Riordan Manufacturing Compliance Plan UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Pham Thi Thuy Trang LOW EMPLOYEE WORK MOTIVATION A CASE OF SOUTH TAX CONSULTING CO , LTD[.]
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Pham Thi Thuy Trang LOW EMPLOYEE WORK MOTIVATION: A CASE OF SOUTH TAX CONSULTING CO., LTD MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019 UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Pham Thi Thuy Trang LOW EMPLOYEE WORK MOTIVATION: A CASE OF SOUTH TAX CONSULTING CO., LTD MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: ASSOC PROF DR NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019 Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES Company introduction 1.1 Company background 1.2 Business performance 10 Symptoms 13 Problem analysis 18 3.1 Problem identification 18 3.1.1 Initial cause and effect map 19 3.1.2 Potential problems 24 3.1.2.1 Work overload 24 3.1.2.2 Employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability 25 3.1.2.3 Insufficient supervisor support 26 3.1.2.4 Low employee work motivation 26 3.1.3 Updated cause and effect map 28 3.1.4 Updated possible problems 29 3.1.4.1 Work overload 29 3.1.4.2 Employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability 31 3.1.4.3 Insufficient supervisor support 33 3.1.4.4 Low employee work motivation 34 3.2 Problem validation 36 Main problem definition and consequences 38 4.1 Main problem definition 38 4.2 Main problem consequences 39 Cause analysis 41 5.1 Potential causes 41 5.1.1 No appreciation for job well done 42 5.1.1.1 No performance appraisal system 42 5.1.1.2 No compliment from manager for outstanding employee 43 5.1.2 No promotion and career advancement for current employee 44 5.1.2.1 Unqualified for mid level supervisor position 44 5.1.2.2 Insufficient trust from manager 45 5.1.3 Unpleasant work space 45 5.1.3.1 Poorly equipped office 46 5.1.3.2 Poorly designed office 47 5.1.3.3 Working office impacted by so much noise 48 5.2 Cause validation 50 Alternative solutions 52 6.1 Alternative solution 1: Investing in necessary equipment for working 52 6.2 Alternative solution 2: Redecorating the current office 54 6.3 Alternative solution 3: Renting new office 55 6.4 Solution justification 57 Change plan design 59 7.1 Objectives 59 7.2 Targeted outcomes 59 7.3 Action plan implementation 60 Conclusion 62 Supporting information 63 9.1 Methodology 63 9.2 Interview guide 63 9.3 Transcripts 64 References 81 Appendix 90 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Recently, the financial statement of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd has experienced a drop in revenue This circumstance is mostly impacted by increasing in number of defection customers Customers leaving South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd is mainly due to dissatisfaction with service quality that the company provided, in specific, inaccuracy in preparing accounting reports In order to discover the issues that South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd is facing with, meeting with CEO of the company as well as interviewing relevant employee in accounting department and defection customers in 2018 has been implemented Through interviewing relevant subjects, using data provided by the company and using related theory, main problem was identified as low employee work motivation Towards main problem of low employee work motivation, three potential causes have been found out are no appreciation for job well done, no promotion and career advancement for current employee and unpleasant work space After analysis, main cause that chosen to solve is unpleasant work space This study will focus on solution to solve this cause in order to help the company improve business performance ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I sincerely thank ISB for giving me useful knowledge which possibly applies to my study as well as support during the time of thesis Secondly, I would like to express my gratitude to my Supervisor - Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Mai Trang who has supported me during the time doing this thesis Without the guidance and support from Supervisor, my thesis can not be completed promptly Thirdly, I am also grateful to members of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd who showed patient and support to help me prepare this thesis Finally, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my family members for sympathizing and encouraging me to complete my Master program LIST OF TABLES Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table 10 Table 11 Table 12 Table 13 Table 14 Table 15 Table 16 Table 17 Table 18 Table 19 Table 20 Table 21 Table 22 Fundamental information about competitors of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March 2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Categories of service provided by South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March 2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Revenue in each group of customer at South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd in 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Fluctuation in number of micro trading customer of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd in the period of 2014 - 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Details about cases that inaccurate in tax reports in micro trading group – announced by tax authority in 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Number of customers in each accountant‟s portfolio at STC in 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Measurement of average time to complete