Meeting students; needs through the use of quality management at PSB college vietnam justin david limon

MBQPM4 JUSTIN DAVID LIMON MEETING STUDENTS’ NEEDS THROUGH THE USE OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT AT PSB COLLEGE VIETNAM MASTER FINAL PROJECT MASTER IN BUSINESS QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMEN

MBQPM4 JUSTIN DAVID LIMON

MEETING STUDENTS’ NEEDS THROUGH

THE USE OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT AT

PSB COLLEGE VIETNAM

MASTER FINAL PROJECT MASTER IN BUSINESS QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Tutor’s name: Dr Jacques Martin

Ho Chi Minh City (2014)

Acknowledgement

My time studying at Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management has been a tremendously profound experience It has helped me to further develop myself not only

academically, but also on a personal level I‟ve grown a lot since the beginning of the

program and it has given me the tools I need to continue growing for the rest of my life

I am extremely grateful for the support and guidance given by Dr Jacques Martin Without his vast experience and eagerness to help, this report would not be possible His unique insight in quality management and particularly strategic management has inspired me to develop a strong interest in the field

I also want to thank my wife, Ly, and my daughter, Stella, who gave me the motivation and

encouragement to further my studies and pursue a master‟s degree

Finally, I want to acknowledge PSB College Vietnam and all of its staff and students

Working at the school has been an extremely enjoyable experience They‟re the reason why I

chose to write about quality management in education

Executive Summary 4

Introduction & Background 4

Part 1: Research, Problems, and Strategic Analysis 5

1.1 Research Methodology 5

1.2 Research Findings & Problem Identification 6

1.3 Strategic Analysis 14

1.3.1 Porter‟s Five Forces Model 15

1.3.2 SWOT Analysis 16

1.3.3 PESTL Analysis 18

1.3.4 Current Strategies 19

Part 2: Recommended Solutions 20

2.1 Strategic Action Plan 20

2.1.1Mission Statement 20

2.1.2 Strategic Direction 21

2.1.3 The Balanced Scorecard 22

2.2 A Modernized Corporate Culture Through Human Resource Management 25

2.3 Managing Knowledge at PSB College 27

2.4 Sustaining a Competitive Advantage Through Innovation 30

Conclusion 36

List of References 38

Appendix 40

Questionnaire for PSB College student research: 40

Executive Summary

Colleges and universities must meet the ever-changing needs of its students and employees

When a school doesn‟t strive to meet the needs of its stakeholders, it risks falling behind its

competitors For PSB College Vietnam, students are showing a growing concern towards the school in three major aspects: the availability of information, the approachability of staff, and the usefulness of information being taught at the school

This report will provide an in-depth analysis of the root-cause of the problems along with tackling the problems with solutions that will be both effective and long-lasting Four areas will be zeroed-in on in order to alleviate student dissatisfaction towards PSB College They include strategic planning, human resource management, knowledge management, and

innovation It‟s strongly believed that in order to achieve growth and long-term success, PSB

College must follow this action plan If the college continues with the path they are currently

on and don‟t invest resources towards corrective action, the school will struggle to compete

with its highly competitive rivals and will fail to meet the needs of its demanding customers

Introduction & Background

PSB College Vietnam is a franchise of PSB Academy in Singapore PSB College was

founded in 2004 and is a 100% foreign and privately-owned school It has accreditation from the Ministry of Education & Training in Vietnam and EduTrust in Singapore PSB College offers three awards: Certificate in English Proficiency (CEP), a Certificate in Business

Administration (CBA), and a Diploma in Business Administration (DBA)

I have been working at PSB College for over one year, during which I have grown to become very dedicated to the success of the school The main reason for writing this report is to help the college be able to better meet the needs of its current students and help PSB attract new students I believe that by applying the tools of quality and performance management, PSB College can not only grow, but achieve long-term success

