To explore women leadership in the collectivist culture: the business context of Vietnam master of business administration

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY ------ LE THI THU THAO TO EXPLORE WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN THE COLLECTIVIST CULTURE: THE BUSINESS CONTEXT

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

- -

LE THI THU THAO

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

- -

LE THI THU THAO

TO EXPLORE WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN THE

COLLECTIVIST CULTURE:

THE BUSINESS CONTEXT OF VIETNAM

Major: Business Administration (Research) ID: 8340101

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: Dr Tran Mai Dong

Ho Chi Minh City, April 2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I would like to express my gratefulness to my supervisor Dr Tran Mai

Dong for his professional guidance, intensive support, valuable suggestions, instructions and encouragement during the time of doing my research

My sincere thanks to all lecturers of the MBA class who have given us knowledge, and guidance during the course My special thanks to all commentators Dr Luu Trong Tuan and Dr Ngo Quang Huan for valuable advice and suggestions

It is my pleasure to be an MBA class member as we had an unforgettable time studying together with my classmates during our course I would like to thank all of my classmates, friends and colleagues who enthusiastically helped me during the data collection, and special thanks to my manager who encouraged and let me have necessary time for my thesis

ABSTRACT

Nowsday, women leadership has been researching by many scholars all around the world, especially Western countries when gender equality is increasingly recognized and the rights of women are more and more focused by the Government and the society Moreover, in the age of global development, when people have a lot of opportutinities to approach innovations, women have more and more opportunities to develop their careers instead of doing family chores as before However, seems to be very little research related to Asian women, especially for countries with the collectivist culture with the longstanding root of Confucian and people are influenced

by the values of Confucianism, which greatly affect the status of women in society Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore women leadership in the collectivist culture with the business context of Vietnam This exploratory qualitative study was carried out in two phases, including indeep semi-structure interviews with 10 participants from multiple stakeholders and thematic analysis for new findings After analyzing the collected data, this study indicated that Vietnamese female leaders are appropriate for transformational leadership style when working in higher positions in enterprises, especially privately owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises Furthermore, female leaders with open-mindedness and modern mindset will be more suitable for transformational leadership style

Keyword: Collectivist culture, Leadership, Women Leadership, Transformational

Leadership

STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION

I hereby declare that I have written the present thesis ―To explore women leadership in

the collectivist culture: the business context of Vietnam‖ independently, without

assistance from external parties and without use of other resources than those indicated The ideas taken directly or indirectly from external sources (including electronic sources) are duly acknowledged in the text The material, either in full or in part, has not been previously submitted for grading at this or any other academic institution

Ho Chi Minh City, April, 2018

Le Thi Thu Thao

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGE

ABSTRACT

STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH CONTEXT 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.2 BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THE RESEARCH 3

1.2.1 Vietnamese culture 3

1.2.2 Vietnamese business leadership 4

1.2.3 Women leadership in Vietnam 5

1.3 RESEARCH PROBLEMS TO BE INVESTIGATED 8

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 9

1.5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 10

1.6 METHODOLOGY 11

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 13

1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 13

1.9 OUTLINE OF THE STUDY 13

1.10 CONCLUSION 14

CHAPTER 2 UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, LEADERSHIP AND WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN VIETNAM 15

2.1 CULTURE 15

2.1.1 Definitions of culture 15

2.1.2 Culture Dimensions Theory 16

2.2 LEADER, LEADERSHIP THEORIES AND TRENDS 20

2.2.1 Leadership 20

2.2.2 Leadership theories and trends 22

2.3 CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP 26

2.4 WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS 29

2.5 CULTURE AND WOMEN LEADERSHIP 30

2.6 WOMEN IN VIETNAM 32

2.7 WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN VIETNAM 36

2.8 COLLECTIVIST CULTURE IN VIETNAM 38

2.9 MULTIPLE PERCEPTIONS OF STAKEHOLDERS 40

2.9.1 Internal stakeholders 40

2.9.2 Perceptions of internal stakeholders on women leadership 41

2.9.3 Women leadership perception processes 42

2.9.4 Vietnamese women leadership perception 43

2.10 CONCLUSION 44

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 45

3.1 INTRODUCTION 45

3.2 RESEARCH PARADIGM 45

3.3 DATA GATHERING 46

3.4 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 47

3.5 SAMPLING 50

3.6 SELECTING THE PARTICIPANTS 52

3.7 DATA ANALYSIS 53

3.8 VALIDITY AND TRUSTWORTHINESS 55

3.9 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 57

3.10 LIMITATIONS OF METHODOLOGY 57

3.11 CONCLUSION 58

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS 59

4.1 INTRODUCTION 59

4.2 WOMEN LEADER TRAITS 61

4.2.1 Empathy 61

4.2.2 Tenderness 63

4.2.3 Feeling-based behaviors 65

4.3 LEADERSHIP STYLE 70

4.4 IMPACT OF COLLECTIVIST CULTURE 81

4.4.1 In-group identification 82

4.4.3 Envy at work 89

4.4.4 Gender bias 91

4.2 DISCUSSION 93

4.2.1 The perception of women as leaders 93

4.2.2 Vietnamese women leadership style - Transformational leadership 95

4.2.3 Collectivist culture impacts on women leaders 97

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 100

5.1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND 100

5.2 REVISITING RESEARCH QUESTIONS 101

5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS 105

5.4 CONTRIBUTIONS 107

5.5 STRENGTHS OF THE STUDY 108

5.6 LIMITATIONS 109

5.7 FURTHER RESEARCH 110

5.8 CONCLUSION 110

REFERENCES 112

APPENDICES 130

APPENDIX 1 SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE TO POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS 130

