Role ambiguity between the sales and planning investment departments in phu long real estates corporation

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business DO THI THANH THAO 22140045 ROLE AMBIGUITY BETWEEN THE SALES AND PLANNING INVESTMENT DEPARTMENTS IN PHU LONG REAL ESTATES CORPORATION MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: DR NGUYEN PHONG NGUYEN Ho Chi Minh City, February 2017 CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: PROBLEM INDENTIFICATION 1.1 Introduction about The Company and the potential problem 1.2 Select the central problem 13 CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION 15 2.2 Justify the existence of the problem 15 2.3 Justify the importance of the problem 17 2.3.1 Interpersonal Tension 17 2.3.2 Low Job Satisfaction 18 2.3.3 Low Job Performance 20 2.3.4 Extreme Behavior 21 2.3.5 Propensity to leave 22 2.3.6 Opportunism 23 CHAPTER 3: CAUSE VALIDATION 25 3.1 Potential causes of problem 25 3.1.1 Vague Task 25 3.1.2 Restrictions on Employee’s Authority 25 3.1.3 Size and complexity of organization 26 3.1.4 Task Interdependence, Rules and Policies 27 3.2 Cause Validation 29 3.2.1 Justify the links between the potential causes and the central problem 29 3.2.2 Evaluate the relative importance of the real causes 31 3.2.2 Eliminate irrelevant causes 31 CHAPTER 4: SOLUTION 33 4.1 Alternative solutions 33 4.1.1 Clarify task before implementing a project by job description for each team and each team member 33 4.1.2 Increasing the effectiveness of teamwork quality through communication, coordination, balance of member contributions, mutual support, effort, cohesion 33 4.2 Solution Evaluation 36 4.3 Action Plan 37 CHAPTER 5: SUPPORTING INFORMATION 41 5.1 Interview transcript 41 5.1.1 Problem Identification 41 5.1.2 The existence of problem 44 5.1.3 Justify the importance of problem 47 REFERENCES 53 LIST OF TABLE Table 1.1 The report of appraisal for applying ISO 9001:2015 Table 1.2 Processes underlying coordination 12 LIST OF FIGURE Figure 3.1 The cause-effect map 27 Figure 4.1 The Teamwork Quality Construct 37 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This research is to find out what problems are affecting on role ambiguity between Sales and Planning Investment Depts in Phu Long Real Estate Corporation The data from indepth interviews with managers in Human Resources, Planning Investment and Sales Depts and employees in Planning Investment, Sales, Finance & Accounting and Human Resources Depts was used in this thesis Besides the report of DNV Organization taking assessment ISO 9001:2015, the research found out that lack of cooperation between Sales and Planning Investment Departments is the effect of role ambiguity between these two parts Next, in deeper analyze of the potential causes of the problem, the researcher found that Vague task, Size and Complexity of Organization, Task, Interdependences, Rules and Policies are root causes leading to effectiveness of Sales Strategic Team as well as the turnover of company Forwards, the paper suggested solutions relating to reduce role ambiguity between Sales and Planning Investment Depts in order to increase the coordination of them as well as to improve the turnover in Sales as well as to meet the requirement of Sales Plan in Phu Long Corp Finally, the action plan with detailed steps was presented to implement this strategy CHAPTER 1: PROBLEM INDENTIFICATION 1.1 Introduction about The Company and the potential problem Introduction about The Company Phu Long Real Estate Corporation was established in 2005 with charter capital: 700 billion of Vietnamese Dong It is one of the leading real estate developers in Ho Chi Minh City and the owner of 65-ha Dragon City in Nha Be District - the urban area development The company has also developed and are operating other properties and projects in Vietnam including HD office Tower, Abacus office in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City; Saigon Sovico Phu Quoc 205 in Phu Quoc Island, one mixed - use project in City Center of Ha Noi  Full name : Công ty Cổ phần Địa ốc Phú Long  English name : Phu Long Real Estate Corporation  Head office : 41 Nguyen Van Linh Street, My Hung Quarter, Tan Phong Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City The company’s investment principle is to create sustainable value added for users/buyers They always focus on details and build properties from user’s view, from planning & design, construction to property management Its products are designed and built with care and devotion, for instance: Kim Long Villas, Ngan Long Villas, Dragon Hill Residence and Suites, Dragon Parc Villas, PVGas office Tower, which brings not only high quality buildings but also an