This report is divided into three sections First, an overview of the research methodology, along with a strategic analysis and identification of key issues within the organization will be discussed Research methodology includes student surveys, which will give a quantitative

outlook on what is expected from the school‟s customers The strategic analysis will discuss

the current strategy of PSB College, along with a SWOT analysis and an industry analysis

using Michael Porter‟s Five Forces model The key issues within the organization will be

both from gaps in student expectations, along with drawbacks often expressed by other

employees of the school Second, an action plan for improvement will be explained These are based on applying quality management to the fields of strategic management, human resource management, knowledge management, and innovation

Part 1: Research, Problems, and Strategic Analysis

deficiencies

The questionnaire consists of eleven questions across the four different categories Under

academics, I asked the students the following questions: “When I have a problem, I feel comfortable approaching the academic staff”; “The academic staff are effective in solving my problems”; “It‟s easy to get information about the school (such as scores, schedules, and events).” The answers are based on a scale of 1-5 (strongly disagree, disagree, somewhat

agree, agree, strongly agree) I chose these questions so as to not pressure the students into feeling obligated to express too much concern or satisfaction The questions were kept

generalized so that the answers would still give a useful impression of the academics

department while not creating controversy

The second category involves teaching The students were asked to evaluate the quality of

teaching, their satisfaction on the variety of courses offered at PSB, and the students‟ opinion

of how useful the knowledge learned in the modules will help them in the future Again, a scale of 1-5 was used with the same attributes as above

The third category reflects the student‟s opinion on PSB‟s facilities They were asked whether

they think the facilities of PSB (for example the library, the student lounge, classrooms, and restaurant) are of high quality as well as how well students think that technology is being used

on campus These two aspects are important because besides academics and instruction, the use of the facilities on campus and the availability of high quality resources are one of the most important factors when it comes to a student being successful Access to good facilities and the availability of technology are crucial for any school which wants to be competitive in this day and age

Finally, the students were asked more personal questions related to their experience at PSB College They were questioned about how long they had been studying at PSB, and whether they would choose PSB College again These factors will help to correlate trends when compared to the first three categories

Upon the collection of all surveys, feedback was received by 72 students Considering that there are about 250 students currently enrolled in classes at PSB, a roughly 30% response rate will give a good idea of what students at the school think Using SPSS Statistics, variables

were created for each question and all data was inputted into the variables for each student‟s

response

In addition to the survey, informal, unstructured staff interviews were performed in order to gather information discreetly and without causing discomfort within the organization as the writer is a part-time employee Thus, any sort of formal sit-down interviews with staff or students would have seemed intrusive and might have been problematic The writer feels confident that the sum of all research performed, including the student survey, informal gathering of thoughts and opinions from other employees and students, as well as thorough review of research papers and academic journals spanning from business to psychology is sufficient towards pinpointing problems within the organization and developing strongly justified solutions

1.2 Research Findings & Problem Identification

The main reason for using student surveys is because “it is evident that student evaluation,

whether of courses, teaching quality or the overall student experience, is

extremely important and has a significant role to play in the quality assurance process

(Leckey and Neill, 2001)” After entering the data collected from the student surveys into

SPSS, extensive analyses were performed As stated earlier, 72 respondents were recorded out of a total of roughly 250 students at PSB College The data should give a good idea of what the overall consensus is in regards to the four categories surveyed (academics,

instruction, facilities, and personal information) Below is a table which shows the statistical data of each variable (the scores are based on a scale of one to five, one being the lowest and five being the highest):

Descriptive Statistics

Deviation High Quality Facilities 72 4.1250 60369 Teaching Quality 72 3.7917 76798 Would Choose PSB

Uses Technology Well 72 3.2361 74101 Variety of Courses 72 3.1111 1.04215 Comfort to Approach

Useful Knowledge 72 2.7917 78610 Staff Solve Problems 72 2.5417 90285 Availability of

