The impacts of cultural diversity on job performance oea foreign teachers’ perspectives

BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - - GRADUATION THESIS TOPIC: THE IMPACTS OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY ON JOB PERFORMANCE: OEA FOREIGN TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES Student : Le Thi Thao Class : K20ATCB Academic year : 2017 – 2021 Student ID : 20A7510161 Supervisor : Mrs Le Thi Minh Que (M.A) Hanoi, May 2021 Tai ngay!!! Ban co the xoa dong chu nay!!! 17014129067171000000 Student: Le Thi Thao Student ID: 20A7510161 ABSTRACT The world has transformed into a global village with people traveling to find international partners, build business relationships and optimize their profits Establishing a sincere, supportive relationship based on mutual respect is fundamental to Vietnamese culture The main purpose of this paper is therefore to discuss how cultural diversity affects overseas teachers and multicultural organizations as well as offering some potential solutions to overcome barriers in the workplace It examines selected intercultural factors to discuss the effects of cultural diversity on foreign teachers and intercultural companies and to provide practical solutions to workplace barriers The quantitative research methodology was used as the fundamental instrument and the questionnaire survey was assigned to a total of 28 respondents for OEA foreign teachers The results show common positive effects, including designing a professional work environment, deepening international integration and promoting personal growth Cultural diversity also enhances the company's reputation, improves teamwork activities, and maximizes individual potential Besides, there are significant challenges arising from misunderstandings, psychological and linguistic barriers, conflicting values, anxiety, uncertainty, ethnocentrism and stereotyping, which are caused by inadequate cultural knowledge and the lack of intercultural communicative skills Thus, adequate training in cross cultural communication and exposure to other cultures is essential in eliminating these obstacles OEA teachers are encouraged to familiarize themselves with different cultural backgrounds of colleagues, open up to a new culture, engage in teamwork, and share tasks and knowledge It is important for managers to be proactive in evaluating communication skills, resolving conflicts from a multicultural framework, making necessary adjustments to meet today's increasingly diverse workforce needs and understanding of intercultural communication The findings can be beneficial for foreign teachers, school administrators and policymakers in managing cultural differences in the workplace Keywords: Impacts, cultural diversity, job performance, OEA foreign teachers’ perspectives Graduation Thesis i Banking Academy Student: Le Thi Thao Student ID: 20A7510161 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First, I would like to extend my sincere and deepest thanks to my research supervisor, Mrs Le Thi Minh Que, M.A, Deputy manager of ATC program, Lecturer of Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking Academy of Vietnam Her clear orientation from the initial step helped me to decide on a topic that I am really interested in and best suited my ability In the process of finalizing the thesis, Mrs Que has not only given me clear instructions but also always listened and supported my idea Her sincerity, meticulousness is a great motivation to encourage me to complete the thesis with all my efforts Thanks to her, I realized that I am inspired to overcome the most difficult times For me, it is such a big honor to work under her guidelines Second, I would like to thank my family for always encouraging and supporting me in every step of my life Even though they not have access to specialized education and just manual labor, they always love and support me unconditionally Also, my colleagues in Oxford English Academy –Vietnam, wholeheartedly supported me to complete the survey and shared their viewpoints relevant to my thesis Without them, my graduation thesis would not be finished Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt respect to all the lecturers of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking Academy of Vietnam I have learned not only languages, soft skills but also valuable experiences in four years in Banking Academy From a small provincial student with a lack of basic language knowledge, I can now confidently carry out scientific research thanks to the support of all lecturers in ATC Although I am not able to say thank you to each, my heart is still full of gratitude and favors received from all of them Graduation Thesis ii Banking Academy Student: Le Thi Thao Student ID: 20A7510161 DECLARATION I declare that this graduation thesis is my own study, under the guidance of Mrs Le Thi Minh Que, M.A, Deputy manager of ATC program, Lecturer of Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking Academy of Vietnam The research contents and results are accurate and have never been published in any study works before The references are properly cited as prescribed in the reference section Hanoi, 20th May, 2021 Signature Le Thi Thao Graduation Thesis iii Banking Academy Student: Le Thi Thao Student ID: 20A7510161 TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii DECLARATION iii TABLE OF CONTENT iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF TABLES vii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Background 1.2 Significance of the Study 1.3 Research Purposes 1.4 Research Questions 1.5 Research Schedule 1.6 Research Structure .4 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW .5 2.1 Definitions of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace 2.2 Main Types of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace 2.2.1 Internal Diversity 2.2.2 External Diversity 2.2.3 Organizational Diversity .10 2.2.4 Worldviews Diversity 10 2.3 The Importance of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace .11 2.4 Workplace Diversity in Organizations Conceptual Framework 13 CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODS 16 3.1 Participants .16 3.2 Research Instruments 16 3.3 Data Collection 17 3.4 Data Analysis 18 Graduation Thesis iv Banking