Job engagement in the vietnamese higher education sector

277 9.10 Research Question 8: What Are the Views of Vietnamese University Academics about Effective Human Resource Practices That Will Enhance Their Job Engagement?. task performance, or

Job Engagement in the Vietnamese Higher Education Sector

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Nguyen Thao Thai PHAM

Master of Science in International Human Resource Management (University of East Anglia, Norwich, the United Kingdom)

Bachelor of Arts in International Relations (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)

School of Management College of Business RMIT University

August 2018

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of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out

by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed

Nguyen Thao Thai PHAM

08 August 2018

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Secondly, I would like to show my genuine appreciation to my original associate supervisor Dr Michael K Muchiri for his inputs for more than half of my PhD journey Although Dr Michael K Muchiri had to leave the supervisory team due to his personal issues, I owe him thanks for motivating me to collect quantitative data from two different sources at two different times and to use Mplus software

to analyse the multilevel quantitative data They, later, became two out of the four methodological contributions of my thesis

Thirdly, I am immensely grateful to my principal sponsor Program 165 and RMIT University for giving their financial and administrative support for my study.Additionally, I wish to thank the board of directors at Department of Home Affairs

in Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam, especially Director Mr Lam V Truong, for referring

me to Program 165 and the doctoral training program at RMIT University as well

as encouraging me throughout the last four years Without them, my PhD journey might never have started

I highly acknowledge the support from the Representative Agency of Ministry of Education and Training, the Department of Education and Training, and 14 public and private universities in Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam during my data collection phase Thanks to all Vietnamese university academics who voluntarily

participated in my questionnaire surveys Their data were exceptionally useful for

me to address the research questions and hypotheses

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Professor Kristopher J Preacher, Professor James Gaskin, Professor John Antonakis, Dr Linda K Muthén, Dr Ahmad Abareshi, and members in SEMNET, who devoted their precious time to answer my inquiries about structural equation modelling and multilevel structural equation modelling, which, in turn, assisted me in completing the quantitative data analysis My big thanks go to professional editor, Dr John McAndrew, for his hard work in copyediting and proofreading my thesis in accordance with the university-endorsed national ‘Guidelines for editing research theses’ Thanks to all my friends and colleagues in both Australia and Vietnam for sharing information and knowledge, encouraging me in my research work, and spending

a memorable time with me during this long journey

More importantly, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my parents Mr Hoang M Pham and Mrs Khoan T Thai for all the sacrifices they have made and the dreams they had to let go, just to give me a shot at achieving mine Thank you to my parents-in-law Mr Ly D Le and Mrs Lan T Nguyen for their unflagging support and complete trust in me Thanks to my brother Nguyen H T Le and brother-in-law Duc M D Le for taking over my responsibilities in the families for the past four years Their unconditional love and support have made me who I

am today

Last but not least, I dedicate special thanks to my husband Mr Tri M D Le for joining me in this journey Thank you very much for patiently listening to my frustrations and helping me with every household chore A lot of people say that marriage is full of responsibilities With you by my side, our marriage is a blessing

PUBLICATIONS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS

1 Publications

Journal

Pham-Thai, NT, McMurray, AJ, Muenjohn, N & Muchiri, MK 2018, ‘Job

engagement in higher education’, Personnel Review, vol 47, no 4, pp

951-967

Conferences

Pham-Thai, NT, McMurray, AJ, Muchiri, MK & Muenjohn, N 2017, ‘Evaluating the

relationship between job engagement, transformational leadership, performance human resource practices, climate for innovation, and contextual performance’, paper presented to the 31th ANZAM Conference

high-2017, RMIT University, Melbourne, 5 - 8 December

Pham-Thai, NT, McMurray, AJ & Muchiri, MK 2016, ‘Evaluating the relationship

between job engagement, transformational leadership, high-performance human resource practices, and job performance’, paper presented to the 30th ANZAM Conference 2016, QUT University, Brisbane, 6 - 9 December

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

PUBLICATIONS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS viii

LIST OF TABLES xv

LIST OF FIGURES xviii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xix

ABSTRACT 1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 4

1.1 Overview 4

1.2 Research Background 4

1.3 Research Aim and Objectives 8

1.4 Research Questions and Hypotheses 9

1.5 Research Design 11

1.6 Research Contributions 13

1.7 Delimitations of Scope 14

1.8 Thesis Structure 15

1.9 Summary 17

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 19

2.1 Introduction 19

2.2 The Vietnamese Higher Education Context 19

2.2.1 Contemporary Development History of Vietnamese Higher Education 20

2.2.2 Vietnamese University Academics’ Job Engagement 32

2.3 The Operational Definition of Job Engagement 36

2.3.1 Different Schools of Thought in Work Engagement 37

2.3.2 The Nature of Work Engagement 44

2.3.3 The Operational Definition of Job Engagement 47

2.4 Theories of Job Engagement 47

2.4.1 Kahn’s Engagement Theory 48

2.4.2 Social Exchange Theory 51

2.4.3 The Link between Theories of Job Engagement and Key Concepts 54

2.5 Proposed Conceptual Model 57

2.6 The Relationships between Demographics and Job Engagement 60

2.6.1 The Relationship between Gender and Job Engagement 60

2.6.2 The Relationship between Age and Job Engagement 60

2.6.3 The Relationship between Education and Job Engagement 62

2.6.4 The Relationships between Tenure and Job Engagement 62

2.7 The Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Job Engagement 64

2.8 The Relationships between High-Performance Human Resource Practices and Job Engagement 67

2.9 The Mediating Role of Climate for Engagement in the Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Job Engagement 70

2.10 The Mediating Role of Climate for Engagement in the Relationships between High-Performance Human Resource Practices and Job Engagement 73 2.11 The Relationship between Job Engagement and Job Performance 75

