Improving ineffective leadership in Tuan Loc CIC’s Head Office

Through solution evaluation process related to realistic and feasibility, cost saving, requirement of time and obtained benefits, external training and team building are the most appropr

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Pham Minh Tuan

IMPROVING INEFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

IN TUAN LOC CIC’S HEAD OFFICE

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Pham Minh Tuan

IMPROVING INEFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

IN TUAN LOC CIC’S HEAD OFFICE

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: DR PHAN THI MINH THU

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018

SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE THESIS PROPOSAL SUBMITTED

FOR DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

The thesis proposal title: IMPROVING THE INEFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IN TUAN LOC CIC’S HEAD OFFICE

Student Name: Pham Minh Tuan

Supervisor: Dr Phan Thi Minh Thu

 Meet requirement for submitting

 Not meet requirement for submitting

Executive Summary 2

1.1 Background 3

1.1.1 Company History 3

1.1.2 Symptoms 3

1.1.3 Importance of the selected symptom 6

2.1 Situation Analysis 7

2.1.1 Problem Identification 7

2.1.2 Potential Problems 9

2.1.3 Central Problem and Cause Identification 14

2.1.3.1 Cetral Problem 14

2.1.3.1 Cause Identification 15

3.1 Proposed solution and action plan 18

3.1.1 Solution’s Objectives 18

3.1.2 Potential Solutions 19

3.1.3 Evaluation of solutions 20

3.1.4 Action plan 23

Reference 28

Appendix 1 – The report of Viet Nam salary online survey in 2016 31

Appendix 2 – Transcript with Mr Viet – Deputy Planning Manager 32

Appendix 3 – Transcript with Mr Phuc - Deputy Human Resource Manager 34

Appendix 4 – Transcript with Mr Nghia - Chief Accountant 36

Appendix 5 – Transcript with staffs who left the company 38

Appendix 6 – Questionnaire 1 to validate literature for leadership and actual situation in Tuan Loc CIC’ Head Office 41

Appendix 7 Result of Leadership Survey 3 Departments (Technical, Planning and Business) 42

Appendix 8 – Questionnaire 2: Company Communications Evaluation 44

Appendix 9 – Transcript with Ms Tam - Human Resource Manager 46

Appendix 10 – Transcript with Mr Thang - Deputy General Director 48 Appendix 11 – Transcript with Ms Tam – Human Resource Manager for Evaluation of solutions 50

Executive Summary

High employee turnover rate becomes more and more complicated from 2014 up to now, impacts on many aspects of the company such as performance, reputation, finance and image Specially, in the last haft of 2016 and 2017, the turnover rate increases too quickly that seriously effect on the department’s activities as well as company’s performance There are a lot of potential problems causing the high employee turnover rate was found out as ineffective leadership, low compensation and poor work environment relied on interviews and literature After analysis, evaluation and validation process, department manager’s ineffective leadership is demonstrated as the central problem In this research, ineffective leadership is the term which describes poor leadership qualities as well as causes negative influences on job satisfaction and organizational commitment, results of this issue is high turnover rate The root causes and proposed solutions for solving problem are significant to reduce the employee turnover rate and improve department’s performance Finally, Results of research are four potential solutions: team building, developing an internal training, finding third party to train or finding the training courses (external training) and changing Department Managers Through solution evaluation process related to realistic and feasibility, cost saving, requirement of time and obtained benefits, external training and team building are the most appropriate solutions with available resources in order

to improve ineffective leadership in Tuan Loc CIC’s Head Office

1.1 Background

1.1.1 Company History

Tuan Loc Construction Investment Corporation (Tuan Loc CIC) is established and come into operation in 2005 The main business forms are road and bridge construction, industrial park investment, water supply system construction and investment The average employees are 250 in total and to ensure the stable and effective operation, the average number of staffs in Head Office is maintained from 55

to 65 people (excluding Manager) Tuan Loc CIC is promoting investment and construction activities in the whole country and foreign cooperation The company operates relied on the function structure with 8 Departments in Head Office including: Human Resource, Accounting, Technical, Planning, Business, Investment, Machine and Equipment; Water Department

