Luận văn english professionl titles in the management system of joint stock companies and their vietnamese equivalents a study from pragamatic perspective

uc CHAPTER 3; A CONTRATIVE STUDY ON PROFESSIONAL TITLES IN THE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OF AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE JOINT-STOCK 3.1.. A contrastive analysis of professional titles in manag

—ASTUDY FROM PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE

(Từ chỉ chức danh thuộc hệ thống quản lý của công ty cỗ phần trong

tiếng Anh và cách diễn dạt tương dương trong tiếng Việt

— Nghiên cứu từ góc độ ngữ đụng học}

XLA Minor Programme 'Ïhesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01

Hanoi - 2014

—ASTUDY FROM PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE

(Từ chỉ chức danh thuộc hệ thống quản lý của công ty cổ phần trong

tiếng Anh và cách diễn dạt tương dương trong tiếng Việt

— Nghiên cứu từ góc độ ngữ đựng học}

MLA Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr, Lam Quang Déng

Hanoi — 2014

DECLARATION

I, Ta Thi Mai Huong, hereby state that this minor thesis is the result of my own research and all the materials m this study which are not my own work have been identified and acknowledged 1 also state that the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in parl, been submitted for any degree to any other universities or

Instituhions

Manoi, June, 2014 Student’s signature

‘Va Thi Mai [hrong

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This minor thesis has been successfully completed thanks to the assistance and guidance of my supervisor, teachers, colleagues, friends and relatives

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Assoe Prof

Dr Lam Quang Déng for his patient and enthusiastic guidance, endless encouragement and invaluable exitival fecdback throughout ary research,

Sooondly, T wish to thank all the Tocturors in the Facully of Posigraduals Studios, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their very usefid and interesting lectures which have laid the foundation for my thesis

1 am also grateful to the librarians of the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, who enthusiastically helped me in finding necessary materials for my thesis

In addition, 1 am greatly indebted to my colleagues at Thai Nguyen University of Economics and Business Administration for sharing my duties and providing me with both professional and smotional support while the work was being done:

Last but not least, 1 would like to express my special thanks to my family whose love, cars, support and cnenuragemient cabled me to accomplish the study

lanai, June 2014.

and Vietnamese companies’ organizational structures, as well as scans some job suggested

websites 10 figura oul and make a list of the commen professional Witles in English and Vietnamese language, centering upon the titles in the management system of a company,

“These jobs titles are then described, compared and contrasted in terms of responsibilities to look for the equivalents in the targel language The resulis of the study present, the Vietnamese equivalents of the investigated English professional tiles, Based on those findings, the thesis provides some implications for translation and pedagogy Last but not least, anggostions for furthor rescarch aro given as dircetion ir the lime lo come pursucd by the author and/or other interested people

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

CAO Chief Accounting Officer

eco Chief Customer Officer

CEO Chief Executive Officer

cro Chic Financial Officer

CHRO Chief Human Resources Officer

CMO Chief Marketing Officer

coo Chief Operating Officer

cso Chic Sales Officer

UK ‘The United Kingdom

US The United States

VP Vice President

iv

LIST OF TABLES

‘Table 1: ‘Types of equivalence relationship

Table 2: English professional titles and their Victnamese cquivalents

Table 3: Vietnamese professional titles and their English equivalents

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Company structure introduced by Tullis, G and Trappe, T (2004)

Figure 2; Company structure introduced by Mackenzic, I (1997)

Figure 3: Company structure introduced by McKellen, 1.8 (1990)

Figure 4: Company structure introduced by Sweeny, S (2002)

Figure 5: Company structure introduced by Mascull, B (2002)

