High workload at g6 center in bien hoa vietnam

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Nham Thi Thu Thao HIGH WORKLOAD AT G6 CENTER IN BIEN HOA - VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019 UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Nham Thi Thu Thao HIGH WORKLOAD AT G6 CENTER IN BIEN HOA - VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: Dr PHAM PHU QUOC Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019 SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE THESIS PROPOSAL SUBMITTED FOR DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINSTRATION High workload at G6 Center in Bien Hoa –Vietnam Student Name: Nham Thi Thu Thao Supervisor: Dr Pham Phu Quoc General comments  Remarks on the student’s attitude:  Remarks on the assignment’s academic quality: Overall assessment: Meet requirement for submitting Not meet requirement for submitting Other remarks: - Did the student follow the report schedule? Yes No Other ……………………………… - The Turnitin plagiarism percentage: Supervisor’s signature EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Academic Department is responsible for setting the study programs, controlling the quality of learners, evaluating the teaching of teachers and setting the training programs for teachers Besides, it also helps other Departments with the academic contents in any of their programs Therefore, any problems happening to this Dept can affect the function of the whole English center and lead to bigger problem The consequences, which can hurt the function of the center as a whole, are also found to be low professional efficacy and unattractive working environment Due to its importance, Academic Department needs to be paid much attention Nevertheless, over a year of operation, the academic manager position in G6 Center has been taken by people and it is still unoccupied Several depth interviews and surveys are conducted with related people within the center, and even though personorganization fit and pay-work expectation are considered potential problems, the central one is found to be the high workload By using the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) which has been used in variety of fields as the criteria workload assessment techniques, the overall workload for academic managerial position in G6 is measured and claimed to be very high The result number even comparatively exceeds the max researched number of NASA-TLX Global Workload Scores at the same cognitive and process control category Out of causes leading to high workload, increased workload is the key to solve current issue in the center In order to deal with the increased workload in G6, the combination solution of outsourcing and technology integration is given out along with action plan Within criteria of needed resources, ability to improve and benefits of the improvement, the recommended solution is expected to help academic manager with more flexible time for core activities in G6, help supervise the academic operation in new subsidiary center more smoothly TABLE OF CONTENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER – PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION 1.1 Company background 1.1.1 Company introduction 1.1.2 Company structure 1.2 Symptoms 1.3 Possible problems 1.3.1 High workload 1.3.2 Person – organization unfit 1.3.3 Pay – work expectation unmet 10 1.4 Main problem 11 CHAPTER – PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION 2.1 Problem definition 13 2.2 Problem existence 14 2.3 Problem consequences 16 2.3.1 Unattractive working environment 16 2.3.2 Low professional efficacy 17 CHAPTER – CAUSES VALIDATION AND SOLUTIONS 3.1 Lists of potential causes 20 3.1.1 Increase workload 20 3.1.2 Unsuitable work allocation 22 3.1.3 Weak collaboration from other Departments 23 3.2 Root cause: increased workload 26 3.3 Possible solutions 27 3.3.1 Solution 1: Work outsourcing 27 3.3.2 Solution 2: Increase the manpower 29 3.3.3 Solution 3: Information Technology integration 31 3.3.4 Solution 4: Combination of Outsourcing and IT Integration 33 3.4 Action plan 35 3.4.1 Best possible action: Solution 35 3.4.2 Work breakdown schedule 35 3.5 Conclusion 37 REFERENCES 38 APPENDICES 42 SUPPORTING INFORMATION 48 Research methodology: Qualitative research 48 Interview Transcript – Summary of finding 49 List of figures Figure Problem mess 42 Figure 2: Potential problem map Figure Overall workload and its composition 15 Figure 4: The numbers of learners dropped off quarterly 18 Figure 5: Cause – Effect map 25 List of tables Table The interview result summary – Reasons of high academic manager turnover Table Academic staff’s opinion on their workload 12 Table Sources-of-workload and weighted rating result in G6 14 Table The reasons why learners dropped out and teachers’ comments 19 Table The interview result summary – Potential causes of the problem 20 Table Cause evaluation from group interview in academic department 26 