1.1.2 Symptoms

Through the initial interview with the Deputy Manager of Human Resource Department, he told that: “In 2015 and 2016, although there are a lot of employees who left company, it is not seemed to impact on the Company’s operation, number of staffs left the company continuous increase too many and impact on the operation of the company this year However, we have not found the effective solutions for controlling yet” He also shown the evidence for his talking regarding to numbers of

staff left Tuan Loc CIC from 2014 to 2017 presented in the Table 1 - Number of Staffs working and Left Tuan Loc CIC’s Head Office from 2014 to 2017

Year

Number of Staff

Total (Average)

Year

Number of Staff

Total (Average)

Chart 1 – Tuan Loc CIC’s Head Office Turnover Rate

As the result of calculation shown in the Chart 1 - Tuan Loc CIC’s Head Office Turnover Rate, the turnover rate in 2016 and 2017 are 24.07%, 36.59%, respectively Meanwhile, the average turnover rate is 15.7% for Real Estate –

Construction Major referred to the report of Viet Nam salary online survey in 2016

(Appendix 1 - The report of Viet Nam salary online survey in 2016) with

participation of 300 companies and 106.925 employees performed by Macconsult Consultant Company As analysis, Tuan Loc CIC’s Turnover rate is higher compared with the average turnover rate and continue increasing year by year Specially, Mr Phuc – Deputy Human Resource also said that: “In the first haft of 2017, three departments: Technical Department, Planning Department and Business Department always complain with us about lack of direct staffs and required to recruit new staffs because they didn’t have enough staffs to work” Refer to the data about left staffs are provided more by Mr Phuc, most of employees left the company from Technical

Department, Planning Department and Business Department, the details are given in

the Table 2 – Number of Staff Working and left of 3 Departments:

Year

Head Office Staffs

Total of leaving

Total staff Staffs Leaving TOR Staffs Leaving TOR Staffs Leaving TOR

Table 2 – Number of Staff Working and Left of 3 Departments

According to functions and duties of departments, three Departments play important role with the key contents such as:

- Technical Department: Completion of the shop drawing and calculation of quantity for bidding; managing the technical of all projects and controlling and improving the construction schedule, quality of projects

- Business Department: Bidding for new projects and managing all of Subcontractors

- Planning Department: Managing Contract related to collecting Payment, ensuring Schedule, Output and resolving the problems that need to be explained and prove with State Management Agencies; forecast the output, revenue and cash flow (including establish disbursement schedule)

With the role and functions as given, high turnover rate will certainly impact on the company’s operation To identify these effects, the researcher conducts interviews with Mr Viet – Deputy Planning Manager, Mr Phuc - Deputy Human Resource and

Mr Nghia – Chief Accountant

1.1.3 Importance of the selected symptom

In year 2015 and 2016, although the turnover rate was high, it did not seem to impact distinctly on the management progress of the company yet However, in the first haft

of 2017, there are a lot of problems the company shall face Mr Viet – Deputy Planning Manager said that: “The completion of documents is often late, impact on the reputation, finance and image of the company, For example:

- In Package I, we submitted payment two months late, the value of payment is about fifty eight billion VND, and value of payment is about fifty eight billion VND It impacts on the finance for construction on site Up to now, because of delayed cash flow, the schedule of Package I is late for 2 months compared with required Schedule If this situation keeps going up to completion of Project, as the condition and provision of Contract, we will be punished 0.1% of Contract Value, about 566.5 million VND per 1 late day

- In Sai Gon – Metro Project: Because late construction, we must bear the cost of waterway warrant (560 million VND per month), for 3 months

- In general, in this stage, payment document is late compared with the payment plan from haft of month to 2 months because we don’t have enough staffs for performance Employers regularly complain these situations”

Mr Phuc – Deputy Human Resource Manager added: “The document works in projects are regularly slow, cannot meet the requirement lead to delay on construction

on site We received a lot of writings in this year from Employer for complaining and punishing due to late schedule on site, late document for payment and so on All of these situations seriously impact on the reputation of our company”

