SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The research results show the effect level of the transformational leadership on employee satisfaction and loyalty. Consequently, in order to increase employee satisfaction and loyalty so as to receive invaluable benefits that these two factors bring with enterprises, leaders shall pay attention to four components of the transformational leadership in the order of influence levels as below:

(1) Leader’s prestige or The influence of the ideal

(2) Encourage employees to exploit their intellectual capacities (3) Motivation

(4) Care about individuals

To conduct everything consistently and strategically, leaders shall concentrate on the factor of corporate culture and build the culture of “leadership for employee satisfaction and loyalty” in organizations.

5.2.1 Leader’s prestige and The influence of the ideal

With the role of leaders through building vision for organizations, leaders gain respect and trust from employees. Leader’s prestige will contribute to increasing the absorption rate of employees towards challenging objectives.

 Always expressing competence and confidence

Leaders are not required to implement operational works, but in case of problems or extremely difficult projects and works, leaders shall be the pioneers to solve them directly.

Additionally, through the process of handling problems, leaders shall express calmness and confidence to prove their own capacities. Employees will observe and remember these expressions for a long time and this is one part of building leader’s prestige.

 Building trust and pride in employees towards leaders

In order to build and strengthen the influence, leaders shall gain employee trust by putting organization’s benefits over personal benefits and employee’s needs over leader’s needs. More importantly, when conducting these things, leaders shall “talk” to make employees understand that.

For Vietnamese enterprises in general, it does exist a certain gap in the relationship

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between employees and their leaders. Therefore, it makes them not to see specifically positive influences of leaders on organizations and employees themselves. Leaders shall actively remove this gap. When doing this, they will not lose their “position” but gain respect and trust of employees.

 Consistency in behaviors

Finally, to maintain and strengthen leader’s prestige and level of influence regularly, leaders shall be consistent in behaviors, always follow standards of moral values. This is theoretical but in reality, it is the foundation for all relationships. The consistency of behaviors of leaders shall make employees believe in them completely and proud of their leaders, proud of organizations as well as themselves. On the other hand, leaders just express their compromise before principle matters once time then they will lose value and prestige in the eyes of employees. To regain prestige will take too much time and effort, and sometimes it will never be regained.

5.2.2 Encouraging employees to exploit their intellectual capacities

Leaders shall share more information to employees about vision as well as risks that organization are facing. In order to make employees to receive these information and convert them into daily works effectively, employees should be “equip” by encouraging them to apply and develop their intellectual capacities.

The application and development of employee’s intellectual capacities is the hard work which requires patience, finesse and belief of leaders. However, it is also “the mission” of leadership position. It will bring values to and create differences for employees, helping them to become better day by day. If they can do that, leaders not only maintain employee satisfaction and loyalty but also “refresh” organizations ceaselessly as well as build an experienced, active and creative team of staffs. Particularly, it has meaning in the current condition when several enterprises have to pay expensive rates to invite new factors.

 Seeing matters from different perspectives

To do this, leaders shall help employees to exploit their intellectual capacities, think independently and analyze matters from personal views.

At first, leaders themselves shall be an example by seeing matters from distinct perspectives, identifying matters in a broader context so as to discover deeper influences on development strategy and future of organizations. For employees, leaders also inspire them to do the same before problems they are facing daily at work. At current Vietnamese enterprises, employees are often in two extremes; when matters occurred, they shift responsibility onto higher managers and their mission is over; or they handle problems on

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their own and only report to leaders with good results after resolving. These two approaches cannot bring highest efficiency as well. For the former, employees certainly get bad evaluation because they absolutely cannot show their capacities and responsibility as well.

For the latter that employees handle matters on their own, it is good that employees apply their knowledge and experience to handle them. However, they “waste” an available source – it is leader. When leaders are advised, with their further vision and more information, they can have significant contributions for measurements of employees. This is also the good chance for employees to express their capacities before leaders during the process of presentation, handling problems, sharing opinions than reporting normally. Employees do not know that in the process of employee evaluation, leaders pay attention to matter approaches and arguments more than results, especially to matters greatly affected by objective factors and external environment. This is another good chance for employees to build direct relationship with their leaders. Leaders are also human, they feel satisfied when they are useful and can help other persons to handle problems. Giving leaders the opportunity to express their qualifications and experience, employees can build a convenient, open and effective relationship towards leaders in particular and organizations in general.

Therefore, leaders shall encourage employees to think independently, propose solutions based on personal views and consult leaders if needed.

 Encouraging the creativity, innovation and inspiring employees to discover new solutions for old matters

Leaders are not allowed to criticize or ridicule extraordinary ideas of employees publicly ever. However, to praise and encourage creative ideas even they are small are necessary to conduct before the community.

