Corporate culture in FIFTH MEDIA GROUP current situation and recommendations for vietnamese enterprises

2.1 Introduction to Fifth Media group2.1.1 History of Fifth Media Group 2.1.2 Organizational structure 2.1.3 Business activities 2.2 Analyzing Fifth Media group’s corporate culture 2.2.1

This thesis includes a lot of details and varieties, thus it would be difficult carry out it

on one’s own This study receives encouragement and help from many people and Ifeel indebted to their ads, and wish to express my gratitude to them

First and foremost, I would like to convey my special thanks to my supervisor, Ms BuiThi Bich Thuy for her guidance, suggestions and invaluable advice in the knowledge aswell as in English editing Without her, this thesis could not have been completed.Special thanks to all instructors without whose knowledge and assistance this thesiswould not have been successful My debt is also acknowledged to Fifth Media LimitedCompany for allowing me to do the internship in Fifth Media Group office and MsNguyen Thu Dung – my direct supervisor in Thanh Xuan transaction office I trulyappreciate all thes enthusiastic contributions

And finally, I am extremely grateful to all staff of Fifth Media Group who cooperatedwith me during the survey and helped me with all the valuable information for mystudy

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1.1: Role culture……… ……….12

Figure 1.2: Task cultur………… ……… ………13

Figure 1.3: Power culture……… ……… 13

Figure 1.4: Person culture……… ……… 14

Figure 1.5: Organizational culture model of Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Tuner……… 15

Figure 1.6: Elements of corporate culture……….16

Figure 1.7: Denison model of organizational culture……… ………18

Figure 2.1: Developing history of Fifth Media Group……… 24

Figure 2.2: Organizational structure of Fifth Media Group… 26

Figure 2.3: Slogan and logo of Fifth Media Group……… 29

Figuer 2.4 – 2.5: Settings in Fifth Media Group working rooms……… 31

Figure 2.6-2.7-2.8: Ceremonies in Fifth Media Group……… ……….32,33 Figure 2.9-2.10: Cozy lunch with Board of Directors at Fifth Media Group ………34

Figure 2.11-2.12: Training time at Fifth Media Group……… ……… 35

Figure 2.13: Dressing code in Fifth Media Group……… ……….36

Figure 2.14: Gender distribution of the sample……… ………… 41

Figure 2.15: Tenure in years……… ……… 42

Figure 2.16: Department distribution of the sample……… …… 42

Table 2.1: Descriptive statistics for Organizational Culture Survey……….43

Table 2.2: Abbreviations using in Organizational Culture Correlation Matrix………… …45

Table 2.3: Correlations of the dimensions of the Organizational Culture……… …45,46 Figure2.17: Corporate culture of Fifth Media Group……… ….51

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration……… ………i

Acknowledgement……….……….ii

List of figures and tables……….……….iii

Table of contents……… iv

Introduction

1 Rationale of study

2 Aims of study

3 Scope of study

4 Methods of study

5 Structure of study

CHAPTERS

1 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Definition of Corporate Culture

1.1.1 Definition of Culture

1.1.2 Definition of Corporate Culture

1.2 Impacts of corporate culture

1.2.1 Corporate culture can create internal reinforcement for organisations 1.2.2 Corporate culture can be a tool of management control.

