David Mc Celland's Need-Based Motivation Theory

2.2.3. Fredrick Herberg's two-factor theory

Herberg's two-factor theory includes: hygiene factors (external) related to the work environment and motivation factors (internal) related to work motivation, between these two factors is employee neutrality, meaning that employees do not show their satisfaction or dissatisfaction, dissatisfaction or non-dissatisfaction. Herberg believes that these two factors will contribute to employee behavior and thereby affect their attitude towards work and work results.

2.2.4. David Mc Celland's need-based motivation theory

This theory suggests that there are some needs that people do not have innately, but they will learn it through their life experiences. These needs include: the need for achievement, the need for affiliation, the need for power. If these needs are satisfied, it will motivate workers to work, thereby improving their work results.

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2.2.5. J.Stacy Adams's Theory of Equity

Equity theory was introduced by Adams in 1963, according to this theory, creating fairness in the organization will help strengthen relationships with employees, motivate and increase their satisfaction, thereby making employees more attached to their work and work more effectively.

On the contrary, if employees feel that what they contribute to the company is more than what they receive, it can create dissatisfaction, and they will lose enthusiasm and excitement for the company. This can lead to some employees seeking justice for themselves, others will have reduced morale and work efficiency, and some may return to disrupt the company or look for new jobs. Therefore, to motivate employees, managers must consider and evaluate the current balance between what employees contribute to the company and the benefits they receive.

2.2.6. Victor Vroom's Expectancy Theory

This theory suggests that when an individual works hard, they will expect a good result and a worthy reward. And so, if the reward is consistent with the desire, it will create greater motivation in the next work process. Therefore, according to Vroom, managers need to make employees understand the relationship between effort-achievement, achievement-result/reward, from which they will try harder at work, and improve their work results.

2.2.7. Positive organizational behavior theory

Compared to the theories mentioned above, the Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) theory is considered a “late bloomer”. POB theory has only been formed since 1999, mainly developed by Luthans and his colleagues. POB theory focuses on exploring and measuring factors of employees’ psychological capacity, developing these factors, thereby helping to improve employees’ work results. Studies have also shown that there is a relationship between psychological capacity and employees’ work results.

The theories mentioned above mainly emphasize understanding and satisfying the personal needs of employees to improve work efficiency, or emphasize improving the working environment, creating fairness in the working environment, providing rewards or incentives to meet employee expectations... POB theory alone offers a new approach to improving employee work performance, which is through measuring and improving employee psychological factors, that is, factors belonging to the employee's own internal capacity.

Currently, there are not many studies on employees' psychological capacity, mainly studies developed by Luthans and colleagues.

Most recently, there is a study by Nguyen & Nguyen (2011) on psychological capacity, quality of work life and quality of life of marketing staff in Vietnam.

Within the scope of this topic, psychological capacity is chosen for research because of the new nature of this research in the world as well as in Vietnam (in Vietnam, there is currently only research by Nguyen & Nguyen (2011) on this issue. At the same time, the author determines the importance of psychological capacity to employee work results, this issue has only begun to be focused on by researchers and administrators in the world in recent years. The author thinks that this issue is also very necessary for Vietnamese business administrators in general, administrators in banks and trade-service companies in particular in researching and proposing measures to improve employee work results. Issues on the theoretical basis of psychological capacity and work results will be presented specifically below.

2.3. Psychological Capital

For many decades, psychology was studied primarily for the treatment of mental illness. Therefore, it was considered a separate field of study within the medical profession. It was only at the end of the 20th century that psychology was approached in a new direction: positive psychology.

Positive psychology is considered a research effort by psychologists, aiming to eliminate the notion that has existed for decades in the field of psychology that focuses on researching treatment options for mental illness rather than caring about human mental health. Positive psychology mainly focuses on two main goals:

- Help ordinary people have a richer and more meaningful life.

- Fully understand the potential that exists in human beings.

However, research on positive psychology at this stage was still limited. It was not until Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, chose positive psychology as the platform for his presidency that both theoretical and empirical research in this field really increased.

Positive organizational behavior (POB), is one of two research areas of positive psychology, focusing on measuring employees' abilities, positive psychology, trying to discover and develop employees' abilities to improve work results.

POB theory focuses on traits or situations that can be developed and improved through improving the work environment and management methods. It only focuses on traits that are measurable and can be improved. Specifically, the components found in POB theory include: confidence, optimism, hope, adaptability, and emotional intelligence.

Studies have shown that the components of POB theory found above will vary in terms of measurement, and therefore their influence will vary. But when these components are combined, they will have more influence than each component individually. The combination of these components is called the psychological ability of the worker.

Studies on employee psychology can be found in the organizational behavior literature. According to Luthans et al. (2007), an individual's psychological capacity is characterized by four components:

(1) Confidently undertake and make the necessary efforts to achieve success in difficult assigned tasks.

(2) Be optimistic about current and future success.

(3) Hope towards success.

