Effect of leader’s traits on leadership performance in enterprises in vietnam

In Vietnam, the study of personality, leader’s trait and the influence of these factors on leadership performance, particularly in enterprises is very limited.. Therefore, the study of o

INTRODUCTION

The necessity of the research

Leaders are people having power, influence, charismatic and

inspirational abilities… to form the mighty empire, gather huge armies,

construct and transmit their affects from one generation to the next in

centuries-lasting organizations or companies In general, discussion in

leadership have been involved not only scholars but also practicers In

particular, leader and leader’s trait approach are important ones

In Vietnam, the study of personality, leader’s trait and the influence of

these factors on leadership performance, particularly in enterprises is very

limited Business leaders have been considered in terms of capacity and

education level through qualification In this context, multidimensional,

comprehensive, modern approached studies to leadership must be

continued to complement the theories and basis for practical activities

Due to the historical context, businessman and business leaders in

Vietnam formed lately, were not highly appreciated and created conditions

for development in a very long period Along with economical innovation

and management thinking, businessman class has been growing and taking

increasing important roles to the country's global integration However,

overall assessment, after nearly 30 years of innovation, businessman class

is fundamentally weak in terms of knowledge, ability and managerial

experience (Tran Thi Van Hoa, 2011) Specifically, results from the survey

in more than 63.760 enterprises in 30 northern provinces show that only

54.5% of enterprise owners have college and higher degrees (30% have

been trained in economics and business administration, 70% have not);

45.5% of enterprise owners have secondary school qualifications and

untrained (MPI and JICA, 2005) According to publication from the

General Department of Statistics, in the last 5 years the number of business

bankruptcies continued to increase from 43,000 in 2010 to more than

53,900 in 2011; 54,200 in 2012; 60,700 in 2013 and more than 67,800 to the end of December 2014 This figure tends to growing up becauses of the capacity and the quality of entrepreneurs, business leaders

Therefore, the study of of personality, leader’s trait and the influence

of these factors on leadership performance is a significant issue of theory and practice in conditions Vietnam

Objectives of the study and research questions

This study will help to clarify the influence of leader’s traits on leadership performance in enterprises in Vietnam Specifically, the thesis will respond to the following three research questions:

• How do documented leader’s traits have influence on leadership performance in the conditions of Vietnam?

• What leader’s traits are popular and their influence on leadership performance in enterprises in Vietnam?

• What characteristics of enterprise (Industry, ownership, size ) and characteristics of leaders (age, sex .) moderate the influence of leader’s traits on leadership performance in Vietnam?

Research’s object, scope and method

Method research: combination of qualitative method (in-depth interviews) and quantitative method (survey questionnaires)

The object of the study is the leader’s traits and their influence on leadership performance in enterprises in Vietnam The research unit is the employee and middle-lever leader in different enterprises They were asked

to evaluate their leader’s traits and their leadership performance

Scope of the study: The different state-owner, private and foreign enterprises which are different in term of industry, size, form from seven economic regions (North East, the Red River Delta, Northwest, North Central, West Central, Southeast, and West Southern) 1,000 questionaires were sent, 806 ones is valid among 830 ones responded Survey was carried out in 5 months from April to August 2014

Structure of the thesis

Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the thesis includes 5 chapters:

Chapter 1 Literature review

Chapter 2 Theoritical framework and research model

Chapter 3 Qualitative research: Leader’s traits in enterprise in Vietnam

and adjusted research model

Chapter 4 Quantitative research: Impact of leader’s traits on leadership

performance in Vietnam

Chapter 5 Discussions and recommendations

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Literature review on international researches

Research on leader’s traits

According to the different research perspectives, one or a certain group traits would have a positive impact to the leadership performance, help leaders succeed while others have the completely opposite effect

Research on leaders' qualities, Sankar (2003) said that "vision, goals, self-concept, strategies, work ethic, perception, code of ethics, behavior and the search for excellence" help leaders succeed in their work Similarly, some studies have shown the link between effective work with a number of personal traits such as courage, integrity, passion, compassion, optimism, kindness , humanity, purpose, sympathy (Bright, Cameron and Caza, 2006)