1.2.3 Corporate culture can be a powerful tool to enhance competitive advantage.

1.2.4 Negative corporate culture can be a factor to resist movement and innovation

1.3 Factors affecting corporate culture

1.3.1 National culture

1.3.2 Role of leadership

1.3.3 Learned cultured values

1.4 Types of corporate culture

1.4.1 Role culture

1.4.2 Task culture

1.4.3 Power culture

1.4.4 Person culture

1.5 Corporate culture models

1.5.1 The model of Edgar H Schein

1.5.1.1 Artifacts

1.5.1.2 Espoused values

1.5.1.3 Basic underlying assumptions

1.5.2 The model of Daniel R.Denison

2.1 Introduction to Fifth Media group

2.1.1 History of Fifth Media Group

2.1.2 Organizational structure

2.1.3 Business activities

2.2 Analyzing Fifth Media group’s corporate culture

2.2.1 Performance of Fifth Media Group’s corporate culture acording to Edgar H.Schein model

2.2.1.1 Artifacts

2.2.1.2 Espoused values

2.2.1.3 Basic underlying assumptions

2.2.2 Performance of Fifth Media Group’s corporate culture according to Daniel R Denison

2.2.2.1 Descriptive statistics of the Denision Organizational Culture Survey

2.2.2.2 Inferential statistics of the Denison Organizational Culture Survey

2.2.2.3 Four dimensions of Fifth Media Group’s corporate culture based on Denison model

2.3 Evaluating Fifth Media group’s corporate culture

2.3.1 Fifth Media Group’s corporate culture strengths

2.3.1.1 Base on Shein model

2.3.1.2 Base on Denison model

2.3.2 Fifth Media Group’s corporate weakness.

3 CHAPTER III: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VIETNAMESE ENTERPRISES

3.1 Conclusions

3.2 Limitations and avenue for future research

3.3 Recommendations for Fifth Media Group and Vietnamese enterprises to improve the corporate culture

3.3.1 Recommendations for FIFTH MEDIA GROUP to improve the corporate culture

3.3.1.1 Improve the core values system

3.3.1.2 Increase the empowerment among the whole group

3.3.1.3 Develop the ability to adapt to change

3.3.1.4 Spread out the strategic direction and intent

3.3.1.5 Focus on improving intangible cultural values

3.3.2 Overview of corporate culture in Vietnam at present

3.3.3 Recommendations for Vietnamese enterprises to build up and maintain a corporate culture

3.3.3.1 Improve the awareness of corporate culture

3.3.3.2 Leader of the enterprise should be a typical visible role model

3.3.3.3 Harmonize between individuals’ strengths and corporation’s

requirements

3.3.3.4 Strengthen material investment in building and developing organisational culture

3.3.3.5 Widely disperse the sense of mission in the whole organization

3.3.3.6 Increase the adaptability of the organization

3.3.3.7 Improve the involvement of employees

3.3.3.8 Reinforce the consistency of the organization

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

to survive and prosper in the highly competitive environment where concepts such

as “integration” or “globalization” are not something new to people’s mindset?Gradually, explanation and solution to find answers for such those questions are onthe top priority of each strategy formulated by leaders of worldwide companies, andVietnamese ones particularly Apparently, developing business activity and a strongenterprise community are the key factors to help the development of each countryshould be soon well-emerged However, how to build up a globally competitivecommunity and maintain the personality of each country still needs muchconsideration of strategic planners This leads to the idea of building up a corporateculture to represent the unique identity in the process of global integration.However, acknowledgement and an accurate point of view of the corporate cultureand the importance it brings to the success and outstandingly positions organization

on the market are not widely received, especially to Vietnamese market where thelimitation of economic development and education are still in existent Hence, inorder to enhance the position of Vietnam in the world arena, it is essential thatcorporate culture building and maintaining issues should be given significantconsideration by all Vietnamese leaders

With those critical factors above, the author proposes to make a clear and deepanalysis on how corporate culture places a considerable effect on the success of aVietnamese enterprise, on the basis of assessing the current situation at FIFTHMEDIA GROUP, a leading company in the mobile and digital marketing service inVietnam After that, on that basis, the author focuses thoroughly on how toreinforce those cultural strengths through suggesting some recommendations, whichcan draw many valuable lessons for Vietnamese enterprises to follow

For those above reasonable implications, the author decides to make deep analysis

in the topic of “Corporate culture in FIFTH MEDIA GROUP: current situation

and recommendations for Vietnamese enterprises”.

2 Aims of study

How farther researches may imply, standing on a FIFTH MEDIA GROUPshoulders is also the aim this thesis trying to achieve The research is fueled by twomain objectives, namely:

a To find out the elements, the relationship, and contributions of employees tothe corporate culture of FIFTH MEDIA GROUP

b To evaluate those factors in helping FIFTH MEDIA GROUP build up andmaintain a corporate culture

On the basis of two main objectives, to suggest, and learn valuable lessons fromFIFTH MEDIA GROUP’s corporate culture, which could be a typical example forother enterprises to study Hence, the underlying thread of those objectives is theurge to improve self – knowledge of how corporate culture could affect theeffectiveness of an organization in the market, to raise strong awareness of theimportance of corporate culture among Vietnamese enterprises and finally toprovide Vietnamese enterprises with a noteworthy case study and valuable lessonsfrom the corporate culture of FIFTH MEDIA GROUP

The thesis revolves around five main questions:

i What is corporate culture, its elements, its impacts and models to assess thecorporate culture of an organization?

ii Which elements that FIFTH MEDIA GROUP’s corporate culture consist of?iii Which model to base on to assess and evaluate the corporate culture of FIFTHMEDIA GROUP?

iv What lessons could be learned from FIFTH MEDIA GROUP’s corporateculture to for Vietnamese enterprises to build up a corporate culture?

3 Scope of study

The study concentrates on analyzing and evaluating the corporate culture, animportant factor contributing to the success and development of the organization bymaking a deep analysis on what corporate culture actually is, which components itconsists of and model on which research could base on

Especially, the research is conducted at FIFTH MEDIA GROUP by makinguse of knowledge in the field of corporate culture in both qualitative andquantitative perspectives However, limited time and length allowed for this thesis

do not rationalize such an extension of time, only focusing on the current situation

of corporate culture building of this group as well as referring to some documentsranging from period from 2007 up to now

Although the thesis seeks to analyze and evaluate corporate culture of aspecific firm in a particular industry, i.e FIFTH MEDIA GROUP in the mobile &digital marketing service, the range of its practical application covers any firm whofind the approaches fit their way when struggling for building its own corporateculture to survive and succeed in the face of stiff global competition The broadertime frame has been traded off by the density of focus However, recommendationsare elaborated only for Vietnamese enterprises in particular, taking on accountinternal and external influencing factors pertaining to them

4 Methods of study

In terms of methodology, different from other previous research, methodologicalanalysis of mixed- methods approach would be applied Importantly, the researchdesign includes questionnaires using Denison Organizational Culture Survey,interviews, observations and the procedures to conduct these techniques are alsodescribed

5 Structure of study

The framework structuring this research is composed of three main chapters.The first chapter is Literature review, providing the theoretical framework of

corporate culture for the whole thesis And last but not least, conclusions andRecommendations as the fifth chapter carries a succinct summary of the researchfindings and valuable recommendations to be retained in the leaders’ mind for along time

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This section looks at different aspects of corporate culture including concept ofculture in general, definitions of corporate culture, its importance and components

A brief review of some models used by other researchers to assess corporate culture

is also included Following their use in extant research, the two terms

“organizational culture” and “ corporate culture” are used interchangeably in thepresent research

1.1 Definition of corporate culture

In 2002, UNESCO launched the definition of culture as follows:

“Culture should be mentioned as a specific set of spiritual, physical, and emotionalknowledge of a society or group of people and mode of living together, valuesystems, traditions and beliefs”

Another widely accepted definition of culture is one given by the Americananthropologist Edward B Tylor (1889), in which culture is defined as “thatcomplex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, andany other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”

Damen L (1987), in the article “Culture Learning: the Fifth Dimension on thelanguage Classroom” defined culture as “learned and shared human patterns or

models for living, day-to-day living patterns These patterns and models pervade allaspects of human social interaction Culture is markind’s primary adaptivemechanism

Another definition of culture given by Hofstede G (1984) in the book “Nationalcultures and corporate cultures” as follows: “Culture is the collective programming

of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people fromanother.”