efficiency and optimal living community Problem Identification It cannot be denied that real estate market in Ho Chi Minh City has been heating up recently in generally and particularly at the south of Saigon This is not only a chance developing the projects in the south but also the challenging in this field for Phu Long Corp According to CBRE (1) - the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, it stated that: The demand for Saigon South has been growing as a commercial hub with quality office and commercial developments such as Crescent Plaza (home to ANZ bank), Broadway Office Park (home to IKEA’s sourcing operations) and other major multinationals have relocated to Saigon South as a an affordable location to the traditional downtown areas of Districts and it is no surprise that demand for Saigon South has been growing as a commercial hub with quality office and commercial developments such as Crescent Plaza (home to ANZ bank), Broadway Office Park (home to IKEA’s sourcing operations) and other major multinationals have relocated to Saigon South as a an affordable location to the traditional downtown areas of Districts and (1) Based on the propensity to develop in Saigon South, Phu Long Corp is proud of being a many-year-experience real estate developer in this place With 10 years for development, Phu Long Corp has been completing organizational structure for survival in this field as well as competing with strong competitors “The higher the environment variability and the uncertainty consequently experienced, the more the prevailing structure of organization should be adaptive, with role open to continual redefinition and with co-ordination being achieved by frequent meetings and considerable lateral communication” (2,p362) Obviously, besides the sources such as finance, experience, personnel, the continuous improvement of organizational structure in Phu Long Corp is also very essential For instance, Phu Long Corp used standards to demonstrate the ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and regulatory requirement through applying ISO 9001:2015 - a quality management system revision, in 2016 According to the report of appraisal professors in Table 1.1, there are the existing problems in company about: lack of cooperation between Sales and Planning Investment Depts in selling goods, lack of the process control in construction site and lack of risk analysis in quality management All of three problems have been singled out as of particularly importance It is different to make a deep analysis for each issue Finding No Status TA_RC1-2016VNQ2I12 Open Category of Finding Observation Description(Non conformity of description and evidence) Site Name Lack of cooperation between Sales and Planning Investment Depts in selling goods PHU LONG, 41 Nguye n Van Linh Street (D2-19, My Hung Quarter ),Tan Phong Ward, District 7,HCM City,,+84,Vi et Nam Focus Area Process/Area/ Department Planning Investment Department, Sales Department Standard Clause DNV GL Auditors Initials ISO 9001:2015 ISO 9001:2 015 7.5 VNQ TA_RC7-2016VNQ2I12 Open CAT2 (Minor) Lack of risk analysis in quality management For example: The process of control document, recruitment, training, investmen… There is no riskcontrol process RC-32016TANAN2R3 Open Observation Lack of the process control in construction site: The regulation of material for projects is more clearly For example: the uPVC pipe for water systems should be standardized and examine strictly PHU LONG, 41 Nguye n Van Linh Street (D2-19, My Hung Quarter ),Tan Phong Ward, District 7,HCM City,,+84,Vi et Nam PHU LONG, 41 Nguye n Van Linh Street (D2-19, My Hung Quarter ),Tan Phong Ward, District 7,HCM City,,+84,Vi et Nam Effectiveness of service & production process monitoring activities Top Management ISO 9001:2015 ISO 9001:2 015 6.1 VNQ Project Department ISO 9001:2015 ISO 9001:2 015 8.5.1 TANAN Table 1.1: The report of appraisal for applying ISO 9001:2015 Source: Human Resources Department of Phu Long Real Estate Corporation The first mentioned issue is lack of cooperation between Sales and Planning Investment Depts It is not a quite strange for the company Particularly, doing this research is easier when it is supported by Human Resources Part as well as two related Parts The second one is lack of process control in construction site However, this is the issue which is associated with construction so that it takes too much time to research and solve this problem The last one is lack of risk analysis in quality management Listing and management risk are necessary activities to prevent risk in future But considering the urgency, lack of cooperation between Sales and Planning Investment is the most essential which needs to be resolved in