INTRODUCTION
Rationale
Over the past decade, the increase of international economic integration after Vietnam‟s accession to the WTO has made more job opportunities available for Vietnamese labor force People are made accessible to positions not only in local business enterprises but also in large foreign corporations As a direct result, university graduates have great chances to be employed by local companies which have increasing business relationships with oversea ones, and even by multinational enterprises Hence, the ability to use English has become one of the preliminary requirements for a potential candidate
Although Vietnam has been exposed to the market economy for a considerable period, there remains a lack of economic terminology system in general and Vietnamese equivalents of English occupational titles in particular Professional titles are among those English terms which are popularly used in both local and global companies In addition, an incorrect choice of business contacts due to the misunderstanding of their job title‟s responsibilities may negatively affect the viability of business cooperation As a matter of fact, working people need to have some knowledge about business titles
Being a teacher of English responsible for teaching English to students majored in management studies, my job is to help students improve their language proficiency and provide them with the language skills they need for their future career Thus, I feel the need to pre-teach students the common job titles and people‟s responsibilities when they hold these posts
So far, few researchers have had interest in researching the job titles in the economic fields Therefore, to be able to provide learners with better understanding of the professional titles and their implied meanings, it is necessary for me to do a research into the frequently used job titles and the responsibilities undertaken by people carrying those titles
Throughout history, joint-stock companies, though might be denoted by different names, remain one of the most popular business models in many countries in the world as well as in Vietnam In addition, the professional titles of this type of company can be found in many other business models Therefore, I decided to make an investigation into the management system of the companies of this type.
Aims of the study
The primary purpose of the study is to look for the intrinsic meanings of the words denoting common professional titles in management system of American joint-stock companies and their Vietnamese equivalents.
Research questions
The study is carried out with a view to answering the following research questions:
1 What are the common English professional titles and their responsibilities in management system of joint-stock companies in the United States?
2 What are the equivalents of these job titles in the Vietnamese language?
Scopes of the study
The study investigates the management system of some large joint-stock companies in the United States (U.S.), looking for common professional titles and their responsibilities
These business titles will then be compared to titles existing in management systems of Vietnamese companies to find the equivalent terms in Vietnamese language
It should be noted that the study only deals with linguistic aspect The term “joint- stock company” used in this study is an old word referring to the companies raising capital by issuing stocks and being owned by its shareholders It can be replaced by “shareholding company” or “public company” in modern English.
Significance of the study
It is expected that the result of this research will help Vietnamese learners of English, especially students whose major is economics and business administration, have better understandings of the management system of joint stock companies and the responsibilities of some popular positions in the company system Having a clear idea of the possible responsibilities of a title will facilitate students in the process of applying for a job as well as being of great help when they have to find the right people to work with in their future career
Also, the attempt to find and suggest equivalents of professional titles in Vietnamese language will help limit the use of borrowing words, thus, partly contribute to preserving the value of our national language.
Methods of the study
This research is a kind of qualitative research, in which the author integrates different methods including listing, descriptive, comparative and contrastive to be able to successfully answer the research questions By stating that the study is a kind of pragmatic perspective, the author implies that she mainly focuses on working out the intrinsic meanings of the professional titles investigated
In terms of contrastive analysis, the researcher follows the principles suggested by James C (1980), who stated that contrastive method involves two steps, namely, description and comparison Following this method, the thesis is carried out through two steps:
- Step one: English and Vietnamese professional titles in are listed and described
- Step two: English and Vietnamese professional titles are compared to find out the equivalents.
Design of the study
The study has three main parts: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion
The introduction presents the rationale for choosing the topic, aims, scope, method, significance, and design of the study
The development consists of four chapters Chapter one provides a review of literature on pragmatics, translation and contrastive analysis, which provides background knowledge of some linguistic aspects that the researcher needs to consider when carrying out this research Chapter two is the illustration of Vietnamese and American joint-stock companies‟ structures and description of popularly used professional titles Chapter three presents the contrastive analysis of the English and Vietnamese professional titles Chapter four discusses the pedagogical implications and suggestions for translating professional titles into the target language
The conclusion provides the summary of what has been discussed in the study, states the limitations of the study and makes some suggestions for further research.
DEVELOPMENT
This chapter presents the theoretical foundation on which the study is based and set up It deals with theories of pragmatics, translation, equivalence in translation and contrastive analysis
Pragmatics has been the concern of different authors since the early of the twentieth century Charles Morris, a philosopher, was one of the most influential writers on the issue of pragmatics in its first stage of development (Banjar, 2009) The author was concerned to outline the general shape of a science of signs, which he called “semiotics” Within semiotics, Morris distinguished three distinct branches of inquiry including syntactic, being the study of the formal relation of signs to one another; semantics, the study of the relations of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable; and pragmatics, the study of the relation of signs to interpreters (Morris, 1938, cited in Levinson, 1986:1) During the three stages of its development, the terms “pragmatics” has been redefined by many authors
However, as Levinson (1986) stated, the modern usage of the term “pragmatics” is, indeed, an attribute to Morris‟ theory
Bar-Hiller (1954) took the view that pragmatics is the study of languages, both natural and artificial, that contains indexical or deictic terms Carnap (in the late 1960s) referred to pragmatics as “those linguistic investigations that make necessary reference to aspects of the context” In Levinson‟s view, pragmatics can be defined as “the study of those relations between language and context that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of a language” (Levinson, 1986:9) Considering the truth conditions, Gazdar
(1979, cited in Levinson, 1986:12) proposed that pragmatics has those aspects of meaning of utterances which cannot be accounted for by straightforward reference to the truth conditions of the sentences uttered
According to Mey (1993), “pragmatics” is the study of the use of language in human communication as determined by the conditions of society Stalnaker (1972, cited in Horn, L.R and Ward, G., 2006) viewed pragmatics as the study of linguistic acts and the contexts in which they are performed Similarly, Sperber and Wilson (1986, cited in Kirsten and Williams, 1998) assumed that pragmatics is the study of the interpretation of utterances.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theory of Pragmatics
Pragmatics has been the concern of different authors since the early of the twentieth century Charles Morris, a philosopher, was one of the most influential writers on the issue of pragmatics in its first stage of development (Banjar, 2009) The author was concerned to outline the general shape of a science of signs, which he called “semiotics” Within semiotics, Morris distinguished three distinct branches of inquiry including syntactic, being the study of the formal relation of signs to one another; semantics, the study of the relations of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable; and pragmatics, the study of the relation of signs to interpreters (Morris, 1938, cited in Levinson, 1986:1) During the three stages of its development, the terms “pragmatics” has been redefined by many authors
However, as Levinson (1986) stated, the modern usage of the term “pragmatics” is, indeed, an attribute to Morris‟ theory
Bar-Hiller (1954) took the view that pragmatics is the study of languages, both natural and artificial, that contains indexical or deictic terms Carnap (in the late 1960s) referred to pragmatics as “those linguistic investigations that make necessary reference to aspects of the context” In Levinson‟s view, pragmatics can be defined as “the study of those relations between language and context that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of a language” (Levinson, 1986:9) Considering the truth conditions, Gazdar
(1979, cited in Levinson, 1986:12) proposed that pragmatics has those aspects of meaning of utterances which cannot be accounted for by straightforward reference to the truth conditions of the sentences uttered