main task for accountant in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: Author synthesis) Details about experience of accountants in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March 2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Assessment of knowledge, skill and ability of accountants in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: Author synthesis) Measurement of average time to complete main task for manager in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: Author synthesis) Assessment of motivation of accountants in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: Author synthesis) Fluctuation in number of customers at South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd in 2014 – 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Assessment for “Poorly equipped office” (Author synthesis) Assessment for “Poorly designed office” (Author synthesis) Assessment for working environment in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Author synthesis) Costs for alternative solution (Author synthesis) Cost for alternative solution (Author synthesis) Cost for renting – alternative solution (Author synthesis) Costs for office decoration – alternative solution (Author synthesis) Costs for best solution (Author synthesis) Action plan (Author synthesis) Detailed description and objective for specific task (Author synthesis) LIST OF FIGURES Figure Figure Company structure of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March 2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Number of customers in each group of business of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd at the end of 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Figure 3: Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure 8: Figure Figure 10 Figure 11 Figure 12 Figure 13 Process in accounting service of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March 2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Revenue and profit from 2014 to 2018 of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Revenue in each group of customer of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd in 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) The revenue growth rate of micro trading customers at South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd from 2015 to 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Number of micro trading customers at the year end in the period of 2014 – 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Initial cause and effect map (Author synthesis) Updated cause and effect map (Author synthesis) The growth rate of revenue from 2015 to 2018 of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Fish bone diagram of main problem in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Author synthesis) Final cause and effect map (Author synthesis) Gantt-chart for action plan (Author synthesis) Company introduction 1.1 Company background South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (STC) was established in July 2011 The company is located in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City The firm‟s business is providing accounting service for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Phu Nhuan District CEO of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd is Mr Vuong who has over 10 years experience in accounting service area The structure of the company is simple It has 11 employees, in specific, 10 people in Accouting department (4 senior employees including employees with more than years experience and employees with more than years experience and junior employees under year up to year experience) and delivery man The responsibility of Mr Vuong – CEO is general management, developing new customers (as sales employee role), taking care of existing customers and supervising for accounting department Accountants are responsible for directly serving the accounting service to customers and delivery man is responsible for receiving – delivering accounting documents between the company and customers Company structure is presented as following Figure Company structure of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March 2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Up to the end of 2018, STC has got 182 customers In terms of customer‟s business area, they have groups of customer, such as service, manufacturing, construction and trading In terms of customer size, they have groups of customer, such as customers who have under 10 billion VND in revenue per year, customers who have 10 up to 50 billion VND in revenue per year and customers who have over 50 billion VND in revenue per year At the end of 2018, the main group of customer of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd are the corporates which run business in trading and have the size under 10 billion VND per year in revenue (counted for 65/182 customers of the company) According to Clause 1, Article of Decree 39/2018/ND-CP on 11 March 2018 about Determining Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, this group of customer is determining as micro enterprises Thus the main group of customers of STC is micro enterprises in trading 90 80 70 18 60 50 40 13 20 10 30 > 50 bil VND/year 65 30 36 10 bil - 50 bil VND/year < 10 bil VND/year 11 Figure Number of customers in each group of business of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd at the end of 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Customers require for reliability as measurement for accounting service quality as providers are recommended by their partners In terms of reliability in accounting