Valid N (listwise) 0

Based on a scale of one to five, the aspect which received the highest mean score was the

students‟ opinion on facilities, followed by the teaching quality and whether the student would

choose PSB again Using the data, one can clearly see that the majority of the lowest-rated aspects fall under academic administration, with the availability of information being lowest,

followed by staff‟s ability to solve students‟ problems and students‟ comfort level in dealing with PSB‟s academic staff Another important finding indicated in the table shows that

students tend to feel that the knowledge being taught to them won‟t help them in the future

The above histogram clearly shows that important information is very difficult for students to get at PSB Based on the graph, one can see that there were no scores higher than 3 for the

availability of information Most students rated this aspect a “2.” The scatterplot shows that

when comparing how long the student has been studying at PSB with their opinion on how well information is provided to them, that there is no relationship This means that all students experience the same difficulties in obtaining information

When students lack information such as their schedule or important dates for events and scores from coursework, lots of problems arise Information is vital in any organization, and even more importantly, a school When students lack information about their studies, they tend to lose respect and trust for the institution These results indicate a problem not only with the level of communication between academics and students, but also school-wide As a lecturer at PSB, information does not flow freely and is not always shared willingly If PSB takes the necessary action to resolve their communication problems, which are rooted in

knowledge management, they could greatly improve the rating of students‟ dissatisfaction

with information sharing

Next is staff‟s ability to solve problems The histogram shows a positive skew, with most respondents reporting a score of three or lower in regards to staff‟s ability to solve students‟

problems The median response was 2.54 The scatterplot shows that there is no correlation between how long a student has been studying at PSB and whether or not they feel that the academic staff is able to solve their problems This means that all students at PSB are experiencing the same situation with staff

Similarly, the third important indicator in identifying weaknesses is in students‟ comfort level

in approaching staff for help In the histogram above, one can see that while a bit better-rated than the previous two questions, students are quite uncomfortable in requesting academic staff for help The scatterplot shows the correlation between students‟ ideas of the staff‟s

approachability and how long the students have been studying at PSB As can be expected, it shows a slightly negative correlation between the two factors as students should feel more comfortable with staff the longer they have been at the school

Staff must be approachable to students whenever the students need assistance Just as a customer service representative for a large corporation must be able and willing to help

customers whenever they have a problem, the academic staff at schools need to be available to

students This issue can be linked to the organization‟s corporate culture The staff at PSB

tend to hold back when communicating with students, thus creating an image of unwillingness

to help Oftentimes, the students reach out to the teachers to help them with administrative

issues Teachers‟ offices are on the twelfth floor while the academics department is on the

third floor Upon visiting each department, it becomes clear that there are two very distinct cultures happening simultaneously on each of the two floors The culture on the twelfth floor

in the teacher‟s room is polar opposite with the one witnessed on the third floor If PSB could

implement a change of culture within the organization; a more consistent one that more

closely matches the one in the teacher‟s room: one which is very information-sharing- and

results-oriented, while still very laid-back and centered on openness, then PSB will become an institution that is not only more enjoyable for students to learn, but also for employees to work Additionally, productivity and creativity will vastly improve organization-wide

Next is a histogram representing the distribution of scores related to students‟ belief that what

they are learning will be beneficial towards their future careers The generality of this

question allows us to get an overall picture of whether students are satisfied with what they are learning in school and whether they think it will help them in their jobs As can be seen, most students are somewhat satisfied with their courses, while, being positively skewed towards the right, the histogram shows that there are an alarmingly high number who rated it a 2 score, signifying that they disagree

It‟s important that students are happy with what they are learning The school faces a problem when students become too dissatisfied with what they‟re learning The school must keep

materials and course content updated and relevant The school has difficulties in controlling

the content of the classes because it‟s overseen by administration in Singapore However,

PSB College does have many great opportunities in becoming more innovative and thinking when it comes to course offerings as well as the variety and different kinds of

forward-certificates and diplomas that will be awarded The school must remain innovative in order to sustain a competitive advantage and achieve its long-term goals

