Building a New Management Model for Vietnamese Higher Education Institutions based on the Made in Vietnam Lean Management45295

Building a New Management Model for Vietnamese Higher Education Institutions based on the Made in Vietnam Lean Management Minh Nguyen Dang (1) (*), Toan Nguyen Dang (1) (1) VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University., Hanoi, Vietnam * Correspondence: dangminhck@gmail.com Abstract: The purpose of this study is to proposed a new management model base on The Made in Vietnam lean management thinking in order to help Vietnamese Higher educations institutions restructure themselves efficiency to deal with difficulties of satisfying labor market’s demand The study employed a qualitative approach The primary data were collected by observations and indepth interviews The participants involved in this study were administrators, professors, lectures, staffs and student from 20 higher education institutions; educational researchers and enterprise’s top managers in Vietnam Based on Made in Vietnam lean management thinking, this study identified not only tangible wastes but also intangible wastes existing in Higher education institution in Vietnam The Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model was proposed The model is assist-up model, focusing on utilizing employees' intellectual abilities to minimize existing waste and improve efficiency and effectiveness in Higher education institutions The findings highlight that the proposed management model focusing on utilizing employees' intellectual abilities has not only implication for Higher education institutions in Vietnam, but also for Higher education institutions from other developing countries where the resources and capital investment are constrained Keywords: Made in Vietnam Lean management; Made in Vietnam Lean higher education management model; Tangible waste; Intangible waste; Tam The Introduction Lean management is one of the most advanced management styles that focus on fulfilling customer satisfaction and creating value through wastes reduction (Womack et al, 2007; Liker, 1999) Despite its manufacturing origin, the lean thinking philosophy has been quickly expanded to new areas such as service, trade and the public sector (Womack & Jones, 2005) In the public sector, Lean was applied in healthcare and government before higher education (Radnor & Bucci, 2011) Lean management has been used in higher education institutions to reduce wastes, make processes flow smoothly and improve workforce efficiency (Balzer, 2010; Kang & Manyonge, 2014; Finn & Geraci, 2012) The term “Lean higher education” has been used since 2004 in the USA and 2006 in the UK ("Lean HE” - Lean HE", n.d.) Lean higher education is defined as the application of lean principles and practices in higher education, identifying process flow, defining the value of processes and eliminating the type of wastes that add no value (Balzer, 2010) Lean in higher education has been studied on at different contexts from departmental to institutional levels (Balzer, 2016) The most popular lean approaches are applied in a number of service areas such as administration, finance, campus functions; however, they are increasingly being used to improve teaching and research activities directly (Balzer, 2010; Kang & Manyonge, 2014) Lean implementation enables universities to improve employees' engagement, improve the quality and accuracy of processes and save time and resources (Finn & Geraci, 2012) However, to implement successful, lean higher education requires the involvement of employees and strong commitment from the most senior administrators (Zoe & Giovanni, 2011; Comm & Mathaisel, 2005) Lean higher education implementation also requires an open culture, willingness for employees to work across different departments and administrative level, a long-term implementation strategy, continuous training programs relating to lean philosophy, and external support from a lean consultant (Balzer, 2010 and Waterbury, 2015) The literature review reveals that Lean for higher education is still a fairly new concept and have much room to explore Fewer publications focus on the implementation of lean management for universities, especially in developing countries, including Vietnam Over the last three decades, Vietnam higher education has fundamentally changed Vietnamese higher education institutions has expanded in term of quantities, scale, and new training disciplines Consequently, they have to deal with an increasing number of administrative issues and quality issues Reforms of the Vietnamese higher education system has been a topic of debate for many years and attracted a lot of local and global attention from researchers and organizations Some solutions have been suggested such as to change the university’s functioning model, give autonomy to universities, or improve the internal democracy and academic freedom, financial reform, etc …(Khanh, 2010; Phong & Thuy, 2013) However, up to now, there are still many difficulties in transferring research results into practice Vietnamese higher education institutions are finding a way to restructure themselves to respond to change more quickly and to sustain in the future Based on the research gap above, this paper aims to propose a new Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model to help Vietnamese higher education organizations to restructure themselves efficiency, and then it could become a promising reference for other education institutions from developing