Building corporate culture at nghe an water supply limited company

DECLARATION Signed hereby, certify hereby: “Building Corporate culture at Nghe An water supply limited company” is my own reseach.The content and figure in the thesis reflect a true and fair situation in the internship organization I also declare that my research results have not been previously or concurrently submitted for any other works Ha Noi, 5th May, 2016 Student i ABSTRACT Culture is a driving force in today's organizations Adopting corporate culture will create a unique style and attitude for each company, creating centripetal force for the entire company, helps companies boost innovation and invention, and attract more customers The graduation thesis represents the results of research on building corporate culture Nghe An water supply limited company The objectives of the graduation thesis were to understand the manifestations of corporate culture in Nghe An water supply limited company and then give some recommendations to improve corporate culture of this company ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT I owe a debt of gratitude to many people who help me to complete this graduation thesis I would like to acknowledge all of them I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Mrs Truong Thi Minh Hanh, MA, lecturer of faculty of foreign languages, academy of finance, for her whole hearted guidance and support Without her valuable commendation , this thesis can not come to an end My sincere thanks also go to all teachers of faculty of foreign languages, Academy of Finance I would like to acknowledge Mr Nguyen Xuan Thang, the director of Nghe An water supply limed company for creating favorable conditions for me to word at the company Moreover, I would like to extend my special thanks to Ms Nguyen Van Anh, the manager of business department, Nghe An water supply limed company for providing me authentic and up-to-date information relating to current situation at the company for the fulfillment of this paper I also want to convey my sincere thank to all staff of Nghe An water supply limed company for their kindness Without their kind support, I could not finish my research I would to express my deepest appreciations to my classmate and friends, for their hearted-felt assistance and encouragement Finally, I would like to acknowledge the encouragement and strong support from my beloved family Without their love and dedication , this paper would not be translated into reality iii LIST OF ABBREVIATION abbreviations NAWASCO Dept full name Nghe An water supply company Department iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 - Maslow’s hierarchy of needs .8 Figure 1.2 - Levels of Corporate Culture 10 Figure 1.3-Corporate culture-iceberg’s principle 11 Figure 2.1: Nghe An water supply limited company 24 Figure 2.2 : NAWASCO’s Logo 25 v TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATION iv LIST OF FIGURES v INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1:LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1.Definition of corporate culture 1.1.1 Definition of corporate culture .4 1.2 Forming factors of corporate culture 1.2.1 Key business processes 1.2.2 Employees and other tangible assets .6 1.2.3 Formal arrangements .6 1.2.4 Dominant coalition 1.2.5 The social system 1.2.6 Technology 1.2.7 The external environment 1.3 Impacts of corporate culture on the development of a corporation 1.3.1 Creating the unique manner and attitude for each corporation 1.3.2 Creating the centripetal force for the whole company 1.3.3 Fostering innovation and invention .9 1.3.4 Creating the competitive advantage of the corporation 1.3.5 Attracting customers 1.4 Levels of corporate culture .10 1.4.1 Observable artifacts 12 1.4.2 Espoused beliefs and values 13 1.4.3 Basic underlying assumptions .15 vi 1.5 The role of leader – key factor creating corporate culture of an organization 17 CHAPTER 2:THE STUDY 19 2.1 An overview of Nghe An water supply limited company .19 2.2 Levels and manifestations of corporate culture in Nghe An water supply limited company 23 2.2.1 Artifact level and its manifestations 23 2.2.2 Espoused beliefs and values 30 2.2.3 The basic underlying assumption 33 CHAPTER 3:RECOMMENDATIONS 35 3.1 Recommendations to Nghe An water supply limited company .35 3.1.1 Improving the influence of core values inside and outside the company 35 3.1.2 Considering leadership style as the decisive element in building and developing corporate culture 36 3.1.3 Building the specific value system 38 3.1.4 PR and face-to-face communication with customers 39 CONCLUSION .41 REFERENCES 42 vii INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Nowadays, developing corporate culture is an urgent requirement of any company in integration process Corporate culture is the personality of a company and it can’t be faked Through social networks, review sites and word-of-mouth, a company’s culture is revealed If employees are happy and fit in the culture, the company gets a strong name and more people want to work there Culture of a corporation is not only the surface manifestation like dressing, office’s decoration, language but also the moral standard, the leadership style, the behavior within company, etc These elements create the prestige and brand name for all types of companies in general and for limited companies in particular Regarding corporate culture, people often think to “3P” philosophy : peopleproduct-profit According to the importance of three elements, each enterprise might have different ways of behavior in business Nghe An water supply limited company (NAWASCO) is one of the largest limited companies in Viet