Vigure 6: Structure of Binh Minh Plastics Joint-stock Company

Figure 7: Structure of Lac Tong Joint-stock Company

Vigure 8: Structure of BSC Joint-stock Company

Figure 9: Board of Directors in American companies

Figure 10: Inner governance structure of Vietnamese joint-stock companies

Figure 11: Overview of the translation task

120

21

4, Scopes of the study

S Significance of the study

6 Methods of the study

2.1 Definition of American and Vietnamese joini-stoek eoinpaniles

2.1.1, American joint-stock companies

2.12 Viemamese joint-stock companies

2.2 Organizational structures of American and Victnamese joint-stock companies 12

2.2.1 — Organizational structures of some Ảmerican goinpaBies

2.2.2 Organizational structures of some Vietnamese companies

vị

2.2.3 Concluding Remarks

2.3 Main titles in management system of American and Vi

2.3.1 Main tiles in American joint-stock carnparrics

2.3.2 Maintifesm Vietinaese joint-stock eompaiiss uc

CHAPTER 3; A CONTRATIVE STUDY ON PROFESSIONAL TITLES IN THE

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OF AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE JOINT-STOCK

3.1 A description of professional litles in management system of American and

Vietnamese joint-stock companies

3.1.1 American professional titles

3.1.2, Vietnamese professional titles cseuessesssencesesieseessanieenssanecseessaneee

3.2 A contrastive analysis of professional titles in management system of American and Vietnamese joint-stock companies

3.2.1 Titles denoting General Managers

3.2.2 Titles denoting Functional Managers

4.1 Suggestions for translating English professional titles into Vietnamese and

Vietnamese tillss into Tnglish

4.2 Tmuplisations for leaching and Isarring Businoss English

PART 3: CONCLUSION c share

Although Vietnam has been exposed to the market economy for a considerable period, there remains a lack of economic tsrminology system in generat and Vietnamese equivalents of English occupational filles in particular Professional litles a

among, those English terms which are popularly used in both local and global companies, In addition, an incomest choice of business contacts due to the misunderstanding of their job title’s

responsibilities may negalively affect the viability of business cooperation As a matler of

fact, working people need to have some knowledge about business titles

Being a teacher of English responsible for teaching linglish ta students majored in Imanagemenl, studies, my job is to help students improve their language proficieney and

provide them with the language skills they need for their future career Thus, I feel the need

to pre-teach students the common job titles and people's responsibihties when they hold

these posts

So far, few rescarchers have had interest in researching the job titles in the cconomic

fields Therefote, to be able to provide leamers with better understanding of the professional tiles and their implied meanings, if is ne

sioral titles of this Lype of company can be found

in many other business models Therefore, I decided to make an investigation into the

management system of the companies of this type

2 Aims of the study

The primary purpose of the study is to lock for the intrinsic meanings of the words denotmg common professional titles im management system of Ametican joint-stock companies and their Vietnamese equivalents

3 Research questions

The study is carried out with a view to answering the following research questions:

1 What are the common English professional titles and their responsibilities in management system of joint-stock companios in Ihe United States?

2 What are the equivalents of these job titles in the Vietnamese language?

4 Scopes of the study

‘The study investigates the management system of some large joint-stock companies

in the Uniled States (U.S), looking far common professions Litles and their responsibilities, These business titles will then be compared to titles existing in management systems of

Vietnamese companies to find the equivalent terms in Vietnamese language

It should be noted that the study only deals with linguistic aspeel The term “joint- stock company” used in this study is an old word referring to the companies raising capital

by issuing stocks and being owned by its shareholders, It can be replaced by “shareholding

company” or “public company” in modem English

5, Significance of the study

It is expected that the result of this research will help Vietnamese learners of English, especially students whose major is economics and business administration, have better understandings of the management system of joint stock companies and the responsibilities of some popular positions in the company system Having a clear idea of the

possible rasponsibilitiss of a lille will facilitate studsnts in the proves of applying for a job

as well as being of great help when they have to find the right people to work with in their future career

Also, the attempt to find and suggest equivalents of professional titles in Vietnamese Tanguage will help limit the use of borrowing wards, thus, parlly contribute to preserving the valu of our national tanguags

