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BUSM4188 ASM 2 Binh Do S3740909
BUSM4188 ASM 2 Binh Do S3740909
Subject Name:
Leadership and Decision Making
To be a great leader, one needs to be an influential person, knowledgeable, charismatic, and have
high social skills, according to some experts. Also, becoming a good leader and consistent in
your actions is very important. Making good decisions, dealing with difficult situations and
work, but also giving time to family and your community are some of the important things to
know if you want to be the leader of the company and team. In fact, there are certain leadership
qualities which are the basic traits that make a leader successful.
This paper aims at a real leader who has endured and experienced a company for over a
decade and he has achieved many successes in his own and company, to look at how he employs
his leadership. Moreover, this paper also targets in applying leadership theories into practice and
then uses the theories to analyze how the leader shows his leadership in his company.
2. Observation
Do Viet Hung is the founder and also the CEO of Hung Vinh JSC – a leading firm in the
tempered and glass industry in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province. I decided to interview a long-term
employee of the company, who has also worked for Mr Hung for a long time, that was Mr Tran
Ngoc Khanh for his perspective about Mr Hung’s leadership. Khanh is the current production
manager of the company and has worked in Mr Hung's firm for nearly ten years. He can be seen
as a close colleague with Mr Hung and therefore I believe his opinions can be a useful source of
information and can be used to judge Mr Hung’s leadership objectively.
2.1 Leadership style
Mr Hung is described as a task-oriented leader because he likes others to work in his
direction and even if they make mistakes, he can easily forgive them. On the other hand, if the
employees have not followed him, although he appears to forgive them, but he can harm their
mental health. In addition, he is also considered to have initiating leader behaviors due to
focusing on achieving targets (he always encourages people to overcome obstacles); defining
leader roles by showing people that he is the leader and it is easier to follow his directions than
changing his mind; and finally defining employees’ roles (he knows himself younger generations
cannot be better than him so they never can affect his mind).
In addition, according to Yukl (2010), he can be seen to have a charismatic effect by his
strong belief in the younger generations that they can not be better at him and he often stresses
about high results he wants his employees to get when he assigns work to them.
He illustrated himself as a transactional leader. Transactional leaders are the ones who
value order and structure and use positive and negative reinforcement to get the results (Burns
1978). He wants to manage and avoid conflicts at the beginning by imposing internal rules.
Moreover, he also believes that if everyone follows rules initially, all the conflicts would
disappear. He takes values and orders as first references when there are conflicts. However, he
also displays some of the properties of a situational leader. Although he puts rules and policies at
the first priority, he also knows that everyone is different in many aspects, so after referencing
them, he also takes a view at attitude, causes, effects, and the environments from each
stakeholder and then makes final decisions.
To have a better understanding of his leadership style, I also asked whether he valued
more, finishing tasks or building an excellent team with a long relationship between people. He
may not show enough evidence to be a relations-oriented leader. Nonetheless, his answer implied
a more situational style. If there were few tasks, he said to focus on the leadership style due to
few relations and responses at work. When the organization was big and there were more
employees, the best way was to develop their working skills in order for them to solve problems
effectively. He claimed that when the company had excellent staff, they naturally knew the way
to work better with others.
I can conclude from the company size that he mostly focuses on procedures and policies. He also
shows a mix between task and group-orientation. He claimed that the best way when the
company is big is to develop staff’s skills so that they can know how to work well even without
any direction from upper managers.
When asked about power and influence, he showed clearly two main methods:
Information Power (Raven 2008) and Expertise Power (French & Raven 1959). Moreover, he
was confident with his wisdom and knowledge in the field. He thought these could lead his staff
positively and hardly to be affected negatively.
4. Analysis
It is pervasive to be jealous negatively in work conditions to compete with each other at
work (Dogan & Vecchio 2001). Especially the fact that employees compare each other can be
seen as contributors to a continued evaluating one’s self which may raise unfavorable feelings
that may harm in achieving work goals (Everald, Morris & Wilson 2004). However, Mr Hung, as
an task-oriented leader, has combined the situational style to solve any conflicts flexibly and
makes sure the company runs as he wishes. Specifically, he mainly focuses on finishing the work
and aiming at expert, precise, and efficient task achievements (Yukl 2013c). Bowers & Seashore
(1966) added to the description that he maintains heavy focus on structures, plans to aim specific
goals and certain standards for the company, which Mr Hung has proved to be a really realistic
when setting goals for the company. As said before, he mixes task-oriented style with group-
oriented style, which means he develops employees.