Nam.With this company, besides concentrating on profit, the quality and the diversity of services, human resource is the first concern NAWASCO always tries to care about the material and spiritual life of employees; respect and encourage the initiation and creation of staffs During the process of international business integration, corporate culture will be the key factor which helps NAWASCO overcome the challenges and is the key for sustainable development of the company In recent period of time, corporate culture is cared by both the leaders and staff members of Nghe An water supply limited company They want to build a value system of the truth-the good-the beauty for the sustainable development target of the company Therefore, I chose the topic “ Building corporate culture at Nghe An water supply limited company” as graduation thesis topic in the hope that some findings and recommendations from the study could be a reference to help further developing a successful corporate culture for the company Aims of the study The study focuses on the concepts of corporate culture, the way it manifests in Nghe An water supply limited company It is expected good recommendations will be made for creating corporate culture process of this company Thus, the study aims to: i Get deeper understanding of the corporate culture ii Understand why, what and how the company forms and develops its corporate culture iii Find out some solutions and recommendations to develop and improve the corporate culture in this company 3.Methods of the study To collect data, qualitative methods including documentation, direct observation and interview are used in this research Documentation is used as secondary source of information in forms of books, articles and websites to collect information of theories relevant for this thesis, background information about the organization and the standards of its corporate culture Direct observation is appropriate for collecting data on naturally occurring behaviors in their usual contexts For this study, direct observation is the main primary method to help the writer collect the information of corporate culture of the chosen objective Interview is optimal for collecting data on individuals’ personal histories, perspectives, and experiences, particularly when sensitive topics are being explored In this study, the interview provides the added information for the research of the real situation and helps the writer to make suitable recommendations Scope of the study This study focuses on the corporate culture of Nghe An water supply limited company particularly, the way corporate culture manifests in this company The study analyzes the corporate culture developed by the organization and gives some recommendations for the organization to improve its culture to make its difference in the eyes of society, community and clients It is necessary to answer three questions: i What is corporate culture? ii What are the manifestations of corporate culture in Nghe An water supply limited company ? iii What should Nghe An water supply limited company to improve its corporate culture in the future? 5.Organization of the study Apart from the INTRODUCTION,CONCLUSION and REFERENCES, my research paper is divided into three chapters as below: CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW: An overview of corporate culture CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY: The way corporate culture manifests in Nghe An water supply limited company CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS: Recommendations to improving corporate culture in Nghe An water supply limited company company’s policy, many employees are also very afraid of contribute their opinions because they think that opinions are only given by the board of directors, some comments are not sometimes listened by the board of directors In fact, every business decision and strategy is unlikely to make effective immediately But in the enterprise, the leaders must always be the final decision-maker for important issues The consultation of professional rooms has been carried out regularly over the joint news conference, Board meeting and through suggestions on the draft, regulations and decisions Therefore, some opinions of the staff may not be right with the policy of the leaders, leading to some points of view that leaders don’t create trust and admiration of employees At the end of business cycle, the correct direction of the leader will bring positive business results and ensure sufficient salary as well as reward for employees Business results also reflect the collective effort, experience, talent and the quality of leadership Nowadays, NAWASCO has applied direct leadership style, which means that each leader has to make proof of three critical factors: commitment, vision and direction Leaders and senior managers have to feel involved and must embody the new vision in order to attain the fixed objectives; their words and actions have to represent the intended change Besides, leaders and top executives have established clear and realizable methods that employees can refer to in order to implement the strategies concretely 2.2.1.5 Behavior within the company The behavior within the company is manifested through communication between managers and staffs, and among colleagues Firstly, the communication between managers and staffs will be mentioned Managers always treat all staffs well Whoever achieves good results will be rewarded and who has mistake will be warned or punished 28 depending on the severity of the mistakes During the observation, the writer had a chance to join in a monthly meeting of the accounting department In this meeting, the