Table Overall cost and time needed for work outsourcing 28 Table Overall cost and time needed for new staff recruitment 30 Table Overall cost and time needed for work outsourcing and camera system installation 34 Table 10 The work breakdown structure (WBS) 36 CHAPTER – PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION 1.1 Company background 1.1.1 Company introduction In order to meet the increasing demands of customers in Biên Hòa City on facilities and quality of education while reaching out of the city market, Circle G6 English Center was founded and officially went into operation in December 2017 G6 English Center, which is a subsidiary of Đại Mỹ Việt Educational Limited Company, operates in Bien Hoa city, Dong Nai province at the capital of billion VND Its main function is to provide English education to young children and teenagers from age of to age of 18 in public schools, private schools and classes at the center Besides, business English courses for employees working in Dong Nai and Vietnamese language courses for foreigners are also provided Mission: With a system of modern learning equipment, optimal facilities, Circle English Center promises to bring students a modern international learning environment Vision: Circle G6 will be a well-known brand for its quality and expand itself into other English educational services Strategy: G6 follows best-cost provider strategy which gives added value to the leaners Meantime, G6 also wants to build a working environment where people feel like a member in G6 family Competitors: APAX, AMA, VUS, VMG 1.1.2 Company structure Organizational chart: Director Sales Manager Admin Manager Academic Manager HR Manager Marketing Manager Accounting Manager people people people people people people IT support In Circle G6, there are Departments with one IT supporter under the management of Director Every Department has its own duty, own responsibility and works coordinately Sales Department: with Sales manager in charge and staff members under, takes responsibility for looking for more sales opportunities with the current and new customers Administration Department: consists of one Admin Manager and staff members, supporting teachers by reminding teachers of the lessons or printing materials, checking on students’ study performance, and talking to the parents about students’ issues Academic Department: has one academic manager and staff member, with duty is to observe and evaluate teachers’ performance; be responsible for the quality of teachers, the quality of the materials, and quality of students’ performance; support other Departments on academic content programs HR Department: with one head manager in charge of regulations, contracts and other staff members – members in security team, members in cleaning team and one in property controlling Marketing Department: one marketing manager and staff member, take over the strategic marketing Accounting Department: one head and one supporter, responsible for accounting section 1.2 Symptom After year operation, people have quit their job as the academic manager, while the current person who is contemporarily taking over the job also has intention to find another job As is seen, the academic manager turnover rate in Circle G6 is 100% and it is quite high the sector which has most talent turnover according to research from LinkedIn is Technology with just 13.2% Meanwhile, the surveyed education sector’s turnover is just ranked at 5th with only 11.2% (1), quite a small number compared to the high managerial turnover rate in G6 Academic Department is centered and responsible for all the teaching and learning activities in G6 Since academic department plays a very important role in the center, the fact that there is no academic manager controlling the academic system as well as supporting other Departments in their programs, can hurt the work performance of the center in general since the number of students is decreasing and long-term skillful teachers are leaving Therefore, the high voluntary turnover rate in academic manager position is the symptom that needs further investigation of the potential central problems Appendix NASA Task Load Index Sheet 45 Appendix NASA-TLX Global Workload Scores by Task Type Task (n) Min 25% 50% 75% Max Air Traffic Control (24) 6.21 42.81 52.44 68.32 85.00 Card Sorting (12) 16.00 21.24 25.63 27.88 49.80 Classification (45) 8.00 30.15 46.00 51.20 84.30 Command & Control (107) 20.00 38.40 50.55 59.50 75.80 Cognitive Tasks (31) 13.08 38.00 46.00 54.66 64.90 Computer Activities (37) 7.46 20.99 54.00 60.00 78.00 Daily Activities (33) 7.20 12.70 18.30 25.90 37.70 Driving Car (36) 15.00 28.05 41.52 51.73 68.50 Medical (45) 9.00 39.35 50.60 61.45 77.35 Mechanical Tasks (22) 20.10 24.90 27.95 33.68 51.03 Memory (37) 6.59 32.62 44.59 66.58 83.50 Monitoring (174) 20.00 39.97 52.24 62.63 77.00 Navigation (14) 19.72 26.35 37.70 52.74 68.90 Physical Activities (21) 40.83 50.98 62.00 71.83 75.19 