THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SOUTHERN LUZON STATE UNIVERSITY DOCTOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DISSERTATION MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES OF MIDDLE-LEVEL MANAGERS AT VIGLACERA CORPORATION TA PHUNG PHUC (LUCKY STAR) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Cecilia N. Gascon HANOI - 2013 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis is completed to fulfill the requirement from the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program, an international program between Thai Nguyen University (TNU) and Southern Luzon State University (SLSU). I would like to express my sincere thanks to Management Board of the TNU and the SLSU, who have been organizing such interesting programs. The improvement in our competencies will bring much more values to our work and social life. I would like to express my sincere thanks to all lecturers of SLSU, TNU and associates, who have equipped me with a lot of valuable knowledge and skills for my life. Especially I would like to express my exclusive thanks to my supervisor – Dr. Cecilia N. Gascon. Despite very busy with management and professional work, she has given me lots of valuable guidance and support during my job on completing this thesis. I also would like to express my thanks to Board of Management of Viglacera Corporation, who has encouraged me to complete the thesis and provide me a lot of support during the research. I would like to express my thanks to all middle managers and all of my colleagues in Viglacera for helping me with useful data for the thesis./. iii COPYRIGHT COMMITMENT I hereby declares that this is my own research. Also, all the information used in my research is trustful and totally reliable. The competency of Viglacera middle level managers yet to be studied in deep and at overall scale, furthermore their competencies have never been benchmarked against their job requirements. In late 2011, The Executive board decided to have a HR consultant to review Viglacera’ workforce and provide recommendations for improvement. However, the report of the consultant just has been considered as a 3 rd party reference, Viglacera must work on the project itself and create a strategic blueprint for HR development for the next 5 years at least. To retain its leading position in the market, it is a “do or die” project for Viglacera and this research, hopefully shall contribute a big picture overview of Viglacera workforce and recommend a good solution for Viglacera to achieve the target of the project. Having that idea in mind the author strongly believes that this research is the first one in Vietnam to construct the set of competency standards for Vietnam SOEs and it is also the first study to recommend its applications in a real situation. Once again I committed that all findings and conclusions of my research are not copied of any other work or paper. The whole or partly of this research never have been published in any kind of public media. The Author iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT . ii COPYRIGHT COMMITMENT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF CHARTS x ABSTRACT xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE OF THE RESEARCH 1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 3 HYPOTHESES 7 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH 8 SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH . 9 DEFINITION OF TERMS . 9 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .11 2.1. COMPETENCY – OVERVIEW . 11 2.1.1. Competency and competency – base methodology . 11 2.1.2. Competency component . 15 2.1.3. Competency analysis process 19 2.2. MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES 20 2.2.1. Functions of management 20 2.2.2. Managerial competencies . 25 CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .33 3.1. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY . 33 v 3.2. STRUCTURE OF THE RESEARCH 40 CHAPTER 4. PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA…………. .42 4.1. REQUIRED MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES FOR MIDDLE-LEVEL MANAGERS AT VIGLACERA . 42 4.1.1. Business awareness 43 4.1.2. Leadership 43 4.1.3. Setting priorities . 44 4.1.4. Managing the team . 44 4.1.5. Result orientation . 45 4.1.6. Change orientation . 