order to achieve a better operational result Lack of cooperation between Sales and Planning Investment Depts., according to information of Mr Tran Van Tai – a manager of Human Resources Dept stated: “This is no clear job of each department: Sales and Planning Departments; hence there is no clear responsibility for any person and to lay blame on each other” Malone et al (3,p362) also revealed: “If there is no interdependence, there is nothing to coordinate” He also mentioned about three (3) kinds of interdependence: “prerequisite, shared resources, simultaneity Prerequisite is output of one activity which is required by the next of activity Shared resource is resource required by multiple activities Simultaneity is time at which more than one activity must occur (3,p363)” Or interdependence is the degree of influence on the others’ performance when one member of a team has to face with his task (4) Because of the effects of their performances on the others, members in Sales Strategic Team in Phu Long Corp might the jobs for their members who cannot meet deadline, said Mr Tai In some situations, the delivery was not in time as they committed He also supposed that was the consequence of unserious reward, discipline and penalties system For the recent years (2015-2016), the result after each Sales Strategy was less than the target of Sales Strategic Team 21,4%, 27,5% respectively Therefore, it really influences on the financial performance of company CHAPTER 5: SUPPORTING INFORMATION 5.1 Interview transcript 5.1.1 Problem Identification  Transcript in-depth Interview Mr Tran Van Tai (Human Resources Manager, Phu Long Corp.) Mr Tran Van Tai is not only a manager of Human Resources Dept but also an assistant of General Director and Head of Internal Control with eight working years in Phu Long Corp Mr Tai shared the information from quality management assessment of DNV Organization (Table 1) and internal company data According to the report of DNV Organization, one of the remarkable problems is lack of cooperation between Sales and Planning Departments As your view, is this issue really existed in Phu Long Corp.? Mr Tai: Really, those issues which are mentioned in the report are problematic Coordination has not been a simple problem to be solved recently The existing issue which professors carried out that is appropriate with the problem of company now A machine will be broken if one of the parts designed into it is broken or unsmooth combination among them And an organization is like that It will not operate well and develop when one of divisions or the cooperation of them is not harmonious So it means Sales and Planning Investment Depts not cooperate harmoniously Can you give the examples? 41 Mr Tai: Two parts are combined into a team in setting up Sales policy called sales strategic team The objective of this team is to achieve the optimal sales performance This is a chain of activities as a following chart: Common goal Do research Strategy Policy Policy Policy In this chart, there are the different stages which required different jobs and person to be in charge of However, the coordination among the stages and among the internal of stage is lack of rigid This is no clear job of each department: Sales and Planning Departments; hence there is no clear responsibility for any person and to lay blame on each other I realized that the regular of company is not strict; and there is no clear reward, discipline and penalties system In this cooperation, late delivery is a usual problem Therefore, a plan or a policy is often got an extension Mr Nguyen Liem Chinh (Staff in Planning Investment Department, Phu Long Corp.) 42 In sales strategic team, there are a lot of jobs which every employee and team are responsible for In generally, according to you which is the process that sales strategic team applying for? Mr Chinh: It depends on the specific goal which my Board of Directors set at the first of process After that, Board of Directors and managers will be build up and complete all the activities and tasks Then supervisors of each team will assign the task for their subordinates Finally, we will implement this job on time and finalize the result For my part, our responsibilities are setting up sales policy Before doing this work, we need the research from Sales team as accurate and punctual as possible However, we often wait for Sales team to send their research in order to finish my task Because of their late response, it makes our performance late At that time, when the final result of task is not completed or late, I and the members of my team are the people who receive the blame from the Board of Directors In some cases, my team must some jobs for them And this happens usually