(4) Have the ability to adapt when facing difficulties to achieve success.

2.3.1. Self-efficacy

Confidence refers to “people's judgments about their ability to perform specific tasks” (Parker 1998, p. 835).

Psychologist Bandura (1977) defined self-confidence as a person's belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations. Self-confidence plays an important role in how one approaches goals, tasks, and challenges. According to Bandura's theory, people with high self-confidence also view difficult tasks as something they must actively and positively undertake, rather than something they should avoid. And with such a positive, proactive mentality, they will undertake tasks enthusiastically and positively, which will result in higher results.

Psychologically, people will tend to choose jobs and tasks that they feel confident about, because they think that the possibility of success in that job or task is higher. With the same mentality, they will tend to avoid or refuse jobs and tasks that they think are beyond their abilities.

However, determining the optimal level of self-confidence is not easy. If an individual chooses tasks that are far beyond their ability to perform, they may have difficulty performing the task, or even be unable to complete the assigned task. But if that individual consistently chooses tasks that are too low compared to their actual ability, they will not be able to expand and develop their inherent skills. Studies show that the optimal level is to choose tasks that are slightly above their ability, so that they can encourage them to make an effort to solve the task, create challenges, accumulate experience, and still be able to complete the task effectively.

Applicable to bank employees and employees of trade and service companies; confidence in their knowledge and skills in performing assigned tasks will help them be motivated to complete tasks more quickly and effectively; not afraid of difficulties and challenges at work.

2.3.2. Optimism

Job optimism is the joy and confidence in the success of current and future jobs (Luthan et al. 2007). Optimism is defined as "the tendency to maintain a positive outlook" (Schneider 2001, p. 253).

Optimism is also a positive human psychology. Whether people can overcome difficulties, challenges or unfortunate events in life depends on their optimism in their own attitude towards life.

Optimists are those who always expect good things to happen to them and therefore, they will persistently pursue the goals they have set (Carver & Scheier 2002, Carver et al. 2010). Thus, optimism can be seen as a medicine that helps people overcome their temporary failures (Carver & Scheier 2002, Carver et al. 2010). In the organizational structure of a business, optimism helps employees have a positive attitude towards changing difficulties, thereby planning for their future work better.

Applied to bank employees and employees of trade and service companies, optimism will help them have a positive view of their daily work, from which they will have a positive attitude towards difficulties and challenges in their current work. And with such positivity, they can complete their work more effectively.

2.3.3. Hope

Hope reflects “the belief that one can find paths to desired goals and becomes motivated to use those paths’’ (Snyder et al. 2002, p. 257). Hope includes two dimensions: pathways (the way to power) and mechanisms (will power). Paths refer to the ability to create feasible routes to desired goals, and mechanisms refer to the perceived ability of those who have used the pathways to achieve desired goals (Snyder et al. 2002).

Hope is different from optimism in that: Hope requires thoughts and ways to achieve a certain goal, meaning there must always be a desired goal to achieve. Meanwhile, optimism simply stops at expecting the best to happen, but does not necessarily need methods and goals to improve the current situation or create a better future.

Applying hope to bank employees, hope is the way to facilitate them to realize the bank's goals and turn those goals into their own actions to achieve the bank's goals in general and their own goals in particular. With employees of trade and service companies, this goal is similar. Employees' hope in work is shown in actively pursuing work goals in many different ways, solving work difficulties in many different ways and always trying to achieve the set work goals.

2.3.4. Resiliency

The final component, adaptation, involves “positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity or risk” (Masten & Reed 2002, p. 75).

In psychology, resilience refers to how an individual copes with stress and adversity. This ability is demonstrated in that when faced with difficulties and challenges, they can cope with it, and can see it as normal, and in some cases, it can even make them accumulate experience, and cope better with future difficulties.

Applying adaptability to bank employees and trade-service company employees, adaptability can be characterized by the way in which a person copes with both the negative and positive aspects of events that occur at work.

Studies have shown that the components of psychological competence, including: confidence, optimism, hope and adaptability have an impact on work outcomes. For example, confidence has been shown to have an impact on work outcomes (Stajkovic & Luthans 1998, Legal & Meyer 2009 cited in Nguyen & Nguyen 2011). Research by Youssef & Luthans (2007) cited in Nguyen & Nguyen (2011) shows that employee optimism is related to work outcomes, satisfaction and happiness. Hope is related to employee outcomes, satisfaction, happiness and retention (Youssef & Luthans 2007 cited in Nguyen & Nguyen 2011). Resilience has a positive relationship with employee work outcomes (Luthans et al. 2005 cited in Nguyen & Nguyen 2011).

Luthans et al. (2007) found that overall psychological competence was a better predictor of employee performance than its individual components. For that reason, in Nguyen & Nguyen’s (2011) study, the authors focused on the predictive power of overall psychological competence rather than its individual components. And, Nguyen & Nguyen (2011) demonstrated that overall psychological competence had a positive impact on job performance.

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