APPENDIX 2 DATA TRANSCRIPT OF CEO 1 132

Vietnamese version 132

English version 140

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SOE State-Owned Enterprise

FIE Foreign Invested Enterprise

POE Privately Owned Enterprise

CEO Chief Executive Officers

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH CONTEXT

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Emerging economies in Asia have played an increasingly important role in the global economy (Cappelli, Singh, & Useem, 2010) As a result, there is a necessity to learn more about how business operates in Asia, particularly in term of leadership, one

of the major determinants of organizational success (Hogan, Robert; Kaiser, & Robert B., 2005) Although cross-cultural leadership research has conducted in recent years (House, Dorfman, Javidan, Hanges, & Sully de Luque, 2014; House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004; Javidan, M., Dorfman, P.W., Howell, J.P., & Hanges, P.J., 2010), the clear demand for cross-cultural analyses of leadership persists (e.g., Bryman, 2004; Gardner, Lowe, Moss, Mahoney, & Cogliser, 2010) In particular, more research

on the specific facets of leadership in Asian countries has been encouraged Furthermore, even though leader emergence has received attention in recent years (Javidan & Carl, 2005), the emergence of women leaders has been understudied in general (Gardner et al., 2010), and in cross-cultural leadership research in particular (Bullough, Kroeck, Newburry, Kundu, & Lowe, 2012) In the context of global economy, Vietnam is not an exception when women's participation in decision-making

at various levels and multiple fields is also increasing encouraged through specific strategies and policies However, there is a little documentation of Vietnamese women

in leadership

Vietnam has recently achieved significant improvements in gender equality and women‘s advancement Vietnam firstly elected a woman to parliament in 1976 and Vietnam ranks first in Asia, second in Asia-Pacific (after New Zealand) and eighteenth

in the world with 33.1% for the representation of women in the National Assembly (Nguyen, 2007) Additionally, 20% of women are in higher positions in organizations

and of these, 25% own a private enterprise (Nguyen, 2007) A recent study by Grant Thornton (2013) shows women‘s leadership in business is growing and 30 percent of Board of Director roles in Vietnam are held by women compared to the global average

of 19 percent However, these figures did not reflect the improvement in women leadership

Women have different views from men on different issues Promoting women's participation in leadership positions and the policy-making process will help to reflect different perspectives and perceptions of decision-making, then decisions and policies also more comprehensive and more relevant, especially with policies that affect women In additions, Bass and Avolio (1994) used the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to show that women managers have more idealized influence, are more inspirational and individually considerate than men Furthermore, Carless (1998) examined 120 women and 184 men employed as bank managers and found that female managers were more transformational than male managers, when they rated themselves and when they were rated by their superiors To be noted, the study of Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, and Van Engen (2003) found that women engaged more

in transformational as well as the active component of transactional leadership, while men engaged more in a passive type of transactional leadership as well as in laissez-faire leadership Therefore, transformational leadership is the main leadership style which I want to investigate in Vietnamese women leaders

This chapter would like to provide an overview of this research by drawing a general picture of subsequent chapters and the research as a whole The chapter examines the background and justification for the research in which understanding of the Vietnamese context and women leadership are explored The chapter also defines the research objectives, research questions and theoretical framework In addition, the chapter discusses the general aspects of research methodology and scope of the study

Furthermore, the chapter identifies the contributions of the study and introduces the organization of the study

1.2 BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THE RESEARCH

1.2.1 Vietnamese culture

Vietnamese culture is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia, with ancient Dong Son culture regarded as one of its most important ancestors (Embassy of Vietnam in the United State of America, 2011) According to Columbia University, due to the thousand years of Chinese domination, Vietnam was heavily influenced by Chinese culture in politics, politics, social ethics and Confucian ethics, and art Vietnam is considered part of the East Asian cultural field The values that have arisen from Vietnam's communist political system as well as from globalization have gradually blended with lasting imprint on Confucian values and norms of behavior Recently, values that have emerged from globalization (such as personal freedom, individualism) have also begun to affect the attitudes and behavior of traditional Vietnamese (Ashwill and Diep, 2005; Doan, 2005, Duc, 2008, London, 2011, Hallinger and Truong, 2014) Nonetheless, to be noted by Dao Duy Anh in ―Khổng Giáo Phê Bình Tiểu Luận‖ (Short Critique of Confucianism) and in the research of Dam (1999), the core values of Confucianism remain deeply rooted in Vietnamese society

Collectivism culture is defined as ―societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout their lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty‖ (Hofstede, 1997) From this concept, collectivist behaviors tend to cooperate and bond to their in-groups as well as family and their performances are viewed as a result of collective effort and interpersonal relationships Cross-cultural studies have shown that collectivist tend to have a stronger attachment to their organization and tend to integrate individual goals

to common goals (Earley, 1989; Triandis, 1995) In collectivist societies, personal

identity is grounded in group-based values A person defines ―who I am‖ primarily in reference to relative social groups (including family, clubs, school, church, company, community and political associations) In additions, highly collectivistic people find and seek faith, intellectual stimulation in their in-group, which are usually their families Hofstede (1991) & Park et al (2005) states that the main collectivist values include loyalty, harmony, cooperation, unity and conformity Because of the Confucian roots, Vietnamese culture is strongly orientated around family and community According to Bich (1999); Bodley (2011); Hofstede (1991); Jamieson (1993), collectivism is a central tenet of Confucianism, and remains strongly evident in modern day Vietnamese culture

1.2.2 Vietnamese business leadership

Vietnam‘s transition (Doi moi) officially initiated in December 1986 when regulations 1and policies aimed at ‗socialist-oriented market economy‘ took effect at the Sixth National Communist Party Congress (Nguyen, Truong and Buyens, 2011) These reforms related to 9 restructuring state-owned enterprises (SOEs), liberalization of the economic system and break the monopoly of the public sector (Warner et al., 2005) This transition not only enhanced the effectiveness and productivity of SOEs, but also creates a business-friendly environment that attracts Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and nurtures DPEs