6, Methods of the study

‘his research is a kind of qualitative research, in which the author integrates different methods including listing, descriptive, comparative and contrastive 10 be able to successfully answer the research questions, By stating that the study 1s a kind of pragmatic perspective, the author implies that she mainly focuses on working out the intrinsic ineanings of the professional tilles investigated

In terms of contrastive analysis, the rescarcher follows the principles suggested by James C (1980), who stated that contrastive method involves two steps, namely, description and comparison, Following this method, the thesis is carried aul through two sleps

- Step one: English and Vietnamese professional tles m are listed and described

- Step two: English and Vietnamese professional titles are compared to find out the

equivalents

7 Design of the study

‘The study has three main parts: Introduetion, Development, and Conclusion

The conclusion provides the sununary of what has boon discusssd in the study, stales the limitations of the study and makes some suggestions for further research,

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURK REVIEW

This chapter presenis the theoretical foundation on which the study is based and sel

up It deals with theories of pragmatics, tuanslation, equivalence in translation and

of signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable, and pragmatics, the stitdy of the relation of signs lo interpreters (Moris, 1938, cited in Lovinsan, 1986:1) During the three stages of its development, the terms “pragmatics” has been redefined by many authors 1Iowever, as Levinson (1986) stated, the modem usage of the term “pragmatics” is, indeed,

an attribute to Morris’ theory

Bar-Hiller (1984) took the view that pragmatics is the study of languages, both natural and artificial, that contains indexical or deictic terms Camap (in the late 1960s)

referred lo pragmatics as “those linguistic investigations thal make necessary reference to aspects of the context” In Levinson’s view, pragmatics can be defined as “the study of those relations between language and context that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of a language” (Levinson, 1986:9) Considering the Iruth conditions, Gaxdar

q

of utterances which cannot be accounted for by straightforward reference to the truth

cited in Levinson, 1986:12) proposed that pragmatics has those aspects of meaning

conditions af he senlences ullered

According to Mey (1993), “pragmatics” is the study of the use of language n human communication as determined by the conditions of society Stalnaker (1972, cited in Hom,

LR, and Ward, G., 2006) viewed pragmatics as the study of linguistie acts and the contexts

in which they are performed Similarly, Sporber and Wilson (1986, cited in Kirsten and

Williams, 1998) assumed that pragmatics is the study of the interpretation of utterances.

Yule (1996) is also conccined with the interpretation of utterances in the Sperber and Wilson’s sense In his book, the writer gives a detailed description of what is called

“pragmatics” According to this author, the approach falls into four areas including speaker moaning, contextual meaning, listsners’ infercnee and the expression of relativa distance

‘As what people say or write is not always what they mean, pragmatic studies are carried out to investigate the meaning communicated by a speaker or writer and interpreted

by a listoner or reader, In this œas, the anthor defines pragmaties as “the study of speaker

meaning”,

Pragmatics is also concerned with the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and the influcnecs of the context ơn wha is ullered, Henee, pragrnatics is the study of contextual meaning

In many circumstances, it is necessary for the listeners to make inferences about whal is said in order lo understand the speakers’ inlended meaning Obviously, the unsaid in these cases are part of what is communicated, Thus, Yule (1996.3) retfers to pragmatics as

2 study of how more gets communicated thanis said”

As peopls living near cach alher usuilly have more shared exporienes than those who live far apart, the distance between the listeners and speakers significantly influences how much needs to be said In this case, pragmatic studies can be carried out to look for the factor that determines the choice between the said and the unsaid 'therefore, pragmatics is defined as the study of the expression of relative distance (Yule, 1996:3)

The author, then, concludes that pragmatics is “the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and the users of those forms” (Yule, 1996:3)

Yongping (2002), a well-known Chinese scholar, also caplained the norm of

“pragmatics” in his book 1 Survey of Pragmatics, As the author expressed, pragmatics is a discipline which nol only concerns the sense bul also concerns the derivation of sense and the understanding of underlying meaning as its objects, The aim of this discipline is to decipher the negotiation and derivation of meaning in communication (Yongping, R and