After finalizing the result, will you and the others in sales strategic team have a meeting in order to choose, vote or debate about alternatives? Mr Chinh: Of course, after that we hold a meeting or some meetings to appraise the result of work or plan The participants are general directors, managers of Depts., associated employees Each team presents their findings or research After that, the debate begins and non-stops until the head person makes a decision in this meeting Hence, during the time in implementing your job, you often interact with the others in order to give information or communicate with them to get some 43 knowledge about the market as well as about their experiences? In contrast, they often communicate with you in order to receiver your idea, knowledge? Mr Chinh: It may be about the distance of us Office of Sales Department is located in District while office of my part is located in District We only meet each other on official meeting or unexpected meeting During the time, we maybe call together once or twice for discussing work Mrs Tran Thi Minh Thuy (Team Leader in Sales Department, Phu Long Corp) In sales strategic team, are all the results often on time? If not, which are the causes that effect on the results? Mrs Thuy: In sales strategic team, the final result usually is not on time For some reasons, one job in a chain will be delayed makes the process of all jobs are slower Late delivery becomes normal in this team Perhaps the influence of it is very significant; but discipline is not dratted 5.1.2 The existence of problem  Transcript in-depth interview Mr Nguyen Liem Chinh (Staff in Planning Investment Department, Phu Long Corp.) According to what you have just mentioned above, you had to some work for the others Thus you know clearly about what your responsibilities are? Mr Chinh: I often some jobs for the others when general director assigns for my team I have to jump through to make some work from the others but is not my major For 44 instance, in a process of setting up sales policy, Sales team will research and draft the proposal policy in order to discuss the official document However, they often delayed deadline to support their task After that, because of the common objective, Planning Investment team had to make this work for them Or another situation, the leader of Sales Strategic Team has no obvious action in using employees Sometime, I feel uncertain about what I had to be done and what my responsibilities are When you have to more work for the others, you know to divide your time properly? Mr Chinh: Because my department has to a lot of work instead of this work of Sales Department so that we can’t reach own target of my department This also makes Sales and Planning Investment often debate heavily It’s difficult to fulfill my work well because of covering many jobs Therefore, I have not enough time for each work Is there a clear explanation what has to be done? Mr Chinh: I know to what my superior assign This might be clear or unclear task In some cases, it is hard for some work not being in the scope of my work I often received the blame from leader Mr Do Minh Duy (Manager of Planning Investment, Phu Long Corp.) Have your team ever some work for the others? If yes, how could you arrange the time and evaluate your staff to fulfill his work? Mr Duy: In fact, each team or employee has specific task himself However, when I work in a team, I often focus on the common objective Therefore, I often shared work of my 45 colleagues when they could not finish their tasks on time After that, we might stay in office late to finish these works The final result is depended on General Director Ms Tran Thi Minh Thuy (Team Leader in Sales Department, Phu Long Corp.) Have your team ever some work for the others? If yes, how could you arrange the time and evaluate your staff to fulfill his work? Ms Thuy: Yes, sometime my boss assigned more work for my team Of course, I had to manage the time properly We find more difficult to work for the others Misunderstanding, lack of cooperation and supporting could happen among the employees in Planning Investment and Sales Depts when one team can be work for the another team We have not an clear measurement to evaluate for their new tasks Mrs Do Xuan Hoai (Staff in Sales Department, Phu Long Corp) As a PR expert, you know clearly about your responsibilities? Mrs Hoai: A part of my responsibility is PR for each sales strategy and product However, I just received the direct task from my superior She does not give me the planned work and power for each project I not know whether my contribution is good or not I find so hard to work while I am not recognized my ability My responsibilities are really not clear