Over 30 years of rebuilding and developing, Vietnam has been gradually stablizing in all aspects of the country, especially the economic aspect However, perceptions of leadership in Vietnam seems to be ambiguous and there are quite a few studies relating

to business leadership in Vietnam In fact, the term of ―leader‖ was used to refer to national leaders and business leaders were most often referred to as managers (Nguyen, Loi Anh et al (2017)) Phung and Le (2014) conducted a survey of business leaders in big cities in Vietnam in their study and reported that business leaders who are chief

executive officers (CEO) or deputy CEOs have a large range of age from 19 to 60 years (60 years of age is set as retirement age for men by law in Vietnam and 55 for women) The study also showed that compared to other industry jobs, business leaders had a fairly high level of education: nearly 59 percent of leaders were holding bachelor‘s degree, and about two-third of them had postgraduate training However, most of the leaders did not have management training and 34 percent of them had less than five years of experience in management Business leaders in Vietnam also lack managerial competencies and leadership skills In another study comparing attributes of business leaders in Vietnam and Japan, Long, N (2010) pointed out that Vietnam‘s business leaders scored much lower than the Japanese in risk management, strategy planning, and leadership skill To address this gap, the Vietnamese government is cooperating with foreign institutions to provide leadership development programs for business leaders

According to Nguyen, Loi Anh et al (2017), people in Vietnam increasingly recognize the important contributions of individual leaders to organizational performance, both the private sector and public sector enterprises The leadership development efforts in these different types of organizations, however, are significantly different

Furthermore, there are several of differences in leadership between private sector organizations and state-owned companies The most notable point is leaders in private organizations are usually owners and founders of these companies Private firms are classified into two group: big enterprises and small-medium enterprises (SMEs), moreover, leaders in these groups are different in the way they lead

1.2.3 Women leadership in Vietnam

The historical development of Vietnam recognized many significant changes in the role

of Vietnamese women During thousand years under the invasion and domination by Chinese, Vietnamese culture was also permeated by their Confucian philosophical

beliefs In traditional Vietnamese patriarchal society, women had no voice and take the second place in the family Women including wives and daughters had a low status in the family and must listen to men - main pillars in any situation Moreover, women do not have the right to make decisions in main works of families or society and women were considered as free labor forces in the household and farm work During the war in the 1900s, the role of women in rural areas increased and supported the war positively They have taken on varying roles in society, including warriors, nurses, mothers and wives Historically, women have become "active participants" in struggles to liberate their country from foreign occupation, from Chinese to French colonialists

There have been many advances in women's rights in Vietnam, such as an increase in women representation in government, as well as the creation of the Vietnam Women's Union in 1930 During and after the Vietnam War, the Communist Party of Vietnam made a lot of efforts to increase women's rights, equity, and representation in government Furthermore, the government created more opportunities for women to anticipate in different sectors both economic and political areas

Nowadays, Vietnamese women play an increasingly vital role in the nation‘s development, especially at present and in the future When we look back at the development of Vietnamese society, particularly economic development, women hold

a key position, as they directly participate in the national labour force and in paid labour According to statistics, in agriculture – one of the country‘s key sectors – women make up some 70 per cent of the labour force, and in production alone, they make up not a modest workforce in export-oriented industries, such as garment and textile, footwear, light industry, and seafood processing (Khuat, 2016) Moreover, in the contemporary Vietnam, women's rights have continued to increase and women have increasingly held leadership positions Currently, Đặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh is the Vice President of Vietnam, a position she has held since April 2016 Additionally,

Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân was firstly elected as Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Vietnam in March 2016, the first time a woman has ever held the position

Although the number of women leaders in business organizations has more than doubled over the last 30 years, women are still underrepresented in managerial positions worldwide (Catalyst, 2012) Compared to the U.S and Europe, the proportion

of women on corporate boards and in executive committees in Asian countries is even lower On average, women account for only 6% of seats on corporate boards in the ten largest economies in Asia and 8% of members of executive committees, compared to 15% and 14% in the United State, respectively (McKinsey & Company, 2012)

As in many nations, Vietnam has a strong legal framework for gender equality, reflected in the goals of women's political representation However, there is a huge gap the goals and actual practices in women‘s higher position participation The first woman was elected in Vietnam‘s National Assembly in 1976 but the progress has been unsteady In a meta-analysis comparing women and men, Eagly and Johnson (1990) found that women engaged in more interpersonally-oriented and democratic styles, while men displayed more task-oriented and autocratic leadership styles However, these findings only held for laboratory studies with non-leader samples Field studies demonstrated that women adopted a more democratic and less autocratic style than men, but there were no differences in task-oriented leadership from interpersonally-oriented leadership

Amongst communist countries, Viet Nam ranks third out of seven states in women‘s representation at the national level It falls behind the Lao People‘s Democratic Republic and Cuba, which have 25 per cent and 45 per cent representation of women respectively At the sub-national level in China, women represent 43 per cent of seats.These statistics demonstrate that countries with similar political structures are

more successfully achieving gender-balanced representation at both national and subnational levels (UNDP, 2014)

1.3 RESEARCH PROBLEMS TO BE INVESTIGATED

The study has identified the research problems that will be investigated Vietnamese cultural values through Hofstede‘s dimensions show high collectivism (group membership) and high power distance (high hierarchy) According to Hofstede Insight, Vietnam scores high on power distance dimension (score of 70) which means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification, while Vietnam only scored 20 marks in individualism that proved Vietnam is a collectivist culture This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to the ―member‖ group, be that a family, extended family or extended relationships Even though Vietnam has been integrating into the world economy and has been many significant changes due to globalization, Vietnamese business still orient to family and community but not individualism as Western countries Vietnamese people when working in an organization, they usually work to achieve the common goals instead of only thinking of themselves