According to Mey (1993), “pragmatics” is the study of the use of language in human communication as determined by the conditions of society Stalnaker (1972, cited in Horn, L.R and Ward, G., 2006) viewed pragmatics as the study of linguistic acts and the contexts in which they are performed Similarly, Sperber and Wilson (1986, cited in Kirsten and Williams, 1998) assumed that pragmatics is the study of the interpretation of utterances
Yule (1996) is also concerned with the interpretation of utterances in the Sperber and Wilson‟s sense In his book, the writer gives a detailed description of what is called
“pragmatics” According to this author, the approach falls into four areas including speaker meaning, contextual meaning, listeners‟ inference and the expression of relative distance
As what people say or write is not always what they mean, pragmatic studies are carried out to investigate the meaning communicated by a speaker or writer and interpreted by a listener or reader In this case, the author defines pragmatics as “the study of speaker meaning”
Pragmatics is also concerned with the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and the influences of the context on what is uttered Hence, pragmatics is the study of contextual meaning
In many circumstances, it is necessary for the listeners to make inferences about what is said in order to understand the speakers‟ intended meaning Obviously, the unsaid in these cases are part of what is communicated Thus, Yule (1996:3) refers to pragmatics as
“the study of how more gets communicated than is said”
As people living near each other usually have more shared experience than those who live far apart, the distance between the listeners and speakers significantly influences how much needs to be said In this case, pragmatic studies can be carried out to look for the factor that determines the choice between the said and the unsaid Therefore, pragmatics is defined as the study of the expression of relative distance (Yule, 1996:3)
The author, then, concludes that pragmatics is “the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and the users of those forms” (Yule, 1996:3)
Yongping (2002), a well-known Chinese scholar, also explained the norm of
“pragmatics” in his book A Survey of Pragmatics As the author expressed, pragmatics is a discipline which not only concerns the sense but also concerns the derivation of sense and the understanding of underlying meaning as its objects The aim of this discipline is to decipher the negotiation and derivation of meaning in communication (Yongping, R and Ziran, H., 2002)
Though a number of definitions about pragmatics have been published, these definitions share the similar conclusion that pragmatics is the study of how language is used in particular situations to express a meaning that may not be obvious from the actual words
In this study, the researcher stated that the thesis is towards the pragmatic perspective since her aim is to find the intrinsic meanings of frequently used professional titles to understand how they function in a company management system.
Theory of Translation
Translation has been approached by a number of linguists According to Catford
(1965), translation is the replacement of a text in one language by an equivalent text in another language In regards to various linguistic aspects, Nida (1969) states that translating is the process of finding closest natural equivalent to the message of the source language not only in meaning but also in style
Considering translation as the preservation of meaning from one language into another language, Newmark (1986:5) defines translation as the process of “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text” This concept is shared by many researchers such as Meetham and Hudson (1972) and House
(1981) Meetham and Hudson (1972, cited in Bell, 1991:59) state that translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language Similarly, House (1981) defines translation as the replacement of a text in the source language by a semantically and pragmatically equivalent text in the target language
Although each linguist tries to explain the term “translation” in their own words, the common feature of the above definitions is that they emphasize the importance of finding equivalents with similar characteristics to the original by the choice of appropriate lexicon and grammatical structures
In most definitions about translation, “equivalence” is mentioned as the key term
Catford (1965, cited in Van den Broek, 1978) defines the notion of “equivalence” by stating the conditions in which translation equivalence occurs According to this author, translation equivalence occurs when “source language and target language texts or items are related to (at least some of) the same relevant features of situation substance” Similarly, Halverson
(1997) also views equivalence in the relationship between two entities, and the relationship is described as a similarity in terms of any of potential qualities In general, proponents of equivalence-based theories of translation usually define equivalence as the relationship between a source text and a target text that allows the target text to be considered as a translation of the source text Also, equivalence relationships appear to hold between parts of source texts and parts of target texts These definitions are supposed to be problematic as what Pym (1992:37) has pointed out: equivalence is used to define translation, and translation, in turn, defines equivalence The existence of this circularity explains why Snell-Hornby (1988) and many other theorists who support him believe that translation equivalence is just an “imaginative” phenomenon
Although the concept of “equivalence” remains controversial, few attempts have been made to define equivalence out of its relationship with translation Yet, though being claimed to be irrelevant (Snell-Hornby,1988) or damaging (Gentlzer,1993) to translation studies, equivalence is still variously regarded as a necessary condition for translation, an obstacle to progress in translation studies, and a useful category for describing translations
Theorists have studied equivalence in relation to the translation process, using two approaches, namely quantitative and qualitative Concerning the quantitative approach, Kade (1968), and Hann (1992) divide equivalence into six categories as follows:
No Types of equivalence relationship Description Explanation
A single expression in the target language (TL) for a single source language (SL) expression is used
More than one TL expression for a single SL expression is used
More than one SL expression for a single TL expression is used
More than one TL expression for more than one SL expression is used
5 Whole-part/Part-whole equivalence
A TL expression covers part of a concept designated by a single SL expression or vice versa
There is no TL expression for an SL expression
Table 1: Types of equivalence relationship
There exist three subdivisions under qualitative approach, that is, function-based, meaning-based and form-based approach Nida, Koller and Baker are three linguistic researchers who are credited as the founders of these above approaches with their major works of the time
In terms of function-based equivalence , Nida (1964) argues that there are two different types of equivalence, including formal equivalence which is also referred to as formal correspondence (Nida & Taber, 1969) and dynamic equivalence While formal correspondence focuses attention on both form and content, dynamic equivalence emphasizes the text readability
In light of meaning-based equivalence , Koller (1977) proposes five types of equivalence including “denotative, connotative, text-formative, pragmatic and formal equivalence” Denotative equivalence is described as extralinguistic content as it involves
“content invariance”, which means the SL and TL words refer to the same thing in the real world Connotative equivalence is that SL and TL words should produce the same communicative values in the mind of native speakers of the two languages This equivalence type involves lexical choices and can be referred to as “stylistic equivalence”
With regard to text-formative equivalence, the author means the SL and TL words should use the same or similar text types in their respective languages By pragmatic equivalence,
Koller (1977) implies that the SL and TL words should have the same effect on the reader or mainly aiming at the receiver, to whom the translation is directed Pragmatic equivalence is, therefore, similar to Nida‟s dynamic equivalence in that both kinds concentrate on the communicative equivalence and are oriented to the receiver of the text message The last type of equivalence, namely, formal equivalence is referred to as “expressive equivalence”, which respects the form and aesthetics of the text
With regard to form-based equivalence , Baker (1992) explores the notion of equivalence at different levels in relation to the translation process This author proposes that there are two types of equivalence including equivalence at word level and equivalence above word level In this author‟s view, translation equivalence involves grammatical equivalence, textual equivalence, and pragmatic equivalence Baker notes that a word sometimes carries different meanings in different languages, and relates meaning of words
E V with morpheme Baker mentions problems at word level and above word level before suggesting some strategies in dealing with them Grammatical equivalence refers to the diversity of grammatical categories across languages The linguistic scholar affirms that grammatical rules across languages may differ, which lead to some problems in finding a direct correspondence in the TL Textual equivalence denotes the equivalence between a SL text and a TL text regarding information and cohesion Finally, pragmatic equivalence touches on implication of the TL text The duty of a translator is recognizing the implied meaning of SL text, and then reproducing it in a way that readers of the TL can comprehend clearly without any misunderstanding in terms of culture.
