Comparing Vietnamese and Western Management Styles - ISYS2385

This essay provides a comparative analysis of Vietnamese and Western management styles, focusing on cultural differences and their implications in a globalized business environment. The study examines key aspects such as hierarchical structures, decision-making processes, communication styles, and workplace etiquette, highlighting the impact of these differences on cross-cultural interactions and business practices. The essay explores the influence of Confucian ideology and the transition of Vietnam's economy, discussing the challenges and opportunities for businesses operating within the country. It also delves into the importance of understanding local business practices, legal and moral issues, and effective diversity management. Furthermore, the essay discusses the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Vietnamese context and suggests strategies for ethical management in globally networked organizations. The analysis draws on academic references to support the arguments and provides insights into navigating the complexities of international business in Vietnam.

Management
Business Globalisation

Business Globalisation 1
The globalization has enabled various international subsidiaries and joint-ventures to made
progress in East Asia. There expatriates from western nations and native staff work and
cooperate with each other on a regular basis. The conflicts and misunderstandings at the
organizations are unavoidable when two parties come from two different cultures. It makes
tough for both parties to accomplish the tasks and work productively. In such a scenario,
cultural distance has been deliberated to be the major motive for conflicts and
misinterpretations. The cultural distance can be described as the degree of difference between
the cultures of the two nations. The more different the cultures are, the tougher it is for the
participants to adjust. It is less stressful for companies to adjust to a more similar culture. The
culture distance not only forms challenges but also creates communication barriers for
employers and personnel. It also puts adverse impacts on the productivity of the organization.
Although it is critical for MNCs and managers to compete with each other. This report is
having the aims to compare and contrast the Vietnamese Management style with Western
Management style.
The management style is an ideal way to manage people to bind different processes and
purposes together along with exercising control over the employees. The management style is
deliberated as a framework of practices that have been approved by individuals, departments,
and organizations. The management styles have been categorized into 2 comprehensive sorts,
authoritative and participative. The Asian management is normally regarded as deal-oriented
with the inflexible hierarchies in which managers are likely to make unified decisions.
Because of the central control and negligible work authorization, Asian management is
regarded as autocratic and directive. It undertakes complete viewpoint which encourages
collectivism. On the other side, Western management style has been categorized as
concentrating on communication by interface along with focusing on the procedure. The
leadership style for western firms tends to be kind and participative towards the personnel.
The leadership style in the western organizations is even likely to be accompanied by the
transformational leadership, dogmatism, a locus of control and prejudice of uncertainty.
Therefore, it can be said that the Asian management style is severe in nature and have high
power distance whereas Western management styles are more self-governing or participative.
The global business environment has overtaken the capability of several organizations to
manage cultural shifts. Ignoring cultural issues can give outcome in low market share, low
return on the investment, misused prospects and reputational damage. The cross-cultural
matters linked with business practice in the international business environment are:

Business Globalisation 2
Deteriorating to adapt international business models to the local market: The culture has a
great role in influencing customer attitudes and behaviors. When an organization agrees to
move into the new market, the business models are needed to be improved as per the
customs, habits and local preferences. The changes have to be made to the pricing, product
and service offerings and marketing. The costs linked with the failure in the global context
can be substantial. The ‘one-size fits all’ approach to the global environment is flawed. The
success in the global context necessitates a global mindset (Adams, Martin, and Boom,
2018).
Failing to recognize provincial and subculture variances: The cross-cultural issues can be
pertinent intranationally as transnationally. There are important regional differences in the
market conditions and consumer preferences within the developing markets. The country's
differences are generally overlooked. The subcultures are not restricted to identify the
cultural diversity of their market risk. The cross-cultural issues are augmented within the
cultural diversity of the markets risk mislaid significant consumer sectors (Chen, et al. 2016).
Failing to comprehend local business practices: The cultural barriers do not only take place at
the customer edge. Without any appreciation that how business is carried in the global market
comprising political, economic, supervisory and cultural impacts, new applicants can rapidly
discover themselves on the back foot with the shareholders.
Waning to adapt management practices across cultures: The cross-cultural issues can result in
missed prospects. Some of the established organizations generally overlook the capability of
specific emerging markets (Adekola and Sergi, 2016). Such organizations failed to create an
initial market presence and catch foreign companies.
Failing to comprehend local legal and moral issues: The businesses in the global context
encounter with complex issues. Failing to comprehend local permitted and moral issues can
result in battling with the local firm. It can even prohibit international organizations from
fetching in the practice.
Ineffective diversity management: The diversity is considered as a double-edged sword. The
diverse teams can either enhance or weaken from the performance. The diverse workgroups
can face greater conflict and less trust. The organizations are required to successfully manage
bias, discrimination and cultural conflicts (Andresen and Bergdolt, 2017). Those failing to
address internal tensions can influence the advantages of a diverse workforce.

