Enhancing performance and increasing motivation of employees in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in Laos by practicing suitable leadership styles

Abstract

Today, due to enormous pressure from rapidly changing advanced technology and an increase of competitive business in regions, a highly competitive tension of regional and global market’s integration is having a great impact on the attitudes of staff toward their work in organisations, particularly in Government sectors. Because of this the leaders in public sectors are required to ascertain how to apply effective leadership styles when approaching their employees in order to direct them through unpredictable situations and to encourage them to put more effort into their work.

Therefore, identifying leadership styles through studies on effective leadership are one of the most effective ways to support people who are in leadership positions in public sectors. They will then learn how to guide, motivate, influence and improve the capability and competency of their employees. Moreover, such leaders will understand the satisfaction and fulfillment of employees in their organisations as well.

The main objective of this research project is to determine the practical leadership styles that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in Laos (MoIC) should apply in order to increase employee performance and motivation at work. This research also attempts to find out the essential factors that would motivate staff in MoIC to put more effort into their work.

For the methodology approach, this research applies quantitative methods to support the researcher in finding out the perceptions of staff in MoIC toward their superiors’ leadership.

The findings of the research indicate that staff in MoIC recognizes the importance of leadership as it is a crucial key that supports and motivates them to enhance their performance which affects organisational improvement. In addition, a majority of staff was satisfied with the execution of their superior’s leadership. However, the execution of leadership in MoIC still has some weaknesses which need to be resolved in order to improve performance and increase motivation of employees in the workplace. This refers particularly to behavior of being too aggressive, neglecting the participation by employees, the unethical practices of leaders and behavior of not being open to listening to employees.

This research project has found that there are six practical leadership styles that are suitable for leaders in MoIC to practice. These include: participative leadership, democratic leadership, goal-oriented leadership, transformational leadership, authentic leadership and charismatic leadership styles. Moreover, this research also identifies essential motivation factors that influence staff to work such as self-esteem needs, challenging work, fairness in the workplace and opportunities for growth.