The effect of supervisors interpersonal style on postgraduate students skill development, research satisfaction, and quality of life, evidence from vietnam

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITYInternational School of Business ---Nguyen Thi Ha THE EFFECTS OF SUPERVISOR'S INTERPERSONAL STYLE ON POSTGRADUATE STUDENT'S SKILL DEVELOPMENT, RE

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-Nguyen Thi Ha

THE EFFECTS OF SUPERVISOR'S

INTERPERSONAL STYLE ON POSTGRADUATE STUDENT'S SKILL

DEVELOPMENT, RESEARCH

SATISFACTION, AND QUALITY OF LIFE: EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAM

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2015

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-Nguyen Thi Ha

THE EFFECTS OF SUPERVISOR'S INTERPERSONAL STYLE ON POSTGRADUATE STUDENT'S SKILL DEVELOPMENT, RESEARCH

SATISFACTION, AND QUALITY OF LIFE:

EVIDENCE FROM VIETNAM

ID: 22130018

SUPERVISOR: Dr NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this study represents a significant milestone in my life.

It has been a long time when I come back the academic journal and it demands plenty effort This thesis could not have been completed without the valuable support and kind encouragement of many people.

Firstly, I would like to express my genuine appreciation to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Mai Trang for her precious time, countless advice, professional guidance, as well as her valuable comments in every stage of doing my research I could not have completed this research without her teaching and assistance.

I would also like to express my great gratitude to the committee members, Dr Nguyen Dinh Tho, Dr Tran Ha Minh Quan, Dr Nguyen Thi Nguyet Que and Dr Nguyen Thi Mai Trang Their valuable comments and constructive suggestions contributed significantly for me to complete this thesis with best results.

My special thank is extended to all instructors and staffs of School International School

of Business – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City for their great support and experience sharing during the last two years In addition, lots of other professors, classmates, friends, and bosses motivated me in the long journey of postgraduate program.

Finally, the deepest and most sincere gratitude are for my beloved family and my husband who always facilitate great conditions and kindly encourage me

to pursue and complete MBA program.

The concern about postgraduate non-completion and time taken to completion has attracted to explore recently and supervisor is designated to facilitate the student’s academic development either in terms of coursework or research projects To address this problem, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of supervisor’s interpersonal style on research skill development and subsequently, on research satisfaction and quality of life in the context

of Vietnam postgraduate studies Additionally, it investigates the moderating role of student’s intrinsic motivation in the relationship between supervisor’s interpersonal style and skill development Qualitative research by in-depth interview is managed to make the adopted scales to be appropriate for the context of the study Following, quantitative research or main survey is conducted to test the measurement models and the hypothesized model With Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach, the research findings indicate that supervisor’s interpersonal style has a strongly positive impact on student’s skill development, research satisfaction, and eventually happiness in life In addition, intrinsic motivation is highlighted to moderate the relationship of supervisor’s interpersonal style and skill development during supervisory process Thus, these findings will be useful for universities, or scientific research institutions to identify and address implementation issues related to effective supervision in enhancing postgraduate research studies.

Keywords: effective supervision, supervisor’s interpersonal style, skill

development, quality of life, intrinsic motivation

TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION -6

1.1 Research background - 6

1.2 Research gap - 8

1.3 Research objectives - 10

1.4 Research scope - 10

1.5 Research significance - 11

1.6 Research Structure - 11

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES - 13

2.1 Quality of life and research satisfaction - 13

2.2 Skill development - 14

2.3 Supervisor’s interpersonal style - 15

2.4 Moderating effect of intrinsic motivation - 17

2.5 Conceptual model - 19

CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY - 21

3.1 Research design - 21

3.1.1 Research process - 21

3.1.2 Measurement scales - 21

3.2 Qualitative study - 26

3.2.1 The purpose of qualitative research - 26

3.2.2 Sample of qualitative research - 26

3.2.3 The conduct of qualitative research - 26

3.2.4 The outcome of qualitative research - 27

3.3 Quantitative study - 29

3.3.1 Questionnaire design - 29

3.3.2 The purpose of quantitative research - 30

3.3.3 Sampling - 30

3.3.4 Data analysis method - 31

CHAPTER 4 – DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS - 33

4.1 Data collection - 33

4.2 Sample characteristics - 34

4.3 Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of reliability test - 36

4.4 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) - 40

4.5 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) - 42

4.5.1 Model Fit - 42

4.5.2 Reliability and Validity Check - 44

4.5.2.1 Reliability -44

4.5.2.2 Convergent validity - 44

4.6 Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) - 45

4.7 Testing the moderating effect of intrinsic motivation - 48

CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, AND LIMITATIONS - 50

5.1 Conclusions and discussion of the findings - 50

5.2 Managerial implications - 54

5.3 Limitations and future research - 56

REFERENCES - 57

Appendix A: Guidelines for in-depth interview - 62

Appendix B: Final measurement scales - 68

Appendix C: Questionnaire (English version) - 70

Appendix D: Questionnaire (Vietnamese Version) - 73

Appendix E: KMO and Bartlett's Test and Total Variance Explained - 76

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Conceptual model - 19

Figure 3.1 Research process - 22

Figure 4.5 Confirmatory factor analysis (Standardized estimates) - 43

Figure 4.6 Structural results (Standardized estimates) - 46

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Scale items of supervisor’s interpersonal style 23

