MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY ------------ TRAN GIANG PHONG RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP AND JOB SATISFACTION & MODERATING ROLES OF SELF-EFFICACY AND OPTIMISM. MASTER THESIS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR HO CHI MINH CITY – 2012 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY ------------ TRAN GIANG PHONG RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP AND JOB SATISFACTION & MODERATING ROLES OF SELF-EFFICACY AND OPTIMISM Subject: Master of Business Administrator Code: 60.02 THESIS OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR SUPERVISOR: DR. PHAM QUOC HUNG HO CHI MINH CITY – 2012 I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the following for their commitment, guidance and support: My family, my father and my mother for your unwavering love, Respectful lecturers of University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, who have empowered me with considerably useful knowledge during the time I studied in the University, especially Dr. Pham Quoc Hung, who have whole- heartedly instructed me to approach relevant matters in reality, scientific research methods, as well as the contents of the subject.
Students of the eMBA – K19 course, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City for kindly helping me collect information necessary for the study. My friends and work colleagues, who support me to collect data as well as emotional support during the completion of this thesis. Although the author has tried the best to complete the thesis, but errors could not be comprehensively avoided. Therefore, the author is looking forward to receiving the inputs and comments from respectful lecturers and friends, so that the thesis could be more and more improved.
Tran Giang Phong Ho Chi Minh, 26 Oct 2012 I COMMITMENT I would like to commit that this thesis, “relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction & moderating roles of self-efficacy and optimism”, was accomplished based on my independent and serious studies and scientific researches. The data was collected in reality and it has clear origins. In addition to that, the data would be trust-worthily handled and it has never been released in any menu. Tran Giang Phong 1 CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY.
Research scope and approach.6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW, THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESES.2 Dimensions of authentic leadership. Role of job satisfaction. Determinants of job satisfaction.3 The influence of authentic leadership on job satisfaction.21 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Optimism and Self-Efficacy.
Translation of the questionnaire. The pilot study. Pilot study phase 1. Pilot study phase 2.
Selecting the sample and collecting data. Methods of data analysis. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Independent Samples T-test.35 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS.
Profiles of qualified respondents. Reliability of the measurements. Confirmatory factor analysis. Effects of authentic leadership, self-efficacy and optimism on job satisfaction.
Moderating effects of self-efficacy and optimism on the relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction. Independent Samples T-test. Discussions of findings:. Limitations and recommendations for future research.65 3 Appendix 2: result of reliability test of the measurements.71 Appendix 3: result of confirmatory factor analysis.73 Appendix 4: result of regression analysis.76 Figure 2-1: the hypothesized model……………………………………………….22 Figure 3-1: The Research Process ……………….…………………………24 Figure 4-1: CFA model………………………….………………………41 Figure 4-2: effect of interaction between authentic leadership and optimism on job satisfaction….49 Table 3-1: Assessing Fit Indices………………………………………………………………………………………………….………33 Table 4-1: Socio-demographic Characteristics of The Qualified Samples………………………………….38 Table 4-2: Summary of Cronbach Alpha Measures Across Variables…………………………………….……………39 Table 4-3: Assessing Fit Indices – Hypothesized Model…………………………………………………….…43 Table 4-5: result of regression analysis of authentic leadership on job satisfaction……………………….…44 Table 4-6: result of regression analysis of moderating effect of self-efficacy and optimism in 3 groups …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…46 Table 4-8: Independent Samples T-test: difference of job satisfaction level on gender of respondents ……………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………50 4 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 1.
Research background Neither reputation, customers, technology nor physical resources, human resource is the most important asset which makes organization successful. Without good manpower, organization could not develop their business. Retaining the talents in organization is an emergent challenge that every organization must consider. According to Berry (1997), organization must improve job satisfaction of employees to be successful.
Robbins & Judge (2007) found that the effective organization usually had more satisfied employees. Moreover, satisfied employees are more likely productive. In short, improving employees’ satisfaction is an essential solution for an organization to be successful. The practice of leadership has existed for thousands of years and research efforts have been undertaken to better understand leadership in organizations for well over 50 years (Bass, 1990).
Leaders and leadership play an important role in organizations in the way that effective leaders are related to successful team work, high morale, and effective performance; and on the contrary, ineffective leaders are related to job dissatisfaction, low commitment, and ineffective performance (Avolio & Bass, 2002; Bass, 1998; 1999; Collins, 2001a, 2001b; Day, Zaccaro, & Halpin, 2004). We also have seen some big scandals in ethical leadership in the world as well as in Vietnam. In Vietnam, according to Thuc (2011), some big organizations such as Hàng Hải Đông Đô, Masan Group, Quoc Cuong Gia Lai announced to investors that they made large profit, but actually, they lost a lot. In international level, we also know the big decrease of ethical leadership of the top managers of WorldCom, Enron, General Motors and Lehman Brothers in U.
Together with new societal challenge such as terrorism, 5 aging society, and environmental pollution… these destroy the trust of investors. In reality, according to National Leadership Index 2009, 63% of Americans do not trust what business leaders say and 83% believe that business leaders work to merely their benefit or a small group with special interests, not society overall. In the difficult situation, there is an urgent need of the positive and more genuine leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005). Reliability, integrity and authenticity are the essential characteristics of the business leaders in this situation (Blausten, 2009).