2.11.1 The Relationship between Job Engagement and Task Performance 75

2.11.2 The Relationship between Job Engagement and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour 76

2.11.3 The Relationship between Job Engagement and Innovative Work Behaviour 78

2.12 Summary 82

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN 85

3.1 Introduction 85

3.2 Research Paradigm 85

3.3 Mixed Methods Research Design 88

3.4 Survey Methodology 90

3.5 Data Collection Method 91

3.6 Questionnaire Development Process 92

3.6.1 Operationalisation of Key Constructs 92

3.6.1.1 Demographics 92

3.6.1.2 Transformational Leadership 93

3.6.1.3 High-Performance Human Resource Practices 94

3.6.1.4 Climate for Engagement 96

3.6.1.5 Job Engagement 97

3.6.1.6 Task Performance 98

3.6.1.7 Organisational Citizenship Behaviour 98

3.6.1.8 Innovative Work Behaviour 99

3.6.2 Common Method Variance 102

3.6.3 Questionnaire Design 104

3.6.4 Translation of Questionnaire 106

3.7 Sample Design 106

3.7.1 Target Population 106

3.7.2 Sample Size 107

3.7.3 Sampling Techniques 108

3.8 Ethical Consideration 109

3.9 Pre-Test 110

3.10 Pilot Study 112

3.11 Main Study 117

3.12 Data Matching Process 119

3.13 Quantitative Data Analysis Process 120

3.13.1 Units of Analysis 120

3.13.2 Data Analysis Method 121

3.14 Qualitative Content Analysis Process 122

3.14.1 Nature of Content 123

3.14.2 Role of Theory 124

3.14.3 Validity 125

3.14.4 Reliability 126

3.14.5 Units of Analysis 127

3.14.6 Categories 127

3.15 Summary 128

CHAPTER 4: QUANTITATIVE DATA EXAMINATION 132

4.1 Introduction 132

4.2 Missing Data 132

4.3 Outliers 133

4.4 Statistical Assumptions 135

4.4.1 Normality 135

4.4.2 Homoscedasticity 137

4.4.4 Multicollinearity 139

4.5 Common Method Variance 141

4.6 Sample Characteristics 142

4.7 Summary 146

CHAPTER 5: QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS - MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT VALIDATION 147

5.1 Introduction 147

5.2 Content Validity 147

5.3 Initial Internal Consistency Reliability 148

5.4 Construct Validity 149

5.4.1 Factorial Validity 150

5.4.1.1 Transformational Leadership 155

5.4.1.2 High-Peformance Human Resource Practices 165

5.4.1.3 Climate for Engagement 180

5.4.1.4 Job Engagement 184

5.4.1.5 Task Performance 194

5.4.1.6 Organisational Citizenship Behaviour 196

5.4.1.7 Innovative Work Behaviour 201

5.4.1.8 Overall Measurement Model 207

5.4.2 Convergent Validity 207

5.4.3 Discriminant Validity 209

5.5 Final Construct Reliability 210

5.6 Construct Scores 211

5.7 Summary 211

CHAPTER 6: QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS - STRUCTURAL MODEL VALIDATION 213

6.1 Introduction 213

6.2 Structural Model Validity 213

6.2.1 The Structural Model of Demographics, Transformational Leadership, High-Performance Human Resource Practices, Job Engagement, and Job Performance 215

6.2.2 The Multilevel Mediation Model of Transformational Leadership, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 218

6.2.3 The Multilevel Mediation Models of High-Performance Human Resource

Practices, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 220

6.2.3.1 The Multilevel Mediation Model of Ability-Enhancing Human Resource Practices, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 221

6.2.3.2 The Multilevel Mediation Model of Motivation-Enhancing Human Resource Practices, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 223

6.2.3.3 The Multilevel Mediation Model of Opportunity-Enhancing Human Resource Practices, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 225

6.3 Summary 229

CHAPTER 7: QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS 230

7.1 Introduction 230

7.2 Effective Leadership Behaviours 230

7.2.1 Transformational Leadership 230

7.2.1.1 Idealised Influence Attributes 231

7.2.1.2 Idealised Influence Behaviours 233

7.2.1.3 Inspirational Motivation 233

7.2.1.4 Intellectual Stimulation 234

7.2.1.5 Individualised Consideration 234

7.2.2 Transactional Leadership 235

7.2.2.1 Contingent Reward 235

7.2.2.2 Management-by-Exception Active 236

7.3 Effective Human Resource Practices 236

7.3.1 Ability-Enhancing Human Resource Practices 237

7.3.1.1 Selection 237

7.3.1.2 Training and Development 238

7.3.2 Motivation-Enhancing Human Resource Practices 238

7.3.2.1 Job Security 239

7.3.2.2 Promotion 239

7.3.2.3 Pay 240

7.3.2.4 Benefits 240

7.3.2.5 Performance Appraisal 241

7.3.3 Opportunity-Enhancing Human Resource Practices 241

7.3.3.1 Job Autonomy 242

7.4 Summary 244

CHAPTER 8: INTEGRATION OF QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE FINDINGS 245

8.1 Introduction 245

8.2 The Relationship between Demographics and Job Engagement 245

8.2.1 The Relationship between Gender and Job Engagement 246

8.2.2 The Relationship between Age and Job Engagement 247

8.2.3 The Relationship between Education and Job Engagement 248

8.2.4 The Relationships between Tenure and Job Engagement 248

8.3 The Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Job Engagement 249

8.4 The Relationships between High-Performance Human Resource Practices and Job Engagement 250

8.5 The Mediating Role of Climate for Engagement in the Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Job Engagement 254

8.6 The Mediating Role of Climate for Engagement in the Relationship between High-Performance Human Resource Practices on Job Engagement 255

8.7 The Relationship between Job Engagement and Job Performance 258

8.7.1 The Relationship between Job Engagement and Task Performance 259

8.7.2 The Relationship between Job Engagement and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour 260

8.7.3 The Relationship between Job Engagement and Innovative Work Behaviour 260

8.8 Interpretation on Effective Leadership Behaviours 261

8.9 Interpretation on Effective Human Resource Practices 264

8.10 Summary 268

CHAPTER 9: DISCUSSION 271

9.1 Introduction 271

9.2 Final Research Model 271

9.3 Research Question 1: What Are the Relationships between Demographics (i.e Gender, Age, Education, and Tenure) and Job Engagement of Vietnamese University Academics? 273

9.4 Research Question 2: What Is the Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Job Engagement of Vietnamese University Academics? 274

9.5 Research Question 3: What Are the Relationships between High-Performance Human Resource Practices (i.e Ability-Enhancing, Motivation-Enhancing, and Opportunity-Enhancing Human Resource Practices) and Job

Engagement of Vietnamese University Academics? 275

9.6 Research Question 4: Does Climate for Engagement Mediate the Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Job Engagement of Vietnamese University Academics? 275