Table 3.2 Scale items of skill development 24

Table 3.3 Scale items of intrinsic motivation 24

Table 3.4 Scale items of research satisfaction 25

Table 3.5 Scale items of quality of lify 25

Table 3.6 Removed items 28

Table 4.1 Source of data collection 33

Table 4.2 Respondents’ characteristics 35

Table 4.3 Cronbach’s Alpha Rule of thumb 36

Table 4.4 Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients for each measurement scale – first round37 Table 4.5 Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients for each measurement scale – final round39 Table 4.6 Pattern Matrix 41

Table 4.7 Key goodness-of-fit indices 42

Table 4.8 Construct correlations, squared correlations and AVE 45

Table 4.9 Fitness of conceptualized Model 45

Table 4.10 Unstandardized Regression Weights (SEM) 46

Table 4.11 Summary of hypotheses testing result 47

Table 4.12 Difference between variance and partial invariance model 48

Table 4.13 Estimating for moderating effects of intrinsic motivation 49

Table D1 KMO and Barlett’s Test 76

Table D2 Total Variance Explained in Exploratory Factor Analysis 76

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background

The relationship between research students and supervisors plays a critical role in the success of postgraduate thesis Doing research or thesis is the process involving selecting a research topic, planning the research, identifying the necessary resources, managing the project, actively conducting the research, carrying out the literature review, data analysis and interpretation of the data, writing the thesis, and defending it (Ismail, Abiddin & Hassan, 2011) Obviously, students’ commitments with their studies and their endurance in pursuing academic path have been addressed as key factors in ensuring completion of their postgraduate program (Sakurai, Pyhältö & Lindblom-Ylänne, 2012).

Postgraduate students can be listed into three main programs including research, coursework and research - coursework Thus, the concern about higher degree non- completion and time taken to completion has attracted many scholars to explore, especially in overseas, for example in Canada, Australia and Malaysia Recent research on postgraduate study experience has shown that stress, frustration and attrition rates among students are high and the number of postgraduate students leaving their programs is alarming, ranging from 40% to 70% (Gardner, 2007) The study by Elga (2003) in Canada indicates that the completion rates vary from 45% to 77% in subject to the major (Arts and humanities: masters 67.9%, doctoral 44.7%; Social sciences: masters 72.6%, doctoral 48.5%; Natural & Applied sciences: masters 74.5%, doctoral 66.7%; Life sciences: masters 77.1%, doctoral 70.4%) In Australia, the completion rates for research degrees have increased remarkably since the 1980s to between 80% and 90% in the mid 1990s (Colebatch, as cited in Ismail et al., 2011) Further, based on the data gathered by Graduate School of Studies (GSO) of one public university in Malaysia, graduate students with thesis (research and coursework) complete their Masters averagely within 2.69 years and Ph.D student complete their Ph.D within 4.84

In Vietnam, since the economic liberalization “ doi moi” in 1986, the higher education system has expanded in both scale and scope - driven by strong household and labor market demand By the early 90s of XX century, it has an outbreak that the postgraduate enrollment and training numbers have increased remarkably, which creates a leap in Vietnam postgraduate program Especially, in recent years, the scale postgraduate training has increased speedily In the period 2000 - 2005, the number of master students increased by 51.9%/ year and doctoral students increased by 61.1%/ year and by early 2014, there are more than 130 institutions for doctoral degree and 150 training facilities for master's degrees (Đỗ Đức Minh, 2014) Not only public universities or scientific research institutions specialize in postgraduate training task, but also the private universities with qualified quality assurance are tasked with postgraduate training Yearly, the higher education sector provides 20,000- 25,000 masters and thousands of doctoral (Đỗ Đức Minh, 2014).

In addition to the achieved results, the postgraduate training in Vietnam also reveals some challenges to address Firstly, the efficiency and scale of postgraduate program are not

in conjunction with the quality of training According to many experts, the quality of postgraduate training is worrying and far from expectation Hence, the quality of thesis and research is low, not yet meets international standard in both content and form, especially reference, data analysis and students neither perform independent research capability expectedly nor keep up with the development level of science, technology and not associated with life (Đỗ Đức Minh, 2014) Secondly, very few faculties appear actively engaged in research and publications Students are limited to associate with scientific research, self-study capacity, self-practice and research skill development The World Bank (2008) reported that there seem very few publications in Vietnam, but the majority of these are published domestically, rather than in international peer-reviewed scientific journals while publishing in international peer reviewed journals is an important test of the quality of research, and an important tool for improving quality Thirdly, research projects at many universities are behind

seven years after their stipulated duration completion, as shown in the report (The World Bank, 2008).

Likewise, numerous research findings have pointed out variables that affect postgraduate studies completion within the stimulated timeframe and the major problem tends

to approach the research and supervision process (Hammick & Acker, 1998; Ssegawa & Rwelamila, 2009; Ezebilo, 2012; Sakurai et al., 2012; Ngozi & Kayode, 2014) Correspondingly, supervision is interpreted as a complex social encounter and a two-way interaction that requires both the student and the supervisor to consciously engage each other within the spirit of professionalism, respect, and open-mindedness (Ismail et al., 2011) An empirical study by Hammick and Acker (1998) revealed that the supervisor gender affects upon the supervision of research through its influence on the knowledge flow and power between student and supervisor Further, major reasons for high postgraduate attrition rate include student research deficiencies, particularly lacking of research skills and failure to develop a credible and sound research definition and design (Ssegawa & Rwelamila, 2009), challenges associated with research process and student’s confidence in presenting research works to the scientific community (Ezebilo, 2012) or supervision process and departmental issues (Sakurai et al., 2012) Research also shows that supervision schedule, students' interest, and predisposition towards research work as well as student's skill in conduct of research and availability of needed research resources are major attributive variables to delay research or thesis completion (Ngozi & Kayode, 2014) However, majority of research focus on the supervisor-student interpersonal relationship and supervisor’s interpersonal style plays the vital role for the success of postgraduate program (Marsh, Rowe & Martin, 2002; Armstrong, 2004; Allen, Day & Lentz, 2005; Mainhard, Rijst, Tartwijk & Wubbels, 2009; Ruhani, 2012).