In the interview with Mr Nghia – Chief Accountant, he explained consequences of delaying document and schedule: “We built the finance planning based on the disbursement schedule and construction schedule on site of all projects In 2017, the actual disbursement and construction schedule are slower than planning, although the planning is changed many times Therefore, we have to change the source of financing

to meet operation needs by bank loans and bear more financial cost”

From all information, high turnover rate impact directly on performance, finance, image as well as reputation of company, problem identification and solving is very significant as well as important in order to improve performance, maintain sustainable growth and development

2.1 Situation Analysis

2.1.1 Problem Identification

Researcher conducts the interviews to identify problem that Tuan Loc Construction Investment Corporation shall face The first, the face to face interview with Mr Phuc – Deputy Human Resource Manager, He said that: “The number of staffs left increase so quick in recent year, I used to ask several people about the reasons which they decided

to leave the company Most of them complain the salary and direct manager”

Two interviewees who left the company participate in the next interview, the first one shared that: “Managers only care about the results of the work, not care about the process so rarely support staff to complete the work, seldom empower, all of things are decided by manager and my tasks are performing the process, reporting regularly” In addition, two interviewees confirmed that: their manager frequently losses his temper and blames on employees Participants are not satisfied with their direct manager and feel uncomfortable when work with their Manager Deputy Human Resource Manager also recognized that: “Most of them are good in the technical skill because they graduated and worked with this field many years before become the manager However, everyone has certain limitations” He added: “Many Managers in the Department cannot maintain good relationship with staffs and control their temper In addition, most of managers are the detailed – focus and make decision all of situation” The second one said that: “I am not really satisfied with the company's salary policy because the determination of wage is based on the assessment of direct management and I think my manager misjudges my competent when he set up salary” To clarify the information got from interviews, more data was collected from Ms An – Human Resource Staff about the salary of 30 staffs working for departments with high employee turnover rate in 2016 and another survey about salary from other sources The first, average salary as calculated based on data provided by Ms An, the average

salary of staffs who working in three departments (technical, planning and business)

that having the high turnover rate of the company 2016 is 11.769.231 VND (refer Table 3 - Salary statistics of salary of Departments (Technical, Planning and Business)

in 2016 ) Meanwhile, in the report of Viet Nam salary online survey performed by

Macconsult Consultant Company in 2016 as well, the average market salary for

Engineer/ Architect is 12.000.000 VND with the same major Thus, the salary of Tuan

Loc CIC is lower than average general level of this field In addition, Mr Phuc confirmed that: “Tuan Loc CIC does not apply salary for working overtime, every staff have to complete assigned tasks on time and ensure the quality However, we support all of staffs two third of lunch fees”

Max 14.000.000 5 Civil Construction Engineer 1 Min 8.000.000 3 Construction Economic Engineer 1 Mode (Majority) 12.000.000 7 Average (Experience) 11.769.231

Table 3: Salary statistics of salary of Departments (Technical, Planning and Business) in

̅: is weighted average of salary

: is salary of staffs working in Tuan Loc CIC

: is number of year working in Tuan Loc CIC

From all short interviews and data provided by Human Resource Department, the researcher synthesizes the initial cause effect map as below:

2.1.2 Potential Problems

Employee’s dissatisfaction resulting in having turnover intention and lack of commitment to work goes beyond economic losses (3) In the first interview combined with data provided by Human Resource Department, the researcher analyzed and synthesized in the initial cause effect map include 2 problems: The first, staffs are uncomfortable and unsatisfied with direct manager due to they are detailed-focus, autocratic, decisive person and do not motivate and support staffs in the working; the second, they also complain low salary due to basic salary is lower than average of major and company does not pay for working overtime From the literature review, problems impact on employee turnover rate of company that are ineffective leadership, poor work environment, low compensation (4) Combination of information and collected data are basic for identifying central problem that cause employee high turnover rate in Tuan Loc CIC’s Head Office Details of each problem are verified as follows:

Ineffective leadership: Transformational leadership has a positive relationship with

job satisfaction and organization commitment, meanwhile there is a negative relationship between transformation leadership and turnover (5) Ineffective leadership practices are the major source of employee turnover and managers who have not received proper leadership training may be contributing to employee turnover because their leadership practices may not be effective (6) Effective leadership styles have