9.7 Research Question 5: Does Climate for Engagement Mediate the Relationships between High-Performance Human Resource Practices (i.e Ability-Enhancing, Motivation-Enhancing, and Opportunity-Enhancing Human Resource Practices) and Job Engagement of Vietnamese University Academics? 276

9.8 Research Question 6: What Is the Relationship between Job Engagement and Job Performance (i.e Task Performance, Organisational Citizenship Behaviour, and Innovative Work Behaviour) of Vietnamese University Academics? 277

9.9 Research Question 7: What Are the Views of Vietnamese University Academics about Effective Leadership Behaviours That Will Enhance Their Job Engagement? 277

9.10 Research Question 8: What Are the Views of Vietnamese University Academics about Effective Human Resource Practices That Will Enhance Their Job Engagement? 279

9.11 Summary 281

CHAPTER 10: CONCLUSION 282

10.1 Introduction 282

10.2 Summary of Key Findings 282

10.3 Theoretical Implications 284

10.4 Methodological Implications 286

10.5 Practical Implications 287

10.6 Research Limitations 289

10.7 Directions for Future Research 289

10.8 Concluding Remarks 290

REFERENCES 291

Appendix A: Ethics Approval 326

Appendix B: Participant Information Form for the Pilot Study 328

Appendix C: Questionnaire for the Pilot Study 337

Appendix D: Participant Information and Consent Forms for the Main Study 350

Appendix E: Questionnaires for the Main Study 384

Appendix F: Results of the Main Study 409

LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Number of Citations to Articles Published from Southeast Asian Countries in ISI Indexed Journals in 2015 33

Table 2.2: Key Definitions and Measurement Instruments of Engagement 41

Table 2.3: Research Hypotheses 80

Table 3.1: Differences among Three Main Research Paradigms 87

Table 3.2: Key Constructs and Their Measurement Instruments 100

Table 3.3: Descriptive Statistics of the Pilot Sample 113

Table 3.4: Internal Consistency Reliability of Measurement Instruments in the Pilot Study 116

Table 3.5: Initial Categories and Sub-Categories for the Content Analysis 128

Table 4.1: Univariate and Multivariate Outlier Detection Results 134

Table 4.2: Descriptive Statistics of the Main Study Sample 142

Table 5.1: Initial Internal Consistency Reliability of Measurement Instruments in the Main Study 148

Table 5.2 Criteria for Model Fit Indices 153

Table 5.3: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Idealised Influence Attributes 155

Table 5.4: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Idealised Influence Behaviours 156 Table 5.5: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Inspirational Motivation 157

Table 5.6: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Intellectual Stimulation 158

Table 5.7: The Revised One-Factor Model of Intellectual Stimulation 159

Table 5.8: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Individualised Consideration 160

Table 5.9: The Proposed Five-Factor Model of Transformational Leadership 160

Table 5.10: The Revised One-Factor Model of Transformational Leadership 163

Table 5.11: The Final One-Factor Model of Transformational Leadership 164

Table 5.12: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Selection 166

Table 5.13: The Revised One-Factor Model of Selection 167

Table 5.14: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Training and Development 167

Table 5.15: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Job Security 168

Table 5.16: The Revised One-Factor Model of Job Security 169

Table 5.17: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Promotion 170

Table 5.18: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Performance-Related Pay 171

Table 5.19: The Revised One-Factor Model of Performance-Related Pay 171

Table 5.20: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Job Autonomy 172

Table 5.21: The Revised One-Factor Model of Job Autonomy 173

Table 5.22: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Communication 174

Table 5.23: The Revised One-Factor Model of Communication 175

Table 5.24: The Proposed Two-Factor Model of Ability-Enhancing Human Resource Practices 176

Table 5.25: The Proposed Three-Factor Model of Motivation-Enhancing Human Resource Practices 177

Table 5.26: The Proposed Two-Factor Model of Opportunity-Enhancing Human Resource Practices 179

Table 5.27: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Climate for Engagement 181

Table 5.28: The Revised One-Factor Model of Climate for Engagement 182

Table 5.29: The Estimated Intraclass Correlation Coefficients 182

Table 5.30: The Proposed Multilevel Model of Climate for Engagement 183

Table 5.31: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Physical Engagement 184

Table 5.32: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Emotional Engagement 185

Table 5.33: The Revised One-Factor Model of Emotional Engagement 186

Table 5.34: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Cognitive Engagement 187

Table 5.35: The Revised One-Factor Model of Cognitive Engagement 188

Table 5.36: The Proposed Three-Factor Model of Job Engagement 189

Table 5.37: The Revised Three-Factor Model of Job Engagement 191

Table 5.38: The Second-Order Factor Model of Job Engagement 193

Table 5.39: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Task Performance 194

Table 5.40: The Revised One-Factor Model of Task Performance 195 Table 5.41: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Organisational Citizenship

Table 5.42: The Revised One-Factor Model of Organisational Citizenship

Behaviour towards Individuals 197

Table 5.43: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Organisational Citizenship Behaviour towards Organisations 198

Table 5.44: The Revised One-Factor Model of Organisational Citizenship Behaviour towards Organisations 199

Table 5.45: The Proposed Two-Factor Model of Organisational Citizenship Behaviour 200

Table 5.46: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Idea Generation 201

Table 5.47: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Idea Promotion 202

Table 5.48: The Proposed One-Factor Model of Idea Realisation 203

Table 5.49: The Proposed Three-Factor Model of Innovative Work Behaviour 203 Table 5.50: The Revised One-Factor Model of Innovative Work Behaviour 205

Table 5.51: The Final One-Factor Model of Innovative Work Behaviour 206

Table 5.52: Final Convergent Validity, Composite Reliability, and Internal Consistency Reliability of the First-Order and Second-Order Reflective Constructs 208

Table 6.1: Model Fit Indices for the Proposed Structural Model of Demographics, Transformational Leadership, High-Performance Human Resource Practices, Job Engagement, and Job Performance 215

Table 6.2: Model Fit Indices for the Revised Structural Model of Demographics, Transformational Leadership, High-Performance Human Resource Practices, Job Engagement, and Job Performance 216

Table 6.3: Parameter Estimates for the Revised Structural Model of Demographics, Transformational Leadership, High-Performance Human Resource Practices, Job Engagement, and Job Performance 217

