Human Resource Challenges in a Transition Economy: An Exploratory Study amongst Vietnamese Stock Brokers

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I-Shou University

Master Thesis

Human Resource Challenges

in a Transition Economy: An Exploratory Study

amongst Vietnamese Stock Brokers

Advisor: Dr. David C.Trott

Graduate Student: Dang Thi Thu Nga (Cady)

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Acknowledgements

First I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my research study guide Dr. David C. Trott, Chairperson, Department of International Business Administration at I-Shou Univerity in Taiwan for his guidance and encouragement in carrying out my master thesis. He inspired me to explore my topic from his understanding of academic as well as research experience. In the process of writing my thesis, he timely pointed me to crucial mistakes and gave me specific comments based upon his experience and always with enthusiasm. I am heartily thankful to my supervisor - Dr. David Trott who shared, encouraged, guided and supported me from the initial to the final level and enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject.

I also wish to express my deep appreciation to my committee members, Dr. Paula May Tomsett, Dr. Hsiang-Ning Rebecca Chu, and Dr. Yi-Jung Chen who are teaching at I-Shou University and National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences in Taiwan. During this exploration of the human spirit at work, they gave me their enthusiasm, support, encouragement and dedication of good teaching. I want to thank to Dr. Paula for her quantitative research experience, guidance and instruction in how to use SPSS to analyze the research data. She always encouraged me and helped to point out the path for this research. Likewise, Dr. Chu and Dr. Chen who helped me and gave me their valuable comments based upon their professional knowledge for to my first as well as my final defense.

I especially want to thank the professors who allowed me to use their questionnaires for my master thesis; their successful research and valuable experiences were appreciated; especially Drs. Beck, Maslach, Schaufeli, Leiter, Krause, Markides, Rosenbaum, Houghton, Neck and Bakker.

I sincerely thank my coursework lecturers, my classmates and my friends in Taiwan for support as well as encouragement throughout the period I have been living and studying here.

Most importantly, I want to thank my family for all of their love, belief, spirit and motivation; they are far away but have always been inside my mind and present beside me during these past two years passed of my learning.

Finally, I am thankful to my many old colleagues, friends and relatives in Vietnam who supported me with their respect and trust during the completion of the project. This thesis could never have been completed without everyone who helped me along my journey toward scholastic excellence.

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Abstract

Many companies that employ highly skilled employees often use financial strategies to improve work engagement. However, beyond financial compensation packages, employers must increasingly demonstrate to their employees that they are respected, trusted, and valued in non-financial ways as well. Hiring is a typical human resource challenge and retention is even more important. Why do some employees leave while others choose to stay? What impacts an employee's decision to remain with a company and engage fully in his/her work? This study investigated these and similar questions. Specifically, the relationships between depression at workplace, job burnout, social support, learned resourcefulness and work engagement amongst Vietnamese brokers who are working in Vietnamese securities companies were examined. The study sets out to better understand human resource challenges in the transition economy of Vietnam, to find out the relationship between non-financial influences upon work engagement. Findings from the study point to some solutions to enhance work engagement for Vietnamese stock brokers as well as how to use human resource management strategies to retain Vietnamese stock brokers. Data was collected from Vietnamese securities companies with a total of 101 responses from Vietnamese stock brokers and analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, and correlation coefficients, test reliability and validity of the instruments. In general, results aligned with previous studies which supported the applicability of learned resourcefulness. Specifically, self-control and self-leadership were found to significantly contribute to employee intention/work engagement, while social support and depression had no significant impact on employee engagement. Job burnout was shown to have a negative significant relationship with work engagement. Implications and suggestions for future studies are also discussed in the study.

Keywords: Human resource management, transition economy, depression, job

burnout, job stress, social support, self-control, self-leadership, learned resourcefulness, work engagement.

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List of Tables

Table 3.1 Sample Measure Items of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) ... 32

Table 3.2 Total score of levels of depression. ... 32

Table 3.3 Sample Measure Items of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). ... 33

Table 3.4 Sample Measure Items of the Social Support Behavior - Modified (ISSB-M). ... 34

Table 3.5 Sample Measure Items of the Self-Control Schedule (SCS).. ... 35

Table 3.6 Sample Measure Items of the Revised Self-Leadership Questionnaire (RSQL).. ... 36

Table 3.7 Sample Measure Items of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) …. .... 37

Table 4.1Repondents' Socio-Demographic Characteristics ... 40

Table 4.2 Reliability Estimates of Vietnamese Stock Brokers ... 41

Table 4.3 Respondents' BDI Frequencies ... 42

Table 4.4 The descriptive statistics of the BDI scores ... 43

Table 4.5 The descritive statistics of MBI scores ... 43

Table 4.6 The descitivre statistics of ISSB-M scores ... 45

Table 4.7 Summary results of descriptive statistics of ISSB-M scores ... 47

Table 4.8 The descriptive statistics of Self-control scores ... 49

Table 4.9 The descriptive statistics of Self-leaderdip scores ... 52

Table 4.10 The descriptive statistics of Work Engagement scores ... 56

Table 4.11 Strength of Pearson Correlation ... 57

Table 4.12 Correlations between Depression and Work Engagement ... 59

Table 4.13 Correlations between Job Burnout and Work Engagement ... 59

Table 4.14 Correlations between Social Support and Work Engagement ... 61

Table 4.15 Correlations between Self-control and Work Engagement ... 64

Table 4.16 Correlations between Self-leadership and Work Engagement ... 64

Table 4.17 Summary results of hypotheses ... 65

Table 4.18 Group Statistics ... 66

Table 4.19 Indepent Samples Test ... 66

Table 4.20 A summary of the degrees of influence of non-financial factor of respondents ... 68

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List of Figures

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List of Abbreviations

Abbreviations Meaning

WTO World Trade Oragnization

GDP Gross Domestic Product

USD US Dollar

VND Vietnam Dong

HSX HoChiMinh Stock Exchange

HRM Human Resource Management

HR Human Resource

LR Learned Resourcefulness

BDI Beck Depression Inventory

MBI Maslach Burnout Inventory

ISSB-M Inventory of Social Support Behavior - Modified

SCS Self-Control Schedule

RLQS Revised Self-leadership Questionnaire

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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this study is to consider the human resource challenges in a transition economy: a study amongst Vietnamese stock brokers looking at the picture of the Vietnamese economy during 20 years of reforms. Great changes in the Vietnamese economic transition and related human resource challenges will be described throughout the background section along with the problem statement, research objectives and significance of the research.

