Research on emotional intelligence of middle managers of commercial banks in vietnam

Therefore, the research on Emotional Intelligence status of middle managers in Vietnam, in particularly the transaction department heads in commercial banks; as well as research on impac

INTRODUCTION

1 Necessity of research

The transaction department plays a very important role for the

development of commercial banks Besides, the role of transaction

department heads – the middle managers becomes increasingly

important and is considered as one of the key motivations for the

organization’s activities (Mair and Thurner, 2008)

The feature of transaction department heads’ work is to

regularly meet and exchange work with superiors, colleagues,

subordinates, partners and customers, etc The feature asks the

transaction department heads to accurately perceive, understand the

current emotional state of themselves and others; hence they can

manage their emotions and take actions in line with others (superiors,

subordinates, partners and customers); as well as provide management

methods to subordinates, employees with appropriate emotional state

The transaction department heads who understand the emotion process

above are usuallypeoples getting higherscore on the Emotional

Intelligence

The emotional intelligence (EI) is a research topic to which

many scholars and researchers pay much attention The research works

of EI have been done much recently; however,research on Emotional

Intelligence of middle managers in commercial banks is a research gap

Therefore, the research on Emotional Intelligence status of middle

managers in Vietnam, in particularly the transaction department heads

in commercial banks; as well as research on impact of EI of middle

managers on the transaction department’s performance and job

satisfaction , organizational commitment, organizational citizenship

behaviorof employee have significance both in theory and practice

Thus, the author selects the topic: “Research on Emotional

Intelligence of middle managers ofcommercial banks in Vietnam” to

do a doctoral thesis with the desire that this research will have

contributions to narrow the gap, and the thesis will be the basis to

develop the criteria for assessment and selection of middle managers of commercial banks in Vietnam

2 Research purpose

The researchpurpose of thesis aims to assess the IE status of middle managers, as well as analyze the impact of EI (direct and indirect) on the transaction department’s performance in Vietnam commercial banks In order to offer recommendations on the assessment, selection of managers and enhance, trainEI for middle managers of commercial banks in Vietnam

3 Object and scope of research

Object of research

The object of research of the thesis is the emotional intelligence and the impact of EI of middle managers on the transaction department’s performance in Vietnam commercial banks

Scope of research

The thesis researches on the middle managers of commercial banks

in Vietnam who are Directors, transaction department heads at branches

of commercial banks in provinces of Red River Delta (Hanoi, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Hai Phong, Ninh Binh, etc.)

4 New contributions of the thesis

- In terms of the theory: The thesis has concluded that: (i) with

the components which constitute EIof middle managers, the capacity of middle managers to manage the emotion has the strongest impact on the transaction department’s performance in Vietnam commercial banks; (ii) EIof middle managers has strong influence on the job satisfaction , organizational citizenship behaviortowards employee organization and influences partially on the organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior towards employee individual at the transaction department of commercial banks in Vietnam; (iii) find the job satisfaction , organizational citizenship behavior towards employee organization is the intermediate variable between EI of middle managers and the transaction department’s performance in Vietnam

commercial banks This is the main finding and the new points of the

thesis

- In terms ofpractice: the thesis not only contributes to the

theory, its findings, but also contributes to the practice both

organization and individual, which is proved that EI improvement will

help organization get the better performance and help employees

enhance the productivity, leadership effectiveness

5 Outline of thesis

To state the entire content of the research, in addition the introduction

and conclusion, the outline of thesis consists of 5 chapters, as follows:

Chapter 1: Theory basis of emotional intelligence of middle managers

of commercial banks in Vietnam

Chapter 2: Overview of research and research model

Chapter 3: Research method

Chapter 4: Findings

Chapter 5: Discussion of findings and recommendations

CHAPTER 1: THEORY BASIS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE OF MIDDLE MANAGERS OF COMMERCIAL

BANKS IN VIETNAM 1.1 Definition, model and measurement tool of emotional intelligence

The emotional intelligence has been interested in so much recently,

EI is expected to influence the organization and human being development; EI provides new approach to understand and evaluate behavior, management style, ability, skill, etc of an individual

In terms of the net approach of capacity, the emotional intelligence

is the capacity of individuals to accurately perceive, understand and manage their own emotion; to accurately perceive (understand) others’ emotion; to use emotional information to guide their own thinking and behavior