Table 6.4: Model Fit Indices for the Proposed Multilevel Mediation Model of Transformational Leadership, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 219 Table 6.5: Parameter Estimates for the Proposed Multilevel Mediation Model of Transformational Leadership, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 219 Table 6.6: Model Fit Indices for the Proposed Multilevel Mediation Model of Ability-Enhancing Human Resource Practices, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 221

Table 6.7: Parameter Estimates for the Proposed Multilevel Mediation Model of Ability-Enhancing Human Resource Practices, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 222 Table 6.8: Model Fit Indices for the Proposed Multilevel Mediation Model of Motivation-Enhancing Human Resource Practices, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 223 Table 6.9: Parameter Estimates for the Proposed Multilevel Mediation Model of Motivation-Enhancing Human Resource Practices, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 224 Table 6.10: Model Fit Indices for the Proposed Multilevel Mediation Model of Opportunity-Enhancing Human Resource Practices, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 225 Table 6.11: Parameter Estimates for the Proposed Multilevel Mediation Model of Opportunity-Enhancing Human Resource Practices, Climate for Engagement, and Job Engagement 226 Table 6.12: Results of Hypothesis Testing 227 Table 7.1: Final Categories and Sub-Categories from the Content Analysis 243 Table 8.1: A Comparison between Quantitative and Qualitative Findings Regarding the Effects of Leadership Behaviours and Human Resource Practices

on Job Engagement 267

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: A Conceptual Model of Job Engagement in Vietnamese Higher Education Context 58 Figure 9.1: A Research Model of Job Engagement in Vietnamese Higher Education Context 273

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ANOVA Analysis of Variance

AMO Ability-Motivation-Opportunity

APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

ARWU Academic Ranking of World Universities

ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations

BCHEAN Business College Human Ethics Advisory Network CFA Confirmatory Factor Analysis

EFA Exploratory Factory Analysis

Est./S.E Estimate/Standard Error

HPHRP High-Performance Human Resource Practices

ICC Intraclass Correlation Coefficients

ISA Intellectual, Social, Affective

ISI Institute of Scientific Information

MANOVA Multivariate Analysis of Variance

MBI-GS Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey

MCFA Multilevel Confirmatory Factor Analysis

MI Modification Indices

MOET Ministry of Education and Training

MSEM Multilevel Structural Equation Modelling

OCB Organisational Citizenship Behaviour

SEM Structural Equation Modelling

SPSS Statistical Package for Social Science

SRMR Standardised Root Mean Square Residual

THE-WUR Times Higher Education World University Rankings

VIF Variance Inflation Factor

ABSTRACT

Employees’ job engagement is one of the key drivers of organisational success and competitive advantage This thesis investigates the relationships between job engagement and demographics (i.e gender, age, education, and tenure), transformational leadership, high-performance human resource practices (i.e ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing human resource practices), climate for engagement, and job performance (i.e task performance, organisational citizenship behaviour, and innovative work behaviour) among Vietnamese university academics and explores their views about effective leadership behaviours and human resource practices that can promote their job engagement Building on Kahn’s engagement theory and social exchange theory, the thesis develops a conceptual model and puts forward eight research questions The first six research questions stimulate the construction of six hypotheses about the direct and indirect links between the related constructs The remaining two research questions, later, are specified into two open questions concerning the views of Vietnamese university academics about effective leadership behaviours and HR practices in their workplace

Due to the quantitative nature of the first six research questions and the qualitative nature of the remaining two research questions, the thesis adopts a mixed methods concurrent embedded design to capture the qualitative data within the predominant quantitative data in one data collection phase A survey methodology and self-completion questionnaires incorporating both closed and open questions are utilised to realise this design The main data collection phase took place from August to December 2016 at 125 schools and departments within

14 public and private universities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam To diminish common method variance, the quantitative data for the predictor and criterion constructs were obtained from two different sources (i.e university academics and their leaders) at two different points in time At Time 1, academic staff were requested to fill in a questionnaire with 19 closed questions about their demographics, transformational leadership behaviour of their line managers or supervisors, high-performance HR practices in their universities, and their job

engagement At the end of this questionnaire, there were two open questions addressing their views about specific leadership behaviours and HR practices that could be effective in enhancing their job engagement After two to three weeks, data were acquired from both academic staff and their leaders At Time 2, academics who participated in the first survey were requested to fill in another questionnaire with 20 closed questions about their demographics, school climate for engagement, task performance, organisational citizenship behaviour, and innovative work behaviour The line managers or supervisors were requested to fill in an independent questionnaire with 17 closed questions about their demographics and transformational leadership behaviour, their subordinates’ task performance, organisational citizenship behaviour, and innovative work behaviour Of the 416 distributed questionnaires, 402 follower questionnaires were returned at Time 1 (a response rate of 96.63%) Three hundred and ninety-nine follower and 396 leader questionnaires were returned at Time 2 (retention rates of 99.25% and 98.51% respectively) After the invalid responses were eliminated, the final study sample comprised 394 leader-follower dyads

A combined data file was created by matching the quantitative responses regarding demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance human resource practices, job engagement, and climate for engagement given by Vietnamese university academics at two different time points, plus the quantitative responses regarding task performance, organisational citizenship behaviour, and innovative work behaviour given by their leaders The qualitative answers expressing the views of Vietnamese academic staff about effective leadership behaviours and HR practices that could stimulate their job engagement were also included in this data file Then, the quantitative data obtained from 394 cases were analysed via the two-stage modelling approach using Statistical Package for Social Science version 24 and Mplus version 8 The qualitative data obtained from 372 out of these 394 cases were interpreted via content analysis using NVivo version 11 The quantitative findings indicated that gender, age, job tenure, transformational leadership, ability-enhancing human resource practices, and opportunity-enhancing human resource practices were key drivers of employees’ job engagement A climate for engagement helped

resource practices on employees’ job engagement Furthermore, employees’ job engagement was positively and significantly related to their task performance and organisational citizenship behaviour The credibility, illustration, and utility of the quantitative findings were increased as the qualitative findings demonstrated that the adoption of transformational leadership and high-performance HR practices could be an efficient means of cultivating Vietnamese university academics’ job engagement