In this study, the rescarcher stated that the thesis is towards the pragmatic perspective since her aim is to find the intrinsic meanings of frequently used professional titles to understand how they function in a company management system

1.2 Theory of Translation

1.2.1 Definitions of translation

Translation has been approached by a manber of Tinguists According to Calford, (1965), translation is the replacement of a text in one language by an equivalent text in

another language In regards to various linguistic aspects, Nida (1969) states that translating

is the process of finding closest nalurat equivalent to the message of the source language not only in meaning but also in style

Considering translation as the preservation of meaning from one language into another language, Newtark (1986:5) defines translation as the process of “rendering the meaning, of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text” Thus

concept is shared by many researchers such as Meetham and Hudson (1972) and House (1981) Mccthar and Hudson (1972, cited in Bell, 1991:59) stato that translation is the

replacement of 4 representation of a tex im anc Tanguage by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language Similarly, House (1981) defines translation as the replacement of a text in the source language by a semantically and pragmatically equivalent

text in the target language

Although each linguist tries to explain the term “translation” in their own words, the common feature of the above definitions is thal they emphasize the importance of finding equivalents with similar characteristics to the original by the choice of appropriate lexicon and grammatical structures

1.2.2, Equivalence in transkition

Tn most definitians about translation, “equivalence” is mentioned as the key term Cattord (1966, cited in Van den Broek, 1978) defines the notion of “equivalence” by stating the conditions in which translation equivalence ocours According to this author, translation equivalence occurs when “source Tanguage and largel language laxis or ilerns are related to {at least some of) the same relevant features of situation substance”, Similaily, Halverson (1997) also views equivalence in the relationship between two entities, and the relationship

is described as a similarity in terms of any of potential qualities In general, proponents of

equivalence-based theorics of translation usually define equivalence as the relationship

between a source text and a target text that allows the target text to be considered as a

translation of the source text, Also, equivalence relationships appear to hold between parts

of source texts and parts of target texts, These definitions are supposed to be problematic as what Pym (1992:37) has pointed out: equivalence is used to define translation, and

translation, in turn, defines equivalence The existence of this circularity explains why

Snell-Hornby (1988) and many other theorists who support him believe that translation

equivalence is just an “imaginative” phenomenon

Although the concept of “equivalence” remains controversial, few attempts have

been made to define equivalence out of its relationship with translation Yet, though being

claimed to be irrelevant (Snell-Hornby,1988) or damaging (Gentlzer,1993) to translation

studies, equivalence is still variously regarded asa necessary condition for translation, an

obstacle to progress in translation studies, and a useful category for describing translations

1.2.3 Types of equivalence Theorists have studied equivalence in relation to the translation process, using two approaches, namely quantitative and qualitative Concerning the quantitative approach,

Kade (1968), and Hann (1992) divide equivalence into six categories as follows:

Nal] PRee ep eaubatence relationship Description Explanation

A single expression in the

Niatylsdnnii More than one TL expression

expression is used ATL expression covers part

equivalence eS @ single SL expression or vice

There is no TL expression for

In terms of fisnction-based equivalence, Nida (1964) argues that there are two different types of equivalence, including formal equivalence which is also referred to as formal corrsspondones (Nida & Taber, 1969) and dynamic cquivalenes While formal correspondence focuses attention on both form and content, dynamic equivalence emphasizes the text readability

In light of meaning-based equivalence, Koller (1977) proposos

five types of

equivalence including “denotative, connotalive, text-formalive, pragmatic and formal,

equivalence” Denotative equivalence is described as extralinguistic content as it involves

“content invariance”, which means the ST and TT words refer to the same thing in the real

world Comotative equivalence is that SL and TL words should produce the same

communicative values in the mind of native speakers of the two languages ‘This equivalence type invalves lexical choices and can be referred to as “stylistic equivalence”

With regard to text-formative eqnavalence, the author means the SL and TL words should

use the same or similar text types in their respective languages By pragmatic equivalence,

