Role of internal communication in responding to people’s complaints at the office of people’s council and people’s committee of district 8th, HCMC

The Office of People’s Council and People’s Committee of District 8th is also located the same above address, and one of twelve 12 committee divisions to assist the top of managers of Pe

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

NGUYỄN HOÀNG CẨM TÚ

ROLE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION IN

AT THE OFFICE OF PEOPLE’S COUNCIL

AND PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

NGUYỄN HOÀNG CẨM TÚ

ROLE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION IN RESPONDING TO PEOPLE COMPLAINTS

AT THE OFFICE OF PEOPLE’S COUNCIL

AND PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: PROF TRAN HA MINH QUAN

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

1.1 Introduction about the Office: ……… 6

1.1.1 About the Office of People’s Council and People’s Committee of district 8th, HCMC:……… 6

1.1.2 About human resource and structure of the Office:………6

1.1.3 About the receiving and responding of people’s complaints in the Office:……… 7

1.2 Problem identification:……… 8

1.2.1 Evaluation satisfaction level of people in HCMC:……… 8

1.2.2 Symptom of Organization:………10

1.2.2.1 Duplicated messages/phones:……… 11

1.2.2.2 Negative feedbacks:………12

1.2.3 The initial problem:……… 13

1.2.3.1 Responding time is not on the appointment time :……… 14

1.2.3.2 Responding results are not completed when meeting deadlines: 16

1.2.3.3 Responding results have not been unity among channels:……… 20

1.2.4 Core problem:……… 23

1.2.4.1 Barriers of problems:……… 23

1.2.4.2 The core problem:……… 25

CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION 2.1 The existence of problem:……… 31

2.2 The importance of problem:……… 32

2.2.1 Lack of motivation and commitment of employees:……… 32

2.2.2 Low job satisfaction:……….33

2.2.3 Low job performance: ………34

2.2.4 Work pressure: ……….35

2.3 Cause validation:……… ……… 36

2.3.1 Main causes of problem: ………36

2.3.1.1 Lack of mutual information and knowledge cooperation: …………37

2.3.1.2 Lack of providing information for needs of employees: ………… 37

2.3.2 Links between core problem and two main causes; and evaluation….40 CHAPTER 3: DESIGN SOLUTION 3.1 Suggest solutions:……… 41

3.1.1 Set up common link information systems: ………41

3.1.2 Assign work, divide benefit equally and effectively: ………41

3.1.3 Merge current three (3) groups into a new teamwork: ……….42

3.2 Solution evaluation: ………44

3.3 Action plan: ………45

CHAPTER 4: SUPPORTING INFORMATION: 4.1 Problem identification – Symptom of organization: ………47

4.2 Initial problem: … ………50

4.3 Barriers of problem:……… 56

4.4 The existence of problem: ……… 57

4.5 The importance of the problem:……… 58

REFERENCES ………62

LIST OF TABLE Table 1: evaluate level of solving people’s problem:……… 9

Table 2: The statistic duplicated and negative feedback messages/phones:… 10 Table 3: The rate of duplicated messages/phones for 5 years:……… 12

Table 4: The rate of negative feedbacks for 5 years:……….13

Table 5: Activities of communication:……… 27

Table 6: Main objectives of internal communication: ……… 28

Table 7: Teamwork quality construct:……… 42

LIST OF FIGURE Figure 1: The initial cause – effect map:……… 30

Figure 2: The cause – effect map:……… 39

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The receiving and responding to people’s complaints at the Office has been existed some problems due to affect product’s quality negatively and views of people towards the state This research finds out some problems which are related to internal communication among departments of Office of People’s Council and People’s

Committee of district 8th, Ho Chi Minh city Based on data from in depth interview and survey questionnaires for five (5) respondents including that are two (2) staffs and three (3) managers of the Office who work about receiving and responding to people’s complaints as expertise and concurrent tasks, this research finds out two (2) main causes as: lack of mutual information and knowledge cooperation; lack of providing information for needs of employees From that, the writer suggests solutions, action plan to relate around internal communication at Office to improve current existences and enhance positive views of people towards the local state