manager had a straight forward discussion on the mistakes of staffs in this month Some accidental mistakes which did not cause any harm were passed but the serious mistakes were analyzed and lessons are drawn On the other hand, the manager also pointed the good things By this way, no one could claim or complain about anything Some managers of the company have shown their willingness to listen to staffs’ ideas and try to talk with about the difficulties, the obstacles of job However, only a few managers can this During the observation, some employees complained about their managers who did not want to listen to their ideas, managers just tried to impose their ideas on employees Though, one good thing is that, managers of the company care a lot about life of their staffs When a staff encounters a family problem, managers will try to arrange time and work to visit the staff’s family Managers will create the favorable conditions for this one to overcome their personal problems In return, almost all staffs of this company have positive attitude toward managers They always show their respect for their superiors The respect is shown by the way of greeting and the language is used Staffs use the formal words along with a smile when greeting managers When having some problem needed to exchange with managers, every one try to talk in a brief way Lengthy conversations are often avoided Besides, employees of branch always try to complete the entire divided task They even spend the extra time to finish task The third one is the communication among colleagues In general, the relationship among staffs is close There are many close friends in the company By being 29 close together, staffs will understand each other more From that, working together becomes easy with them and helps them to get better effect At work, everyone shows the respect for listener while discussing If they need to exchange views, they often meet and talk the face to face to each other Internal telephone often is used to handle some kinds of quick tasks or problems 2.2.2 Espoused beliefs and values 2.2.2.1 NAWASCO mission The mission of NAWASCO is “provide products and services as international standard, in order to improve the quality of live” 2.2.2.2.NAWASCO vision The company’s vision serves as the framework and guides every aspect of its business by describing what the company needs to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable, quality growth Nghe An water supply limitd company has a vision: “NAWASCO is a top modern, effective limited company inside and outside the country” To achieve its mission and vision, NAWASCO has to try its best The effort of the company is clearly seen in the way to improve its competitiveness in comparison with other company in Viet Nam To that, the company is trying to improve the quality of services Service’s quality is of greatest importance to help a company attract more customers Relying on marketing strategies as well as enhancing the quality of staffs, the image of the company under the eyes of customers is increasingly improved As a result, the company has gained the trust from many local organizations 2.2.2.3 NAWASCO business philosophy An effective corporate philosophy helps a company develop a certain corporate culture, ethical practices and strengthens the relationship between 30 employers and employees It also positions the values of the company in the minds of others both within and outside of the organization The business philosophies of NAWASCO are: i To follow through safe, effective, sustainable, international standard; ii To unite, cooperate, share and have the social responsibility; iii The prosperity of customers is the success of NAWASCO To follow through safe, effective, sustainable, international standard: the company always tries to maintain safety in all activities Safety here is for both customers and the company The effectiveness is represented in the satisfaction of customers when they use services of the company The sustainability is shown in the way the company increase the benefits This will help to make healthy the financial situation, bring about the sustainability for the company International standard is the one which NAWASCO has been pursuing Applying and updating frequently the new technology is one of the ways to reach the international standard To unite, cooperate, share and have the social responsibility: the company has been trying to cooperate more and more with the local organizations, sharing with customers the financial difficulty as much as it can Simultaneously, the company is actively joining every social activities held by local administration That the prosperity of customers is the success of NAWASCO is always in the mind of all staffs of this company They understand that, only when customers are fully satisfied, success will then come to the company 2.2.2.4 NAWASCO core values Core values of NAWASCO are: i All activities are for the customers; ii Active, creative, professional, wholehearted, transparent and modern; 31 iii The employees have the right to work and devote themselves to the company, the right to be paid by the results and the individual contribution’s efficiency-the right to be complimented the best employee According to the observation of the writer, beside the core values of NAWASCO in general, there are some natural values which are created by people of this company in a long time They are: i Enthusiasm: once undertaking a task, any employees of the company will try his/her best to carry it out with the sense of enthusiasm, wholeheartedness to bring the satisfaction to customers ii Morality: it is the morality among human, between people