High Turnover

Rate

Uncomfortable and unsatisfied with direct manager

Do not motivate and support staffs in the working

always played a positive role in motivating employees, raising their morale, and making a positive impact on individuals and organizational performance and at that time, ineffective leadership describe poor and unacceptable leadership qualities (7) In addition, Shamas-ur-Rehman Toor and Ogunlana in 2009 cited the personal traits leading to ineffective leadership of Lombardo’s research such as: inability to build a cohesive team, over- and under-managing, being overly ambitious, not supportive and demanding of subordinates, being overtly emotional, being insensitive, cold and arrogant, maintaining poor relations with staffs and overriding personality defects (8) The result of re-examining the component of transformational leadership shown that there are four interrelated different types of behavior: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individual consideration, and intellectual stimulation (9) and detail of these components are presented by Nichoson and William in 2007 (10) as follows:

- Idealized influence: Transformational leaders are admired, respected, and trusted Followers identify with and want to emulate this type of leader Transformational leaders produce these emotional reactions by considering the needs of their followers and trying to meet them Transformational leaders share risks with their followers and always adhere to their personal ethics, principles, and values

- Inspirational motivation: Transformational leaders behave in ways that motivate those around them This type of leader provides their followers with meaningful, challenging work Individual and team spirit are aroused Enthusiasm and optimism are displayed The transformational leader encourages followers to envision attractive future states, which they can ultimately envision for themselves

- Intellectual stimulation: Transformational leaders stimulate innovation and creativity in their followers by questioning assumptions, reframing problems, and approaching old situations in new ways Simic (1998) stated that these leaders stimulate change in the way people think about problems: for example, they use metaphor and analogy to describe problems and solutions Transformational leaders do not ridicule or publicly criticize individual member's mistakes New ideas and creative solutions to

problems are solicited from followers, who are included in the decision-making process

- Individualized consideration: Transformational leaders pay attention to each person's need for achievement and growth by acting as a coach or a mentor Followers are helped to reach higher levels of achievement New learning opportunities are created in a supportive climate Transformational leaders recognize each person's needs and desires.”

The researcher applied the quantitative method conducting questionnaire using 5 points Likert scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree relied on leadership components to validate the actual problems which Tuan Loc CIC is facing The participants are all of staffs work for 3 Departments in 2017: Technical, Planning and Business including 24 people However, after conducted survey by via mail and collected the results, there are only 23 valid questionnaires The first, Question 1, 2 and 3 are built to evaluate the level of idealized influence of Department Managers with their subordinates As the survey results respectively 2.57, 2.96 and 2.00, the manager in three Departments have not built the good individual image with their employees yet, they also do not properly concern for the employee’s needs Meanwhile, as Mr Nghia said: “I think I create the good relationship with my staffs and I understand their needs I find the way to meet their needs in my authorization All of people in my department are like a family and complete all of task and targets together” Therefore, he had not to face the situation high turnover rate in the management progress Specifically, there are only 3 staffs left our department from

2014 to 2017, 2 of them moved to subsidiaries for working and one left because of family reasons The second, about the inspirational motivation, participants do not highly evaluate the enthusiasm of their manager when the average score was only 2.96 Although, several managers encourage staffs by the attractive future states such

as rising salary and undertaking high position The third, many staffs (60.87%) strong agreed and agreed that: “My manager encourages staffs giving ideas and proposing solutions to solve problems” However, very few of them agreed that their managers empower to make decisions for employees when the average score for this question was only 2.22 Finally, with the lowest average score as the result, staffs (73.91% of

participants) do not highly appreciate their manager for individualized consideration expressed by recognizing the needs and desires

In general, following received results in the Appendix 7 – Result of Leadership Survey 3 Departments (Technical, Planning and Business), the value of researched

factors is rated from 1.91 to 3.17 and the average is only 2.57 are very low In

addition, as the result of survey in Appendix 8, 8 of 11 respondents (equivalent with

