Building a New Management Model for Vietnamese Higher Education Institutions based on the Made in Vietnam Lean Management45295

Building a New Management Model for Vietnamese Higher Education Institutions based on the Made in Vietnam Lean Management Minh Nguyen Dang 1 * , Toan Nguyen Dang 1 1 VNU University of E

Building a New Management Model for Vietnamese Higher Education Institutions based on the Made in Vietnam Lean Management

Minh Nguyen Dang (1) (*) , Toan Nguyen Dang (1)

(1) VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University., Hanoi, Vietnam

* Correspondence: dangminhck@gmail.com

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to proposed a new management model base on The Made in

Vietnam lean management thinking in order to help Vietnamese Higher educations institutions restructure themselves efficiency to deal with difficulties of satisfying labor market’s demand The study employed a qualitative approach The primary data were collected by observations and in-depth interviews The participants involved in this study were administrators, professors, lectures, staffs and student from 20 higher education institutions; educational researchers and enterprise’s top managers in Vietnam Based on Made in Vietnam lean management thinking, this study identified not only tangible wastes but also intangible wastes existing in Higher education institution in Vietnam The Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model was proposed The model

is assist-up model, focusing on utilizing employees' intellectual abilities to minimize existing waste and improve efficiency and effectiveness in Higher education institutions The findings highlight that the proposed management model focusing on utilizing employees' intellectual abilities has not only implication for Higher education institutions in Vietnam, but also for Higher education institutions from other developing countries where the resources and capital investment are constrained

Keywords: Made in Vietnam Lean management; Made in Vietnam Lean higher education

management model; Tangible waste; Intangible waste; Tam The

1 Introduction

Lean management is one of the most advanced management styles that focus on fulfilling customer satisfaction and creating value through wastes reduction (Womack et al, 2007; Liker, 1999) Despite its manufacturing origin, the lean thinking philosophy has been quickly expanded to new areas such as service, trade and the public sector (Womack & Jones, 2005) In the public sector, Lean was applied in healthcare and government before higher education (Radnor & Bucci, 2011) Lean management has been used in higher education institutions to reduce wastes, make processes flow smoothly and improve workforce efficiency (Balzer, 2010; Kang & Manyonge, 2014; Finn & Geraci, 2012)

The term “Lean higher education” has been used since 2004 in the USA and 2006 in the UK ("Lean HE” - Lean HE", n.d.) Lean higher education is defined as the application of lean principles and practices in higher education, identifying process flow, defining the value of processes and eliminating the type of wastes that add no value (Balzer, 2010) Lean

in higher education has been studied on at different contexts from departmental to

institutional levels (Balzer, 2016) The most popular lean approaches are applied in a number of service areas such as administration, finance, campus functions; however, they are increasingly being used to improve teaching and research activities directly (Balzer, 2010; Kang & Manyonge, 2014) Lean implementation enables universities to improve employees' engagement, improve the quality and accuracy of processes and save time and resources (Finn & Geraci, 2012) However, to implement successful, lean higher education requires the involvement of employees and strong commitment from the most senior administrators (Zoe & Giovanni, 2011; Comm & Mathaisel, 2005) Lean higher education implementation also requires an open culture, willingness for employees to work across different departments and administrative level, a long-term implementation strategy, continuous training programs relating to lean philosophy, and external support from a lean consultant (Balzer, 2010 and Waterbury, 2015) The literature review reveals that Lean for higher education is still a fairly new concept and have much room to explore Fewer publications focus on the implementation of lean management for universities, especially in developing countries, including Vietnam

Over the last three decades, Vietnam higher education has fundamentally changed Vietnamese higher education institutions has expanded in term of quantities, scale, and new training disciplines Consequently, they have to deal with an increasing number of administrative issues and quality issues Reforms of the Vietnamese higher education system has been a topic of debate for many years and attracted a lot of local and global attention from researchers and organizations Some solutions have been suggested such as

to change the university’s functioning model, give autonomy to universities, or improve the internal democracy and academic freedom, financial reform, etc …(Khanh, 2010; Phong & Thuy, 2013) However, up to now, there are still many difficulties in transferring research results into practice Vietnamese higher education institutions are finding a way to restructure themselves to respond to change more quickly and to sustain in the future

Based on the research gap above, this paper aims to propose a new Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model to help Vietnamese higher education organizations to restructure themselves efficiency, and then it could become a promising reference for other education institutions from developing countries