In additions, Confucian values have still control people‘s mindset and highly appreciate the role of men in both economic and social situations In organizations, the gap between men and women has been existing and the number of male leaders are always superior than male ones in any way Most of people perceive that masculine characteristics are more suitable in leadership positions, so women strive a lot to overcome barriers and constraints to get higher status in society and career path Besides, through more 30 years of economic development, but the concept of leadership in Vietnam seems to be different and vague in comparison to other nations, especially the West Research also show that business leaders in Vietnam also lack managerial competencies and leadership skills (Phung & Le, 2013) Therefore, the

Government as well as multiple enterprises has been creating a lot of programs to structure and develop leaders‘ attributes and skills to help leaders achieve organizational goals and work performance

The most notable thing is multiple perception of Vietnam business leadership, especially female leaders Gender discrimination still exists in Vietnam and Vietnamese women are not evaluated fairly in work and people are lack of trust in women‘s ability However, many cross-cultural studies shows that women appropriate for transformational leadership (Cubillo & Brown, 2003; Eagly & Johannessen-Schmidt, 2001; Eagly, & Johannesen-Schmidt, and van Engen 2003)

Thus, the current study explores women leadership in the collectivist culture: the

business context of Vietnam In this study, through various facets of women leadership

including gender and culture are explored which provide a deeper understanding of the

women leadership in Vietnam

1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

While Western culture fosters a focus on leadership as individual assertion, Asian cultures appear to imply leadership as group-focused action (Menon, Sim, Fu, Chiu, & Hong, 2010) Despite the country‘s improvements in gender equality, Vietnamese women are lagging behind their male counterparts when it comes to political and economic leadership in Vietnam In Vietnam‘s particular situation with regard to leadership positions, it is necessary to take women leadership into consideration It is neccessary to explore how women‘s leaders are perceived in many aspects through the lens of multiple stakeholders Specifically, this research will explore various approaches on women leadership in the collectivist culture like Vietnam Furthermore, the main leadership style influences on women‘s career advancement will also be

investigated In order to unveil these issues, the following research questions will be addressed:

Q1: What are the main attributes that women need to have in a leadership position?

Q2: How does collectivist culture impact on Vietnamese women leadership?Q3: Which does become the main leadership style of women in collectivist cultures like Vietnam?

1.5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The study explores women leadership in the business context of Vietnam The literature review discussed perspectives on leadership theories and trends, transformational leadership theories and women leadership in the collectivist culture of Vietnam This study formed its theoretical basic from three main literature streams: (1) culture and culture dimensions (2) trends and evolution in leadership theories and (3) women leadership and women leadership in collectivist culture

Culture definitions are proposed by many researcher from the 1900s until now, but Lyle‘s definition (1995) is considered as the most accurate meaning in the context of the study Moreover, according to Geert Hofstede, culture differs from one country to another country so culture need to be analysis through six dimensions (Power Distance, Individualism vs Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity vs Femininity, Long-term Orientation vs Short-term Orentation and Indulgence vs Restrainr) to clarify specific national culture

Besides, leadership theories, especially mordernist and post-modernist leadership theories should be considered in this study because during this period, many researchers had started to focus on women leadership However, most of studies in that

time derived from Western countries and there has been quite a few research relating to Asian female leaders Therefore, this study will dive into modernist and post-modernist leadership theories as a main theorical framework to explore women leadership in Vietnam

Furthermore, the third stream – collectivist culture is also a main factor needed to be investigated Through the dimension of Hofstede – Collectivism versus Individualism, characteristics of a collectivist culture will be discussed to find out the relationship between leadership and culture, in particular women leadership and collectivist culture These streams were used to build and support foundations for the proposed theoretical framework Culture and leadership theories were used to shape the understanding of specific leadership behaviors which leaders used at work in specific culture and classify leadership styles as well as update recent leadership styles Next, leadership theories focused on women, in particular the collectivist culture of Vietnam will find out why women appropriate with this leadership Further discussion on the three main streams is detailed in chapter 2

1.6 METHODOLOGY

Qualitative research

According to Mutch (2005), qualitative research aims at exploring ―the unique lived experiences of the participants to enhance understanding of particular phenomena‖ (p 19) This kind of research enables the investigator to capture participants‘ interpretation

of their complex world and to understand the phenomena from their viewpoint (Burns, 2000) by standing ―in the shoes of those being studied‖ (Davidson & Tolich, 2003, p 103) In addition, qualitative research allows rich data to be gathered through a variety

of methods such as observation, in-depth interviews or documentation Data are

descriptive and often thematically analysed, and from this analysis categorisation or theory emerges Therefore, qualitative research is inductive and interpretive

This exploratory study was based on qualitative research and used the in-depth interview method Thus, 10 organizational interviews were conducted with top women managers as well as multiple internal stakeholders in Vietnam The purpose of these interviews was to investigate multiple concepts perceived in women leadership

Research participants included female CEOs, members of boards of department heads and top managers of organizations The interviews lasted from 30 to 60 minutes The research participants were selected from a large range of enterprises which were identified from Vietnam Investment and Enterprise Directory To recruit participants, both purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used