1.1 Background of the Research

In 1986, Vietnam launched a political and economic innovation campaign called “Doi Moi” (Open Door) in order to reform the Vietnamese economy; the challenge was to transform the economy from a central-planning economy to a socialist-oriented market economy. The Doi Moi policy has led to great changes as evidenced in significant economic growth, budgetary and tax reform, development of a private sector, changes in the legal system in order to enable a more market-friendly economy, and expansion of trade/economic cooperation with other countries around the world (Kamoche, 2001). On January 11, 2007, Vietnam became WTO's 150th member. This marked not only a significant accomplishment but also the beginning of an even higher-level opportunity to compete economically around the globe. Stemming from this recent achievement, Vietnam must now confront another set of unique challenges. As Vietnam's economic sectors open the door to increased foreign competition so too must open its doors to increased human resources challenges in the workplace. The year of 1986 was only a starting point for a long journey of reforms. Vietnam has gradually transformed from a central planning economy with a high degree of bureaucracy and government subsidies to a socialist-oriented market economy in the midst of ongoing change.

After 20 years of innovation, Vietnam has now reached a moment in its economic evolution typified by slower economic growth. Although largely dependent on external borrowing, Vietnam’s economy achieved rapid growth, improved the lives of people remarkably, enhanced facilities and created prerequisites for a new development stage of industrialization - modernization of the country. Basically, Vietnam has changed its management style from mostly being a mechanistic system to

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a more fluid system. Through the innovations over the past two decades of change, Vietnam has gradually built up its role and strengthened its integration in regional and international economic affairs.

During the past 20 years of reform, the GDP growth rate of Vietnam has increased continuously. The average annual GDP growth rate of Vietnam ranged 3,9% in the period from 1986 to 1990, then raised up 8.2% in the next period from 1991 to 1995. In the period 1996-2000 the growth rate of Vietnam's GDP is 7.5%, lower than the first half of the 1990s due to the Asian financial crisis. Specially, GDP growth dropped to 5.8% in 1998, again to 4.8% in 19991, but then recovered and reached 6.8 % in 2000, 7.1% in 2002, 7.8% in 2004, 8.2% in 2006 and 8.5% in 2007. However, the Vietnam’s GDP rate in 2008 was only 6.2%; this rate increased to only 5.3% in 2009. This was the lowest increase since 2000 due to the global economic crisis from 2008 to 2009. The 2010 GDP rate is 6.7%.2

Regardless of the more recent financial slowdown, one of the most noteworthy achievements of Vietnam’s economy is shown in the overall sharp increase in the GDP per capita. The positive benefits have been significant in substantially reducing the poverty rate in Vietnam. Specifically, the GDP per capita has increased by many times starting with only 97.16 USD since 19863, reaching $402 USD in 2000, $1064USD in 2009 4and an estimated $1156 USD in 20105.

The growth of the private sector and foreign sector are key features of economic development in Vietnam since transition. Private sector and foreign investment accounted near a half of Vietnam’s GDP, 45.59% in 2000, 47.68% in 2007 to 48.4% in 2009, respectively. Private sector contributed for Vietnam’s GDP was 32.31%, 29.72% and 30.07% in 2000, 2007 and 2009, respectively.6 There have been 1,544 registered projects with a total registered investment capital of 21347.8 million USD and a total

1_{Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vietnam.}

http://www.mofahcm.gov.vn/vi/mofa/tt_vietnam/nr040810155228/#IFiqn6X1CTPh 2_{General Statistics Office of Vietnam. Growth rate of gross domestic product.}

Retrieved from http://www.gso.gov.vn/default.aspx?tabid=388&idmid=3&ItemID=9897

3_{NationalMaster.com. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_gdp_percap-economy-gdp-per-capita&date=1986} 4_{General Statistics Office of Vietnam. Gross domestic product per capitas.}

Retrieved from http://www.gso.gov.vn/default.aspx?tabid=388&idmid=3&ItemID=9897 5_{Global Finance.} http://www.gfmag.com/gdp-data-country-reports/146-vietnam-gdp-country-report.html#axzz1OKfSiSbK

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implemented investment capital of 8030.0 million USD in the end 2007. In 2009, Vietnam has 1,208 foreign invested projects with a total registered capital of 23107.3 USD and a total implemented investment capital of 10000.0 million USD.7

The foreign-invested sector has brought not only capital but also new technology and advanced management skills. Preliminary estimates indicate that private businesses create nearly 90% of the total 7.5 million jobs created during the past 5 years from 2001 to 2005. The majority of the 1.6 million new jobs in Vietnam produced each year from 2006 to 2010 relied on the private sector.8 However, the lack of skilled labor has become a serious and highly visible problem. The concurrent growing demand and stress upon human resource development is particularly noticeable in regards to the general educational preparation for pre-hires coming from the country’s secondary high-schools as well as the specific, higher-level training needs for post-hires once they have entered the workplace.

A banking reform strategy was drafted by the Vietnamese government in May, 2006. The State Bank of Vietnam has committed to being converted into a modern central bank with a board of trustees overseeing the functioning of monetary policy and supervision of financial institutions. By 2010, commercial banks were to be completely restructured; thereafter, equitization or privatization will be part of an overall effort to improve the operational capacity of these banks. For example, in December 2006, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved a list of state companies that would undergo equitization in the period from 2007 to 2010, including large companies such as Vietnam Foreign Trade Bank (Vietcombank)9, and Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank (Vietinbank)10. Some banks have also selected some of the world's major banks as strategic partners. Two foreign banks, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and Standard Chartered Bank, received licenses in September 2008 to operate in Vietnam as an enterprise with 100% foreign capital. This

7_{General Statistics Office of Vietnam. Foreign direct investment by foreign-licensed period 1988 – 2009.} Retrieved from http://www.gso.gov.vn/default.aspx?tabid=392&idmid=3&ItemID=9923

8

Asian Development Outlook 2007. Southeast Asia: Vietnam. Retrieved from http://www.adb.org/documents/books/ado/2007/vie.asp

9 The Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1289/QD-TTg on 26th September, 2008 approved equitization planning for Vietnam Foreign Trade Bank (Vietcombank). Published 24th_{September, 2007. Retrieved from}

http://www.tin247.com/thu_tuong_phe_duyet_phuong_an_co_phan_hoa_vietcombank-3-21221839.html

10_{The Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1354/QD-TTg on 23th September, 2008 approved equitization planning} for Vietnam Industrial & Commercial Bank (Vietinbank). VietNamNet.vn. Published 24th_{September, 2008.}

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marked a big step, removing barriers for the two banks – the door has opened.11

Opening the economy logically led to opening a Vietnamese stock market that officially went into operation in 2000 with the operation of HoChiMinh Stock Exchange (HSX) on 20th July, 2000 and Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) on 8th March, 2005. Prior to opening, operational benchmarking and practical experience was gained with the stock exchange model under the State Securities Commission of Vietnam with the establishment of securities trading centers and organizations in the form of revenue-generating units.