countries Theoretical framework 2.1 Lean application for higher education: Identify and eliminate wastes Lean is a management method to simplify and streamline processes by identifying and eliminating wastes (Wedgwood, 2007) Waste is defined by Womack and Jones (2003, 2005) as any human activity that absorbs resources but creates no value Wastes were originally identified for a manufacturing environment (Ohno, 1988) Then, wastes have been developed for service areas by several authors including Radnor et al (2006), Sarkar (2008), Waterman and McCue (2012), Kollberg (2007),etc Sarkar (2008) believed the eight wastes to be universally applicable Kang & Lawrence (2014) identified wastes in higher education system by considering the basic process; such as lecturing, researching, support activities…etc Each group of activities consists of different steps Each step more or less contributes for the customer satisfaction Once these value- added steps are identified then wastes can be eliminated in the higher education system by using lean methods More importantly, there are intangible wastes which are verified in the context of developing countries, such as Vietnam (Minh, 2015a) 2.2 Made in Vietnam Lean management thinking Over the past 15 years, the number of Vietnamese enterprises applying lean management successfully remains limited In order to solve this problem, Minh (2015a) has developed the Made in Vietnam lean management thinking The thinking is based on the lean management from a global context, along with some additional characteristics specifically for Vietnam enterprises Academically, the Made in Vietnam lean management thinking has been published and recognized as the new philosophy at the conference "13th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing-decoupling growth from resource use” Practically, the Made in Vietnam Lean management has been recognized by the Vietnamese enterprises as a new and advanced management philosophy which is suitable for Vietnamese enterprises and organizations The Made in Vietnam lean management thinking is aimed at gaining profit and creating added value for company/organization by utilizing employees’ intellectual abilities to continuously improve the business process to minimize waste costs The concept of Made in Vietnam lean management thinking is explained by the following equations: Profit = Revenue – Cost (1) Costs = Actual costs + Waste (2) Waste = Tangible waste + Intangible waste (3) (Source: Minh, 2015) According to these equations, to earn more profit, an enterprise can reduce costs or increase revenue It is note easy to change the revenue as it mostly depends on external factors It is more feasible to reduce cost Thus, waste is a component needed to be cut or eliminated According to the Made in Vietnam lean management, there are two types of wastes: tangible and intangible The former is easy to identify in the business process, e.g., unnecessary inventory, over production, waiting time unnecessary transportation and movement, defects, etc In practice, most companies have made an effort to minimize their tangible waste The intangible waste is not visible and harder to identify The intangible waste can be classified into three groups including thinking patterns (can’t attitude, afraid to think of change, conservative and traditional thinking), working approach (missing the continuous improvement in current methods and processes), and missing opportunities (growth chances and business opportunities) Indeed, the intangible waste is generally larger than the tangible waste (Minh, 2015) Minh (2016) also proposed “Tam The, that is one of the distinct elements of Made in Vietnam lean management thinking “Tam Thê” is a management concept, which is defined by the following formulas: Tâm Thế = Thấu + Thấu + Ý (Vietnamese concept) Tam The = Deep Understanding + Deep Understanding + Consciousness (Source: Minh, 2016) “Tam The” includes two understandings and one consciousness Deep Understanding is to comprehend that a work (job/study) that a person implements benefits him/her Deep Understanding is to comprehend that by doing the work seriously (job/study) he/she can improve individual thinking power (when studying) and working possibilities (when implementing a job), thereby benefiting himself/herself Consciousness is to comprehend that people should have good behavior, attitude, and morality toward work to reflect and implement the two understandings “Tam The” is a Vietnamese word that refers to the deep understanding of employees and managers about the benefits of their tasks for themselves If the Made in Vietnam lean management is about the human intelligence, then “Tam The” is about the spiritual power “Tam The” helps to integrate people in the organization and re-direct their thinking on a common axis to consolidate collective knowledge and strength of all the concerned people for creating added value for the organization Therefore, “Tam The” plays an important role in establishing the thinking foundation for the successful operation of Vietnamese organizations Practically, the Made in Vietnam lean management has been applied in Vietnam since 2014 During from the period of 2014 to 2017, the Made in Vietnam lean management has been used in over 200 Vietnamese’s private enterprises including not only small enterprises (with fewer than 100 employees) but also big enterprises (with over 15,000 employees) The Made in Vietnam lean management has been recognized by the Vietnamese enterprises as the advanced