(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) to explore women leadership in the collectivist culture, the business context of vietnam master of business administration

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
----------

LE THI THU THAO

TO EXPLORE WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN THE
COLLECTIVIST CULTURE:
THE BUSINESS CONTEXT OF VIETNAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City, April 2018

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
----------

LE THI THU THAO
TO EXPLORE WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN THE
COLLECTIVIST CULTURE:
THE BUSINESS CONTEXT OF VIETNAM
Major: Business Administration (Research)
ID: 8340101

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: Dr. Tran Mai Dong

Ho Chi Minh City, April 2018

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I would like to express my gratefulness to my supervisor Dr. Tran Mai
Dong for his professional guidance, intensive support, valuable suggestions,
instructions and encouragement during the time of doing my research.

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

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

Finally, I am deeply grateful to my parents, especially my mother who always
encourage me, do all best things and support for my studying until now.

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ABSTRACT

Nowsday, women leadership has been researching by many scholars all around the
world, especially Western countries when gender equality is increasingly recognized
and the rights of women are more and more focused by the Government and the
society. Moreover, in the age of global development, when people have a lot of
opportutinities to approach innovations, women have more and more opportunities to
develop their careers instead of doing family chores as before. However, seems to be
very little research related to Asian women, especially for countries with the
collectivist culture with the longstanding root of Confucian and people are influenced
by the values of Confucianism, which greatly affect the status of women in society.
Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore women leadership in the collectivist
culture with the business context of Vietnam. This exploratory qualitative study was
carried out in two phases, including indeep semi-structure interviews with 10
participants from multiple stakeholders and thematic analysis for new findings. After
analyzing the collected data, this study indicated that Vietnamese female leaders are
appropriate for transformational leadership style when working in higher positions in
enterprises, especially privately owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises.
Furthermore, female leaders with open-mindedness and modern mindset will be more
suitable for transformational leadership style.
Keyword: Collectivist culture, Leadership, Women Leadership, Transformational
Leadership.

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STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION

I hereby declare that I have written the present thesis ―To explore women leadership in
the collectivist culture: the business context of Vietnam‖ independently, without
assistance from external parties and without use of other resources than those indicated.
The ideas taken directly or indirectly from external sources (including electronic

sources) are duly acknowledged in the text. The material, either in full or in part, has
not been previously submitted for grading at this or any other academic institution.
Ho Chi Minh City, April, 2018

Le Thi Thu Thao

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TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGE
ABSTRACT
STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF TABLES
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH CONTEXT ........................... 1
1.1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1
1.2. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THE RESEARCH .................... 3
1.2.1. Vietnamese culture .......................................................................................... 3
1.2.2. Vietnamese business leadership ...................................................................... 4
1.2.3. Women leadership in Vietnam ........................................................................ 5
1.3. RESEARCH PROBLEMS TO BE INVESTIGATED .......................................... 8
1.4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................... 9

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1.5. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................................... 10
1.6. METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................. 11

1.7. SCOPE OF THE STUDY .................................................................................... 13
1.8. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .................................................................... 13
1.9. OUTLINE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................... 13
1.10. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 14
CHAPTER 2. UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, LEADERSHIP AND WOMEN
LEADERSHIP IN VIETNAM .................................................................................... 15
2.1. CULTURE ........................................................................................................... 15
2.1.1. Definitions of culture ..................................................................................... 15
2.1.2. Culture Dimensions Theory .......................................................................... 16
2.2. LEADER, LEADERSHIP THEORIES AND TRENDS .................................... 20
2.2.1. Leadership ..................................................................................................... 20
2.2.2. Leadership theories and trends ...................................................................... 22
2.3. CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP ........................................................................ 26
2.4. WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS .......................................................... 29
2.5. CULTURE AND WOMEN LEADERSHIP ....................................................... 30
2.6. WOMEN IN VIETNAM ..................................................................................... 32
2.7. WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN VIETNAM ............................................................ 36
2.8. COLLECTIVIST CULTURE IN VIETNAM ..................................................... 38

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2.9. MULTIPLE PERCEPTIONS OF STAKEHOLDERS ........................................ 40
2.9.1. Internal stakeholders ...................................................................................... 40
2.9.2. Perceptions of internal stakeholders on women leadership .......................... 41
2.9.3. Women leadership perception processes ....................................................... 42
2.9.4. Vietnamese women leadership perception .................................................... 43
2.10. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 44
CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 45
3.1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 45