46 4.1.7. Team working 46 4.1.8. Ability to influence 47 4.1.9. Developing others 47 4.1.10. Face to face communication 48 4.1.11. Interpersonal skill . 48 4.1.12. Motivation skill 49 4.2. CURRENT MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES OF MIDDLE-LEVEL MANAGERS AT VIGLACERA . 51 4.2.1. Business awareness 51 4.2.2. Leadership 52 4.2.3. Setting priorities . 52 4.2.4. Managing the team . 53 4.2.5. Result orientation . 54 4.2.6. Change orientation . 55 vi 4.2.7. Team working 56 4.2.8. Ability to influence 56 4.2.9. Developing others 57 4.2.10. Face to face communication 58 4.2.11. Interpersonal skill . 59 4.2.12. Motivation skill 60 CHAPTER 5. SOLUTIONS TO BRIDGE THE GAPS BETWEEN REQUIRED AND CURRENT MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES OF MIDDLE MANAGERS .63 5.1. BASIS FOR THE SOLUTIONS 63 5.1.1. Viglacera direction to develop human resource . 63 5.1.2. Reasoning the gaps between required and current competencies of . middle managers 66 5.2. SOLUTIONS TO BRIDGE THE GAPS BETWEEN REQUIRED AND CURRENT COMPETENCIES OF MIDDLE MANAGERS 67 5.2.1. Training solutions 67 5.2.2. Non-training solutions . 73 CONCLUSION . 77 REFERENCES . 79 APPENDIX 1 – QUESTIONNAIR FORM FOR IDENTIFYING REQUIREMENT ON MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES OF MIDDLE MANAGERS 85 APPENDIX 2 – QUESTIONNAIR FORM FOR ASSESSING CURRENT MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES OF MIDDLE MANAGERS 88 APPENDIX 3 – JOB DESCRIPTION SAMPLES 91 CURRICULUM VITAE 107 vii ABREVIATIONS AQL Acceptable Quality Level BOM Board of Management BSC Balanced Score Card CEO Chief Executive Officer CORP Corporate DEPT. Department EQ Emotional Quotient ERP Enterprise Resource Planning FM Finance Manager HR Human Resource HRM Human Resource Management JD Job Description R&D Research and Development SLSU SOE Southern Luzon State University State Owned Enterprise SWOT Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats TNA Training Needs Analysis TNU Thai Nguyen University VIGLACERA Vietnam Glass and Ceramic Corporation viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1-1: Opportunities and Threats in HRM of Viglacera 6 Table 1-2: Strengths and Weaknesses in HRM of Viglacera 6 Table 4-1: required “business awareness” for middle managers . 43 Table 4-2: required “leadership” for middle managers 44 Table 4-3: required “setting priorities” for middle managers . 44 Table 4-4: required “managing the team” for middle managers . 45 Table 4-5: required “result orientation” for middle managers . 45 Table 4-6: required “change orientation” for middle managers 46 Table 4-7: required “team working” for middle managers . 46 Table 4-8: required “ability to influence” for middle managers 47 Table 4-9: required “developing others” for middle managers 48 Table 4-10: required “face to face communication” for middle managers 48 Table 4-11: required “interpersonal skill” for middle managers . 49 Table 4-12: required “motivation skill” for middle managers 49 Table 4-13: current “business awareness” of middle managers . 51 Table 4-14: current “leadership” of middle managers 52 Table 4-15: current “setting priorities” of middle managers 53 Table 4-16: current “managing the team” of middle managers . 54 Table 4-17: current “result orientation” of middle managers 55 Table 4-18: current “change orientation” of middle managers . 55 Table 4-19: current “team working” of middle managers 56 Table 4-20: current “ability to influence” of middle managers 57 Table 4-21: Table 4.21: current “developing others” of middle managers 58 Table 4-22: current “face to face communication” of middle managers . 59 ix Table 4-23: current “interpersonal skill” of middle managers . 59 Table 4-24: current “motivation skill” of middle managers . 60 Table 5-1: Training courses proposed for middle managers 68 Table 5-2: Solutions / Recommendations Matrix 75 x LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1.1: Viglacera Competitive Advantages . 5 Chart 2.1: The iceberg model .12 Chart 2.2: Competency analysis model 20 Chart 2.3: Circle of management .22 Chart 3.1: Work frame of the research: .34 Chart 4.1: Required competencies for middle managers 50 Chart 4.2: Current competencies of middle managers vs. requirements 61 Chart 4.3: Viglacera Competency Needs Analysis 61 Chart 5.1: Viglacera business development strategy for 2010-2020 . 64 Chart 5.2: Viglacera Corporate Core Values . 65