2 Theoretical framework

2.1 Lean application for higher education: Identify and eliminate wastes

Lean is a management method to simplify and streamline processes by identifying and eliminating wastes (Wedgwood, 2007) Waste is defined by Womack and Jones (2003, 2005) as any human activity that absorbs resources but creates no value Wastes were originally identified for a manufacturing environment (Ohno, 1988) Then, wastes have been developed for service areas by several authors including Radnor et al (2006), Sarkar (2008), Waterman and McCue (2012), Kollberg (2007),etc Sarkar (2008) believed the eight wastes to

be universally applicable Kang & Lawrence (2014) identified wastes in higher education system by considering the basic process; such as lecturing, researching, support activities…etc Each group of activities consists of different steps Each step more or less

contributes for the customer satisfaction Once these value- added steps are identified then wastes can be eliminated in the higher education system by using lean methods More importantly, there are intangible wastes which are verified in the context of developing countries, such as Vietnam (Minh, 2015a)

2.2 Made in Vietnam Lean management thinking

Over the past 15 years, the number of Vietnamese enterprises applying lean management successfully remains limited In order to solve this problem, Minh (2015a) has developed the Made in Vietnam lean management thinking The thinking is based on the lean management from a global context, along with some additional characteristics specifically for Vietnam enterprises Academically, the Made in Vietnam lean management thinking has been published and recognized as the new philosophy at the conference "13th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing-decoupling growth from resource use” Practically, the Made in Vietnam Lean management has been recognized by the Vietnamese enterprises as a new and advanced management philosophy which is suitable for Vietnamese enterprises and organizations

The Made in Vietnam lean management thinking is aimed at gaining profit and creating added value for company/organization by utilizing employees’ intellectual abilities

to continuously improve the business process to minimize waste costs The concept of Made

in Vietnam lean management thinking is explained by the following equations:

Profit = Revenue – Cost (1)

Costs = Actual costs + Waste (2)

Waste = Tangible waste + Intangible waste (3)

(Source: Minh, 2015)

According to these equations, to earn more profit, an enterprise can reduce costs or increase revenue It is note easy to change the revenue as it mostly depends on external factors It is more feasible to reduce cost Thus, waste is a component needed to be cut or eliminated According to the Made in Vietnam lean management, there are two types of wastes: tangible and intangible The former is easy to identify in the business process, e.g., unnecessary inventory, over production, waiting time unnecessary transportation and movement, defects, etc In practice, most companies have made an effort to minimize their tangible waste The intangible waste is not visible and harder to identify The intangible waste can be classified into three groups including thinking patterns (can’t do attitude, afraid to think of change, conservative and traditional thinking), working approach (missing the continuous improvement in current methods and processes), and missing opportunities (growth chances and business opportunities) Indeed, the intangible waste is generally larger than the tangible waste (Minh, 2015)

Minh (2016) also proposed “Tam The, that is one of the distinct elements of Made in Vietnam lean management thinking “Tam Thê” is a management concept, which is defined by the following formulas:

Tâm Thế = Thấu 1 + Thấu 2 + Ý (Vietnamese concept)

Tam The = Deep Understanding 1 + Deep Understanding 2 + Consciousness

(Source: Minh, 2016)

“Tam The” includes two understandings and one consciousness Deep Understanding 1 is to comprehend that a work (job/study) that a person implements benefits him/her Deep Understanding 2 is to comprehend that by doing the work seriously (job/study) he/she can improve individual thinking power (when studying) and working possibilities (when implementing a job), thereby benefiting himself/herself Consciousness

is to comprehend that people should have good behavior, attitude, and morality toward work to reflect and implement the two understandings

“Tam The” is a Vietnamese word that refers to the deep understanding of employees and managers about the benefits of their tasks for themselves If the Made in Vietnam lean management is about the human intelligence, then “Tam The” is about the spiritual power

“Tam The” helps to integrate people in the organization and re-direct their thinking on a common axis to consolidate collective knowledge and strength of all the concerned people for creating added value for the organization Therefore, “Tam The” plays an important role

in establishing the thinking foundation for the successful operation of Vietnamese organizations