Data analysis strategy

Data analysis needs to be considered at an early stage of research design According to Rubin and Rubin (2005), ―data analysis is the process of moving from raw interviews

to evidence-based interpretations that are the foundation for published reports‖ (p.201) Since this was qualitative research, a thematic approach was employed to analyse the descriptive data Braun and Clarke (2006) define thematic analysis as ―a method for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns within data.‖ (p.79) Braun and Clarke (2006) elaborate a six-step-process which includes data familiarisation, initial codes generation, themes searching, themes review, themes naming and finally, reporting This study conducted six steps to explore multiple perceptions of transformational leadership in Vietnamese business-women without any bias strongly influenced this above-mentioned relationship

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study explore multiple concepts perceived on women leadership in Ho Chi Minh City Therefore, the scope of the study is a large range of organizations in Ho Chi Minh City including state-owned enterprises (SOEs), foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs) in Vietnam

3 top female managers at the medium and high levels in different organizations were selected to become research participants Especially, female is prerequisite to select for this study These female leaders helped having a deeper understanding about leadership

in women Furthermore, 7 participants including male leaders, female and male leaders are also interviewed to approach women leadership in multiple ways

non-1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Firstly, the study will provide findings to explore multiple perceptions of women transformational leadership in Vietnam which is different from Western countries In additions, this study will create a growing need for research on women in leadership in developing countries

Secondly, the research findings will be useful for institutional authorities to have a better understanding in women leadership through conducting and assessing in-depth interviews with middle and upper-middle levels of female managers in Vietnam This study will be a scientific basis to help organizations recognize values of female managers and learn more about how women leaders contribute to organizations through the way they lead to encourage followers‘ high performance

1.9 OUTLINE OF THE STUDY

The study is organized into six chapters as follows:

- The first chapter includes the subject matter and provides the problem, the research objects, scope and significance of the study

- The second chapter provides an overview of the study and literature reviews as well as the theoretical framework of research concepts, including culture, leadership trends, women leadership and collectivist culture in Vietnam

- The third chapter shows the methodology that was used to answer research questions – qualitative research (semi-structured interviews) combined with research design and data collection process to prepare for data analysis

- The fourth chapter concentrates on data analysis and the research findings Findings are presented and explained in this chapter through the process of qualitative data thematic analysis

- The fifth chapter assesses the significance of this study and discussed the depth implications of the findings

in The final chapter shows conclusions, implications and limitations of the study and provides contributions for future research

1.10 CONCLUSION

Vietnam experienced severe economic turmoil in the past century due to the inefficiencies of a centrally planned economy as well as the trade embargo from the US and parts of Europe Based on changing in policies and strategies, Vietnamese women have more opportunities to get higher positions in society, especially business context This exploratory study was based on a qualitative approach and used the in-depth interview method The study takes into consideration women leadership in the complex Vietnamese business context through multiple stakeholder lens Chapter 2 presents the literature reviews on leadership, particularly leadership development in Western countries to shape an overview of women leadership in the collectivist culture

CHAPTER 2 UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, LEADERSHIP AND WOMEN

Since Taylor‘s first definition, multitude definitions are proposed by researchers Culture is also as a part of our social interaction in life is deeply connected to factors of the culture such as symbolism (Lees, 2003), family interaction (Trompenaars and Turner 1998), shared motives, values, beliefs, identities, and events that result from common experiences of members of collectives and are transmitted across age generations (House et al., 2002, p.5), languages (Bjerke 1999) and in the nations to which we belong While Deal and Kennedy (1982) stated that culture is described as

‖the way things are done around here‖, Clyde Kluckhohn explained it as ―an acquired and transmitted pattern of shared meaning, feeling, and behavior that constitutes a distinctive human group‖ (Ayman, 2010, p.158)

Culture is also proposed as the worldview of a cultural group or the core symbols of a particular identity (Chao & Tian 2011, p.65) Furthermore, culture refers to learned behaviors characterizing the total way of life of members of any given society (Hughes

et al., 1999 cited in Zagorsek, Jaklic & Stough, 2004, p.19) According to Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov (2010), culture has been conceptualized as the ―software of the

mind‖ which distinguishes one group or category of people from another Moreover, it has been described as a complex system of norms, values, assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs that are typical characteristics of a particular group and that are strengthened and perpetuated through socialization, training, rewards, and sanctions (Lytle 1995 cited in Kuchinke 1999, p.139) Thus, culture is extremely diverse and complex to define and understand but it is a main factor to identify particular groups enduring over time

2.1.2 Culture Dimensions Theory

Countries differ from one country to another country by their identical characteristics which are coming under their own national culture People behaviors are respectively linked to cultural values of the country and this association is based on the framework

of Geert Hofstede‘s cultural dimensions Geert Hofstede is a researcher in the fields of organizational studies and more concretely organizational culture, also cultural economics and management The dimensions are used to represent independent preferences which vary according to countries and when comparing the national culture

of countries, it is very important point is Hofstede‘s culture dimension Hofstede identified four dimensions of national culture that were positioned against analysis of

40 initial countries in 1980 which are Power distance, Individualism vs Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity vs Femininity In 2010 he released his new edition of culture and organization where he indicates another two dimension of national culture as Long-term Orientation versus Short-term Orientation and Indulgence versus Restraint to measure national culture, based on the research of Michael Minkov

Power distance index (PDI)

Power Distance has been defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is

distributed unevenly (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010) This symbolizes inequality (more versus less), but defined from below, not from above It suggests that a society's level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders It means that people in societies exhibiting a high level of Power Distance accept a hierarchical order

in which all members has a place and which needs no further justification bosses In large-power-distance countries, followers are considerably dependent on their leaders (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, p.61) It is clear to see that in those countries, power of an organization is concentrated and allocated in a few hands Furthermore, it exists a wide gap in the salary system displays between the top and the bottom of organizations (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, p.73) On the contrary, in societies with low Power Distance, people strive to equalize the proportion of power and speak

up when power inequality occurs Moreover, dependency is restricted and there is preference for consultation in small-power-distance countries Especially, Hofstede and Minkov (2010) stated that in those societies someone who today is a subordinate can become a boss tomorrow Finally, Power and inequality, of course, are extremely fundamental facts of any society All societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others