Rooted in psychology, desides The Big Five Traits Theory suggested by Judge, Bono, Illies and Gerhardt (2002), Peterson and Seligman (2004) presented 6 virtues with 24 traits that help individuals, leaders success, satisfy with work: Winsdom, Courage, Humanity, Transcedence, Temperance and Justice Based on this category, Noel Balliett Thun (2009) developed the scale and measured their impact to leadership performance This category is more consistent with business and management

Some studies focus on the qualities with negative impact (dark traits) Among this, study on Dark Triad including Narccisism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy is dominant Schaubroeck, Walumbwa, Ganster and Kepes (2007), examined the relationship between these three qualities to the staff’s physical and mental stress, their work attitude and the commitment to organizations Jonason, Slomski and Partyka (2012)

considers these three qualities as a measure to assess the negative staff and

a sign to identify the strategies that they will use in the workplace

One other interesting aspect that the researchers have also shown

that these dark traits are also positive and vice versa In it, Furnham,

Trickey and Hyde (2012) has pointed out the negative characteristics have

tight ties to both the success and failure in specific work Judge, Piccolo

and Kosalka (2009) argues that traits have two sides and affect leadership

performance and effectiveness

Research on leadership performance

Leadership performance is examined in different aspects and for

different purposes Based on the research findings of Thunn (2009); Piero,

Cicero, Bonaiuto, Knippenberg and Kruglanski (2005); Reave (2005);

Knippenberg and Hogg (2003); Koene, Vogelaar and Soeters (2002);

Mumford, Zaccaro, Johnson, Diana, Gilbert and Threlfall (2000) the

author differentiate criteria measuring leadership performance into 2

groups: staff-leading performance and general-leading performance

In particular, staff-leading performance includes: Perceived

leadership effectiveness; Job satisfaction and Motivation to work;

Commitment to the organization; Professional ethics

General-leading performance includes: Organizational performance

(net profit and controllable cost); Organization efficiency; Readiness to

innovate and General communication

Research on effect of leader’s traits on leadership performance:

there are some notable research

Mumford, Zaccaro, Johnson, Diana, Gilbert and Threlfall (2000)

studied the effect of 7 leader's traits to the quality of the decisions, critical

analysis, personal leadership performance; Reave (2005) have examined

the relationship between spiritual values and specific behaviors to

leadership effectiveness Balliett Thun Noel (2009) studied the effect of 6

group virtues to leadership performance through three groups of criteria:

Organizational citizenship behavior-individual (Josatisfaction, Trust, Conciousness), Affective organizational commitment and General health

In operation area, Cavazotte, Moreno, Hickmann (2012) and Strohhecker, Grobler (2013) and studies in materials and energy management Following Transformational Leadership approach, the authors promote intelligence, personality, emotional intelligence, knowledge

360 degrees model is mentioned as another interesting study on measuring the influence of leader’s qualities on leadership performance (Strang and Kuhnert, 2009), through his senior, junior and colleague

1.2 Literature review on researches in Vietnam

In Vietnam, the researches not only on the leader’s traits but also

on effect of leader’s traits on leadership performance is very limited, according to some following approaches:

The first is Marxist - Leninism perspective and Ho Chi Minh though Accordingly, the leaders - managers must constantly cultivate, train yourself to minimize defects, enhance strengths concentrated in humanity, righteousness, knowledge, courage and integrity (Tran Nguyen Tuyen,

2015 ); righteousness and ability (Tran Sy said, 2004); virtuousness and talent (Do Minh Cuong, 2006; Tuong lai, 2006 .) and reputable to be worth at the helm (Lanh Thi Bich Hoa, 2006)