management philosophy that is suitable for all types of businesses in Vietnam A higher education institution can be considered as a special business organization In equation (1), higher education institution’s profits need to be much more broadly understood It is not just about the money, it is also about added value that a institution can creates for the society and the institution itself For society, value added is a high-quality human resource and high-quality knowledge For university itself, added value is the money, reputation and sustainable development, etc According to the Made in Vietnam lean management thinking, to create more added value, the higher education institutions can utilize employees’ intellectual abilities to minimize waste cost and continuously improve its process such as governance, teaching, learning, research and support services There are also two types of wastes existing in the university process, namely: (i) tangible waste and (ii) intangible waste The Made in Vietnam lean management thinking is used as the theoretical framework for this study Base on this thinking, the study is organized as follows: (i) identify existing waste in current activities (governance, teaching, research and service support); and (ii) propose new management model based on the made in Vietnam lean management thinking to reduces wastes in Vietnamese higher education institutions Methodology 3.1 Research framework The research approach and processes are presented in the figure Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model Literature review Observations, In-depth interviews to collect primary data Analyzing secondary and primary data to identify existing wastes in Vietnamese higher education institutions Propose a new management model for Vietnamese higher education institutions base on Made in Vietnam lean management Not OK Confirm the feasibility of the model through interviews with educational experts and case study OK Finalize Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model for Vietnamese higher education institutions Figure 1: The research process We firstly develop database for this research In order to develop the theoretical framework and rationale for research, the secondary data are collected through reviewing the relevant literature of Lean higher education, Vietnam higher education management and the Made in Vietnam lean management The primary data are collected via in-depth interviews and observations to realize the knowledge and situation of Higher education institutions in Vietnam Then, the authors analyze the data using the Made in Vietnam lean thinking framework to identify the existing wastes in the Vietnamese higher education institutions Based on the analysis, the authors suggest a Made in Vietnam Lean Higher Education management model for Vietnamese Higher education institutions to eliminate wastes Next, the authors invite educational experts, universities’ administrators and business executives to participate in seminar to discuss the feasibility of the model, find out constraints of the model in different contexts, and suggest the optimized model for universities in Vietnam Finally, a case study is used to reconfirm the validity of this model 3.2 Data collection methods Lean in higher education research Data Collection Method Secondary data Vietnam higher education research Made in Vietnam lean management Observations University administrators Primary data Semi-structure interviews Lectures, staff students Education experts Enterprise managers Figure 2: Data collection Secondary data collection: The collected secondary documents and information are: International research related to the topic of lean in higher education including implementation model, successful implementation experience International and Vietnamese research related to the Vietnamese higher education Research related to the Made in Vietnam lean management Primary data collection: Primary Data is collected by observations and in-depth interviews as below: and Observations: Observations were conducted on the sample of 20 typical universities from the northern to the southern regions of Vietnam The researchers observed governance; teaching, learning, research activities and support services through participating in 50 class hours, 10 seminars, research workshops, and internal meetings at these specific universities Then, during these activities, the existing wastes were identified by using the Made in Vietnam Lean Management thinking In-depth interviews: The purpose of in-depth interview is to re-confirm the existing wastes at educational institutions, to understand current management system of higher educational institutions The in-depth interview with diverse participants has helped the authors to have objective research data from multiple perspectives This helps to add the validity for this qualitative research In-depth interviews were conducted as follows: Round 1: This round was conducted in 10 research samples to test and finalize the question framework for the following interviews Round 2: The in-depth interview was conducted in two groups The first group is principals, assistant principals, heads of departments, lectures and students of these universities The second group is a representative sample of 80 enterprises’ managers who directly recruit graduate student The first group was interviewed in a 30-minute interview in personal or group setting In each interview, participants were firstly asked to identify existing wastes of activities