Leadership self‐development in C hina and V ietnam

The transition towards a socialist market‐oriented economy has presented many challenges to both C hina and V ietnam. One of the key human resource challenges has been to develop business leadership skills in a flexible, timely and cost‐effective manner. This paper focuses on the self‐initiated approach to professional development that has been introduced by managers at a grassroot level to improve business leadership (referred to as self‐development). Given the limited research on self‐development in C hina and V ietnam, the intention of this paper is to enrich understanding of why managers in a complex and dynamic transitional environment undertake self‐development activities. The findings of this study suggest that there is no ‘one‐size‐fits‐all’ paradigm to understand self‐development across contexts. First, the western model of leadership competencies at the different management levels do not necessarily fit the needs that managers are targeting in their self‐development activities in C hina and V ietnam. Second, despite some similarities between C hina and V ietnam, the C hinese managers were more interested in technical leadership skills than the V ietnamese managers whose self‐development foci were centred on improving their moral standards. Such differences highlight each country's stage of economic and social development while reinforcing the influence of contextual factors. It also suggests that self‐development is best understood as a process within a specific context.