In general, culture could be understood as the shared patterns of behaviors andinteractions, cognitive constructs, and the affective understanding which are learnedthrough a process of socialization These patterns could identify the members of aculture group while also distinguish those of another group

1.1.2 Definition of corporate culture

The concept and studying of “corporate culture” or “organizational culture” havebeen carried out and become popular since the early 1980s Accompanying with thegrowing concern on the topic, there seems to be little agreement within the literature

as to what “corporate culture” actually is and, therefore, there are differentdefinitions and perspectives on this topic

Gareth Morgan (1997) described corporate culture as: “The set of beliefs, values,and norms, together with symbols like dramatized events and personalities thatrepresents the unique character of an organization, and provides the context foraction in it and by it.”

Whereas Hofstede(1984) wrote of “the collective programming of the mind whichdistinguishes the members of one human group from another” as the explanation ofthe term organizational culture, which reveals an interesting way of understandingthe notion, and then he “discovered” four areas of work related value differences atthat time, including “power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism /collective, masculinity / femininity”

Edgar Schein (1985), one of the most famous and most respected theorists dealingwith corporate culture said that the definition of corporate culture should be general;

in a different way, the two definitions are nearly the same in essence.

In his book “Organizational Culture”, Andrew Brown (1995, 1998) stated thedefinition of organizational as “Organizational culture refers to the pattern ofbeliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience that have developedduring the course of an organization’s history, and which tend to be manifested inits material arrangements and in the behaviors of its members.”

Meanwhile there are many definitions, explanations and perspective on corporateculture, all of them converge on the same points the shared nature of the collectiveexperience, routine, beliefs, values, goals, and system In essence, many claimedthat the function of corporate culture is to create a feeling of the spirit of theorganization These are learned and re-learned, passed on to new employees, andcontinues on as part of a company’s core identify If this is so, then we shouldattempt to examing why corporate culture is regarded so important and valuable

1.2 Impacts of corporate culture

Corporate culture has played a very important role in managing a corporation anddriving it to success As a result, it has gained a significant attention by managersand company’s strategic planners so that its importance could be applied andperformed appropriately

1.2.1 Corporate culture is a powerful tool to create competitive advantage

Corporate culture is considered as a powerful tool for improving businessperformance (Brown, 1995), and reinforcing the competitive advantage against theorganization’s competitions In other words, corporate culture creates uniquefeatures for organizations Retrieved from many researches and studies dedicated to

understand the effects of corporate culture on organizations, it can be seen that thereare positive correlations associated with building and continuously managingculture It cannot be denied that, building a strong corporate culture is an importantasset because it differentiates an organization from competitors Positive corporateculture has become more important when studies reveal the benefits of increasingoverall business performance; excellent corporate culture has some charactersbelonging to the source of sustainable competitive advantage For example, somecompanies like Hewlett-Packard and IBM, the corporate culture within the twocompanies has become a competitive advantage over their competitors

1.2.2 Corporate culture can be a tool of management control

Corporate culture can additionally be a tool of manangement control Becausecorporate culture influences all the activities within an organization, managers coulduse selected values, rites, stories, symbols and common values to control and directemployee’s behavior From the future point of view, this form of control could beless expensive and more effective and could enhance commitment of members tothe organization and its goals Hence, it an be inferred that management today is

“moving from bureaucratic control to humanistic control” In the current society,both companies and organizations are seeking the way to satisfy their members’needs physically and emotionally by furnishing them with satisfying work,appropriate tasks or a desirable team working life through internal control, and allthose aims could be achieved with the help of their organizational culture, and onlywith a complete and pleasant understanding of organizational culture, individualswould be more willing to commit themselves to their organizations

1.2.3 Corporate culture can create internal reinforcement for organizations.

Corporate culture could be a good and substantial factor to attract and maintainskilled workforce to the organization Studies has revealed that employees areworking for a company not only due to a high salary, but also a satisfactory workingenvironment and opportunities to get promotion offered by that company Thecorporation fulfills employees’ requirement of self-interest through improvement inthe material culture construction, especially the institution of “performance of

evaluation” and “payment for labor” Then, the corporation will have the incentivefunctions related to employees’ job motivation These factors confirm theimportance of appropriately controlled human resource managerial policies, andwork delegation So it can be said that, excellent corporate culture can supply thegap of bounded ration and make all employees’ behaviors in accordance with thedirection and common target of the corporation

1.2.4 Negative corporate culture can be a factor to resist change and

innovation

Although corporate culture can be a good engine and objective for the development

of an organization, a negative one can be a factor to resist change and innovation.Reality in almost worldwide successful companies could be a noteworthy proof for

a good set of values and assumptions Meanwhile, companies at lower level eitherbelong to two groups, one don’t have a widely expressed corporate core valuessystem, or one have only financial objective system To some extent, thosecompanies have a negative corporate culture may possess a rigid authority system,i.e on the contractual basis, which seems to be stiff, authorized, and bureaucratic.This kind of organization often has a negative environment, staffs are indifferent orresist to leaders In other words, there is no connection between them apart fromworking relationship It is well understood the reason why such companies cannotmove further or exist sustainably