In terms of EI model, it is divided into two models: ability model and mixed model The ability model pays much attention to how the emotion influences on thinking, decision, plan and behavior of someone While the mixed model is generated on the base that EI not only consists of the emotional capacities, but also so many other attributes such as personality, personal motivation and social skills, etc The question “Is the emotional intelligence measured?” According

to Encyclopedia of Application Psychology (2004), four the measurement tools that are used most frequently in researches on EI are MSCEIT, EQ-I, ECI, SSRI and these tools are studied carefully and confirmed in terms of the statistics SSRI required individuals to answer some questions to evaluate themselves according to recognizing, understanding about themselves Thus, the tool can save survey time and findings are more reliable SSRI is used widely in researches and researches with different scales show reliable and effective evidences

for researches on EI (Elizabeth J Austin et al, 2004) According to

Schutte et all, 2009, the researches on EI used the SSRI in analyzing

factors that give appropriate EI constituent variables in terms of each

variable’s name and not losing the SSRI’s effectiveness like the

research of Ciarrocchi et al (2001), Austin et al (2004)

1.2 Emotional intelligence of middle managers of commercial

banks in Vietnam

1.2.1 Introduction to middle managers of commercial banks in

Vietnam

According to Uyterhoeven (1972), the middle managers are the

managers at the intermediate management in the hierarchy of

companies and bears all responsibilities for the business results of

sales department The middle managers may be construed as the

managers under senior managers / Board of Management and the

superior of group of supervisors (Heckscher, 1995)

Vietnam commercial banks features it organization structure

including many levels For the scope of branch, the middle managers

of commercial banks in Vietnam includes head and deputy head of

departments of branches; director, head and deputy head of transaction

departments under the branches

1.2.2 Emotional intelligence of middle managers of commercial

banks in Vietnam

According to EI definition of Mayer and Salovey, the emotional

intelligence of middle managers of commercial banks in Vietnamis the

capacity of individuals to accurately perceive, understand and manage

their own emotion; to accurately perceive (understand) others’

emotion; to use emotional information to guide their own thinking and

behavior

Based on EI model of Mayer and Salovey (1997), the emotional intelligence structure of middle managers of commercial banks in Vietnam includes:

Table 1.5: Emotional intelligence of middle managers of commercial banks in Vietnam

EI of middle managers in Vietnam

Interpretation

Accurately perceiving emotion

The capacity of individuals to accurately perceive their own emotion and others’ emotion

Using emotion

to facilitate thought

The capacity of individuals to use the emotion to guide thinking, judgment and behavior

Understanding emotion

The capacity of individuals to understand the emotional states, as well as reasons and development of emotion

Managing emotion

The capacity of individuals to manage their own emotion, manage the emotion to aim to any social target, manage others’ emotion

Source: Based on EI model of Mayer and Salovey (1997)

CHAPTER 2:

OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH AND RESEARCH MODEL

2.1 Overview of research on emotional intelligence of foreign

countries

2.1.1 Researches on the relation between EI and factors attributed to

managers

2.1.1.1 Relationbetween EI and gender

“Is there difference between male and female in terms of total

score and score for each EI constituent factor?” This question has not

reached the agreement: some researchers said that there is difference in

terms of EI score between male and female (Mandell and Pherwani,

2003), Cavallo and Brenza (2002); while some supposed that there is no

difference in terms of EI score between male and female (Nikolaou and

Tsaousis,2002), Brooks (2002), (Goleman, 2003)

2.1.1.2 Relationbetween EI and age

Daniel Goleman (1995; 2004) declared that each person's EI

tends to increase over time, and he built the data, training programs to

improve the emotional intelligence John Mayer et all (1999, 2003) also

said that EI score increases with age However, these results are

contrary to the findings of Slaski and Cartwright (2003), scholars have

shown that there is no relation between age and EI - or the relation

between EI and age does not exist Specifically, two authors research in

institutions whose employers’ ageis at the distance of four generations

and the research results indicate there is no basis to assert that EI

increases according to the different ages

2.1.3 Relation between EI and educational qualification

No many researches have mentioned the relation between EI

and educational qualification.Because many scholars have considered

EI as a separate structure in comparison with the intelligence quotient

(IQ) In the researches on EI of leaders, Brooks (2002) found that the

educational qualification has no much impact on EI, but found that it is

different between EI of educated people in the science and the art

However, Nikolaou and Tsaousis (2003) had a different opinion and the

findings have demonstrated that EI variable is significantly correlated with the education duration (number of years)