service, the most important aspect that customers emphasize is the ability to perform promised services dependably and accurately The competitive advantage of STC is that the company has good relationship with tax authority in the area of Phu Nhuan District, Binh Thanh District, Tan Binh District and Go Vap District thus it is supportive for customers of STC who run business in these areas; and provides service with competitive price STC is a micro enterprise with 3.7 billion VND in revenue in 2018, thus it takes a trivial part of market share of this area in Ho Chi Minh City Accounting service providers in Phu Nhuan District not have big difference in service as well as price offering to customers As responses of Mr Vuong, he recognized companies as his company‟s competitors in the area of Phu Nhuan term thus normally, they would leave his company within two years for a bigger one in order to find advancement in their career path He has to recruit fresh men or students who have just graduated with relevant degree in accounting It results in inexperience and mistakes in assignments that new employee acquired Mr Vuong said that he had considered a lot about this problem and training for employee was the proper way From literatures, many researchers also mentioned training took the mediate role in helping employee acquire knowledge and skills and it also influenced over the performance of the corporates (25, 26, 27) Mr Vuong had accepted this circumstance because it was hard to change in case of his company and his apparent responsibility is training and guiding his employee Thus this potential problem is eliminated Thirdly, in terms of insufficient supervisor support, researchers emphasized the important role of supervisor in keeping their subordinates work under particular standard and quality (28) In the case of STC, Mr Vuong admitted that he spent not enough support for his employees partly because he had to manage a lot of functions in the company thus sometimes, he did not have enough time for his employee According to literatures, authors describe a top manager‟s working day in a smallsized company as “unplanned, informal, hectic and fragmented” (29) and they have to change their roles and duties continually in a given day (30) This is common issue in a small firm and STC is in the same situation Mr Vuong believed that in this period of time, it would be better if he directly handled main functions in STC and he could not handover these roles to other people Thus this potential problem is eliminated Finally, in terms of low employee work motivation, Mr Vuong admitted that he had never considered about this aspect in managing his firm whereas it might be a considerable element As he sharing, he just thought that the most important thing was that he could keep good relationship with customers in order to keep the company run days to days He cares about the survival of the company at the present rather than long-term vision that investing in his employees From literatures (31), researchers mentioned that in small company, most of owners run their business primarily for basic needs such as feeding, clothing and housing for their families and acquiring the satisfaction that the position of self-ownership brought along Hence, for their purpose, surviving is one of the main motives for them to run the company (31) This is suited 37 with Mr Vuong‟s purpose for running company On the other hand, encouraging employee‟s motivation is one of the growing responsibilities that managers need to take in order to run their business well (32) Through this study, Mr Vuong admitted that figuring out factors that motive employees for working possibly help him solving the problem that his company is facing with Therefore, to help the company overcome the current difficulties and improve its business performance, Mr Vuong is favorable with figuring out elements that can help improve his employee‟s working motivation so that his firm‟s problem can be solved Thus low employee work motivation is chosen to be the main problem to be solved in the case of STC Main problem definition and consequences 4.1 Main problem definition According to research (33), authors states that the origin of the word “motivation” is from the Latin word “movere”, its meaning is "to move or stimulate" Motivation, as mentioned in many researches (34), is defined as the “desire and willingness” to make high level of effort in order to meet the corporate's goals; with such effort, it is driven by the impulse to meet some individual expectation, need or desire Motivation can be considered as an intangible concept that forces people to action According to (35), there are two kinds of motivation: “intrinsic motivation” and “extrinsic motivation” Intrinsic motivation is about the inside desire and considered as self-driven towards succeed On the contrary, extrinsic motivation occurs when corporates utilize intentional actions and programs in order to motivate their employees It is external factor, in contrast with intrinsic motivation – internal factor According to literatures (36), organizational performance is the primary goal that worth all strategies that the firm implements It is the ability of the whole corporation to meet its stated objectives through operating and governing As stated in (37), there are three factors that contribute to the overall aforesaid organizational performance such as: “financial performance, operational performance and employee attitudes and behavior” Related to the component of employee attitudes and behavior, it is claimed that motivation is a one of potential elements that leads to people attitude and behavior (38) Thus