Individualism versus collectivism

These two patterns are understood as "the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups" In individualistic societies, the ties between individuals are loose and the stress is put on personal achievements and individual rights People are expected to stand up for themselves and their immediate family, and to choose their own affiliations In contrast, in collectivist countries, individuals are integrated and act mainly as members of a permanent and cohesive group or organization (Hofstede, 2011) People have large extended families, which are used as a protection in exchange for unquestioning loyalty Collectivism does not mention the power of the state to the individual; it refers to the power of the group Moreover, the group becomes the main

source of the identity for members in collective societies Hofstede and Minkov (2010) indicated that it exists a mutual dependence relationships between the individual and the group which improves both practice and psychology In a collective organizations, employees are perceived as a member of a group and acts in accordance with the interest of the group

Masculinity versus Femininity

Masculinity and femininity are conceptualized as the allocation of emotional gender roles Masculinity is a society in which emotional gender roles are apparently different and associated with culture values such as competitiveness, assertiveness, materialism, ambition and power, whereas feminine cultures place more value on cooperated relationships and quality of life (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, p.140) In masculine cultures, the differences between gender roles are more dramatic and less changeable than in feminine cultures where men and women have the same values emphasizing modesty and caring Furthermore, people who are working in masculine cultures tend to work in order to work and more money are more preferable than leisure time However, it is different when compared to feminine cultures, people work

in order to live and prefer more leisure time over money because femininity stands for

a preference for cooperation, modesty and management based on intuition and consensus Additionally, compromise and negotiation are always top priorities in resolving conflicts Besides, people in masculine cultures are rewarded based on equity while equality are the main basic to reward in feminine cultures And the levels of sharing working women in professional sphere are respectively lower in masculinity and higher in femininity (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, p.170)

The Avoidance of Uncertainty

Uncertainty avoidance index is defined as the degree of which the members of a society feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, p.191) Uncertainty-avoidance countries have more formal laws and

informal rules controlling the rights and duties of employers and employees People in cultures with high uncertainty avoidance tend to be more emotional They tend to try their best to minimize the occurrence of unknown and unusual situations and to carry out step by step with careful changes by planning and implementing rules, laws or regulations In contrast, low uncertainty avoidance cultures accept and feel comfortable and relaxed in unstructured situations or changeable environments in practice and try to have as few rules as possible Moreover, people in these cultures tend to be more pragmatic, they are more tolerant of change

Long-term orientation (LTO) versus short term orientation

Long-term orientation is the fifth dimension of Hofstede which was added after the original four to try to distinguish the difference in thinking between the East and West According to Hofstede and Minkov (2010), long-term orientation stand for the nurture

of pragmatic virtues oriented toward future rewards, in particular persistence, thrift, and adaptation in a changing environment (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, p.239) In society relating to long-term orientation, people have no pay more attention

to leisure time and always aim to long-term goals because the values which all members focus and highly appreciate are learning, honesty, adaptiveness, accountability and self-discipline It also means that people in these cultures make more investments in lifelong personal networks; especially, employers and employees share the same inspiration at the workplace (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, p.251) In opposition to long-term orientation, short-term orientation is defined by Hofstede as ―the fostering of virtues related to the past and present, in particular, respect for tradition, preservation of face and fulfilling social obligations‖ In the workplace, people perceive main values including freedom, rights, achievement and thinking for oneself Additionally, leisure time is considered as an essential factor for all members in an organization In regard to revenue, the profit in the next ten years is not as important as one-year profit and owners and workers are psychologically in two

parties Furthermore, business needs are different from personal loyalties (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, p.251)

Indulgence versus Restraint

In terms of indulgence and restraint, they are relevant to the extent to which member in society try to control their desires and impulses.While indulgence is understood as the tendency to allow relatively free fulfillment of basic and natural human desires related

to enjoying life and having fun, restrained societies have a conviction that such gratification needs to be curbed and regulated by strict norms (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, p.281) Moreover, in highly indulgent countries, cultural norms expressed with a large range of alternative channels and deviant behaviors are easily tolerated, but restrained societies maintain strong values of organizations such as formality, permanence, durability and solidarity In a certain sense, indulgence is somewhat more likely under richness and restrains are under poverty (Hofstede, Hofstede & Minkov, 2010, p.286)

2.2 LEADER, LEADERSHIP THEORIES AND TRENDS

2.2.1 Leadership

―The term leadership is a word taken from the common vocabulary and incorporated into the technical vocabulary of a scientific discipline without being precisely redefined‖ (Yulk, p.2) There exist numerous definitions of leadership, almost as many

as there are scientists who work on the concept of leadership (Stogdill, 1974), trying to narrow this concept down in terms of traits, behaviors, influence, interaction patterns, role relationships, occupation of an administrative position, or attributions Besides, leadership ideologies and myths further blur the common understanding of leadership Yukl (2002) presents a compilation of representative definitions of leadership from

1957 up to 1999 as belows:

Table 2.1 Definitions of leadership (Yukl, 2010, p.21) Leadership is

the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to

contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization…‖ (House

et al., 1996, p 184)

From these above definitions, it makes clear that most of the leadership definitions

assume that ―leadership is a process whereby intentional influence is exerted by one

person over others in order to guide, structure and facilitate organizational activities and relationships‖ (Yukl, 2002, p.7) This definition could be considered as the lowest

common denominator of leadership definitions However, the focus on leadership differs from influencers and approaches, as well as the purpose and the outcome of influencers‘ effort Therefore, when leadership is perceived in different ways, there are

always differences in focused research, as well as the interpretation of results or change