Since its official opening, the Vietnamese securities market development effort has moved well beyond all expectations in just a few years with impact upon other key sectors in the society, but not without some setbacks and challenges. A law that officially established the securities and securities markets was proposed and officially enacted in January 2007.

Since that time, the number of listing companies as well as the total market value has increased exponentially. Namely, there were only two listed stocks (REE and SAM) in the beginning of 2000 at HSX. When the tax incentives for companies to list expired in the end of 2006, the number of stock listing companies had increased from 106 in 2006, 138 in 2007 and 170 in 2008. The market capitalization of stocks at HSX was VND147,967 billion, VND364,425 billion and VND169,346 billion in 2006, 2007 and 2008, respectively. The market capitalization over GDP is 15.19% in 2006, 31.85% in 2007 and 13.93% in 200812. Similarly, at HNX the total number of listed companies was 87 with the total listed par value being VND11,124 billion in 2006. The total capitalization of stocks reached VND73 billion on 31st, December, 2006, 38 times higher than that of 14th July, 200513. The total number of listed companies has increased to 168 at the company on 31st December, 2008, with a total listed value of more than VND21.715 billion, the market capitalization value reached VND55,174 billion. Despite market capitalization value had a reduction of 40%, the numbers of listed

11_{Khanh Huyen. The banking system in the new competition. Published 10}th_{September, 2008. Retrieved from} http://www.tienphong.vn/Kinh-Te/136313/He-thong-ngan-hang-vao-cuoc-canh-tranh-moi.html

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companies strongly increased 50% in 200814.

Then in 2007, the stock market began experiencing difficulties and to-date has remained in a period of moderate hardship due to impacts of the global financial crisis at the end of 2007 and into 2008. The VN-Index at HSX fell for 9 consecutive months, from high levels close to 1100 points in the middle of October 2007 to 921.07 points at the beginning of the year 2008, then decreased down 605.45 points (65.75%) and closed at 315.62 points by the end of 2008. On 10th December, 2008 the VN-Index established a new bottom of 286.85 points15. On 24th February, 2009, VN-Index hit bottom of 235.5 points. Then VN-Index steadily increased up to a higher level of 624.10 points on 22nd October, 2009 and sharply adjusted to 434.87 points before closed at 499.77 points at the end of 2009. The HNX-Index was 242.89 points at the end of 2006, an incredible increase of 144.65 points (152,37%) comparing to the trading section on 1st Jan, 200616. The HNX-Index at HNX also dropped to under 100 points on 27th_{November 2008}17_.

The number of securities companies operating in the Vietnamese stock market was 9918

in 2009. On the other hand, the trading account number of stock investors in Vietnamese stock market opened by these 99 companies was over 307,000 accounts in 2007 and increased to 793,000 trading accounts of investors including 758,500 domestic accounts and 12,5000 foreign accounts by 31st December, 200919. This is a challenge for stock brokers in having to take good care of their customers as well as face many pressures from their customers when they cannot satisfy the needs of investors.

Generally, the financial system of business organizations and securities services developed rapidly in scale as well as capacity. A network of branches and transaction offices spread across the provinces and major cities throughout the country that made it easy for the public to access and invest in the stock market. When the stock market began operations in 2000, there were only two securities companies that offered full-service, funds management. After more than 10 years of operation, there are now 99

14_{Looking back securities 2008: Hanoi Stock Exchange, forward and backward .VnEconomy. Retrieved from} http://vneconomy.vn/2009011005203883P0C7/nhin-lai-chung-khoan-2008-hastc-tien-va-lui.htm

15_{Annual Report 2008 of HoChiMinh Stock Exchange (HSX).} 16_{Annual Report 2006 of Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX)}

17_{Nguyen Hien (2008). Ten highlights events of Vietnamese stock market in 2008. Dan Tri Electronic Newspaper.} Retrieved from http://dantri.com.vn/c76/s76-300317/10-su-kien-chung-khoan-noi-bat-nam-2008.htm

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securities companies. The number of employees in securities companies and bank increased rapidly. However, the number of business organizations and service providers grew too fast. With limited capital capacity and only newly acquired expertise, there currently exists significant systemic risk with the overall performance capacity of the stock market.

Accompanying the fast growing economy and development in many business sectors, Vietnam has had to confront many new and substantial challenges. According to Gross (2008), while the Vietnamese economy is taking off dramatically, the rapid growth is creating new challenges for Human Resource managers.

Consider that in its high-growth environment, the workforce of Vietnam is necessarily expanding very quickly as well with 45 million working Vietnamese

20_{among over 86}21_{million in the whole country. Additionally, there are more companies}

entering Vietnam every year that must recruit skilled or talented people to employ for technical and management positions. Recruiting talented employees is becoming more difficult for those organizations; most local workers in Vietnam are not suited to the demands of foreign companies, namely Western companies. Therefore, the growth of multinational companies has created its own unique desperate need for personnel who have experience in Western companies and can speak English (Gross, 2002 & 2008).

Even while Vietnam has a relatively large and educated workforce, there is still a shortage of qualified skilled labor, particularly those who are able to be successful in foreign companies. This increasing demand for skilled workers, coupled with a low supply of potential workers has led to wage increases for these highly skilled employees. According to a survey that was conducted by the Navigos Group in the first quarter of 2010, 63.8 percent of respondents from 168 companies operating in Vietnam ranked work engagement as the number one human resource challenge in 2010.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Van Anh 22(2010) said that “the second amongst the top five

challenges for the businesses in 2010 is how to hire the best talent” and commented, “It has never been easy to find the right and best talent in Vietnam and the situation will

20_{2008. Gross. A. Vietnam HR Update. Published in Benefits & Compensation International.} 21_{General Statistics Office of Vietnam. Population and population density in 2009 by province.} Retrieved from http://www.gso.gov.vn/default.aspx?tabid=387&idmid=3&ItemID=9865

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remain unchanged in the near future”. She said that “Vietnamese employees aggressively pursue opportunities to accelerate their career track to senior positions, challenging work, stretch assignments, continual training and development and competitive pay”23.