Pilot Aircraft (152) 16.00 37.70 47.78 54.80 74.00 Process Control (38) 23.90 31.91 42.00 51.83 69.70 Robot Operation (167) 9.59 41.00 56.00 63.00 80.00 Tracking (70) 19.08 39.25 51.00 62.43 88.50 Video Game (60) 14.08 48.23 56.50 63.72 78.00 Visual Search (46) 28.98 51.06 57.89 67.74 79.23 Source: Rebecca A G HOW HIGH IS HIGH? A META-ANALYSIS OF NASA-TLX GLOBAL WORKLOAD SCORES 46 Appendix Job descriptions for academic manager position JOB DESCRIPTIONS Being responsible for teaching & studying quality of the center:  Researching, building & developing: o English learning program follow the orientation of the center and customer’s demand o English teaching methodologies  Being responsible for recruiting, training and managing teaching quality for both Vietnamese and Foreign teachers  Making plans for extracurricular activities, game shows, seminars for parents, students, and teachers  Developing and managing quality control assessment for student’s studying by setting up the banking system for entry test, midterm test and final test  Managing academic staffs  Periodical report Source: HR Department, G6 47 SUPPORTING INFORMATION Research methodology: Qualitative research – Depth interviews: face-to-face, and telephone Face-to-face depth interview is chosen to conduct since the topic area is sensitive involving personal attitude, individual perception, insight information which needs exploration In addition, the interviewer can have more time to probe and have better in-depth responses while respondents can express themselves more freely Moreover, interviewer can observe the respondents’ emotion and behavior as subtle answers or change the way to approach if the respondents show any discomfort being asked some specific questions Telephone depth interview, also an efficient medium and used widely for depth interviews, is also carried out in this thesis Since time is at a premium, some respondents on the list prefer to answer the questions using the phone Besides, paying a visit to respondents at their workplace could interrupt not only their work but also the interviews such as phones ringing, people interrupting, etc Interviewees with a phone glued to the ear takes less time as they could give undivided attention and avoid off-topic chitchat List of the respondents taking part in the in-depth interviews The Director of G6 Ms Nina – the first former academic manager Ms Ella – the second former academic manager Ms Bella – the senior staff who is currently taking over the academic manager position 48 Interview Transcript – Summary of finding The Director Transcript (Questions and Answers) Q1: What you think the reasons former academic managers left their job? “Organizational culture plays an important role in most of the employees’ behaviors And here, people in this organization have known each other for quite a long time and worked together since the beginning, we are as a whole like a family and it creates a particular organizational culture When someone new comes in and finds themselves not fit into this organization, it is just of the culture There were some other better candidates than one former academic manager That person who was thought to have had passion and the heart to get along well here just couldn’t fit in Sometimes you need to more than staff in order to boost others at work And if you lack of engagement in the work, eventually you will find the work not suitable for you on either organizational culture or ability.” Coding Category Organizational culture Work environment (Person – culture fit) Ability for the work Work capability (Person – job fit) Subtle work requirement Work capability (Person – job fit) Q2: What characteristics you think an academic manager needs to have? “Even though the academic knowledge is very important, the fact that a manager needs to work with the heart is even more vital and that managerial skills can be improved through work That person needs to stay at the workplace longer, and more than other staff He/she needs to have the ability to connect people as a team and be a model at work That person could find the flaws occurring in the present teaching materials and fix it Also he/she could think of the programs to boost the teaching and learning English to another level.” 