that they directly or indirectly experienced in the educational system of university from their own perspective The second group was interviewed in 30 minutes with the aim of finding and identifying existing wastes in higher education from their own perspectives At the same time, their opinions about the solutions to solve the problem, including applying of Made in Vietnam Lean Management were collected Round 3: Educational researchers and business executives were interviewed to collect practical assessment about the model which authors propose for higher education institution in Vietnam Table 1: Summarize the participants Type of participant Numbers of participant Round Principal and vice- principal Head department and Vice head department Lectures Students Staffs CEO enterprises Human resources managers Round Principal and vice principal 30 Head department and Vice head department 30 Lectures 45 Students 50 Staffs 30 CEO enterprises 30 Human resources managers 50 Round Internal university administrators (principal, vice principal) 20 Educational researchers 20 Business executives 30 Results 3.1 Wastes in vietnamese higher education institutions 3.1.1 Waste in teaching, learning, research and support services in Vietnamese higher education institutions from perspective of administrators, lecturers, professors, staffs and students Through in-depth interviews, existing waste in teaching, learning, research activities and support services in Vietnam higher education institutions is identified from the interviewee’s perspectives All typical wastes are illustrated in table 4: Table 2: Wastes in Vietnamese higher education institutions Tangible wastes Intangible wastes Teaching Unnecessary courses None of continuous improvement Practical and theoretical knowledge are thinking in making curriculum not allocated appropriately in teaching Respond slowly to market demand Teaching program Inefficient to transfer theoretical programs Use the foreign program framework in knowledge into practice advanced teaching program without changing content to relevant to the reality of Vietnam Teaching material Teaching method Out date teaching material No diversification in teaching methods Traditional teaching method could Slowly update new teaching methods not promote creativity and selfstudy of student None of continuous improvement thinking in teaching method Research Research The percentage of lecturers engaged in Strategic thinking in designing scientific research is low research system is not accounted for Low diversity in research fields practical factor Slowly update new research content and Inefficient to transfer theoretical research method knowledge into practice Support services Unable to delivery service in time due to Don’t have continuous complex, lengthy procedures or errors improvement activities in the services transactions Support services Ineffective communication between providers and users Excess facilities which may not be in use at all Waiting for seeking information, equipment or tools which need to used Base on the Made in Vietnam Lean Thinking, authors identified tangible wastes and intangible wastes existing in Vietnam higher education institutions Especially, four kinds of intangible wastes in the higher education system in Vietnam were identified, including waste of thinking pattern, working method, missing opportunities and the inefficient transferring of knowledge Thinking pattern is translated by none of continuous improvement thinking in activity chain of educational institute Working method means that knowing a better method but don’t want to apply The third one is missing opportunities for development by using current method, and traditional thinking The last one is the waste of theoretical knowledge that cannot be absorbed and transferred into practice The intangible wastes in higher education institute are the new findings that have not only the implications for Vietnam, but also other developing countries When the higher education institute would like to apply lean management, they should focus on both tangible and intangible waste 3.1.1 Wastes in Vietnam higher education institutions from the employers’ perspective From the employer’s points of view, the biggest waste in Vietnam higher education system is that majority of graduate student not meet the employer’s requirement related to specialized knowledge, personal skill, and “Tam The” Through the in-depth interviews, interviewees indicated specifics waste that exist in the graduate students Table 3: Waste in the Vietnamese higher education system from employers’ perspectives Tangible wastes Intangible waste Lack of practical knowledge Unclear purpose of study and career orientation Poor soft skills Inability to transfer knowledge into practices Poor hard skills Lack passion and enthusiasm for work Lack of professional behavior 3.2 The proposed Made in Vietnam Lean higher education management model 3.2.1 Proposed basis The Made in Vietnam Lean management model is verified for its validity, performance and efficiency through more than 200 enterprises in Vietnam Based on this theory and the findings from in-depth interviews, authors proposed a new Made in Vietnam lean Management model for higher education system It is a bottom-up model with the “Tam The” foundation This model helps to enhance the employees' engagement, in reducing waste and improving the efficiency of the operation A university/educational institutes can be considered as a special business organization, university input