1.3 Factors affecting corporate culture

1.3.1 National culture

In the development process of an organization, national culture always has animpact (direct or indirect) on many different aspects on the culture of thecorporation That is the reasons explains why the different between Western andEastern corporate culture, the corporate culture of Islam nation and corporateculture of those countries by Christians or Buddhists could be realized obviously.Especially in a multinational corporation, each employee comes from a differentculture, so that the corporate culture could be influenced as the convergence of

those cultures, creating a diversity and variety in the culture of the company.National culture influences on the formation and development of an organization bycreating characteristics, expressing the features such as leadership style, the degree

of power decentralization in the enterprise, equality, etc

1.3.2 Role of leadership

By far, it can be said that the most important element and basis for culturalbeginning is the impact of leaders and founders They not only choose the basicmission as well as the environmental context where the new group will perform, butthey choose the members of the group and bias the orginal responses that the groupmakes in its efforts to succeed in its environment and to integrate itself In anorganization, leaders are people who are responsible for formulating andimplementing the strategy – they are the ones deciding what they are going to doand then actually figuring out how they are going to do” The main founders andleaders’ success, along with their behaviors help the organization create the ownand unique culture Additionally, the characters or the main founders with visionarycapabilities associated with their aspirations have identified a set of vision andmission for the whole group The formation of organizational culture of a certaingroup is based on and identified by the leadership styles Hence, leadership isoriginally the origin of the beliefs and values that direct a group moving forwardand dealing with its both internal and external problems In general, corporateculture is based on the tone and style of leadership Each style, each decision andeach person could affect the culture within an organization

1.3.3 Learned cultural values

Collective experiences of the organization are learned from practice when dealingwith common problems which are widely expressed throughout the company, andintroduced to new staffs, such as experiencing in dealing and serving clients,reacting to changes, working in team, etc Moreover, cultural values are learnedfrom other companies in the industry, which could be the result of the conductingthe market researches, competitors study, competition and exchange programsamong companies This progress begins when some staffs learn such values from

other companies, then spread and transfer to the other colleagues, and become thecommon values of the organization Especially in case of multinationalcorporations, organizations’ sending their employees abroad to attend trainingcourses, or having foreign partners, cultural values could be established through theconvergence various cultures brought back by their staffs Cultural values could beacknowledged after a long time of adaptation, and then become the common values

of the whole group Corporate culture of an organization could be also influenced

by the common and latest social trend

In short, it is not an easy task to generalized all forms of learned cultural values,however, these values are acknowledged and shared widely within the wholecompany It is essential for leaders to receive and take advantage of those values tobuild up a strong own corporate culture, to create a cultural environment andachieve the management goals, as well as support the business performance of thecompany

1.4 Types of corporate culture

Balthazard and Cooke (2004) demonstrated that organizational cultures types havebeen associated certainly with either positive or negative results for both theeffective performance of the organization and for individual achievement ofemployees within the organization Some other researchers have administered somebasic types of organizational cultures, such as Charles Handy (1991), Kim Cameronand Robert Quinn (1998), Davidson (2004), etc However, in this research, theauthor focuses mainly on the study on the types of organizational culture of ChalesHandy (1991) In his research, he figured out a simple framework to categorizecultures Handy also mentioned four Greek Gods to make an illustration for hisbasic approaches as well as the organizational cultures that result His fourorganizational cultures are very simple for people fo understand Groups will find itvery easy to identify and explore their own corporate culture through the model heuses: Role culture, Power culture, Task culture and Person culture

1.4.1 Role culture

An authority is not based on personal initiative but is dictated by job descriptions.

Figure 1.1: Role culuture

Source: Handy (1991), Gods of management

Pretorius (2004) demonstrated that this type of culture is identified and establishedwhen task within and between departments is controlled by procedures, roledescription, as well as authority definitions, where mechanisms and rules arenecessary to process decisions and resolve conflicts

1.4.2 Task culture

Struwig and Smith (2002) stated that task culture is identified when the culture isbased on job or project orientation and extremely adaptable Especially, for aparticular problem, both people and resources can be mobilized from various partswithin the organization on the temporary basis This type of culture is representedbest by a net or lattice work This implies a close relation among departments,different functions and specialities as well as liation, communication and integrationwhich are the means the organization can base on to anticipate and adapt to changequickly

Figure 1.2: Task culture

Source: Handy (1991), Gods of manangement

Pretorius (2004) referred task culture as the project team culture where the mainemphasis is on the result and getting things done As be concluded that, the mainidealof task culture is to take advantages of right people and best resources together

to utilize this power to achieve the business goals (Leigh Zwaan, 2006)

1.4.3 Power culture

Struwing and Smith (2002) stated that power culture is type that depends on powerand is affected by a central figure The organization is liable on the ability ofjudgement of the central power This type of culture could be best described as theweb, which is illustrated in the figure 1.3 below:

Figure 1.3: Power culture

This type of culture is normally found in small entrepreneurial organizations thatare based on trust, empathy and personal communications to achieve effectiveness

Figure 1.4: Person culture

Source: Handy (1991), Gods of management

A person culture is usually suitable for a self-help group or a commune rather than abusiness organization Examples of person cultures include groups of professionalpeople such as doctors, dentists and architects (Struwig & Smith, 2002) Anadvantage of this type of culture is that employees seem to have strong values aswell as motivation about how they work (Leigh Zwaan, 2006)