Koller (1977) implies that the SL and ‘TL words should have the same effect on the reader

or maitily aiming at the receiver, to whom the translation is directed Pragmatic equivalence

is, therefore, similar to Nida’s dynamic equivalence in that both kinds concentrate on the communicative equivalence and are oriented ta the receiver of the text message ‘The last

type of equivalence, nanely, formal equrvalence is refarred to as “expressive equivalene

which respects the form and aesthetics of the text

With regard to form-hased equivalence, Baker (1992) explores the notion of equivalence at different levels in relation to the translation process This author proposes that there are two types of equivalence including equivalence at word level and equivalence above word level In this author's view, translation equivalence involves grammatical equivalence, textual cquivalonee, and pragmalic oqnivalonce Baker notss that a word sometimes carries different meanings in different languages, and relates meaning of words

with morphome Baker mentions problems at word level and above word level before suggesting some strategies in dealing with them, Grammatical equivalence refers to the diversity of grammatical categories across languages I'he linguistic scholar affirms that grammatical rules across languages may differ, which Izad Lo some problems in finding direct comespondence in the TL, Textual equavalence denotes the equivalence between a SL text and a ‘IL text regarding information and cohesion Hinally, pragmatic equivalence touches on implication of the TT text, The duly of a translator is recognizing tho inmpliod meaning of SL text, and then reproducing it in a way that readers of the TL can comprehend clearly without any misunderstanding in terms of culture

1.3 Contrastive Analysis

In the sccond half of the 20” century, the influenee of the frst language in learning a second language was noted by ditferent linguists such as Lado and Postman According to Lado (1957), leamers of a second language tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture — both productively

and receptively Similarly, Postman (1971) states that leaming is a cumulative process, in

which, the more knowledge and skills an individual acquires, the more likely it becomes that his new learning will be shaped by lus past experiences and activities, “An adult rarely,

if ever, leams anything completely new; however, unfamiliar task confronts him, the

suggested by Whorf (1941) and was defined as “a sub discipline of linguistics concemed

called “contrastive linguistics”, was

with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to dctermine both the diffcrenecs and similarities between thenr” (Fisiak, 1981), From the definition, it can be said that according to this author, CA deals with both similarities and differences of the two languages investigated

Untike Fisiak, James (1980) supposes that CA, as the term conirastive impli

more interested in the differences between languages than in thew likenesses, The scholar then describes CA as “a linguistic enterprise aiming at producing inverted two-valued

typologies (@ CA is always concemed with a pair of languages), and founded on the assumption that languages can be compared” (James, 1980:3)

In the 1960s and early 1970s, contrastive analysis was used extensively in the field

of Scoond Language Acquisition Despite an array of criticisms, contrastive analysis is nol merely relevant for second language teaching and learning but it can also make useful contributions to machine translating and linguistics typology Chaturvedi (1973) suggests the following guiding principles for contzastive study: (1) To analyze the mother tongue and the target language dependently and completely (2) To compare the two languages item-

wise-item at all levels of their structure (3) To arrive at the categories of a/ similar features

In this study, the res

archer would like to follow the procedures suggested by James (1980) as the framework and carry out the research through two steps:

- Step one: English and Vietnamese professional titles in are listed and described,

- Step two: English and Vietnamese professional titles are compared to find the

equivatonis.