Contrastive Analysis
In the second half of the 20 th century, the influence of the first language in learning a second language was noted by different linguists such as Lado and Postman According to Lado (1957), learners of a second language tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture – both productively and receptively Similarly, Postman (1971) states that learning is a cumulative process, in which, the more knowledge and skills an individual acquires, the more likely it becomes that his new learning will be shaped by his past experiences and activities “An adult rarely, if ever, learns anything completely new; however, unfamiliar task confronts him, the information and habits he has built up in the past will be his point of departure Thus transfer of training from old to new situations is part and parcel of most, if not all, learning”
(Postman, 1971) This theoretical assumption of behaviorism forms the basis of contrastive analysis
The term “contrastive analysis” (CA), also called “contrastive linguistics”, was suggested by Whorf (1941) and was defined as “a sub discipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences and similarities between them” (Fisiak, 1981) From the definition, it can be said that according to this author, CA deals with both similarities and differences of the two languages investigated
Unlike Fisiak, James (1980) supposes that CA, as the term contrastive implies, is more interested in the differences between languages than in their likenesses The scholar then describes CA as “a linguistic enterprise aiming at producing inverted two-valued typologies (a CA is always concerned with a pair of languages), and founded on the assumption that languages can be compared” (James, 1980:3)
In the 1960s and early 1970s, contrastive analysis was used extensively in the field of Second Language Acquisition Despite an array of criticisms, contrastive analysis is not merely relevant for second language teaching and learning but it can also make useful contributions to machine translating and linguistics typology Chaturvedi (1973) suggests the following guiding principles for contrastive study: (1) To analyze the mother tongue and the target language independently and completely (2) To compare the two languages item- wise-item at all levels of their structure (3) To arrive at the categories of a/ similar features b/ partially similar features c/ dissimilar features – for the target language (4) To arrive at principles of text preparation, test framing and target language teaching in general Having similar view, James (1980:63) explained that executing CA involves two steps, namely, description and comparison, and the steps are taken in that order According to this author, although these two procedures cannot be said to characterize CA uniquely, it is the general principle in executing a CA
In this study, the researcher would like to follow the procedures suggested by James
(1980) as the framework and carry out the research through two steps:
- Step one: English and Vietnamese professional titles in are listed and described
- Step two: English and Vietnamese professional titles are compared to find the equivalents.
A DESCRIPTION OF AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE JOINT-STOCK
Definition of American and Vietnamese joint-stock companies
The use of the term joint-stock company or corporation has been common since the various Joint-stock Companies Acts were passed in the 1800s in England As defined by the Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English (2009), a joint-stock company simply means a company whose stock is owned jointly by its shareholders
More detailed definition can be found online at www.businessdictionary.com on which joint-stock company is stated to be the original name for a corporation with limited liability for the shareholders Investors in an American joint-stock company receive stock or shares which can be transferred, and can elect a board of directors to help them control the company operations With regards to American joint-stock company, Downes and Goodman (2006) described this type of company as a form of business organization that combines features of a corporation and a partnership A similar explanation can be retrieved from West‟s Encyclopedia of American Law (2005) at www.encyclopedia.com On this website, a joint-stock company is noted as an association engaged in a business for profit with ownership interests represented by shares of stock A joint-stock company is financed with capital invested by the members or stockholders who receive transferable shares, or stock Although it shares majority features of a corporation, this type of company is somehow similar to partnership because it also possesses the element of personal liability where each member remains financially responsible for the acts of the company
Though joint-stock company has long history, this original name is not very commonly used in the U.S at present According to Plessis & Grobfeld (2007), nowadays in the U.S, the UK and other Anglo-American jurisdictions, this type of company takes the name of “public companies or corporations, publicly-traded companies/corporations; public companies of corporations limited by shares, or public limited companies or corporations”
In this study, the author will use these terms interchangeably when referring to “joint-stock company”
Vietnam Enterprise Law (2005), Article 77 defines joint-stock companies as follows:
A joint-stock company is an enterprise where: a/ Its charter capital is divided into equal portions known as shares; b/ Shareholders may be organizations and/or individuals; the minimum number of shareholders shall be three and shall not be restricted to any particular maximum number; c/ Its shareholders shall be liable for debts and other property liabilities of such enterprise within the limit of the value of their capital contribution to the enterprise; d/ Shareholders shall be entitled to freely transfer their shares, except the case specified in Clause 3 of Article 81 or Clause 5 of Article 84 of this Law
2 A joint-stock company shall have the legal person status from the date it is granted a business registration certificate
3 A joint-stock company shall be entitled to issue securities of all kinds for capital mobilization
(Vietnam Enterprise Law, 2005) According to the law, a Vietnamese joint-stock company is a business entity owned by shareholders Shareowners of a Vietnamese joint stock company have limited liability as just being liable for the company's debts by the nominal value of the stock or shares held by them Shareholders (except for some special cases) have the right to transfer their shares to others without any effects to the continued existence of the company.
