UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------ HO TAN VUONG Job Resourcefulness: Antecedents and Outcomes MASTER OF BUSINESS (HONOURS) Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018 123doc UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business ------------------------------ HO TAN VUONG Job Resourcefulness: Antecedents and Outcomes MASTER OF BUSINESS (HONOURS) SUPERVISOR: DR. NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018 123doc Table of Contents List of Acronyms. 3 List of figures. 4 List of tables.
8 Literature review and hypotheses development. 12 The Five-Factor Model of personality traits. 14 Personality traits and JR. 15 JR and job performance.
18 The role of QWL. 19 Psychological hardiness and JR. 29 Data analysis and results. 30 The Cronbach’s alpha test.
30 1 123doc Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) test. 31 Composite reliability ( ) and average variance extracted ( ) test. 33 Structural model and hypothesis testing. 36 Multi-group analysis.
38 Conclusion and implications. 41 Implications for management. 42 Limitations and direction for future research. 45 Appendix 1: Guideline for pilot study.
56 Appendix 2: Vietnamese Questionnaire. 58 Appendix 3: Descriptive statistic of sample. 60 Appendix 4: The results of Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of reliability. 62 Appendix 5: CFA of the model.
65 Appendix 6: Structural results (standardized estimates) of the model. 69 2 123doc List of Acronyms JR: Job Resourcefulness PH: Psychological Hardiness QWL: Quality of Work Life CFA: Confirmatory Factor Analysis SEM: Structural Equation Modeling 3 123doc List of figures Figure 1: Conceptual model. 24 Figure 2: Research procedure. 25 Figure 3: Structural results (standardized estimates) of the model.
36 4 123doc List of tables Table 1: Standardized CFA loadings of items. 32 Table 2: Measure correlations, the squared correlation, and AVE. 34 Table 3: Structural paths in the model. 35 Table 4: Standardized direct, indirect and total effects between constructs.
35 5 123doc Acknowledgement Firstly, I would first like to express my honest thanks to my supervisor Prof. Nguyen Thi Mai Trang for her patience, encouragement, and immense knowledge. Her guidance and strongly support help me in all the time of writing and research of the thesis, even in the moments of stressful. Besides my supervisor, I would also like to acknowledge all teachers who taught me in International School of Business (ISB) during MBUS course.
The knowledge I gained will certainly support not only for my work but also for my life in the future. Thirdly, I would like to thank the proposal and final thesis defense committees, especially Dr. Tran Ha Minh Quan and Dr. Nguyen Phong Nguyen for their insightful comments and encouragement.
Beside, my sincere thanks also go to all respondents who participated in my pilot study and main survey. I thank my classmates of MBUS 7 for useful discussions, for sleepless nights studying together before examinations, and for all unforgettable moments we have had in the last two years. Last but not least, I must express my profoundly thanks to my family for give me the best conditions for studying and doing this thesis. Especially, I would like to send my thanks to Ha Thi Truc Mai, who is not only my MBUS 7 classmate but also my wife, for supporting, encouraging and standing by my side in any circumstances.
6 123doc Abstract The study investigates the impact of personality traits of openness to experience, conscientiousness and psychological hardiness on job resourcefulness of service employees in Vietnam. It also examines the relationships between job resourcefulness, quality of work life, and job performance at individual level. An empirical test with a sample of 217 employees from various service industries by means of structural equation modeling indicates that these personality traits have a positive relative to job resourcefulness. Furthermore, job resourcefulness has positive impact on quality of work life, and together with quality of work life, has positive influence on job performance of service employees.
Based on these results, the study contributes to personality theory and the author also suggests some implications for managers in order to enhance individual performance and quality of work life through personality traits and job resourcefulness. 7 123doc Introduction Today’s competitive environment puts many challenges on managers in operating as efficiently as possible across industries (Harris, Artis, Fogliasso, & Fleming, 2008; Harris, Artis, Walters, & Licata, 2006; Harris, Ladik, Artis, & Fleming, 2013). In the service industry, the reduction in organizational support and resource cutback (Harris et al., 2006; Harris et al., 2013) has underlined the importance of finding quality staffs, who can achieve their goals with limited resources. Researchers addressed this problem with the development of the construct ―Job Resourcefulness‖ (JR) (Harris et al., 2006; Licata, Mowen, Harris, & Brown, 2003).
Resourceful staffs can take advantage of everything available around them, create opportunities and persist in trying different strategies to find the best tactics. As businesses have to maximize their profits by operating both efficiency and effectiveness with resource constraints- the era of ―do more with less‖ (Harris et al., 2006; Thurow & Cunningham, 1999), job resourcefulness (JR) is becoming more and more important. Resourcefulness in work means not only ―can-do‖ but also ―will-do-at-any-cost‖ attitude, ―out-of-the-box‖ thinking to solve the problems in every situation. Licata et al.
(2003) laid the foundation stone in conceptualizing and defining JR as ―an enduring disposition to garner scarce resources and overcome obstacles in pursuit of job-related goals‖ (p. As a situational-level personality trait, JR is a hierarchical personality trait and is preceded by the combined effect of elemental traits (e. conscientiousness, introversion) and compound traits (e. activity needs, competitiveness) (Licata et al.
This construct is aimed at assessing the staffs’ ability to work effectively in scare resource climate. A growing stream of 8 123doc development and application this construct has offered much to the marketing literature. Based on previous studies, JR was impacted by both intrapersonal and external factors (Harris et al. Across different service industries, personality traits were found to influence JR, especially ―openness to experience‖ and ―conscientiousness‖ which relevant to almost service industries (Licata et al.