2.1.1.4 Relation between EI and managers’ work performance

There are many experimental studies that have explored the effect of EI and work performance, and the findings showthe positive correlation between EI and job performance (Goleman, 1998; Bachman

et al, 2000; Fox and Spector, 2000; Jordan et al, 2002; Wong and

Law, 2002; Slaski and Cartwright, 2002)

2.1.1.5 Relation between EI and managers

According to Fredrickson (2003), managers with high EI can improve the performance of their subordinates by managing emotion well that nurtures creativity, resilience and confidence of subordinates, generating better cooperation results among employees (Barsade, 2002), while helping employees organize their work, build a better organization and contribute to improvework performance (Wong and Law, 2002 )

2.1.1.6 Relation between EI and leaders

When a leader with high EI, he/she is often willing to contribute more to his/her organization (Abraham, 2000) and usually expresses better at work (Goleman, 2000), uses relationship between individuals well, builds trust and teamwork of employees better; and making decisions and activities of the organization will be improved when the leaderknows how to use their positive emotion and employees’ positive emotion(George, 2000; Wong and Law, 2002) On the other hand, if a leadercan’t manage his emotion, whichcauses inefficiency in the quality of work, thinking and decision-making process, interaction with others and dissatisfaction at work of employees (Palmer, Jansen & Coetzee, 2006)

2.1.2 Researches on relation between EI and variables at organization level

Venkatraman and Ramanujam (1986) suggested that enterprise’s business result can be evaluated under the perspective of financial performance; non-financial performance (performance indicator); or a combination of the financial and non-financial performance.\

In an experimental study, Rahim & Malik (2010) have

concluded that there is a direct relationbetween EI and the enterprise’s

business result EI plays a coordinating role in the relationbetween

service supplier and customer satisfaction, is a fundamental motivation

of the enterprise’s business result (Rehman et al, 2012; Pahuja and Sahi,

2012) Thus, recent studies have suggested that there is a

relationbetween EI and the enterprise’s business result, but no study has

ever shown any factor in EI constituent factors of managers

thataffectsthe enterprise’s business result

2.1.3 Researches on relation between EI and variables at employee

level

2.1.3.1 Relation between EI and job satisfaction

In the scope of the organization, the job satisfaction is positive

response emotion of employees to work when the value of work is

brought as expected (Olsen, 1993) Managers with high EI will

recognize and respond employees’ expectationat work Luddy (2005)

suggested that superiors’ supervision is one of factors that

affectsemployees’ job satisfaction , along with other factors Thus,

maybe EI of managers affectsemployees’ job satisfaction - this is

research gap on relation between EI and job satisfaction

2.1.3.2 Relation between EI and organizational commitment

Organizational commitment (OC) can be understood as level of

consent and the most enthusiastic participationof an employee

According to Meyer and Allen (1997), we can understand the

organizational commitment in three aspects: (i) emotional commitment;

(ii) continuance commitment; (iii) normative commitment

Carmeli (2003) suggested that EI and the organizational

commitment have a positive relationship However, Wong and Law

(2002) said that although EI has certain relation like job satisfaction and

organizational commitment, but EI has little impact on the level of

organizational commitment Guleryuz et al (2008) also said that EI is

not directly related to the organizational commitment; and job

satisfaction as intermediary variable between EI and the organizational

commitment

2.1.3.3 Relation between EI and organizational citizenship behavior

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is considered as a new approach in human resource management in many organizations

(Ertürk, 2007) Organizational citizenship behaviorincludes a set of

individual’s behaviors within the organization, which these behaviors are actions that individuals perform beyond tasks and requirements of work and actions that individuals do not expect recognition and reward

(Organ, 1988)

According to Podsakoff et al (2000), OCB includes - I is an individual’s behavior that the individual voluntarily help others for work matters; OCB - O is behaviors towardsthe common benefits of organization