and just shared from my superior If you not plan to work, you know to divide your time properly? Mrs Hoai: I have to adjust the time in order to fulfill the job No planned work really makes me feel stress Obviously, planned work will take less time than unplanned one Then I often overtime for the urgent work  Survey Questionnaire 46 Justify the existence of problem with five-point scale used from = “Total agree” to = “Total disagree” (support for Point 2.2, Chapter at Page 14) No 10 11 12 13 14 Item Totally Agree Agree Neutral Disagree I feel certain about how much authority I have Clear, planned goals and objectives for my job Lack of policies and guideline to help me I am corrected or rewarded when I really don’t expect it I know that I have divided my time properly I know what my responsibilities are I have to “feel my way” in performing my duties I feel certain how I will be evaluated for a raise or promotion I know exactly what is expected of me I am uncertain as to how my job is linked I am told how well I am doing my job Explanation is clear of what has to be done I have to work under vague directives or orders I not know if my work will be acceptable to my boss 5.1.3 Justify the importance of problem  Transcript in-depth interview Mrs Tran Thi Minh Thuy (Manager of Sales Department in Phu Long Corp.) 47 Total Agree You said that sometime your team must some work for the other Hence, how you feel when your work implemented by the others of another team? Mrs Thuy: Some work which I have lot of experience in will make me uncomfortable Especially, when my work may be implemented by the others who wouldn’t know clearly customer, etc… I will be flexible with selling goods in order to sell more For some situations, Sales Team recommended different policy for each case Certainly, I attempt to prove the changing effective When my responsibility will be done by the others, I wonder is my performance in work not good? These thought makes me stress and unsecured about my job Mr Nguyen Minh Yen (Staff in Planning Investment Dept of Phu Long Corp.) Have you ever some work for the other? Or your work was implemented by the others? Mr Yen: I also have received some work from Sales Depts The more assigned task which I got from Sales Department makes the function of my department weaker because of less time for incumbent job Furthermore, I could not find a clearly objective from the extra work How can I be judged what I am expected from the superior? In some cases, although it is not my responsibility; but I have duty to finish It does not make me high evaluation but also receive the blame from boss I feel no motivation for some these works Ms Van Bao Ngoc (Staff in Sales Department of Phu Long Corp.) Do you feel satisfied with your job in Sales Strategic team? 48 Ms Ngoc: Our working plan often was changed from superiors or executives They wanted Sales Team and Planning Investment Team to combine in order to set up sales policy But really, there was no job assignment for instruction all members of two working team and clearly responsibilities in some necessary cases We had many times to cooperation together but it got hard We recognized that when there were some problems, who would be in charge of those works? Finally, employees who were enthusiasm with work were not only got award but also received complain from boss After that we worked under pressure and uncomfortable situation Mr Dang Tran Anh Quan (a staff of Planning Investment Dept of Phu Long Corp.) Do you think that when you work for the other, you will be low-evaluated if the result is not good? Mr Quan: Yes, I used to be in this situation I used to be enthusiasm to contribute my ideas for improving the common goal But after some times, I was made low-face in front of other partners in some cases, I have no more desired for my contributing on Sales aspects On my part, I just what I am assigned from superior carefully Because of participating in Sales team, I must interrupt their authorities Being careful helped me to avoid unwanted cases happening Our department becomes to be passive situation which make me not interested in work anymore Mr Nguyen Minh Yen (Staff in Planning Investment Dept of Phu Long Corp) You said that when you receive more work, you not feel motivate Hence, you feel lazy in work? 49 Mr Yen: Yes, I am I’m a legal expert so that my responsibility is controlled by the legalization of documents Besides, my new task received from superior was building sales policy as well as contributing sales campaign for the whole project of company Therefore, whether I wanted or not, I had to fulfill this task However, Sales Department might think that I interfered in their work; they thus felt unhappy with me They