CHAPTER 2

A DESCRIPTION OF AMERICAN AND VIETNAMESE JOINT-STOCK COMPANLES Chapter two provides a description of American and Vietnamese Joint-Stock Companies, including the definition of a joint-stock company and the illustration of common company structures,

2.1, Definition of American and Vietnamese joint-stock companies

24.4 American joint-stock companies

‘The use of the term joint-stock company or corporation has been common since the various Joint-stock Companies Acts wore passed in the 1800s in England As defined by the Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English (2009), a joint-stock company simply means a company whose stock is owned jointly by its shareholders

More detailed definition can be found online at www businessdictionary.com on which joint-stock company is stated to be the original name for a corporation with limited liability for the shareholders Investors in an American joint-stock company receive stock or shares which can be lransferred, and can elect a board of directors to help them control the company operations With regards to American joint-stock company, Downes and

Goodman (2006) deseribed this type of company as a form of business organization that

combines fealures of a corporation anda partnership A simuitar explanation can be rolriovodl from West’s Encyclopedia of American Law (2005) at wow.encyclopedia.com, On this website, a joint-stock company is noted as an association engaged in a business for profit

with ownership interests represented by sharzs of slack, A joint-stock company is finamced with capital invested by the membcis or stockhelders who receive transferable shares, or stock Although it shares majority features of a corporation, this type of company is somehow similar to partnership because it also possesses the element of personal tiabitity where each member remains financially responsible for the acts of the company

‘Though joint-stock company has long history, this original name is not very commonly used in the U.S at present According to Plessis & Grabfeld (2007), nowadays

in the U.S, the UK and other Anglo-American jurisdictions, this type of company takes the name of “public companies or corporations, publicly-traded companies/corporations, public companies of corporations limited by shares, or public limited companies or corporations”

In this study, the author will usc these terms interchangeably when referring to “joint-stock company”

2.1.2 Vietnamese joint-stock companies

Vietnam Enlerprise Law (2005), Arlicle 77 defines joint-slock companies as follows:

Arliele 77: Joinl-stuck companies

‘A joint-stock company is an enterprise where

a’ Its charter capital is divided into equal portions known as shares;

bi Shareholders may be organizations and/or individuals, the minimum mumber of

sharcholders su be thrce and shall nol be restricted to any particular maxcuura number,

of Its shareholders shall be liable for debts and other propeity liabilities of such enterprise

‘within the limit ofthe value of their capital conribution to the enterprise,

@ Shareholders shall be enlilled to Geely uansler lheir shaves, except Uwe case specified in

Clause 3 of Article 81 or Clanse $ of Article 84 of this Law

2 A joint-stock company shall have the legal person status ffom the date it is granted a

business registralion cerlificale

3 A joinl-sock company shall be cnlilicd lo issue secumilies of all kinds for capital

mobulization

(Vietnam Enterprise Lav, 2005)

According to the law a Viemmamese joint-stock company is a business entity owned

by sharcholders Shareowners of a Vietnamese joint stock company have limited liability as just bemg liable for the company's debts by the nominal value of the stock or shares held by them Shareholders (except for some special cases) have the right to transfer their shares to others without any effsels to the euntinued existence of the company

2.2 Organizational structures of American and Vietmamese joint-stock companies

2.2.1 Organizational structures of some American companies

According to Tullis and Trappe (2004:4), most companies are made up of three groups of people including shareholders who provide the capital, the management and the workforce The management structure of typical compan

is shown in the following organization chart,

Figure 1: Company structure introduced by Tullis and Trappe (2004)

As can be seen from the above diagram and the explanation of the authors, at the top

of the company hierarchy is the Board of Directors This board is headed by the

Chairperson or President and is responsible for policy decisions and strategy (Tullis and

Trappe, 2004), Managing Director (MD) or Chief Executive Officer (CEO) ranks second in

terms of authority The person who holds this position has overall responsibility for the running of the business Companies also have senior and middle management to help head

the various departments or functions within the company Different departments that can be

found in most companies are Marketing, Public Relations, Information Technology (IT),

Personnel or Human Resources, Finance, Production, and Research and Development

(R&D) (Tullis and Trappe, 2004:4)

Similarly, Mackenzie (1997:11) stated that companies generally have shareholders

who provide capitals for the companies and are managed by the board of directors (headed

by a Chairman or President), who oversee operations and the managing director or CEO

who takes responsibility for the day-to-day running of the company In smaller companies,

the roles of chairman and managing director are usually combined Americans tend to use

the term President rather than Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) instead of

Managing Director (MD) The CEO or MD is supported by various executive officers or

vice-presidents (VP), each with clearly defined authority and responsibility.