3.2. RESEARCH PARADIGM .................................................................................. 45
3.3. DATA GATHERING .......................................................................................... 46
3.4. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ................................................................................ 47
3.5. SAMPLING ......................................................................................................... 50
3.6. SELECTING THE PARTICIPANTS.................................................................. 52
3.7. DATA ANALYSIS.............................................................................................. 53
3.8. VALIDITY AND TRUSTWORTHINESS ......................................................... 55
3.9. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ......................................................................... 57
3.10. LIMITATIONS OF METHODOLOGY ........................................................... 57
3.11. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 58
CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS ............................................................................................ 59
4.1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 59

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4.2. WOMEN LEADER TRAITS .............................................................................. 61
4.2.1. Empathy ......................................................................................................... 61
4.2.2. Tenderness ..................................................................................................... 63
4.2.3. Feeling-based behaviors ................................................................................ 65
4.3. LEADERSHIP STYLE........................................................................................ 70
4.4. IMPACT OF COLLECTIVIST CULTURE ....................................................... 81
4.4.1. In-group identification ................................................................................... 82
4.4.3. Envy at work.................................................................................................. 89
4.4.4. Gender bias .................................................................................................... 91
4.2. DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................... 93
4.2.1. The perception of women as leaders ................................................................ 93
4.2.2. Vietnamese women leadership style - Transformational leadership ............. 95
4.2.3. Collectivist culture impacts on women leaders ............................................. 97
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ............................... 100

5.1. RESEARCH BACKGROUND ......................................................................... 100
5.2. REVISITING RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................................................ 101
5.3. RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................... 105
5.4. CONTRIBUTIONS ........................................................................................... 107
5.5. STRENGTHS OF THE STUDY ....................................................................... 108
5.6. LIMITATIONS .................................................................................................. 109

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5.7. FURTHER RESEARCH ................................................................................... 110
5.8. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 110
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 112
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................ 130
APPENDIX 1. SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE TO
POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS ............................................................................... 130
APPENDIX 2. DATA TRANSCRIPT OF CEO 1 ................................................... 132
Vietnamese version ............................................................................................... 132
English version ...................................................................................................... 140

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SOE

State-Owned Enterprise

FIE

Foreign Invested Enterprise

POE

Privately Owned Enterprise

CEO

Chief Executive Officers

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LIST OF TABLE

Table 2.1. Definitions of leadership (Yukl, 2010, p.21) ................................................ 21
Table 3.1. Classification of the participants ................................................................... 52
Table 4.1. Interview participants‘ demographics ........................................................... 60

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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH CONTEXT
1.1. INTRODUCTION
Emerging economies in Asia have played an increasingly important role in the
global economy (Cappelli, Singh, & Useem, 2010). As a result, there is a necessity to
learn more about how business operates in Asia, particularly in term of leadership, one

of the major determinants of organizational success (Hogan, Robert; Kaiser, & Robert
B., 2005). Although cross-cultural leadership research has conducted in recent years
(House, Dorfman, Javidan, Hanges, & Sully de Luque, 2014; House, Hanges, Javidan,
Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004; Javidan, M., Dorfman, P.W., Howell, J.P., & Hanges, P.J.,
2010), the clear demand for cross-cultural analyses of leadership persists (e.g., Bryman,
2004; Gardner, Lowe, Moss, Mahoney, & Cogliser, 2010). In particular, more research
on the specific facets of leadership in Asian countries has been encouraged.
Furthermore, even though leader emergence has received attention in recent years
(Javidan & Carl, 2005), the emergence of women leaders has been understudied in
general (Gardner et al., 2010), and in cross-cultural leadership research in particular
(Bullough, Kroeck, Newburry, Kundu, & Lowe, 2012). In the context of global
economy, Vietnam is not an exception when women's participation in decision-making
at various levels and multiple fields is also increasing encouraged through specific
strategies and policies. However, there is a little documentation of Vietnamese women
in leadership.
Vietnam has recently achieved significant improvements in gender equality and
women‘s advancement. Vietnam firstly elected a woman to parliament in 1976 and
Vietnam ranks first in Asia, second in Asia-Pacific (after New Zealand) and eighteenth
in the world with 33.1% for the representation of women in the National Assembly
(Nguyen, 2007). Additionally, 20% of women are in higher positions in organizations