with their job and toward customers Every member of the company always considers morality the top criteria that an officer needs to have and to live with it iii Time is money: the task of a company is done by day so everyone tries to finish his or her task on time Besides, there are some values that leaders of the company expected from their staffs: i Dynamic: in the new situation, this is the value which many leaders want from their employees This is not except with the leaders of the company And leaders must be the pioneer, they themselves must be self-starters ii Professional: this is value that every member of the company is pursuing They have noticed that this is an important thing which help the company develop iii Harmony: the leaders of the company wants all the members always balance between work and entertainment, between individual and group benefits 32 2.2.3 The basic underlying assumption Nghe An water supply limited company ’s current basic underlying assumptions The current basic underlying assumptions of the company include natural values which are implicitly acknowledged as follows i Enthusiasm: It is commonly agreed that the top concern of the company is how to fully satisfy customer’s needs The satisfaction of customers is the key to success of the company ii Customer orientation: Live in all company in over the world, customers are the King Thus, it is necessary for the company’s employees to first of all identify what customers need and want and what the company can to fulfill those wants and needs iii Morality: it is believed that morality is one of the most important quality a person needs to have if his/her wants to work in a company As an officer , a person needs to “keep a pure morality” iv Time is money: if one person is late, the whole system will be late So time is really valued Six basic underlying assumptions of Nghe An water supply limited company: i Conception of relationship between human and environment: the relationship between people of company and the working environment is a two-way relationship People are the ones who make better the environment and the natures of environment make people have to live and behave as principle In general, members of the company live in harmony in the working environment, reciprocal affect, develop together ii Conception of trust and reality: trust and reality in this company is evaluated based on the morality standard and base on the real information from work The subjective evaluation is not allowed in this company 33 iii Conception of human nature: people of the company all believe that those who work in the company must be those who have enough required background and good morality Everyone has his/her own ability and he/she can bring into full play the ability if he is entrusted the right task iv Conception of human activity: currently, the approach of the company is a “becoming” orientation where people are continually developing and becoming an integrated whole v Conception of human relationship: the company tries to create every possible condition to ensure harmony between individual development and group benefits Step by step, democracy and free speech has been used to mutually find out the best solution to any problem vi Conception of time: for company’s staff, time is money, as mentioned above, therefore everyone values time People value their time very much They consider time as the most valuable asset that once lost never can be found again That is why people get familiar to the thought that being late is one of the first things to avoid 34 CHAPTER RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter provides some recommendations to further develop corporate culture in Nghe An water supply limited company Although there are many factors determining the development process of corporate culture in an organization, with Nghe An water supply limited company, the author mainly focuses on the values system, the leadership style and the relation with customers 3.1 Recommendations to Nghe An water supply limited company 3.1.1 Improving the influence of core values inside and outside the company The system of core values is an important part in business philosophy of all enterprises A long with the leadership style, they will establish the action plan to perform the mission of an organization This system answers such questions like how the organization performs its mission and achieves its targets Which resources and media will be used? Therefore, the system of core values is an important content which is seen to be the spirit of an organization, and direct all the operation of the organization Large organizations in the world or in Vietnam both have the values system which show the vision and philosophy of the leaders and is published in easy-to-see place in the main websites or in the publications of these organizations These values rarely change and is imparted in association with the existence of the organization itself and its products These values are impregnated in all staffs and are the guideline for all policies and strategies of an enterprise Nghe An water supply limited company’s core values are: 35 i All activities are for the customers; ii Active, creative, professional, wholehearted, transparent and modern; iii The employees have the right to work and devote themselves to the company -the right to be paid by the results and the individual contribution’s efficiency the right to be complimented the best employee The core values of NAWASCO are quite long although these values refer to the company’s purpose, the main employees’ characteristics and the main rights of human resource Therefore, with members of the company, it