1.2 Research gap

In Vietnam, research about the relationship between supervisor’s interpersonal style and

research of Tran (2013) showed that there is limitation on the skill development in higher education in Vietnam and it appears the need to develop soft skills, the central-controlled curriculum, the traditional teaching method, the popularity of students’ passivity to close the gap between studying and workplace Furthermore, another empirical research by Tran and Swierczek (2009) identified factors influencing the graduate skill development in the workplace via the perspective of employer’s need as well as skill delivery and graduate competencies in the lens of students only Meanwhile, Marsh at al (2002) perceived skill development during supervisory process as development of generic skills.

Although many researches worldwide have been conducted to investigate the determinants of postgraduate quality, very few studies specifically explore the relationship of supervisor’s interpersonal style on postgraduate student’s research skill development and its consequences in research satisfaction and quality of life Most of the researches show these concepts separately (Marsh et al., 2002; Mainhard et al., 2009; Y.K Lee, Kim, K.H Lee & Li, 2012; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2012) Further, the role and the degree of students’ self-determination and autonomous motivation during the period of doing thesis seem to be overlooked in the supervisory process In Vietnam, the number of studies about this issue is still scare Even the studies of Tran (2013), Tran and Swierczek (2009) showed that school activities and part-time experiences effectively enhancing students’ skill development but they concentrate on a different construct, that is the linkage between postgraduate skill-developments in workplace and focus on the competencies applicable in working environment Moreover, these above research examine university students and employers as respondents instead of postgraduate students What remains to be explored, however, is how postgraduate students perceive to achieve learning outcome of research skill development and research satisfaction from doing postgraduate thesis.

1.3 Research objectives

In order to fulfill this gap and in an effort to identify the key factors affecting student’s skill development during supervision process, the overall objective of this study is to examine the effects of supervisor’s interpersonal style on research skill development and subsequently, on research satisfaction and quality of life in the context of Vietnam postgraduate studies In addition, it investigates the moderating role of student’s intrinsic motivation in the relationship between supervisor’s interpersonal style and skill development Specifically, it investigates:

1 The relationship between research satisfaction and quality of life

2 The relationship between skill development and research satisfaction

4 The relationship between supervisor’s interpersonal style and research satisfaction

5 The impact of supervisor’s interpersonal style on skill development is stronger for group with a high level of intrinsic motivation than that of group with a low level of intrinsic motivation

1.4 Research scope

This thesis concentrates on Master’s students who are under doing the postgraduate thesis and already completed the MBA program because they have deep experience in supervisory process and research completion Ho Chi Minh City is chosen to conduct the survey for this study since it is one of the biggest cities in Vietnam and most of universities and scientific research institutions centralize here The survey examines MBA’s students mainly at four universities in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam including University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, University of Economics and Law, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Open University.

1.5 Research significance

This thesis about the relationship between postgraduate students with their supervisors and the supervisory styles to be most effective in terms of students’ satisfaction with the supervision in their learning journey is practical for several reasons First, the author hopes to provide a general outlook about students’ feedback at their supervisors’ interpersonal styles with the goal to improve the quality

of supervision Although communication between research students and supervisors frequently will be open, the research accommodates the instrument to discuss the relationship and the data will add insights that not always reflect in unregulated discussion between postgraduate student and supervisor Second, analyzing what postgraduate students’ preferred style and what supervisor’s ideal would help in the matching of supervisors and supervisees Third, this study is significant for universities or scientific research institutions specializing in postgraduate training for future program development in order to enhance or create a climate where evaluation of postgraduate students’ experiences is common practice Finally, by having an insight understanding about factors that influence student’s kill development, research satisfaction, and happiness in life, universities, or scientific research institutions can have appropriate strategies or specific activities to release the nature tension of the relationship between supervisors and supervisees and increase the quality of research supervision in postgraduate education.

Chapter 2: Literature review and hypotheses

This chapter describes a conceptual model Additionally, this chapter reviews and synthesizes the theories in the literature of five constructs including quality of life, research satisfaction, skill development, supervisor’s interpersonal styles, and intrinsic motivation Thus, the definition and the literature review of the above constructs are presented, and hypotheses are proposed respectively.

Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter introduces research design, research methodology, and the processes of conducting the research to test the hypotheses In addition, the research procedure is implemented through a combination between qualitative research and quantitative research.

Chapter 4: Data analysis and results

This chapter is designed to present the data analysis progress and findings of data analysis Accordingly, this chapter includes three main parts: descriptive analysis, measurement assessment, and hypotheses testing.

Chapter 5: Conclusions, Implications, and Limitations

The last chapter discusses main conclusions, discussion of the findings and implications based on the results of the previous chapters Lastly, the limitations are identified to recommend for further research in the future.