72.72 percent) are dissatisfied and very dissatisfied with direct managers Most of them also believe that their managers only never and sometimes share to help staffs more comfortable and never empower in the working process And the results also showed that 63.64 percent of participants left company due to dissatisfaction with Department Managers

Chart 2 –Leadership Survey of 3 Departments (Technical, Planning and

2 My direct manager shares responsibility

with staffs in the working process

3 My direct manager often discusses and

understands staff’s needs

4 My direct manager is enthusiastic

person

5 My manager ever encourage staffs by

the attractive future states

6 My direct manager provide staffs with

meaningful, challenging work

7 The manager stimulates innovation and

creativity in staffs by questioning…

8 My manager seldom publicly criticizes

individual member's mistakes

9 My manager encourages staffs giving

ideas and proposing solutions to solve…

10 My manager empowers staffs to makes

the decision many cases

11 My manager recognizes my needs and

desires

As analysis, ineffective leadership is the real problem related to Tuan Loc’s Head Office and as is considered more and more with others in order to find the central problem

Low compensation/ low salary: Salary is not tied to performance and the benefits

offered does not appeal to and meet the needs of the various categories of employees that lead to employee turnover(11) As the calculated average salary of staffs who work

for 3 Departments in 2016 (Table 3: Salary statistics of salary of Departments (Technical, Planning and Business) in 2016, the salary is lower than the average

salary of industry In addition, there are 2 of 11 valid questionnaires from 15 employees left 3 Departments (Technical, Planning and Business) in 2017 agreed that

“They left the company due to low salary” Thus, low compensation/ low salary should be considered as a potential proplem that Tuan Loc’ Head Office shall face

Poor working environment: The working environment includes overall workload,

long working hours, negative behavior of the manager or lack of communication with colleagues lead to job dissatisfaction and job avoidance such as taking leave leaving work incomplete or efforts to quit the current job (12) As the interview, the relationship and cooperation for working in the department of staffs is very good And they are only not uncomfortable when their direct manager sitting in the working room due to he seem not to be friendly and support the friendly and flexible environment As the data provided by Human Resource Department, other departments as Accounting, Materials and Machines, Investment, Water did not face with the high turnover situations Mr Nghia shared: “All of people in my department are like a family and complete all of task and targets together” Overall workload, long working hours, negative behavior of the manager or lack of communication with colleagues are factors

of work environment causing the employees turnover However, following the result

of questionnaire 2 (Appendix 8), no one of 11 valid participants left the company in

2017 due to work stress and bad relationship with colleagues Moreover, 8 of them (72.72 percent) also agreed that: the relationship with other staffs is quite good and very good As the survey results and interview, the evidences shown that only negative manager’s behavior impacts on staff’s satisfaction as well as working environment

2.1.3 Central Problem and Cause Identification

2.1.3.1 Cetral Problem

After using both qualitative and quantitative method as well as related theories, ineffective leadership, low compensation/ low salary are found as potential problems, researcher conducted evaluate one by one problem for identifying the central problem

to solve

The first, as analysed, many managers cannot build well their images that make their subordinates admire, respect and trust Results also shown that due to managers do not properly concern for the employee’s needs, staffs are unsatisfied with their manager and do not highly appreciate their manager for individualized consideration In general, Department Managers did not demonstrate the characteristics (idealized influence, inspirational motivation and individualized consideration) needed

to become leader with full of necessary leadership skills

The second, despite the researcher also found that salary is lower than the industry’s average salary, the data as comparison shown that the difference is not so high in order

to staffs make dicision to leave the company On the other hands, 54.55% of 11 participants think that: “Salary is reasonable” Moreover, Deputy HR manager acknowledged that: “The salary will be increased compliance with company policy, finance condition and every stage, the manager of department will propose the level of salary for their staffs by themselves” He also talked that: “The level of salary is reasonable in this stage and as our survey, our level of salary is higher than many domestic companies in the same major such as CII E&C, SC5, CC1, Cienco 4.” As interview, the level of salary is set up relied on experiences and ability of staffs and Department Managers are the people that evaluate and propose directly staff’s salary