Based on the above findings, this thesis makes original contributions in the areas

of theory, methodology, and practice In terms of theoretical contributions, the thesis is a rare study that integrates and examines the comprehensive relationships between job engagement and demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance human resource practices, climate for engagement, and job performance It focuses on academic staff’s job engagement, which, to date, has received scant attention in previous studies It highlights the voices of Vietnamese academic staff about effective leadership behaviours and HR practices It adds significant value to the job engagement literature by providing valuable and convincing evidence obtained from a developing higher education sector within a developing country such as Vietnam In terms of methodological contributions, the thesis used mixed methods concurrent embedded design, complex techniques for controlling common method biases, and various advanced data analysis methods The effectiveness of such methods and techniques helps produce beneficial evidence about mixed methods research on job engagement, responds to the suggestion of Bailey et al (2017) for using multiple informants to acquire data on the outcomes of job engagement, and motivates future research to apply them, thereby improving the quality of findings

In terms of practical contributions, the thesis findings can assist Vietnamese universities and their school and department managers in promoting the engagement of academic staff in their jobs, which, in turn, will lead to an increase

in their job performance

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview

The objective of this chapter is to provide an introduction to the thesis The chapter is organised into nine sections Sections 1.2 explains the general background of the research Next, the principal research aim, objectives, questions, and hypotheses are identified in Sections 1.3 and 1.4 Subsequently, the research design and contributions are clarified in Sections 1.5 and 1.6 This is followed by the description of delimitations of research scope and thesis structure

in Sections 1.7 and 1.8 Lastly, a concise summary of the chapter is presented in Section 1.9

1.2 Research Background

In today’s global and competitive knowledge society, one of the major challenges faced by organisations is to achieve sustainable competitive advantage To survive and develop effectively, organisations must recruit and retain a talented workforce, and encourage them to employ and express their full capabilities at work In other words, organisations must have engaged employees who are willing to invest their physical, cognitive and emotional energies in the performance of their jobs Employees’ job engagement, as a result, has received much attention from both scholars and practitioners in recent years (Saks & Gruman 2014) A study at a brewing company conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation discovered that engaged employees were five times less likely to have a safety incident and seven times less likely to have a lost-time safety incident than disengaged employees (Vance 2006) The average cost of a safety incident for engaged employees was only 63 USD, whereas that of disengaged employees was up to 392 USD (Vance 2006) Another study with 7,939 business units in 36 companies by Harter et al (2002) found that business units in the top quartile on employee engagement outperformed those in the bottom quartile in terms of customer satisfaction (from 1.9 to 4.36 percentage points), profitability (from 0.87 to 4.24 percentage points), productivity (from 80,000 USD to 120,000 USD higher monthly revenue or sales), and employee turnover (from 13.7 to 51.2 percentage points for high-turnover

companies and from 3.7 to 19.3 percentage points for low-turnover companies) The evidence demonstrates that strengthening job engagement is really essential for both of the well-being of employees and the sustainable development of organisations

Despite the importance of job engagement, Bailey et al (2017), in a recent systematic review, highlighted that there was a dearth of empirical research which compared and contrasted the potential importance of antecedents for employee engagement While extant studies into job engagement focused on Western developed countries (e.g the Netherlands, the United States, Finland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Canada) (Bailey et al 2017), limited research was undertaken in non-Western developing countries Bailey et

al (2017) stated that there might be significant differences between industry sectors, job types or cultural settings which were relevant to understanding engagement Their arguments suggested that conducting research on engagement in other job types in non-Western developing countries could make

a valuable contribution to the literature on job engagement

In the context of Vietnamese higher education, several reports (Ho 2015; Nguyen

et al 2017; Nguyen & Pham 2011; Pham 2013; Pháp luật 2017; World Bank 2008) have reflected that Vietnamese university academics are not fully engaged

in their jobs, especially in research activities Since teaching and research are traditionally two core missions of the universities, such problem may affect the quality of higher education and the establishment of a national and international reputation for Vietnamese universities This, in turn, may prevent the Vietnamese Government from establishing a higher education system which attains the regional advanced standards and approaches the global advanced level as stated in the Higher Education Reform Agenda (HERA) from 2006 to 2020 (Chính

phủ 2005) Regardless of the potential consequences of the problem, there has been a lack of general understanding about academic staff’s job engagement (Selmer et al 2013) Besides, the number of empirical studies on job engagement in Vietnam is very limited (Ehambaranathan et al 2015) For these reasons, there is a need to investigate the predictors and outcomes of job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Based on Kahn’s (1990) engagement theory and social exchange theory (Blau 1964), two antecedents that could influence job engagement were identified: transformational leadership and high-performance human resource (HR) practices Transformational leadership is defined as leadership behaviour in which leaders motivate followers to perform more than the followers originally expected and thought possible (Bass & Avolio 1994) High-performance HR practices are a combination of three separate but interconnected dimensions of ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing HR practices Ability-enhancing HR practices are implemented to guarantee that employees have knowledge and skills appropriate to their jobs such as selection, training and development Motivation-enhancing HR practices are employed to create and increase employee motivation such as job security, promotion, and performance-related pay Opportunity-enhancing HR practices are carried out to provide employees with opportunities to use their skills and motivation for achieving organisational objectives such as job autonomy and communication (Jiang et al 2012) Bailey et al (2017) found little research addressing the impacts of transformational leadership and high-performance HR practices on job engagement They underlined that more research was needed to understand the predictors and experience of engagement among employees from different demographic backgrounds With an effort to address the research call of Bailey et

al (2017), this thesis examines the relationships between demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance HR practices, and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics Another issue worth noting is that the majority of past studies as reviewed by Bailey et al (2017) used the cross-sectional approach to test and report the relationships between job engagement and other constructs without capturing the voices of participants This might limit the credibility, interpretability, and application of their findings to improve employee engagement In order to increase the credibility, illustration, and utility of the research results, this thesis explores the views of Vietnamese university academics about specific leadership behaviours and HR practices that will be effective in enhancing their job engagement

In a qualitative study with 25 managers and employees from a public-private partnership organisation in the United Kingdom, Reissner and Pagan (2013) argued that developing employee engagement was by no means a straightforward process and future studies should clarify the mechanism by which

employee engagement was generated In The Oxford Handbook of Organisational Climate and Culture, Albrecht (2014) designed an integrated

model of organisational functioning indicating that the effects of organisational leadership and HR systems on employee engagement could be mediated by climate for engagement Climate for engagement is described as “employees’ shared perceptions about the energy and involvement willingly focused by employees towards the achievement of organisational goals” (Albrecht 2014, p 405) With the purpose of explaining the process from which job engagement is engendered, this thesis investigates the intervening role of climate for engagement in the links between transformational leadership, high-performance