Shareholders

Board of Directors Chairman or President,

‘Managing I2ireclor or Chief Executive Officer

Production, Finance Luman Resources Marketing Department

IDepartinenL Department Department

Figure 2: Company structure intraduced by Mackenzie (1997)

According to the author, typically, the functional different departments in a company are Production Department, Finance Department, Human Resources Department and Marketing Department Execufive Directors, carrying the till of VP are responsible for strategic decisions and operations of these fimictions while managers of each department are

in charge of particular functions ‘lhe functional departments are made up of several sections as introduced below

1 Marketing Department consists of three sections, thal i

Regarding business structure, McKellen (1990-29) also introduced an organization

chart thaLis, as he slated, ons of the most usual

Managing Director/ Chief Executive/

Figure 3: Company structure introduced by McKellen (1990)

As illustrated by McKellen (1990:29) Managing Director, Chief Executive or President is the Lop posilion in company hierarchy Companies are inanaged by a group of directors and managers Normally the directors are responsible for strategic planning and for making decisions while managers of the company departments are in charge of day-to-day ruming and reporL to the directors

As the author explained, the key functional departments of a company include Finance, Sales, Marketing (sometimes part of Sales), Production, Research and Developnient (R&D) and Persormel Departments These are the mosl conumon departments, but some companies may have other departments as well (McKellen, 1990:28)

A similar structure whieh is built based on the chain of command can be found in the book Test your professional Finglish — Management wrillen by Sweeney (2002:66) The author illustrated a typical model of a company management system in the following

diagram

Chief Executive/Managing Director

SENIOR Production Salae Marketing Finance Homan Company

MANAGEMENT Pitector Director Director Director, «= Resources Secretary

Director

MIDDLE Production Sales Marketing Tinamee Thmman

Department Departmemr Department Department Resources

MANAGEMENT Maugrr Manager Manager Manager Department

Markel Financial Persomel Smiur

MANAGEMENT Controller and Publicity ‘raining Assistant

Workforce Sales Clerical Clerical Clerical Clercal

Figure 4: Company structure introduced by Sweeney (2002)

According to Sweeney (2002:66), at the top of the company structure is the Chief Exceulive or Managing Dirsclor Production Director, Sules Director, Markcling Director, Finance Director, Human Resources Director and Company Secretary belong to the group

of senior management system Middle management often has the title of Managers who run the functional departments of a company

Another company organizational chart which is introduced in the book Business Vocabulary in Lise is that of Fun and Sun Holidays (Maseull, 2002:26) The company has a similar structure to thal of those businesses previously discussed

16

Non-Executive Directors Chief thief executive! managing director sxecutivel snanagine direct

Senior Chisf Financial Officer / Marketing Human = IT Research

Figure 5: Company structure introduced by Mascull (2002)

‘As shown in the organigram, the non-executive directors of the company are

Chairman or Chairwoman and Chic Exccutive or Managing Dircclor Senior executives, also referred to as top executives or executive directors include Cluef Financial Officer or

Finance Director, Marketing Director, Iuman Resources Director, IT Director and Research

Director Those senior managers have anlhority over middle mamagers such as Accounl Department Manager who is supervised by Finance Director, Sales Manager and Customer

Services Manager who are supervised by Marketing Director As there is a clear chain of

command running down the pyramid, the supervisor of a manager to whom he or she reports can be called his or her line manager

2.2.2, Organizational structures of some Vietnamese companies

As slated in Vietnam Enterprise Law (2005, Article 95) the organizational structure

of the management of a joint-stock company comprises “Đại hội đồng cỗ đông”, “Hội dong

quán trị”, “Giám đốc” or “Iổng Giám đốc” “Chủ tịch Hội đồng quản trị” — the highest position in “Hội đồng quản trị”, "Giảm đáe” or *“Iỗng Giám đắc” may be the represenfative

al taw for the company For a company with more than cleven sharcholders being individuals or with a shareholder being an organization holding more than 50% of total shares, it needs to have “Ban kiém scat” The other positions in the management system of a company depend on its unique features and conform to the company’s own regulations.

