic people in an organization.
Applied to the professional level, optimistic staff members are people who have positive expectations of results (Luthans et al. Regardless of personal ability, optimistic staffs expect positive results for themselves. Hence, the optimistic employees have forward looking beliefs regardless of past issues or setbacks. 10 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com A third positive construct of psychological capital is self-efficacy.
It is people’s determination in their capacity to accomplish a specific goal in a specific condition. Peoples trusts about their abilities to generate designated levels of performance that exercise affect over events that influence their lives and decides how people feel, think, stimulate themselves and behave (Judge, Jackson, Shaw, Scott & Rich, 2007). Applying self-efficacy to the professional level, staffs with high efficaciousness are described by tenacious pursuit and persistent efforts toward achievement and are directed by trusts in their own successes. The fourth positive construct forming psychological capital is resilience.
Luthans (2002) defined resilience as a “positive psychological capacity to rebound, to bounce back’ from adversity, uncertainty, conflict, failure, or even positive change, progress and increased responsibility” (p. Applying resilience to the professional level in a firm, employees are those who have the ability to positively adapt and thrive in very challenging circumstances. Burnout Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter (1996) defined burnout as a syndrome of exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced professional efficacy. Firstly, emotional exhaustion is obtained when staff members feel severe emotional fatigue and diminished or no ambition against the employment.
Exhaustion is the central quality of burnout and the 11 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com most obvious manifestation of this complex syndrome (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001).Of the three aspects of burnout, exhaustion is the most widely reported and the most thoroughly analyzed. However, the fact that exhaustion is a necessary criterion for burnout does not mean it is sufficient (Maslach, 2003). Secondly, cynicism is accomplished when employees get away from work and indicate an indifferent and callous attitude at firms. Lastly, reduced personal accomplishment is attained when people feel a lack of competence and successful work accomplishment.
Currently, only some research has analyzed the relationship between psychological capital and job burnout (Luo & Hao, 2010; Luthans et al. Psychological capital plays a crucial role in the development of job burnout and that it can productively decrease the extent of burnout (Luthans et al. Luo and Hao (2010) discovered proof for the preventative impact of psychological capital on job burnout by using Chinese nurses as attendants. Nevertheless, the body of research regarding the relationship between psychological capital and job burnout stays relatively small, especially in staff members.
Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis: H1: Psychological capital has a negative impact on burnout.