This paper featured business culture and ethics of the Southern Vietnamese. Grounded in philosophical and theoretical discourse, this paper aims to identify principles and guidelines for ethical conduct in the South-West of Vietnam, adopting a normative approach.
AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 79 – 83 BUSINESS ETHICS AND CULTURE OF PEOPLE IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN OF VIETNAM Dang Hung Vu1 An Giang University, VNU - HCM Information: Received: 26/12/2018 Accepted: 13/05/2019 Published: 11/2019 Keywords: culture, business ethics, values, norms, the South-West of Vietnam ABSTRACT This paper featured business culture and ethics of the Southern Vietnamese Grounded in philosophical and theoretical discourse, this paper aims to identify principles and guidelines for ethical conduct in the South-West of Vietnam, adopting a normative approach People in the South-West of Vietnam have great values and norms in business, e.g concessive, creative and truthful in doing business, which enables them to go internationalization However, they were found to be not disciplined and gullible while pursuing their business goals Business culture and ethics in the context of Vietnam need to be further investigated in terms of an empirical approach INTRODUCTION special people, which have made significant contributions to the development of Vietnam (by Tran Ngoc Them et al., 2014) This paper aims to investigate business ethics of people in the SouthWest area of Vietnam The South-West is one of seven cultural regions of Vietnam This country has three large cultural regions: The North, The Middle and The South, which are composed of seven cultural sub-regions (Tran Ngoc Them & Dinh Thi Dung, 2014) The South region is divided into two cultural subregions: The South-West and the South-East areas The South-West area includes 13 provincial units: Long An, Dong Thap, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, An Giang, Vinh Long, Tra Vinh, Kien Giang, Hau Giang, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau and Can Tho City The South-West area is 40,518 square km, inhabited by more than 17 million people, or 20% of Vietnam’s population There are four major ethnic groups in this sub region: Viet (91,97%), Khmer (6,88%), Chinese (1,03%) and Cham (0,09%) (Tran Ngoc Them & Dinh Thi Dung, 2014, p 85) Viet people is the major ethnic group in this area This South-West society have been said to have a specific history and Business ethics refers to the business philosophy of business societies, groups of people who share a common set of values and norms in terms of business Values are assumptions that a society believes to be good, right and desirable Norms are social rules and guidelines for appropriate behaviours in particular situations Hill (2008) holds that values provide the context where norms are established and justified The term business ethics refers to values and norms in business situations Culture, which is referred to as a system of values and norms, determines how people behave in terms of ethics (Sinclair, 1993) This paper investigates business ethics of people in the South-West society by studying a set of values 79 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 79 – 83 and norms that guides people how to business appropriately in this society This study aims to examine ethical principles and problems arising in business environment of the South-West society South-West society, compared with win-lose strategy In negotiation, a businessman in the South-West may fail in unessential objectives to win his major ones In turn, he expects his partners to make concessions In short, concession is an ethnic norm in the South-West There are two approaches to business ethics: the empirical and the normative, which have produced two powerful streams of business research (Donaldson & Dunfee, 1994) Normative approaches refer to what individuals must do, while descriptive approaches refer to what individuals in ethical situations (Fukukawa, 2003) This paper was grounded in philosophical and theoretical discourse, aiming at identifying principles and guidelines for ethical conduct in the South-West society Therefore, normative approach is adopted in this study The term normative is used in the philosophical sense (Donaldson & Dunfee, 1994), which is concerned about a prescriptive rather than descriptive term In this vein, this paper provides guidance about actions or policies instead of describing actions and policies by businessmen Archive data from works of cultural study were used The enormous natural resources in the SouthWest form generosity of people in the region Because of large population in small area of the North, sào (equivalent to 360 m2) was used as a measure unit of land One sào in the Middle of Vietnam is equal to 497 m2 People in the SouthWest used a long bamboo ruler, called tầm, to measure their land This ruler is about metres long (one tầm) A land of 12x12 tầm (36x36 = 1,296 m2, rounded to 1,300 square metre, is one công One unit of land in the South-West is 2.6 times larger than that of the Middle, and 3.6 times of the North In business, a dozen (chục) of fruit could be 12, 14, 16, or even 18 in the South-West, depending on the kinds of fruit and business location These examples show that people in the South-West originally owned many favourable natural conditions, not