Business Globalisation 3
Vietnam has recently made an interim advancement. The execution of “Doi Moi” in 1986
after the economic reform, the local government activated the economic activities. The
economic activities are activated through inspiring private businesses, rearranging state-
owned enterprises, and appealing foreign direct investment (FDI). The Vietnam economy is
still conquered by the Confucian ideology and is in a varied landscape. The Vietnam
economy is undergoing dramatic changes and struggling concurrently. Such transformation
brought in the global businesses as national businesses were not appropriately qualified to be
updated with the new trend. The managers in Vietnam lack management knowledge to tackle
human concerning issues taking place in the market economy. In order to compete with
foreign companies, Vietnamese companies came with competent local managers.
Furthermore, the industry-ready graduates from the foreign nations were taken into account
by the policymakers. Although several organizations in Vietnam deceptively found tough to
find local personnel that matches their requirements.
There are work concerned values that appreciate and appraise the associations between global
and national business.
Sense of time: The sense of time is all about the way persons sense, experience and assess
time. A diverse culture is likely to have a diverse perspective towards promptness, time and
stride of life and the notions which are demonstrated in the conducts and attitudes. The
distance in time perception between Western and Asian cultural influences to the
professional’s verdicts conducts, and anticipations in the cross-cultural workplace. When it
comes to Chinese and other Asian nations, time orientation is likely to be more past-oriented
than the present and future-oriented (Baral, 2017). It denotes that people in those cultures are
more persuaded towards tradition, whereas time is deliberated to be flexible and repeatable
and is utilized to attain eventual human reward. Such perspectives report a strident contrast
with Western culture and concentrate on efficiency. Therefore, time is cautiously elected to
attain personal and organizational goals.
Contribution in higher manager’s decision-making: The involvement of the workers in the
work concerning decisions has been proved to be positively linked with labor productivity.
The cultural values have a great role in influencing the degree of worker’s involvement in the
work concerning decisions. Consequently, it can obscure the direct feedback between Eastern
assistants and Western higher managers because there are totally contrary views on the
decision-making procedure. When it comes to Vietnamese culture, individuals highlight a

Business Globalisation 4
‘we’ identity and workers hardly have a loud voice in the procedure of higher management’s
decision-making procedure even if they are appealed to do so. On the other side, Western
culture highlights a person’s opinions and thoughts, initiative and attainment, and individual
decision-making.
Open association with the employers: The association with the higher managers is directed by
the degree of power distance workers observe towards the higher mangers. More the power
discerned by the suppliers from the employers, the more distance they make. Vietnam is
deliberated to have high power distance, here a great distance between employers and
workers is quite minor. The nations like Vietnam with high power distance validate more
formal superior-subordinate associations as compared to the lower power distance nations
(Darawong, Igel and Badir, 2016).
Face-concern: The ‘face-saving’ is deliberated to be an individual’s comprehension of face
protection in order to prevent social criticism to themselves along with the community
served. The concern of the face is quite significant in the Asian nations. It reflects that great
focus has been on attaining harmony within the establishment to save bush from adverse
issues (Bird and Mendenhall, 2016). On the other side, face concern in western culture
reflects that persons want to be approved of and free from obligation. Although in the
Vietnamese culture, the face is resolute by a person’s internal features like capability. The
employees in Vietnam incline to utilize more indirect communication in the social framework
for face concern. It can result in a lot of uncertainty and misinterpretations to Western
managers.
Responsibility: Responsibility is deliberated as the notion of being answerable for actions and
decisions in concern with the social, relational and structural contingencies. All of these are
embedded in the specific sociocultural frameworks. Such a concept focused on the
characteristic of cultural specificity in which persons in the varied cultures are trained to
comprehend the exclusive expectations of the responsibility. the responsibility in the
individualistic culture respites with the specific individuals (Elsbach and Stigliani, 2018).
When it comes to collectivistic culture, the persons are not held accountable for the
organization’s success or failure. The Vietnamese culture has attained a precise trait of
collective accountability in which people recognize themselves as a part of the specific group
or team and individual responsibility is not properly described.

