Organizational Cultures & Workforce Motivation

In this document, we will discuss Organizational Cultures & Workforce Motivation. An organization's culture, politics, power, and corporate dynamics are intangible assets, they greatly contribute to the business's strength. Because of its strong foundation in trust, it is crucial for carrying out the objectives and duties of the company to develop corporate culture. Understanding Vinamilk's culture, politics, power, and motive is the goal of this study. Additionally, the research contributes to our understanding of how these beliefs affect personnel.

Student Name /ID Number Pham Thi Hai Anh/ F12-017
Unit Number and Title Unit 12: Organisational Behaviour
Academic Year Semester 2, Academic Year 2019-2020
Unit Assessor Ms. Le Thu Hanh
Assignment Number and Title OB1: Organisational Cultures and Workforce Motivation (1 of 2)
Issue Date 8th February 2020
Submission Date To be announced by office
IV Name Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Ha (IV) and Dr. Doti Chee (Lead IV)
Date 11th January 2020
What is special about Vinamilk's corporate culture?
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International of Banking Academy
Pham Thi Hai Anh
F12017
Email: [e-mail]
Abstract
Culture, politics, power and corporate dynamics are intangible assets of an enterprise, but it
contributes significantly to the great strength of the business. It is deeply rooted in trust, so it
plays an important role in implementing the goals and tasks of the organization to build
corporate culture. The purpose of this study is to learn about culture, politics, power and
motivation of Vinamilk. Not only that, but the research also helps to learn about the effects of
these values on employees at Vinamilk.
Key word: culture, politics, power and motivation
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Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company; Other name: Vinamilk; is a company that
produces and trades milk and dairy products as well as related machinery and equipment in
Vietnam.
With the vision "To become the leading symbol of belief in Vietnam in nutrition and health
products for human life". And the mission "Vinamilk is committed to providing the community
with top quality nutrition and quality by its respect, love and high responsibility for human and
social life".
There are many definitions surrounding this concept. Different cultures have different
definitions. Each business has a different view of the corporate culture. There are over 300
different definitions of corporate culture. In Vietnam, according to the author Ngo Minh Khoi
(2002): “Organisational culture is the whole system of standards of morale and behavior of all
members of the enterprise, to the best values, creating a unique unique feature, and at the same
time, the long-term strength of the business in the marketplace”. Although expressed in many
different forms, in general, corporate culture is understood as a system of meanings, values, key
beliefs, perceptions and thinking methods co-employed by all members of an enterprise pros and
cons in that business. Organisational culture ensures the harmony between collective and
individual interests in an enterprise, helping each individual to fulfill his or her role in the
general direction of the business. The content of business culture is formed in the practical
production - business process, expressing the needs, goals and sustainable development
directions of the enterprise.
Organisational culture
Corporate culture exists on two levels. Floating surfaces are visual symbols, what people can
easily see, hear, and touch. For example, style, color, style, architecture, design, behavior,
costumes, symbols, rituals, languages, etc. Along with non-visual symbols include: ideals,
beliefs, human relationships nature, attitudes and thinking methods, the influence of corporate
traditions and development history on members.
Edgar Henry's model of corporate culture can be clearly seen at Vinamilk under 3 levels:
Artifacts, Espoused Values and Assumptions. According to Charles Handy's model, there are
four types of culture which the organization follow: Power culture, Task culture, Person culture
and Role cuture. The core of culture is the value of the business, thanks to these values as a
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measure and a standard to adjust the behaviors and views needed to achieve that vision. It is the
uniqueness of the values such as employees, customers, professionalism that contribute to a
corporate culture.
Vinamilk is one of the leading enterprises in Vietnam that has successfully built a corporate
culture. The company's core values and employee-specific policies are clearly structured. In
particular, the professional attitude and working spirit of the staff and business leaders are clearly
shown through 3 levels:
 For business leaders: "Strive to bring outstanding benefits to shareholders, on the basis of
efficient use and protection of all Vinamilk's resources." The leaders of Vinamilk Dairy
Products Joint Stock Company always work seriously, have a broad vision to develop the
company in a sustainable way, ensure environmental factors and make use of the
enterprise's available resources. Large strategic vision, maximizing the company's
strengths to develop while ensuring the corporate social responsibility factor has created
success in building corporate culture of the company.