1.5 Corporate culture models

While the ‘content’ of corporate culture is explored, a numerous variety ofapproaches, models, methods and terms are used by researches to demonstratewhich components corporate culture might comprise of and/or entail Some of theterms that researchers have used quite frequently include corporate culture’scomponents, types, elements, dimensions, levels, and variables

For example, while discussing about corporate culture, Schein (1989) referred tovarious ‘cultural elements’ such as the physical layout of an organization’s offices,

rules of interactions that are taught to newcomers, basic values that come to be seen

as the organization’s ideology or philosophy, and the underlying conceptualcategories and assumptions that enable people to communicate and to interpreteveryday occurrences

Hofstede al (1990) specified dimensions of corporate culture which are: processversus results, employee versus job oriented, parochial versus professional, opensystems versus closed system, loose versus tight control and normaltive versuspragmatic

Whereas, Muijen et al (1994, 1998, & 1999) characterized corporate culture intofour orientations: goal, support, rules and innovation

Fons Trompenaars & Charles Hampden – Tuner (1997) mentioned in the book

“Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business”,another model for corporate culture, in which corporate culture was clarified intofour types, as illustrated in the following figure:

Figure 1.5: Organizational culture model of Fons Trompenaars & Charles

Hampden – Tuner

1.5.1 The model of Edgar H Schein

In 2004, Ph.D American Psychology, Edgar H Schein, worked out the way ofdividing corporate culture into different layers arragned in order from simple andtangible to complexity and depth to feel the cultural value of the business Thisfigure below demonstrates the different layers of corporate culture:

Figure 1.6: Elements of corporate culture

Source: Schein (1992), Organizational Culture and Leadership

As can be seen from figure 2.6, there are three levels of corporate culture It could

be compared to three different parts of the iceberg The following analysis willmake clear each layer of corporate culture according to Edgar H Schein’s model

1.5.1.1 Artifacts

Artifacts are the visible elements in a culture, which lies in the highest place of theiceberg Artifacts can be recognized by all people not part of the culture They arevisible artifacts and observable behaviors, such as mission statement or slogan,architecture, dress codes, furniture, art, work climate, stories, work processes,organizational structures, ceremonies, language, etc that are shared All of themtangible and audible results of activities that are grounded in values andassumptions The outsiders might easily see these artifacts, but might not be able tofully understand why these artifacts have been established To understand this,outsiders can look at the espoused values in the culture

1.5.1.2 Espoused values

The second level of culture addresses an organization’s value systems According toSchein (1985), values represent the principles and standards valued by theorganization’s employees Values form the basis as to what is considered acceptableand what is not acceptable, indicating which is considered right and wrong andforms an ethical code of the organization Espoused values are the values which arenormally followed by the leading figures of a culture which could be represented bythe philosophies, strategies and goals worked out and realized by leaders.Nevertheless, values explored by leaders should be supported by some general andshared assumptions about, for example, how a company should be run, or howemployees should be managed “The values are the evaluation base that members of

an organization use for judging the ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’ of situations, acts,objects and people Values reflect the real objectives, standards and goals in anorganization and define as well its transgressions, sins, and wrongdoings” (Vo HongNga, 2005) If espoused values by leaders are not in conformity with the generalassumptions of the corporate culture, this might signal trouble

Values consist of beliefs about what organizations should do rather than what theyare expected to do based on cultural assumptions Besides, values also stress on theimportance of prioritization and remark the element of individualism toorganizational culture Values may eventually become part of an organization’s

basic assumptions, however, whether this occurs or not depends on many factors,such as leadership personalities, employee perceptions, and the success of previousvalue-driven approaches to problem solving (Troy M Mouton, 2002)

1.5.1.3 Basic underlying assumptions

Basic underlying assumptions are the most abstract layer of culture identified incorporate culture model of Schein (1985) They sink below the conscious level ofculture and become taken-for-granted assumptions that organizational members use

to guide their behaviors and attitudes (Sathe & Davidson, 2000) As a result,identification of these elements of the culture requires much more sophisticated andthorough analyses of the organization It might further be argued that this culturallayer is the foundation for all others For this reason, it is frequently the hardest toidentify, and the most resistant to change (Brian McKee., et al, 2008)

In other words, underlying assumptions function as an unconscious basis for actionand a range of decisions that shape the culture further Underlying assumptions,therefore, are not static; culture is in an epistemological sense the creation andrecreation of shared reality In Weick’s terms it can be said that organizationalreality is an ongoing accomplishment (Weick, 1993) The most widely assumptiondiscussed in the framework of KluckHohn and Strodtbecks (1961), which includesfive dimensions: “People’s relationship with natural environment; the temporalfocus on human life; the innate character of human nature, the modality of humanactivity, and the modality of a person’s relationships to others.”