The second is psychology perspective of leader’s personality (Nguyen Ba Duong, 2004; Le Huu Green, 2006; Vu Anh Tuan, 2009), dignitary’s personality (Luong Xuan Ha, 2007) With this perspective, personality is the unity of virtue and talent, of which virtue is the original and talent is important; unity of a politician, the organizer, the professor and an educator" (Vu Anh Tuan, 2009)

The third is modern and qualitative approach The authors point out these following virtue: desire, thinking, stature (Vu Minh Khuong, 2009); trend, persionality, stuff and capacity (Tran Thi Bich Tra, 2006); 23

psychological qualities necessary for leaders (Tran Thi Bich Tra, 2006); the

personal qualities and leadership gender stereotyping (Nguyen Thi Thu Ha,

2008)

1.3 Research gap

Based on the assessment of the context and the need for research

on leadership and leader’s traits in enterprises in Vietnam, the author

proposes some research directions are as follows: Firstly, the leaders need

to be considered at different levels and leading role instead of attaching to

official position that they hold in the enterprise Secondly, specific

characteristics of the enterprises (intdustry, size, form…) and the leaders

(age, gender, education, experience ) should be considered as moderator

factors on leadership performance Thirdly, leadership theory in the context

of Eastern culture is a puzzle piece to completed leadership theory

Fourthly, documented theories need to be verified in the context of a

growing economy with a variety of economic sectors, forms of ownership,

forms of business organization Finally, leader’s performance need to be

considered in terms of economic development and social responsibility to

ensure business efficiency also contributing to the socio-economic

development

However, within the scope of the thesis, the author intends to take

Trait approach as the fundamental theory with the essential adjustments and

applications as follow: selecting suitable trait classification, adding some

independent variables, adding some scale for dependent variables and

examining the new moderator variables This objective is based on previous

studies on culture and the influence of cultural context on leadership and

leadership performance

CHAPTER 2 THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH MODEL

2.1 Trait theory

Talented leaders always expressed his personal imprint on the organization they lead The imprint is reflected not only the personality, personal traits, but also leader’s talent, ability and contributions for its

development In the broad sense, leader’s traits are understood as the

personal qualities of leader to distinguish with a different leader The personal traits can be positive or negative effect In business and management, the leader’s traits are proved the effect on leadership performance and effectiveness

There are many approaches and classification of personal traits Within the scope of the thesis, the author uses approach and classification

of Peterson and Seligman (2004) and Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka (2009) as the basis to analyse and measure the effect of leader’s traits (both bright and dark traits) leadership performance in enterprises

Regarding the affecting factors: Personality and personal traits are formed and adjusted through the interaction between the individual with the natural and social environment Triandis (1989) has pointed out that differences in cultural context can also influence the personality and behavior of each individual As McCrae, leader is influenced by many factors including biological factors, natural environment and other external factors (McCrae and Costa, 1999; McCrae, 2004) Accordingly, the author has made a qualitative study to show the leader’s trait in enterprises in Vietnam's cultural context

2.2 Leader’s traits classification

Peterson and Seligman’s classification (2004): Using 10 defining

criteria (See Appendix 2), the authors have identified the bright traits

(positive effect) 6 virtues with 24 traits as follows

Table 2.2: Theoretical categorization of 6 virtues and 24 straits

12 Social Intelligence 24 Leadership

(Source: Peterson và Seligman, 2004)

According to Peterson and Seligman (2004), 6 virtues with 24 were

assessed positively in almost all cultures, been proven over time They have

not only positive impact on leadership performance but also make people

feel happy and optimistic The content and expression of 6 virtues with 24

traits are presented in Table 2.3 to Table 2.8 In the thesis, the author uses

24 questions developed by Thun (2009) to measure these 24 traits

Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka’s classification (2009): Based on the

inheritance the previous research, these authors has considered the

multidimensional aspects of traits, proposed and measured the effectiveness

of some new ones In particular, Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka (2009) pointed

out four dark traits including: Narcissism, Hubris, Social Dominance and

Machiavellianism

In the thesis, the author developed 14 questions to measure these four traits The questions are based on the definition of the Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka (2009) with reference to the studies by Rosenthal and Pittinski (2006); Morf and Rhodewait (2001); Baumeister, Campbell, Kruger and Vohs (2003); Sidanius and Pratto (2001); Altemeyer (2004); Goldberg (1990)