On the other hand, role stressors (role conflict and role ambiguity) were revealed that negatively affect JR (Harris et al. Authentic leadership is also a JR’s antecedent according to Semedo et al. To the best of the author’s knowledge, psychological hardiness has not been investigated as a JR’s antecedent. Psychological hardiness refers to people’s commitment, control and challenge (Cole, Bruch, & Vogel, 2006; Cole, Feild, & Harris, 2004; Kobasa, 1979; Maddi, 1999b).
In service industries, psychological hardiness seems to be a potential factor leading to resourcefulness. Among outcomes of JR, Licata et al. (2003) found that JR affects job performance whilst Harris et al. (2006; 2013) revealed that the outcomes are sales performance, job satisfaction and intention to leave.
JR also influences employees’ creativity (Semedo et al., 2016) and burnout symptoms (Rod & Ashill, 2009). Recently, JR was demonstrated to be a moderating factor of the impact of work-family and family-work conflict on travel agencies employees’ burnout (Akgunduz, Bardakoglu, & Alkan, 2015). Although the literature on JR’s outcomes is quite adequate, the role of JR in quality of work life is still under-investigated, based on the author’s knowledge. Quality of work life (QWL) briefly mentions of the well-being of employees (Sirgy, Efraty, Siegel, & Lee, 2001).
A pleased employee will be a productive, 9 123doc delicate and loyal employee (Greenhaus, Bedeian, & Mossholder, 1987), lead to the development of both employee and organization. Employees’ work-life integration is becoming significant business problem of 21st century because it is related to employees’ well-being (Harrington & Ladge, 2009). Researchers have showed that QWL have a positive impact on job performance in Vietnam context (Nguyen, Nguyen, & Tran, 2014; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2012). In addition, the dimensions of personality traits are positive correlated with QWL (Kaushik & Tonk, 2008).
The understanding about the link between another personality trait (such as situation-level personality trait - JR), QWL, and QWL’s outcome (such as job performance) should be enhanced in order to contribute to work-life integration, especially in transition markets like Vietnam. As a transition economy, Vietnam is a potential context for the investigation of JR and QWL of service employees. In 1986, Vietnam began market-oriented reform program under socialist guidance, namely Doi Moi. With a centrally planned economy before that time, domestic firms had little knowledge about market economics and management due to the primarily focus on production (Nguyen, Barrett, & Fletcher, 2006; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2011).
The World Trade Organization (WTO) accession has provided a variety of opportunities and threats to Vietnamese organizations. Opportunities come from the import - export trading of goods, materials, services and technologies as well as international cooperation. Threats coming up with an open market are the fierce competition and strict control of standards (e. quality and safety) (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2011).
To the aims of survival and development in this competitive business climate, managers need to identify, maintain and nurture 10 123doc appropriate resources and capabilities. Therefore, individual resource, e. resourcefulness, is therefore an indispensable element for human resources in today’s competitive climate. High-performing service employee enhances organizational competitive advantage.
Hence, researchers and managers in service industries are deeply concerning about service employee productivity (Harris, Brown, Mowen, & Artis, 2014; Harris & Fleming, 2017; Ye & King, 2016). Psychological factors which affect the productive service employee correspondingly remain indispensable. Recent research highlights the important role of service employee in productivity and performance, focusing on individual resources (Harris & Fleming, 2017). As noted, service settings (including banking, restaurant, healthcare, call center) have shown indications of cutbacks (Harris et al., 2006; Harris et al., 2013) and JR was therefore more important.
Base on the author’s knowledge, there is quite limited evidence of JR in Vietnam economy’s context up to now. As mentioned above, Vietnamese organizations are facing fierce competition since accessing WTO. In addition, resource cutback in service settings also is a difficult situation for Vietnamese organizations, which has little knowledge of resource management. The role of human resource, e.
resourcefulness, consequently be more crucial in Vietnam. The understanding about employees’ work-life integration also needs to be evaluated in this situation. This study provides managers in transition markets (such as Vietnam) a more comprehensive investigation about JR’s antecedents and outcomes. The purposes of this study are to: 11 123doc investigate the influence of personality traits of openness to experience, conscientiousness from The Five Factor Model (McCrae & Costa, 2003) and ―psychological hardiness‖ on JR.
examine the relationships between JR, QWL, and job performance. The structure of this paper is as follows: introduction, literature review and hypotheses development, research methodology, data analysis and results, discussion, conclusion and implications, limitations and direct for future research. Literature review and hypotheses development The Five-Factor Model of personality traits From the beginning of the 20th century, the study of personality has been the foundation of psychology and it is a mysterious and thorny field up to now (Monte, 1995). Personality refers to ―the intrinsic organization of an individual’s mental world that is stable over time and consistent over situations‖ (Piedmont, 1998, p.
2) and ―long-lasting and important characteristics within an individual, one that continue to exert a strong influence on behavior‖ (Ewen & Ewen, 2014, p. In a simply way, personality can be understood as a group of habitual behaviors, thinking and feeling. Researchers have posited that basic personality traits affect service performance and personality testing therefore is frequently used in hiring, promotion and assess employee’s ability (Harris & Fleming, 2017). Historically, psychologists have been endeavoring to develop a common and systematic framework for interpreting individual differences.
Galton seems to be the first researcher who clearly identifies the basic lexical hypothesis, which is that the 12 123doc most critical individual differences in human dealings will be converted into single term (Goldberg, 1990, 1993).