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and of these, 25% own a private enterprise (Nguyen, 2007). A recent study by Grant
Thornton (2013) shows women‘s leadership in business is growing and 30 percent of
Board of Director roles in Vietnam are held by women compared to the global average
of 19 percent. However, these figures did not reflect the improvement in women

leadership.
Women have different views from men on different issues. Promoting women's
participation in leadership positions and the policy-making process will help to reflect
different perspectives and perceptions of decision-making, then decisions and policies
also more comprehensive and more relevant, especially with policies that affect
women. In additions, Bass and Avolio (1994) used the Multifactor Leadership
Questionnaire (MLQ) to show that women managers have more idealized influence,
are more inspirational and individually considerate than men. Furthermore, Carless
(1998) examined 120 women and 184 men employed as bank managers and found that
female managers were more transformational than male managers, when they rated
themselves and when they were rated by their superiors. To be noted, the study of
Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, and Van Engen (2003) found that women engaged more
in transformational as well as the active component of transactional leadership, while
men engaged more in a passive type of transactional leadership as well as in laissezfaire leadership. Therefore, transformational leadership is the main leadership style
which I want to investigate in Vietnamese women leaders.
This chapter would like to provide an overview of this research by drawing a
general picture of subsequent chapters and the research as a whole. The chapter
examines the background and justification for the research in which understanding of
the Vietnamese context and women leadership are explored. The chapter also defines
the research objectives, research questions and theoretical framework. In addition, the
chapter discusses the general aspects of research methodology and scope of the study.

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Furthermore, the chapter identifies the contributions of the study and introduces the
organization of the study.
1.2. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THE RESEARCH

1.2.1. Vietnamese culture
Vietnamese culture is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia, with ancient Dong Son
culture regarded as one of its most important ancestors (Embassy of Vietnam in the
United State of America, 2011). According to Columbia University, due to the
thousand years of Chinese domination, Vietnam was heavily influenced by Chinese
culture in politics, politics, social ethics and Confucian ethics, and art. Vietnam is
considered part of the East Asian cultural field. The values that have arisen from
Vietnam's communist political system as well as from globalization have gradually
blended with lasting imprint on Confucian values and norms of behavior. Recently,
values that have emerged from globalization (such as personal freedom, individualism)
have also begun to affect the attitudes and behavior of traditional Vietnamese (Ashwill
and Diep, 2005; Doan, 2005, Duc, 2008, London, 2011, Hallinger and Truong, 2014).
Nonetheless, to be noted by Dao Duy Anh in ―Khổng Giáo Phê Bình Tiểu Luận‖
(Short Critique of Confucianism) and in the research of Dam (1999), the core values of
Confucianism remain deeply rooted in Vietnamese society.
Collectivism culture is defined as ―societies in which people from birth onwards are
integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout their lifetime continue to
protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty‖ (Hofstede, 1997). From this
concept, collectivist behaviors tend to cooperate and bond to their in-groups as well as
family and their performances are viewed as a result of collective effort and
interpersonal relationships. Cross-cultural studies have shown that collectivist tend to
have a stronger attachment to their organization and tend to integrate individual goals
to common goals (Earley, 1989; Triandis, 1995). In collectivist societies, personal

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identity is grounded in group-based values. A person defines ―who I am‖ primarily in

reference to relative social groups (including family, clubs, school, church, company,
community and political associations). In additions, highly collectivistic people find
and seek faith, intellectual stimulation in their in-group, which are usually their
families. Hofstede (1991) & Park et al. (2005) states that the main collectivist values
include loyalty, harmony, cooperation, unity and conformity. Because of the Confucian
roots, Vietnamese culture is strongly orientated around family and community.
According to Bich (1999); Bodley (2011); Hofstede (1991); Jamieson (1993),
collectivism is a central tenet of Confucianism, and remains strongly evident in modern
day Vietnamese culture.
1.2.2. Vietnamese business leadership
Vietnam‘s transition (Doi moi) officially initiated in December 1986 when regulations
1and policies aimed at ‗socialist-oriented market economy‘ took effect at the Sixth
National Communist Party Congress (Nguyen, Truong and Buyens, 2011). These
reforms related to 9 restructuring state-owned enterprises (SOEs), liberalization of the
economic system and break the monopoly of the public sector (Warner et al., 2005).
This transition not only enhanced the effectiveness and productivity of SOEs, but also
creates a business-friendly environment that attracts Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
and nurtures DPEs.
Over 30 years of rebuilding and developing, Vietnam has been gradually stablizing in
all aspects of the country, especially the economic aspect. However, perceptions of
leadership in Vietnam seems to be ambiguous and there are quite a few studies relating
to business leadership in Vietnam. In fact, the term of ―leader‖ was used to refer to
national leaders and business leaders were most often referred to as managers (Nguyen,
Loi Anh et al. (2017)). Phung and Le (2014) conducted a survey of business leaders in
big cities in Vietnam in their study and reported that business leaders who are chief