2.2.2 Leadership theories and trends

Leadership has been studied for a long time and many researchers have proposed a variety of different theories and trends of leadership suited to different situations and areas This section reviews the literature on leadership theories and trends in order to illustrate an overview of leadership and explain how effective leadership is The study

of Tran, Fallon & Vickers, 2016 synthesised the leadership studies of Bryman (1989; 2004), Yammarino et al (2005), Avolio, Walumbwa and Weber (2009), Northouse (2013) and Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis (2011) Besides, I also update several of new leadership styles including Developmental Leadership (Larsson et al., 2003; Zhang & Chen, 2013; Boe, O., & Holth, 2015), Blue Ocean Leadership (Kim & Mauborgne, 2014) and Transcendent Leadership (Crossan, M., Vera, D., & Nanjad, L.; 2008) in

Appendix 2.1 Approaches and evolution in the studies of leadership From this short

review, I would like to present the reasons why to choose transformational leadership

to explore in this study

2.2.2.1 Trait approach

Leadership research in the direction of trait approach is one of the earliest approaches

in the early 20th century According to Tran (2016), many researches were concerned to establish what kinds of people tended to become leaders and what characteristics differentiated good leaders from bad ones The ―Great man‖ theories asserted that

―leadership qualities were inherited, especially by people from the upper class Great man were born, not made‖ (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991, p.48) In this part of leadership literature, women were not considered as potential leaders This theory was called by the name that women were not perceived as leaders in any time during this period, and leadership research in this time related solely to males Therefore, it is proposed that

the Great Man theory cannot be claimed to have attributed anything towards raising the status of women in the workplace, because this theory was built for men Trait theories emphasize the personal qualities of leaders and focus on attributes that distingsuish leaders from non-leaders Three main types of traits were mostly studied in leadership research including: (1) physical factors (height, appearance, age, etc.), (2) aspects of personality (self-esteem, dominance, emotional stability, conservatism, etc.), and (3) aptitudes (general intelligence, fluency of speech, creativity, etc.) However, there was still no evidence of universal leadership traits until now Furthermore, although many research agreed with the point that leader‘s characteristics were from birth and does not change over time, some scholars like Stogdill (1948) argued that ―the pattern of personal characteristics of the leader must bear some relevant relationship to the characteristics, activities, and goals of followers‖ Therefore, this approach ignored to take another significant factor into consideration: the impact of situation such as mental level, skills or interests of followers (Northouse, 2013)

2.2.2.2 Style approach

From the late 1940s onwards, the stream of leadership research shifted to leader behavior instead of leader traits Researchers seemed to be interested in identifying what leaders do with mainly three research groups coined the style approach – the Ohio States studies, the University of Michigan studies, and the research of Blake and Mouton on the managerial grid (Northouse, 2013; Tran, 2016) Based on the study by Bryman (1992) leaders can be trained to become successful and it also means that leaders characteristics can be varied according to situations to enhance the effectiveness of subordinates Employee-orientation and production-orientation are considered as two perspectives of leaders‘ behaviors in this approach Nonetheless, researchers realized some issues limited of this style approach in the 1960s Research found that there was no link between leaders‘ behaviors with organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction and productivity (Northouse, 2013) Moreover, once again,

situational variables were still dismissed and researchers doubted that whether a particular leadership style was always superior or not (Bryman, 1989; Yammarino et al., 2005; Tran, 2016)

2.2.2.3 Situational approach

Another approach considered as the adaptive approach in leadership studies is the situational approach which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s This approach was developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1969) based on Reddin's (1967) 3-D management style theory and many theories and studies were conducted such as path-goal theory, participative leadership, contingency leadership and situational leadership (Northouse, 2013) One has to be emphasized, the basic premise of which is that different situations require different types of leadership This approach encourages leaders to take stock of their team members, weigh the many variables in their workplace and choose the leadership style that best fits their goals and circumstances However, before the 1980s, researchers were less interested in this perspective because leadership has been become

an inseparable part of management (Tran, 2016) Moreover, an increasing perception

of such matters is more obvious in the next part of leadership literature

2.2.2.4 Modernist leadership approach

To distinguish the differences between management and leadership conceptualization

in regard to motivate followers, many theories and models in modernist leadership approach were proposed in the mid-1980s (Northouse, 2013; Tran, 2016) In particular, several of typical leadership in this approach were transformational leadership, charismatic leadership, value – based leadership, individualized leadership, vertical dyad linkage, leader – member exchange, principle – centred leadership, multilevel and leader-plex, implicit leadership theories, ethical leadership, romance of leadership, multiple linkage and influence tactics (Yammario et al., 2005; Avolio, Walumbwa & Weber, 2009; Northouse 2013) However, the technological revolution and the ever-

changing business environment made the leadership change a lot in the 2000s and thus

a new approach is gradually appearing

In 1990, gender differences in leadership styles between men and women has been reported by many researchers and female managers has been considered as participative, democratic leaders in positive aspect Furthermore, there is an increasingly trend in research that women are believed to perform more transformational leadership behaviors than their male colleagues, and this is equated with effective leadership (Jogulu & Wood, 2006)