In fact, other departments such as Accounting, Materials and Machine, Investment and Water department, no one left the company due to low salary This means that these Department Managers proposed and set up reasonable salary Mr Nghia – Chief Accountant shared: “I think the really problem come from the direct manager because the salary of my department is also lower than other departments However, no one complain and left I usually talk with my staffs, if the salary is low, they are willing to

share” Although, there are several employees from three Departments (Planing, Business and Technical) left company due to low salary, when researcher conduct interview and collect data, the result shown that more than haft of participated in survey are satisfied with their salary and in other Departments, no one left due to salary in spite of lower than other Departments In addition, someone left Tuan Loc CIC and work for another company with lower salary Therefore, low salary is not proved as a main problem causing high turnover rate in Tuan Loc’s Head Office The third, in last step, overall workload, long working hours, negative behavior of the manager or lack of communication with colleagues are factors of working environment as referece from theory However, in the analysis process, researcher found that only manager’s behavior impact on the staff’s satisfaction Related to manager’s behavior, researcher considers the factor as once of leadership’s components

By analysis and evaluation, researcher rejects low compensation/ low salary and poor working environment as central problem causing high turnover rate in Tuan Loc CIC’s Head Office Most of evidences shown that ineffective leadership impacts more strongly on the high employee turnover rate of Tuan Loc CIC, specially in 3 Departments (planning, business and technical) In conclusion, ineffective leadership

is the central problem that needs to be solved

2.1.3.1 Cause Identification

From the result of central problem identification, the researcher conducts investigating the causes of company problem – Ineffective Leadership The first, researcher referred studies and articles for finding out potential causes including: negative emotional intelligence, poor interpersonal skill and lack of trust The second, researcher conducted discussion with Human Resource Manager and Deputy General Director for identifying the root cause of the problem after finding out potential cause To prepare the interview, interview questions will be built to identify the causes based on the characteristics such as: Firstly, emotional intelligence ability includes Ability to understand one’s own and the emotions of others and managing one’s emotions (13) Secondly, Laurer suggested five traits: The first trait is for a leader not to humiliate

staff members in front of other individuals that never be trusted in management positions; the second, leaders should not make fast decisions to avoid making wrong decisions and causing havoc on a company; Third, the leader needs to set realistic deadlines to keep quality and staff morale from suffering; The fourth trait is for a leader to not interfere with subordinates’ personal time outside the office therefore the leader needs to demonstrate respect for team members’ lives away from the workplace; the last, perception becomes reality in the workplace (14) Finally, one of the best character-driven ways to build trust is for leaders to keep promises as well as commitments and keep promises demonstrates integrity, a key factor in peoples' willingness to follow (15) Combined both literature review and interview, details of factors are shown as following:

Negative Emotional intelligence: Emotional intelligence characteristics are directly

linked to leaders being able to motivate and transform others and leaders with high emotional intelligence are able to inspire others to feel positive emotions and increased confident (16) Effective leaders possess a high degree of emotional intelligence including 5 components: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill Social skill is another key component to successful leadership (17) People with negative emotional intelligence often misinterpret emotional signals and have difficulty with relationships (18) When researcher conducts a deep interview with Ms Tam – Human Resource Manager for considering the actual situation in Tuan Loc CIC, Ms Tam said that: “I think the first cause is from emotional intelligence Because, as I know, the department manager rarely discusses to understand their staffs, they should improve this aspect When we conduct the survey, most of staffs are not pleasure with their direct manager about the enthusiastic and communication with them So the manager cannot understand his subordinates” As her opinion, many managers in Tuan Loc CIC cannot understand and control employee’s emotion Thus, they did not have the appropriate actions to manage their Department She added:

“Many staffs left Tuan Loc CIC, they are unsatisfied with the direct manager If managers own the emotion intelligence, they will find out the reasons and solution for improving by themselves However, up to now, everything has not changed” And with the same opinion, Mr Thang – Deputy General Director said that: “I want to

emphasis that the good relationship between Department Manager with their staffs do not be maintained It proved that managers cannot understand their emotion and control emotion”

