Employee motivation, satisfaction and retention case study of vietnam airlines expat pilot

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION, SATISFACTION AND RETENTION CASE STUDY OF VIETNAM AIRLINES’ EXPAT PILOT In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION, SATISFACTION AND RETENTION

CASE STUDY OF VIETNAM AIRLINES’ EXPAT PILOT

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION, SATISFACTION AND RETENTION

CASE STUDY OF VIETNAM AIRLINES’ EXPAT PILOT

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approved by all its members,

this thesis has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Independence - Freedom - Happiness

ASSURANCE QUALIFIED THESIS

Student’s Name: Vuong Hoang Linh

Title of Thesis: Employee Motivation, Satisfaction And Retention: Case

Study Of Vietnam Airlines’ Expat Pilot

I assure that the content of this thesis has been qualified all requirements for a research paper and able to participate in the final thesis defense

Approved by

I would like to thank my MBA classmates for their great support throughout the MBA journey The special thanks come to Tuan and Trang who have dedicated their time and support to help me finish this thesis

I would like to thank all the pilots who have devoted their time to take part in the interviews for my research Without their knowledge and experiences, this thesis would have never been fulfilled

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the financial, academic and technical support of the Vietnam International University I also thank the School of Business, all lecturers and assistant staffs for their teaching and assistance since the start of my MBA course in 2012

Plagiarism Statements

I would like to declare that, apart from the acknowledged references, this thesis either does not use language, ideas, or other original material from anyone; or has not been previously submitted to any other educational and research programs or institutions I fully understand that any writings in this thesis contradicted to the above statement will automatically lead to the rejection from the MBA program at the International University – Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City

Table of Contents

Acknowledge ii

Plagiarism Statements iii

Copyright Statement iv

List of Tables vii

List of Figures viii

Abbreviation List ix

Abstract xi

Chapter One - Introduction 1

1 Company Background: 1

2 Problem Statement: 2

3 Research Objectives: 3

4 Research Questions: 3

5 Limitation and Scope of Research: 4

6 Implication for the research: 4

Chapter Two - Literature Review 6

1 Employee Motivation: 6

1.1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: 6

1.2 Herzberg’s two factor theory: 7

1.3 Goal-Setting theory: 8

1.4 Expectancy Theory: 9

2 Employee Satisfaction: 10

3 Employee Loyalty: 11

4 Human Resource Management (HRM) in Airlines: 12

Chapter Three - Research Methodology 16

1 Research design: 16

1.1 Setting and sample: 16

1.2 Data collection: 17

1.2.1 Interview procedures: 17

1.2.2 Interview questions: 17

2 Data analysis method: 17

Chapter Four – Findings and Results 20

1 Factors concerning employee satisfaction and retention of Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots: 20

1.1 Theme 1: Job Stress 20

Sub Theme 1: Workload 21

Sub Theme 2: Flight Roster 23

Sub-theme 3: Performance pressure 27

1.2 Theme 2: Perceived Organizational Support (POS) 28

Sub-theme 1: Supervision Support 28

Sub-theme 2: Employee Feedback 30

Sub-theme 3: Employee Assistance 31

1.3 Theme 3: Salary 34

1.4 Theme 4: Benefit package 37

1.5 Theme 5: Organizational Justice 40

1.6 Theme 6: Promotional Chances 43

1.7 Theme 7: Alternative Job Opportunities 46

2 Causal model of employee retention for Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots: 48

Chapter Five – Conclusions and Recommendations 51

1 Conclusions: 51

2 Suggestions for Vietnam Airlines to improve employee motivation, satisfaction and retention of expat pilots: 52

2.1 Improve scheduling: 53

2.2 Improve HRM practices: 54

2.2.1 Improve salary and rewarding system 54

2.2.2 Improve Benefit package 55

2.2.3 Reduce performance appraisal pressure 56

2.2.4 Offer good Promotional Chances 57

2.2.5 Improve Two-way Communication between Expat Pilots and Supervision 57

2.2.6 Improve paper work procedures 58

2.2.7 Improve Fair Treatment 58

3 Recommendations for further research: 60

References 61

Appendix 69

List of Tables

Table 1: Definitions of Determinants and Intervening Variables 49 Table 2: Causal relationships of Determinants and Intervening Variables 50

List of Figures

Figure 1: Frequency summary on Themes concerning employee satisfaction and retention of Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots 20 Figure 2: Causal model of employee retention for Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots 50

Abbreviation List

ASEAN Association of South-East Asian Nations

CAQDAS Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software

FO or F/O First Officer

SIA Singapore Airlines

Abstract

This thesis investigates Vietnam Airlines’ current issue of expat pilot leakage By conducting an extensive qualitative case study composed of 10 in-depth interviews with Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots, the author identify seven main themes that affected on dissatisfaction and turnover of this workforce Participants described how HRM practices in Vietnam Airlines lead to dissatisfaction in work, and result in turnover In addition, they also gave recommendations to improve the working condition for expat pilots of Vietnam Airlines Based on prior researches and founded themes, this study proposes a causal model of employee retention for Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots This model can help Vietnam Airlines identify the key factors that affected on expat pilot retention and how to improve the overall working condition for expat pilots Finally, based on successful practices of other airlines and participant’ recommendations, the author suggests some improvements for employee motivation, satisfaction and retention of Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots

Key words: Employee retention; Airline pilot; Qualitative

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Chapter One - Introduction

1 Company Background:

Vietnam Airlines is the national flag carrier of Vietnam The history of Vietnam

Airlines can be dated back to January 1956, when the Government set up the Vietnam

Civil Aviation Department, beginning the civil aviation industry in Vietnam At that

time, there were only five aircrafts of Ilyushin IL-14, Antonov AN-2, and Aero-45…

which served domestic flights during Vietnam War In April 1993, Vietnam Airlines

was officially established as the country’s national flag carrier

“For 20 years of development at an average annual growth rate consistently in

double-digit number, the national flag carrier has marked an obvious advance to become a

major competitor in the Asian aviation market, owning a modern fleet of Airbus and

Boeing planes flown by well trained professionals Beginning with non-regular

domestic services, today Vietnam Airlines operates to 21 cities throughout the country

and 28 international destinations in Asia, Europe, and Australia Its network extends

to 26 countries and territories In June 2010, Vietnam Airlines joined SkyTeam, the

world’s second largest global airline alliance, affirming the carrier’s new position on

the global aviation map as the strategic partner of the alliance in Southeast Asia

region as well as its international standard services.” (Vietnam Airlines background,

n.d.)

Vietnam Airlines aims to become a strong brand of airline service in the ASEAN area

and the world To achieve this long-term goal, human resource is a vital factor that the

company should focus Because not like technology, processes or organizational

structure, competent and dedicated employees cannot be easily copied and replaced

As the national flag carrier, it is especially true to Vietnam Airlines since their

employees should deliver not only airline services but also image of the country

2 Problem Statement:

Vietnam domestic airline service market has changed recent years due to several

changes of government policies From a monopoly market with just one national

airline, the picture now has changed to be an oligopoly market with more carriers

With the entry of low cost competitors, Vietnam Airlines now faces a lot of pressure

to compete with fare price and service offers From long time monopoly, Vietnam

Airlines enjoy a lot of advantages from ground handling services, technical fixing,

flight routes, business experiences, and trained human resources However, these

advantages can be overcome if the company does not have appropriate strategies to

enhance the competence

Among domestic competitors, Vietjet Air, a new low cost airline which operating

since 2011 recently has put new challenges to Vietnam Airlines Not only compete

with fare price and services, Vietjet Air now offer huge salaries to attract Vietnam

Airlines’ front-line staffs to work for the company This tactic has made a lot of expat

pilots quit job at Vietnam Airlines Vietnam Airlines now has over 800 pilots and one

third of them are expatriates Most of these expat pilots are Captain so their roles in

flight are very important The remaining two third of Vietnam Airlines’ flight crew

are local pilots but just one third of them are Captain Therefore, a lot of expat pilots

quit job at Vietnam Airlines will put the company in difficult operating issues

The company, of course, can hire new expat pilots for their upcoming high season

However, training new recruits will take more time for the company to fill up all

shortage positions, the situation that will result in harder flight roster plans Moreover,

other pilots who are working for the company, in turn, have to fly more time to fill up

flight plans This working pressure can result in employee dissatisfaction and safety

issues Thus, Vietnam Airlines now face problems not only to hire new expat pilots

but also to satisfy current ones to keep them staying with the company

In addition, Vietnam Airlines was privatized in 2014 to change from a state-owned

company to become a joint stock corporation This change required Vietnam Airlines

to do business more effectively and sustainably This also meant that the company

will have to compete fiercely with all opponents in order to survive and stay

profitably According to Macey and Schneider (2008), employee loyalty is a dominant

source of competitive advantage and thus, has been drawn to its reported ability to

solve challenging organizational problems such as increasing workplace performance

and productivity amid widespread economic decline From this view, we can see that

the issue of expat pilot leakage and dissatisfaction can affect badly to Vietnam

Airlines’ competitive advantage in the long run

3 Research Objectives:

This research attempts to accomplish main objectives as below:

- To identify problems of employee motivation, satisfaction and retention of

Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots

- To evaluate HRM practices of Vietnam Airlines base on expat pilot’s

experiences

- To propose useful suggestions to improve employee satisfaction and retention of

Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots

4 Research Questions:

This research aims to provide some solutions for the following research questions:

- Why expat pilots are not satisfied with their works at Vietnam Airlines?

- How HRM practices of Vietnam Airlines affect on pilot satisfaction and

retention?

- What are the key determinants for Vietnam Airlines to improve pilot satisfaction

and retention?