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executive officers (CEO) or deputy CEOs have a large range of age from 19 to 60 years
(60 years of age is set as retirement age for men by law in Vietnam and 55 for women).
The study also showed that compared to other industry jobs, business leaders had a
fairly high level of education: nearly 59 percent of leaders were holding bachelor‘s
degree, and about two-third of them had postgraduate training. However, most of the
leaders did not have management training and 34 percent of them had less than five
years of experience in management. Business leaders in Vietnam also lack managerial
competencies and leadership skills. In another study comparing attributes of business
leaders in Vietnam and Japan, Long, N. (2010) pointed out that Vietnam‘s business
leaders scored much lower than the Japanese in risk management, strategy planning,
and leadership skill. To address this gap, the Vietnamese government is cooperating
with foreign institutions to provide leadership development programs for business
leaders.
According to Nguyen, Loi Anh et al. (2017), people in Vietnam increasingly recognize
the important contributions of individual leaders to organizational performance, both
the private sector and public sector enterprises. The leadership development efforts in
these different types of organizations, however, are significantly different.
Furthermore, there are several of differences in leadership between private sector
organizations and state-owned companies. The most notable point is leaders in private
organizations are usually owners and founders of these companies. Private firms are
classified into two group: big enterprises and small-medium enterprises (SMEs),
moreover, leaders in these groups are different in the way they lead.
1.2.3. Women leadership in Vietnam
The historical development of Vietnam recognized many significant changes in the role
of Vietnamese women. During thousand years under the invasion and domination by
Chinese, Vietnamese culture was also permeated by their Confucian philosophical

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beliefs. In traditional Vietnamese patriarchal society, women had no voice and take the
second place in the family. Women including wives and daughters had a low status in
the family and must listen to men - main pillars in any situation. Moreover, women do
not have the right to make decisions in main works of families or society and women
were considered as free labor forces in the household and farm work. During the war in
the 1900s, the role of women in rural areas increased and supported the war positively.
They have taken on varying roles in society, including warriors, nurses, mothers and
wives. Historically, women have become "active participants" in struggles to liberate
their country from foreign occupation, from Chinese to French colonialists.
There have been many advances in women's rights in Vietnam, such as an increase in
women representation in government, as well as the creation of the Vietnam Women's
Union in 1930. During and after the Vietnam War, the Communist Party of Vietnam
made a lot of efforts to increase women's rights, equity, and representation in
government. Furthermore, the government created more opportunities for women to
anticipate in different sectors both economic and political areas.
Nowadays, Vietnamese women play an increasingly vital role in the nation‘s
development, especially at present and in the future. When we look back at the
development of Vietnamese society, particularly economic development, women hold
a key position, as they directly participate in the national labour force and in paid
labour. According to statistics, in agriculture – one of the country‘s key sectors –
women make up some 70 per cent of the labour force, and in production alone, they
make up not a modest workforce in export-oriented industries, such as garment and
textile, footwear, light industry, and seafood processing (Khuat, 2016). Moreover, in
the contemporary Vietnam, women's rights have continued to increase and women
have increasingly held leadership positions. Currently, Đặng Thị Ngọc Thịnh is the
Vice President of Vietnam, a position she has held since April 2016. Additionally,