employee work motivation is a factor that affects to organizational performance 38 Work motivation is a set of powerful urges originating both inside and outside people that boost the behaviors relevant to works and define its shape, orientation, intensity and duration (39) As cited in the study (40), there are ten sources that affect to employees work motivation: salary and incentives, healthy working relationships with colleagues and supervisors, responsibility, promotion and career advancement, job security, recognition, good working conditions, company policy, interesting work and autonomy According to researches (41), the authors concluded that motivation helped create employee positive attitude, high commitment, collaboration and sense of belonging to the company It then results in improving employee performance, work quality and also contributes for reducing stress, accidents, mistakes, employee job dissatisfaction and turnover Therefore, it leads to the success of the company 4.2 Main problem consequences Based on interview and data from South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd, because the firm prepared tax reports inaccurately for customers, it leads to the circumstance that customers submit insufficient corporate tax reports for tax authority and they are fined by tax authority This makes customers dissatisfaction with service quality of accounting service provided by STC Therefore, they cut accounting service contract with STC The number of defection customers in micro trading group in the period of 2014 – 2018 due to this reason is referred to Table According to Table 4, in the period of 2014 – 2018, the number of new customers in micro trading group has increased more slowly than the one of defection customers, thus it partly impacts on revenue of the company Expanding this situation to the data of whole company, the number of new customers and defection customers in all groups of customers were collected, the data is presented as following: At the beginning of year Leaving customer New customer At the end of year 2014 152 25 170 2015 170 22 185 2016 185 17 21 189 2017 189 21 22 190 2018 190 25 17 182 Table 12 Fluctuation in number of customers at South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd in 2014 – 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) 39 Refer to Table 12, the number of customers cut accounting service contract with STC dramatically increase in the period of 2014 – 2018, in specific, 25 customers leaving in 2018 compared to customers leaving in 2014 It is equivalent to 3.56 times increasing in number of leaving customers in this period In terms of new customers, in 2018, number of new customers decreased 32% compared to number of new customers in 2014 The decrease in new customers as well as current customers impacts negatively on STC revenue Below chart will show the trend of revenue growth rate of STC in the period of 2015 – 2018 15.00% 10.57% 10.00% 6.69% 5.00% 0.90% -1.22% 0.00% -5.00% 2015 2016 2017 2018 Revenue growth rate (%) Figure 10 The growth rate of revenue from 2015 to 2018 of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Refer to Figure 10, the growth rate of revenue decreases consecutively from 2015 to 2018 The revenue growth rate in 2015 was 10.57% however, until 2018 it has deceased continuously to minus 1.22% This points out that the business performance of the company is on the downturn Therefore, the problem of preparing inaccurately tax report for customers affects seriously to performance of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd On the other hand, as mentioned in the literature, service quality is considered based on two main aspects such as the promptness and the accuracy in the service that service provider delivers to their customers (5) With low perceived service quality, it impacts over customer satisfaction towards service providers (4) Thus it affects relationship quality between customers and that service provider (3) With low relationship quality, it impacts on the probability that customers repeating business (3) and even the probability that they say good word and refer that service provider to their friends or partners (42) Thus it negatively affects to the performance of that service provider (2) Therefore, combining the data from STC and literature, in the 40 case of STC, making mistakes in customers‟ tax reports, which leads to the circumstance that customers are fined by tax authority, really has dramatic influence on the performance of the company It leads to the increase in number of current customer cutting accounting service contract with STC due to unacceptable service quality that the company provided Besides, it impacts to relationship between STC and customers that they are not willing to refer STC‟s service to their friends or partners Hence, it totally influences over the performance of STC Therefore, this problem needs to be solved as soon as possible Cause analysis 5.1 Potential causes Based on the information collected from interview, main ideas are summarized in the following fish bone diagram Poorly designed office Working office impacted by so much noise Poorly equipped office Unpleasant work space Low employee work motivation No promotion and career advancement for current employee Unqualified for mid level supervisor position Insufficient trust from manager No appreciation for job well done No performance appraisal system No compliment from manager for outstanding employee Figure 11 Fish bone diagram of main problem in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Author synthesis) 41 As identified in aforesaid part, the main problem is low employee work motivation which impacts the accuracy in customers‟ tax reports that accountants in STC prepared for their customers Thus in order to find out the factors that possibly affect employee working motivation in STC, in-depth interview with Mr Vuong and his accountants was continually organized 5.1.1 No appreciation for job well done 5.1.1.1 No performance appraisal system As Mr Vuong mentioned in the interview: „At the current, my have not established performance appraisal system for my employee because I think that it is not necessary in case my company because it is small size with just 10 accountants.