 For the staff: “Treat all employees with respect and fairness. Vinamilk creates the best
opportunities for all employees to develop equality, build and maintain a friendly, safe
and open working environment.” Factors of human development and building an open
working environment, which Vinamilk successfully implemented, bring new corporate
cultural values with distinctive features.
 For customers: “Vinamilk offers a diverse range of products and services. Vinamilk is
committed to the highest quality, competitive price and honesty with all transactions.”
In building corporate culture, Vinamilk has ensured practical factors, providing quality products
to customers. Especially in company activities, we always know how to integrate activities that
demonstrate social responsibility. For example, sponsoring big tournaments, organizing
community education programs: Firefly shines, Hot air balloon with Vinamilk reaches the sky,
health care and consultation for customers and company employees. These are the factors that
create the success in building corporate culture of Vinamilk.
Thanks to the successful construction of corporate culture, Vinamilk has had the outstanding
development today. In particular, the human factor is exploited most effectively by the company.
As follows:
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It must correctly recognize that Vinamilk's corporate culture has created awareness for
employees. Both factories and company offices are painted in blue and moon colors. Color
shows the consistency with Vinamilk's logo, brand name and working slogan. The company's
employees have a serious sense of work style. They always wear neat and clean uniforms.
Standard working attitude, friendly with colleagues, enthusiastic to customers and enthusiastic to
the job. To ensure the quality of human resources, the company always has training sessions on
basic expertise and introducing the company's working regulations. This is very important for
new hires.
In addition to spreading and building corporate culture, Vinamilk also develops the corporate
story element. Stories about milk and nutrition are built and become historical lessons in the
company's working culture.
Besides, the company always organizes festivals and commend the staff regularly to connect
everyone together. The policies to take care of the employees' families together with the
company's employees are done well and professionally to create a safe and long-term working
environment.
In the book "Vinamilk's Journey" has outlined 6 cultural principles in building corporate
culture. Specifically, those principles and behaviors are as follows:
 Responsibility: When things happened, the first reason was me
 Result Direction: Let's talk quantitatively
 Creativity and Proactive: Don't say no, always look for two solutions
 Cooperation: Adults do not need supervision by an adult
 Integrity: My words are Me
 Excellence: I am an international standard expert in my field
Moreover, the cultural values of each organization are also reflected through 6 main aspects such
as:
 Visible elements − These elements are seen by the outer world. Example, dress code,
activities, setup, etc.
 Stories − Stories regarding the history of the firm, or founder.
 Rituals − Precise practices an organization follows as a habit.
 Symbol − The logo or signature or the style statement of a company.
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 Values and Norms − The idea over which a company is based or the thought of the firm
is considered as its value and the condition to adopt them are called norms.
 Assumptions − It means we consider something to be true without any facts.
Assumptions can be used as the standard of working, means the employees prepare
themselves to remain above standard.
There is no denying the importance of employee uniforms to the company's success in general
and Vinamilk's dairy company in particular, it is concretely demonstrated through the two
following characteristics:
Two main colors are white and dark blue, highlighting Vinamilk's logo. If blue is a symbol of
hope, of belief, of the most perfect; then the white color makes people think of the newest and
most delicious drops of milk, thereby creating a good first impression on the viewer.
First of all, the company uniform helps to build its own culture, demonstrating a modern, fair and
polite working environment. Staff uniforms create a sense of confidence for the wearer, realize
their own responsibility in the team, seriously work, be creative and constantly exchange
experiences. Not only that, the good fabric makes the staff feel most comfortable, easy to wear,
easy to use and maintain. The second meaning is connecting employees together, creating
equality in the workplace, inspiring to promote the spirit of working for the common good. In
particular, Vinamilk company's uniforms help to advertise brand image to customers to find
better potential, serving advertising events, sound processing, promotions, and product services
are the most successful. With the above advantages, Vinamilk always focuses on the design of
uniforms for its employees.
Vinamilk's factories and offices are all painted blue and white. It demonstrates the uniformity of
Vinamilk's logo, brand name and slogan. Employees are aware of the serious working style from
regulations to style, neat and clean working uniform.
Employees' working attitude must always be friendly, and enthusiastic. Before employees can
officially join the work, Vinamilk first trained basic qualifications, regulations and working
manners.
Vinamilk's corporate culture also focuses on training on history and stories about milk and
nutrition. At the same time, the history lessons about the fine traditions in Vinamilk's corporate
culture were spread.