The most interesting trait of Mr Hung is his passion for the industry. Passion is of the
most important leadership characteristics to become a prominent one, which also contributes
mostly to inspire motivation and strength as well as reinforce good working results from the
employees (Marques 2007). Mr Hung shows a deep understanding and know-how in the industry
for a long time, which is acknowledged by his co-worker who has followed him for over 10
years. This requires a huge passion for the work. With passion, he always makes sure what the
company should do and where it should aim at. In fact, he uses his knowledge to influence
people through expert power. Expert power is power acquired and developed through the
knowledge and skill of the leader. Expert power has a robust connection and a huge impact on
the work's efficiency of the employee (Green 1999). In addition, he applies Information Power to
control the company. According to Raven (2008), Information Power is a position power which
means he always shows clearly the company's vision and his directions to all employees, and he
believed this way can make them follow him without hesitation.
Another impressive trait from him is his stress resistance. To be more specific, this trait
portrays how leaders counter with challenges, difficulties, and chaos which happen usually in the
business environment (Yukl 2013a). He also sets high expectations when talking and
encouraging employees. This shows a way of influencing people through communicating high
expectations (Yukl 2010). Mr Hung can influence people to collectively achieve objectives that
initially seemed impossible.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, through observation, face-to-face interview, and analysis using a wide base
of leadership theories to portray leadership traits, behavior, power and influence strategies, this
work focuses on describing a real leader in context and sees how well he deals with other
employees so that his leadership can be viewed clearly. Through the interview with his co-
workers and himself, I realize that flexibility and open-mind are really useful when working in
such an environment where there are many generations working together. Particularly,
situational management should be used in this kind of working environment due to the fact that
his co-worker claimed Mr Hung’s way of pushing others to overcome obstacles like him may
harm the whole company. Furthermore, expertise power is the easiest and clearest power that can
be acknowledged by others, although people have to endure a long time in an industry to gain
that power. I also know that theories can apply to practice and we should change accordingly to
the situation.
6. Reference list
Conger, JA& Kanungo, RN 1988, ‘The empowerment process: Integrating theory and practice’,
The Academy of Management Review, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 471-482.
Dogan, K & Vecchio, RP 2001, ‘Managing Envy and Jealousy in the Workplace’, Compensation
& Benefits Review, vol. 33, iss. 2, pp. 57–64, Wiley Online Library.
Everard, KB, Morris, G & Wilson, I 2004, Effective school management, Paul Chapman, .
French, J & Raven, BH 1959, ‘The bases of social power’, in D.Cartwright (Ed.), Studies in
social power, pp. 150-167, Univeristy of Michigan.
Marques, J.F 2007, ‘Leadership: Emotional Intelligence, Passion and ... What Else?’, Journal of
Management Development, vol. 26, no.7, pp. 644–651.
Raven, BH, 2008, ‘The Bases of Power and the Power/Interaction Model of Interpersonal
Influence’, Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 1–22.
Yukl, GA 2013, Sustainable leadership: creating the future through people, technology and
design, 8th edn, Pearson Education, Sydney, Australia.
Interview Script
A. Interview Script with Mr Do Viet Hung
1. In your opinion, what are the three traits that a leader in any organization or fields
needs to have? Why?
Three traits that a leader has to have anywhere and any fields are:
1/ Set goals clearly, properble with his resources (to have the motivation to overcome obstacles)
2/ Be knowledgeable enough to the goals, so that he can plan well to accomplish goals
practically with competitive cost
3/ Have the ability to persuade others to accompany him in getting the goals.
2. Can you describe yourself as a leader through 3 words? And in those words, what makes
you the most proud of yourself? Why?