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old) As responses of Mr Vuong, due to the size of the company with 10 employees, he has not build up performance appraisal system to evaluate to performance of accountants in the company Thus he does not classify his employee into category of performing job good - bad and in his opinion, completing their assigned tasks in given time is employee‟s duty and responsibility As responses of accountants in STC, they stated that without performance appraisal system, they were evaluated equally whether their working results were, thus it partly impacts on their motivation to work at the best performance, in specific: „Because the company does not evaluate employee performance, I not care much about my result in performing work It is both considered the same if I perform the work at the best or worst level.‟ (Phan Thanh Thanh, STC accountant, 24 years old) From the responses of accountants in STC, no matter if they the job well or not, it considered the same result towards Mr Vuong They believe that their duty is completing customer tax reports in given time with whatever quality of their work is If they something wrong in customer tax reports, Mr Vuong will takes the responsibility to figure out the mistakes and help them fix or guide them to fix the errors If they the work assigned well, there is nothing happens Thus it partly points out that those accountants not have intrinsic motivation in performing well the work assigned due to lack of performance appraisal system According to literature (43), authors stated that performance appraisal system is usually considered as one of 42 important factors for encouraging employee motivation It is essentially affects to both intrinsic and extrinsic employee motivation in an enterprise (44) Therefore, no performance appraisal system is considered a possible cause that impacts to employee working motivation in STC 5.1.1.2 No compliment from manager for outstanding employee As Mr Vuong said: „I not think that a compliment is important.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old) In Mr Vuong‟s point of view, he underestimates the importance of a giving a praise to his employees To him, it can not speak anything The employees have the responsibility to perform well their duty and they receive salary from the company at the end of month Salary is considered as the payment from the company to the effort that employees make during the working period of time Thus Mr Vuong rarely gives his accountants any compliment in case they perform their job well done As responses of accountants in STC: „Mr Vuong rarely gives compliment to any of us I think that he does not care much about our desire to have recognition from boss.‟ (Tran Thi Lan, STC accountant, 24 years old) Through responses of accountants in STC, they complain that their manager rarely expresses the praise to employees and appreciate for the work that they perform To him, their duty when they come to work is completing their assignments on time This makes the employees feel that there is not much encouragement or excitement for a new working day because everyday is the same in STC The only thing gives them happiness and expectation in the time working in STC is salary at the month end According to literatures (45), publically showing appreciation for performing the work well helps touch employee‟s ego needs Employees often appreciate for a compliment or even the word saying “Thank you” from manager These actions highlight the key role that recognition takes in motivating employee (46) Therefore, comprising interview with related theory, no compliment from manager for outstanding employee is considered a way to motivate employee in performing well their job and through a compliment from manager, the employee will feel the recognition from their 43 organization and it gives them more motivation for working Thus in case of STC, no compliment from manager for outstanding employee is also considered a potential cause for low working motivation towards employee in STC 5.1.2 No promotion and career advancement for current employee 5.1.2.1 Unqualified for mid level supervisor position As accountants‟ responses, they feel hesitate to commit for long working at STC due to lacking of promotion and career development In specific, Ms Oanh stated as follows: „It is a pity that even if I work for STC for a long time, I still have no promotion or career developing here.‟ (Bui Thi My Oanh, STC accountant, 25 years old) Mr Vuong also agree with his employees about this because at the current, the size of the company is small thus even if the employee is outstanding, there is no career advancement for them in STC Towards employees in STC, is partly impact to their motivation for long-term working in STC Thus some of them may choose to move to bigger company after years working in STC However, as responses of Mr Vuong: „At the current, I need a mid-level supervisor to help me managing the work in accounting team However, I can not choose anyone amongst my current employees because they not qualify my requirements.