Finally, in order to get an overall understanding of students‟ attitudes towards PSB, all of the

scale-based answers for each respondent were averaged (excluding the students‟ length of

study) The result gives a new variable, “total satisfaction.” This information will be helpful

in determining whether students are satisfied with PSB College To begin, the mean total satisfaction for students at PSB College is 3.11, as can be seen in the table below

Descriptive Statistics

Deviation Total

Satisfaction 72 3.1157 .31890 Valid N

Based on the survey criteria, overall, students are somewhat satisfied with the level of service being given at PSB College Combined with the higher ratings of instruction and facilities

criteria, the negative impression of the school‟s academic administration has significantly

reduced the mean score for each student The below scatterplot represents the correlation

between students‟ time at PSB with total satisfaction scores The results clearly show a

negative correlation: the longer students have been studying at PSB College, the lower their total satisfaction score gets

The correlation table below shows the reliability of the correlation between the total

satisfaction scores and length of study at the college It‟s clear that since the significance is 0,

the relationship between the two is quite strong The Pearson r correlation shows that the strength is only at -.422, but this is mainly due to the fact that there are only 72 respondents,

which for the software isn‟t enough to determine the strength of the correlation using this

method

Correlations

Length of Study

Total Satisfaction

PSB College Vietnam is a franchise of PSB Academy in Singapore It is 100%

foreign-owned Strategic management comes from the owners in Singapore and daily operations are managed locally According to Austin (2002), “to be successful in any business environment, one of course needs competency in strategic analysis and functional management.” Before

providing any sort of solutions to the problems presented earlier, it‟s extremely important that

PSB College performs a strategic analysis of their current situation A thorough strategic analysis has been performed in this section

PSB College Vietnam doesn‟t have a mission or vision statement PSB Academy Singapore‟s mission statement is as follows: “PSB Academy is a trusted education provider, committed to

providing accessible quality education that nurtures and shapes individuals to enable them to

achieve their personal and professional best.” PSB‟s mission statement is student-centric,

promising them to become their best It exists with the purpose of developing students and helping them to prepare for their professional career

PSB Singapore‟s vision is “to become the premier tertiary education provider nurturing future talents with global orientation.” PSB‟s long-term goal is to become the leader in tertiary

education and pointing students towards international ideology and methodology

1.3.1 Porter’s Five Forces Model

Before continuing, it‟s important to understand the competitive environment for an

international 2-year college in Vietnam “To understand industry competition and

profitability…one must analyze the industry‟s underlying structure in terms of the five forces (Porter, 2008, pg 25)” To do this, an analysis using Michael Porter‟s Five Forces model will

be done “Understanding the competitive forces, and their underlying causes, reveals the roots

of an industry‟s current profitability while providing a framework for anticipating and

influencing competition (and profitability) over time (Porter, 2008, pg 26)” The five forces

are as follows: Buyer power, which is the ability of customers to drive down prices; Supplier

power, which is the supplier‟s ability to drive up prices; the threat of substitutes, which is the

ability of customers to choose an alternative good; the threat of new entrants, which is the ability of new firms to enter the industry and depends on barriers to entry; finally is

competitive rivalry, which tells us about how fierce competitions in the industry is

Buyer power for 2-year colleges in Vietnam is low Due to a limited number of schools in this

category, customers don‟t have the ability to drive down prices Switching costs are high in

education, since once a student has enrolled in the school, the costs associated with

transferring to another school become very high Students rarely transfer to another school because of the price; it‟s usually due to either poor performance on the student‟s part or the school‟s inability to meet the student‟s needs PSB also offers a loyalty program, which helps

retain students For example, if a student enrolls in all three programs, the costs decrease significantly

Supplier power for the industry is high The ability of parent-schools to raise the franchising fees or for the suppliers of textbooks and other teaching materials to raise the prices is quite easy The fact that the number of suppliers is quite low shows that they have a very high influence on the industry