Organizational structures of American and Vietnamese joint-stock companies
According to Tullis and Trappe (2004:4), most companies are made up of three groups of people including shareholders who provide the capital, the management and the workforce The management structure of a typical company is shown in the following organization chart
Figure 1: Company structure introduced by Tullis and Trappe (2004)
As can be seen from the above diagram and the explanation of the authors, at the top of the company hierarchy is the Board of Directors This board is headed by the Chairperson or President and is responsible for policy decisions and strategy (Tullis and Trappe, 2004) Managing Director (MD) or Chief Executive Officer (CEO) ranks second in terms of authority The person who holds this position has overall responsibility for the running of the business Companies also have senior and middle management to help head the various departments or functions within the company Different departments that can be found in most companies are Marketing, Public Relations, Information Technology (IT), Personnel or Human Resources, Finance, Production, and Research and Development (R&D) (Tullis and Trappe, 2004:4)
Similarly, Mackenzie (1997:11) stated that companies generally have shareholders who provide capitals for the companies and are managed by the board of directors (headed by a Chairman or President), who oversee operations and the managing director or CEO who takes responsibility for the day-to-day running of the company In smaller companies, the roles of chairman and managing director are usually combined Americans tend to use the term President rather than Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) instead of Managing Director (MD) The CEO or MD is supported by various executive officers or vice-presidents (VP), each with clearly defined authority and responsibility
Figure 2: Company structure introduced by Mackenzie (1997)
According to the author, typically, the functional different departments in a company are Production Department, Finance Department, Human Resources Department and Marketing Department Executive Directors, carrying the title of VP are responsible for strategic decisions and operations of these functions while managers of each department are in charge of particular functions The functional departments are made up of several sections as introduced below
1 Marketing Department consists of three sections, that is, sales, sales promotion and advertising;
2 Human Resources Department is made up of of Recruiment and Personnel, and Training section
3 Production Department is composed of five sections including Production Control, Purchasing, Manufacturing, Quality Control and Engineering Support
4 Finance Depatment con sists of Financial Management and Accounting
(Mackenzie, 1997:13) Regarding business structure, McKellen (1990:29) also introduced an organization chart that is, as he stated, one of the most usual
Managing Director or Chief Executive Officer
VP of Finance VP of Human
Figure 3: Company structure introduced by McKellen (1990)
As illustrated by McKellen (1990:29), Managing Director, Chief Executive or President is the top position in company hierarchy Companies are managed by a group of directors and managers Normally the directors are responsible for strategic planning and for making decisions while managers of the company departments are in charge of day-to-day running and report to the directors
As the author explained, the key functional departments of a company include Finance, Sales, Marketing (sometimes part of Sales), Production, Research and Development (R&D) and Personnel Departments These are the most common departments, but some companies may have other departments as well (McKellen, 1990:29)
A similar structure which is built based on the chain of command can be found in the book Test your professional English – Management written by Sweeney (2002:66) The author illustrated a typical model of a company management system in the following diagram
Departments each headed by a Director
Figure 4: Company structure introduced by Sweeney (2002)
According to Sweeney (2002:66), at the top of the company structure is the Chief Executive or Managing Director Production Director, Sales Director, Marketing Director, Finance Director, Human Resources Director and Company Secretary belong to the group of senior management system Middle management often has the title of Managers who run the functional departments of a company
Another company organizational chart which is introduced in the book Business Vocabulary in Use is that of Fun and Sun Holidays (Mascull, 2002:26) The company has a similar structure to that of those businesses previously discussed
Market Research, PR and Publicity Officers
Figure 5: Company structure introduced by Mascull (2002)
As shown in the organigram, the non-executive directors of the company are Chairman or Chairwoman and Chief Executive or Managing Director Senior executives, also referred to as top executives or executive directors include Chief Financial Officer or Finance Director, Marketing Director, Human Resources Director, IT Director and Research Director Those senior managers have authority over middle managers such as Account Department Manager who is supervised by Finance Director, Sales Manager and Customer Services Manager who are supervised by Marketing Director As there is a clear chain of command running down the pyramid, the supervisor of a manager to whom he or she reports can be called his or her line manager
2.2.2 Organizational structures of some Vietnamese companies
As stated in Vietnam Enterprise Law (2005, Article 95) the organizational structure of the management of a joint-stock company comprises “Đại hội đồng cổ đông”, “Hội đồng quản trị”, “Giám đốc” or “Tổng Giám đốc” “Chủ tịch Hội đồng quản trị” – the highest position in “Hội đồng quản trị”, “Giám đốc” or “Tổng Giám đốc” may be the representative at law for the company For a company with more than eleven shareholders being individuals or with a shareholder being an organization holding more than 50% of total shares, it needs to have “Ban kiểm soát” The other positions in the management system of a company depend on its unique features and conform to the company‟s own regulations
Chairperson Chief executive/ managing director
Chief Financial Officer / Finance director
Below are the organizational structures of some Vietnamese joint-stock companies
The first company to be introduced is Bình Minh Plastic Joint-stock Company, one of the most respected manufacturing companies operating in plastic industry in Vietnam
Established in 1977 after the merger of two business enterprises, the company has achieved an array of success to become a leader in Vietnamese market for plastic products Since the company plays the role of both a manufacturer and a trader, the organizational system of the company can be considered typical as it is made up of various departments that a company may have
Figure 6: Structure of Bình Minh Plastics Joint-stock Company
The above diagram illustrates the structure of the management system of Bình Minh Plastics Joint-stock Company, in which, at the top of the company hierarchy is the head of
“Hội đồng quản trị”, who is denoted as “Chủ tịch hội đồng quản trị” “Tổng giám đốc” is in the second authoritative position, who receives help from two “Phó tổng giám đốc”, one of whom is responsible for marketing (“Phó tổng giám đốc kinh doanh”) and the other is in charge of technological problems (Phó tổng giám đốc kỹ thuật) The functional departments of the company are “Phòng kinh doanh”, “Phòng tiếp thị”, “Phòng quản trị hành chính”,
“Phòng nhân sự”, “Phòng tài chính kế toán”, “Phòng đầu tư nghiên cứu và phát triển”,
“Phòng đảm bảo chất lượng” The head of a department of the company is denoted as
“Trưởng phòng” In the company, the leader of “Phòng tài chính kế toán” also serves as “Kế
Chủ tịch Hội đồng quản trị
Phó tổng giám đốc Kinh doanh
Trưởng phòng quản trị hành chính
Kế toán trưởng- Trưởng phòng tài chính kế toán
Trưởng phòng đầu tư nghiên cứu và phát triển (R&D)
Trưởng phòng đảm bảo chất lượng (QA)
Giám đốc nhà máy 2 Trưởng ban kiểm soát toán trưởng” In addition, the company has two “Giám đốc nhà máy” whose responsibility is to direct and control the operation of the company‟s factories
Main titles in management system of American and Vietnamese joint-stock companies
2.3.1 Main titles in American joint-stock companies
Investigating the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) published by the U.S
Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2010, the researcher found a great number of different occupational titles existing in the U.S business world Hence, it is a great challenge to do an investigation into all of them This research is centered upon the common professional titles denoting top managers who devote most of their time to planning and organizing the tasks which are crucial to the determination of an organization‟s long-term performance; and middle managers in the hierarchy who spend more time leading and controlling first-line managers
As stated by (Mackenzie, 1997:11) and Tullis and Trappe (2004:4), the Shareholders‟ Meetings and Board of Directors rank top in a company hierarchy Normally, the board consists of Non-Executive Directors, who sit in the board but do not actually manage the company (Mascull, 2002:26) The company may appoint from its members, or hire Executive Officers, who are responsible for the day-to-day running of the company