Companies that employ the more highly skilled employees often use financial strategies in order to improve work engagement. However, beyond the financial compensation package, as noted in the quote above, employers must increasingly show their employees that they are respected, trusted, and valued in non-financial ways as well. Hiring is one challenge, retaining is even more important. How to keep employees? Why do some leave while others choose to stay? These questions will be addressed in the study to better understand the management of Vietnamese stock brokers in a transition economy as well as lay the foundation for future researches.

1.2 Problem Statement and Research Objectives

According to Kim (1996) the human factor could be the biggest obstacle to Vietnam’s economic progress. In the past, human resource (HR) in Vietnam meant “personnel administration” – focusing almost exclusively on the specific details of one’s job and whatever the boss tells an employee to do. However, after Vietnam’s political and economic innovation campaign was launched in 1986 and especially since Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007, the society in general and employers in particular have increasingly recognized the importance of “people” in the workplace not just tasks. Therefore, overcoming the difficulties of work engagement and amplifying the strategic role of HR can be seen as a competitive advantage.

This study sets out to understand and characterize the nature and processes involved in managing stock brokers in the Vietnamese stock market system. There are five guiding research questions:

1. What are the socio-demographic characteristics of Vietnamese stock brokers?

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2. What are the degrees of job stress (depression and job burnout), social support, learned resourcefulness (self-control and self-leadership), and work engagement of a sample of Vietnamese stock brokers?

3. What degree do job stress (depression and job burnout), social support, and learned resourcefulness (self-control and self-leadership) play in employees’ decision to remain with or leave their organization (work engagement)?

4. Are there any gender differences in work engagement in the sample of Vietnamese stock brokers?

5. How do brokers, HR managers, and owners cope with these issues?

There are three key objectives of this study that will enable human resource managers to better understand the implications of work engagement:

1. Ascertain the prevalence of job stress (depression and job burnout) in Vietnamese stock brokers,

2. Measure the degrees of social support and learned resourcefulness (self-control and self-leadership amongst Vietnamese stock brokers,

3. Examine the relationships of all of the above to work engagement.

The above guiding questions and research objectives are to better understand the issues, variables and intangible forces that occur amidst a dynamic, interactive free-market process of buying, selling and exchanging stocks which itself is a part of a dynamic, changing overarching societal transformation. The success of this study will lay the groundwork for future research.

1.3 Significance of the research

This research is expected to provide both theoretical and practical implications especially useful to human resource professionals who are working in Vietnamese securities companies. Unfortunately though, from the literature perspective, there is scant research about current human resource challenges in Vietnamese stock markets. Therefore, this study will be amongst the first to examine the non-financial factors that influence work engagement in stock brokerages in Vietnam. This study also provides

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human resource researchers and practitioners with a deeper understanding of the reason why Vietnamese employees in stock brokerages want to leave their current jobs, and how to retain them once they’ve been hired. Such an understanding will be practical and useful for both managers and stock brokers. Managers in Vietnamese stock companies can formulate strategies to attract and retain skilled labor that address specific factors identified in this study.

In summary, the importance of employee recruitment in Vietnam is clear. Perhaps even more importantly, once a worker has chosen to work with a stock brokerage, the human resource challenge has then shifted to work engagement. The human resource challenge from that point onward is to be as well-informed as possible in order to make the best decisions feasible for the right action that will retain a worker who is joyful, productive, and satisfied. Thus, a better understanding of the nature of the workers’ disposition to their organizations will help professionals successfully cope and ultimately conquer the human resources challenges in Vietnamese brokerage firms.

The review of the literature in the following chapter will address two key aspects regarding the thrust of this study: (1) human resource challenges in the Vietnamese transition economy, and (2) specific, non-financial enhancers of work engagement.

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Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will introduce an overview of literature that discusses key aspects relevant to major human resource challenges in Vietnam’s economic transformation, specifically, non-financial influences upon work engagement. The key terms used in this research study will be made clear by presenting various definitions of different key scholars. This chapter will review the extant literature on the relationships among key terms as well as clarify key research issues; specific scholarly references will address all aspects of the study’s purpose.

2.1 Human resource challenges in transition economies

The background of the research, the overview picture of Vietnam’s emergent economic transformation, is emergent and still changing. Vietnam has experienced many challenges, especially rapid growth which is creating new challenges for human resource managers; the Vietnamese economy has taken off dramatically. Gross, 2008 and Kim 1996 have supposed that the human factor could be the biggest obstacle to Vietnam’s economic progress. These challenges will address in the review of the literature of this section with two issues: (1) major human resource challenges in Vietnam’s economic transformation, and (2) the extant literature on work engagement, retention, and turnover.

2.1.1 Major human resource challenges in Vietnam’s

economic transformation

We have already seen that in the previous centralized economic system in Vietnam before “Doi Moi/Open-Door”, the personnel function was regarded mostly as a set of administrative tasks and not as a personalized managerial relationship with workers. Hence, managers as well as HR staff currently lack or are significantly lagging in their knowledge and expertise to deal with the current and emerging human resource management (HRM) challenges. Due to mainly basing learning by doing in managerial skills, managers often lack some important human relationship skills and professional knowledge, especially in HRM to perform their business properly (Le Chien Thang & Truong Quang, 2005). General responsibilities regarding human resources in Vietnam

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are thus a bit unclear even while being surrounded and impacted by stressors that accompany any rapid change. HR departments in Vietnam are often poorly organized, thus further compounding the process of change; HR managers at all levels are struggling due to the lack the skills, knowledge and ability to effectively support the economic decentralization currently underway.

According to Angsuthanasombat (2007), the strengths of Vietnamese overseas workers are being hard-working, active, intelligent, open, skillful and always ready to do extra work. In contrast, the weaknesses of most of Vietnamese workers are from rural areas: not yet used to industrialized working practices and having poor foreign language skills, particularly in English. As a result, these workers fail to integrate into foreign markets with high salaries. Moreover, their certificates as well as degrees have not yet been recognized internationally, therefore they are only able to engage in non-professional work when going overseas to work. And, as mentioned earlier, although the educational system is helping to prepare a competent and motivated workforce, the numerical shortage of competent graduates for management positions does not look good for sustained economic rejuvenation.

As described by Mrak et al., (2004), the process of transitioning to a market economy has diverted the attention of high-level managers to hard issues of privatization and enterprise restructuring such as financial resources and technology, thereby “soft” human resources issues and HR factors are often left behind except for the constant pressure to lower labour costs. Experimentation with free-market economic activities has led to organizational restructuring, procedural changes, conformity to international standards, and a constant pressure to reduce labor costs. All-in-all, these stressors generate a serious, ever-demanding, still-evolving, constantly changing organizational culture and work climate that must adjust to sound business practices for sustained profitability. Meanwhile personal aspirations for an improved quality of life are increasing in parallel. Indeed, there are many stressors, some potentially invigorating while some are potentially debilitating.