The threat of substitutes is very high due to the fact that there are so many other options available to students in Vietnam Students can choose between a 2-year international college,

a local college, or even a local or international 4-year bachelor‟s degree program There are a

number of schools in Vietnam which offer these kinds of degrees

The threat of new entrants is low In Vietnam, it‟s extremely difficult for foreign-owned

colleges to get certification from the MOET Additionally, the costs associated with starting a new international college are very high Recently, two competing schools were forced to

close because of a lack of accreditation and recognition from the Vietnamese government

PSB College‟s accreditation has become one of its competitive advantages

Finally, the competitive rivalry in the industry is very fierce PSB College‟s main competitors

are Kent College and ERC Academy The three schools constantly differentiate themselves in order to show customers that they are better than the others A main area of differentiation in this industry has been in building and facilities The three schools have been constantly remodeling their building to out-do the others For example, these schools have 3D cinemas, stylish classrooms with wooden floors and comfortable chairs Additionally, they offer high-tech libraries and gourmet cafeterias to students

One can see that based on the above information, 2-year colleges are in a difficult position in Vietnam Although buyers have little power and the threat of new entrants is low, there is still strong supplier power combined with a high threat of substitute products and strong

competitive rivalry Although PSB has a firm position in the industry, it‟s clear that it should

focus its long-term strategy on further differentiating its academic offerings and building facilities as well as alleviating the threat of alternative choices for students in order to both sustain its position in the short-run and become the premier provider in the long-run

1.3.2 SWOT Analysis

“SWOT analysis can be simply understood as the examination of an organization's internal

strengths and weaknesses, and its environments, opportunities, and threats It is a general tool designed to be used in the preliminary stages of decision-making and as a precursor to

strategic planning in various kinds of applications” (Johnson et al., 1989; Bartol et al., 1991)

For PSB College, we can use a SWOT analysis as a tool to better understand the internal and external environments before we continue with solving organizational problems Combined

High Low

High

with the mission/vision, Porter‟s Fiver Forces model, and with a corporate strategy, a SWOT

analysis will help to determine which corrective actions will best fit the company‟s long-term

goals

Internally, PSB College has many strengths Its first major strength is its marketing staff Led by a director with vast experience, the marketing department performs well in recruiting events and advertising campaigns Another strength is its teaching staff The faculty of both part-time and full-time lecturers has a strong relationship amongst each other and strives towards supporting the students as much as possible Their qualifications and experience levels are relatively high and they constantly work towards improving themselves A third strength is its building and facilities PSB offers students and staff high-quality equipment and

a comfortable and enjoyable working and learning environment In addition, PSB is located in District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City Finally, PSB‟s brand reputation allows alumni to

centrally-quickly get good jobs after graduation Additionally, the school has high-profile partnerships with universities from around the world so that students can further their education after completing the two-year program

PSB‟s College has a few weaknesses which need to be identified First is academic

administration The academics office has a high rate of turnover and each term seems to uncover lots of mistakes that are made in arranging schedules Another weakness is the size

SWOT Analysis of PSB College

of the school‟s campus The campus has 12 narrow floors, but as the number of students steadily increases, it‟s apparent that the school will soon need to expand its campus, perhaps at

the cost of its location

Externally, there are some opportunities that PSB must realize First is that it can build more relationships with partner universities, as well as expand its offerings to locally-taught

international bachelor‟s degrees Second, the school can develop more partnerships with local

corporations to both help alumni get jobs and also to offer corporate training to their staff Corporate training could be an area of potential growth if the school applied the resources The school also faces a couple of threats which could seriously harm its long-term goals First is increased competition of other two-year international schools Although barriers to entry are high, there is still the threat that other schools attempt to enter the market Secondly, government regulations and laws could have a big impact on the future of the school The

government constantly keeps an eye on schools like PSB and it‟s very important that PSB

College stays up-to-date and follows all regulations

In summary, the SWOT analysis has given some basic framework in where PSB needs to focus more resources in order to further succeed, while providing a warning of possible threats

which could hinder the school‟s growth Combined with the other tools, PSB can formulate a

long-term strategy to set its sights on

1.3.3 PESTL Analysis

A PESTL analysis can be used to better understand the external environment for PSB College The PESTL analysis reveals the current situation in regards to politics/legal, economic, social,

and technological factors It‟s yet another tool to be used to further understand and prepare