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES

This chapter mainly introduces the theories, which are proposed by many scholars in academic field, relating to all concepts, and research model of the study Respectively, the author introduces the definitions of quality of life, research satisfaction, skill development, supervisor’s interpersonal styles, and intrinsic motivation The related theories of each construct are alternatively discussed Finally, based on theories and the relation of previous research, its constructs and relationship hypothesized among these constructs are proposed.

2.1 Quality of life and research satisfaction

Quality of life is a complex concept and it has been evaluated in a variety of ways Veenhoven (as cited in Aydin, 2012) defines overall happiness as the extent to which an individual judges the overall quality of his life as “whole favorably” Further, Khoshnam, Ghamari, and Gendavani (2013) argued that happiness is the positive emotion consisting

of two dimensions: social behaviors and inner satisfaction and can show a sense of joy and that happiness is affective in creating a mental health and helps the person be successful on social relations and achieve individual goal In the context of this study, quality of life can be defined as overall satisfaction with life (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2012).

Likewise, satisfaction has been largely defined and measured in different ways over the years The concept of satisfaction is understood differently in individual relative context Respectively, job satisfaction is defined as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences” (Locke, as cited in Lee

et al., 2012) Meanwhile, learning satisfaction is perceived as the extent of satisfaction of learners towards the learning process and the results of performance and achievement (Ko, 2012) In general, satisfaction is the level to which the individual's needs and aspiration are met (Küskü, 2001) In the context of this study, following Lee et al (2012), research satisfaction is perceived as enjoyable status of emotion deriving from the achievement of research skill development during the supervisory process.

Thus, a number of studies have found the relationship between job satisfaction and quality of life (Iverson & Maguire, 2000; Gavin & Mason, 2004) People who enjoy their jobs tend to perceive greater overall satisfaction with their lives because life satisfaction is impacted by satisfaction with life domains, including work (Sirgy, as cited in Nguyen & Nguyen, 2012) In addition, it has also found that there is a link between satisfaction and long- standing happiness or quality of life (Khoshnam et al., 2013) Hence, in the context of this study, the author hypothesizes that:

Hypothesis 1: Research satisfaction has a positive impact on

quality of life 2.2 Skill development

Skill development has been measured as a part of academic achievement and defined as development of generic skills (Marsh et al., 2002) or soft skills to be efficient for workplace (Tran & Swierczek, 2009) Actually, there are numerous definitions of skill development (Tran, 2013) These skills are named variety such as transferable skills, soft skills, core skills, key skills, generic skills, basic skills, cross-curricular skills, or more recently employability skills (Hager & Holland, 2006) Additionally, skills are also referred to as ‘competencies’, ‘capacities’, or ‘abilities’ rather than skills and

in general, these terms are widely used “to refer to a range of qualities and capacities that are viewed as increasingly important in contemporary life” (Tran, 2013, p.633) In the context of this study, following Marsh et al., (2002), the author perceives skill development as a set of generic skills to develop research ability of the student.

Indeed, research shows that the development of generic skills such as problem solving, analysis, communication, application, collaboration, self- regulation are predictors to the outcome of student’s reported level of course satisfaction at university (Lizzio, Wilson & Simons, 2002) Moreover, Zeng, Webster, and Ginns (2013) found that students' perceived skill development along with their research degree experiences during postgraduate supervision tends to

Hypothesis 2: Skill development has a positive impact on research

satisfaction 2.3 Supervisor’s interpersonal style

Interpersonal style has been widely studied in education (Frymier & Houser, 2000; Marsh et al., 2002; Armstrong, 2004; Perry, Fisher & Koul, 2005) Interpersonal style originates from the concept of interpersonal relationships or interpersonal relations in psychology, where interpersonal style is defined as a systems approach to communication (Watzlawick, Beavin & Jackson, as cited in Perry et al., 2005) Accordingly, the systems approach to communication mainly focuses on the pragmatic aspect that is the affect of communication of the persons involved In the context of education, the conceptualization of the interpersonal perspective concentrates on the perceptions of the students toward the behavior of their teachers (Perry et al., 2005) and the communication between teachers and students is relational as well as content driven (Frymier & Houser, 2000)

Interpersonal perspective indicates that supervisor behavior not only conveys the content of the words being used, but also implies an intrinsic relationship communication (Mainhard et al., 2009) This concept evaluates supervision in terms of the relationship between the supervisor and students Respectively, there are two features central to this perspective: the communicative systems approach and a model to describe the relationship aspect of supervisor behavior To describe this relationship-aspect of the supervisor behavior, researchers have applied Leary’s general model for interpersonal relationships (Marsh et al., 2002; Perry et al., 2005; Wubbels, Brekelmans, Brok & Tartwijk, 2006) in the context of higher education in which the relationship aspect of behavior is described in two dimensions and structured in smaller segments Mainhard et al (2009) developing from a model by Wubbels et al (2006) analyze two dimensions of the model for interpersonal supervisor behavior: Influence and Proximity underlining in eight types of behavior: leadership, helpful/friendly, understanding, giving students freedom and responsibility, uncertain, dissatisfied, admonishing and strict.

In fact, Gatfield (as cited in Mainhard et al., 2009) outlines four supervisory styles consisting five items by combining the two poles of the dimensions: structure and support The laissez faire type (low structure and low support) generally offers students responsibility and freedom The pastoral type (high on support and low on structure) combines understanding and helpful/friendly behavior The contractual style (high on support and high

on structure), the emphasis is on leadership and helpful/friendly behavioral aspects Finally, Gatfield’s directorial type (high structure, low support) conveys strict and leadership behavior.