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With the policy of retaining talents, Vinamilk annually organizes festivals, commends
employees' achievements and draws experiences for employees. In order to unite employees,
Vinamilk regularly organizes entertainment festivals and exchange tournaments to tighten
employee solidarity. Besides, Vinamilk's policies also take care of employees' families, organize
employee care activities, help them feel secure to work for Vinamilk in the long term.
Recently, Vinamilk officially put in a corporate culture messenger, called Hoa Tieu. Over the
past 40 years, the group has continued to build a corporate culture of Vinamilk towards
internationalization. This new mission in a strong Vietnamese corporate culture is employee
engagement.
Vinamilk wants to create a "locomotive" to steer and lead to help unite all Vinamilk's employees,
inspire to achieve larger goals. In particular, Vinamilk builds and develops the corporate culture
book, "The journey to Vinamilk". With this booklet, Vinamilk's Corporate Culture is also
conveyed in the online version, connecting all employees. Employees can bring the "Vinamilk
Roadmap" for reference anytime, anywhere.
The culture of the business depends on the culture of each employee, so the work of
arrangement, mobilization, and recruitment of staff plays a particularly important role, is directly
and strongly related to the construction and maintain the culture of one unit. It can be seen that
Vinamilk clearly understands the importance of people as one of the constituent factors of the
corporate culture. That is why Vinamilk has had some of the most stringent hiring policies to
find the brightest factors for businesses.
Moreover, Vinamilk always strives to create a professional, friendly and open working
environment with sports, arts, dance and picnics activities, so that each individual can freely
promote creativity and prize unleashing your potential and thereby making a difference. The
employees are always respected, listened to and shared; Each employee feels that they are an
important link in a united and strong team. "All your efforts and achievements are promptly
recognized and rewarded by us."
Organisational politics
One element that’s always an unknown until one begins working in a job is the organizational
political environment. No one likes to admit it, but there’s the job and then there’s politics, and it
takes savvy and dedication to navigate each.
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According to Al-Abrrow, because of a lack of money, politics dominate in an organisation. It
normally occurs when the environment in an organisation becomes competitive and each person
attempts to take advantage of the resources. Politics in an organisation, which has been reality, is
inevitable at any stage. While politics can also be positive (Eldor, 2016), it has adverse effects
much of the time. It encourages the people to get the job done, to recognize people, to develop
their career and to foster creative thinking. In the other hand, it encourages a competitive
atmosphere for workers. For example, in Vinamilk or many other companies, it has happened
that a manager needs to put great pressure on a group to push to get something done by using the
power of the position. them compared to others. Sometimes employees also need to work behind
the scenes to build coalitions of believers following a new vision to persuade others. Regardless
of the situation, it is important to understand that the underlying causes of political activities are
often scarce resources (including time pressure), social and structural inequality, and dynamism
individual muscle. Literature reveals that politics in a company in every workplace will influence
the mood and conduct of employees. It can lead to a rise in tension at work, job frustration,
which can lead workers to leave the business. Landells and Albrecht (2017) said that the negative
outcomes for the organisation, i.e. high unemployment, lack of worker satisfaction, lack of
motivation and low results, lie in organizational policy. Due to lack of opportunities, competition
and lack of effective organizational policies, the situation in developing country tends to
deteriorate.
Organisational power
Power is a force of influence and authority. Most leaders wield power, but the ways in which
power is manifested and used often differ between leaders. What powers did Vinamilk's leaders
and managers use and how did they use it?
Power will take several various forms in the workplace. It may also be beyond an organization's
hierarchical hierarchy. The Reward Power is a specific form of power. Two types of rewards in
Vinamilk are available – tangible and intangible. Tangible rewards include incentives and salary
increases, while intangible rewards include praise and enhanced liability. Vinamilk believes that
praising someone in front of their coworkers for doing something right can be a powerful
motivator for them to keep doing it. It can also encourage the rest of the team to perform, as they
want to receive similar praise. Obviously, intangible rewards have additional benefits that don't
cost the organization. Vinamilk has used rewards to promote loyalty to the organization, for
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example, before each project management will give rewards to the entire team if they reach the
goal, this can create There is a strong bond within the group as everyone strives to achieve a
common goal. An existing bonus can only be given to a small group of employees, which can
create healthy competition among employees for rewards.