1.5.2 The model of Daniel R Denison

Another model was given by Daniel R Denison (1990) given to measure and assessthe culture of an organization A summary of this model is presented in Figure 1.7

Figure 1.7: Denison model of Organizational culture

Source: Denison (1990), Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness

In this model, Denison based his research of culture on four main basic views whichcan be translated into four main hypotheses focusing on the cultural traits, namely,involvement, consistency, adaptability and mission The research on these four traitshas been developed from a series of studies over the past two decades which havecompared cultural traits and patterns of business performance

1.5.2.1 Mission

Successful organizations should have a clear sense of purpose and a precisedirection for the further development, which allow them to define organizationalgoals and strategies and to express a compelling vision of the organization’s future,which can be best clarified by a clearly stated mission (Mintzberg, 1987; 1994;Ohmae, 1982; Hamel and Prahalad, 1994) A sense of mission also allows anorganization to shape current behaviors by envisioning a desired future state.Ability o internalize and identify an organization’s mission will make contribution

to both short and long-term commitment to that organization (Denison, 1990) Likeall of the traits, Mission is assessed based on by three indexes as follows:

Strategic Direction & Intent refers to the organization’s plan and strategy to makeits mark and position in its industry (Denison et al., 2006) Baker (2002) posits thatstrategic planning and identification are crucial for maintaining organizationalculture

Goals & Objectives: A clear set of goals and objectives can be linked to themission, vision and strategy, and provide a clear direction in employees’ work(Denison et al.,2006) According to Benko (2001), in order to function effectively

an organization should have the ability to chart future courses of action and shouldhave a well-defined understanding of where they are going and how they plan to getthere

Vision: defines and describes situation in the future that a company wishes to have,the purpose of the vision is to guide, to control and to motivate the organization as awhole to achieve the desirable state of the organization

1.5.2.2 Consistency

Effective organizations tent do have “strong” cultures that are highly consistent,well coordinated, and well integrated (Davenport, 1993, Saffold, 1988).Consistency is a source of stability and internal integration resulting from acommon mindset (Senge, 1990) If the organizations have high consistency and agood integration inside, they will achieve highly committed employees, an effectivemethod of doing business, an opportunity to promote from within, and a clear set of

“do’s” and “don’t” In the model, this trait is measured with three indexes:

Co-ordination and Integration: Different functions and units of the organization areable to operate together to achieve common goals, which is not interfered byorganizational boundaries with getting work done (Denison et al., 2006)

Agreement occurs when all members within the organization are able to achieveconsensus on critical issues, including the underlying level of agreement, as well asthe ability to reconcile differences as they occur (Denison et al., 2006)

Core values are values that are shared among members within the organizationwhich can create a sense of identity, as well as a set of expectations (Denison et al.,2006)

1.5.2.3 Involvement

According to Wesemann (2001) “involvement encompasses the importance that theorganization places on building the capability of its professional and administrativeemployees” The organization places values on team orientation which are opposed

to individual accomplishment, and the ownership that people feel in theorganization, is created by a high level of involvement Denison, et al., (2006)asserted that employees are committed to their work and feel a strong sense ofownership They purport that people at all levels feel that they have some input intodecisions that will affect their work and feel that their work is directly connected tothe goals of the organization Three indexes of this traits are mentioned below:Capability development: This implies activities that the organization continuouslyinvests in the development of employees skills in order to stay competitive and meeton-going business needs (Denison et al., 2006)

Team orientation: Value is placed on working collaboratively toward common goalsfor which all employees feel mutually accountable The organization relies on teameffort to get work done (Denison et al., 2006)

Empowerment: Individuals have the authority, initiative and ability to manage theirown work This creates a sense of ownership and responsibility toward theorganization (Denison et al., 2006)

1.5.2.4 Adaptability

In Denison model of organizational culture, adaptability allows an organization torecognize and respond to its external environment and internal constituencies Inresponse to either internal or external stimuli, it requires the capacity to restructurebehaviors and processes, as appropriate (Denison, 1990) In response to eitherinternal or external stimuli, it requires the capacity to restructure behaviors andprocesses, as appropriate (Denison, 1990) Organizations that have strength in

adaptability usually experience sales growth and an increased market share(Denison & Mishra, 1995) In order to get that success, top managers in theseorganizations usually spend their time responding to results of standard operatingprocedures, controlling the organization and managing short-term performance,rather than leading change or long-term thinking (Denison et al., 2006)

In the model, adaptability is measured through three sub-dimensions

Creating changes refers to the organization’s ability to create adaptive ways to meetchanging needs, ability to read the business environment, react quickly to trends andanticipate future changes (Denison et al., 2006)

Customer focus reflects the degree to which the organization is driven by a concern

to satisfy their customers The organization understands and reacts to theircustomers and anticipates their future needs (Denison et al, 2006)

Organizational learning represents the ability that the organization receivestranslates and interprets any signal from the business environment intoopportunities These opportunities are used for encouraging innovation, gainingknowledge and developing capabilities (Denison et al., 2006)

At the center of this model in the graph in figure 1.7 are underlying beliefs andassumptions This addition to the model reflects the fact that “deeper levels oforganizational culture (Schein, 1992) are difficult to measure using comparativemethods Nonetheless, they provide the foundation from which behaviors andactions spring Beliefs and assumptions about the organization and its people, thecustomer, the marketplace and the industry, and the basic identity of the firm create

a tightly knit logic that holds the organization together They represent the core

“DNA” and underlying logic of the firm

In conclusion, in this chapter, an overview of the literature was presented to provide

a premise for the study The chapter introduced a brief explanation of corporateculture, and its components and dimensions in order to provide a context andvarious definitions were explored Moreover, the increasingly important role ofcorporate culture to the success of an organization, as well as some main factors

affecting this culture was also put into consideration Some types of organizationalculture were noted and various theoretical models of organizational culture werehighlighted

CHAPTER 2: CURRENT CULTURE STATE AT FIFTH

MEDIA GROUP

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 History of Fifth Media Group

Fifth Media Group – an interactive mobile and digital media solutions and servicesgroup, which consists of three small companies operating in the mobile and onlinedigital services, namely Fifth Media Corporation, Fifth iMedia Limited Company,and Vsao; was invested by a regional venture capitalist, Netrove VenturesCorporation First set foot in Vietnam in 2007, since then, Fifth Media Group has

had a long developing path which has witnessed the development of each member

in group to achieve the success as today The figure below represents the journeythat Fifth Media Group has entered and development in the Vienamese mobile anddigital market