Business Globalisation 5
The culturally delicate business decisions within a varied global environment are becoming
quite common. The businesses in Vietnam can be benefitted from the progressive diverse
knowledge and perceptive approaches to business difficulties. The awareness of culturally
delicate business decisions within the diverse international environment are:
Communication: Active communication is deliberated to be a accomplishment for any
business. The communication has a great role in culturally sensitive business decisions. The
communication becomes critical in the organization when the real risk of the message gets
lost in the evolution. More than the language which is spoken, it is significant how the
message is communicated. The things communal in every culture are a firm handshake, and
making eye contact (Brannen, Piekkari and Tietze, 2017).
Workplace etiquette: The workplace etiquette also contributes to culturally subtle business
decisions in a diverse global environment. There are several approaches to the professional
communication which causes innumerable variations in the office norms from the globe. The
stiffness of the address is a great deliberation in dealing with colleagues and business
associates with diverse nations (Karam and Jamali, 2017). Other than this, the punctuality
concept also differs between the different cultures in the global business environment. Other
than the difference in the etiquette, the difference also comes in attitude mainly towards
things like rules and guidelines, workplace confrontation and presumed employed hours.
Organizational hierarchy: The organizational hierarchy towards the management role varies
and contributes to culturally sensitive business decisions. The middle management positions
in the organization feel contented speaking up in the meetings and questioning senior
decisions that are dedicated to the cultural norms. Such attitudes reflect on the nation’s social
values or level of social inequality (Sozbilir and Yesil, 2016).
Vietnam is one of the emerging nations undergoing rapid economic growth with societal
challenges. Although Vietnam is suitable in the context of economic, political, social and
cultural. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been used by the Vietnamese
organizations as a part of an ethical management strategy for global network organizations
(Brusoni and Vaccaro, 2017). The practice techniques as part of ethical management strategy
work for globally networked organizations are:
Think local in order to manage global: The ethical management strategy relies on the local
execution. The compliance department in the organization requires to have someone at the

Business Globalisation 6
top to sustain risks and advance a plan to alleviate them. The local managers are also a
perilous part of implementing the plan. It is critical for Vietnamese organizations to have a
deep understanding of the rules concerning globally networked organizations
(Schnackenberg and Tomlinson, 2016). The local organizations are even required to have the
freedom to be able to execute in a method that makes the most sense at the location. The
Vietnamese managers are generally more indulged in the culture; therefore, they will have
the best comprehension of what works for their workers.
Fix one standard and tailor as per the culture: The Vietnamese organizations set an
enterprise-wide policy for the global network organizations. The regional people are
informed of what is expected out of them in terms of obedience. Favoring to business
acquaintances is one of the best ways to get business done in some nations. The Vietnamese
in order to work ethically have to draw the line between advancing good and maintaining
close links with 3rd parties.
Make training culturally relevant: The Vietnamese organizations enables employees to reach
every associate in the primary language. The training is arranged for the employees in the
local language in order to be effective. The standards are kept constant across the
organization and are communicated in a way that resonated with people. As a part of ethics,
scenario-based training is offered to comprise employees to be most anticipated to encounter
and differs from one nation to another (Evans, 2019).
Make compliance visible: The robust set of policies is undertaken at the time of considering
an international compliance program. It is a people-centered function at the core. The
compliance officers in the Vietnamese organizations inspire local mangers to enforce
standards and permit them to take into account the cultural variations of globally networked
organizations (Wang, et al. 2017). The companies are even made to step outside of their
comfort zones to advance mutual trust and admiration foundation of a successful program.
Work is needed to be done efficiently as a part of the global multi-discipline cooperative
team. Effective work is made possible by undertaking the subsequent factors:

Business Globalisation 7
Leadership and management: A clear leader in the team with a clear course and management
works for effective work. The clear leader is accompanied by the clear way and management,
communal power, administration, personal advancement united with the line management.
The leader has a great role in acting and listening (Rani, et al. 2016).
Communication: The individuals in the team with communication skills make sure that the
proper systems endorse communication within the team.
Individual rewards, training and advancement: The learning, training and advancement
opportunities, training and advancement integrates individual prospects and rewards with
morale and motivation. It leads to effective work.
Appropriate resources and procedures: The appropriate resources and procedures sustain the
idea of the service such as communication systems, appropriately recommended standards
and more. The effective team focuses on the structure in the form of team meetings,
structural features and team persons working on the same site (Khan and Baldini, 2019).
Appropriate skill mix: The appropriate skill mix includes capabilities, appropriate skills, the
balance of personalities, capability to the robust background of the employees, and timely
replacement.
Climate: The efficient team incorporates an ethos of trust, fostering harmony and requirement
to form an interprofessional atmosphere.
A number of skills are required for a high level of message whilst dealing with a innovative
culture.
Maintain etiquette: The new culture has precise etiquette in the way individuals
communicate. The target culture should be researched and cross-cultural training should be
conducted as per the time. For instance, several cultures anticipate a degree of formality at
the initiation of communication between the individuals. It has been considered that every
culture has its own precise manner of indicating the formality like ‘Herr’ and ‘Frau’ in
Germany, opposing family and specified names in China and the usage of ‘san’ in Japan for
males and females.