In the light of current developments in global business, a new construct emerged: authentic leadership. Authentic leadership refers to the extent to which an individual exhibits a pattern of openness and clarity in his or her behavior towards others by sharing the necessary information to make decisions, accepting other’s inputs, and disclosing his or her personal values, motives and sentiments in a manner that enables followers to more accurately assess the competence and morality of the leader’s actions. Business practitioners are calling for leaders who lead with purpose, values, and integrity, leaders who build enduring organizations, motivate their employees to provide customer service, and create long-term value for shareholder. Research objectives: In this study, the author examines the effects of authentic leadership behaviors on followers’ job satisfaction while also taking into account possible moderating roles of self-efficacy and optimism to the relationship authentic leadership and job satisfaction.
Accordingly, the study aims at answering the research questions: “How does authentic leadership influence follower job satisfaction?” and “what are the moderating roles of self-efficacy and optimism between authentic leadership and job satisfaction?” In order to answer to this research question, the following four sub-questions are addressed in this research: 1. What is the relationship between authentic leadership and follower job satisfaction? 6 2. How does self-efficacy play a moderating role in the relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction? 3. How does optimism play a moderating role in the relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction? 4.
Is job satisfaction level different between male and female? 1. Research scope and approach: First, this study is conducted in Ho Chi Minh City, the biggest city in Vietnam. Second, the research includes into the analysis those respondents who have been working with their leaders for at least 3 months to ensure that followers have enough time to observe and to be influenced by their leaders’ leadership behaviors. Third, the research only focuses on employees who are graduated from high- school or higher.
This choice of population and sample frame makes the study feasible (given time and resource limitation) by facilitating online survey method and helps address the research questions in the simplest way possible. Forth, this study considers self-efficacy and optimism as the moderating variables. Self-efficacy, optimism are two of 4 components of psychological capital. However, 2 other components of psychological capital which are resilience and hope are not considered in this study.
Fifth, the study is conducted in 2 main phases: pilot study (comprising of 2 sub- phases) and main study. The purpose of the pilot study is to check the contents and to examine the measurement scales. Then the main study is conducted to confirm the measurement scales, to test the hypotheses and to confirm the research model. Research structure The structure of study includes 5 chapters as following: Chapter 1: Introduction will provide the research background, research objectives, as well as research scope and approach.
7 Chapter 2: Literature review provides theoretical and empirical background behind the hypothesized research model. Chapter 3: Methodology details the methodologies the author use to conduct this research. Chapter 4: Analysis is conducted based on the collected data to test the hypotheses and answer the research questions. Chapter 5: The author discusses the results; provide practical implication and possible directions for future research.
8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW, THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESES. In this chapter, the author review literatures by first exploring the nature of authentic leadership, job satisfaction, self-efficacy and optimism. The author next investigates the relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction. Then the moderating roles of optimism and self-efficacy are also discussed.
Finally, hypothesis and research model are developed.1 Authenticity Erickson (1995) shows that the modern concept of authenticity has been emerged within the past 80 years. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Eleventh Edition defines authenticity as “genuine, original, not a fake”. According to Harter (2002), the history of this word can be traced from Greek philosophy as “to thine own self be true” or “know yourself”. Harter (2002) also define authenticity as that “one acts in accord with the true self, expressing oneself in ways that are consistent with the inner thoughts and feelings”.
In more detail, Harter (2002) also explains authenticity as “the combination of one’s personal experiences (values, thoughts, emotions and beliefs) and acting in accordance with one true self (expressing what one really think, believe and behaving accordingly). The recognition of oneself and one’s act in order to express oneself in the way that is consistent with his inner thoughts and feelings”. Kernis (2003) defines the authenticity as “the unobstructed operations of one’s true or core, self in one’s daily enterprise”. People usually think that authenticity has the same meaning of sincerity.
However, there is a difference between them. Linonel Trilling (as cited by Avolio & Gardner, 2005) defines sincerity as “congruence between avowal and actual feelings. While, authenticity 9 is the extent to which one is true to the self”. Therefore, sincerity implies a relationship with another person besides oneself.
One’s sincerity is to accurately and honestly represent oneself to others. The one who is true to others is so-called sincerity, while the one who is true to himself is so-called authenticity (Erickson, 1995 & Trilling, 1972). The history of authenticity’s research focuses on the level of inauthenticity instead of authenticity. A scale to measure inauthenticity which is developed by sociologist Seeman (1960) find that an inauthentic leader is a leader who was overly compliant to the stereotypical roles and demands related to the leader role.
In that same period, Hill and Stone (1960) recognized the power of positive thinking and described how success can be attained through a positive mental attitude. Today’s academics discussing the concept of authentic leadership turn to positive psychology as the root of authenticity and thus focus on the positive rather than the negative aspects of authenticity. In this research, the author uses the definition of authenticity which based on positive psychologists. According to Harter et al.2 Dimensions of authentic leadership.
Gardner et al. (2005) suggests the 4 core components of authentic leadership including self-awareness, the self-regulatory processes of balanced processing, authentic behavior and relational transparency.