Moghaddami et al (2011), Yaghoubi et al (2011) suggested that there is a significant relationbetween EI of managers and OCB of employees However, findings have not indicated the extent of impact

of EI of managers on OCB-I, OCB-O of employees.This is also researchgap on the relation between EI of managers and OCB of employees

2.2 Researches on emotional intelligence in Vietnam

In Vietnam, researches on “Emotional intelligence” are conducted by some scholars, researcher and they have obtained findings both the theory and practice:

- Firstly, in terms of theory, the researches tend to unify terms, definitions, models and measurement tools

- Secondly, researches on “Emotional intelligence” are carried out mainly in the education and somefindings are similar to that of foreign scholars

2.3 Research gap and research orientation of topic

2.3.1 Research gap

From the research overview result, the authorfinds that research orientation on emotional intelligenceof middle managers of commercial banks in Vietnamis new research orientation and has the research gap

on EI

2.3.2 Research orientation and model of topic

The topic towards the research on EI of middle managers of

commercial banks in Vietnam aims to answer the question: is there any

close relation between EI of middle managers and the job satisfaction ,

organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior of

employees?; and which factor of the EI constituent factors of

managersmainly affects on the transaction department’s performance?

2.4 Research model and hypothesis

 Research model

Based on the theory and overview of researches on EI, the research

model of thesis is proposed, as follows:

Employees’

job satisfaction

Employees’

organizational commitment

Transaction department’s performance

Employees’

organizational citizenship behavior

EI of middle managers

of commercial banks in

Vietnam

• Accurately perceive

emotion

• Use emotion

• Understand emotion

• Manage emotion

 Research hypothesis

Table 2.2: Research hypothesis

H1

EI of middle managers has impact on employees’ job satisfaction in the transaction department of Vietnam commercial banks

H2

EI of middle managers has impact on employees’ organizational commitment in the transaction department of Vietnam commercial banks

H3

EI of middle managers has impact on employees’ OCB towards organization in the transaction department of Vietnam commercial banks

H4

EI of middle managers has impact on employees’ OCB towards individual in the transaction department of Vietnam commercial banks

H5

The capacity of middle managers to accurately perceive the emotion has impact on the transaction department’s performance of Vietnam commercial banks

H6

The capacity of middle managers to use the emotion has impact on the transaction department’s performance of Vietnam commercial banks

H7

The capacity of middle managers to understand the emotion has impact on the transaction department’s performance of Vietnam commercial banks

H8

The capacity of middle managers to manage the emotion has impact on the transaction department’s performance of Vietnam commercial banks

H9

Employees’ job satisfaction has intermediate impact on the relation between EI of middle managers and the transaction department’s performance of Vietnam commercial banks

H10

Employees’ organizational commitment has intermediate impact on the relation between EI of middle managers and the transaction department’s performance of Vietnam commercial banks

H11

Employees’ OCB towards organization has intermediate impact on the relation between EI of middle managers and the transaction department’s performance in Vietnam commercial banks

H12

Employees’ OCB towards individual has intermediate impact on the relation between EI of middle managers and the transaction department’s performance in Vietnam commercial banks

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHOD

3.1 Research design

From the research purpose and to interpret the survey results

more clearly, the research process includes two stages: preliminary

research and officialresearch In particular, the preliminary research

aims to propose the research model and scale; for the official research,

the author releases a questionnaire and then collects them, enters data

and analyze factors and verify according to multivariate regression

3.2 Scale

Scale which is used to measure the concepts in the research

model is the scale used inmuch scientific works and verified thoroughly

in terms of the statistics:

Table 3.1: Variable scale in the model

Accurately perceiving

emotion

Using emotion

Understanding emotion

Managing emotion

Ciarrochi et all developed the scale of components (based on the scale of SSRI

of Schutte et all, 1998)

Transaction department’s

performance

Based on the scale developed by Phan Thuc Anh et al (2006)

Job satisfaction Judge et al (2005)

Organizational

commitment

Meyer et al (1993)

OCB towards organization

OCB towards individual Podsakoff et al (1990,1994)

Source: The author sumps and develops

3.3 Qualitative research

To ensurethe science and conformity of research model, the concept and scale of the variable in the model, as well as the findings interpretation, the author has used the research method at the table, including to interview experts and middle managers to understand more about the impact of EI of middle managers on the transaction department’s performance