Business Globalisation 8
Avoid slang: Even most-educated non-native English does not have a comprehensive
comprehension of English slang. They can comprehend the individual words being said but
not the context. It can result in more confusion, at worst or offending them.
Speak slowly: Although English is the most common language to be spoken in the new
culture it is not deliberated to speak at the normal casual speed. Speaking slowly, clearly and
pronouncing words appropriately can lead to a great level of communication while dealing
with the new culture. Making sentences short, describing sections, giving time listeners to
translate and digesting words seem supporting (Knudstorp, et al. 2017). If a person is
speaking too quickly makes difficult for others to comprehend. Therefore, it should be
noticed to deal with the new culture.
Active listening: Active listening is quite an effective strategy to enhance communication in
the new culture. Reaffirming or summarising what other individuals say to make sure that it
is understood appropriately. The frequent questions should be asked to make sure that the
information has been observed properly and any point does not miss out.
Evade closed questions: The questions should not be phrased which requires ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in
answer. In several cultures, it becomes difficult to answer in the negative context. A person
always gets ‘yes’ even if it means ‘no’. the open-ended questions should be asked in the new
cultures which necessitate information as a response instead (Abramo, D’Angelo and Di
Costa, 2018).
It is a main apprehension for the managers to decide on the international business strategy as
a trade-off between global incorporation and local receptiveness. The international
incorporation is a degree to which an organization is able to utilize the same products and
approaches in other nations. On the other hand, local receptiveness is a degree to which an
organization should customize products and approaches to meet circumstances in other
nations. The 2 extents result in 4 elementary international business strategies, standardization,
export, multi-domestic and transnational. The export strategy is utilized when an organization
is mainly concentrated on domestic operations. This strategy does not aim to widen globally
but export some products to attain the advantage of global opportunities (Lai, 2019). The
export strategy does not try to modify products for the global markets. The strategy is not
concerned in responding to exclusive conditions in other nations along with forming a
cohesive international strategy. On the other side, a standardized strategy is utilized when an

Business Globalisation 9
organization indulgences the entire world as one market with slight expressive disparity. This
strategy is having an assumption that one product is capable of meeting the requirements of
people everywhere. Several B2B organizations can practice a standardized strategy. The
machine tools and gear are widespread and require slight customization for local situations.
For instance, Cemex is a Mexico based cement and construction ingredients company that
was capable of expanding internationally by making use of standardization strategy. Apple
also uses this strategy as there is no need for customizing the products for the local operators.
Domino’s also made use of the standardization strategy although the coatings do differ to
meet the local tastes (Popli, Akbar, Kumar and Gaur, 2016). The basic recipe remains the
same and the store model of carrying out is the same everywhere in the world. The efficiency
is produced by the standardized strategy through centralizing several communal activities like
attaining scale economies in production, product design, streamlining the supply chain and
lessening marketing costs. The multi-domestic strategy modifies the products or procedures
to the precise conditions in every nation. The retailers generally make use of multi-domestic
strategies as they have to meet the local customer requirements. For instance, 7-Eleven is
using a multi-domestic strategy. The company modifies the product selection, payment
procedures, and marketing to the standards and regulations in every nation where it functions.
Like, in Japan, the company enables customers to pay utility bills at the store. A company
with a multi-domestic strategy, inclusive management is centralized in the home nation but
country managers are offered autonomy to make variations. The companies sacrifice for scale
competences for receptiveness to the local conditions (Yoon and Han, 2018). The
organizations are promoted from the multi-domestic strategy as the nation managers
comprehend customs, local laws, and tastes and are in the condition of deciding how to best
meet them. The transnational strategy unites standardization policy with a multidomestic
strategy. This strategy is utilized when an organization faces substantial cost pressure from
global competitors. Such companies should also propose products to see local customer
necessities. The transnational strategy is quite tough to sustain as the companies are required
to attain economies of scale by adjustment and supple to retort to the local circumstances
(Lorange, Ichijo and de Onzoño, 2018). Ford motor company is making use of transnational
strategy. The company is manufacturing a “world car” which has several common platform
essentials that lodge a range of add-ons. This way Ford is benefitted from the standardization
of costly fundamentals and is added to the custom elements to encounter the national laws.
The company even customizes marketing as per the local morals and offer exclusive products
to encounter local tastes.

Business Globalisation 10
The professional practice in the Vietnamese industry states to the demeanor and work of
somebody from the specific occupation. The professional practice as an input necessitates a
protracted period of training and education. They are generally supervised by the specialized
forms who endorse educational institutions and competent professionals (Mintz, et al. 2019).
The industry has set qualified designations as endangered by law. The professional practice
can be analyzed and evaluated through:
 Act with veracity
 Adopting a moral approach
 Offering a greater standard of service
 Undertaking work which there is apposite capability
 Have proper assurance
 Making sure that the appointments are vibrant
 Acting in a way which encourages faith in the profession
 The profession is not bringing into disgrace
 No discrimination against the parties on any ground
 Signifying a pledge to enduring professional advancement
 Provide a quarrel tenacity service

Business Globalisation 11
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Business Globalisation 12
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