CHAPTER I: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION 1.1 Introduction about the Office of People’s Council and People’s

committee divisions, sixteen (16) People’s Committee of wards and eighteen (18) departments without the schools and traditional markets to support it to implement management state of the local state

The Office of People’s Council and People’s Committee of District 8th is also located the same above address, and one of twelve (12) committee divisions to assist the top of managers of People’s Council and People’s Committee about all steering, operating activities of Council, Committee and Chairman of Committee; ensures

facilities, tangible equipment to serve council and committee’s working, including that the receiving and checking resolution the complaints, problems of local people

1.1.2 About human resource and structure of Office:

Human resource: there are sixty - six (66) people, such as forty - five (45) civil

servants who are paid annual salary form government salary fund including that have five (5) top of mangers of People’s Committee, a manager of People’s Council and four (4) mangers of Office (a Chief, 3 deputies of chief); and twenty-one (21)

employees who are not officials and their incomes are paid from operating fund of

Office

Chief of Office manages general activities and assigns official people at

departments

Deputies of Chief manages some specific sectors and general of some of seven departments of Office depending on assignment of Chief

Structure of Office: there are seven (7) departments, such as:

Citizen reception department

Receiving documents and returning results department

Synthesis and planning department

Accounting department

Security department

Clerical and storage department

Information technology department

1.1.3 About the receiving and responding of citizen’s complaints in the Office:

Receiving channels and execution time: People’s Committee of District 8th

has main four (4) direct or indirect channels to receive and respond complaints,

problem of citizen and execution timeas:

- Receiving letters directly in Citizen reception department Execution time is maximum thirty (30) days and 45 days for complex case that is classify when just receiving them

- Receiving complaints or problem from hotline of People’s Committee of District 8th (19007208) Execution time is maximum ten (10) days and 20 days for complex case that is classify when just receiving them

- Receiving citizen complaints or problem from People’s Committee of HCMC

as hotline 0888 247 247 or mail address: duongdaynong@tphcm.gov.vn Execution time is maximum ten (10) days and 20 days for complex case that is classify when just receiving them

- Receiving people’s complaints directly from meeting of People’s Council once every half of year and meeting of Fatherland Front Committee once every quarter

of year Execution time is maximum thirty (30) days and 45 days for complex case that

is classify when just receiving them

Handling units: The receiving and tracking, urging the other agencies to solve

complaints, problem of citizen in district 8th is main responsibility of Office and this is

assigned to three (3) committee departments of Office to do such as:

The Citizen reception department receives and tracks complaints, problem from

letters of people directly

The Synthesis and planning department receives and tracks complaints, problem

of people though focusing meeting of People’s Council and Fatherland Front

Committee

Information technology department receives and tracks complaints, problem of

people from hotline of District 8th, hotline of HCMC

Handling process: each channel has been separated implement process,

however, it has quite similarly functions as:

Firstly, departments of office will receive people’s complaints though four

channels; then, supporting managers steer specific committee divisions to solve; the

next step is to urge and receive responding information from committee divisions; and

the last step will answer results to citizens Each step has a specific execution time

which bases on complex level of information

Handling human resource: there are eight (8) employees to to this task, as:

Manager: Chief manages the citizen reception department; a deputy chief

manages the synthesis and planning department; other deputy chief manages the

information technology department

Staffs: five (5) staffs as: three (3) staffs are in the citizen reception department,

a staff is in the synthesis and planning department who are civil servants of office, and

a staff is in the information technology department who contracts annual, is not civil

Receive results Respond to citizen

In now, the state of HCMC focuses on reforming public administration’s activities to serve effectively rather than steering It uses PAPI index (Vietnam

Governance and Public Administration Performance Index) which shows level of people satisfaction with governance and public administration performance to know and give some more effective ways to improve its activities better to meet people demands It shows five kinds of index as Participation at Local Levels, Transparency, Vertical Accountability, Control of Corruption, Public Administrative Procedures, Public Service Delivery (1), include to have 3 indexes related to evaluate level of solving people’s problem as: Participation at Local Levels, Transparency and Vertical Accountability

Participation at Local Levels index measures people’s understanding of their participation rights, opportunities and the quality of village head elections, and the extent to which citizens participate in and voluntarily contribute to local infrastructure projects