2.3 Leadership performance

"Leadership performance is understood as the leader’s impact on junior (including job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, general health) and on general environment in the department or organization (organization efficiency and readiness to innovate)"

Based on statistics, group and selection from previous research results; the author used the following five groups of indicators to measure leadership performance: (1) Job satisfaction, (2) Commitment to organization, (3) General health, (4) Organization efficiency, (5) Readiness

to innovate Due to its compatibility with certain classifications of Cavazotte, Moreno and Hickmann (2012), in the final model, two dependent variable are expected and named staff-leading performance (including criteria 1, 2 and 3) and General-leading performance (including criteria 4 and 5) To measure these two groups, in thesis author selected 15 sub-criteria developed by Noel Balliett Thun (2009); Koene, Vogelaar and Soeters (2002); Piero, Cicero, Bonaiuto, Knippenberg and Kruglanski (2005); Reave (2005); Knippenberg and Hogg (2003)

2.4 Research model

The author used the model composed by Cavazotte, Moreno, Hickmann (2012) as the fundamental research model However some adjustments were carried out to obtain research objectives and suit for the study context In particular, the author:

• Used trait approach and classification of Peterson and Seligman (2004); Judge, Piccolo and Kosalka (2009)

• Added new and specific indicators to evaluate the leadership

performance, however, still based on initial model of Cavazotte,

Moreno, Hickmann;

• Supplemented some leader’s traits affected by the external

environment in the context of Vietnam to and assessed the

moderation of some new factors on the effect of leader’s traits on

leadership performance;

Based on the above acknowledgement, the author proposed the

research model to study the effects of leader’s traits on leadership

performance as in Figure 2.2 below

(Source: Author)

Figure 2.2: Research model (In plan)

2.5 Research method

Secondary information for literature review: In 6 months (from

Dec 2013 to May 2014), using website ScienceDirect.com, the author

studied on the first 1,000 closest results to the term "Leadership and Trait

theory" and then continuously update newer and relevant researches The

Wisdom Courage Humanity Transcendence

Temperance

Justice Narcissism Hubris Social Dominace

Machiavellianism

Leader’s traits in

conext of VN

Staff-leading performance

- Job satisfaction

- Commitment to organization

- General health

General-leading performance

- Organization efficiency

- Readiness to innovate

Moderating variables

Age, Gender, Ownership

study focused on the research of business leader and leader’s traits in different forms of business organization, cultures and countries

Qualitative methods: In-depth interviews were carried out to

affirm the suitability of fundamental theory, characteristics of Vietnam culture affecting individual’s traits and dominant traits of Vietnamese in general and leader in enterprises in particular Content of the in-depth interviews is presented in Table 2.9 Information of experts interviewed, time, location and duration of the interview is presented in Appendix 3

Quantitative Research Methods - Survey questionnaire: used to

measure the effect of leader’s traits on leadership performance Details of the scale selection and development are presented in Table 2.10, 2.11 and 2.12

Questionnaire development and adjustment: The questionnaire

was developed and adjusted over the preliminary quantitative survey with a sample size of 55 in Hanoi Besides the introduction, final questionnaire consists of 3 main sections with 84 questions presented in detail in Appendix 4

Sampling survey: About 1000 staffs and mid-level managers in

different enterprises were asked to get their assessment of their senior’s traits and leadership performance Due to resource limitation, the author used convenience sampling method but to ensure representativeness, the author tried to investigate in seven main economic regions from seven economic regions (including North East, the Red River Delta, Northwest, North Central, West Central, Southeast, and West Southern), in different enterprises in term of industry, business forms, ownership

Survey time: Survey was carried out in 5 months from April to

August 2014 About 1,000 questionaires were sent, 806 ones is valid among 830 ones responded