Below are the organizational structures of some Victnamesc joint-stock companics

‘The first company to be introduced is Binh Minh Plastic Joint-stock Company, one

of the most respected manufacturing companies operating in plastic industry in Vietnam

Fstablished in 1977 afler the morger of two business enterprises, the company has achicved

an array of success to become a leader in Vietnamese market for plastic products Since the company plays the role of both a manufacturer and a trader, the organizational system of the company ean be considered typivat as it is take up of various departments thal a company

Iruởng Trưởng Trưởng Trưởng Kétoan Trưởng Trưởng Giám đốc Giám đốc

phông phỏng phòng phỏE trưởng phòngđầu phòng nhàmảy! nhà máy2

kinh Hạng đông NHẾU SE qruyy Urmghién đầm bảo

doanh "°F" anh chink phòng là chu và chat hong

chính kế Bhat triển (QA}

{R&D)

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Figure 6: Structure of Binh Minh Plastics Joint-stock Company

The above diagram illustrates the structure of the management system of Binh Mim Plastics Joint-stock Company, in which, at the top of the company hierarchy is the head of

“Hội đồng quản trị”, who is denoted as “Chủ tịch hội đông quản lrị” “Tổng giảm đốc” is in the second authoritative position, who reosives help from bwo “Phó tổng giảm đốc”, one of whom is responsible for rnarketing (“Phó tổng giám đốc kinh doanh”) and the other is in charge ofechnologieal problems (Phó tổng giám đốc kỹ thuật) The fanctional departments

of the company are “Phong kinh deanh”, “Phòng tiếp thị”, “Phòng quản trị hành chính”,

“Phỏng nhân sự”, “Phỏng tải chính kế toán”, “Phòng đầu tư nghiên cứu và phát triển”,

“Phòng đâm bao chit wong” The head of a department of the company is denoted as

“Trưởng phòng” In the company, the leader of “Phong tai chinh ké toan” also serves as “Ké

toản trưởng” In addition, the company has two “Giám déc nha may” whose responsibility

is to direct and control the operation of the company’s factories

Another company to be introduced is Lac Hang, a popular companies operating in

consiruction fisld in Victuam Conforming lo Viginamn Enterpriss Law (2005), the company

is headed by “Dai hi déng cé déng”, “Hoi ding quan trị”, “Tổng giám dốc” and “Phỏ tổng giám déc” I'he functional departments of the companies consist of “Phéng vat tr”, “Phong quin lý chat mg va thanh quyét toa”, “Phong 18 chic hauh chivih”, “Phong tài chính kế toán”, “Phong du an”, “Phong Marketing” In addition, the company has “Phong kinh doanh

nhà và xuat nhap khéu”, “Phong dau ty phat trién nha va a6 thi” and “Phang tu van thiét ke”

to comply with jis ficld of operation The persen who is in charge of cach department in ths

company is denoted as “Trưởng phòng”,

Vattt gninly tổchức Trmởng Dựớm PR- nhủ — Xuất Tuvan tr phat

chắc Thành phòng tài Markeiinp nhập khẩu thiếtkế triển nhà

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Figure 7: Structure of Lạc Hồng Joint-sfock Company

A simpler company stricture can be found in BSC Joint-stock Company, which does

not comprise “Ban kiém soat” and “Pho giatn doc” in its ranagernent system The company

only has “Héi ding quan tri” which is governed by “Chi tich”, “Gram dic” who directs the

fanetional departments which are “Phòng kinh đoanh”, “Phòng nhân sự”, “Phòng tài chính

kế oán”, “Phòng kỹ thuật công nại

and “Phong Marketing” This company organization

is common for companies with smaller size than the previously introduced ones.