A clear hierarchy allows the entire organization to understand exactly who has authority over
whom. Rules and sometimes laws exist to strengthen Legalismate Power. Acceptable legal
power is culturally common in most societies. For example, Mrs. Mai Lien CEO of Vinamilk
will have the legal authority to set the direction and strategy of an entire organization, and guide
the organization to perform a task. In the business landscape, subordinates may face discipline if
they don't fulfill their boss's wishes.
The authority brought by respect (Referent Power) is a very important factor in helping leaders
influence their subordinates. When the leadership's prestige is boundless and subordinates' belief
in leadership is absolute, the leader may not need to ask his subordinates to do this or that, but
their subordinates will. know what to do. Mai Kieu Lien clearly understands that the power
brought about by respect will multiply when that leader has special characteristics such as
sincerity, attraction and trustworthiness towards everyone around him. Therefore, Vinamilk is a
great working environment thanks to its leaders who always show concern and concern about the
needs and feelings of their subordinates. Practice has shown that subordinates are more and more
interested in what their superiors do than in what they say. Therefore, Vinamilk's leaders always
make efforts in all things such as sincerity, kindness, faith, and sacrifice through actions.
Organisational motivation
Motivation is a driving factor that influences a person's choice of alternatives. It enhances,
inspires and induces employees to conduct themselves in an objective manner. When workers
strive to accomplish predetermined promotional goals, promotion is, for example, a motivational
element. Motivation can be tangible, for example incentives in the form of a vehicle or an
increase in salaries or non-monetary motivation in the form of public assessment. Motivation
plays a crucial role in pushing workers to meet their ambitions, corporate objectives and to a
certain degree their nations' expectations in all businesses – whether private or state-owned.
There are several motivation theories, often giving the results of employee happiness a relation
or effect. Three main groups exist, namely material theories, theories of processes and current
theories. These ideas generally include the hierarchy of necessities of Maslow, the motivation-
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hygiene (or dual-factor) hypothesis of Herzberg, the existence of Alderfer, the theory on
relativity and growth and McClelland's theory of need. Motivation includes internal motivation
and external motivation. External motivation means tangible rewards such as money, bonuses,
working conditions, remuneration. Internal motivation means psychological rewards such as
achievements and recognition of the company and colleagues. In an enterprise to develop,
motivation is extremely important, it motivates the company to achieve the set goals. Vinamilk
has used the Maslow needs hierarchy to motivate employees to quickly achieve their goals,
which is to create a Viet Nam Brand in the international market.
Maslow's need tower is a well-known model of human psychology and motivation, named after
the psychologist Abraham Maslow, who researched and developed this model starting in 1943 in
his post. writes A Theory of Human Motivation. The tower consists of 5 floors corresponding to
5 levels of human needs. Each floor of the pyramid reflects a different degree of complexity, the
higher the need for people. The Maslow theory applied by Vinamilk in the company is quite
simple, because it will correspond to each level of the tower. As follows:
For Physiological Needs, also known as Basic Needs. Vinamilk has ensured its employees have a
suitable salary, worthy of the position. In particular, this salary must ensure a basic life for
employees to pay for their lives (the average salary of Vinamilk employees is 30 million /
month). In addition, employees should also be provided with an appropriate working and resting
regime. for example: a company that allows employees to take 10-day paid leave in a quarter or
rewards employees for these short vacations.
Safety Needs: After employees are admitted, companies need to ensure safe working conditions
for employees. It is in the signing of an employment contract between the employee and the
employee. In addition, Vinamilk has complied with the regulations and the labor law such as
paying insurance for employees, including social insurance and health insurance. In addition, the
company also needs to have unemployment insurance for its employees in case a bad situation
occurs.
Social Needs: Social needs in Maslow's needs pyramid are related to emotional and emotional
factors. So in order to meet the needs of employees, Vinamilk has built departments and
organizations, formed trade unions and created a teamwork culture. In addition, businesses need
to increase the connection between employees, through extracurricular activities, teambuilding or
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annual tours. Their size can be at the departmental or company-wide level, depending on timing
and circumstances.
Esteem needs: In a business, the employee's need to be respected is being heard by everyone. In
addition, they need to have a clear career path for advancement (both in terms of position and
salary). Vinamilk's management board understands and also has a clear and fair reward and
punishment mechanism for employees because it shows their respect and encouragement.