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Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân was firstly elected as Chairwoman of the National Assembly of
Vietnam in March 2016, the first time a woman has ever held the position.
Although the number of women leaders in business organizations has more than
doubled over the last 30 years, women are still underrepresented in managerial
positions worldwide (Catalyst, 2012). Compared to the U.S. and Europe, the proportion
of women on corporate boards and in executive committees in Asian countries is even
lower. On average, women account for only 6% of seats on corporate boards in the ten
largest economies in Asia and 8% of members of executive committees, compared to
15% and 14% in the United State, respectively (McKinsey & Company, 2012).
As in many nations, Vietnam has a strong legal framework for gender equality,
reflected in the goals of women's political representation. However, there is a huge gap
the goals and actual practices in women‘s higher position participation. The first
woman was elected in Vietnam‘s National Assembly in 1976 but the progress has been
unsteady. In a meta-analysis comparing women and men, Eagly and Johnson (1990)
found that women engaged in more interpersonally-oriented and democratic styles,
while men displayed more task-oriented and autocratic leadership styles. However,
these findings only held for laboratory studies with non-leader samples. Field studies
demonstrated that women adopted a more democratic and less autocratic style than
men, but there were no differences in task-oriented leadership from interpersonallyoriented leadership.
Amongst communist countries, Viet Nam ranks third out of seven states in women‘s
representation at the national level. It falls behind the Lao People‘s Democratic
Republic and Cuba, which have 25 per cent and 45 per cent representation of women
respectively. At the sub-national level in China, women represent 43 per cent of
seats.These statistics demonstrate that countries with similar political structures are

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more successfully achieving gender-balanced representation at both national and
subnational levels (UNDP, 2014).
1.3. RESEARCH PROBLEMS TO BE INVESTIGATED
The study has identified the research problems that will be investigated. Vietnamese
cultural values through Hofstede‘s dimensions show high collectivism (group
membership) and high power distance (high hierarchy). According to Hofstede Insight,
Vietnam scores high on power distance dimension (score of 70) which means that
people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no
further justification, while Vietnam only scored 20 marks in individualism that proved
Vietnam is a collectivist culture. This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to
the ―member‖ group, be that a family, extended family or extended relationships. Even
though Vietnam has been integrating into the world economy and has been many
significant changes due to globalization, Vietnamese business still orient to family and
community but not individualism as Western countries. Vietnamese people when
working in an organization, they usually work to achieve the common goals instead of
only thinking of themselves.
In additions, Confucian values have still control people‘s mindset and highly
appreciate the role of men in both economic and social situations. In organizations, the
gap between men and women has been existing and the number of male leaders are
always superior than male ones in any way. Most of people perceive that masculine
characteristics are more suitable in leadership positions, so women strive a lot to
overcome barriers and constraints to get higher status in society and career path.
Besides, through more 30 years of economic development, but the concept of
leadership in Vietnam seems to be different and vague in comparison to other nations,
especially the West. Research also show that business leaders in Vietnam also lack

managerial competencies and leadership skills (Phung & Le, 2013). Therefore, the

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Government as well as multiple enterprises has been creating a lot of programs to
structure and develop leaders‘ attributes and skills to help leaders achieve
organizational goals and work performance.
The most notable thing is multiple perception of

Vietnam business leadership,

especially female leaders. Gender discrimination still exists in Vietnam and
Vietnamese women are not evaluated fairly in work and people are lack of trust in
women‘s ability. However, many cross-cultural studies shows that women appropriate
for transformational leadership (Cubillo & Brown, 2003; Eagly & JohannessenSchmidt, 2001; Eagly, & Johannesen-Schmidt, and van Engen 2003).
Thus, the current study explores women leadership in the collectivist culture: the
business context of Vietnam. In this study, through various facets of women leadership
including gender and culture are explored which provide a deeper understanding of the
women leadership in Vietnam.
1.4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
While Western culture fosters a focus on leadership as individual assertion, Asian
cultures appear to imply leadership as group-focused action (Menon, Sim, Fu, Chiu, &
Hong, 2010). Despite the country‘s improvements in gender equality, Vietnamese
women are lagging behind their male counterparts when it comes to political and
economic leadership in Vietnam. In Vietnam‘s particular situation with regard to
leadership positions, it is necessary to take women leadership into consideration. It is
neccessary to explore how women‘s leaders are perceived in many aspects through the

lens of multiple stakeholders. Specifically, this research will explore various
approaches on women leadership in the collectivist culture like Vietnam. Furthermore,
the main leadership style influences on women‘s career advancement will also be

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investigated. In order to unveil these issues, the following research questions will be
addressed:
Q1: What are the main attributes that women need to have in a leadership
position?
Q2: How does collectivist culture impact on Vietnamese women leadership?
Q3: Which does become the main leadership style of women in collectivist
cultures like Vietnam?
1.5. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The study explores women leadership in the business context of Vietnam. The
literature review discussed perspectives on leadership theories and trends,
transformational leadership theories and women leadership in the collectivist culture of
Vietnam. This study formed its theoretical basic from three main literature streams: (1)
culture and culture dimensions (2) trends and evolution in leadership theories and (3)
women leadership and women leadership in collectivist culture.
Culture definitions are proposed by many researcher from the 1900s until now, but
Lyle‘s definition (1995) is considered as the most accurate meaning in the context of
the study. Moreover, according to Geert Hofstede, culture differs from one country to
another country so culture need to be analysis through six dimensions (Power Distance,
Individualism vs. Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity vs.
Femininity, Long-term Orientation vs. Short-term Orentation and Indulgence vs.
Restrainr) to clarify specific national culture.