49 Q3: Do we have any performance evaluation for academic manager position? “Because G6 is new so the performance evaluation hasn’t been completed yet However, the performance of the organization comprises the performance of each individual and it is used for rewarding at the end of each year If the center is doing well in one-year time, the whole employees will have their rewards.” Performance as a whole; Rewarding at the end of each year Leadership (Recognition); Pay and benefits (System of reward) Q4: Could the salary and benefits be the reason for leaving the center? “Compared to other center here in Biên Hòa, the salary is not the highest but it is quite good Health insurance, social insurance and other obligation of the center toward the employees completely follow the laws I don’t think it is the reason.” Good salary and benefits The pay and benefits Communication, Recognition and Autonomy Leadership style Increased workload from the new subsidiary center Increased workload Q5: What you think about the employees and work environment here? “People here are very enthusiastic and trying their best to the job even though their capability still has some limit I want people here to have freedom exploring their creativity for their own development Every Monday we have meeting to check and discuss what has been done Sometimes the results are very good and exceed the expectation Therefore, it’s hard for me to give them punishment sometimes when they cannot complete their tasks on time If I were firmer and stricter, the discipline would be stronger and things would be different.” Q6: What you think about the work in G6? “Right now, a subsidiary center is opening while at G6 there are also a lot of things to So in this period, people need to be more focused and devoted in order that things can happen as planned After this time when everything is in its place, it’ll be easier.” 50 Ms Nina – the first former academic manager Transcript (Questions and Answers) Q1: What made you leave your job at G6 center? “After what I was doing and my contribution in some months, I decided to write a letter asking for a raise They only replied that my performance was not good enough for a raise without any further explanation on how they came up with that conclusion The evaluation was so unclear That really made me feel frustrated and unsatisfied I felt like my contribution went unnoticed Later, I saw a better opportunity in other company and then I left.” Coding Category Unclear evaluation System of reward Unsatisfied with pay – work Q2: What you think about the salary and benefits? Was it a good offer or a little unsatisfied for you? “Well, the reason when I first accepted the job was because of the good salary and benefits If Good salary and it hadn’t been good, I would not have applied for the job I could have the chances to benefits implement my ideas and create something different You know, I have so many ideas in my head and really want to put them into practice So it was good enough for me to accept the job, though.” The pay and benefits Q3: You had worked there for less than a year Do you think a few months can be good enough for performance evaluation to be conducted? “It is usually a year for performance evaluation to carry out for a raise proposal but I think I Perceived work had done quite well with my work at G6 I know what I was asked to and I think I did more expectation than what I was expected to I did what I needed to and even proposed some programs to enhance and boost G6’s reputation forward widely Of course it will take time to see the 51 result, but I feel I did the right thing and I have no regret.” Q4: What you think about the work at G6? “Even though it was a lot of work to but I tried to manage them all At that time, that G6 was planning to launch a new subsidiary center specializing in higher English levels It would definitely be more work for the consecutive academic managers Increased workload from the new center There were of us in academic department and with little support from admin department on Responsible for checking students’ homework and doing the extra classes for students who fell behind, work other depts’ was a lot but not really hard However, we did most of the work and even were responsible for programs other departments’ programs if those programs were related to academia.” Increased workload Unsuitable work allocation Q5: What you think about working environment there? “Since this is family-run company, you will the organizational culture here a bit different Anyone seems to know everyone and they are all young and mostly friendly But if you cannot find things in common with people here, it would be little hard to socialize Organizational culture; Person – culture fit Every department has its own work to do, and it would be not much help from other departments when you need because their English is not good Therefore, the responsibility would be pretty much like this: each department has its own responsibility but anything related to academy would be academic department’s English is not good; Weak collaboration between departments Moreover, nobody wants to be thought of being useless just because of their bad English; so they tried to work hard at their job and tried to separate themselves from the job that could prove the otherwise And that’s what all the “not my responsibility” attitude took place.” “not my responsibility” attitude Weak collaboration between departments 52 Q6: How about the leadership at G6? Were you empowered to implement all the ideas you would like? “The Director was nice and gave me authority, approved of my ideas conducting the programs that I wanted to in G6 However, I felt lack of psychological support sometimes For example, there was a program that I proposed and it was rejected But then it was accepted and approved by her to proceed However, I accidentally heard that she didn’t believe it could succeed and I felt hurt a bit If she didn’t believe, why would she accept the proposal?” Autonomy but lack of communication Leadership style Q7: Do you have any other difficulties or dissatisfactions while having worked in G6? “No, I think it is said enough.” 