Transparency index measures people’ “rights to know” about state policies that affect their everyday life and livelihoods

Vertical Accountability based on three subdimensions: the frequency and effectiveness of citizen interactions with local authorities, the proactiveness of local governments in responses to citizen proposals or complaints, andthe coverage and effectiveness of People’s Inspection Boards

Compare between HCMC and big cities in VN

Table 1: Evaluate level of solving people’s problem (1)

(source: PAPI 2016 – www.papi.org.vn)

This table shows that Ho Chi Minh City is biggest city in Vietnam, but has all three (3) indexes quite low if comparing with others three (3) big other cities as Ha

Noi, Da Nang, Can Tho, even there are two (2) indexes under point five (5) (average point), including that as: Participation at Local Levels index is lowest and 3 others are low, lower than Da Nang, Can Tho are With general view, evaluation with contents about HCMC is period of medium point Additional, at meeting about building

developing plan in HCMC in 2017, chairman of People’s Committee of HCMC

Nguyen Thanh Phong (2) suggested all government agencies need to focus on

implementing administrative reform, effective solutions to improve PAPI index to push HCMC to be top five (5)

1.2.2 Symptom of organization:

Although the administrative reform and resolving people’s complaints of local state have been improved significantly for recent two (2) years, they have not still made satisfactions of managers of Office and residents According to Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, shared that local residents have still not satisfied about the

receiving and solving complaint’s people of district 8th

Based on report data, in depth interviews with five (5) respondents (3 managers and 2 employees of Office), the resolving people’s complaints has shown big

weakness to make resident’s dissatisfaction and it is also organization’s symptom with two (2) specific expressions as:

+ Duplicated messages: Receive the same contents of resident’s complaints, problem which they did before in the different channels, even the same channels

+ Negative feedbacks: Receive negative feedbacks about responding contents, time though some channels

Hotline of HCMC

Hotline of district 8th

Focus meetings

Channel of Citizen reception department Duplicated

messages/phones 77 12.52% 21 6.73% 24 10.3% 19 6.53% Negative feedback

messages/phones 56 9.1% 11 3.52% 15 6.44% 7 2.4% Total complaints

Table 2: The statistic about duplicated and negative feedbacks

(Source: data reports of four channels from 2016 - 2017)

Additional, based on data source, the writing only considers about this task for recent two (2) years from started 2016 to 1st September 2017, there are total 1,451complaints though direct or indirect forms though four (4) channels Reason that the study only collects data at nearly last two years is 3 channels started in 2016, such as hotline of district 8th started at 1st January, 2016, hotline of HCMC started at 19th

February, 2016, focusing meetings between the local state and people have been

concentrated in starter 2016 The receiving complaints though Citizen reception

department has started for long time but no improving so much and according to Mr Nguyen Van Thong, former Chief of Office (is cited by Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief

of Office), this task did not focus more than other factors and did not also have few highlight improvements And Mr Nguyen Nha Kha considered that this task has not

changed positively since then until 2016

Both of these specific manifestations show resident’s dissatisfaction with

responding results of local government and they also show symptom of Office that need to modify, analysis in order to improve more

1.2.2.1 About duplicated messages/phones:

Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, chief of Office, shared that although district 8th has been promoted administrative reform and resolving people’s complaints, requests with outstanding developments more than nearly three (3) years ago, however, the rate of the solving people’s complaints did not reduce, even increased significantly to over 10% in 2017 while the target expectations of the top managers of People’s Committee and People’s Council might reduce year by year, average rate was about 5% - 6%

Mrs Tram Anh is staff of Synthesis and planning department Office who

follows complaints though the focusing meetings revealed that the rate of duplicated messages was regularly, about from 9 to 10% of total complaints of this channels, even some messages/phones were duplicated three or four times which made

dissatisfactions of manager of Office and top managers of People’s Committee and People’s Council

Mr Cao Le Minh Tam, deputy of chief, honestly revealed that he was really stress when recognizing several of sum complaints of citizen’s reflection has just answered in other channels after urging and tracking, however, this rate was not much, took about under 15% at hotline in HCMC, about rate of hotline of district 8th was much less