5.2.3 Motivation

Leaders shall bring high working spirit to each individual and organizations as well.

 Making employees to realize the meanings and challenges of work

Leaders shall make employees to realize how they are contributing to help organization to achieve success. Concurrently, leaders also clarify challenges of works and the meaning of facing challenges so as to get success. Working spirit of employees will be increased if they know they not only work normally but also contribute meaningfully to the future of organizations that they are one factor of this development.

 Optimistic and trust in the future success of the organization

Enhancing motivation is also represented when leaders spread the vision with enthusiasm and optimistic. Enthusiasm and optimistic really have spreading feature.

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Working with leaders who are always full of enthusiasm, believe strongly in the prominent future of organizations, employees will acquire this spirit during their workdays and also share belief about the prominent future to themselves and their families. Besides, leaders shall use symbols to visualize the vision, increase awareness and memories of employees.

5.2.4 Caring about individuals

Leaders shall treat each employee “differently but equally”. The most important thing is that leaders assume the distinction of each employee so as not only to accept but also to honor it. Differentiation makes development. This is not only right in the natural development process but in social sciences and mentality.

Caring about employees as an individual

Firstly, leaders shall build the personal relationship with each individual. It is not required to be the friendship between leaders and employees, but at least leaders have to realize and care about employee health and morality as well as special occasions of their lives.

 Helping employees to develop their careers

Leaders shall help employees to form working plan and personal development, check and support them to implement it. Leaders shall support employees for each step of career development.

First of all, leaders shall discover development needs and capacities of each individual, thereby instructing, consulting and assigning them suitable missions. With the role of a coach or consultant, leaders make favorable conditions for employees to exploit their all potentials.

It is notable that not every staff has the same development needs, not everyone has desire to promote and undertake important roles. There are employees who have other priorities in life (family, own interests). These employees are still qualified persons so they conduct current jobs very well with positive working attitudes. However, it does not mean that they will have desire to promote and undertake more important positions. To assign them to do very hard jobs, to take very important roles will also decrease their satisfaction and loyalty. Meanwhile, some other staffs have ambition and thirst for success. If we cannot give them chances to show their capacities, they will also lose spirit, enthusiasm and satisfaction and loyalty towards enterprises will be decreased. The matter is that employees, based on characteristics of Asian people, rarely show their desire and needs of career development. Leaders shall discover and make conditions for employees to express their needs.

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 Always listening to the employees

To build the open and straightforward relationship with employees, leaders shall make them to feel that leaders are willing to listen to them. It can be done through regular meetings between departments, sectors or project groups. It can also be effectively conducted by remaining direct meetings between two parties – leaders and employees – with detailed discussion targets. Among them, staffs can update what they are doing, share difficulties, success as well as experience during work process while leaders shall assure that they really pay attention and listen to them. The willingness to listen to employees of leaders can be

“seen” through some activities of leaders; for example, they remove walls of their personal rooms and work together with staffs in the open environment.

5.2.5 Other recommendations

 Sharing information

Leaders shall share more information to employees about risks that enterprises are facing. Frankly, in several organizations, employees do not know what their leaders are doing and which pressure they are suffering. They also have equivocal understanding about the general image of enterprises.

It mainly comes from the reason that leaders rarely share business information at management level to employees. It is due to traditional practice, employees are treated as executors, hired persons and they just need to complete their works; only leaders are in charge of business results. Partly, when leaders do not have adequate capacities and vision, they hold information as the secret weapon to protect their positions. This approach is totally wrong towards human resource management in particular and operational results of organizations in general. When leaders share information, difficulties, risks that enterprises and leaders themselves are facing, employees feel that they are more responsible to organizations, and they feel that they are owners of enterprises and part of success and failure of enterprises. With that belief, leaders in their eyes are not foremen but the ones they believe, admire and respect.

More broadly, leaders shall create the environment to support the study and share of experience between employees in enterprises.

 Encouraging positive leadership behaviors of employees

As mentioned in the definition sector, “Leadership is the process which produces effects on activities of an individual or a group so as to hit the mark in certain situations”.

Any individual who finds the way to affect other persons’ behaviors, such individual is a potential leader. On the other hand, persons who are dependent and try to affect them are

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potential dependent persons; even they are administrators or employees.

Therefore, leaders shall support to exploit leadership spirit and skills in organizations to achieve objectives more quickly and effectively.

 Listening feedbacks from employees about leadership style

During the process of practical uses of transformational leadership, leaders by many ways directly or indirectly collect, observe and listen to feedbacks from employees about these effects on satisfaction with and loyalty to organizations of employees. From there, leaders shall conduct modifications suitably to organization’s conditions, employee’s needs and also personal characteristics of leaders.