5 Limitation and Scope of Research:

The research will be conducted from in-depth interview with small group of Vietnam

Airlines’ expat pilots Because of the limitation of sample size, the study results may

not reflect broadly the whole picture of the Vietnam Airlines’ flight crew resources

In this research, the factors affecting employee satisfaction and loyalty are studied

based on employee’s perception Hence, the result would be subjective

The result of this study can only be represented for the case of Vietnam Airlines only

Thus, it may not be representative for other companies in the industry

6 Implication for the research:

In general, the findings of this study are expected to provide the general

understanding about how expat pilots perceive Vietnam Airlines’ working

environment More importantly, the results of the study can provide managers of

Vietnam Airlines with important information for strategic improvement of employee

retention

From the managerial perspective, employee loyalty is an important part of human

resource management: What do employees expect from the company? Have these

expectations been met? Which gap in the human resource management need to be

improved in order to retain experienced and dedicated employees? By finding

answers for these questions, the study can propose solutions for a better working

environment

From a corporate perspective, employee loyalty is a critical element contributes to

Vietnam Airlines’ competitive advantages The company will take benefits from

dedicated employees through better service outcomes Hence, study on employee

loyalty can also help improving service performance of Vietnam Airlines

Last but not least, the study should make contributions to employee loyalty theory by

exploring a specific case of Vietnam Airlines Thus, the results of this research can be

considered for further researches

Chapter Two - Literature Review

1 Employee Motivation:

Motivation is one of the most commonly topics in Organizational Behavior researches

(Latham & Pinder, 2005) Motivation can be defined as “a person’s active

participation and commitment to achieve the prescribed results” (Halepota, 2005)

According to Pinder (2008), it is the progression that explains an individual’s

intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward achieving a goal “Intensity”

explains how hard a person tries to achieve his/her goals However, high intensity

does not mean it can lead to favorable job-performance results unless the effort is

guided in a “direction” that profits the organization Lastly, “persistence” measures

how long a person can keep effort to achieve the goal (Pinder, 2008)

There are a lot of theories involving employee motivation From 1950s, we can point

out two best known theories: Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s

two factor (motivation-hygiene) theory

1.1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

Maslow (1943) assumed that human needs can be ranked into five categories:

physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualization He divided the five needs

into higher and lower levels According to this theory, physiological needs (hunger,

thirst, shelter, sex) and safety needs (secure from physical and emotional harm) are

lower-order needs that motivate every people On the higher level, people are

motivated by social (affection, belongingness, friendship), esteem (self-respect,

autonomy, achievement) and actualization (growth, achieving potential,

self-fulfillment) needs When lower-order needs are satisfied, employee is no longer

motivated by these factors and moves “up” the hierarchy to seek for higher-order

needs Thus, a manager should understand what level of hierarchy that his/her

employees are currently on and focus on satisfying needs at or above that level

Although Maslow’s theory has received wide attention, especially among practicing

managers, researchers does not validate it due to lack of empirical evidence There is

little substantiation that human needs follow Maslow’s model, that unsatisfied needs

motivate people, or that a satisfied need initiates movement to a new need level

1.2 Herzberg’s two factor theory:

Herzberg (1959) believes that intrinsic factors such as advancement, recognition,

responsibility and achievement impact job satisfaction Employees who feel good

about their work seem advance these factors On the other hand, dissatisfied

employees tend to blame extrinsic factors such as supervision, pay, company policies

and working conditions as work motivation

According to Herzberg, opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction as was

traditionally thought To him, the opposite of “satisfaction” is “no satisfaction” and

the opposite of “dissatisfaction” is “no dissatisfaction” It means that satisfaction and

dissatisfaction cannot be reliably measured on the same continuum

Herzberg characterized factors such as quality of supervision, salary, company

policies, physical working conditions, colleague relationships and job security as

hygiene factors When these factors are acceptable, employees will not be dissatisfied;

neither will they be satisfied Thus, if managers want to motivate workers on their

jobs, they should focus on factors associated with the job itself or with results derived

directly from it These motivational factors are promotional opportunities, personal

growth opportunities, recognition, responsibility, and achievement (Herzberg et al.,

1959)

The two-factor theory, however, has not been well validated in the literature due to

many criticisms They are: (1) the theory appeared to be limited in methodology due

to research on self-report; (2) the theory confused factors causing feelings of

satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the causes that made the event happen; (3) the

reliability of the data could have been negatively determined by ego-defensiveness of

employee; (4) factors confused as sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction; (5) the

value of the factors differed as a function of the occupational level; and (6) the theory

ignored the fact of individual differences among employees (Gaziel, 1986)

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Herzberg’s two factor theory are early theories of

motivation Going further, researchers have explored new theories of employee

motivation Unlike early theories that lack of empirical evidence, these new theories

have acceptable degree of validate documents in explaining employee motivation In

the context of this research, the literature will focus on Goal-Setting theory and

Expectancy Theory

1.3 Goal-Setting theory:

Edwin Locke (1968) proposed that goal setting is a major source of work motivation

Specific goals tell an employee what need to be done and how much effort is needed