Figure 2.1: Developing history of Fifth Media Group

Source: Fifth Media Group Profile-2012

In 2007, Fifth Media Group officially set its first step into Vietnamese market inform of a mobile company, named as Fifth Media Corporation through the shortcode of 8X47 By connecting and establishing the relationship with all majorTelecommunication Companies in Vietnam, such as Viettel Telecoms, MobilePhone, Vina Phone, etc, Fifth Media Group has initially built up the image in theawareness of digital and mobile market in Vietnam

Year 2008 witnessed the some mojor changes on the business activities of FifthMedia Group With the start up as a mobile games provider, in this year, FifthMedia Group launched its own Mobile Value Added Services (Mobile VAS), such

as ringing tone for mobiles, interactive games, and search service on mobile, etc.With the diversity in services, Fifth Media Group could provide with its owncontent in the domestic market, as well as expand the premium oversea contentwithin Asia, Europe, and Russia Moreover, with the fast growing of Internetmarket in the world, especially the highly potential market as Vietnam, Fifth MediaGroup made a very important decision of expanding the business range, byestablishing Fifth Media Limited Company with the first office located in Ho ChiMinh City This company initially operated as an ad network, which providedadvertising services in form of banner display on websites in Vietnam Since thetime of start up, Fifth iMedia signed contracts to cooperate with all major publishers(websites), such as vnexpress.net dantri.com, yahoo.com, etc, covering more than90% of Pageviews in Vietnamese advertising market

The following year of Fifth Media Group had a lot of profound changes anddevelopment in terms of business activities From a single mobile games and VAS,Fifth Media Corporation became the very first B2B content distribution with theown gateway, and retained the position in top 3 of mobile games distribution withVietnam In terms of digital marketing Fifth iMedia also had the expansion in thebusiness range, not only ad network, but also offering creative and interactivedigital marketing solutions based on the highly developing technology Servicesranges include ad network banner display and management, SEO, SEM, socialmedia marketing, mobile marketing and advertising, email marketing, etc With this

in house, instead of outsourcing for such urgent campaign or due to lack of humanresources or technology This progress helped Fifth Media Group gain competitiveadvantage over the other competitors in mobile and digital industries

While keep growing in mobile and digital sectors, the Board of Director of FifthMedia Group found out another potential sector in Vietnam – the showbiz with ahuge number of fans following their own idols and stars Hence, in 2011, FifthMedia Group Beta launched Vsao, the first and only Showbiz Social Network inVietnam, with the main functions and purposes were to connect Stars and fansthrough an online and mobile network, promoting activity of E&M-commerce onstar merchandises, which were still new and not much applicable in Vietnam In themean time, for the digital sector, Fifth iMedia also launched Fblog, the first andonly blog network in Vietnam, where advertisers and bloggers can connect witheach other on the win-win basis

The early months of year 2012 percieved the official launch of Vsao and anothershort code 7X56 for the mobile sectors

In conclusion, Fifth Media Group was established based on a simple idea and beliefthat the Fifth means of media – mobile (besides TV ads, Print ads, Radio, Internet),will transfer all levels of the global community in time, so that Vietnamese marketcould catch up the common trend in most Asia countries The fifth means of media,especially when converging with the Internet will create the most powerful formand medium of transfering digital messages of users in the near future With theconvergence of mobile and online digital communities, Fifth Media Group wants to

Figure 2.2: Organizational structure of Fifth Media Group

Source: FIFTH MEDIA GROUP Profile – 2013

Fifth Media Group consists of three small companies, which operates individually

in both mobile and online digital industries They are Fifth Media Corporation, FifthiMedia, and Vsao

Vsao team consists of 15 staffs, including different functions, such as Editor,Marketing, Business Development, and so on Fifth iMedia, which operates indigital marketing service, has the scope of about 30 staff, including Domestic andInternational Sales, Business Development, and so on

To make sure the business performance of three companies in the group operatesmoothly, there are two support teams, namely Technical team (consist of 7members) and Accounting and Admin (consist of 4 members) Of the entire group,there are more than 50 members working at the Headquarter in Hanoi, and theothers working in Ho Chi Minh City Of all the staffs working at Fifth Media

Group, there are totally 30 male and 43 female members, almost of which got thegraduated level and had the working tenure ranging from 1 to 5 years

2.1.3 Business activities

Fifth Media Group main business activities are based on the business performance

of three component small companies, which particularly special in mobile andonline digital services

Fifth iMedia started as an ad-network in the emerging Vietnamese market for digitalmedia services At once, it mainly provided banner display ads; however, up tonow, Fifth iMedia has grown significantly and expanded its range of services intofull of services in online marketing, such as Social media, Search (Search enginemarketing, Search engine Optimization, and Search engine marketing optimization),Email marketing, Mobile marketing, and so on In detailed, Fifth iMedia hasbecome a one-stop shop company for digital media in Vietnamese market, and inthe rank of top three Independent digital media agencies in Vietnam Moreover,besides providing online market solutions, it also comes up with strategic consultantservices, including creative and strategic concept, design, and plan to execute acompleted marketing campaign Now, Fifth iMedia has become the strategicpartners of many large digital agencies in Vietnam and in the world, based on theyoung dynamic, and professional team associated with the updated and advancedtechnology