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old) In Mr Vuong‟s responses, he can not choose anyone amongst his current accountants for the position of Chef Accountant in STC because they not qualify in experience, knowledge, skills and ability Thus to employee in STC, they see no future for working at STC It leads to reduce the motive of the employee for working in the company According to Maslow, the highest need in hierarchy is “self-actualization” (47) As noted in research (48), employees not expect to remain working forever in one position and if the company provides advancement opportunities, it can motivate employees for working and help fulfill their need Thus, linked with situation in STC, unqualified for mid level supervisor position that results in no promotion and career advancement for current employee is a factor that makes accountants in STC low working motivation 44 5.1.2.2 Insufficient trust from manager As accountants‟ responses, they stated that they did not feel trust form manager, in details: „I feel that Mr Vuong does not lay trust on me as well as other employee here For example, there is something in the company that he does not let us implement but he does it himself.‟ (Tran Ngoc Vy, STC accountant, 24 years old) As responses from accountants in STC, Mr Vuong does not trust on his employees thus his employees are not felt trust from their manager They opined that it is partly let them down in making effort for working in STC because lacking of trust from manager On the other hand, when interview Mr Vuong, he said that: „I still can not believe in my current employee because my business is small and I have to monitor it all the time by myself.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old) As interviewing Mr Vuong, he shows low trust lay on his employee because he is not sure that they will work for STC for a long time or not Thus if there is anything important that need a person to deal with, it must be him According to literature (49), the authors figured out that felt trust takes important role in improving employee intrinsic motivation Trust from manager also affects to employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance (50) Thus in case of STC, insufficient trust from manager – Mr Vuong towards employees is considered a potential cause that leads to low motivation for accountants to work 5.1.3 Unpleasant work space In this part, issues related to the term “servicescape” will be used in order to apply into the case of STC As previous research (51, 52), the authors defined “servicescape” as the facility or environment of a specific organization in which the service is provided and it affects to customers as well as employees in that environment According to literature (51), there are three groups of components that is related to servicescape such as “Signs, symbols and artifacts”, “Spatial layout and functionality”, and “Ambient conditions” In terms of unpleasant workspace in this study, two components in servicescape will be applied such as “Spatial layout and functionality” and “Ambient conditions” Details are as follows 45 5.1.3.1 Poorly equipped office As responses of accountants in STC: „Working condition is very important However, working condition in STC is not good enough for me For example: the equipment support for our work here is very poor: computer is old and slow and accounting system is out-dated.‟ (Bui Thi My Oanh, STC accountant, 25 years old) In the point of view of accountants in STC, working condition in STC is not good As complains of accountants, in their office, the necessary equipment does not qualify for their job and it make them feel uncomfortable when performing work The computer is old and the computer speed is too slow When they manipulate on the system or doing things related to computer, it is time-consuming for waiting for it to process Sometimes, the computer is broken down suddenly It interrupts the work flow of the accountants Besides, the accounting software is outdated and they have manually manipulating for some works related to preparing customers tax reports and accounting books by processing reports for inventory, account receivables, account payable… through excel It is not integrated on the software thus it is easy to make mistakes or errors when they need to link the data from excel files and accounting software As STC accountants measured the qualification towards equipment in their office that support for their work based on the scale from to (1: very bad, 2: bad, 3: acceptable, 4: good, 5: very good), result is given below Criteria Oanh Vy Nga Tuyet Lan Thanh Anh Thy Lien Hong The computer in your office is qualified for your work 2 2 3 The accounting system in your office is qualified for your work 2 2 2 2 Average point 2.05 Table 13 Assessment for “Poorly equipped office” (Author synthesis) With the average point at 2.05, it is equivalent to very poor assessment toward equipment that need for the work of accountants at STC It points out that the accountants in STC believe that the equipment at STC such as the computer and accounting software can not support well for their job As interview Mr Vuong: „Equipment here is quite old and I know that However, it takes a lot of money for replacing all of them.