(Earley et al., 1987) According to this theory, difficult goals, if accepted, result in

higher work performance than do easy goals; and that feedback from work progress

leads to higher goal performance than does no feedback

Locke (1968) believes that challenging goals motivate employee by: (1) get employee

attention and therefore help them to focus; (2) energize employee to work harder to

attain them; (3) get employee persisted in trying to achieve them; (4) lead employee to

discover more effective strategies in doing job or task

Furthermore, sending feedback on goal performance is necessary It helps employees

to identify inconsistencies between what they have done and what they plan to do

That is feedback guides employee behavior (Locke, 1996)

In addition to sending feedback, there are three other factors that affect the

goals-performance outcome: goal commitment, task characteristics and national culture

Goal commitment requires employees to be committed to the goal and determined not

to lower or abandon it (Hollenbeck et al., 1989) Task characteristics affect

performance more strongly when tasks are simpler rather than complicated,

well-learned rather than new, and independent rather than dependent (Locke et al., 1987)

Finally, setting goals should consider national culture differences In collectivistic and

high-power-distance cultures, people prefer moderate goals than difficult ones

(Gilman & Marginson, 2002; Addison & Belfield, 2002; Keller, 2002)

1.4 Expectancy Theory:

One of the most popular explanations of employee motivation is Victor Vroom’s

expectancy theory Vroom (1964) argued that employees will put more effort in work

when they believe that it will lead to a good performance consideration; then the good

consideration will lead to organizational rewards such as bonuses, pay increases, or

job promotions; that when the rewards will satisfy employee’s personal goals

According to this theory, motivation = expectancy * instrumentality * valence

 Expectancy refers to different expectations and confidence levels of employees in

work Managers have to discover what resources, training or supervision that

fulfills employee’s need

 Instrumentality refers to the employee’s perception of whether they will actually

get what they desire even if it has been promised by their manager Managers

must ensure that promises of rewards are fulfilled and all employees are aware of

that

 Valence refers to the emotional orientations employee hold with respect to

outcomes (rewards) The depth of the want of an employee for extrinsic (money,

promotion, time-off, benefits) or intrinsic (satisfaction) rewards Managers must

discover what employee value in order to give adequate rewards

Expectancy theory works well when organization actually rewarded employees for

performance rather than seniority, loyalty, skill level, and job difficulty Otherwise,

this theory will not have sufficient impacts on employee motivation

From all motivation theories mentioned above, this study considers using Herzberg’s

two factor theory as the primary approach to evaluate employee satisfaction

2 Employee Satisfaction:

For years, employee job satisfaction has been a favorite topic among industrial and

organizational psychology researchers Employee satisfaction can be defined as “a

favorable attitude or pleasurable emotional state that results from a person’s job

experience or a fit between a person and an organization” (Ugboro & Obeng, 2000;

Reilly, Chatman & Caldwell, 1991)

According to Hagedorn (2000), employee satisfaction is enhanced when he/she feels a

high level of achievement, is intensely involved in his/her job, and is appropriately

rewarded by recognition, responsibility, and salary Furthermore, the researcher

pointed out how job satisfaction forecasts employee engagement Hagedorn (2000)

argued that employee who is experiencing a high level of job satisfaction would be

likely to value his/her position and be proud of the organization, resulting in high

probability of job engagement In contrast, due to very low level of satisfaction,

disengaged employee is not excited to contribute to the benefits of the organization,

therefore is not actively engaged in work (Hagedorn, 2000) In this relation, a lot of

studies argue that job dissatisfaction is a dependable predictor of burnout and turnover

(Laschinger et al., 2006; Hellman, 1997; Harter et al., 2002)

It is also generally held that employee empowerment results in higher level of job

satisfaction, primarily because of employee involvement in goal setting and in

decision making (Blackburn & Rosen, 1993; Ugboro & Obeng, 2000; Laschinger et

al., 2006) In addition, it is proved that job satisfaction results in higher level of

employee commitment Employee commitment, in turn, creates valuable

organizational citizenship behavior - the willingness of employee to engage in extra

role behavior that is not generally noted as part of job description (Williams &

Anderson, 1991) Thus, the authors argued that empowerment positively affects

employee satisfaction and that employee satisfaction can also enhance level of

employee engagement

3 Employee Loyalty:

According to Bidwell (2011), the term “loyalty” can be divided into two parts: “The

first part is having the employer's best interests at heart The second part is when an

employee remains with the same employer rather than moving on.” Employee loyalty

is an organizational citizenship behavior that reflects dedication to the organization

through the promotion of its interests and image to outsiders Employees who engage

in these loyalty behaviors act as supports for the organization’s products, services and

image to consumers (Bettencourt, Gwinner, & Meuter, 2001)

Walker (2001) considered managing loyalty of promising employees is the vital mean

of achieving competitive advantage amongst organizations Previous studies proposed

several factors that can affect employee retention The factors are: career

opportunities, work-life balance, work environment, organizational justice,

resignation policy and organization image (Cappelli, 2000)