Thus, the purpose of this research study is to answer the questions: Why and how do Vietnamese stock brokers experience these forces, to what degree do they experience job stress, what it the nature of their commitment to their organizations, and do they wish to stay or do they wish to leave?

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2.1.2 Work Engagement, Retention, and Turnover

According to Jackson, Schuler & Werner (2009, pp.190), “Retention includes

all the activities an employer does to encourage qualified and productive employees to continue working for the organization”. Retention means keeping the workers or

employees in the organization as long as possible. Ramlall (2003) stated “managing

work engagement is a strategy for increasing organizational competitiveness”

underscoring its essential value to the very existence of an organization.

Bakker & Leiter (2010) supposed that “modern organizations need energetic

and dedicated employees who are engaged with their work”. These organizations

expect pro-activity, initiative and responsibility for personal development from their employees. Retention, according to Hassan (2010), “is an energetic, deep involvement

with work and includes energy, involvement, and professional efficacy. Engagement confirms to an individual that they are good at doing important work”.

According to Van de Heuvel, Demerouti, Shaufeli & Bakker (2010, pp.124),

“organizations are continuously changing. Developments in society such as the current financial crisis and ongoing technological innovation increase pressure on employees to show change-ability and resilience”. Moreover, they also suppose that “most planned change initiatives, whether they concern a restricting, cultural change, or policy innovation, share the aim of maximizing organizational performance”. Besides,

organization change has an impact on the working environment and subsequently it may affect employee well-being, motivation, and performance.

“Work engagement in academia”, according to Kahn (1990, pp.694), one of the

first scholars who conceptualized engagement as work described work engagement as the “harnessing of organization member’s selves to their work roles: in engagement,

people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, emotionally and mentally during role performances”.

Work engagement is defined as “a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind

that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorptions” (Shaufeli, Salanova,

Gonzáler-Romá, and Bakker, 2002b:74). “Vigor” shows the high levels of mind, energy, willingness, effort, persistence and abilities to face with difficulties in one’s work.

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Dedication is strong involvement in one’s work such as enthusiasm, inspiration, pride and challenge. Absorption is presented the high level of concentration, fervor, passion, engross while working (Shaufeli & Salanova, 2008).

The viewpoint of Shimazu & Schaufeli (2009), is that work engagement in business may play a crucial role in the development of the organization’s human capital. Being an essential, positive element of employee health and well-being, it may help to create synergy between positive outcomes for organizations. Besides, Schaufeli & Bakker (2010, pp.11), see that “all major human resources consultancy firms are in the

business of improving levels of work engagement”. Also Schaufeli & Bakker (2010,

pp.11) said that “work engagement increases profitability through higher productivity,

sales, customer satisfaction, and employee retention”. Moreover, “the message for organizations is clear: increasing work engagement pays off”.

Employers must understand what is important to their employees before formulating work engagement strategies. Once employers clearly understand and enact what their workers value most, then employers will succeed in retaining their top talented employees instead of watching them walk out the door.

Otherwise, the costs are very high. In research conducted by Hale (1998), recruitment costs of a new employee were about 50% to 60% of the first year’s remuneration and up to 100% in the case of a specialized high-skilled position. Hale (1998) found that 86% of employers experienced difficulty attracting new employees and 58% experience difficulty retaining their employees.

Retention, according to Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS Institute is critical to success. SAS Institute Inc. is the largest private software company in the world with 10,000 employees and revenues exceeding 1.3 billion dollars, and Goodnight states

“attracting and retaining the best people is crucial to our success” (Jackson, Schuler &

Werner, 2009). Not only does SAS recruit talented employees but also focuses upon retaining its employees by making them feel satisfied. For instance, SAS offers very attractive benefits such as three weeks of vacation after only one year of working with the company, unlimited sick leave, and an on-site medical facility. However, Mitchell, Holtom and Lee (2001, pp.104) stated, “Retention cannot be accomplished purely

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developing a retention plan”. Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2009, pp.190) also noted

that “the objective of retention activities is to reduce the unwanted voluntary turnover

by people the organization would like to keep in its workforce”.

Turnover is another fact of organizational life. In every organization, there are some employees who leave their organizations voluntarily due to some individual reasons such as changes in their family situation, a desire to learn and master new skills from another organization, a desire to set up their own company, a wish to trade and conduct business by themselves or to accept an unsolicited job offer. However, there are others leaving their work due to reasons which are brought on by their own organization such as: perceptions of inequity, unfair treatment of a coworker, being passed over for promotion, or being required to do something against one’s beliefs/values.

Turnover is when an employee leaves for any reason and then must be replaced. Voluntary turnover occurs when “voluntary cessation of membership of an organization

by an employee of that organization” (Morrell et al., 2001, pp.6). Voluntary turnover

happens when an employee leaves willingly to accept a job with better salary and better working conditions. In contrast, involuntary turnover happens when movement across the membership boundary of an organization, which is not initiated by the employee (Price, 1997, pp.9). Therefore, involuntary turnover occurs when an employee leaves against his/her desire as in the case of a termination or lay-off.

Turnover, voluntary or involuntary, can also be very costly. In a study conducted by Fitz-enz (1997), it was found that “on average a company loses

approximately $1 million with every 10 top managerial and professional employees leaving the organization”. Sarkar (2002) also indicated that “when all direct and indirect costs are considered, the total turnover cost of an exiting employee ranges from a minimum of one year’s remuneration and benefits to two years’ remuneration and benefits. Now, that’s a huge cost to the organization”. From the viewpoint of Mitchell,

Holtom & Lee (2001), the impact of employee turnover is not just financial, “It is a

problem because it imposes extensive costs on both individuals and organizations”.

In summary, if work engagement strategies are successful then employee turnover will be minimized and retention enhanced. An employer would be wise to invest time, energy and resources to identify and strengthen non-financial intangibles.

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2.2 Non-Financial Influences upon Work Engagement

Non-financial influences are examined in this study including job burnout, social support and learned resourcefulness.

2.2.1 Job Stress

Stress is a "disease" of modern society. In everyday life, everyone will have occasional sad feelings, woundedness, and even righteous anger at times, but whenever one or more of these feelings is repeated again and again over a long period of time, it will affect one’s nervous system, overall well-being and in some cases actually lead to physical diseases. The scientific/medical term for this condition is called “stress”.