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old) 46 Mr Vuong also agreed that the equipment in his company is poor and not qualified for the work requirement However, in order to save money, he does not concern about replacing them with the new ones As mentioned in the research (51, 52), the physical surroundings in the workplace are factors that influence over the behavior of employee in the company In specific, the functionality of the machinery, equipment or furnishing partly impacts on satisfying the needs of employee for working in the organization Besides, the authors stated the importance of accounting software and proper computer system in processing accounting data (53) In case of STC, the necessary equipment for the work of accountants is poor and it does not fulfill their need for daily work It causes inhibition in accountants when they are working and it affects to the encouragement of accountants in STC when they come to work Thus poorly equipped office which leads to unpleasant work space is one of potential causes that impact on employee work motivation in STC 5.1.3.2 Poorly designed office As responses of accountants in STC, they stated that they felt uncomfortable to work in their office, is details: „I feel uncomfortable working here because the office is too small for 10 people working in, tables and chairs are temporary and the office is not well designed for functionality as an office.‟ (Nguyen Tram Anh, STC accountant, 23 years old) As interviewing accountants in STC, they feel uncomfortable with working environment in STC, in specific, they are not satisfied with the office Due to small company, Mr Vuong used his house for company office He spends a room with the square of 20 m2 for team accounting working in In the room, there are 10 computers and Mr Vuong leveraged the old wood to make flats that spiked into the wall as tables to put the computers for his employee The employee said that it looked very temporary and unprofessional for putting in an office Thus in their opinion, office at STC is poorly designed and it is not professional for a working office As STC accountants measured the qualification towards the decoration of their office that they work in based on the scale from to (1: very bad, 2: bad, 3: acceptable, 4: good, 5: very good), result is given below 47 Criteria Oanh Vy Nga Tuyet Lan Thanh Anh Thy Lien Hong The size of the office is reasonable for all staff to work in 2 2 2 Table and chair are comfortable to use 2 2 2 Table and chair are arranged neatly 2 2 2 2 Furnishing in the office looks professional 1 1 1 The office is designed spectacularly 1 1 1 1 Average point 1.68 Table 14 Assessment for “Poorly designed office” (Author synthesis) With the average point at 1.68, it is equivalent to very poor assessment toward decoration of the office that is necessary for the work of accountants at STC The accountants explain that their office is too small, very poor in design and the furniture in the office looks makeshift and unprofessional for a working office They feel unhappy working in such office As referred in research (51, 53, 54), the author mentioned the spatial layout of working environment which includes the size, shape, and machinery, equipment and furnishings arrangement also impacts on the satisfaction of employee for working in such environment Linked to situation of STC, the company does not have proper spatial layout for work space It partly impacts on the satisfaction of employee working in such company office Thus poorly designed office which leads to unpleasant work space is one of potential causes that impact on employee work motivation in STC 5.1.3.3 Working office impacted by so much noise As STC accountants measured the qualification towards their working environment at STC that they work in based on the scale from to (1: very bad, 2: bad, 3: acceptable, 4: good, 5: very good), result is given below Criteria Oanh Vy Nga Tuyet Lan Thanh Anh Thy Lien Hong You feel comfortable with the temperature in your office 4 4 4 3 You feel comfortable with the lighting in your office 4 3 3 You feel comfortable with the noise in your office 1 1 1 2 1 You feel comfortable with the scent in your office You feel comfortable with the working space of your office Average point 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 2.5 Table 15 Assessment for working environment in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Author synthesis) 48 As assessment of accountants at STC, average point in this assessment is 2.5, it points out neutral result towards working environment at STC However, considerably, the aspect of noises is measured with low point 8/10 of accountants considered very bad about the noises in their office and 2/10 of accountants considered bad about such noises The accountants feel very bad about their office space 7/10 of accountants feel very bad and 3/10 of accountants feel bad about the working space at STC As Tải FULL (94 trang): https://bit.ly/3Sn09Ms Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net „I feel very stress hearing baby cries while I am working The baby is very noisy Sometimes, it is the noises from the kitchen or neighbors of Mr Vuong I can not focus on my job.