HR practices, and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Kahn’s (1990) engagement theory stated that engaged employees would employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during the performance of their jobs Following this argument, high job performance, comprising task performance and contextual performance, could be considered

as a possible consequence of job engagement Task performance represents the proficiency with which job incumbents perform activities to accomplish their formal job tasks and other activities contributing to the organisations’ technical core (Borman & Motowidlo 1993) Contextual performance relates to activities outside the category of task performance that contribute to organisational effectiveness by shaping the organisational, social, and psychological context (Borman & Motowidlo 1993) Within contextual performance, organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and innovative work behaviour (IWB) are essential for academic staff because their jobs involve producing and sharing knowledge via teaching and research as well as undertaking administrative tasks and community activities (Hatfield 2006; Su & Baird 2017) Bailey et al (2017) identified that little research addressed the influences of job engagement on OCB and IWB In addition, some studies regarding the relationship between job engagement and task performance still depended on employees’ self-reports,

which had the potential for biases and errors Bailey et al (2017) called for more studies into the outcomes of job engagement, particulary those using multiple informants or objective data Therefore, this thesis delves into the effects of job engagement on job performance, consisting of task performance, OCB, and IWB

of Vietnamese university academics

1.3 Research Aim and Objectives

Given the research background, this thesis aims to investigate the relationships between job engagement and demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance HR practices, climate for engagement, and job performance among Vietnamese university academics and explore their views about effective leadership behaviours and HR practices that will enhance their job engagement

In order to address the thesis aim, eight specific objectives are established as follows:

• identifying the relationships between demographics (i.e gender, age, education, and tenure) and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

• identifying the relationship between transformational leadership and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

• identifying the relationships between high-performance HR practices (i.e ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing HR practices) and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

• identifying the mediating role of climate for engagement in the relationship between transformational leadership and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

• identifying the mediating role of climate for engagement in the relationships between high-performance HR practices (i.e ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing HR practices) and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

• identifying the relationship between job engagement and job performance (i.e task performance, OCB, and IWB) of Vietnamese university academics

• understanding the views of Vietnamese university academics about effective leadership behaviours that enhance their job engagement

• understanding the views of Vietnamese university academics about effective HR practices that enhance their job engagement

1.4 Research Questions and Hypotheses

Based on the first six objectives, six research questions together with their hypotheses are put forward as below:

Research Question 1: What are the relationships between demographics (i.e

gender, age, education, and tenure) and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics?

Hypothesis 1a: Gender is significantly related to job engagement of Vietnamese

university academics

Hypothesis 1b: Age is significantly related to job engagement of Vietnamese

university academics

Hypothesis 1c: Education is significantly related to job engagement of

Vietnamese university academics

Hypothesis 1d: Organisational tenure is significantly related to job engagement

of Vietnamese university academics

Hypothesis 1e: Job tenure is significantly related to job engagement of

Vietnamese university academics

Hypothesis 1f: Dyadic tenure between leaders and followers is significantly

related to job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Research Question 2: What is the relationship between transformational

leadership and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics?

Hypothesis 2: Transformational leadership is significantly related to job

engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Research Question 3: What are the relationships between high-performance HR

practices (i.e ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing, and enhancing HR practices) and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics?

opportunity-Hypothesis 3a: Ability-enhancing HR practices are significantly related to job

engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Hypothesis 3b: Motivation-enhancing HR practices are significantly related to

job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Hypothesis 3c: Opportunity-enhancing HR practices are significantly related to

job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Research Question 4: Does climate for engagement mediate the relationship

between transformational leadership and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics?

Hypothesis 4: Climate for engagement mediates the relationship between

transformational leadership and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Research Question 5: Does climate for engagement mediate the relationships

between high-performance HR practices (i.e ability-enhancing, enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing HR practices) and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics?

motivation-Hypothesis 5a: Climate for engagement mediates the relationship between

ability-enhancing HR practices and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Hypothesis 5b: Climate for engagement mediates the relationship between

motivation-enhancing HR practices and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Hypothesis 5c: Climate for engagement mediates the relationship between

opportunity-enhancing HR practices and job engagement of Vietnamese university academics

Research Question 6: What is the relationship between job engagement and job

performance (i.e task performance, OCB, and IWB) of Vietnamese university academics?

Hypothesis 6a: Job engagement is significantly related to task performance of

Vietnamese university academics

Hypothesis 6b: Job engagement is significantly related to OCB of Vietnamese

Research Question 7: What are the views of Vietnamese university academics

about effective leadership behaviours that will enhance their job engagement?

Research Question 8: What are the views of Vietnamese university academics

about effective HR practices that will enhance their job engagement?

1.5 Research Design

In order to address the aforementioned research questions, the thesis adhered to the pragmatism paradigm and applied a mixed methods concurrent embedded design A survey methodology and self-completion questionnaires, containing both closed and open questions, were chosen to implement this design and to obtain the predominant quantitative and the embedded qualitative data simultaneously The questionnaires were created and then translated from English into Vietnamese utilising the back-translation technique They were pre-tested with 12 Vietnamese lecturers and school-level managers to understand the interpretation of respondents to the questions’ meanings and to improve the content validity of the measurement instruments Then, a pilot test was implemented with 72 Vietnamese university lecturers during the first three weeks

of April 2016 to verify the reliability of all the measurement instruments After the pilot test, the main study was officially undertaken with academic staff and their leaders working at 125 schools and departments within 14 public and private universities in Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam from August to December 2016