3.4 Pre-testing

The purpose of pre-testing is to detect weaknesses in the design and question structure (Cooper& Schindler, 1998; Fink, 2003);in addition, to minimize the problems during answering questionnaire and entering data (Saunders et al, 2007) The author has surveyed 10 transaction department heads and 15 employees at Vietinbank, Thanh Xuan branch, Hanoi and Agribank, Nam Dinh branch The result of pre-testing is that basically, the questionnaire is accepted, just adjust some

of the terms and design

3.5 Quantitative research

 Research sample

Research sample has been selected by convenience sampling method The author has conducted a survey at the transaction departments ofcommercial banks (Vietinbank, Vietcombank, BIDV, Agribank, Mbank) and some commercial banks whichare not owned by the State (VP Bank, Lienvietpostbank, VIB) in Hanoi, Hai Phong, Nam Dinh, etc.In each locality, the author has selected the transaction departments which are located in cities, towns and districts in the geographical aspect

In terms of objectswho answer the questionnaire, the author onlysurveyedEI of the transaction department heads and performance of transaction departments of Vietnam commercial banks they charge For the questionnaire for employees, the author investigated subordinates of those middle managers

 Data collection

The data collection has beenconducted by direct survey methodat

125 transaction departments (both heads and subordinates) and by

indirect survey methodat 135 transaction departments (heads)

 Data analysis

After collecting the questionnaire answers, the author has

filteredthe information, filtered the questionnaire and encoded the

necessary information in the questionnaire, entered the data and

analyzed it through SPSS software: (i) Inspectvariable values by

exploratory factor analysis (EFA); (ii) Evaluate the reliability of the

scalethrough Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient; (ii) Testthe

multivariate regression

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS

4.1 Descriptive statistics

Through the convenience sampling method, the author collected 217 answers from middle managers (account for 90.97%) and

342 answers from employees (account for 92.18%) The average age of middle managers who take part in the research is 35 years old; the educational qualification is mainly level 3 – university and level 4- Master; the highest seniority is 18 years and the lowest is 5 years; the average number of years of middle manager holding is 3.26 years

4.2 Distribution inspection of scale

The findings show that the minimum value (Min) and the maximum value (Max) of the scale is from 1 to 5, which implies that there is no fluctuation limit for the scale that is used and the scale is suitable, ensure the inspection requirement and nest analysis

4.3 Variable value inspection

By exploratory factor analysis (EFA), KMO and Bartlett value as inspecting the independent variable is 0.732 (>0.5) and sig=0.000 < 0.005 Besides, factor loadings values is more than 0.5 The results leading to the conclusion is the scales with the high values as being used to measure the corresponding variables

4.4 Reliability inspection of scale

Capacity to accurately perceive the emotion

.782

Capacity to use the emotion .777

Capacity to understand the emotion .648

Capacity to manage the emotion .751

Transaction department’s performance .732

4.5 Relation between factors attributed to managers and emotional

intelligence of middle managers

The inspection results has shown that: (i) not to assert that there is

difference between EI of male middle managers and EI of female

middle managers (P-value=0.379>0.05); (ii) there is difference of EI of

middle managers according to the educational qualification

(P-value=0.000<0.05); (iii) there is positive relation between the seniority

in banking, the number of years of position holding and EI of middle

managers of commercial banks in Vietnam

4.6 Correlation inspection of variables

The result of correlation analysis has shown that there is relation

between EI of middle managers and job satisfaction, organizational

commitment of employees, OCB-O of employees (P-value ≤0.05)

While there is no basis to assert relation between EI of middle managers

and OCB-I of employees by (P-value = 0.063>0.05)

4.7 Hypothesis inspection

4.7.1 Relation between EI of middle managers and variables at

employee level

The inspection result has shown that: EI of middle managers

has strong impact on the job satisfaction, OCB towards organization of

employees and has little impact on the organizational commitment,

OCB towards individual of employees at the transaction department of

Vietnam commercial banks Thus, the hypothesis H 1, H 2, H 3, H 4 are supported

4.7.2 Relation between EI of middle managers and the transaction department’s performance in Vietnam commercial banks

The inspection result has shown that EI constituent factors of middle managers have positive impact on the transaction department’s performance The capacity to manage the emotion has the strongest impact on the transaction department’s performance (Beta=0.257), then the capacity to use the emotion (beta=0.182), and the capacity to accurately perceive the emotion has the lowest impact (Beta=0.017)