More than that, Glen (2006) identified nine predictors of employee retention:

organizational processes, role challenges, values, work-life balance, information,

recognition, management, work environment and product/service

Kyle LaMalfa (2007) argued that managers need to understand why their employees

are emotionally connected to the organization - and that is much more important than

salaries, training, or benefits The research claimed that emotionally connected

employees are the best employees because they are engaged and effective in work,

and they feel recognized and appreciated from the management

Van Knippenberg (2000) proposed that employee become more loyal and stay in the

organization when they identify themselves within a group and contribute to group

performance This suggestion based on the goal setting theory of Locke (1968) The

focus of Locke was on the goal, but in order to accomplish the goal, employee must

associate oneself with the group and task

4 Human Resource Management (HRM) in Airlines:

From several studies it is claimed that human resource management play vital role in

reducing turnover Researchers found that human resource management practices in

remuneration and reward, job security, training and development, supervisor support

culture, work environment and organization justice can help to reduce absenteeism,

employee turnover and enhance work quality (Meyer & Allen 1991; Solomon, 1992;

Arthur, 1994; MacDuffie, 1995; Delaney & Huselid, 1996; Ichniowski, Shaw &

Prennushi, 1997)

Appelbaum (2001) defined human resource management (HRM) as “the management

of people within the internal environment of organizations, includes the activities,

policies, and practices involved in planning, obtaining, developing, utilizing,

evaluating, maintaining, and retaining the appropriate numbers and skill mix of

employees to achieve the organization’s objectives.”

According to Bloisi (2007), there are five main functions of HRM that managers need

to know:

 Planning, resourcing and retention: Managers need to forecast a sufficient

number of employees the organization will need in order to achieve its goals

Besides, they need to identify where, how many and at what times the staff will be

needed This is especially critical in organizations where business oscillates, such

as the retail and hospitality sectors They also need to be able to detect the level of

skills required The retention of employee is also important, as recruiting new staff

is an expensive and time-consuming process A manager needs to ensure that their

employees are happy in their work as not only will they be more productive, but

also will they be more likely to stay with the organization (Bloisi, 2007)

 Recruitment and selection: When the need for people has been determined, the

next task is to find, select and recruit the right people for the organization If

companies recruit wrong people, they could be suffered difficulties in achieving

goals and loss in business activities Employees may be over-qualified for jobs

and leave or under-qualified and not be able to work effectively This could have

serious consequences for the organization For an airline, whether on a low-cost

carrier such as EasyJet or Ryanair, or a larger airline such as British Airways, the

front-line staffs are always representatives for the company image Thus, the

recruitment and selection process would ensure that only candidates compatible

with company goals would be recruited The methods used could be IQ tests or

psychological tests, or as is often the case with airlines, guidelines for acceptable

weight and height If the wrong candidates had been recruited, there could be

serious consequences for passenger safety and especially company reputation

(Bloisi, 2007)

 Training and development: In order to get high productivity, employees need to

be trained Training is done to fill gap between the skills and knowledge

employees have at start and the skills and knowledge the organization wants them

to have in order to fulfill organizational goals It ensures that employees are able

to perform to the required standard Whenever new recruit is employed they need

to be trained This may be an induction program to welcome new employee and

orientate them to the culture and working methods of the organization, or it may

be to enable new recruit to develop a new skill and become more effective

Development ensures that employees can perform their potential Development

goes beyond the required skills for the job and asks for individual aspirations A

developed human resource is able to accept change and is more satisfied and

motivated (Bloisi, 2007)

 Remuneration and reward: Employees need to be paid to fulfill their personal

needs Pay needs to be suitable and justifiable Money is not the only reward and

may not motivate employees to be more effective; other benefits also need to be

looked at These can range from benefits such as pensions, healthcare and other

financial incentives, to nonfinancial rewards such as empowerment and job

satisfaction The ability for employees to be able to choose their rewards make

employees feel valued as individuals, which in turn keep them stay with the

organization (Bloisi, 2007)

 Employee relations: Healthy relations need to be maintained with employees to

ensure a productive workforce In the situation of disputes and conflict arising,

managers need to be able to manage the event successfully in order to ensure win–

win outcomes They also need to be able to communicate and negotiate with

unions and other employee representatives to ensure that a stable working

environment is maintained Otherwise, conflicting can result in really bad

implications for the organizations For example, in 2003, British Airways check-in

staff at Heathrow staged a strike at new working practices This event made

hundreds of flights cancelled, summer holidays ruined and chaos at Heathrow, one

of the world’s busiest airports (Bloisi, 2007)

Moreover, the above functions of HRM cannot be carried out separately from the

wider background of the organization, or the society in which the organization

operates The external environment can impact on the design and implementation of

HRM functions This is why HR managers need to understand all changes in

economics, politics, government, legislation, society, technology, and external

competition Furthermore, an effective HR manager should be able to respond to these

changes effectively The internal environment also needs to respond to external

influences To do this it may develop a more strategic approach to HRM Strategy can

filter through the organization, through the managing and development of

performance (Bloisi, 2007)