To mitigate common method variance, as advised by Podsakoff et al (2012), the main study collected the quantitative data for the predictor and criterion constructs from two different sources (i.e university academics and their leaders)

at two different points in time At Time 1, academic staff were asked to complete

a questionnaire with 19 closed questions regarding their demographics, transformational leadership behaviour of their line managers or supervisors, high-performance HR practices in their universities, and their job engagement At the end of this questionnaire, there were two open questions for academic staff to describe their thoughts about effective leadership behaviours and HR practicesthat could promote their job engagement After an interval of two to three weeks, data from both academic staff and their leaders were gathered At Time 2, academic staff who took part in the first survey were asked to complete another questionnaire with 20 closed questions regarding their demographics, school climate for engagement, task performance, OCB, and IWB The line managers or supervisors were asked to complete a separate questionnaire with 17 closed questions addressing their demographics and transformational leadership behaviour, their subordinates’ task performance, OCB, and IWB Of the 416 distributed questionnaires, 402 follower questionnaires were received at Time 1, resulting in a response rate of 96.63% Three hundred and ninety-nine follower and 396 leader questionnaires were received at Time 2, leading to retention rates

of 99.25% and 98.51% respectively After the exclusion of invalid responses, the final study sample consisted of 394 leader-follower dyads

A combined data file was produced by matching the quantitative responses of demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance HR practices, job engagement, and climate for engagement assessed by Vietnamese university academics at two different points in time and the quantitative responses of task performance, OCB, and IWB assessed by their leaders The data file also contained the qualitative answers reflecting the views of Vietnamese academic staff about effective leadership behaviours and HR practices that could increase their job engagement In this data file, the quantitative data acquired from 394 cases were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 24 and Mplus version 8 because the study sample were nested within schools, and the construct of climate for engagement could exist at the school level A thorough data examination process was initially conducted to identify missing values, detect outliers, test the statistical assumptions underlying multivariate analysis and multilevel modelling (i.e normality, homoscedasticity,

the sample characteristics Next, the two-stage modelling approach recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988) was adopted to test the research hypotheses The first stage of the two-stage modelling approach was to validate the measurement instruments of all the key constructs In this stage, the construct validity (i.e factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity) and reliability were assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA), Cronbach’s alpha, and composite reliability The second stage of the two-stage modelling approach was to validate the structural models which depicted the dependence relationships between the constructs In this stage, five structural models, encompassing one structural model and four multilevel mediation models, were proposed and evaluated using structural equation modelling (SEM) and multilevel structural equation modelling (MSEM) The structural model was constructed based on the guidelines of Muthén and Muthén (2017) to test Hypotheses 1, 2, 3, and 6 The four multilevel mediation models were developed following the instructions of Preacher et al (2010) to test Hypotheses 4 and 5

Following the quantitative data analysis, the qualitative data acquired from 372 out of 394 cases in the combined data file were interpreted via content analysis using NVivo version 11 The qualitative results would enhance the credibility and richness of the quantitative results They would enable the researcher to offer appropriate and practical suggestions about leadership behaviours and HR practices, which could assist Vietnamese universities in improving their academic staff’s job engagement

1.6 Research Contributions

The thesis makes both theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions With respect to theoretical contributions, the thesis provided a thorough understanding of the definition and two underlying theories of job engagement, specifically Kahn’s engagement theory and social exchange theory It addressed the research calls of Bailey et al (2017) and Reissner and Pagan (2013) by shedding light on the comprehensive relationships between job engagement and demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance HR practices, climate for engagement, and job performance In addition, it concentrated on

academic staff’s job engagement, which was neglected in previous studies (Selmer et al 2013) It added the voices of Vietnamese university academics about specific leadership behaviours and HR practices that could be effective in enhancing their job engagement Finally, it contributed to the limited research on job engagement by providing precious and convincing evidence acquired from a developing higher education sector within a developing country such as Vietnam

With respect to methodological contributions, the thesis, firstly, was a rare study which addressed job engagement by adopting the mixed methods concurrent embedded design Secondly, it responded to the suggestion of Bailey et al (2017) for controlling common method biases in job engagement research by obtaining the quantitative data of the predictor and criterion constructs from two different sources at two different times Thirdly, it employed advanced multilevel analysis methods, specifically MCFA and MSEM, to examine the measurement model of climate for engagement at the school level and to analyse the multilevel mediation effects of transformational leadership and high-performance HR practices on employee engagement via climate for engagement Finally, it utilised

a content analysis to interpret the qualitative data acquired from the two open questions The effectiveness of these methods and techniques in improving the quality of the thesis will encourage their application in further research on job engagement

With respect to practical contributions, this thesis provided academics and practitioners, especially university managers, with a comprehensive understanding of the importance of job engagement, its antecedents, mediator, and consequences The thesis results could be used to design high-performance

HR practices and leadership training programs so that Vietnamese universities could create a work climate for engagement, which, in turn, cultivates academic staff’s job engagement, and thus increases their job performance

1.7 Delimitations of Scope

This thesis had some delimitations of scope Specifically, the main study was undertaken in the Vietnamese higher education context, particularly in public and

significant economic centre in Vietnam For this reason, the generalisation of thesis findings might be limited

1.8 Thesis Structure

The rest of this thesis is organised into nine chapters as follows:

Chapter 2 (Literature Review): This chapter focuses on the research context and theoretical foundations of the thesis The chapter begins with an overview of the contemporary development history of Vietnamese higher education and of the job engagement of Vietnamese university academics Next, different definitions and underlying theories of job engagement, including Kahn’s engagement theory and social exchange theory, are reviewed to identify research gaps and potential antecedents (i.e demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance

HR practices), mediator (i.e climate for engagement), and consequence (i.e job performance) of job engagement Based on the research context and theoretical background, a conceptual model along with eight research questions is proposed, followed by a thorough analysis of the relationships between demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance HR practices, climate for engagement, job engagement, and job performance The chapter ends with the construction of six research hypotheses for further examination in the thesis

Chapter 3 (Research Methodology): This chapter discusses various aspects of the research design used for addressing the eight research questions posed in Chapter 2 The chapter starts with the selection of the pragmatism paradigm and mixed methods concurrent embedded design due to the quantitative nature of the first six research questions and the qualitative nature of the last two research questions Next, a survey methodology and self-completion questionnaires using both closed and open questions are adopted to concurrently gather the qualitative data embedded within the predominant quantitative data Then, the questionnaire development, sample design, and ethical consideration are elucidated, followed by the conduct of a pre-test, pilot test, main study, and data matching process The chapter concludes with the identification of various methods for analysing the quantitative and qualitative data obtained from the main study

Chapter 4 (Quantitative Data Examination): This chapter outlines the process for examining the quantitative data The process involves checking missing data, detecting outliers, testing four statistical assumptions underlying multivariate analysis and multilevel modelling (i.e normality, homoscedasticity, linearity, and multicollinearity), and assessing the possibility of common method variance in the data set The chapter finishes with a full description of the main sample characteristics