only land but also weather, fishery, forestry and so on These favours enable people in the South-West to be more egregious than those in the Middle and the North In the event of this, people in the North are used to cheating their customers, but people in the SouthWest not People in the South-West seems to be truthful Business partners are expected to be sincere and faithful People in the South-West are happy to offer you extra things, very generous, but cheating is uncommon in this society The next section of this paper presents principles and guidelines for ethical conduct in the SouthWest society The last section discusses managerial recommendations for those who business in this region BUSINESS ETHICS OF THE SOUTHWEST VIETNAMESE This paper follows cultural dimensions presented in the study of Tran Ngoc Them et al (2014) Four cultural dimensions include perception & organisational culture, behaviours towards natural and social environment, and cultural traits Ethical principles and guidelines will be presented in themes People in the South-West are characterized by a specific working style, called “tài tử” Literally, this terminology, tài tử, is a very well-known kind of art performance in this region, which is typically performed by farmer-artists This kind of performance with folk music was recognized as UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity By using this term, tài tử working style means dilettantism and unconscientious work habits Specialization is not popular in the 2.1 Perception and organisational culture Viet people in the South-West believe in Yin and Yang philosophy, so they prefer the balance in the world’s principles, in their life and characteristics As a result, too extreme behaviours are not acceptable Win-win strategy is preferable in the 80 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 79 – 83 workplace Characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with machines, robots and automation, industrial age requires advanced and disciplined workers However, labourers in the South-West seem to be not disciplined This habit stems from liberal disposition Because of favourable natural conditions, people in the South-West are not disciplined by lack of commitment to their studying, learning and working, although some of them are advanced and intelligent buyers, sellers in the South-West are very sincere in business They are truthful They sell at the same prices for both local people and strange customers Sellers on other regions, e.g in the North, are ready to offer exorbitant prices to those who have Southern accent Overprice is not popular in the South-West In social relations, people in the South-West are frank and forthright They are expressive when doing business They are black and white Business transactions could be cancelled once for all when ethical principles are betrayed They are realistic and of commercialism; actions are highly appreciated more than words Poetic expressions are not usual in the society Due to the love of reality and forthrightness, businessmen in the South-West prefer to express their goals, interests and viewpoints; but it seems that they are in some cases not very successful in negotiation because of ineffective verbal communication 2.2 Behaviours towards natural environment Rivers and water are two natural features of the South-West, which causes specific features of business culture and ethics The region is covered with a river network running into the sea As a result, transportation on water was developed very early Agricultures, fishery, boat building industry and commerce were also developed Natural resources from rivers and sea were plentiful, but were extensively exploited recently, and as a result became exhausted Perception of abundance of natural resources causes overuse of the resources It seems that environmental protection was not educated well in this society Children were told much about the abundance of natural resources Although governmental and non-governmental organizations pay attention to education about environmental protection, the tragedy of the commons is found in this society People and firms continue to cause deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil Values and norms in terms of environmental protection might stem from the perception of endless natural resources in the past Efforts to study, to work and to protect the natural environment are limited due to this wrong perception 2.4 Cultural traits in business Forthrightness makes people in the South-West be faithful, and gullible As earlier mentioned, businessmen are very faithful and sincere in business Making rough approximation of quantity is usual in business Traders measure the quantity of their commodity based on their common sense and the containers of commodity, known as lump-sum Both buyers and sellers are not choosy or concerned about details; they not drive hard bargains Because they are faithful, and they believe in others, business deals are made quickly However, this trait causes a negative consequence, people in the South-West are not careful in business transactions They are gullible, so get deceived by unfaithful partners They are sometimes careless Because of forthrightness, people in the SouthWest are hot-tempered They quickly express their uneasy feelings without delay On one hand, they almost forget uncomfortable feelings after expressing