Table 3: The rate of duplicated messages/calls for five years (2013 – 2017) (Source: data report in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 of all of channels of Office)

The receiving messages, phones, letters which duplicated with similar contents though four (4) channels in the different period of time, base on data reports though five (5) years, average rate of duplicated messages/phones takes 9.87% per total

complaints This rate is quite higher than target expectations of top managers to be about 5% - 6%, especial in 2016, 2017, when People’s Committee of local has pushed the administrative reform and resolving people’s complaints, but this rate does not reduce, even increase sharply in 2017 It made dissatisfactions of top manager of People’s Committee, People’s Council, and people in local

1.2.2.2 About negative feedbacks:

According to Mr Nguyen Nha Kha - chief of Office, the other difficulty of solving some resident’s complaints to bring their dissatisfactions was negative

feedbacks though four (4) channels, and the rate of negative feedbacks has not reduced year by year and average rate was about over 5%, higher than target expectations of top managers to be about 3% - 4%, although the solving people’s complaints has been concerned and promoted more

Mr Trong and Mr Tam, who are two deputies of Chief said that the receiving negative feedbacks of people was occasionally though hotline of district 8th, HCMC and directly focusing meetings

Table 4: The rate of negative feedbacks for five years (2013 – 2017)

(Source: data report in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 of all channels of the Office)

Based on data, there were the average rate about resident’s negative feedbacks for the responding results of People’s Committee was about 5.848% of total

complaints, special in 2017, the rate has highest rate, although target expectation of top managers was about 3% - 4% and the administrative reform and responding people’s complaints has been improved more Therefore, the top mangers have felt

dissatisfaction for responding results of Office and committee divisions; moreover, it shows people’s dissatisfaction for this service of district 8th

The rate of negative and duplicated messages/calls is shown dissatisfactions of not only people, but also top managers of People’s Committee and People’s Council of district 8th Moreover, review some results of indexes of PAPI index in 2016 of

HCMC, specially for Vertical Accountability of HCMC relating to the study with three (3) elements as interactions with local authorities, responsive to citizen actions,

people's inspection boards achieved quite lowly when comparing two (2) big cities of Vietnam as Da Nang, Can Tho, and only was higher than in Hanoi It is shown that the citizens of local has not really satisfied about answering results of government in order

to connect and make happy to residents with local state

1.2.3 The initial problems:

The above symptom of organization has existed for several years and it has shown two (2) specific manifestations as the duplicate feedbacks, negative feedbacks

of residents Based on interviewing in depth with five (5) respondents, including to three (3) managers of Office and two (2) staffs, there are three (3) initial problems to

be clarified for this symptom as:

Responding time is not on the appointment time

Responding results are not completed and needed more time to solve

Responding results have not been unity among channels

1.2.3.1 Responding time is not on the appointment time:

Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, shared that the office has still

unanswered or answered late to residents when meeting deadlines took average high proportion This issue was also unified by other five (5) interviewees Though in depth interviews, there were three (3) problems to be recognized as:

Regular time to respond residents is too short to solve on time

Current regulars, resources of local state have not met legitimate needs of

people

Overload for some parts of labor force of People’s Committee

- About regular time responds residents is too short to solve on time

Based on regular papers of local state, each channel has specific execution time

to receive, solve and respond complaints, problem of citizen as: execution time of receiving letters directly in Citizen reception department are maximum 45 days;

Execution time of hotline of People’s Committee of District 8th (19007208), hotline of HCMC (0888 247 247) or mail address: duongdaynong@tphcm.gov.vn is maximum

20 days; execution time of the meetings of People’s Council and Fatherland Front Committee are maximum 45 days; and also based on in depth interviews of

respondents, the complex complaints are often related to urban, repairing infrastructure factor to account for high proportion, about 70% of total complaints

According to Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, execution time for some complex cases was too short to solve because there were many regular steps,

procedures needed to implement; in some situations, when meeting deadlines, all steps have not been implemented, the office has had no data, results from committee

divisions to answer people; and this rate took about 25% for total number of duplicated and negative feedbacks of residents