Self-actualisation needs: Each individual in the business is a separate individual, so businesses
need to exploit the strengths of each person. Vinamilk always gives opportunities for each
employee to develop, typically considering leadership positions for employees with the best
contributions. It means giving that employee authority, voice and contributing to the growth of
the company.
Emotional intelligence is a characteristic of personality (Mayer, 2000). Emotional intelligence
influences the ability of man to learn his and other feelings. It motivates, controls and builds
relationships. In workplace motivation, personality and personal characteristics such as
emotional intelligence should be considered. Emotional intelligence avoids physical disabilities
and modifies them. Mental stability improves from emotional maturity. It builds life discipline.
An person with high emotional intelligence has fewer negative incidents. Internal and external
components are part of emotional intelligence. Internal components include self-confidence, self-
conception, independence, capacity for creativity and decision making. External components are
links between people, empathy and obligation. Emotive intelligence is moreover the ability of
individuals to consider realities, to be resilient, to resolve interpersonal problems and to cope
with tension and urges. Emotional intelligence helps individuals to achieve effective productivity
and successful results in teamwork in their relationships and access targets. Emotional
intelligence provides intelligent, calm, compassionate, supportive, listening, answering,
explaining and accepting individuals in diverse circumstances. Like self-conviction, self-control,
self-motivation, empathy, social competencies, among other things (Gelman, 2009). Emotional
understanding impacts work fulfilment. Interpersonal feelers and emotions monitor and enhance
results. Negative emotions and emotions. Better work brings greater career fulfillment. It appears
like high-emotional people are more satisfied with their jobs and they have good control over
hopelessness and stress. They are also satisfied with life. Satisfaction of work is one of the
reasons to satisfy existence. Stress in the workplace affects employee satisfaction.
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The characteristic of the leadership style at Vinamilk is that there is no clear distinction in the
upper-and-lower relationship because the manager and all the lower-level employees stick
together as a team (democratic leadership style). The leader often encourages people to
participate in the decision-making process depending on the ability, role and position of each
person in the organization to form the collective working style in the enterprise. Democratic
leaders on the one hand always have a sense of respect and listen to the opinions of their
subordinates, considering it as one of the factors that need to be considered for the leaders to
make decisions, thereby enhancing and respecting the participation in the work process. On the
other hand, they play a role in always giving the necessary advice or help to maintain a spirit of
cooperation among people. The decentralization of management is implemented more widely in
this style but not so that the leader avoids responsibility. Thereby even having the commitment
and responsibility of subordinates in the process of implementing the Work. When there is a
discord, this type of administrator often looks to the cause of the environment rather than the
cause associated with the human. This style of leadership by Mrs.Mai Kieu Lien encourages the
creativity of her subordinates. not only that, it also helps to increase the bond between employees
and employees with leadership. This helps to coordinate the activities of subordinate employees
well and reduces conflict within the organization. Vinamilk's leaders know that their way of
doing helps increase employee self-awareness. Moreover, it is easy to effectively mobilize
human resources into the realization of the organization's common goals.
The relationship between culture, power, politics and motivation
The day-to-day workings of organizational culture, power, motivation and workplace politics
often control the organization's environment. The influence of power and politics on the
workplace reflects both formally and informally the culture of the organisation. The
organisation's arrangement is a vital aspect of a business' day by day activities. An company
benefiting from what it comprises from the corporate structure. The definition of the division,
grouping and co-ordination of tasks is used. During the creation of the organisation system, six
aspects should be covered: job specialization, departmentalisation, control chain, control span,
centralization and decentralization. These elements represent the culture, power, motivation and
politics of the organisation directly. Therefore, it can be said that culture, politics, motivation and
power are the core elements of an enterprise; it interacts with each other and directly affects the
behavior of each individual and organization. A strong business has a healthy culture, a clean
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politics, leadership has potential and power to motivate and motivate employees to create a
strong business. In summary, the above four factors are the factors that determine the existence
of an enterprise in the current market. Thereby, it can be seen that Vinamilk's growth is not
natural, but thanks to the CEO's talented leadership error and the loyalty and potential of the
company's employees.
What to learn from Vinamilk's corporate culture example: Creating excitement and creativity in
employees' work also helps build corporate culture quickly and positively. Moreover, the
friendly and friendly leadership style promotes the spirit of work and motivates the employees
and the business to develop.
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