In the context of this study, following Gatfield’s research and adopting from Mainhard et al (2009), the author applies only five types of behavior which is believed having direct impact to research skill development of the students including: leadership, helpful/friendly, understanding, giving students freedom and responsibility, and strict.

Teachers vary in the interpersonal styles they reply on to teach and motivate students Kyriakides, Creemers, and Antoniou (2009) found that teachers who use advanced types of behaviour are presented more effective for students’ achievement towards different subjects The finding from the study of contextual supervision model with classroom cooperating teachers and their teacher-interns in an extended-practicum program in Western Canada also reveals a recognizable improvement between cooperating teachers’ mentorship styles with their supervisees’ or teacher-interns’ skill- specific developmental levels in teaching (Ralph, 2003) At the postgraduate level, students’ reported benefits in mentoring relationships have included development of research skills, collaboration, and shared decision-making on research projects (Koro-Ljungberg & Hayes, 2006) Research also shows that skill development has high correlation with supervisor’s interpersonal styles and one of the most prominent elements associated with the supervisors’ role (Marsh et al., 2002; Mainhard et al., 2009) Therefore, the author suggests that:

Hypothesis 3: Supervisor’s interpersonal style has a positive impact on

Positive associations have been demonstrated between teachers’s interpersonal styles and students’ subject-related attitudes of enjoyment (Henderson, as cited in Perry et al., 2005; Perry et al., 2005) For example, Henderson found in the study of Biology classes in Australia that teachers’ interpersonal styles explained 33% in students’ enjoyment, either uniquely or in combination with other learning environment variables Perry et al (2005) also found that teacher’s interpersonal behavior has a strong effect on student’s attitude of enjoyment in secondary science in India In addition, good interpersonal working relationship between supervisors and students is more likely to be associated with good progress and student satisfaction (Ives & Rowley, 2005) Accordingly, the author also proposes that:

Hypothesis 4 : Supervisor’s interpersonal style has a positive impact on student’s research satisfaction.

2.4 Moderating effect of intrinsic motivation

Motivation is a significant factor in explaining human behavior Ryan and Deci (2000) judge that motivation can be evaluated either in quantitative measure as one’s enthusiasm for

a particular task or qualitative judgment as the beliefs that give rise to a task being undertaken Correspondingly, intrinsic motivation reflects the natural human tendency to learn and confront Vallerand (as cited in Areepattamannil, Freeman & Klinger, 2011) describes intrinsic motivation in three categories Respectively, intrinsic motivation to know reflects the aspiration to perform an activity in a pleasure and satisfactory manner while one perceives during learning, exploring, or trying to understand something new Intrinsic motivation to accomplish, on the other hand, reflects the aspiration to perform an activity in a pleasure and satisfactory manner while one receives from creating new things Finally, intrinsic motivation

to experience refers the individuals’ pleasurable intellectual or physical sensations in an activity for the pleasure and satisfaction obtained Thus, intrinsic motivation is also referred

as a partial part self-determination theory, which has received wide attention in the sport, education, work, and health care fields Accordingly, this research bases on the study of

Karatepe (2014) that describes intrinsic motivation as a part self-determination theory of which intrinsically motivated individuals tend to have an internal locus of control, are driven to accomplish, and are enthusiastic about learning new things.

Actually, advantages of intrinsic motivation have been demonstrated (Gagné & Deci, 2005; Hon, 2012; Khoshnam et al., 2013) For example, Gagné and Deci (2005) found that when individuals are autonomously motivated, they find their work absorbing and delightful In addition, their decision toward work completion is voluntary Moreover, intrinsically motivated employees seem to be more unprejudiced, flexible and more willing to assimilate new knowledge or more willing to bring about innovative approaches in decision- making processes (Hon, 2012) In the context of learning, intrinsically motivated students tend to have higher academic success because students with intrinsic motivation seek challenge and competition in studying (Komarraju, Karau & Schmeck, 2009) as well as determine goals and attempt with creactivity to reach their goals (Khoshnam et al., 2013) Further, Ferrer -Caja and Weiss (2000) found that students in high school physical education classes who perceive higher learning climate in their classes would foster their higher level of self-determination and subsequently translate to their higher intrinsic motivation, effort, and persistence Areepattamannil et al (2011) also found that intrinsic motivation has a positive predictive effect on academic achievement for both the Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada and the Indian adolescents in India; however, the Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada trend to have better school performance as compared to the Indian adolescents in India because of their higher intrinsic motivation In the context of this study, the author also hypothesizes:

Hypothesis 5: The impact of supervisor’s interpersonal style on skill development is stronger for group with a high level of intrinsic motivation than that of group with a low level of intrinsic motivation.

motivation.

In summary, this chapter presents theoretical background of each construct in the model Based on discussions in the literature review, supervisor’s interpersional style has

a high impact on student’s skill development and student’s research satisfaction Consequently, student’s skill development positively affects student’s research satisfaction as well as quality of life Further, the moderating role of intrinsic motivation during supervisory process is also considered Totally, there are five hypotheses proposed for this research The next chapter discusses about methodology to be applied for data analysis and testing hypotheses of the research model.