About Mr Nguyen Minh Trong, deputy of chief, shared that some complex complaints about urban, repairing infrastructure factor need more time to solve

because they implemented some regular steps; so, depend on urgency, priority works, committee divisions would prioritize to do before; this rate took about a quarter of total duplicated and negative feedbacks

Although regular time for complex cases is about from 20 to 45 days It is considered that being too short to solve When meeting deadlines, committee divisions have not finished working processes and have given feedback later, even having not any feedbacks to Office in order to respond people This was accounted for high

proportion about average 25% for total duplicated and negative feedbacks

- About current regulars, resources of local state have not met legitimate needs of people

The rate of complex cases takes significant numbers of total complaints,

specific in urban, repairing infrastructure field due to waiting specific policies, steers, even waiting the finance resources from People’s Committee of HCMC, departments

of HCMC to solve

Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, revealed that some complex cases

waited steers, finance resources of departments of HCMC, People’s Committee of HCMC because their solutions were beyond local state’s jurisdiction, so, People’s Committee of district 8th would not reflect any information to people if the higher level states did not sent information to local state when meeting deadlines; the rate for

similar cases took about 15% of total duplicated and negative feedbacks

Mr Cao Le Minh Tam, deputy of chief, shared that 20 days for hotline of

HCMC and district 8th was too short, some cases were beyond the scope of local state and must consult with departments of HCMC, People’s Committee of HCMC, so, the Office has not had any data to respond to people from higher lever units when meeting deadlines

Mr Nguyen Minh Trong, deputy of chief, shared that the waiting responses of higher level states for local residents’ complaints sometimes took more time than regular time was, so, the office had no data to answer to people The rate took about 13 – 15 % of total duplicated and negative feedbacks

District 8th can not solve some cases actively because they were beyond the local state’s jurisdiction and must wait the steers, resources of higher lever units to solve Period of time received the superior’s answers was to exceed the deadlines Therefore, the office has also not had any data to respond to residents on time and in

this study, this issue does not research to modify deeply.

- About overload for some parts of labor force of People’s Committee:

The method of in depth interviewing process, the writer recognized that work overload occurred for some civil servants of Office who worked concurrently.Parasuraman et al (3, p280) cited that work overload is the feeling which “there are too many things to do and not enough time to do them” and “to be associated with increased time commitment to work and decreased time commitment to family”

Mr Trong, deputy of Chief of Office, revealed that over 70% people’s

complaints was in urban and repairing infrastructure field, they made more burden to staffs of urban management department which those staffs has worked this task as concurrent tasks; depending on urgency, priority of complaints, they would be given priority, others would need more time to solve

Moreover, there are three (3) people as Mr Trong, Mr Tam who are two

deputies of chief, Mrs Tram Anh who is staff, honestly admitted that this task is one

of their concurrent tasks, and in some situations, they accepted not to complete or delayed deadline, and they have felt working overload because of not being able to covering all tasks in the same periods of time

In the office, working overload easily makes difficulties to complete tasks on time and they need more time to process This situation takes places 50% of labor force, including to three (3) managers and a staff of Synthesis and Planning department and 100% labor force of committee divisions in urban and repairing infrastructure field In consequence, they have accepted not to complete or delay deadline when meeting the same periods of time

1.2.3.2 Responding results are not completed when meeting deadlines

Beside that responding nothing to people when catching deadline, there are still many cases to respond latest information to residents about work progresses but these have not been final results

According to Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, there was about over 30%

in complex complaints which the Office answered to residents on time, but they have not achieved final results And though in depth interview with other five (5)

respondents, there are four (4) reasons of internal office to explain this issue as:

Regular time is too short to solve on time

Current regulars, resources of local state have not met legitimate needs of

people

Working overload for labors of People’s Committee

Lack of motivation of a part of labor force for this task

- Regular time is too short to solve on time

The execution time is as receiving, solving and responding to people about complaints, problem to be maximum from twenty (20) days to forty-five (45) days (depending on each channel) is too short to finish on time with many working

procedures and urge committee divisions to do, special some complex cases The office tried to answer to people latest information, processes in appointment time and would continue to update information in the next time by the office (as similar

comments of Mr Kha and Mr Trong shared in above issue (responding time was not

on the appointment time)) This rate took about 30% of total duplicated and negative feedbacks