them However, they not care about social situations of the feelings, so they usually 2.3 Behaviours towards social environment People in the South-West are heartfelt and sincere, which is clearly shown in business culture Sellers prefer a fixed price, so bargain is not necessary No matter you are new or regular 81 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 79 – 83 protect the environment” in 22 provinces of the South (Ngoc Ngoc, February 26, 2018; Trong An, April 4, 2017) not postpone taking in these situations until a good time to find a way around problems arising in the situations They also not concern about hierarchy while showing the emotions Therefore, on the other hand, expression of bad feelings not in a right time might cause unexpected consequences A full agreement with businessmen in the South-West might not be reached due to their bad temper People in the South-West own good values for doing business because of their forthrightness They are fair and square They are happy to express their wish to business partners However, they are hot tempered, therefore in some case they rush to make decisions without careful consideration Lack of consideration and rushing might lead to failure in doing business They are truthful and gullible DISCUSSION People in the South-Western have great values and norm in business This enables them to go internationalization However, they need more motivation and knowledge about sustainable development in international business Despite good traits, people in the South-West may lack some necessary traits for doing business Keller and Richey (2006) found that crucial traits for business success are passionate and compassionate heart, creative and disciplined mind and agile and collaborative performance This study did not provide enough empirical evidence for these traits of people in the SouthWest However, it could be seen that the people need a disciplined mind because of their liberal disposition “Walk quickly, speak fast, and soon forget” are of traits of people in the South-West (Tran Ngoc Them et al., 2014) Among the first people in the South-West, immigrants were the ones who wish to break new grounds to the South There were acculturation and economic exchanges among immigrants of multi ethnic groups: Khmer, Vietnamese from the North, Chinese, Indonesian, and so on (Ly Tung Hieu, October 03, 2017) People in the South-West are open, sincere, and forthright in business They are also active and creative in work They own good values for doing business, since creativity is one of personality traits to a successful 21st century business (Keller & Richey, 2006) There is a need for further study on traits of people in the South-West and their business performance, providing theoretical framework and enough evidence A limitation of this study is the use of normative approach with archive data Values and norms have changed, as “culture is changing at warp speed” (Lord & Lord, 2010, p 1) Therefore, future studies applying empirical approach will be able to provide more reliable and the most updated evidence Future studies aim at comparing our understating about business culture and ethics in the past vs the present In addition, the theoretical framework of this study is not specific to a research context, e.g business negotiation, Corporate Social Responsibility (SCR) Further study on business culture in the South-West and in Vietnam is necessary in international business research Fertile natural resources in the South-West, on the one hand, are good conditions for development; on the other hand, these good conditions limit the creativity of people in the South-West In addition, it is essential to be concerned about environmental programs, and business ethics education It is to protect the natural environment for clean air, nourishing food, and freshwater National programs for environmental protection and clean farming have been conducted, for example the program “Along with farmers to 82 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (2), 79 – 83 REFERENCES Ngoc Ngoc (February 26, 2018) Effectiveness of the program "Along with farmers to protect the environment" Retrieved December 25, 2018, from https://baomoi.com Donaldson, T., & Dunfee, T W (1994) Toward a unified conception of business ethics: Integrative social contracts theory Academy of Management Review, 19(2), 252-284 Sinclair, A (1993) Approaches to 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changes: Rowman Altamira Trong An (April 4, 2017) Along with farmers to protect the environment Retrieved December 25, 2018, from http://baoangiang.com.vn Ly Tung Hieu (October 03, 2017) Cultivation of the South: Evidence of acculturation of multi ethnic groups Retrieved December 25, 2018, from http://tiasang.com.vn 83 ... disciplined by lack of commitment to their studying, learning and working, although some of them are advanced and intelligent buyers, sellers in the South- West are very sincere in business They... consideration and rushing might lead to failure in doing business They are truthful and gullible DISCUSSION People in the South- Western have great values and norm in business This enables them to go internationalization... land but also weather, fishery, forestry and so on These favours enable people in the South- West to be more egregious than those in the Middle and the North In the event of this, people in the