CHAPTER 3 - METHODOLOGY

This chapter introduced the methods to do research in order to obtain data for analysing those concepts and the model It included three sections: research design including research process and measurement scales, qualitative research, and quantitative research The two important parts in this chapter were details of qualitative research and quantitative research in which the result of qualitative research led to the final questionnaire to be used in the main survey of this study.

3.1 Research design

3.1.1 Research process

This research consisted of two phases: a qualitative study and a quantitative study In-depth interview was applied in the qualitative study The main survey was conveyed by quantitative method The entire procedure was illustrated in Figure 3.1.

3.1.2 Measurement scales

The draft questionnaire was designed based on previous measurement scales One second-order construct (supervisor’s interpersonal style) and four first -order constructs (skill development, intrinsic motivation, research satisfaction and quality of life) were used in this study.

Figure 3.1 Research process Supervisor’s interpersonal style

components:

adapted from M

four

strictness of supervisors Lastly, four items referring the free level in decision-making under the perception of supervisees measured student responsibility/freedom.

Table 3.1 Scale items of supervisor's interpersonal style

Supervisor's interpersonal style (adopted from Mainhard et al., 2009)

Leadership

1 My supervisor gives thorough feedback on my research

2 My supervisor always explains comprehensibly when I ask something

3 My supervisor acts confidently when discussing my papers

4 My supervisor acts professionally during our meetings

5 My supervisor gives me a lot of advice

6 My supervisor gives me clear guidance

Helping/friendly

1 My supervisor anticipates possible misunderstandings between us

2 My supervisor reacts enthusiastically about my initiatives

3 My supervisor is someone I can rely on

4 My supervisor always cooperates, if I want something

5 My supervisor helps me

6 My supervisor supports me

Understanding

1 My supervisor listens to me

2 My supervisor pays attention, if I have something to say

3 My supervisor shares my sense of humor

4 My supervisor trusts me

Strict

1 My supervisor is quick to criticize me

2 My supervisor is critical of my research

3 My supervisor demands a lot from me

4 My supervisor immediately corrects me if I do something wrong

5 My supervisor is strict when evaluating my progress

Student responsibility/freedom

1 My supervisor follows my proposals

2 My supervisor is easily impressed by me

3 My supervisor lets me choose my own direction

4 My supervisor allows me to make my own decisions

Skill development

Skill development was measured by five items, which was adopted from Marsh et al.

(2002) Items of skill development reflect the generic skills to be nourished and achieved during thesis completion of students.

Table 3.2 Scale items of skill development

Skill development (adopted from Marsh et al., 2002)

1 My research further developed my problem-solving skills

2 I learned to develop my ideas and present them in my written research

3 My research sharpened my analytical skills

4 Doing my own research helped me to develop my ability to plan my own work

5 As a result of my research, I feel confident about tackling unfamiliar problems

Intrinsic motivation

Four items, based on Karatepe (2014), were used to measure intrinsic motivation These four items examined students’ autonomous motivation as well as aspiration to perform an activity in a pleasure and satisfactory manner during learning and exploring new things.

Table 3.3 Scale items of i ntrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation (adopted from Karatepe, 2014)

1 I feel a great sense of personal satisfaction when I do my research well.

2 When I perform my research well, it contributes to my personal growth and development.

3 My research increases my feeling of self esteem.

4 When I do research well, it gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

Research satisfaction

Research satisfaction was adopted from Lee et al (2012) and measured by nine items – that was,

to address overall satisfaction and happiness in the research process of the students.

Table 3.4 Scale items of r esearch satisfaction

Research satisfaction (adopted from Lee et al., 2012)

1 Most days, I have to force myself to do research

2 Most days, I am enthusiastic about my research

3 I definitely like my research

4 My research is pretty interesting

5 I find real enjoyment in my research

6 I consider my research pleasant

7 I am relaxed with my research

8 I feel fairly well-satisfied with my research

9 I am disappointed I ever look research

Quality of life

Finally, three items, adopted from the research of Nguyen and Nguyen (2012), measured quality of life These three items indicated the respondents’ level of agreement with the statements relating to satisfaction with their life.

Table 3.5 Scale items of q uality of life

Quality of life (adopted from Nguyen & Nguyen, 2012)

1 Conditions of my life are excellent

2 I am satisfied with my life

3 I have gotten the important things I want in life

In this study, all these scales were measured by a five-point Likert scale

from “1 = strongly disagree” to “5 = strongly agree”.

3.2 Qualitative study

3.2.1 The purpose of qualitative research

Although most of the scales were available in the preceding researches, this step was important to make them appropriate for the context of this study: applying in a developing country like Vietnam The measurement scales of this study were mainly adapted from the previous researches of foreign authors Hence, they were tested and applied in other countries Due to the difference of culture and economy, there might be a gap when the scales were adapted in the Vietnamese context Therefore, this qualitative research was conducted for revising the items to be suitable in the context of Vietnam The purpose of this qualitative research was to check the clarity of the questionnaire and to make appropriate adjustments where it was necessary Eventually, the in-depth interview would help to ensure that the official questionnaire would be well understood by respondents and valuable in measuring observed variables before launching the main survey.

3.2.2 Sample of qualitative research

The sample size was fourteen participants These participants were chosen from different postgraduate learning status (under doing MBA thesis and already completed

in a certain period) and different language used in postgraduate program (English and Vietnamese) Eight participants were male and six participants were female of different universities in Ho Chi Minh City (refer Appendix A: Guidelines for In-depth interview).