Practically, the Made in Vietnam lean management has been applied in Vietnam since 2014 During from the period of 2014 to 2017, the Made in Vietnam lean management has been used in over 200 Vietnamese’s private enterprises including not only small enterprises (with fewer than 100 employees) but also big enterprises (with over 15,000 employees) The Made in Vietnam lean management has been recognized by the Vietnamese enterprises as the advanced management philosophy that is suitable for all types of businesses in Vietnam

A higher education institution can be considered as a special business organization

In equation (1), higher education institution’s profits need to be much more broadly understood It is not just about the money, it is also about added value that a institution can creates for the society and the institution itself For society, value added is a high-quality human resource and high-quality knowledge For university itself, added value is the money, reputation and sustainable development, etc

According to the Made in Vietnam lean management thinking, to create more added value, the higher education institutions can utilize employees’ intellectual abilities to minimize waste cost and continuously improve its process such as governance, teaching, learning, research and support services There are also two types of wastes existing in the university process, namely: (i) tangible waste and (ii) intangible waste

The Made in Vietnam lean management thinking is used as the theoretical framework for this study Base on this thinking, the study is organized as follows: (i) identify existing waste in current activities (governance, teaching, research and service support); and

(ii) propose new management model based on the made in Vietnam lean management thinking to reduces wastes in Vietnamese higher education institutions

3 Methodology

3.1 Research framework

The research approach and processes are presented in the figure 1

Figure 1: The research process

We firstly develop database for this research In order to develop the theoretical framework and rationale for research, the secondary data are collected through reviewing the relevant literature of Lean higher education, Vietnam higher education management and the Made in Vietnam lean management The primary data are collected via in-depth interviews and observations to realize the knowledge and situation of Higher education institutions in Vietnam Then, the authors analyze the data using the Made in Vietnam lean

Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model

Literature review Observations, In-depth interviews

to collect primary data

Analyzing secondary and primary data to identify existing wastes in

Vietnamese higher education institutions

Propose a new management model for Vietnamese higher education institutions base on Made in Vietnam lean management

Confirm the feasibility of the model through interviews with educational experts and case study

Finalize Made in Vietnam lean higher education management model

for Vietnamese higher education institutions

Not OK

OK

thinking framework to identify the existing wastes in the Vietnamese higher education institutions Based on the analysis, the authors suggest a Made in Vietnam Lean Higher Education management model for Vietnamese Higher education institutions to eliminate wastes Next, the authors invite educational experts, universities’ administrators and business executives to participate in seminar to discuss the feasibility of the model, find out constraints of the model in different contexts, and suggest the optimized model for universities in Vietnam Finally, a case study is used to reconfirm the validity of this model

3.2 Data collection methods

Figure 2: Data collection

Secondary data collection:

The collected secondary documents and information are:

International research related to the topic of lean in higher education including implementation model, successful implementation experience

International and Vietnamese research related to the Vietnamese higher education Research related to the Made in Vietnam lean management

Primary data collection:

Primary Data is collected by observations and in-depth interviews as below:

Education experts

Lectures, staff and students

University administrators

Enterprise managers

Observations

Vietnam higher education research Lean in higher education research

Semi-structure interviews

Made in Vietnam lean management

Secondary data

Primary data

Observations:

Observations were conducted on the sample of 20 typical universities from the northern to the southern regions of Vietnam The researchers observed governance; teaching, learning, research activities and support services through participating in 50 class hours, 10 seminars, research workshops, and internal meetings at these specific universities Then, during these activities, the existing wastes were identified by using the Made in Vietnam Lean Management thinking

In-depth interviews:

The purpose of in-depth interview is to re-confirm the existing wastes at educational institutions, to understand current management system of higher educational institutions The in-depth interview with diverse participants has helped the authors to have objective research data from multiple perspectives This helps to add the validity for this qualitative research

In-depth interviews were conducted as follows:

Round 1: This round was conducted in 10 research samples to test and finalize the

question framework for the following interviews

Round 2: The in-depth interview was conducted in two groups The first group is

principals, assistant principals, heads of departments, lectures and students of these universities The second group is a representative sample of 80 enterprises’ managers who directly recruit graduate student

The first group was interviewed in a 30-minute interview in personal or group setting In each interview, participants were firstly asked to identify existing wastes of activities that they directly or indirectly experienced in the educational system of university from their own perspective