The person heading the Board of Directors is titled “Chairman” or “President” Following the Board of Directors in terms of authority is the company‟s Chief Executive Officer or Managing Director Sometimes, a company may have a Chief Operating Officer (COO) A company usually has several Vice Presidents (VPs) to support the CEO or COO of a company in controlling a specific function
To control the marketing and sales activities, companies have Marketing Managers and Sales Managers The titles used to refer to those positions are Marketing Director and Sales Director Modern term for this position is Chief Customer Officer Sales Director normally supervises the Export Manager and a number of Regional Sales Managers In large companies, people taking care of sales and marketing activities may carry “C-level” titles as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Chief Sales Officer (CSO) As the marketing activities include advertising and promotions, company may have Advertising Manager and Promotion Manager to plan and control those activities
In terms of finance, people who are responsible for the monetary issues in a company are denoted as Financial Director In large companies, a Financial Director may take the title of Vice President of Finance or Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Another popular title in this department is Accounting Manager which can be found in many business enterprises
Dealing with the human resources of a company is Human Resources Manager The position can also be titled as Vice President of Human Resources, Personnel Director or Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) To take care of labor training and development, companies may have Training and Development Manager or Labor Training Manager
Regarding Production Department which is popularly made up of five sections including Production Control, Purchasing, Manufacturing, Quality Control and Engineering Support (Mackenzie, 1997), the common management titles are Vice President of Production or Chief Production Officer, Manufacturing Director, Production Director, Quality Assurance Manager, Research and Development Director and Purchasing Manager (SOC, 2010)
Briefly, common titles denoting general managers are: Board of Directors, Chairman/ President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer
Basing on the statistics of the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010, the figures of best jobs in America at www.money.cnn.com, together with the investigated company structures in the previous part, common titles denoting functional managers are listed below:
Titles denoting Sales and Marketing Managers
Chief Customer Officer, VP-Marketing, Marketing Director, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Marketing Manager, Advertising and Promotion Manager
Chief Sales Officer, VP-Sales, Sales Director, Regional Sales Manager
Chief Financial Officer (CFO), VP-Finance, Financial Director, Chief Accounting Officer, Accounting Manager, Chief Accountant
Titles denoting Human Resources Managers
VP-Human Resources, Chief Human Resources Officer, Human Resources Director;
Titles denoting Production and Engineering Managers
VP-Production, Chief Production Officer, Production Director, Manufacturing Director, Quality Assurance Manager, VP-Engineering, Engineering Manager
2.3.2 Main titles in Vietnamese joint-stock companies
As stated in Vietnam Enterprise Law (2005, Article 95) the top management of a joint-stock company comprises “Đại hội đồng cổ đông” (Shareholders‟ meeting), “Hội đồng quản trị”, “Giám đốc” or “Tổng Giám đốc” “Chủ tịch Hội đồng quản trị” – the highest position in “Hội đồng quản trị”, “Giám đốc” or “Tổng Giám đốc” may be the representative at law for the company Companies may also appoint some “Phó Giám đốc” or “Phó Tổng Giám đốc” to be responsible for a particular function of the company For a company with more than eleven shareholders being individuals or with a shareholder being an organization holding more than 50% of total shares, it needs to have “Ban kiểm soát” Besides, in many Vietnamese companies, the group of “Tổng Giám đốc/ Giám đốc” and “Phó Tổng Giám đốc/ Phó Giám đốc” makes up a board called “Ban Giám đốc” Thus, the common titles denoting general management system of a Vietnamese joint-stock company are: Đại hội đồng cổ đông, Hội đồng quản trị, Chủ tịch Hội đồng quản trị, Giám đốc /Tổng Giám đốc, Phó Giám đốc/Phó Tổng Giám đốc, Ban Giám đốc and Ban kiểm soát
In regard to functional departments, from the company structures illustrated in the previous part together with information on some websites such as www.vietnamworks.com or www.vieclam.vn, the common titles denoting managers being in charge of a particular function in a Vietnamese company are:
Titles denoting Sales and Marketing Managers
Phó tổng giám đốc kinh doanh/Giám đốc Kinh doanh, Giám đốc tiếp thị, Giám đốc bán hàng, Trưởng phòng kinh doanh, Trưởng phòng tiếp thị, Trưởng phòng chăm sóc khách hàng
Phó tổng giám đốc tài chính/ Giám đốc tài chính, Kế toán trưởng-Trưởng phòng tài chính kế toán
Titles denoting Human Resources Managers
Giám đốc nhân sự, Trưởng phòng nhân sự, Trưởng phòng đào tạo và phát triển nguồn nhân lực
Titles denoting Production and Engineering Managers
Phó tổng giám đốc kỹ thuật, Phó (tổng) giám đốc sản xuất/ Giám đốc sản xuất, Trưởng phòng đảm bảo chất lượng, Giám đốc nhà máy, Trưởng phòng nghiên cứu và phát triển sản phẩm.
A CONTRATIVE STUDY ON PROFESSIONAL TITLES IN THE
A description of professional titles in management system of American and
3.1.1.1 Descriptions of Titles Denoting General Managers
Board of Directors: As provided by U.S Model Business Corporation Act
(2002:95), every corporation must have a board of directors who are elected by shareholders in the Shareholders‟ Meeting The Board of Directors acts as the governing body of the company and is, in general, responsible for policy decisions and strategy (Tullis and Trappe, 2004)
Also stated in U.S Model Business Corporation Act (2002:95), the business and affairs of the corporation are managed by, or under the direction but subject to the oversight of the board of directors This explains why in the organizational structures of some companies illustrated in the previous part, there are both Executive Directors, who are involved in the actual operation of the company, and Non-Executive Directors who sit on the board but actually do not take part in the day-to-day running of the company (Mascull, 2002:26) Looking at the structures of large corporations in the U.S (i.e IBM,
GM and GE), it is common for the Board of Directors to delegate management to executive officers and other professional managers Few of them are responsible for their own companies‟ operation
Chairman: As explained by the Oxford Learners‟ Dictionary of Business
English (2006), Chairman is the person who leads a company‟s Board of Directors The chairman‟s responsibility is to oversee the company‟s operations and usually has no operational role (Mackenzie, 1997)
President: Different authors such as Mackenzie (1997) and Tullis and Trappe
(2004) agree that “President” and “Chairman” refer to the same position These authors explain that Chairman is British English while President is an American English term
In the Oxford Learners‟ Dictionary of Business English (2006), the title “President” is used to denote the most powerful leader of a company and is responsible for deciding on policy On the website www.shrm.org, President is stated to be responsible for providing strategic leadership for the company by working with the Board and other management to establish long-range goals, strategies, plans and policies and report to the Board of Directors Thus, the responsibility of a president is somehow similar to that of a chairman as well as a chief executive officer As explained by www.investopedia.com, the position of Chairman, President and CEO are often combined in companies that do not have subsidiaries while in bigger business enterprises, a CEO may oversees a number of Presidents, each running a different business
Chief Executive Officer (CEO): The CEO, appointed by the board of directors, is delegated the task of running the entire business (Mackenzie, 1997) This is the highest ranking executive in a company, whose main responsibilities include developing and implementing high-level strategies, making major corporate decisions, managing the overall operations and resources of a company, and acting as the main point of communication between the board of directors and the corporate operations The CEO often has a position on the board, and in some cases is even the chairperson (according to www.investopedia.com) As previously stated, in some companies, the position of Chairman, President and CEO are often combined (Mascull, 2002:26)
Chief Operating Officer (COO): Bennet and Miles (2007) put it that the COO follows as a trusted ally of the CEO in providing day-to-day leadership and give feedbacks to the President/ CEO When a COO position is added to an organization, it changes the reporting relationships at the top Some executives who used to directly report to the CEO may now have to work through the COO As these authors explained, there are a number of reasons why a company may need a COO, for example, the CEO‟s workload is too heavy, the CEO wants to execute a specific strategic initiative, to retain executive talent or even to learn from the COO (Bennet and Miles, 2007)