In our life, especially our daily work-life, each person has to confront many challenges and difficulties, and the solutions and/or outcomes of meeting those challenges does not depend simply on luck or doing what simply would make one feel happy. Uncomfortableness, unpleasantness, disagreeableness and task overload are daily occurrences in life and when it occurs in the workplace, it is one of the reasons leading to job stress and eventually burnout.

Employers as well as employees, regardless of being in a small or big organization, are unable to avoid stress at work. Therefore a manager should have the tactical knowledge, skills and ability to enact precise measures in order to reduce work stress not only for her/him, but for all employees. Successful stress management can create an easy-going, informal and friendly atmosphere in the workplace. “Work stress” is one of the leading causes contributing to conflicts and low-performance at work. In short, suitable methods that reduce work stress will be a key factor that will contribute to the success of an organization.

There is a rich body of literature related to workplace stress. Bartlert (1998) said that “Stress is usually defined from a demand-perception-response perspective”. This means that stress relates to the perception of an individual’s demands as well as their perception of their capability to meet those demands. From the viewpoint of McShane & Von Glinow (2000, pp.114), “Stress is an adaptive response to a situation that is

perceived as challenging or threatening to a person’s well-being". Similarly, other

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stress”, and they also agree with Farrington’s view “Stress is best considered to be an attribute of the environment and strain, an attribute of the individual, the change, physiological or otherwise, being (Bryant, Farrbrother & Fenton, 2000). Farrington

stated “induced in the individual by exposure to the environment”(1995). So, a commonly understood concept, “stress”, occurs in uniquely different situations with uniquely experienced thoughts, feelings, emotions, and behavior. Thus, what is stress as it specifically relates to the workplace or the job or the individual worker’s experience?

Niosh (1999) in Stress at Work “U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health” stated that “workplace stress is the harmful physical and emotional

response that occurs when there is a poor match between job demands and the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker”. According to Martino (2003) stress is

not easily contained as the “Relationship between work stress and workplace violence

[impacts] the health sector.” Stress can be triggered not only by engagement of

tasks-at-hand, but many times stress is triggered by relationships with coworkers – real or imagined.

According to the viewpoint of Greenberg (2004), “Justice is important to

people and health is key to happiness….People expect to be treated fairly, and they experience a shock to their systems when they believe this has not occurred. Such experiences of injustice may be considerable sources of stress". Greenberg (2004)

proposed a way to manage workplace stress by “promoting organization justice”. Also Halpern (2005) put forward “time-flexible work policies” are not only a stress reducing solution but also improve health and contribute to monetary savings because “time is a valuable resource for all working adults”.

Potter (1998), related job burnout to stress and depression, “Burnout is a

malaise of the spirit in which motivation, that mysterious force that gets us moving is damaged or even destroyed. Job burnout could be called job depression. Burnout is not an all-or-nothing proposition. On any particular day enthusiasm for work is increasing or decreasing but it does not remain the same. Even the hottest fires will burn out, so we tend them fanning, stoking, and occasionally adding another log. When motivation wanes, we burn out”. There are methods to deal with stress that have been identified by

numerous scholars. Before action, however, there must be awareness/understanding and acceptance that “stress” is significant, severe in many cases, and almost never benign.

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Thus, what are some additional causes of stress as it specifically relates to the workplace or the job?

2.2.1.1 Specific Causes of Stress

There are many causes leading to stress in our lives, mainly derived from life challenges and demands at work.

Miller, Zook and Ellis (1989) stated, “Occupational differences influence and

burnout in the workplace”. What is “burnout”? Freudenberg (1974) noted that “Burnout is typically conceptualized as a general “wearing out” from the pressure of work”. Furthermore, Jackson, Schwab & Schuler (1986) defined “burnout” as a

three-dimensional concept characterized by: “(1) emotional exhaustion or a negative wearing

out from the job, (2) depersonalization or negative shift in responses to others, particularly clients, and (3) a decreased sense of personal accomplishment”.

Holmes and Rahe (1967) from Washington University conducted a study about stress. In reporting their findings, these scholars compiled a chart to illustrate of the main causes of stress which included 43 causes. They updated their chart to 55 causes in 2006 (Holmes & Rahe, 2006). As time goes by, scholars are noting that our society is generating ever more causes that lead to stressed.

Summarizing the findings of Holmes and Rah, the first category of causes originates from general life circumstances including difficulties in finance (lack of money, loss of investments, bankruptcy), family changes (marriage, separation, divorce, children, heated debate), physical changes (lack of sleep), changes to the living environment, one’s health and/or safety (such as injury, illness, disease, pregnancy), personal relationships (arguments with family, spouse, or friends and even death of a close relative or close friend). The second category of causes is due to work–related matters.

There are three causes of workplace stress as follows: (1) harassment and incivility (U.S. EEOC, 2008; Lindermann & Kadue, 1999), (2) work overload (Galinsky et al., 2005), and (3) lack of task control (Schaufeli, 2004; Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). First, harassment and incivility consist of psychological harassment and sexual harassment. Psychological harassment is the fastest growing cause of workplace stress.

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McShane & Von Glinow (2010, pp.116) also showed that “psychological harassment

includes repeated and hostile or unwanted conduct, verbal comments, actions, or gestures that affect an employee’s dignity or psychological or physical integrity and that result in a harmful work environment for the employee”. The other type of

harassment is sexual harassment “harassment in which a person’s employment or job

performance is conditional and depends on unwanted sexual relations or the person experiences sexual conduct from others that unreasonably interferes with work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment”.

Second is work overload, meaning that working more hours and even working long hours outside of the routine working hours. There are three reasons why employees have to work such long hours. One reason is due to the effects of technological change and globalization; every day, workers are pressed harder because of e-mails, electronic letters, wireless communications, internet utilization, and globalization. This is why many people cannot stop working to get enough rest or relaxation on the weekend. A second reason is that there are more and more people engaged in consumerism - they want to buy more some things such as goods and services and doing so requires income through long work hours. The third and last cause is due to the idealized standard often held by working professionals who distort their positions as symbols of their superhuman capacity to perform above others.

Lack of task control or even low task control also increases the exposure of workers to the risk of job burnout due to having to face high workloads without the ability to adjust their own energy, attention span, and other resources. Job burnout is the process of emotional exhaustion – lack of or no task control is exhausting.