Poor interpersonal skills: Reasons for ineffective leadership are the poor personal

traits of leaders, skills shortage, negative strategies, and focusing only on short-term goals (19) Interpersonal skills include factors such as communication, motivation, influence, interaction, and the establishment of relationships of trust, transparency, positive attitudes, beliefs, and values (20)

Related to interpersonal skills, Ms Tam explained: “There are some problems with department managers, such as shouting staffs in front of others and regularly repeat the last faults of employees as several ones complain” It means Department Managers have restrictions on the ability to communicate with their staffs that obstruct the management process and creating dissatisfaction from staffs In another case, Ms Tam gave an example: the manager made difficulty for employees to take leave It proved that managers interfere with subordinates’ personal time outside the office Mr Thang – Deputy General Director also added: “I usually discuss with department managers, I understand their skills I think most of them are the expert in technical field However, interpersonal skill is very limited In the report of HR Department, there are many staffs complain about their direct managers In fact, I think they cannot communicate effectively with employees and create the good relationship Therefore, they left the company is normal in management process”

Lack of trust: Childers (2009) has demonstrated a correlation between trust and

transformational leadership The research has underscored the importance of managers’ keeping their word to followers, building trust between a leader and followers, and understanding the leadership character (21)

Related to the last cause – lack of trust, Ms Tam cannot share anything with you about this aspect because her Department have never surveyed before However, following

results of leadership survey in Tuan Loc CIC (Appendix 7), in the first question: “I

admire, respect and trust your direct manager”, there are 3 participants strongly agreed and 10 participants disagreed (total 56.52% of participants) demonstrating lack of trust

is also a root cause of ineffective leadership In addition, Mr Thang – Deputy General Director think: “If Department Managers cannot meet the requirement of intelligence emotional and interpersonal skill, trust cannot be built”

Therefore, the researcher makes conclusion that: the root causes of Tuan Loc CIC Head Office’s problem include negative emotional intelligence, poor interpersonal skill and lack of trust

The first, relationship between staff and staff, staffs and manager shall be improve and will be evaluated rely on results of questionaire

The second, skill and knowledge of all staffs and manager are enhanced The examination shall be performed before and after applying solutions to identify level of improvement based on the participant’s obtained mark

The last, employee turnover rate shall be decreased lower than major’s average rate (15.7% in 2016)

Poor work environment

Lack of Trust

by external professionals, experts, consultants, trainers, speakers, and lecturers who possess special skills and knowledge While, internal trainings are performed by internal managers or trainers if company has a large work force.

The second, Trust is the process of communications and building trust involves managing communications and creating the right channels that give employees more and more opportunities to say and encouraging discussion (24) In addition,

teambuilding activities (Solution No 3) focus on enhancing communication and

cooperation (25) Therefore, team building is one of solution to enhance trust between manager and staffs

The final, specific interpersonal skills are needed for managers and subordinates to establish a work relationship and organizations should participate in the training

course (Solution No.2) for improving interpersonal skills (26)

In the previous interviews, Human Resource Manager for solving problem raised three

solutions (Appendix 9): The first, organizing team building every 3 or 6 months to create good relationship between staffs and direct manager; staff and staff The second,

we should develop an internal training program to train the department managers The

third, find third parties to train or find the training course to manager participate in In addition, Mr Thang – Deputy General Director talked about another solution

(Solution No.4): changing the Department Manager

Combined all of data from interviews and theories, there are four potential solutions: internal training, external training, team building activities and changing Department Managers

3.1.3 Evaluation of solutions

In problem solving process, determining the reasonable solutions from various potential solutions to solve problems is very important (27) To evaluate accuracy the effective of proposed solutions, the researcher continues deeply interview one more time with Ms Tam – Human Resource Manager as the appointment with her in last interview after Ms Tam considered all of factors and made a detailed evaluation