is human, and university output is also human The Made in Vietnam lean higher education is established based on the Made in Vietnam lean management thinking The model is assist-up model, focusing on utilizing employees' intellectual abilities to minimize existing waste, to create added value to the higher education institutions in particular and the education institutions in Vietnam in general This model not only solves the waste from higher education institutions’ perspective, but also from enterprise’s perspectives This model has not only implication for Vietnam, but also for other developing countries where the resources and capital investment are constrained That is the reason why they should pay more attention on human resources to encourage people to participate in the transformation of higher education institutes 3.2.2 The proposed Made in Vietnam Lean higher education management model STUDENTS AND RESEARCH RESULTS THAT MEET THE REQUIREMENT OF THE SOCIETY Human resource policy Teaching and learning Support service Research Lecturers, researchers, staff Decentraliza -tion and empowerme nt policy University’s administrator State administrative agencies TAM THE Figure 3: The Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model (Source: Proposed by authors) Tam the – the foundation of the Made in Vietnam lean higher education model The education system in general, higher education system in particular, is operated based on three fundamental factors: (i) Human; (ii) Software and (iii) Hardware "Human" includes all persons directly or indirectly involved in the education system, such as administrators; lecturers, staff, students, educational researchers, employers, investors…“Software” is defined as thinking, philosophy, management methods, operational procedures And, “Hardware” refers to infrastructure, materials, and capital Among the three factors above, the human factor is the special factor that directly implements the other two factors The human factor plays the major role in operating higher education system According to Made in Vietnam Lean management, in regard to the “human” factor, the primary concern is the “Tâm the” of people Building and maintain “Tam The” for human factor is the first priority in the model If university administrators have good “Tam The”, they will show their strong commitment to implement the Made in Vietnam Lean higher education management model until it successes If lecturers, researchers, staff have good “Tam The”, they will be active involvement in implementing the model The responsibility of Vietnam state administrative agencies in the proposed Made in Vietnam lean higher education model The Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model is a assist-up model, which creates a favorable climate for change In the proposed model, the Vietnam state administrative agencies including government, Ministry of education and training, and other relevant agencies play important supportive roles in improving universities’ capacity to react to changing society demand The government and Ministry of education and training take responsibility for defining the clear philosophy of education and establishing a national strategy for development education In addition, the ministry of training and education is responsible for creating and maintaining the competitive environment among universities by empowering the autonomy to the universities that can develop and implement their own strategies, policies and educational programs University has the freedom to manage its own affair However, the Ministry of education and training also need to establish a flexible monitoring mechanism to ensure that all specific strategies, policies at the university level are consistent with the national education development strategies The responsibility of the university’s administrator in the proposed Made in Vietnam lean higher education model Utilizing employee‘s intellectual abilities to minimize waste cost is vital to Made in Vietnam Lean management philosophy Therefore, the critical responsibility of the university’s administrator is to improve and maintain the employee (lecturers, researchers and staff) involvement in university activities According to the Made in Vietnam Lean higher education model, university administrators play the supportive role, empower employee authority to take full control of their work while providing the resources necessary to perform effectively The supportive role of university administrator is expressed through following specific actions: Sets the overall vision and strategy of the university and communicates it to all stakeholders, and show their strong commitment to implementing the strategy for university development Training “Tam The” for all employee Their employees must be clear of the purpose, the real and potential benefit of the Made in Vietnam lean implementation for themselves and their organizations Give the lecturers authority to take full control in the formulation and implementation of teaching and research Create environment that foster continuous improvement, comply with the raised problems and provide a space for the free and open discussion of ideas Celebrate and recognize the valuable contribution of the employee by reward policies It makes employee feel appreciated and their efforts recognized The responsibility of lecturers, researchers and staff in the proposed Made in Vietnam Lean higher education model The employee including lecturers, researchers, staffs are the most valuable