53 Ms Ella – the second former academic manager Transcript (Questions and Answers) Q1: What made you leave your job? “It was just because of my health which made me quit I had stress at work and honestly I had never worked that hard before I felt unwell and went to see a doctor who said that if I didn’t take time for your own and kept working like this, your health would be extremely badly affected Since working hours and teaching at the same time was a lot of work to me, it really stressed me out, I decided to quit.” Coding Category Health problem; Stress at work; High workload (The work itself) High workload Q2: How many hours did you teach? What you think about the workload and the work that you had at G6? “I had been assigned about 12 – 14 hours per week but then it reduced to around hours After class, I also needed to some managerial work, check and correct the course outline, write new curriculums and the teacher evaluation, etc And there was time that there were so many tasks waiting to be handled at once That was a lot of pressure and a lot of work for me I worked before but never this hard and stressful.” High workload High workload Q3: Were you clear about what to do? (The work specification, duty, etc.) “Yeah, why not I know what I had to and what I needed to to achieve those It’s Clear specification just my heath ” Inferred high workload 54 Q4: Did you have the support needed to complete the work? And what you think about working environment there? (Within your department and other departments toward yours…) “Other people in G6 were very friendly and helpful to a certain degree I had a very strong professional team with staff who supported me greatly and working with them was such pleasure As other departments’ English was not good and because I am a foreigner, so there were some challenges working with them and they are not much of help when it comes to academic work That’s pretty much added to the workload.” Academic English is not good Weak collaboration from other departments Good salary The pay and benefits Direct instruction, helpful Good leadership style Q5: What you think about the salary and the benefits? Was it a good offer or a little unsatisfied for you? “Well, I don’t know about other academic managers but my salary was very good And I was quite satisfied with it.” Q6: What you think about the leadership in G6? “The Director was nice and gave me direct instructions on what she wanted me to She’s very helpful We usually had meeting every Monday with other departments New ideas to attract more learners and improve learners’ performance were usually shared here and the implementation was also discussed After the meeting, academic department always had something new to since there were so many new ideas contributed from other departments approved by the Director.” Q7: How come the new ideas were mostly implemented by the academic department? 55 “First, most of the ideas were related to academic fields which was our responsibility Second, since people wanted to attract new learners and retain high revenue without sacrificing the profits, so sales and marketing teams proposed a lot of programs involving extra courses with extra tutoring as a means of promotion which was much cheaper and less costly than other means of promotion.” Responsible for other departments’ programs Unsuitable work allocation Q8: Do you have any other difficulties or dissatisfactions while having worked in G6? “No, I think it is said enough.” 56 Ms Bella – the senior staff, currently taking over the academic manager position Transcript (Questions and Answers) Q1: You used to work directly with Mr Victor What you think the reason he left G6 could be? Coding “He didn’t talk much about anything and it was like he didn’t seem to fit in here The Person – culture unfit organizational culture could be too different from what he expected Besides, he came in with a lot of ideas that he said he wanted to apply to G6 but what he did was just change Person – job unfit the cover not the content He didn’t seem to involve himself enough or be willing to the overtime work And after he left G6, nobody could reach him by any means.” Lack of engagement Category Person – organization fit Q2: You are taking over the position So what you think about the work that you’re doing? And the workload at G6? “When the former academic manager left without completing the program that they set up, it’s like a mess