Ms Tam showed 5 necessary factors when building a solution and submitting to Board

of Director for approval including: realistic and feasibility; requirement of time; cost saving; company’s resources and obtained benefits need to be analyzed and evaluate to identify the most reasonable to apply for solving problem Results of interview are

presented in the Table 6 – Summary of evaluating solutions

- Appropriate with company policies and company culture

- Appropriate with company policies and company culture

- Easily create the programs

- The company is not professional in training

& education

- Training by experts

- Improper training program will not get the expect result

- More quickly to get the results

- Higher cost for preparation and conduction

- Lower cost

4 Company's

Resources

- Needing many resources to conduct

- Needing many resources to conduct

- Company do not need to spend their resources

5 Benefits

- Building the environment to practice, interact, share and get feedback between all people in

organization

- Building the environment to practice, interact, share and get feedback between all people in organization

- Cannot build the environment to practice, interact, share and get feedback between all people in organization

- Improving communications skill both staffs and manager

Improving the skills, knowledge and performance for participants

- Improving the skills, knowledge and performance for managers

Table 6 – Summary of evaluating solutions

Refer Table 6 and the analysis of causes, team building is the best solutions for improving emotional intelligence, trust of Department Managers and help them create close relationship with their employees Meanwhile, when compare internal training

(Solution No.1) and external training (Solution No.2), the researcher realized that external training (Solution No 2) contains many advantages and limited risk In

addition, the feasibility of internal training is not high To improve the emotional

intelligence, interpersonal skill, external training (Solution No.2) is chosen as the

reasonable solution Ms Tam also confirmed that: “We should choose 2 solutions: team building and external training for improving emotional intelligence and interpersonal skill” Although external training exist limitation such as cannot build the environment to practice, interact, share and get feedback between all people in

organization, team building (Solution No.3) is the good environment to improving this

disadvantages The results of study researched by Clarence and Mitchell have shown that: “while classroom training is important, coaching, mentoring, and 360-degree reviews should be considered in combination with classroom training” (28)

Therefore, the coaching, mentoring, and reviews shall be a part of team building activities

Regarding to changing Department Managers (Solution No.4), Mr Thang told that:

“About remaining solution, I am not sure our company can be find better managers and it can be costly”

Researcher, consideration of effectiveness of chosen solutions, many theories indicated that:

Mark Joseph Maciha indicated that training was beneficial to their practice of leadership and training programs provide foundational knowledge and awareness of leadership (29) External training (Solution No.2) as Human Resource Manager’s

analysis is more appropriate than internal training because Tuan Loc CIC’s Head Office did not have enough resources for building and operating an internal training program

Team building (Solution No.3) ensures self-development, positive communication,

leadership skills, and learning to work together in problem-solving and making (30) In addition, team building also is a good measure to motivate, get to know one another, and build better relationships between manager and staffs (28) Specially, effective team building help organizations increase productivity and efficiency, improve the way the participants interact, improve support and trust as well as reduce dissatisfaction in the work place (31)

decision-Through interview results and related literature review for given solutions, the choice

of these solutions are reasonable and has the basis for effective implementations in Tuan Loc CIC’s Head Office

3.1.4 Action plan

In the last steps, the researcher identified two solutions: team building and external training that are the basis to the researcher conduct building the action plan of solution

as follows:

External training (Solution No.2) is performed based on the main steps such as:

building and publish objectives, choosing the training courses and evaluation and choosing Department Manager for participation in, registering the courses In short time, the researcher proposed short term training course in 3 – 6 moths with time from

2 to 3 days for each In long time, the researcher chooses the MBA course for developing in a comprehensive with Department Managers who are oriented to senior management

No Term Training

1

Short

times

Leadership foundation

Viet Man Power Training

Build confidence in leadership skills to become excellent leader;

Understand leadership skills, self

to lead others;

Communicate, connect and collaborate with colleagues, subordinates;

Influence and inspire others;

Defining the role and developing leadership in work and daily life;

Know the four strategies to develop employees in the organization by leadership skills

8 Department Managers

- Total cost:

64 million dong

Viet Man Power Training

Create vision;

Build trust and become an influential leader;

Energize communications to Inspire others;

Coaching and feedback;

Leadership tools to build team power;

8 Department Managers

- Total cost:

80 million dong

Clearly identify how delegation fits into their job and how it can make them more successful Identify different ways of delegating tasks

Use an eight-step process for effective delegation

Give better instructions for better

8 Department Managers

- Total cost:

80 million dong

3 days May, 2018