could be easy to understand and remember Day by day, these core values need to be popularized widely not only inside the boundary of the company but also the outside, especially to the customers of NAWASCO-who mainly create the success for NAWASCO The values should impregnate with all staffs and create the positive impact on the way of thinking and communicating of NAWASCO’s members in all activities inside and outside the boundary It is, therefore, suggested that the company: i Build the specific customer- orientated strategies and spread them to both NAWASCO’s members and customers; ii Offer the appropriate incentives which encourage the creativeness of the employees; iii Always update technology, adapt the working environment to the more modern direction to create the better environment for employees 3.1.2 Considering leadership style as the decisive element in building and developing corporate culture At any time and in any cases, leaders always play the most important role and in shaping corporate culture of an organization.Nghe An water supply limited company has got a new leader A new leader means a new leadership 36 style However, the most concerning problem is about the policies of the company The leader needs to show his positive role in defining the policies, strategies and common targets for the branch in each period based on the regulations of NAWASCO The new development policies should be launched to suit the current trend of the market In order to carry out the proposed policies, the leader is not the one who forces staffs, but she herself needs to be the pioneer in performing these policies anywhere, at anytime From the small things to the big things, if the leader is the pioneer, he can set a good example and from which he can encourage employees, makes them respect and follow Therefore, the company can gain the achievements in performing their strategies The leaders need to be the ones who have the good impression of personality and morality on staffs When a problem arises in the company, the decisions from a good impressive leader will get more respect than from the one who has not really good impression in the employees’ eyes In additionally, a good leader will be able to find out best solution and avoid serious mistakes According to the observation and the interview, it seems that staffs of the company still not feel free in discussing their ideas with the leader The leadership is the main reason In the new situation, the way of leading needs to be changed From the senior mangers to junior managers and the leaders of teams need to change the way of communication with staffs: caring more about employees’ working environment, listening to and sharing their problems at work, receiving their contributions, etc Managers should also exchange their ideas with them The problems of management need to be shared with the whole organization to let every one get a deeper understanding of the challenges in managing and to the 37 managers From that, staffs will deeply sympathize with the leaders; they themselves will keep changing their working style to best fulfill the requirements If they feel something not right, they can share with the leaders directly to help the leaders understand the real situation and make change in time 3.1.3 Building the specific value system As mentioned above, the value system is really important for an enterprise These values need to be clear, easy to remember and need to eliminate the obsolete thoughts Based on the real situation of Nghe An water supply limited company, some suggested are made as follows: i Discipline: At work, discipline is important The reason why Japanese can succeed is they value high discipline at work So, if the company wants to gain more achievements, strict discipline is of great concern Discipline here is the rules and regulations which are promulgated by NAWASCO ii Conscience: This is the first thing that all bankers need to have when working for a company The work requires people to be very careful with the number and figures Only one small mistake leads to serious consequence Besides, when communicating with customers, if officers are not conscientious, they can make the customers unsatisfied Once customers are not fully satisfied, they will not use the products and services of the company iii Solidarity: In any organization, solidarity is the strength Currently, staffs of NAWASCO have not shown the high solidarity Therefore, the Management Committee of the company should hold some internal activities to help people close together Once they are closer, they can easily understand each other and the solidarity will be built up step by step 38 iv Being active and creative: These are now the dull values in NGhe An water supply limited company In a working environment where the number of old people accounts for about 70%, it is easy to understand However, if the company wants to further develop in the future and improve its competitiveness, it is impossible to lack these two criteria To have these, the first thing the company has to is to change the employee’s structure The company should set the new and higher requirements for its employees From that, the company can weed out those not meet the standard requirements, for example those without any university degree At the same time, the company can hold some small competitions which create the chance for staffs to be creative The topic could be marketing ideas, for example v Sharing environment: As mentioned above, members of the company not want to share their ideas or even contribute their ideas to solve problems This is partly because of the leadership style They share their ideas but leaders