began reacting with me in work For instance, Sales manager suggested me moving my working place to Sales office Obviously, this was an unreasonable suggestion It seems to be the retaliation for interjecting their work When the conflict was highest, he attempted to protect my opinion and not moving another place To be honest, I felt disappointed with this and wanted to quit the job at that time After that, I often arrived to office late and come back early I haven’t found interested in work instead of a positive position attitude I even though don’t want to go to work every morning after getting up This is the reason why I’m often absent at work” Mr Vo Minh Duy (a manager of Planning Investment Deparment) You said that you often stay up late in office because of some extra work Thus, how you fulfill your responsibilities and your extra work? Mr Duy: In fact, my department has some problem recently Receiving too much works makes our function weak For instance, we took too much time to solve the problems for other department; although our function is to promote project investment Finally, our department had not met the requirement in employee appraisal of company Obviously, it’s hard to get the promotion without achievement I saw many seniors of my departments quit their job to find new opportunities for promotion Recently, my manager 50 who has worked for company in years, decided to leave company for new chance Every staff knows that sooner or later the inevitable happens He had devoted so much to the company but he had never got the promotion in for years Role ambiguity caused him never obtained significant accomplishment as expected” 2.2.2 Scale items to test the importance of problem  Job Satisfaction Advancement Opportunities My chances for a promotion to the next higher level Autonomy The opportunity to plan ahead and carry out the plan Intrinsic Job Satisfaction The feeling of being able to use one’s own unique capabilities, realizing one’spotential Job Security Changes of keeping my job as long as I want Pay The pay I receive for my work Recognition Awareness others have of my performance Social Environment The opportunity to develop friendship in the company Adequacy of Authority I should be allowed to make some decisions that are now being made at a higher level I have enough authority to handle the problems that come up in my group  Anxiety-Stress Job Induce Anxiety I feel fidgety or nervous because of my job Problem associated with work have kept me awake at night 51 Somatic Tension I have trouble with my digestion I am often bothered by acid indigestion or heartburn General Fatigue and Uneasiness I sometimes feel weak all over If I had a different job, my health would probably improve  Propensity to leave I often think of leaving my job I am planning to look for a new job during the next 12 months 52 REFERENCES A new downtown – The rise of Saigon South [document on the Internet] CBRE Vietnam; 2016 [cited 2017 Jan 5th] Available from: https://www.cbrevietnam.com/?useful=hcmc-real-estate-night-q12016 Fisher CD, Gitelson R A meta-analysis of the correlates of role conflict and ambiguity Journal of applied psychology 1983;68(2):320 Malone TW, Crowston K What is coordination theory and how can it help design cooperative work systems 1st ed Cambridge, Mass.: Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 1990 Beersma B, Hollenbeck JR, Humphrey SE, Moon H, Conlon DE, Ilgen DR Cooperation, competition, and team performance: Toward a contingency approach Academy of Management Journal 2003;46(5):572-90 Rizzo JR, House RJ, Lirtzman SI Role conflict and ambiguity in complex organizations administrative science quarterly 1970;15(2):150-163 Tubre TC, Collins JM Jackson and Schuler (1985) revisited: A meta-analysis of the relationships between role ambiguity, role conflict, and job performance Journal of management 2000;26(1):155-169 Carson SJ, Madhok A, Wu T Uncertainty, opportunism, and governance: The effects of volatility and ambiguity on formal and relational contracting Academy of Management Journal 2006;49(5):1058-77 Jones GR, George JM The experience and evolution of trust: Implications for cooperation and teamwork Academy of management review 1998;23(3):531-46 Cremer DD, Knippenberg VD How leaders promote cooperation? 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Human Resources, Planning Investment and Sales Depts and employees in Planning Investment, Sales, Finance & Accounting and Human Resources Depts was used in this thesis Besides the report of DNV... job in a chain will be delayed makes the process of all jobs are slower” On the other hand, between Sales and Planning Investment Parts, they seldom met each other to interact, share the information