3.2.3 The conduct of qualitative research

Each of the participants was interviewed separately in the schoolyard, library, and coffee shop during three weeks from June 5 to June 27, 2015 The in-depth interview was conducted in three steps as below:

In the first step, the researcher started with specifying the objectives of the qualitative research in terms of what information would be needed to be collected and asked the participants the following question: “How long have you done the thesis?” Once the participants answered, the researcher noted their answers immediately This step was to check the participants’ doing research experience and recalled their research perception, which was helpful to prepare participants for the content in the next step, and deep experience

of the participants in the result would increase the value of this qualitative research.

In the second step, the researcher gave ten participants the first draft of the questionnaire, which was translated from English into Vietnamese from the collection of the measurement scales as presented in 3.1.2 of this chapter Then, each respondent was asked to read the questionnaire and to point out any confusing words while reading it During the interview, the author also tried to find out if the chosen measurement scale was suitable for conducting the research in Viet Nam Correspondingly, all the comments and recommendations were taken note for appropriate changes in the final questionnaire where it was necessary for the purpose of clarity.

In the third step, the researcher gave the final scale items after in-depth interview in the second step for four new target respondents read to check whether they understood clearly.

3.2.4 The outcome of qualitative research

The result of the first step presented that all the participants’ doing research experience was more than three months Their research experiences were sufficient to be asked about research perception during supervisory process.

In the second step of the qualitative research, the researcher found that there appeared plenty of comments to modify the scales to be clearly understandable in Vietnam context Specially, some scales were suggested to eliminate because its meaning was similar with other; another item was a better descriptive item than the deleted one or the content was not quite suitable and not realistic in Vietnamese culture The guidelines of in-depth interview were

presented in Appendix A As a result, total fourteen out of fourty-six items of the theoretical measurement scales were eliminated after qualitative research (refer Table 3.6) and there were thirty-two remaining items to measure five factors (refer Appendix B: Final measurement scales).

In the third step of the qualitative research, the researcher also gave these thirty-two items for four new target respondents read and all understood clearly This was to ensure that respondents in the main survey could well understand the questionnaire for effective response.

Table 3.6 Removed items

No of items Name of items

Supervisor's interpersonal style (adopted from Mainhard et al., 2009) 02

Leadership

My supervisor acts confidently when discussing my papers

My supervisor gives me a lot of advice Helping/friendly

03

My supervisor anticipates possible misunderstandings between us

My supervisor is someone I can rely on

My supervisor helps me 01

Intrinsic motivation (adopted from Karatepe, 2014)

My research increases my feeling of self-esteem.

Research satisfaction (adopted from Lee et al., 2012) Most days, I am enthusiastic about my research 05

I find real enjoyment in my research

I consider my research pleasant

I am relaxed with my research Total 14

I am disappointed I ever look research

3.3 Quantitative study

3.3.1 Questionnaire design

Basing on the final measurement scales after qualitative study, the questionnaire was designed in three sections as following (refer Appendix C: Questionnaire - English version and Appendix D: Questionnaire - Vietnamese version):

The first section explored respondents’ experience in doing research This section included a consent form and screening question to identify exactly the target audience of this survey The consent form clarified in detail the researcher’s information and purpose of the survey as well as the respondents’ estimated duration of response, significance of the participation and privacy protection commitment Thus, “doing research” was an abstract concept and different respondents might have different awareness about it To make sure all respondents had the same understanding of doing research, a definition of doing research was provided at the first part of the questionnaire Additionally, screening question was the following question: “Have you done postgraduate thesis?” The respondents would answer the screening question before starting to do the survey If anyone answered “Already complete”, they would need to answer the next question “You have completed postgraduate thesis in: a <

1 year; b 1-2 years; c > 2-3 years; d > 3 years” If anyone answered, “Under doing postgraduate thesis”, they would need to answer the next question “You have been doing postgraduate thesis in: a < 3 months; b 3-6 months; c > 6 months” If anyone answered, “Not yet doing postgraduate thesis”, it meant that they were not the target respondents of the survey and they would stop their job.

The second section explored respondents’ attitude and perception during doing thesis period All the variables in the model were measured with multiple items, which were developed by other researchers, to adequately capture the domain of the constructs Specifically, supervisor's interpersonal style was measured by five components, totally seventeen items of Mainhard et al (2009) Continuously, five items of Marsh et al (2002),

measured skill development and three items of Karatepe (2014) measured intrinsic motivation; research satisfaction was measured by four items of Lee et al (2012); and finally, quality of life was measured by three items by Nguyen and Nguyen (2012) To avoid response bias, all concepts’ names were excluded from the questionnaire; totally 32 questions were presented continuously in one table.

The third section included background information such as gender, language used in postgraduate program, major in postgraduate program, university of studying postgraduate program, frequency of meeting supervisor and primary means of communication with supervisor Such information was used to classify and compare groups of respondents.

3.3.2 The purpose of quantitative research

After the questionnaire was modified, the main survey was conducted The author used adjusted questionnaire to collect data in order to test the measurement models and the hypothesized model This purpose was finally to generalize from a sample to a population so that inferences could be interpreted about some characteristics, attitude, and behavior of the population.