Chapter 5 (Quantitative Data Analysis - Measurement Instrument Validation): This chapter analyses the first stage of the two-stage modelling approach that involves validating the measurement instruments The stage initially requires verifying the content validity and internal consistency reliability of the measurement instruments Next, it is concerned with the procedure for evaluating the construct validity comprising factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity Then, the final reliability of all the key constructs is examined The chapter ends with the calculation of construct scores, which are essential for the structural model validation in Chapter 6

Chapter 6 (Quantitative Data Analysis - Structural Model Validation): This chapter analyses the second stage of the two-stage modelling approach that involves validating the structural models In the second stage, five structural models are designed to test the hypotheses of the direct and indirect relationships between demographics (i.e gender, age, education, organisation tenure, job tenure, and dyadic tenure between leaders and followers), transformational leadership, high-performance HR practices (i.e ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing HR practices), climate for engagement, job engagement, and job performance (i.e task performance, OCB, and IWB) The validation process of each structural model goes through three steps of model estimation, evaluation, and modification

Chapter 7 (Qualitative Content Analysis): This chapter reports the qualitative content analysis results of the two open questions The results of the first open

university academics’ job engagement The results of the second open question highlights specific HR practices that are efficient at improving job engagement of academic staff in Vietnam

Chapter 8 (Integration of Quantitative and Qualitative Findings): This chapter integrates the quantitative and qualitative findings obtained in Chapters 6 and 7

to convey their meanings, to compare them with the prior research results reviewed in Chapter 2, to underline their importance, and to pinpoint the convergence, divergence, and complementation between them The quantitative findings clarify the relationships between demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance HR practices, climate for engagement, job engagement, and job performance in the Vietnamese higher education context The qualitative findings specify characteristics of leadership behaviours and HR practices which are effective in promoting Vietnamese university academics’ job engagement

Chapter 9 (Discussion): This chapter discusses the quantitative and qualitative findings in relation to the research model and eight research questions established in Chapter 2 The chapter commences with an explanation about the differences between the proposed conceptual model and the final research model Then, it follows up with a discussion of how the quantitative and qualitative findings address Research Questions 1 to 8

Chapter 10 (Conclusion): This chapter provides final conclusions for the thesis The chapter begins with a summary of the key findings Next, it highlights major implications of the thesis to the theory, methodology, and practice After that, it reviews the thesis limitations The chapter finishes by offering some valuable recommendations for future research

1.9 Summary

This introductory chapter presented a holistic view of the thesis It included the research background, aim and objectives, questions and hypotheses, methodology, contributions, delimitations of scope, and organisation of the thesis

As mentioned, the thesis was aimed at examining the comprehensive

relationships between job engagement and demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance HR practices, climate for engagement, and job performance among Vietnamese university academics, and reflecting their views about efficient leadership behaviours and HR practices towards their job engagement In order to achieve this aim, the next chapter analyses the research

context and reviews the literature of the relevant concepts

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The objective of this chapter is to present the research context and theoretical foundations of the thesis The chapter is divided into 12 sections Section 2.2 offers an overview of the Vietnamese higher education context Next, Section 2.3 discusses diverse conceptual definitions of work engagement to provide an operational definition of job engagement This is followed by a critical review of two underlying theories, including Kahn’s engagement theory and social exchange theory, in Section 2.4 to identify the antecedents, mediator, and consequences of job engagement Based on the research context and theoretical background, a conceptual model along with research questions is developed in Section 2.5 Then, the relationships between demographics, transformational leadership, high-performance HR practices, climate for engagement, job engagement, and job performance are analysed from Sections 2.6 to 2.11 to formulate research hypotheses for further examination in the thesis The chapter, finally, provides a comprehensive summary in Section 2.12

2.2 The Vietnamese Higher Education Context

Vietnam is a developing country whose population ranks ninth highest in the Asian region and fifteenth highest in the world (Central Intelligence Agency 2018) The culture of Vietnam is distinct from Western culture in that it emphasises traditional (Vuong & Tran 2009) and collectivist values (Le et al 2007), which appreciate interpersonal relationships, hierarchy, seniority, patronage (mentor/protégé), collective decision and responsibility, and internal promotion After the end of the Vietnam War, the country has experienced a period of transition to socialism Along with the social progress, the Vietnamese Government has conducted an all-round renewal procedure, so-called “Doi moi”, since 1986 that transformed its impoverished, centrally-planned economy to a market-oriented one (Bartram et al 2009), where the gross domestic product (GDP) has fluctuated between 6.2% and 6.7% (Central Intelligence Agency 2018) On the international stage, Vietnam has attempted to integrate with the global economy by establishing bilateral relationships with many countries and

fully participating in international and regional organisations and forums, such as Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1995, Asia-Europe Meeting

(ASEM) in 1996, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 1998, and World

Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2007 This national economic reform has set the stage for changes taking place in the higher education system In order to provide

an overview of the Vietnamese tertiary education, this section initially presents its contemporary development history since Doi moi with an emphasis on the content of HERAin the period of 2006-2020 Then, it offers some evidence about the low engagement level of Vietnamese university academics in their jobs, which, in turn, leads to a need for conducting research on the drivers, mediator, and outcomes of their job engagement

2.2.1 Contemporary Development History of Vietnamese Higher Education

The contemporary development history of Vietnamese higher education officially began as the Fourth Plenum of the Communist Party Central Committee issued the Resolution No 04-NQ/HNTW on the continued renovation of education and training on 14 January 1993 It was the first time a plenum was organised to discuss only educational development The Resolution of this plenum specified four general principles for the advancement of education in Vietnam:

• Education was a priority national policy, a driving force, and a basic condition to ensure the implementation of socio-economic goals, the construction and protection of the country; investment in education was one of the primary methods of investment in development

• The improvement of education aimed to cultivate the intellectual standard

of the people, train manpower, and foster talent

• Education must be closely linked to the developmental requirements of the country and the actual trend in progress; continuous education was ensured for everyone

• Training was diversified, and social justice in education was implemented

by the payment of tuition fees from students and the contribution to training costs from employers; the state ensured that the poor and policy beneficiaries attended schools

(Ban Chấp hành Trung ương Đảng 1993)