Vice President (VP): VP is another popular corporate title available in many organizations It can be used to either designate the strategic leader of functions within a company such as VP of marketing and VP of finance, or, usually in a big corporation, to denote the person acting as the head of one subsidiary (Kraft, 2013) Thus, the title
“marketing director” is at the same level as “VP of marketing” in companies that do not have VP system In case there are both VP and director being in charge of a particular function in a company, the VP generally operates at a higher level than the director In this case, VPs are more strategic while directors are more tactical (Kraft, 2013)
In large organizations, vice presidents may have ranking titles The executive VP is the highest level vice president followed by senior vice presidents, VP, assistant VP, and associate VP All are management level positions with responsibilities that vary from company to company (according to www.humanresources.about.com) An example can be seen in GE Corporation, where a Senior Vice President of the mother company serves as the President and CEO of its subsidiary
3.1.1.2 Descriptions of Titles Denoting Functional Managers
Titles denoting Sales and Marketing Managers
VP-Marketing, Sales and Marketing Director, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Chief Customer Officer (CCO): Responsible for all activities related to sales and marketing Specific responsibilities include business and market development, market research and planning, strategic direction for promotion and advertising, coordination with sales, hiring and directing the day-to-day activities of marketing staff (according to www.shrm.org) CCO is a new title that is more and more popular in many American companies
Marketing Manager: Responsible for managing marketing, advertising and promotional staff and activities at a company or organization Takes steps to measure, enhance, and enrich the position and image of a company through various goals and objectives (according to www.shrm.org)
Advertising and Promotion Manager: Plans, directs, or coordinates advertising policies and programs or produces collateral materials, such as posters, contests, coupons, or give-aways, to create extra interest in the purchase of a product or service for a department, an entire organization, or on an account basis (SOC, 2010)
Chief Sales Officer, VP-Sales, Commercial Director, Chief Commercial Officer, Sales Director: Responsible for making high-level strategic decisions in their area of responsibility Set and meet sales goals, generate new accounts, and mentor and train new recruits (according to www.money.cnn.com)
Territory/ Regional/ Area Sales Manager: Develops and maintains relationships with major or key accounts within a specific area or market and manage sales professional staff within a specified area (according to www.shrm.org)
Titles denoting Finance and Accounting Managers
Chief Financial Officer (CFO), VP-Finance, Financial Director: According to information from the website www.americanjobexchange.com, the responsibilities of a CFO is overseeing and directing the organization‟s financial goals, objectives and budgets In many companies, the CFO also oversees the accounting department and taking part in managing accounting activities As defined on www.shrm.org, a CFO, being the financial leader of an organization, is responsible for overseeing the financial activities of an entire company including accounting, finance, payroll and tax departments He/she manages the preparation of budgets, forecasts, and accounting activities, as well as ensures compliance in all various forms of financial reporting
A contrastive analysis of professional titles in management system of American
Board of Directors: As described in the previous part, in the U.S., the highest position in a company hierarchy is the Board of Directors, who are elected by the company‟s shareholders from its members Some directors of the board may not be the owners of the company and are denoted as Independent Director As provided by the American Model Business Corporation Act, all corporate powers are exercised by or under the authority of the board of directors and the business and affairs are either managed by the board itself, or under the direction of and subject to the oversight of the board The American Board of Directors, especially in a public corporation, often acts as non-executive directors who supervise the company‟s performance without taking any daily operational roles The Board of Directors then designates the company executives to take care of the day-to-day running of the company eventhough these people may not own the company‟s shares Hence, the board of directors in the U.S seems to be the combination of the management board and supervisory board in a single-tiered structure
In Vietnam, however, the management and supervisory board are separated At the top of the company structure is “Hội đồng quản trị” Similar to board of directors in American companies, “Hội đồng quản trị” is a group people appointed by the shareholders to govern the company and make important decisions As provided by Vietnam Enterprise Law
(2005), members of “Hội đồng quản trị” are not necessary the company‟s shareowners “Hội đồng quản trị” may also choose among its members or hire another person to manage the company‟s daily operations
From the analysis of American Board of Directors and “Hội đồng quản trị” in Vietnam, it can be stated that the U.S board of directors is similar to “Hội đồng quản trị” in Vietnamese companies except for the fact that it is not supervised by any independent board
Chairman/President: In American companies, the title “Chairman” or “President” denotes the head of a company‟s board of directors This position can be considered equivalent to “Chủ tịch Hội đồng quản trị” in Vietnamese shareholding companies as both terms refer to the chairman of a company‟s highest board of governance
Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Both “Chief Executive Officer” in American companies and “Giám đốc/Tổng Giám đốc” in Vietnamese business structures are used to callthe company‟s highest ranking executives who manage the day-to-day operations of the entire business These people are staff of the company and as a matter of fact, work under the supervision of the Board of Directors or “Hội đồng quản trị” of that company Hence, “Giám đốc/Tổng Giám đốc” can be noted as the equivalent of the title “CEO” in American companies As a matter of fact, a chairman who also serves as the CEO of an American company is identical to “Chủ tịch Hội đồng quản trị kiêm Tổng Giám đốc” in Vietnamese companies
Chief Operating Officer (COO): In some American companies, COO act as an ally of the CEO who help monitor the day-to-day operations of the business and report to the CEO (Bennet & Miles, 2007) As a consequence, the responsibilities of people taking this position reflect what a CEO needs to do when there is not a COO in the company management system In a company that has both CEO and COO, basing on the functions of the CEO and COO in the company, the researcher suggests the CEO be translated as “Tổng Giám đốc” and “COO” as “Giám đốc điều hành”
Vice President: The title of “Vice President” and “Phó giám đốc/ Phó tổng giám đốc” in American and Vietnamese companies are somehow similar as both titles refer to the ally of the company‟s most powerful leader However, VPs in Vietnamese companies are not various in terms of levels as in the U.S Hence, there are not equivalent terms for Executive/
Senior / Assistant or Associate VP in Vietnamese language
The position of Sales and Marketing Managers
Sales and Marketing Director, now often taking the title of Chief Customer Officer (CCO) and “Giám đốc Kinh doanh” in Vietnamese companies both refer to the people who are responsible for planning and implementing marketing and sales department of the companies (according to www.dantri.com) In some American companies, sales is a section of marketing department; thus, people directing and overseeing the sales and marketing activities can take the title of VP-marketing, which is similar to “Phó tổng giám đốc kinh doanh” in Vietnamese companies When sales and marketing are controlled by separated departments, the head of marketing department may carry the title of Chief Marketing Officer or Marketing Manager while head of sales department is denoted as Chief Sales Officer, or Sales Manager Those titles are, respectively, equivalent to “Trưởng phòng tiếp thị” and „Trưởng phòng/ giám đốc kinh doanh” in Vietnam Sales Managers are usually responsible for a particular area; hence, they are called area, regional or territory sales manager Vietnamese title for people carrying this title is “Giám đốc bán hàng khu vực”
The position of Finance and Accounting Managers
Many U.S companies have VP-Finance or Chief Financial Officer to be responsible for all financial activities of a company including accounting management In this case, the Accounting Manager or Chief Accounting Officer reports to the CFO of the company In some other companies, CFO is only in charge of financial activities while Chief Accounting Officer manages the accounting work In these companies, CFO and CAO are ranked equally in the company hierarchy However, it is more common for CFO in the U.S companies to direct both finance and accounting departments
Chief Financial Officer is equivalent to “Giám đốc tài chính” in Vietnamese companies as both of them are responsible for all financial activities of the company