The second group was interviewed in 30 minutes with the aim of finding and identifying existing wastes in higher education from their own perspectives At the same time, their opinions about the solutions to solve the problem, including applying of Made

in Vietnam Lean Management were collected

Round 3: Educational researchers and business executives were interviewed to

collect practical assessment about the model which authors propose for higher education institution in Vietnam

Table 1: Summarize the participants Type of participant Numbers of participant

Round 1

CEO enterprises 1

Round 2

Human resources managers

50

Round 3

Internal university administrators (principal, vice principal) 20

3 Results

3.1 Wastes in vietnamese higher education institutions

3.1.1 Waste in teaching, learning, research and support services in Vietnamese higher education institutions from perspective of administrators, lecturers, professors, staffs and students

Through in-depth interviews, existing waste in teaching, learning, research activities and support services in Vietnam higher education institutions is identified from the interviewee’s perspectives All typical wastes are illustrated in table 4:

Table 2: Wastes in Vietnamese higher education institutions

Teaching

Teaching

programs

Unnecessary courses Practical and theoretical knowledge are not allocated appropriately in teaching

program Use the foreign program framework in advanced teaching program without changing content to relevant to the reality of Vietnam

None of continuous improvement thinking in making curriculum Respond slowly to market demand Inefficient to transfer theoretical knowledge into practice

Teaching

material Out date teaching material

Teaching

method

No diversification in teaching methods

Slowly update new teaching methods

Traditional teaching method could not promote creativity and self-study of student

None of continuous improvement thinking in teaching method

Research

Research

The percentage of lecturers engaged in scientific research is low Low diversity in research fields Slowly update new research content and

research method

Strategic thinking in designing research system is not accounted for

practical factor Inefficient to transfer theoretical knowledge into practice

Support services

Support

services

Unable to delivery service in time due to complex, lengthy procedures or errors

in the services transactions Ineffective communication between providers and users Excess facilities which may not be in use

at all Waiting for seeking information, equipment or tools which need to used

Don’t have continuous improvement activities

Base on the Made in Vietnam Lean Thinking, authors identified tangible wastes and intangible wastes existing in Vietnam higher education institutions Especially, four kinds

of intangible wastes in the higher education system in Vietnam were identified, including waste of thinking pattern, working method, missing opportunities and the inefficient transferring of knowledge Thinking pattern is translated by none of continuous improvement thinking in activity chain of educational institute Working method means that knowing a better method but don’t want to apply The third one is missing opportunities for development by using current method, and traditional thinking The last one is the waste of theoretical knowledge that cannot be absorbed and transferred into practice The intangible wastes in higher education institute are the new findings that have not only the implications for Vietnam, but also other developing countries When the higher education institute would like to apply lean management, they should focus on both tangible and intangible waste

3.1.1 Wastes in Vietnam higher education institutions from the employers’ perspective

From the employer’s points of view, the biggest waste in Vietnam higher education system is that majority of graduate student do not meet the employer’s requirement related

to specialized knowledge, personal skill, and “Tam The” Through the in-depth interviews, interviewees indicated specifics waste that exist in the graduate students

Table 3: Waste in the Vietnamese higher education system from employers’ perspectives

Lack of practical knowledge Unclear purpose of study and career orientation

Poor soft skills

Poor hard skills

Lack of professional behavior

Inability to transfer knowledge into practices Lack passion and enthusiasm for work

3.2 The proposed Made in Vietnam Lean higher education management model 3.2.1 Proposed basis

The Made in Vietnam Lean management model is verified for its validity, performance and efficiency through more than 200 enterprises in Vietnam Based on this theory and the findings from in-depth interviews, authors proposed a new Made in Vietnam lean Management model for higher education system It is a bottom-up model with the

“Tam The” foundation This model helps to enhance the employees' engagement, in reducing waste and improving the efficiency of the operation

A university/educational institutes can be considered as a special business organization, university input is human, and university output is also human The Made in Vietnam lean higher education is established based on the Made in Vietnam lean management thinking The model is assist-up model, focusing on utilizing employees' intellectual abilities to minimize existing waste, to create added value to the higher education institutions in particular and the education institutions in Vietnam in general This model not only solves the waste from higher education institutions’ perspective, but also from enterprise’s perspectives

This model has not only implication for Vietnam, but also for other developing countries where the resources and capital investment are constrained That is the reason why they should pay more attention on human resources to encourage people to participate

in the transformation of higher education institutes

3.2.2 The proposed Made in Vietnam Lean higher education management model