Job stress/burnout also depends on job demands (if excessive) as well as job resources (if deficient) which increase work pressure and emotional demands that lead to exhaustion and consequentially to burnout. Normal aspects of everyday work require sustained physical and psychological effort. But, an excessively high workload is a significant job demand in most workplaces. The degree of effect by excessive job demands on burnout depends on the actual job resources available to each individual. Importantly to also consider, job resources include degree of work autonomy and social support; these aspects of work and help employees to achieve their work goals, while reduced job demands stimulate personal development. Generally speaking, assembly-line workers have low task control and low responsibility in work; consequentially, they

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tend to have fairly low stressful level. In contrast, athletic coaches (i.e. football, baseball, pole-vaulting) have a very high responsibility to win games; a coaches win-loss record directly relates to job-security. Coaches have to perform under immense stress, while they have very little control with what is happening on the playing field even though it is low task control. In such cases, lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities as well as low level task control can cause stress in the workplace.

In addition to the above mentioned causes of workplace stress, there are some other subjective and objective causes. Job stress can be a result of the interaction between worker’s state and worker’s working condition. The following can be significant contributors to job-stress and burnout, (1) a worker’s state of wellness, (i.e. his/her personality and character makeup), and (2) a worker’s working conditions. The characteristics of the worker in the context of his/her working conditions are also one of the primary causes of stress. The differences in the characteristics of each worker, such as coping skills and personality are crucial characteristics to predict whether their work can cause stress or not.

Indeed, rigorous scientific studies have shown that working conditions are one of the main causes leading to job stress. According to large survey studies which focused upon working conditions and were conducted by the European Union member states in 1990, 1995, and 2000, there has been "a time trend suggesting an increase in

work intensity”. These studies reported that 48 percent of workers worked at high

speeds and during at least one-quarter of their working time in 1990; 54 percent in 1995 and to 56 percent in 2000, respectively. Similarly, 50 percent of workers reported that they worked with tight deadlines during at least one-fourth of their working time in 1990; this increased to 56 percent in 1995 and 60 percent in 2000. According to Primm, (2005), “Workplace stress has the potential to affect employees of all categories, from

those who have very little influence to those who make major decisions for the company.... However, less powerful employees (that is, those who have less control over their jobs) are more likely to suffer stress than powerful workers. Managers as well as other kinds of workers are vulnerable to work overload”.

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2.1.1.2 Indicators of Stress

Excessive stress is evidenced in one’s physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Indicators of stress can be found in physical health such as high blood pressure, increased heart rate, muscle tightness, headache, overall tiredness, exhaustion, dizziness, sweating, heart palpitations, hyperventilation, continence, and loss of bowel/urinary control. If this situation become more serious and lasts longer, it can lead to diseases such as stomach ulcers, rheumatism and even cause a heart attack.

Indicators of stress can be found in mental health including emotional responses (e.g., such as angry, anger, insecurity, anxiety or fear, fatigue, dissatisfaction and tension, etc.), psychological disorders (depression, impatience, not friendly, post-traumatic stress disorder, having many mixed feelings and rapid changes, having a feeling of guilty, highly joyful, angry, sad, hopeless, disorientation, easy to get angry, self-blame, easily vulnerable, etc.), thoughtful factors (difficulty concentrating, not want to think anymore, ramble thinking, slow thinking, unsure, confused , negative thoughts, suspect, paranoid , unable to decide, the loss of faith, etc.). If this lasts long, occurs frequently, and becomes severe, then it can damage the immune system and impact other physiological functions such as weakened resistance to diseases as well as the enabling germ penetration and thus increasing the risk death.

Stress also impacts one’s sense of spiritual well-being relating to disorder in a person’s belief system or a disruption in the person’s sense of purpose in life. Spiritual health issues are evidenced in anxiety, guilt, alienation, loss, and despair. Within the nursing profession, researchers have identified indicators such as a sense of disharmony and/or lack of connectedness across three dimensions of relationships: transpersonal, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Other indicators are a sense of disharmony and/or lack of connectedness across three dimensions of time: past (sources of inspiration), present (enthusiasm), and future (aspirations and hopes) (Hungelmann, Rossi, Klassen, & Stollenwerk, 1985).

All three dimensions of mental, physical, spiritual distress can be exhibited by similar behaviors such as difficulty in sleeping, loss of appetite, speaking unclearly, confusion, speaking continuously, incessant debate, retreat and/or withdrawal, not wanting to make contact with others, alcoholism, drug-abuse, and loss of motivation. In

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general, excessive job-stress can impact one, two or all dimensions and can cause many harmful effects. Job-stress will likely occur whenever there is a poor combination between job demands and job resources. In turn, these effects can cause poor work performance and even injury on the job.

2.2.2 Social Support

2.2.2.1 Understanding Social Support

Schwarzer, Knoll & Rieckmann (2004) stated that “social support is often used in a broad sense” but primarily focuses upon social integration. However, both social support and social integration show the degree of social embeddedness of individuals and a sense of belongingness, obligation, and intimacy. They also noted that social integration connects to social relationships’ structure and quantity relevant to the size and density of networks and the frequency of interaction. Social support, in contrast, relates to social relationships’ function and quality such as perceived availability of help and receivable support.

“Social” means “together with others”, “support” refers to outside resources or coping assistance provided by others. The purpose of “social support” is offering relaxation, belongingness while at the same time building a sense of community or family. Sarason, Levine & Basham (1983) defined “Social support is the existence or

availability of people on whom we can rely, people who let us know that they care about, value, and love us….the availability of social support bolsters the capacity to withstand and overcome frustrations and problem-solving challenges”. Social support occurs

when “it is through an interactive process and can be related to altruism, a sense of

obligation, and the perception of reciprocity” (Schwarzer & Knoll, 2007). Found in the

research about the relationship of learned resourcefulness, social support and depressive symptoms Duangduen (2004) noted that “support promoted the warmth, the social

integration, the sense of belonging, the self-esteem, the assistance, the power and the better problem solving ability”.

There were many aspects of social support that have been investigated. For example, one study by Weiss (1974) investigated the diversity of social support found six dimensions of social support; the six dimensions are intimacy, social integration,

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nurturance, worth, alliance, and guidance. Subsequently, Krause & Markides (1990) used three types of social support in their study including informational support, emotional support and tangible support. Several decades later, Schwarzer & Knoll (2007) identified and categorizes social supports such as tangible support (e.g., donate goods), informational support (e.g., give advice), emotional support (e.g., listen empathetically) and instrumental support (e.g., help to solve a problem). Similarly, Salami (2010) proposed that social support is the extent to which each individual who is offered or knows is available the provisions of social relationships such as emotional, informational or tangible support whether coming from family members/activities, peers (supervisors, mentors, advisors), friends inside workplace (co-workers and subordinates) and/or friends outside the workplace.

2.2.2.2 The role of social support in the stress and coping process

Considering the viewpoints of the above cited authors and research studies, job stress or occupational stress can be commonly understood as unpleasantness with degrees of tension, anxiety, frustration, anger, distress and depression stemming from work. Job stress usually happens when an employee/worker exceeds his/her capacity to cope with the pressures of work; these are called “work stressors”.