However, it should be noted that the position of “Giám đốc tài chính” is not very popular in Vietnamese companies until now
Chief Accounting Officer or Chief Accountant, the same as “Kế toán trưởng” in Vietnamese companies, is responsible for managing day-to-day accounting activities It is common for an individual to hold the position of both “Kế toán trưởng” and “Trưởng phòng tài chính kế toán”, thus, being responsible for both financial and accounting operations
Compared to American companies, the CFO of a company can be responsible for both financial and accounting activities but CAO is only specialized in accounting work
Therefore, the position of “Kế toán trưởng kiêm Trưởng phòng tài chính-kế toán” in Vietnamese companies is equivalent to Chief Financial Officer in the U.S as they share the same responsibilities
The position of Human Resources Managers
Chief Human Resources Officer, so-called Chief Personnel Officer, Chief People Officer or VP-Human Resources is responsible for all personnel related issues of a company such as planning, recruiting and training The people who deal with matters related to human resources in Vietnamese companies normally carry the title of “Giám đốc nhân sự” or “Trưởng phòng nhân sự” depending on the company‟s own regulations
The position of Production and Engineering Managers
It is quite common for an American company to have a VP of Production, who directs and oversees all manufacturing activities There are various titles referring to a VP- Production such as Chief Production Officer, Production Director, Chief Manufacturing Officer, VP-Manufacturing or Manufacturing Director Companies may also have a VP of Engineering who takes care of strategic planning, product design, quality assurance and problem resolution In these companies, VP-Production and VP-Engineering are at the same level However, in many companies, there is not the position of VP-Engineering People who head this department are called Engineering Manager In this case, the VP-Production is superior to the engineering manager and receives reports from the engineering manager
In Vietnamese company, the situation is rather different Normally, “Phó tổng giám đốc kỹ thuật” is highly respected as the person is responsible for both engineering and production The responsibilities of a “Phó tổng giám đốc kỹ thuật” in Vietnamese company seem to be the combination of VP-Production and VP-Engineering in an American company In many cases, the VP-Production of a U.S company directs both manufacturing and engineering activities Hence, the title of “Phó tổng giám đốc kỹ thuật” and “VP- Production” can be noted as equivalent in terms of responsibilities
APPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATING, TEACHING AND LEARNING
Suggestions for translating English professional titles into Vietnamese and
In finding the equivalents for the professional titles of a company, it is firstly necessary to follow the procedures of translations As Larson (1998:4) stated, translation consists of studying the lexicon, grammatical structure, communication situation and cultural context of a language item, analyzing it to determine its meaning and then reconstructing it in the target language by using the appropriate lexicon and grammatical structure The overview of the translation task can be illustrated in the following figure
Figure 11: Overview of the translation task (Larson, 1998:4)
Also, translators should remind themselves that both American and Vietnamese company laws are flexible, except for some compulsory positions at the top management, companies in the two countries are allowed to build up their own organizational structures and give titles to their employees Therefore, besides looking for the intrinsic meaning of each title, it is necessary for translators to rely on the company structure to find out how
OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSLATION TASK
Re-express the meaning attempting to transfer it into another language When reconstructing the titles in the target language, similar to the translation of terminology, translators may apply several methods such as paraphrasing, finding functional equivalents or word-to-word translation when suggesting the equivalent of a term
After investigating different professional titles in some American and Vietnamese companies, the researcher would like to suggest some changes in the translation of some English titles into Vietnamese language
Firstly, “Board of Directors” in an American company is usually translated as “Ban Giám đốc” in Vietnamese language However, in case of joint-stock companies, the Board of Directors is more likely to refer to the owners of the companies who do not usually take part in the daily operation On the contrary, “Ban Giám đốc” in Vietnam consists of “Tổng Giám đốc”, “Phó Tổng giám đốc”, “Giám đốc” who are responsible for managing the day- to-day running of the company and may or may not be the company‟s shareowners Thus, Board of Directors in American joint-stock companies is more similar to “Hội đồng Quản trị” rather than “Ban Giám đốc” in a Vietnamese joint-stock company
Secondly, the position of COO is not common in Vietnamese companies because most companies are directed by a CEO In a company that has both CEO and COO, basing on the functions of the CEO and COO in the company, the researcher suggests the CEO be translated as “Tổng Giám đốc” and “COO” as “Giám đốc điều hành”
Basing on the descriptions, contrastive and comparative analysis in the previous part, the researcher would also like to make some suggestions on the English translation of some Vietnamese titles in the investigated company structures The suggested equivalents can be found in the following table
Hội đồng quản trị Board of Directors
Ban kiểm soát Board of Supervisors
Tổng giám đốc Chief Executive Officer
Chủ tịch hội đồng quản trị kiêm Tổng giám đốc
Phó tổng giám đốc Vice President
Phó tổng giám đốc kinh doanh Vice President of Sales and Marketing Phó tổng giám đốc kĩ thuật Vice President of Production and Engineering
Giám đốc kinh doanh Chief Customer Officer Giám đốc tiếp thị Chief Marketing Officer / Marketing Director Giám đốc bán hàng Chief Sales Officer / Sales Director
Giám đốc tài chính Chief Financial Officer / Financial Director
Giám đốc nhân sự Chief Human Resources Officer/
Human Resources Director Giám đốc sản xuất Chief Production Officer/ Production Director
Trưởng phòng nhân sự Human Resources Manager
Kế toán trưởng kiêm trưởng phòng kế toán
Trưởng phòng bán hàng Sales Manager
Trưởng phòng tiếp thị Marketing Manager
Trưởng phòng quản lý chất lượng Quality Assurance Manager
Table 3: Vietnamese professional titles and their English equivalents
Implications for teaching and learning Business English
In the U.S., the market economy has been experienced for a long period of time while Vietnam has just followed it lately This explained why a number of titles that exist in English but not in Vietnamese language Hence, in the teaching of English professional titles, teachers should remind students that many English titles do not have Vietnamese equivalents Besides, the system of professional titles in the management system of a company is rather complicated and largely depends on the company‟s culture Thus, it is inevitable for learners to devote their time if they want to fully understand the intrinsic meaning of each title and be able to suggest equivalents of in the target language
Teachers can provide students that normally the highest position of a share holding company is the Board of Directors headed by a Chairman; CEO is the highest position in charge of managing the company‟s daily operations A company may have a number of Vice Presidents to support the CEO Subordinates of VP may be Directors who take responsibilities for directing a particular function Directors can be referred to as “manager of manager” as they are superior to a number of managers Typically, a director has a staff of managers, being responsible for overseeing the actual work in progress For example a director of production in a manufacturing group might have a manager assigned to each production line and work shift The management staff for a director of quality might focus on inspections and testing, continual improvement and problem-solving Employees report details of daily activities to managers, who, in turn, provide summaries to directors, who filter the information for key performance indicators, which are then reported further up the chain to vice presidents
However, not all companies‟ chain of commands goes that way Many companies use the term “Manager” rather than “Director” Other companies employ a C-level title for a position of the same rank to a VP or Director Thus, it is a good idea that teachers tell students to look for people who receive reports from the others to know who is superior to whom in a company
Teachers should also remind students that not only big or medium size companies have a CEO People with their own business can “indulge” themselves by noting that they are a CEO in their business card even though they are the only staff of their business organism In many cases, people make themselves more important by giving a more respected title than their real responsibilities On the contrary, people carrying very simple title may have a lot of power over those taking “flashy” titles in the same companies
Hence, in doing their future business, students should not only depend on the titles that their business associates carry but also take other information into consideration before deciding with whom they should work.