‟ (Ta Ngoc Lien, STC accountant, 23 years old) accountants in STC said: As accountants in STC responded, they felt uncomfortable and stress working in their office STC office is established in Mr Vuong‟s private house Mr Vuong utilized a small room in his private house for Accounting Department to work in The room is not under soundproof thus noises from outside can affect employees who work inside the office There are various annoyed noises while they are trying to focus on their work such as the noises of Mr Vuong‟s baby, the noises from neighbors near Mr Vuong‟s house, the noises of traffic from the street and the noises from a piano center which teaching piano for kids and adults next to Mr Vuong house Since the office at STC is not under soundproof thus it is very noisy for accountants working in the office They said that the noises negatively affect their work quality because it made them hard to concentrate on working Besides, hearing such annoyed noises made them feel more and more stress especially in tax season, the time that their workload is extremely heavy and they really need quiet space to focus on the work According to previous research (55), the authors mentioned that the traffic noise outside working office and noises in home office can negatively influence over the adult cognitive performance From literatures (56), researchers mentioned about the features of the environment that contribute in stimulate five senses of people in such environment such as the temperature, the light, the noise, the taste, and the scent that leads to satisfy people being in that space If the employees feel uncomfortable or unhappy working in their company‟s workspace, it can result in the turnover or poor performance of employees (57) Moreover, according to Lia et al mentioned in research (58), the workspace can affect employee motivation and satisfaction and noisy office can 49 negatively impact employee productivity and work quality In case of STC, working in such annoying office makes accountants feel uncomfortable and even stress when they are under pressure of high workload thus the employee in STC have bad experience working in the working environment of the company It also impacts on their motivation to work in such an environment Therefore, working office impacted by too many noises which leads to unpleasant work space is one of potential causes that impact on employee work motivation in STC 5.2 Cause validation Tải FULL (94 trang): https://bit.ly/3Sn09Ms Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net From discussion with Mr Vuong about potential causes that impact on his employee work motivation such as no appreciation for job well done, no promotion and career advancement for current employee and unpleasant work space He identified that there were two aspects that his company had to suffer and at this time, it was infeasible to implement solution for a change They are performance appraisal system so that he can evaluate his employees and giving them high appreciation for their work and promoting current employee for advancement in career Firstly, due to the size of the company is too small, it is not necessary for the company to implement appraisal system for employee performance so that the manager can know the level of well done in job of his employee and give them monetary incentives or highly appreciate their outperforming publically in the company Secondly, the organizational structure of his small company is very simple and at the current, there is no position for mid-level manager and for such position, his requirement is high in case he needs to recruit a person for, thus current employee in the company can not meet his expectation With current accountants‟ knowledge and experience, they are not qualified for the position of mid-level supervisor Besides, Mr Vuong also does not trust those people enough to promote them to the position of mid-level supervisor because he is not sure that if they work for him in the long term or not Hence, two potential causes that eliminated are no appreciation for job well done and no promotion and career advancement for current employee Therefore, the main cause is identified as unpleasant work space According to literature (58, 59, 60), the researchers mentioned the effect of good workspace on employee‟s productivity as well as satisfaction when they are working in that area Besides, it also influences over the employees‟ work quality and 50 performance (40, 41, 58) Moreover, as Moodle et al concluded in their study, good working condition has positive impact on employee working motivation (40) Therefore, solving the element of unpleasant work space can help enhance employee work motivation in STC In general, final cause and effect map in the case of STC is presented as follows: Main cause and sub causes Unpleasant work space Main problem Low employee work motivation Poorly designed office Working office impacted by so much noise Poorly equipped office Consequences Decrease work quality Decrease customer satisfaction Decrease organizational performance Symptoms Deficit in corporate tax value in client‟s tax reports Insufficient in customer‟s tax submission to tax authority Tax authority‟s punishment for insufficient tax submission Figure 12 Final cause and effect map (Author synthesis) In Figure 12, poorly designed office, poorly equipped office and working office impacted by too many noises lead to unpleasant work place The cause of unpleasant work place results in low employee work motivation Due to low work motivation, it impacts work quality of accountants at STC It leads to many mistakes occurred in preparing customer tax reports This is identified by deficit in corporate tax value in client‟s tax reports With deficit in corporate tax value calculated in tax reports, 51 6679812 ... (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Fish bone diagram of main problem in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Author synthesis) Final cause and effect map (Author synthesis) Gantt-chart for action plan... in income tax that T&F Co., Ltd must submit to tax authority Thus, after tax finalization, T&F Co., Lt must submit supplementary tax and fine for late submit this amount of tax to tax authority... concluded that the work motivation of STC accountants is low Low work motivation influences over the performance of accountants in the company In case performance of accountants decreases, it impacts