An HR manager also needs to consider issues of work and job design in response to

the demands of society and the legal implications of health and safety, stress and

employee welfare Society also demands fair treatment, which means the HR manager

not only has to be familiar with equal opportunities to comply with the law but also

must know how he/she can appraise diversity to ensure employees are valued (Bloisi,

2007)

Chapter Three - Research Methodology

This study applied qualitative research method Qualitative research is a process of

naturalistic inquiry that seeks in-depth understanding of social phenomena within

their natural setting It focuses on the "why" and “how” rather than the "what" of

social phenomena and relies on the direct experiences of human beings as

meaning-making agents in their everyday lives (Guest, Namey & Mitchell, 2013) Thus, using

qualitative research helped to understand deeply the problems of retention and

dissatisfaction of Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots

1 Research design:

This research used single case study design A qualitative case study investigates a

contemporary phenomenon (the “case”) in depth and within its real-world situation,

especially when the borders between phenomenon and environment may not be

clearly evident (Yin, 1981)

1.1 Setting and sample:

Purposeful sampling was applied to recruit participants for this study Purposeful

sampling is frequently used in qualitative research It involves selecting research

participants consistent with the needs of the study (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Morse,

1991) in that researchers choose participants who give a fullness of information that is

suitable for detailed research (Patton, 2002) The sample finally conducted 10

semi-structured interviews with 10 expat pilots who six (6) are currently working, three (3)

resigned, and one (1) resigned but returned working for Vietnam Airlines They were

Captains from four aircraft fleets: B777, A330, A321 and ATR72 All participants

had a minimum of 5 years working experiences and 3 years working at Vietnam

Airlines The age range of participants was from 30 to 59

1.2 Data collection:

1.2.1 Interview procedures:

Each participant was assured by email and written consent that their sensitive stories

during the conversation would be used for research purpose only Therefore, all

interviewees were confirmed that their voluntary participation will remain

anonymous Each interview took between 30 and 70 minutes, and was recorded with

the permission of the participants by oral consent before the interview After the

interviews, the recordings were transcribed into Word files and were protected by

setting passwords and saved in the researcher’s personal computers with limited

access All interviews were conducted in English Participants were asked about their

demographic information, their own experiences of Vietnam Airlines’ working

environment, HRM practices, reasons for leaving or staying with the company,

feeling of job satisfaction when working at Vietnam Airlines, and their improvement

recommendations for the company

1.2.2 Interview questions:

Based on the theories stated in literature review, researcher developed semi-structured

interview questions for two objects of participants: current expat pilots who are

working for Vietnam Airlines and resigned ones who have stopped working for the

company Besides, based on the specific knowledge of aviation service industries and

personal observations, the interviewer also raised some open-ended questions during

the conversation to gain more in-depth understandings for the case study or where

responses were deemed particularly interesting or ambiguous See Appendix for the

semi-structured interview questions

2 Data analysis method:

This study followed the single case study design where the data is analyzed by

Thematic Analysis method Thematic Analysis allows the researcher to determine

precisely the relationships between concepts and compare them with the duplicated

data By using Thematic Analysis there is the feasibility to link the various concepts

and opinions of the learners and compare these with the data that has been gathered in

different situation at different times during the project All possibilities for data

explanation are possible (Alhojailan, 2012) Thus, interviews, observations, and field

notes were analyzed for each interview Pattern coding was used to find relevant

themes for this study For the Thematic Analysis, this study followed Braun and

Clarke (2006) step-by-step guidelines The authors used the word guidelines to

highlight the flexibility of this qualitative analytic method These guidelines are (1)

familiarizing yourself with your data, (2) generating initial codes, (3) searching for

themes, (4) reviewing themes, (5) defining and naming themes, and (6) producing the

report In addition, this qualitative study followed merging findings procedure

According to Braun and Clarke (2006), the researcher whose priority is to look for a

wide range of analytic options should use this particular method This method also

allows the researcher to find overview of the case

Transcripts were analyzed using NVivo, a Computer Assisted Qualitative Data

Analysis Software (CAQDAS) to identify major themes related to informants’ view

on job satisfaction and HRM practices of Vietnam Airlines According to Bazeley &

Jackson (2013), using CAQDAS does not reduce the quality of the qualitative

research nor does it simplify the whole process of doing qualitative study What it

helps is, to ease data management and data analysis processes and make it more

manageable as well as rigorous Researcher approached the transcripts using

concept-driven coding to list themes derived from concepts in previous studies, and also

data-driven coding (Gibbs, 2007) to find themes emerge from reading the data Codes were

trialed on ten transcripts then used across all data The focus of this research was

primarily on causes of dissatisfaction and turnover of Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots

Chapter Four – Findings and Results

After analyzing processes, seven key themes concerning the causes of dissatisfaction

and turnover of expat pilots were emerged They are Job Stress, Perceived

Organizational Support, Salary, Benefit package, Organizational Justice, Promotional

Chances, and Alternative Job Opportunities The frequency summary of all themes

was shown in Figure 1 Each of the themes is discussed in details:

Figure 1: Frequency summary on Themes concerning employee satisfaction and

retention of Vietnam Airlines’ expat pilots

1 Factors concerning employee satisfaction and retention of Vietnam Airlines’

expat pilots:

1.1 Theme 1: Job Stress

The negative relationship between job stress and job satisfaction has been consistently

demonstrated in several researchers (Ulleberg & Rundmo, 1997; Hawe, Tuck,

Manthei, Adair, & Moore, 2000; Cotton, Dollard, & de Jonge, 2002; Heslop, Smith,

Metcalfe, Macleod, & Hart, 2002) There are several factors which can create job

stress in work In the current studies, authors have considered performance pressure

(Scott, 1966), role ambiguity (Fisher & Gitelson, 1983), work-life balance

(Alexandros-Stamatios et al., 2003), work load (Wilkes, Beale, Hall, Rees, Watts &

Denne, 1998) and colleague relationships (Sauter, Murphy & Hurrell, 1992) as the

sources of job stress

All ten participants agreed that job stress was the vital factor that caused

dissatisfaction and turnover of expat pilots The sources of job stress came from Work

load, Flight Roster and Performance Pressure

Sub Theme 1: Workload

Vietnam Airlines operates on four aircraft types: Boeing B777, Airbus A330, Airbus

A321 and ATR72 Normally, for all the fleets, the workload depended on season: low

season and high season High seasons in summer and New Year holidays, the

workload was very busy with many flights Low seasons in other times of the year,

the work load was relaxed with fewer flights:

“I think it was depended on the season like New Year was quite busy because of the

increase number of flights, and then summer time was a little bit busy, also the

weather with the rainy season.”

“The work load is not linear; I mean it is not the same throughout the year

Sometimes we can have more work load, sometimes is more relax like the rainy

season During summer period and Tet period, we have a lot of flights.”

However, because of the increase in pilot turnover and flight operation, the workload

has been accumulated in recent years Among all fleets, A321 suffered most from the

pilot shortage since their flight duty was busier than other fleets Besides, because

A321 is short haul aircraft, their flight schedule composes with many short flights,

mostly domestic flights around Vietnam Many short flights means that the pilots

need to do many take off - landing, which add up their workload Thus, expat pilots in

this fleet were usually on maximum duty time, with minimum days off compared to

other fleets:

“In the B777, the Roster was quite stable compare to A321, and the work load there

was more relax, I had more time to rest In the A321, the Roster pattern is really

packed, it is like we all working 5 days, and have 1 day off So every day you working

you expect that 2 sectors in the row and 4 sectors So it is quite a long time duty

period Like if I have 4 sectors, so I propose to have 10 hours working, so that 10

hours for each of 4 days.”

“In the A330 was very good but in A321 was very tough, very hard, every day fly

A330 and A321 are totally different A330 was easy, was great, the Roster department

they were very understand the pilots and they tried to help the pilots all the time In

the A321, because there is big lack of pilots, we are working too much The schedule

is 6 working days 1 day off, second weeks work in a row 2 days off is too much, they

need more people in the fleet It is too much.”

“It was less complaint about work load when I was in ATR, partly because the work

load of ATR is lower, so there is always flexibility and tolerance, not so bad But in

A321 fleet, because everybody has maximum flight duty, there is little room for

tolerance and flexibility Sometimes when there is just one pilot sick and it can affect

to 10 other pilots, everybody becomes not so happy about this.”

Heavy workload made expat pilots feel very stressful and they had little time to relax

after flights They complained that they had no time for their normal life activities

other than work, like doing exercises, spending joyful time with their family and

friends, or traveling some places:

“In A321, every day minimum rest, next day minimum rest, and minimum rest, so the

tired rate is continuing builds up and builds up Most of the time we come back after

finish work is 11 hours And you need a sleep for 7 hours that means you have 4 hours

left, so you don’t have much time for yourself I have less time for work-life balance.”

“I like Saigon a lot and I don’t have enough time to enjoy the city and time for myself

I usually have worked 12 hours, rest in 12 or 15 hours, very stress.”

“I work the same work load as my previous company, same amount of hours, same

amount of takeoff - landing The problem here is that I spent a lot more days at work

than in my previous company In Vietnam I cannot really see and look around more

places because I have only 2 days off maximum.”

For Instructors, their workload was even double with maximum flight schedule and

several training courses They even worried that the stress and exhaustion could lead

to dangerous situations in flight:

“The rule book of Flight Operation Manual - FOM states that for pilots, they have

about the maximum of 100 hours in 28 days But for Instructors, 100 hours in 28 days

is very difficult I was on maximum hour and every sector was the training sector and

it was getting to the state where it was getting quite dangerous.”

“I worked really hard because we have a lot of training The flight, the simulator, we

are quite busy Sometimes we are really tired especially with the training.”