here Since the results were not as expected and it causes drop-out in the number of learners, we have to the implementing monitoring, etc all over again The workload just seems to be more Meanwhile, right now, there are so many things we need to because G6 is still on its way of building and improving itself We can help other departments but they cannot help us and we usually support them in their programs since they are not as academic as us We are opening new subsidiary center so there’s so much work to We used to be but now only people in the academic department I stay here most of the time and I work from a.m till p.m The others in the department have to overtime too Changing to whole new materials Increased workload Not as academic Weak collaboration from other depts Work overtime a lot High workload Knowledgeable teachers applying for jobs are not few but they mostly have lack of needed teaching skills It is no doubt that they will need a little extra training after doing 57 the demo class here But currently, while there are more and more young potential teachers applying for the job, I don’t have enough time for observing most of the classes here Moreover, we are opening new subsidiary center so there’s so much more work to New center Hiring new teachers and train them while composing the new materials, etc So much work, you see Meanwhile, there are many programs running within a year in order to attract new learners and maintain the number of current ones Some are in short term while some are in long run Once a program is set up, a lot of work and unnamed sub-tasks will come from the process of monitoring, evaluating Increased workload You need to try your best to manage all and try to be ready to jump in to fix when things go wrong and even ready to start over Try best, work hard and always be ready are elements to work here.” Q3: What you think about the salary and benefits? Was it a good offer or a little unsatisfied for you? Good salary and benefits The pay and benefits “Our department can help other departments with their work but not vice versa since they are not as academic as us For example, we can help them with sales, consulting, doing receptionists, etc but they cannot teach, change the curriculum etc for us Not much reciprocal of the collaboration between the departments Not as academic Weak collaboration from other depts Moreover, the programs they have proposed always involve us, academics, which means we are responsible for conducting and monitoring their programs while we still have our own In addition, the Admin Department used to help us with academic stuff Responsible for other depts’ programs Unsuitable work allocation “Well, the salary and benefits was good for me I have no complaint about that.” Q4: What you think about working environment there? The way that people work, communicate …in G6? 58 now they no longer due to new work allocation and their limit English capability Meanwhile, the sales and marketing department are evaluated and remunerated for each enrolment they can bring to the center Therefore, people really focus on what they can to prove themselves and to make up for the lack of English capability which is very important in any English center So the communication is pretty much like: I have my own responsibility and I my best to fulfill my work avoiding any possible mistakes; and so should you.” “Not my responsibility” Collaboration from other depts Communication, autonomy Good leadership Work overtime a lot High workload Q5: How about the leadership? “The Director is very nice, gives us the instructions to things and at the same time gives us enough space to express our creativity at work We usually have Monday meeting every week in order to see if there’s any problem and share new ideas which could be good for the center Since this is family-run company, the performance is judged based on the performance of a whole.” Q6: How you see yourself in G6? “I promised the big boss that I would try my best until I give birth in September and since then current working time with lots of OT may not be fit for me and my little family anymore Maybe I will try myself in a more suitable workplace.” Q7: Do you have any other dissatisfactions or difficulties working here? Anything else that you want to share? “No, I think it’s all.” 59 ... OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Nham Thi Thu Thao HIGH WORKLOAD AT G6 CENTER IN BIEN HOA - VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: Dr... Bella in the indepth interview (Supporting information) That move just adds even more new workload to the current workload in the academic department at G6 Ms Bella stated that: “We are opening... PHU QUOC Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019 SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE THESIS PROPOSAL SUBMITTED FOR DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINSTRATION High workload at G6 Center in Bien Hoa Vietnam Student