Meanwhile, Fifth Media Corporation has operated as a Mobile distributor, standing

in top 3 game distributors in Vietnam Nowadays, Fifth Media Corporation mainlysupplies Value Added Services (VAS) on mobile, such as: ringing tone, gamemobile, mobile marketing services, interactive television, and search services, and

so on On mobile sectors, it operates in both B2B and B2C, to distribute gamemobile through short code 8X47, 7X65, and website mclub.vn Moreover, byconnecting with telecomunication companies in Vietnam, Fifth Media Corporationhas the wide network to assess to more than 90% mobile users in Vietnam.Moreover, by exploring the interactive television, which is quite new and strange toVietnamese audience, Fifth Media Corporation has developed and made use of iTV

technology-interactive Television through is platform system and short code 8X47.Nowadays, Fifth Media Corporation has become a one stop shop for VAS andmobile marketing services

Operating as the first and only showbiz social network in Vietnam, Vsao is theplace where Stars, celebrity, and their fans, followers can connect, talk, and sharealmost everything anytime and anywhere With the network of more than 100famous stars, working as singers, models, actors and actresses, etc, and a hugenumbers of fan, and followers in total of more than twenty thousand; and thisnumber still keeps growing Besides performing as a social network for Stars andFans, with many sponsorship events with the celebrity, Vsao is also a portal, inwhich advertisers could take advantage of advertising services, including socialmarketing, display ads, and so on Nowadays, Vsao has become the portal andinteractive convergent infotainment services in Vietnam

In conclusion, with the increasing development of technology and communicationmedia, Fifth Media Group, with the convergence of mobile and online digitalservices has gradually grown and gained success in the Vietnamese market.However, in order to maintain and prosper its position in the extremely competitivebusiness environment, it is essential that Fifth Media Group have some mainparticular and unique features to be considered as the competitive advantage overcompetitors, and building and maintaining a corporate culture is such an importantone Acknowledging of the importance of corporate culture, Fifth Media Group hasbuilt and develop its own culture since the establishing Up to now, this culture hasgained a lot of success, to some extent which will be deeply analyzed in thefollowing part of this research

2.2 Analyzing Fifth Media Group corporate culture

2.2.1 Manifestation/Performance of Fifth Media Group Corporate culture according to Edgar H Schein model.

2.2.1.1 Artifacts

a Slogan and logo

Draft,R (2009) stated that a slogan “communication to current and prospectiveemployees, customers, investors, suppliers, and competitors what the organizationstands for and what it is trying to achieve” The slogan of Fifth Media Group, which

is “Converging mobile & online digital communities”, is placed under the FifthMedia Group logo

Figure 2.3: Slogan and logo of Fifth Media Group

Source: website of Fifth Media Group, http://fifthmediacorp.com/

The first impression on this slogan of Fifth Media Group is that it is a short andconcise phrase which is easy to remember and keep in mind As mentioned in theintroduction of the Fifth Media Group, this company strives to become the one-stopshop for both mobile and digital solutions The word “converging” has successfullydescribed this philosophy that Fifth Media Group wants to express This is not only

a declaration towards the customers, investors, competitors, and suppliers but alsothe guiding statement for all Fifth Media Group’s employees and staff to work anddevote to the success of the company in general Mobile and online digitalindustries are currently the emerging but challenging fields that many companieshave succeeded; and with this slogan, Fifth Media Group wants to focus andprosper in this industry, and strives to serve well in these two communities

b Architecture

Since December 2011, Fifth Media Group has had a new working office at AnhMinh Building, on Hoang Cau street, Dong Da district Although, it only

Moreover, although the space is not so large, Fifth Media Group still focuses on thecommunity space for all staffs to spend time together Two meeting rooms and apublic space are the places where all members could gather and do the collectiveactivities, such as meeting, party, or training, etc “Make use of the tiny space forthe big and meaningful purposes” – said by Ms Nguyen Hang, Director of FifthMedia Corporation at Fifth Media Group.

The following figures describe the working spaces at Fifth Media Group

Figure 2.4 – 2.5: Settings in Fifth Media group working rooms

Source: photos taken by the author, 3/2013

When being asked about the level of satistaction of the working environment, MsTrinh Van, a member of Fifth Media Corporation said that: “I feel very comfortableand enjoyable when working here The space is tiny but in links people together,and motivates people working more effeciently and effectively”

Meanwhile, Mr Kien, a member of Fifth iMedia shows that “the space is quitesmall and tidy, however, all people here are getting used to it”

c Narrative

Narratives are built up based on the true events that are shared among organizationand spread to new employees to inform them about the history of that organization

In Fifth Media Group, there are many stories about the development process and

people of Fifth Media Group which are widely spread out in the company Most of

Fifth Media Group employees interviewed said that they are told narratives frommanagers- who have worked at Fifth Media Group since the beginning Somecommon stories which are often told are history of the foundation of the group, thehard time they have been passed through, the image of three leaders dealing withproblems and driving three companies going ahead, and so on There are many extraactivities and methods of communications in Fifth Media Group that are considered

as crucial factors to expand narratives Among them, sharing time, training time ormeetings at the beginning of every week are common occasions In the meeting,besides reporting the work flow of the previous week, managers at Fifth MediaGroup always include this section in order to make sure that every staff couldunderstand well about the history and hard time developing period of the company,

as a motivator to encourage them to work and devote more to the success of thecompany Besides, Facebook Page and Blog are also common places for FifthMedia Group members to share their thoughts and knowledge of the corporation,raise ideas and recall unforgettable moments of Fifth Media Group

4 Ceremonies

The non-business life of Fifth Media Group is also catered with a wide range ofactivities offered all year around Managers at Fifth Media Group are especially