All the participants thought that the company should recruit more pilots since the

number of flights has been increasing Unless the workload is reduced, more expat

pilots will continually leave the airline

Sub Theme 2: Flight Roster

Flight Roster was the biggest problem that caused job stress and job dissatisfaction of

expat pilots According to FOM (Flight Operation Manual), a pilot can be on duty

around 100 hours per month in 28 days The Roster followed this standard and did not

exceed the maximum flight hour for all expat pilots However, it was not efficient

since pilots had minimum days off with stretched flight schedule Expat pilots thought

that they could work more productively with the packed flight roster:

“We have only 7 days off in a month but I think I could work in 15 days or 16 days the

same amount of work in 23 days to get more free time.”

“The schedule should be more efficiency I’m flying for 6 or 7 days a week but on

these 6, 7 days, about 4 or 5 days only 2 sectors a day but in the end you work for 7

days If Roster can manage to give everybody 4 sectors a day, maybe we will have

more days off.”

“To me, work a lot is no problem but don’t waste too much time with on ground Why

they don’t try to make the schedule like 4 sectors or long sector just make it connect

Because sometimes pilots wait on ground tired, we wake up on 4:00 AM, 6:00 AM

take off, fly to Cam Ranh for 2 hours, and then wait some hours until fly to Da Nang

on 12:00 AM, so tired, cannot work like that.”

Vietnam Airlines had two head operation bases in Saigon and Hanoi Normally, both

bases should have the equal number of pilot force However, because expat pilots

preferred to live in Saigon rather than in Hanoi, the pilot force became unbalance

Thus, the airline had to schedule many positioning flights between Hanoi and Saigon

to balance the flight operation and to adapt to changes in flight plan Thus, expat

pilots had to waste a lot of time positioning around Saigon and Hanoi that made them

feel awkward:

“We have so many positioning flights so it is waste of time, money and energy, and

people sometimes keep tired because of the positioning stuff.”

Besides, they also felt annoyed with the unstable Roster that always changed Half of

the interviewees mentioned that they received phone calls or text messages every day

from Roster and Crew Tracking telling them to change their flight schedules They

complained that these changes were too much for them to organize their lives, messed

up all of their personal plans or appointments:

“The Roster I think it is not efficient because they change too much Crew Tracking

they change too much, sometimes change 4 or 5 times a day, let say, from the 1st until

10th I have never followed my schedule that came out from Roster So in fact, just like

tomorrow we expect to fly early morning to Cam Ranh, 6:00 AM finish 9:00 AM, so

we have appointment already, 10:09 AM at the Consulate for the Embassy, they say

cannot go, so I don’t know when I can go I don’t know when I can come because they

change every day I don’t know I cannot plan anything with the Roster that always

changes.”

“The main thing now is the Roster, because of too many changes In aviation you

have to be flexible because in aviation there are always unforeseen circumstances,

one airplane can get on the ground because of the defect, the weather, or no

passenger We have to be flexible but here is like too many changes Too many pilots

complained that they can’t manage their life.”

“They send me text message about Roster change every day So it is not the stable

Roster and you cannot organize your life, and if you say “No, I cannot do this

because I have compromise” they will get pissed off with you I’m not criticizing

Vietnam Airlines but please do not change my Roster five days in a week.”

Moreover, A321 expat pilots thought that there was unfair treatment in Rostering

because their flight schedules were mostly composed of domestic flights, and some of

them had a lot of early morning flights that made them feel exhausted Besides, they

felt unhappy when Roster sent them to stay in Hanoi base for 2 or 3 nights in the

weekend They thought that it was terrible since they could not meet their families

and friends in the weekend, and Rostering staff did not consider these problems:

“Roster is a problem because everyone is working very tired I know they don’t have

enough pilots but it is still very tired Especially with early flights which departed at 6

o’clock or 6:30 in the morning For me, next week 6 days I have 5 days report in 5:00

or 4:00, so it becomes very tired And also people need a balance for international

flight and domestic flight Most of people complained about it It is true like expats we

always just get the domestic And other people don’t like to be sent staying in Hanoi 2

or 3 days Most of the expats we have family in the Ho Chi Minh, so 2 or 3 days in

Hanoi, especially on the weekend, that means no time for the children People don’t

feel happy about that.”

“Before the Roster was public and you could look all of the Rosters and everything

was all very even and for the last 3 years the monthly Rosters haven’t been public and

resulted in huge discrepancy of the number of hours Some of us worked very long

hours, lot of flights and in some other sense, other people saying “No, busy, busy” but

they are not.”

“Work that pisses me off a lot is when Roster sends us 2, 3 nights per week to Hanoi I

hate to sleep in Hanoi, and somehow I have to sleep there 3 days per week This is

one of the main reasons that a lot of people they are leaving the company They are

tired to sleep in Hanoi, they just want to stay here And for me it is the same, when

they send me to Hanoi, it’s like “Augh, I don’t want to come there" I can work every

day as they want but I want to sleep here in my house in Saigon.”

All of the responses clearly showed that Flight Roster caused expat pilots a lot of

stress in their work, which resulted in job dissatisfaction and turnover