Three words to describe a leader according to my view are: “Trí”, “Tâm”, “Tầm” (Wisdom,
Heart, and Vision)
a. “Trí” means Wisdom - you have to be wise to navigate your thoughts and actions effectively.
b. “Tâm” means the heart, in other words, ethics. Only when the leaders have the “heart” (ethics)
then they can influence other stakeholders, and then get others’ support.
c. “Tầm” means Vision. It is when a leader can see and put his organization to a level when it
can survive in a way to help the society.
3. When there is conflict between staff, how can you solve it?
When I am a leader, I have to impose internal policies that everyone has to follow (the
policies have to weigh the majority’s benefits). When there is conflict, I spend time considering
the causes, defying the attitudes, actions of stakeholders, consulting with the imposed policies
and then I would choose the solution which is related to the policies the most. If people follow
policies at the beginning, all the conflicts can be solved automatically. Anyone undervaluing
internal policies should be removed.
4. I think you should be flexible to solve human-related problems. Can you generalize
different methods you use to approach and solve them? Is it right to say that a leader has to
change the solution and make different decisions for each kind of employee group because
they differ in characters, knowledge and functional skills?
After imposing an internal policy that employees have to obey, I use them in the
interviewing process and access work performance. It is true that everyone is different with each
other. Their view of the world is contributed through the educational environment, family,
friends, schools and workplaces. Their views are different, so their response to the world is
different, too. In order to solve human-related problems, I think we should consider people’s
characters and each kind of situation.
5. Which of the following do you value more than the other, finishing tasks or building an
excellent team with a long relationship between people?
Naturally, when there are few tasks, we should focus on the leadership style due to few
relations and responses at work. However, when the organization is big and there are more
employees, the best way is to develop their working skills in order for them to solve problems
effectively. When the company has excellent staff, they naturally know the way to work better
with others.
6. How can you influence your employees? Do you ever think that you would change your
influence towards a more positive or negative way?
I have influenced my staff by: having a strong aim in creating positive values and using
my knowledge and personal values such as “Trí”, “Tâm”, “Tầm” (described in question 2) to be
an example for my staff. When I lead them positively, I don’t have to worry they are affected
negatively.
This way can be effective in some special cases when there are people who have strong
will like Mr Hung. In general, I think it is not effective because everyone is different from each
other, they have their own situation and living environment, character, instinct, lifestyle, so that
they cannot be the same as Mr Hung. In conclusion, I think his way of motivation cannot help
improving people’s potential.
The company is an organization, where there are a lot of minds, new ideas and innovation
from staff can be different and more suitable to the current affair, so that it is better to absorb
them which may not be the same as the old generations’, it helps encouraging internal power of
the company and improving survival rate and competitive advantages.
If we consider every new idea as a new way of earning money, we can make various ways to
increase money from many people, it is better than just following one’s person.
In conclusion for question 2: I think his way can bring limited benefits for the company,
in a more detailed way, it is not good for the whole company.
3. When there is a staff member making a mistake, how does Mr Hung usually solve that?
In a positive or negative way?
When there is a mistake, he can respond negatively or positively.
There are 2 situations:
a. Positively: if the employee shows his/her regret and he has been enthusiastic in work and
followed directly Mr Hung’s direction, he can be forgiven and encouraged by Mr Hung.
b. Negatively: If the employee lacks enthusiasm and his ego is too big, he has not followed Mr
Hung’s direction, he can still be forgiven but damaged mentally.
4. Does Mr Hung often listen to his staff or he just directs them? If someone can show an
error in policies and rules, does Mr Hung review it or continue to follow the old way?
Mr Hung is a wise man and he is traditional and the most arbitrary than anyone else.
In work, he also listens to others’ opinions when it comes to something he doesn’t know well,
however when he has a clear direction in mind, no one can change his decision.
In his mind, Mr Hung always thinks that every employee from younger generations cannot be
better than him, so that it is difficult for them to affect his thoughts.
In some cases, even when the staff prove themselves right practically, Mr Hung agrees
reluctantly and doubtfully and considers himself that case is just an exception. Finally, he
conserves his views and firmly makes staff follow his decisions.