CHAPTER 3 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: LEADER’S TRAITS IN

ENTERPRISE IN VIETNAM AND ADJUSTED RESEACH MODEL

3.1 Vietnamese’s dominant traits affected by external factors

Based on finding of Triandis (1989) and McCrae (2004), the author

studied the effect of environment on the Vietnamese’s characteristics

The impact of natural environment: The natural condition in

Vietnam is diverse in topography, climate and land; different between

regions Vietnam social is diverse in the unity of an agricultural

civilization, relying on nature and in harmony with nature Adapted with

those natural conditions, Vietnamese also have some characteristics as

follows: high adaptability, community, small-scale production, lack of

planning, seasonality, passivity

The impact of economic - social – religious environment and

exotic elements: Vietnam has agricultural culture People desire to live in

peace, natural harmony, emotion appreciation, tolerance, have philosophy

of balance and harmony It is this philosophy leading to high adaptability

under all circumstances (Tran Ngoc Them, 1999) Throughout history, the

long-term commitment between the individual and the community make

people appreciate emotion or “emotional thinking” Oriental monarchy

existing for thousands of years in the history Vietnam makes people live in

habits, trails Great majority of the cultural values are created once and

forever, without modification, creativity and innovation

The impact of religious and exotic elements: At the “crossroads of

civilizations” (Tran Quoc Vuong et al, 2006) Introduced into Vietnam with

human spiritual values and encourage goodness, Buddhism also contribute

to the Vietnamese’s emotion appreciation Vietnamese culture is also

ascending affected Chinese culture, especially the Confucian with

humanity Passively receiving and passive thinking in studying and

organizing monarchy government, intuitive thinking also lead to emotional thinking After the 19th century, the influence of Western culture became clearer and stronger, but narrow and quite faint in Vietnam cultural progress

The impact of political factors: political psychology with an

absolute ideology of the king and the monarchy government guided to passive thinking or passivity On the other hand, community and village culture also appeared privatization trend of political relations (Lai Phi Hung

et al, 2013) Leaders often dominated by family and other relationship when making decisions This expression is also very close to emotional thinking

Based on the documented traits, the author categorized and affirmed through in-depth interview The experts’ opinions highly concentrated on "emotional thinking", considered it as an important characteristic of the Vietnamese and needed to be implemented into the model Second trait is the "Initiative - The ability to turn things around" Contrasting to passivity, many people think Vietnamese has very actively impacted on natural conditions to serve life and production activities (dikes system, water resource ) and has flexible responds to changes and challenges Finally, "Harmonious thinking" also needs to be added in the research model because it is considered differently in the way that people think between the West and the East in general and in Vietnam in particular

3.2 Dominant traits needed to be implemented into research model

"Emotional thinking": In leadership, emotional thinking is

known as "Being dominated by relationships, emotion; decision without significant reasons"(Dictionary Vietnamese, Publisher Encyclopedia, 2010)

"Initiative - The ability to turn things around": According to

referenced dictionary, initiative is "be master of his actions, not easily to be

the governed by situation or others” Turning things around has both

meaning as making the changes and countering threats to opportunities So

"The ability to turn things around is adaptability, impact, change the

unfavorable factors into business advantage."

"Harmonious thinking": Harmony means adaptation of part to

each other, in any system or combination of things or in things intended to

form a connected whole On one side, leaders (in general) and leaders in

enterprises (in particular) with "Harmonious thinking" do not solve the

issues deeply and thoroughly On the other side, when choosing the plan or

solving problems, the most importance is seeking for compromise,

conformity and stability in the organization / enterprises rather than judging

which is right or wrong

The author also developed and affirmed 12 scales to measure 3

traits include "Emotional thinking", "Initiative - The ability to turn things

around" and "Harmonious thinking" as discussed above Expression and

scale for "Emotional thinking" are shown in Table 3.2; "Initiative - The

ability to turn things around" in Table 3.3 and "Harmonious thinking" in

Table 3.4

3.3 Adjusted research model and research hypotheses

Based on the results of qualitative research, the author adjusted the

research model as in Figure 3.1 and developed 4 groups of hypotheses:

• Hypotheses about the effect of leader’s traits on staff-leading

performance

• Hypotheses about the effect of leader’s traits on organization-leading

performance

• Hypotheses about the difference in staff-leading performance

• Hypotheses about the difference in organization-leading performance

CHAPTER 4 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH: IMPACT OF LEADER’S TRAITS

ON LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE IN VIETNAM

4.1 Reliability of the scales

The scales are tested the reliability by Cronbach’s Alpha and Corrected Item – Total Correlation Next, the retained variables are continuously analyzed using factor analysis method (EFA)

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach’s Alpha in the range 0.7 - 0.8 is good but accepted at least 0.6 Besides, the variables with the Corrected Item – Total Correlation lower than 0.4 will also be excluded (Nunnally, 1978; Peterson, 1994; Slater, 1995 cited in Hoang Trong - Chu Nguyen Mong Ngoc, 2005)

Scales for leader’s traits: all the variables have Cronbach’s Alpha

from 0.686 to 0.927 The author retain 47 observed variables having Corrected Item – Total Correlation higher than 0.4 and excluded 3 other variables Detailed statistics is in Table 4:11 and Appendix 6

Scale for leadership performance: all the variables have Cronbach’s

Alpha from 0.736 to 0.874 All of 15 observed variables are included because

of having Corrected Item – Total Correlation higher than 0.4 Statistics in details is provided in Table 4.12 and Appendix 7

Check validity of scales

Next, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to assess the validity

of the scales In this test, variables with the extraction less than 0.5 continue disqualified The author chose Principle Components Analysis for Extraction Method, Varimax with Kaiser Normalization and Initial Eigen values is over

1 Scales are accepted when Rotation Sum of Squared Loading is greater than 50% and the extractions are 0.5 or more (Hair & CTG, 1998)

Scales for leader’s traits: After removing 9 scales, 3rd EFA result

analysis was accepted in all criteria, presented in Table 4:13 (see Appendix 8

and 9 for details) First, KMO and Bartlett's test (KMO at 0.934 in accepted

range 0.5 <KMO <1 and Sig = 0.000 <0.05) showed that the observed

variables are correlated with each other on overall Based on the analyzing

results in Appendix 9, 6 factors were extracted out Rotation Cumulative

Sum of Squared Loading Value showed that 6 factors explained 61.96% of

data variation Therefore, the author has identified six groups of factors that

will be used in the research model:

• FX1: Narcissism – Hubris – Social Dominance

• FX2: Humanity – Justice with Forgiveness and Humor

• FX3: Initiative – The ability to turn things around

• FX4: Emotional – Harmonious thinking

• FX5: Self-Regulation – Beauty with Prudence and Gratitude

• FX6: Curiosity – Love of Learning

Scale for leadership performance: including 15 observed variables

With the principle as above, after removing one observed variable, the

analysis 2nd showed the correlation between observed variables Based on

the analyzing results in Appendix 9, 2 factors were extracted out Rotation

Cumulative Sum of Squared Loading Value showed that 6 factors explained

61.02% of data variation So we have two groups of factors measuring

leadership performance including:

• FY1: Staff-leading performance

• FY2: General-leading performance

Based on these findings, the research model is adjusted as follows:

Figure 4.5: The adjusted model to study the effects of leader’s

traits on leadership performance

(Source: Author)

4.2 Impact of leader’s traits on leadership performance: Regression analysis

4.2.1 The first assumed model

The regression results assessing the impact of 6 leader’s traits on Staff-leading Performance (FY1) as follows:

FY1 = - 0.068(FX1) + 0.305(FX2) + 0.073(FX3) + 0.076(FX4)+ 0.1(FX5) + 0.07(FX6)

Linear regression results of the first model are presented in Table 4.18 and in Appendix 14 for more details