2.2.2.5 Postmodernist leadership approach

The surge of research on leadership in the 21st century has been remarkable According

to Clegg, Kornberger & Pitsis (2011), the postmodernist perspective has no longer concentrated on individual person, emphasizing the role of groups and leadership means something many people can do; the relationship between leaders and followers was not a central point of these studies Besides, many research explored the role of leadership across cultural context that required leaders to work from and across a variety of locations (Avolio, Walumbwa & Weber, 2009) Furthermore, a theory called

as servant leadership focused on caring people, leaders as servants to help subordinates become more autonomous, knowledgeable and like servants themselves (Clegg, Kornberger & Pitsis, 2011; Northouse, 2013; Tran; 2016) Leaders in the postmodernist era cope with a lot of challenges such as distributed work in different time zone, local work demands the immediate attention of leaders and followers, high pressure to pursue local priorities and seek common goals (Weisband 2008, Tran, 2015) The postmodernist theories and models includes authentic leadership, ethical leadership, servant leadership, substitutes for leadership, self-leadership, electronic leadership, cross- cultural leadership, developmental leadership, blue ocean leadership and transcendent leadership (Yammarino et al., 2005; Larsson, 2006; Crossan, Vera, & Nanjad, 2008; Northouse, 2013; Avolio, Walumbwa, & Weber, 2009; Clegg,

Kornberger & Pitsis, 2011; Kim & Mauborgne, 2014) The perspective of the postmodernist approach need to be developed in further research to increase leadership awareness and recognize the importance of leadership to organizational outcomes The aim of this section to review the theories and trends of leadership and then have an overview of leadership through five approaches involved The study has examined on how leadership has been evolving by discussing significantly areas of inquiry that represent current trends and approaches in leadership research The study has explored how leaders are formed and developed through discussion of significant areas of inquiry that represent current trends and approaches in leadership research Leadership

is analyzed in different aspects not only leaders‘ attributes, but also situational or relational variables in the organizational context, especially the outcomes such as work performance or effectiveness Moreover, the application of Western leadership theories

to collectivist culture like Vietnam, particularly women leadership, is a key factor in

ongoing research on leadership than before

2.3 CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP

Culture is a complex definition to conceptualize but it has a strong influence in many facets of any society and leadership is also not an exception In particular, national culture affect leadership in a different way and leadership is not common which can vary based on gender or culture Ayman and Korabik (2010) indicated that leadership theories are not common for all individuals all around the world, regardless of their gender or culture

Nation culture and leadership are understood as two sides of a same coin but closely connected together Therefore, cultural traditions, values, beliefs and norms which are foundation of culture, have a direct impact on leadership (House et al., 2002, p.3) Culture combines explicit or implicit behaviors and patterns acquired and transmitted

by symbols, creating the special achievement of human groups; moreover, culture

systems can be understood as results of actions together with conditioning elements of future action (Adler, 2008, p.24) Furthermore, national culture also present itself in the values, attitudes, and behaviors of people (Jogulu & Wood, 2008, p.600) It means that culture values motivate people and they normatively lead their thoughts, behaviors, actions and interests According to Ayman and Korabik (2010), it exist the relationship between leadership and social norms which influence on the leaders‘ and followers‘ interpretation of the situation Additionally, the cultural values affect the choices people make about the manner in which the way they will lead Therefore, national culture has a huge impact on leadership styles, effectiveness as well as leaders‘ gender role identities

Besides, the manipulation of culture is one of the mainly essential functions of leadership (Schein cited in Zehir et al 2011, p.1462) Byrne and Bradley (2007) stated that leaders use cultural values as standards to select and justify personal behaviors and decisions or evaluate people and events Therefore, there is a close connection between leadership and culture that make a difference in leadership styles from one country to another Different sets of criteria and beliefs of leadership are dominated by cultural differences because they reflect different perceptions of how reality should be viewed and practiced (Jogulu, 2010, p.716) Additionally, culture also play a moderating role

in the relationship between leadership behaviors and outcomes (Ayman & Korabik,

2010, p.166) It means that different cultures lead to the different ways that members in

an organization both men and women behave in the workplace Thus, leadership styles are selected by personal values in the len of nation culture Consequently, culture has

an explanatory power on leadership (Kozan, 1993, p.6)

In fact, the impact of culture on leadership has been studied in several researches during recent years The study of Hugo Zagorsek, Marko Jaklic and Standley J.Stough (2004) investigated the relationship between culture and leadership through comparing three countries Firstly, the United States which is considered as an individual,

masculine nation with a low uncertainty avoidance and power distance; secondly, Nigeria that get the highest score in power distance and collectivism and finally Slovenia which is a highly collectivistic and feminine country with high uncertainty avoidance and power distance (Zagorsek, Jaklic and Stough, 2004, p.19) From their findings, American participants engaged in the practice ―Enabling Others to Act‖ as the leadership behaviors less than two other countries; whereas Nigerian respondents perceive themselves as ―Modelling the Way‖ to a higher level than those of the United State and Slovenia Furthermore, the philosophy of leadership in each specific country

is perceived clearer by American participants and they do not create a mutual trust like others do Moreover, Slovenian respondents seek and pursue challenging opportunities more than their Nigerian and American counterparts (Zagorsek, Jaklic and Stough,

2004, p.27)

Another research demonstrates the strong influence of culture on leadership is conducted by Romie Littrell and Evangelina Barba When comparing two cultures - Mexico and Chile, the findings showed that although value dimensions are equal, leadership styles are quite different Chilean respondents have a tendency to co-workers (relationship orientation), whereas Mexican participants tends to specialists (task orientation) Moreover, while members from Mexico have a preference for a nurturing, loving father style of paternalistic leadership, the Chilean counterpart tends

to prefer a stern, demanding a paternalistic leader who is willing to empower to followers Additionally, Chilean attendants have an expectation to be protected but Mexican respondents perceive the leader as a source of authorizing power and rewarding achievements in the workplace (Littrell & Barba, 2013, p.643) Besides, pleasure is an important goal that Chilean participants pursue more than Mexican participants (Littrell & Barba, 2013, p.645)