PSB College in achieving its long-term goals and helps with making better-informed decisions

For the political and legal factors, there are some considerations to be made First, PSB needs

to realize that the government in Vietnam has very strict oversight and regulations pertaining

to private schools that are 100% foreign-owned When PSB makes decisions, it must keep in mind that the government will have a watchful eye Secondly, Vietnam in general has been increasingly opening up to foreign investments and international standards This is a good thing for PSB, since its parent school is based in Singapore

Regarding economic factors that might affect PSB College, the school should realize that economic growth in Vietnam has been slowing down However, salaries overall have been steadily increasing This is a good thing for PSB, since that makes the school more affordable

to parents who want their children to have a high-quality, but relatively pricey (compared to

Vietnamese universities), international education In addition, PSB College‟s tuition fees are

almost equivalent to those of private high schools in Ho Chi Minh City When salaries

increase, it helps the transition from high school to college not be so shocking

Socially in Ho Chi Minh City, there are quite a few factors that could prove to be very

beneficial to PSB First, the demographics of HCMC are ever-changing The population is getting younger and more-educated Second, as the country becomes more international commercially, so does the population PSB College could become a choice for foreign

families who want to have a quality education Thirdly, English is becoming more and more widely used in HCMC Since courses at PSB College are taught only in English, the school becomes more relevant towards their interests

Finally, with regards to technological factors, there are some points to be noted To begin with, the stability and speed of the internet in HCMC is continuously improving As more and more people are connected to the internet, its importance in the classroom gets higher In fact, internet adoption in Vietnam is the fastest-growing in Asia PSB can make appropriate

decisions towards the internet and information technology to better meet students‟ needs

1.3.4 Current Strategies

PSB uses Michael Porter‟s three generic strategies to establish strategic direction The three

generic strategies are cost leadership, differentiation, and focused strategy Cost leadership is used when a firm wishes to increase its market share by satisfying cost-conscious buyers To

do this, the organization needs to have a lower price than its competitors by lowering

operating or maximizing its economies of scale For a differentiation strategy, a firm creates a product offering that is very different from its competitors The differentiation strategy is most successfully used in a market where customers are not price-sensitive and the firms have the capability of creating differentiated products that are difficult to replicate Lastly, a

focused strategy is used when there is a narrow market in which the customers have very specific or specialized needs Whether the products are low-priced or differentiated depends

on the needs of the customer According to Gess and Davis (1984), “firms oriented toward specific strategies should outperform firms characterized by Porter as “stuck in the middle.”

Porter maintains that this latter class of firms, by failing to develop its strategy along at least

one of these three categories, is “almost guaranteed low profitability”

PSB‟s does not aim its product towards any and all students who are looking for a school to

study at The college has narrowed its market to students whose families are on the wealthier

side and either: 1)want to study a bachelor‟s degree overseas, but can‟t; 2)had already began

studying overseas but had to move back to Vietnam; or 3)who plan to stay in Vietnam and

find a good job after college Additionally, PSB‟s price is not as expensive as its competitors,

so therefore its general strategy should be cost focused, where they lure in their narrow target market by using its lower cost as a driving force

PSB College has chosen ample strategies which are in line with its mission and vision

statement of becoming the premier provider of tertiary education in the long run It‟s

extremely important that when creating policies or decisions, that they match with the

organizational strategies and vision of the school

Part 2: Recommended Solutions

2.1 Strategic Action Plan

2.1.1Mission Statement

Since PSB has established a basic strategic framework for the organization, a more detailed strategic plan has been developed in order to further help achieve specific short-term and long-term goals The first step is to compose a more comprehensive mission statement, followed

by choosing a more specific strategy for the organization and identifying key indicators which will help achieve the strategy Finally, an action plan for implementation and evaluation will