Thus,the hypothesis H 5 H 6, H 7, are supported

4.7.3 Relation of EI of middle managers, variables at employee level and the transaction department’s performance in Vietnam commercial banks

The inspection result has shown that: (i) the capacity to manage the emotion has the strongest impact on the transaction department’s performance; (ii) the job satisfaction, OCB towards organization of

employees have intermediate impact on the relation between EI of

middle managers and the transaction department’s performance in Vietnam commercial banks (P-value<0.05 and R2 adjusted to increase

from 0.429 in the model 1 to 0.552 in the model 2) Thus, the

hypothesis H 9 , H 11 are supported; (iii)there is no basis to assert that the

organizational commitment, OCB towards individual of employees have intermediate impact on the relation between EI of middle managers and the transaction department’s performance in Vietnam

commercial banks (P-value>0.05) Thus, the hypothesis H 10 , H 12 are not supported

CHAPTER 5:

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Key findings

The findings of the thesis has suggested that: (i) there is

difference of EI of middle managers according to the higher educational

qualification, the seniority, the number of years of current position

holding; however, it has not asserted that there is difference between EI

of male middle managers and EI of female middle managers; (ii) EI of

middle managers has strong impact on the job satisfaction, OCB

towards organization of employees and has little impact on the

organizational commitment, OCB towards individual of employees at

the transaction department of Vietnam commercial banks; (iii) the job

satisfaction, OCB towards organization of employees have intermediate

impact on the relation between EI of middle managers and the

transaction department’s performance in Vietnam commercial banks

Especially, the findings have shown that the capacity of middle

managers to manage the emotion has the strongest impact on the

transaction department’s performance in Vietnam commercial banks

5.2 Findings discussion

The thesis has shown the findings which express the consensus /

difference and some new contribution in comparison with the previous

researches

Firstly, the findings of the thesis shown that there is positive

relation between the seniority, the number of years of current position

holding and EI of middle managersof commercial banks in Vietnam –

this has the same opinion as that of Daniel Goleman (1995, 2004),

Mayer, Salovey et all (199, 2003), Nikolaou and Tsaousis (2002) and is

contrary tothe findings of Slaski and Cartwright (2003) Why so? The

author said this findings are interpreted by individuals who have more

years of accumulated experience(the seniority), they have more

opportunities to experience in work situations, helping them improve EI

of individuals and this explains the reason why the middle managers have the seniority, they have higher EI

Secondly, the findings of thesis shown that there is no

difference between EI of male middle managers and EI of female middle managersof commercial banks in Vietnam – thisexpresses the consensus

with the researches of Nikolaou and Tsaousis (2002), Brooks (2002),

Daniel Goleman (2003) and contrary to the findings of Cavallo and

Brenza (2002) Because there is no difference, the middle manager should accurately perceive, understand the emotion of partners and know how to manage their own emotion to exact behaviors and decisions at work These capacities are necessary for both male middle managers and female middle managers

Thirdly, the findings of the thesis shown that: there is relation

between the educational qualification and EI of middle managers of commercial banks in Vietnam – this expresses the findings of Nikolaou

and Tsaousis (2003) that EI variable has significant correlation with the education duration (number of years)

Fourthly, the thesis has concluded that: EI of middle managers

strong impact on the job satisfaction of employees and has little impact

on the organizational commitment of employees This findings expressed the consensus with the findings of Wong and Law (2002) These findings implies that high EI helps managers perform their important roles well in human resource communication (roles of representative, leaders and connecting people), etc besides, high EI assists managers to understand subordinates’ mood, why they feel like that and how to manage that feeling Then, managers assign their employees suitable tasks, as well as know how to maintain employees’ enthusiasm, reliability and motivate them to reach organization’s targets and increase employees’ job satisfaction

Fifthly, the thesis has researched a new topic that is considered

as the research gap in terms of organizational behavior, it is organizational citizenship behavior – OCB The findings of the thesis

have shown that: EI of middle managers has influence on OCB towards