Mrs Tram Anh, staff of Office, who supported channel of People’s Council and Fatherland Front Committee, shared that the execution time for some complex

complaints took about 30% in duplicated and negative feedbacks, the committee

divisions needed more time to solve, moreover, they were still required to complete professional work on urban development, so, depending on urgency, priority of

complaints would be given priority Mr Tam and Mr Trong, two deputies of Chief and Mr Tu, staff of Office, also shared similar comments like Mrs Tram Anh about the channels that they supported

However, when the writer asked regular time about maximum execution time must finished totally, all five (5) above interviewees revealed that there were not specific regulations to complete; many cases had finished after a half of year, a year,

even several years; and the rate of complaints that was over regular execution time took over average 30% in duplicated and negative feedbacks

When meeting deadlines, the office has not given final results in order to

respond to people on time From that, the office must delay people’s deadline In some cases, the delaying about a half of year, a year, even several years makes residents’ dissatisfaction with this service and this is one of reasons that people still continue duplicated, negative feedbacks to local state, higher level state

- Current regulars, resources of local state have not met legitimate needs of people

Current regulars, resources of local state are beyond the local authority to solve some complaints of residents, they must wait specific policies, steers, finance

resources from People’s Committee of HCMC, departments of HCMC

Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, shared that when the Office received feedbacks of higher level states to solve local resident’s complaints before deadlines, his staffs tried to respond to people about latest information and still continued to send next information to them in the next time His comment also received agreements of four (4) other interviewees This rate took average 30% of total complaints

This issue depends on higher level state’s steers, policies, resources totally, because they are beyond local state’s jurisdiction District 8th only responds each implementation progress which higher level state answered to residents For this issue, District 8th can not intervene actively, only urge and wait their feedbacks Therefore, in

this study, this issue does not research to modify deeply

- Working overload for labors

Working overload of labors has made dissatisfactions of residents because the Office has not responded or has responded later than is in the appointment time

However, for some situations, the labor of office still responded on time with latest information without final result

Mr Trong, deputy of Chief, revealed that over 70% people’s complaints was in urban and repairing infrastructure field, they made more burden to the urban

management staffs who being working concurrent job for this task, so, urgent, prior complaints would be given priority; others would need more time to solve

Moreover, there are three (3) people as Mr Trong, Mr Tam, two deputies of chief, Mrs Tram Anh, staff of Office revealed that this task has been one of their concurrent works in office, and in some situation, they have accepted failure to

complete or delay deadline for work, and they have also been felt working overload because of not being able to covering all tasks in the same periods of time and must neglect in reminder committee divisions before meeting deadline

The overload for work makes high pressure for employees to face to complete works with higher performance within limited time And this consequence is some employees who support some concurrent jobs can not complete all and must ignore some tasks, specific concurrent works lead to impact responding results negatively for citizen within regular time

- Lack of motivation of a part of labor force for this task

Lack of focusing on solving complaints has concentrated to not only employees, but also managers because of feeling overload and several employees have not adapted job requirement effectively In now, there is a haft of total eight (8) labors of Office who work this task concurrently

According to Mr Trong, deputy of chief, revealed that he and his staff in

Synthesis and Planning department did not actually complete all works well because of covering their main responsibilities and concurrent tasks, hence, they did not have enough time to work, and had to accept lack of concentrating in concurrent jobs And

Mr Tam, deputy of chief, admitted that sometimes he neglected this task in order to focus on his main responsibilities According to Mrs Tram Anh, staff of Office,

complained that she could not complete all concurrent tasks well because she did not have enough time to do; furthermore, the office did not gain any benefits, bonuses for concurrent tasks lead to have no motivation herself to try to accomplish them And Mr Kha, chief of Office also admitted that there were not any funds of the Office to pay for concurrent tasks; beside that, working skills of three eighth (3/8) specialized labors have not still adapted to job requirements effectively