Siu et al., (2002) identified a set of Occupational Stress Indicators (OSI). OSI, according to Siu, is due to factors intrinsically related to the job, the role of management, relationships with others, careers/achievement opportunities, the workplace structure, the working environment, and home/job interface. A Nigerian based, case-study report generated by Salami (2007) included secondary school teachers, nurses, civil servants and industrial servants. Salami selected seven items from the Occupational Stress Questionnaire (OSQ) such as workload, working time pressure, working conditions, personal matters, interpersonal matters, inadequate facilities and leadership matters and found them to be directly applicable to secondary school teachers in Nigeria.

Based on the viewpoints of some scholars such Choi & Ward (2006), Grau, Salanova & Piero (2001), Morris & Long (2002), Salami & Awolusi (2000), and Siu (2002) there is a relationship between occupational stress and well-being. Similar insights were found in the studies of Cole, Ibrahim, Shannon, Scott & Eyles (2000) as

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well as the earlier research of Parkes (1990). Most recently, Salami (2010) said that “Occupational stress is negatively related to job satisfaction and psychological

well-being….Work-stressors have been associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes, including depression and distress….Social support was positively correlated with psychological well-being”.

The research studies of Dunkley et al., (2000), Salami (2007, 2009) Siu et al., (2002), as well as the above mentioned study conducted by Salami (2010) have revealed the positive potency of social support in the workplace. According to Salami (2010),

“social support plays a key role in the stress and coping process… the more support is available, the better coping is facilitated”. In fact, in the medical context/workplace,

social support has shown to have positive health benefits. Social support related to myocardial infarction was studied by Holahan, Moos, & Brennan (1997), cancer surgery patients by Luszcynska, Mohamed, & Schwarzer (2005), as well as HIV+ patients in a study on medication adherence by Weaver (2005). Patients in all these studies indicated higher levels of recovery and the caregivers indicated an enhanced capacity of coping with patients were positively influenced by social support. In summary, from the Sandler & Lakey study conducted in 1982 which found that “Both

individual dispositional variables and social support moderate the effects of stress” up

to and including the most recent studies by Salami (2010), the effects of social support in the stress coping process have been consistently positive.

Thus, based on the above findings reported in the research literature, this study will examine the effects of social support on job stress. Precisely, this study aims to discover if high-levels of social support are similarly related and/or help reduce depressive symptoms and thus increase worker well-being. If so, then worker retention may be achievable through other ways than simply by money; social support is almost purely non-financial.

2.2.3 Learned resourcefulness

From the previous overview of the literature, it is easy to understand that job stress is not good; more significantly it is not benign, job stress can be very harmful with physical and emotional effects. And, economically speaking, job stress can influence the quality of job performance since the poor combination between job

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demands and job resources is within the context of actual job/task performance. Therefore, what are the necessary skills to prevent employees or employers from experiencing debilitating stress and, instead, to have good job performance?

2.2.3.1 Learned resourcefulness

Learned resourcefulness (LR) is considered as an important skill in improving one’s confidence, sense of stability, and ability to manage stress (Rosenbaum, 1990 in Duangduen, 2007). Rosenbaum (1990) noted that LR helps people promote their ability in coping with a stress. Also, according to Rosenbaum (1983 & 1990) in McWhirter, Burrow-Sanchez & Townsend (2008), LR is “an expansion of well-learned behaviors

and cognitive skills” that each individual consolidates from experiences in their lives to

cope with stress effectively and execute self-control successfully.

2.2.3.2 Preventing job stress through self-control

LR is a self-control behavior that necessitates individuals having to go through a process of cognitive change in their negative thoughts. LR skills include “reformative

self-control, redressive self-control, and perceived self-efficacy for coping”. First,

“reformative self-control” are those skills to solve problems effectively; oftentimes, strategies to postpone instant gratification. Second, “redressive self-control” is the use of positive instructions in thought, mood, and control. Finally, “perceived self-efficacy” is the belief in the effective coping skills when one must face with stress (Rosenbaum, 1990).

The study of Rosenbaum (1980) as well as Rosenbaum & Jaffe (1983) indicaed that people with high LR and resourceful individuals will solve their stressful situations more effectively by using their self-control skills. In another research conducted by Rosenbaum & Ben-Ari (1985) the role of LR was examined in the appearance and generalization of learned helplessness. The results of these studies (Rosenbaum, 1980; Rosenbaum & Jaffe, 1983; Rosenbaum & Ben-Ari, 1985) concluded that the differences of each individual in LR played a crucial role in the response of those individuals to stress. Moreover, the negative effects of uncontrollable failure were moderated by the self-control of each individual. Self-control implies self-leadership since one’s inner voice/dialogue is the key decision-making process from which a choice is made to take

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a particular action; self-control means embedded and internalized as opposed to being other-directed.

2.2.3.3 Preventing job stress through self-leadership

What are some of the most important characteristics that firms look for in their employees? Leadership potential, ability to work on a team, and good communication skills are among the most commonly listed personal characteristics of an ideal worker. Amongst the very top, most important employee characteristic is self-motivation. Manz (1983, 1986, & 1992) has extensively explored self-leadership which is defined as “the

process of influencing oneself to establish the self-direction and self-motivation needed to perform”.

According to Neck & Manz (1996) self-leadership theorists supposed that individuals mostly regulate their actions through behavior, cognition and thought-formation activities. The five main activities of self-leadership strategies are indentified as follows: (1) personal goal setting (Strickland & Galimba, 2001), (2) constructive thought patterns (Neck, Stewart & Manz, 1995), (3) designing natural rewards (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001), (4) self-monitoring (Bopp, Glynn & Henning, 1999), and (5) self-reinforcement (Logue, 1995).

The first step is personal goal setting; the individual will set up goals for his/her own work. Personal goals when set by the individual tend to be more specific, relevant and challenging than if given by the boss. In this step, self-leadership is concerned with setting goals by oneself rather than goals set by supervisors. Employees who demonstrate self-leadership are able to more often motivate themselves and perform better by being self-aware, engaging in self-rewards, changing their environment whenever necessary and implementing a variety of ways to set their goals. The level of self-awareness in setting personal goals requires a relatively high level; having a good assessment of employees’ present performance before establishing meaningful goals for personal development is necessary.

The second step of self-leadership strategies is constructive thought patterns or called “thought self-leadership”. Before starting and while performing a task, employees should have positive thoughts about their task outcomes. This makes