With significance of 5%, all of 6 traits have effects on Staff-leading performance Particularly, the influence of (FX2) Humanity – Justice, (FX3) Initiative – The ability to turn things around, (FX4) Emotional – Harmonious thinking, (FX5) Self-Regulation – Beauty, (FX6) Curiosity – Love of Learning are positive, (FX1) Narcissism – Hubris – Social Dominance is negative

About the effecting degree, (FX2) Humanity – Justice is the most powerful influence on staff-leading performance (0.305) and the next is

Staff-leading performance

- Job satisfaction

- Commitment to organization

- General health

General-leading performance

- Organization efficiency

- Readiness to innovate

FX1 – Narcissism – Hubris – Social Dominance

FX2 Humanity - Justice

FX3 – Initiative – Ability

to turn things around

FX4 – Emotional – Harmonious Thinking

FX5 Self-Regulation – Beauty

FX6 – Curiosity – Love of Learning

Moderating variables

Age, Gender, Ownership

-

+

+

-

+

+

(FX5) Self-Regulation – Beauty at 0.1 The remaining trait groups have

similar degree effects with the absolute value of approximately 0.07

4.2.2 The second assumed model

The regression results assessing the impact of 6 leader’s traits on

Organization-leading Performance (FY1) as follows:

FY2 = 0.338 (FX2) + 0.091 (FX5) + 0.216 (FX6)

Linear regression results of the first model are presented in Table

4.19 and in Appendix 15 for more details

This means that, with the significance of 5%, only (FX2) Humanity

– Justice; (FX5) Self-Regulation – Beauty and (FX6) Curiosity – Love of

Learning are affected (FY2) General-leading performance All these

influences are positive

About effecting degree, (FX2) Humanity – Justice is the most

powerful influence to General-leading Performance (0.338) and then to

(FX6) Curiosity – Love of Learning (0.216), (FX5) Discipline -

Perfectionism at least (0.091)

4.3 Impact of leader’s traits on leadership performance: Moderation

of enterprise and leader’s biographical characteristics

4.3.1 One-way ANOVA analysis

The difference between groups of gender: There are differences

about General-leading performance (FY2) between male and female

leaders (Sig =0.044); but it is insufficient to assert such differences about

Staff-leading performance (FY1) See Tables 4.20 for details

The difference between groups of age: It’s insufficient to conclude

the differences in leadership performance between the leaders in various

age groups (Sig = 0.378 and Sig = 0.54) See Tables 4.21 for details

The difference between groups of ownership: There are differences

of (FY1) Staff-leading performance and (FY2) General-leading

performance between State-owner, private and foreign enterprises (Sig =

0.001 and Sig = 0.038) See Table 4.22 for details

4.3.2 Regression analysis

To test the impact of leader’s traits on leadership performance with the moderation of enterprise and leader’s biographical characteristics, the author create and test a regression model dummy variables (gender, age and ownership groups) There are 6 dummy variables including Sex, Age1, Age2, Age3, Own1, and Own2) The variables’ original status is women (0), age group 24-35 (0,0,0) and State-owner (0,0) The dummies are presented in detail in Appendix 16

Linear regression results are presented in Table 4.19 and in Appendix 15 for more details

We have some major conclusions as follows:

The difference between groups of gender

In case of other factors being stable, the male leaders would have better result on Organization-leading performance than female leaders (0.072.)

Male leaders have impact of (FX4) Emotional – Harmonious thinking on (FY1) Staff-leading performance higher than female leader (0.125); while the impact of (FX6) Curiosity – Love of Learning on (FY2) General-leading performance is lower (0.15)

The difference between groups of age

There is no difference in leadership performance between leaders

in groups of age Few differences in the influence of some traits on leadership performance are not significant

The difference between groups of ownership

The results of linear regression analysis completely coincide with the results of descriptive statistics (in Table 4.8, Figure 4.2) and ANOVA analysis (in Table 4.22)

Overall differences: In comparison with private and foreign enterprises, leaders in State-owner enterprises have higher staff-leading