resources in the university The success of the Made in Vietnam lean management implementation in the university relies very heavily on each individual employee Each employee takes responsibility to identify the wastes that occur in the detail of their job and seeking better way of doing the job to eliminate or reduce the waste Their knowledge, ability, and skill will help the continuous improvement process to better performance and efficiency Proposed solutions to reduce existing waste in Vietnamese higher education institutions Table 4: Proposed solutions to reduce waste in the Vietnamese higher education institutions Solutions Teaching activities Lecturers Training “Tam The” for lecturers to enhance their involvement in continuous improvement process in all universities activities Enhance quality of lecturers by various ways such as periodic training on professional knowledge; create an interactive community to sharing knowledge among faculty members… Take the customer (students, stakeholders such as enterprises…) satisfaction as a criterion for evaluating performance of lecturers Curriculum Continually review and refine the curriculum to responds timely to changing society demand Focused on fundamental knowledge, balance practical and theoretical knowledge in curriculum Implement “Tam The” teaching program in parallel with others teaching program Transfer research results into curriculum Foster the involvement of stakeholder such as employers in the design, implementation and evaluation of curriculum Teaching Foster diversification of teaching methods and continuous improvement of methods traditional teaching methods Create real situations to provide opportunity for students to apply knowledge in practice Integration of Tam The and knowledge in every teaching activities Learning Expanding learning environment, not to be limited to classroom Learning environment resources are everywhere, so lecturers need to provide guidance and tutoring to help student gain practical knowledge from outside the university Researching activities Training “Tam The” of research for lecturers Improve research capacity of lecturers through appropriate training Create attractive conditions for research such as diverse funding for research, implement reward policy, provide knowledge sharing platform… Foster the applied research in parallel with basic research by applying the preorder systems The orders come from enterprise, organization and society Establish research evaluation system with the involvement of stakeholder such as enterprises and society to evaluate the practical effectiveness of research Support activities Implement 5S Made in Vietnam (Sort - Set in order – Shine – Standardize - Tam The) to create and maintain good working environment Create a culture of continuous improvement (kaizen) among staff at all levels by implementing Kaizen suggestion system 3.3 Verify the feasibility of the proposed model With the aim of verifying the feasibility of the proposed model, several in-depth interviews were carried out with the participation of internal university administrators, educational researchers, and business executives The evaluation results are summarized in table Table 5: Summarize the evaluation results Interviewees Quantity Results Internal university administrators 20 17/20 interviewees agreed that the model is 20 15/20 interviewees agreed that the model is (principal, vice principal) Educational researchers realistic and feasible for implementation realistic and feasible for implementation Business executives 30 24/30 interviewees agreed that the model is realistic and feasible for implementation Conclusions Based on the Made in Vietnam lean management, this research identified existing wastes in Vietnamese higher education institutions, not only tangible wastes but also intangible waste Then, this research also proposed a Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model The given model has been highly appreciated by experts for the practicality and feasibility Moreover, this model has been re-confirmed the validity by a successful case The model can be used not only for the Vietnamese higher education institutions, but also for educational system other developing and developed countries where the resources are limited For further research, a performance index will be studied to assess a higher education institute by quantitative method and with further applications Acknowledgments This research is funded by Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) under project number QG.17.31 References Balzer, W K (2010) Lean higher education: Increasing the value and performance of university processes New York: Productivity Comm, C L., Mathaisel, D F X (2005) An exploratory study of best Lean sustainability practice.s in higher education Quality Assurance in Education, 13, 227-240 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New York: Free Press ... primary data Analyzing secondary and primary data to identify existing wastes in Vietnamese higher education institutions Propose a new management model for Vietnamese higher education institutions. .. using the Made in Vietnam lean thinking framework to identify the existing wastes in the Vietnamese higher education institutions Based on the analysis, the authors suggest a Made in Vietnam Lean. .. rationale for research, the secondary data are collected through reviewing the relevant literature of Lean higher education, Vietnam higher education management and the Made in Vietnam lean management