The Leadership Competency in Vietnam Public Administration

Abstract

Globalization and technological development have changed people’s demand, which leads to many challenges for public and private sectors. Public administration can overcome the challenges by reforming their structure and performance. In this research, the authors affirmed the important roles of leaders in public administration. This research used the integrated leadership theory in the context of Vietnam public administration to build a framework of competency for leaders. The Key Informant Panel and the in-depth interview method were implemented to achieve the research objectives. Research findings have built a leadership competency framework for the public sector, which benefits both researchers and practioners. For researchers, the findings can add to leadership competency theories, especially in the public sector. For policy-makers, the findings can be solid foundations which they can rely on to work out policies for leadership development in Vietnam public sector.

Competencies for effective public middle managers

“…Meanwhile, organizing competency was mostly represented by assigning subordinates to do the tasks based on their abilities and monitoring them periodically. This finding is parallel with the result of Lan and Hung’s study (2018) that organizing competency was perceived important for leaders in public administration. It is interesting to note, however, that our study extends previous studies in which oral communication and organizing competencies, although essential, may not be able to distinguish superior performers from average performers.…”

“…They found several competencies that were important and distinct to public sector including managing competing interests, managing the political environment, communicating in a political environment, interpersonal motivational skills, adding value for clients and impact assessment in decision making. Lan and Hung (2018) conducted a leadership competency study for leaders in public administration in Vietnam using an in-depth interview technique to 15 experts coming from government agencies and universities and a survey to identify which competencies were perceived important. They proposed four groups of competencies consisting of 14 important sub-competencies: regional context competency (knowledge of local culture and knowledge of strategy and policy for local development), professional competency (knowledge of the public administration sector and knowledge of the organization mission), human management competency (building relationships, training and developing employees and motivating employees) and self-development competency (strategic outlook and thinking, change management, planning and organizing, decision making, communication skill, continuous learning and result orientation).…”

Competencies for superior performance across management levels in the provincial government executive offices

“…The main sources for document analysis include three journal articles from previous competency work in public-sector organisations at management levels, that is, Hurd and McLean (2004), Vathanophas and Thai-ngam (2007) and Lan and Hung (2018), and five documents on public-sector competency models adopted by four governments that have also implemented public-sector reforms. Table 1 provides a list of competency clusters and units from the selected journal articles and documents.…”

“…Vathanophas and Thai-ngam (2007) examined competencies required for the Chief of General Administrative Sub-Division position level in Thailand's Department of Agriculture by applying the BEI technique – but only using sample superior performers. Lan and Hung (2018) focussed on identifying competencies for leaders in the public sector of Vietnam using an in-depth interview technique to experts and a survey. Sudirman et al.…”

Leadership Styles and Communication Skills at Indonesian Higher Education: Patterns, Influences, and Applications for Organization

“…The growing operations of companies today, the geographic coverage of which extend not only regionally but also nationally and even globally, cause relationships among employees, leaders, and owners to change (Lan & Hung, 2018). In the past, employees were involved from project planning to completion.…”