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

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time derived from Western countries and there has been quite a few research relating to
Asian female leaders. Therefore, this study will dive into modernist and post-modernist
leadership theories as a main theorical framework to explore women leadership in
Vietnam.
Furthermore, the third stream – collectivist culture is also a main factor needed to be
investigated. Through the dimension of Hofstede – Collectivism versus Individualism,
characteristics of a collectivist culture will be discussed to find out the relationship
between leadership and culture, in particular women leadership and collectivist culture.
These streams were used to build and support foundations for the proposed theoretical
framework. Culture and leadership theories were used to shape the understanding of
specific leadership behaviors which leaders used at work in specific culture and
classify leadership styles as well as update recent leadership styles. Next, leadership
theories focused on women, in particular the collectivist culture of Vietnam will find
out why women appropriate with this leadership. Further discussion on the three main
streams is detailed in chapter 2.
1.6. METHODOLOGY
Qualitative research
According to Mutch (2005), qualitative research aims at exploring ―the unique lived
experiences of the participants to enhance understanding of particular phenomena‖ (p.
19). This kind of research enables the investigator to capture participants‘ interpretation
of their complex world and to understand the phenomena from their viewpoint (Burns,

2000) by standing ―in the shoes of those being studied‖ (Davidson & Tolich, 2003, p.
103). In addition, qualitative research allows rich data to be gathered through a variety
of methods such as observation, in-depth interviews or documentation. Data are

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descriptive and often thematically analysed, and from this analysis categorisation or
theory emerges. Therefore, qualitative research is inductive and interpretive.
This exploratory study was based on qualitative research and used the in-depth
interview method. Thus, 10 organizational interviews were conducted with top women
managers as well as multiple internal stakeholders in Vietnam. The purpose of these
interviews was to investigate multiple concepts perceived in women leadership.
Research participants included female CEOs, members of boards of department heads
and top managers of organizations. The interviews lasted from 30 to 60 minutes. The
research participants were selected from a large range of enterprises which were
identified from Vietnam Investment and Enterprise Directory. To recruit participants,
both purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used.
Data analysis strategy
Data analysis needs to be considered at an early stage of research design. According to
Rubin and Rubin (2005), ―data analysis is the process of moving from raw interviews
to evidence-based interpretations that are the foundation for published reports‖ (p.201).
Since this was qualitative research, a thematic approach was employed to analyse the
descriptive data. Braun and Clarke (2006) define thematic analysis as ―a method for
identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns within data.‖ (p.79). Braun and Clarke
(2006) elaborate a six-step-process which includes data familiarisation, initial codes
generation, themes searching, themes review, themes naming and finally, reporting.
This study conducted six steps to explore multiple perceptions of transformational

leadership in Vietnamese business-women without any bias strongly influenced this
above-mentioned relationship.

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1.7. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study explore multiple concepts perceived on women leadership in Ho Chi Minh
City. Therefore, the scope of the study is a large range of organizations in Ho Chi Minh
City including state-owned enterprises (SOEs), foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) and
privately owned enterprises (POEs) in Vietnam.
3 top female managers at the medium and high levels in different organizations were
selected to become research participants. Especially, female is prerequisite to select for
this study. These female leaders helped having a deeper understanding about leadership
in women. Furthermore, 7 participants including male leaders, female and male nonleaders are also interviewed to approach women leadership in multiple ways.
1.8. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Firstly, the study will provide findings to explore multiple perceptions of women
transformational leadership in Vietnam which is different from Western countries. In
additions, this study will create a growing need for research on women in leadership in
developing countries.
Secondly, the research findings will be useful for institutional authorities to have a
better understanding in women leadership through conducting and assessing in-depth
interviews with middle and upper-middle levels of female managers in Vietnam. This
study will be a scientific basis to help organizations recognize values of female
managers and learn more about how women leaders contribute to organizations
through the way they lead to encourage followers‘ high performance.
1.9. OUTLINE OF THE STUDY
The study is organized into six chapters as follows:

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