not want to listen to or they contribute straightly about something caused by the leadership and then they get the bad impression on the leaders Through time, staffs will not contribute their ideas To change that, leaders of the company need to change themselves first and then, show their willingness to listen to their employees So employees feel they are valued and then in return they will be more dedicated to the company’s development 3.1.4 PR and face-to-face communication with customers Beside customer cares or call centre service, PR and face to face communication will closer the relation between the branch and customers Public relations (PR) are the management of internal and external communication of an organization to create and maintain a positive image PR may involve heightening success, 39 downplaying failures, announcing changes, and many other activities However, ethical PR practitioners can also convince the company to work more closely with its various publics and form win-win relationships PR activities aim to: i Contact with customers (press conference, customer conference); ii Listen and receive feedbacks (customers comment about company’s products or services); iii Exchange and show ideas (about the impacts of products or services to consumers); iv Build image and retain good reputation (support for the student’s scholarships) Realizing the aims and meaning of PR activities, the company should have a specific strategy, such as advertising on local TV or radio It is also important to remember that there are many PR companies which specialize in PR activities effectively in Vietnam, but they are almost foreign–owned The company can take advantage of the experience and draw many useful lessons about PR activities from those companies Or instead, the branch can hire them to implement PR strategies if budget is enough Face-to-face communication is also considered as part of PR activities This will help the branch receive feedbacks flexibly and directly from its customers As mentioned above, face-to-face communication is conducted by a customer conference or interview on TV and radio talk with audiences or customers that the clients think and wish to reach It is also important to note that information from direct conversations is better and more precise than this from other secondary methods 40 CONCLUSION The revolution of science and technology leads to many enormous changes, especially to the economic sector It affects all enterprises when adapting to a new situation These influences require an innovation in most units including companies, banks or multinational corporations in the Vietnamese market The innovation process must be firstly carried out in the corporate culture of each organization, from leadership style of managers, working style of staffs to professional environment In the other words, corporate culture should be paid more attention to during the innovation and integration of most businesses Corporate culture consists of many elements such as dress code, leadership style, office decoration or organizational behavior, etc In this research, the concept of corporate culture is limited to Nghe An water supply limited company Each element of corporate culture plays its own important role in a unified system of a company For example, leadership style affects encouragement and motivation to the subordinators who contribute to the development of company To Nghe An water supply limited company corporate culture is becoming one of the vital strategies to promote the operations Therefore, building a significant corporate culture is very useful to enhance and improve all business activities As a final conclusion, this study focuses on the manifestations of corporate culture in Nghe An water supply limited company The writer hopes that this research will contribute some valuable information to the development of corporate culture of this company 41 REFERENCES Dennis O’Neil (2006), What is Culture Retrieved from the World Wide Web: http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_1.htm Desphande’, R and F.E Webster, Jr 1989, “Organizational Culture and Marketing: Defining the Research Agenda”, Journal of marketing Don Nelly, J.H., Gibson, J.L and Ivancevich, J.M (1992) Fundamentals of management Boston: Iwin Edgar H Schein (2004) Corporate culture and leadership Jossey Bass Edgard H Schein (1999) The corporate culture survival guide Jossey Bass Geert Hofstede (1984) Communication between culture Larry A http://www NAWASCO.vn/web/home/index/html http://www.amiltd.com/AllianceCulture.html incompatibility or culture shock? Retrieved from the World Wide Web: 10 International Business.Michael R Czinkota, Iikka A.Ronkainen, Michael H.Moffett (2001) 11 PGS.TS Dương Thị Liễu (2008) Bài giảng văn hóa kinh doanh Nhà xuất Đại học Kinh tế quốc dân 12 Plunkett, W.A and Attner, R.F (1994) Introduction to management 13 Rao, B.P and Swaminathan, V (1995), Uneasy alliances: cultural 14 Samovar and Richard E Porter, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Belmont, CA, 2001 15 Taylor, Edward 1924 [1871] Primitive culture vols 42 ... overview of Nghe An water supply limited company Part two is that concentrates on analyzing the levels and manifestations of corporate culture in Nghe An water supply limited company using the... 2.1 An overview of Nghe An water supply limited company .19 2.2 Levels and manifestations of corporate culture in Nghe An water supply limited company 23 2.2.1 Artifact level and... of changing management model by the Party and the State, 19 Nghe An water suply company was reformed as Nghe An water supply limited company in 2006 The company is now managing Hung Vinh water