Academy Student: Le Thi Thao Student ID: 20A7510161 CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 19 4.1 Participant Demographics .19 4.1.1 Age and Gender 19 4.1.2 Nationalities 20 4.1.3 The Period of Residence and Work 21 4.1.4 Education Qualifications .22 4.1.5 Purposes of Visiting to Vietnam 23 4.2 The Evaluations of Common Factors in Multicultural Workplace 24 4.2.1 Organizational Management .24 4.2.2 Cooperation and Teamwork Activities .27 4.2.3 Job Function and Responsibility 30 4.2.4 Working Conditions 33 4.2.5 Compensation and Benefits 35 4.3 Impacts of Cultural Diversity on OEA Teachers in the Workplace 37 4.3.1 The Positive Effects of Cultural Diversity 37 4.3.2 The Negative Effects of Cultural Diversity 41 4.4 Solutions for Diversity-Related Workplace Challenges .46 4.4.1 For Foreign Teachers 46 4.4.2 For OEA Managers and Policymakers .49 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION 53 5.1 Summary of Findings 53 5.2 Implications of the Research 57 5.3 Limitations of the Current Study 59 5.4 Recommendations for Further Research .60 REFERENCES .62 APPENDIX 66 Graduation Thesis v Banking Academy Student: Le Thi Thao Student ID: 20A7510161 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations Explanation C&B Compensation and Benefits CAE Certificate in Advanced English CELTA COVID-19 Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages CoronaVirus Disease 2019 D&I Diversity & Inclusion FCE First Certificate in English MIC Ministry of Information and Communications MOLISA Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs OEA OEA UK Oxford English Academy Oxford English Academy in The United Kingdom PET Preliminary English Test SPSS Statistical Package for The Social Sciences TEFL Teaching English as a Foreign Language TESOL YLE Graduation Thesis Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Young Learners English Tests vi Banking Academy Student: Le Thi Thao Student ID: 20A7510161 LIST OF FIGURES Figures Page Figure 2.1 The conceptual framework of cultural diversity in the 14 workplace Figure 4.1 Age distributions 19 Figure 4.2 Gender distributions 20 Figure 4.3 Residence periods 21 Figure 4.4 Work periods 22 Figure 4.5 Education Qualifications 23 Figure 4.6 OEA teachers’ perspectives about job function and 32 responsibility Figure 4.7 OEA teachers’ perspectives about compensation and 36 benefits Graduation Thesis vii Banking Academy Student: Le Thi Thao Student ID: 20A7510161 LIST OF TABLES Tables Page Table 4.1 Nationality distributions 20 Table 4.2 Purposes of visiting to Vietnam 23 Table 4.3 The Cronbach's Alpha results of organizational 25 management Table 4.4 OEA teachers’ perspectives about organizational 26 management Table 4.5 The Cronbach's Alpha result of cooperation and teamwork activities 28 Table 4.6 OEA teachers’ perspective about cooperation and teamwork activities 29 Table 4.7 The Cronbach's Alpha result about job function and responsibility 31 Table 4.8 The Cronbach's Alpha and descriptive statistics result 33 of working conditions Table 4.9 The Cronbach's Alpha result of compensation and benefits 35 Table 4.10 The descriptive statistics result of positive effects of cultural diversity 37 Table 4.11 The descriptive statistics result of negative effects of cultural diversity 41 Table 4.12 The descriptive statistics results of solutions for 46 foreign teachers Table 4.13 The descriptive statistics results of solutions for OEA managers and policymakers Graduation Thesis viii 49 Banking Academy Student: Le Thi Thao Student ID: 20A7510161 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter presents an overview of cultural diversity in the workplace in general and in Vietnam in particular Additionally, the significance and purposes of the study are also emphasized clearly before introducing the research questions, schedule and structure 1.1 Research Background One of the global common phenomena in multinational companies is the diversity of culture, which is defined by the United Nations High Commission of Human Rights as the differences were needed in order to advantage people involved (Almeida, 2007) This phenomenon has been researched and developed into a topic covered in numerous books, studies and newspapers by a great number of scholars Ely and Thomas (2001), Brunow (2011) and Martin (2014) analyzed the effects of cultural diversity in the workplace, and each paper demonstrated the different benefits as well as barriers of this subject Kreitner et.al (2007), Robert and Angelo (2017) figured out several conceptual frameworks which illustrated the workplace diversity process in organizations In addition, during the 1960s and 1970s, The United States of America for the first time saw the need to promote workplace diversity because of the large numbers of employees coming from all over the world, which has become the turning point in avoiding the deliberation of diverse characteristics (Dike, 2013) Obviously, cultural diversity has become one of the most interesting topics in books, papers, seminars, conferences (Atyah, 2015) Many challenges have been posed for academics to become more involved in the impending social issues of the day and to demonstrate the value of their research in public The studies of cultural diversity in the working space offered a chance for scholars to explore the unprecedented findings In Vietnam, as reported by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), a number of individuals and organizations have become concerned about cultural diversity issues when the government has enforced Vietnam's renovation in 1986 and integration policies Until July 2019, the number of foreigners who have come to Vietnam for work has climbed significantly with more than 81.100 foreigners who are legally working for the various fields in Vietnam, The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) has informed This is the premise and foundation of cultural diversity in the workplace, especially in large corporations or multinational companies For instance, according to FPT’s website published in September 2018, more than 300 IT foreign engineers currently work for this company, which has created a diverse working environment in culture, communication, productivity, problem-solving, etc However, Graduation Thesis Banking Academy