CONCLUSION
Recapitulation
The investigation has shown that there are some similarities as well as differences in American and Vietnamese joint-stock company structure In both countries, the governance structure of a shareholding company appears to have three layers including the shareholders‟ meeting, a board of management or a board of directors, and the daily management The four key business functions of a company in both countries consist of Finance, Sales and Marketing, Human Resources and Production
American joint-stock companies‟ management system is characterized by one single board which allocates both supervisory and managerial functions to the board of directors
On the contrary, Vietnamese companies‟ management system has two-tier board structure with the management board and supervisory board working independently
With regards to titles denoting the management systems, normally in the U.S., the title of Chairman, President, Vice-President, Director and a C-level title (such as Chief Financial Officer) usually refer to the position of top managers “Manager” is used to denote middle managers who head a particular segment and are responsible for specific functions
In Vietnamese companies, “Chủ tịch”, “Tổng giám đốc”, “Giám đốc” and “Phó tổng giám đốc” are the titles of top managers while “Trưởng phòng” implies that people carrying this title belong to lower management level It should be reminded that in both American and Vietnamese companies, the corporate system is flexible and largely depends on a company‟s own objectives and strategies This means that people doing the same job in different companies may not always carry identical titles
To be more specific, at the top of an American company hierarchy is the Board of Directors headed by a Chairman The Board of Directors is similar to “Hội đồng quản trị” in Vietnamese companies; thus, the Chairman of the Board of Directors in the U.S is equivalent to “Chủ tịch Hội đồng quản trị” The position of CEO in an American company is denoted by “Tổng giám đốc” or “Giám đốc” in Vietnamese language The COO, the position employed in replace for the CEO in operating the daily activities of the company can be translated as “Giám đốc điều hành”
With regards to titles denoting functional managers, the common professional titles in American companies which denote the head of a particular function are Chief Financial Officer/ Financial Director, Chief Human Resources Officer/ Human Resources Director/
Human Resources Manager, Chief Customer Officer/ Sales and Marketing Director, Chief Manufacturing Officer/ Manufacturing Director These titles are respectively equivalent to
“Giám đốc tài chính”, “Giám đốc nhân sự”, Giám đốc kinh doanh, “Giám đốc sản xuất” in Vietnamese language Also, a number of American companies use the title of Vice President to denote the director of a particular function such as VP-Finance, VP-Production
The title can be translated as “Phó (tổng) giám đốc” in Vietnam Some other popular titles denoting functional managers in English language are Accounting Manager/ Chief Accounting Officer/ Chief Accountant, Chief Marketing Officer/ Marketing Manager, Territory/ Regional Sales Manager, Staff Training and Development Manager These positions may either be head of a department or just in charge of a specific function
Accounting Manager and Chief Accounting Officer refers to “Trưởng phòng kế toán” in Vietnamese companies Chief Accountant is the English title for “Kế toán trưởng”
However, the position of Chief “Trưởng phòng kế toán” and “Kế toán trưởng”are combined; hence, the title “Kế toán trưởng” usually implies that the person is both Chief Accounting Officer and Chief Accountant In Vietnam, “Kế toán trưởng” is a highly respected position who may belong to the top management system, working closely to the CEO of a company, being in charge of not only accounting but sometimes even responsible for all finance and accounting activities of a corporation Therefore, in terms of responsibilities, “Kế toán trưởng” in Vietnamese companies may sometimes be equivalent to Chief Financial Officer or Chief Finance and Accounting Officer of an American company Similarly, the position of “Phó tổng giám đốc kĩ thuật” in Vietnamese companies does not always simply mean VP of Engineering in English because he or she supervises the performance of both Engineering and Production Department Hence, “Phó tổng giám đốc kĩ thuật” is more similar to a VP-Production in an American company
The fact that system of occupational titles largely depends on the companies‟ culture and strategies causes numerous challenges for not only linguistics learners but also business people around the world Hence, teachers should provide students some background knowledge and raise students‟ awareness of the differences In addition, while teaching, learning and attempting to transfer a professional title into another language, it is suggested that teachers, learners and translators look for the responsibilities of each position to fully understand a person‟s rights and duties in his or her companies.
Limitations of the study
So far, there has not many researchers doing research into the system of titles In terms of professional titles of a joint-stock company, this is the first study on this subject matter Besides, the researcher of this study is just a linguistic learner who has not had any opportunities to attend a course on management studies Thus, although the writer put great attempt, as a pilot study, it is inevitable that the research remains a number of limitations
Firstly, the researcher based on some organizational structures and statistics from some job suggested websites in choosing a list of professional titles to investigate rather than conducting a pre-research into business people‟s as well as language learners‟ need to be sure about the titles that really matter to them Hence, the findings of the research may not satisfy all readers of the study
Secondly, the number of company structures introduced is not large; thus, the titles found may not be abundant
Last but not least, the research only investigated the titles denoting some top managerial positions heading four key business functions of a company while numerous non-managerial titles are left behind.
Suggestions for further research
From the limitations of the study, the researcher suggests that a research into a wider range of professional titles should be carried out The focus of the study may be put upon not only management occupations but also non-management occupations If possible, it is a good idea for a check list of business titles providing information about common responsibilities of groups of similar titles and their possible Vietnamese equivalents be built
Besides, in the process of carrying out this study, the researcher found that there remains various problems in Vietnamese system of titles What is more, in many companies, the translation of Vietnamese titles into English is not precise if responsibilities are taken into consideration Thus, a research into Vietnamese professional titles and their English equivalents would be of great help for Vietnamese business enterprises in today‟s world which is featured by the increase of international economic integration
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