3.3.3 Sampling

Relating to sample, the nonprobability sampling technique - convenience sampling approach was conducted in Ho Chi Minh City The target respondents were MBA students who were under doing the postgraduate thesis or already completed the MBA program who had deep experience in supervisory process The method of self-administered survey was employed for this study, which consisted of 05 factors and 32 variables to be measured by five-point Likert scale including “strongly disagree” (=1), “disagree” (=2), “neutral” (=3), “agree” (=4), and “strongly agree” (=5) Hence, the size of the sample would be necessarily big enough to guarantee statistical significance According to Hair, Black, Babin, and Anderson (2010), the minimum sample for appropriate use of statistical analysis was

times of number of variables, but not less than 100 Respectively, the minimum sample size was determined by equation: n=32*5=160 observations.

In the hope to obtain a sample size over 200 to run Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), the author used both indirect method via electronic mail with Google survey and direct method via hard copies to target correspondents in Ho Chi Minh City Indirect method was mainly used, though During data collection period, International School of Business and the researcher’s friends who have been studying MBA program at different Universities helped the list of email addresses of postgraduate students Accordingly, 600 questionnaires were sent via email to MBA students mainly at four Universities in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam including University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, University of Economics and Law, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Open University Respondents received the questionnaire’s link through email to complete Ten days after the initial invitation, a reminder email was sent to encourage respondents to participate the survey as well as thank them if they did already Data collection was conducted both weekday and weekend during six weeks from July 17,

2015 to August 24, 2015 Besides, by convenient sampling method, 100 paper questionnaires were delivered to some friends of the researcher and some MBA classes to collect data.

3.3.4 Data analysis method

The Statistical Package for Social Science version 22 (SPSS 22) and the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS 22) were used to analyze the data The Cronbach’s alpha, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approaches were employed to test the reliability and validity of the measurement model Accordingly, all measurements scales were evaluated and any unsatisfactory items were deleted from the scales because of their low fitness to the measurement model in the research Continuously, the theoretical model applied structural equation modeling (SEM) Thus, SEM was statistical technique that could be examined the interrelated relationships among multiple dependent and independent constructs simultaneously Additionally, in order to investigate the moderating

effect, a multi-group analysis in SEM was conducted to evaluate if values of parameters varied across categorical variable.

The five constructs of this study included supervisor's interpersonal style, skill development, intrinsic motivation, research satisfaction, and quality of life Interpersonal style with all of its components was exogenous The rest four constructs were endogenous variables.

In summary, this chapter reported the methodolody used in this study to test the conceptual model Respectively, this study was designed into two phases: the first phase was qualitative research by in-depth interview and the second phase was quantitative (main survey) The method for data collection and analysis was also discussed The next chapter would present the results of data analysis from quantitative survey.

CHAPTER 4 – DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

Chapter 4 presented the data analysis and findings The first section included data collection, sample characteristics, as well as reliability analyses to improve the internal consistency of each variable by Cronbach’s alpha Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was applied to explore the factor structure (how the variables related and grouped based on inter-variable correlations) Continuously, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) extracted from EFA was examined the measurement models and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the conceptual model Based on the data analysis results, the explanation for research findings was discussed.

4.1 Data collection

After data collection, total 293 responses were collected The response rate was approximately 42 percent However, only 234 responses were qualified for data analysis process Totally, 59 responses were deleted, of which 37 questionnaires were removed because the respondents indicated that they not yet did postgraduate thesis and the rest 22 questionnaires were eliminated because they were invalid (respondents just chose one option for all questions; missed to answer some questions; or overlapping answers with two options for a question) Finally, 234 questionnaires were used as valid data for this research In comparison with minimum sample size as stated in chapter 3, this number of data was satisfactory.

Table 4.1 Source of data collection

Source Distributed Collected Response rate Eliminated Valid

4.2 Sample characteristics

The collected data was analyzed by using the SPSS – Statistical software package to provide the general information of respondents Total 234 responses were used for data analysis The results of the demographics analysis were summarized in Table 4.2 The data indicated that the supervisees who had completed postgraduate thesis accounted for 64.1% and who have been doing postgraduate thesis seized 35.9% A quarter of the respondents who took part in this survey completed postgraduate thesis less than one year with 25.6% of total sample Respondents completed postgraduate thesis in one to two years accounted for 15.4%, more than two to three years occupied 9% and over three years at 14.1% Respondents under doing postgraduate thesis between three and six months were dominant with 18.8% while less than three months occupied 9.8% and over six months seized 7.3% of total collected sample.

In addition, the data displayed that gender was close between male and female with respective figure 56% and 44% The analysis of data also showed that language used in postgraduate program was close to the balance between English (48.3%) and Vietnamese (51.7%) Thus, the equal ratio of gender and language used in postgraduate program helped to avoid bias of analysis results Continuously, business administration was the main major in postgraduate program (51.7%) while Finance & Accounting located 25.2% and others were at 23.1% Similar to major in postgraduate program, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City occupied a half- half ratio (54.3%) and the rest sample distributed unequally for other Universities.

Frequency of meeting supervisor was investigated within three groups Most of respondents met supervisor once a month (55.1%) 32.1 % of respondents revealed that they met their supervisors from once to twice a month and 12.8% respondents met twice a month Lastly, primary means of communication with supervisor by email was dominant with 55.6% while by meeting directly occupied 42.7% and by phone ranged at 1.7% of total sample.

Table 4.2 Respondents’ characteristics

Category Frequency Percent (%) profile

Completed 1-2 years 36 15.4 postgraduate >2-3 years 21 9.0 thesis > 3 years 33 14.1

University of Economics and Law 38 16.2 Technology University 10 4.3

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