The solving people’s complaints has actually not been focused as others It is assigned to three different departments of office and met some difficulties such as: not

concentrate for this concurrent task, not make motivation to work, have not still

adapted to job requirements as expected

1.2.3.3 Responding results have not been unity among channels

Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, admitted that there had not have

unification about responding contents among channels such as this channel had

completed the answer with people’s petition clearly, but others were duplicated

messages need to settling time more, or even give a bit different contents, specific different schedule time of repairing infrastructure, urban field

Mr Trong, Mr Tam who are two deputies of Chief, revealed that they also detected some cases as Mr Kha said, and beside that some committee divisions

sometimes transferred some solved information to the office non-uniformity because their organizations have not been uniformly assigned, civil servants still worked

concurrently; additional, the resolution processes of channels were quite similar, but there were three different departments of the Office to settle independently Its

consequence was difference about answering style, even its contents sometimes have not had uniform among channels and the non-uniform qualities sometimes occurred to impacts perception, satisfaction of people to local government negatively

Based on in depth interviews, there are four (4) reasons to explain more this issue as:

Lack of sharing information, communicating to the internal organization

Staffs’ abilities have not met job requirements as expected

Working overload

Lack of motivation of labor force for this task

- Lack of sharing information, communicating to the internal organization

Although the settlement processes of channels are quite similar, there are three (3) different departments to implement and work independently, there are no any shared data sources, information, knowledge, even not communication among

employees together

According to Malone et al (4, p362), “If there is no interdependence, there is nothing to coordinate” Meyer (5) viewed that organization communication had seen as efficient tools to collect resources, data, reckon common problem, even compare

organizations Thompkins cited by A Tkalac Vercic et al (6, p224) stated that being “a central concept for organization and management theory”

All five (5) respondents shared that they only received complaints, then

supported to the Office’s managers, top managers to steer, however, did not review or share information to any common link systems, tools among departments in order to remove duplicated complaints before, reduce the number of complaints being tracked, and support top managers to steering directions effectively According to Mr Tam, deputy of Chief, shared that until now, the office has not had link information among channels, employees has checked up results hardly which were responded before in order to reduce the number of complaints being tracked Mr Kha, Chief of Office revealed that channels had quite similar functions but they operated independently, had been separating processes, not to link, communicate information, knowledge,

responding results among channels together, they could not support working process, moreover, product’s results sometimes were uneven, different Mr Tu, civil servant of Citizen reception department, said that the sharing information among departments had not mentioned in any regular papers, steers of Office’s managers, and there were no linking tools, systems, so, it was hardly to share information to others

From that, the sharing information, communicating to the internal organization has not focused on from managers of office, top of managers of district 8th to impact

on quality products, special for some works with similar processes, tasks lead to

respond results negatively to make citizens’ dissatisfaction

- Staffs’ abilities have not met job requirements as expected

Enrique et al (7) stated about role of employee that human factor is become vital element because employees are knowledge holders and must prove their ability to

be used precisely Christopher (8, p1) gave fundamental assertion that “an

organization’s human resources are of strategic importance, because knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors, and interactions of employees have the potential to influence organizational performance”

Mr Kha, Chief of Office, frankly admitted that he has not satisfied to job

performance of most civil servants with some evidences such as: three fifth (3/5) the expertise employees worked ineffectively, inflexibility in solving ways and collected

working knowledge, understanding passively; two (2) deputies of Chief, a staffs who work concurrently have not focused on solving complaints deeply, sometimes

complete later than deadlines were Both Mr Trong and Mr Tam, two deputies of Chief also admitted that, even for some situations, their job performance were low to lead to used to be complained by Chairman and Vice Chairman

Based on that, this issue is significant weakness in the Office when most of labor forces for this task have not adapted to job requirements effectively, including that two managers Therefore, the making products which is not quality as expected are inevitable

- Work overload

The method of interviewing processes, the writer recognized that work overload occurred for some civil servants of Office who worked concurrently, others are not much.Parasuraman et al (3, p280) cited that work overload is the feeling which “there are too many things to do and not enough time to do them” and “to be associated with increased time commitment to work and decreased time commitment to family”

There are three (3) people: Mr Trong, Mr Tam, who are two deputies of chief, Mrs Tram Anh, civil servant of Synthesis and Planning department admitted that they have sometimes accepted not to complete or delay deadline of some tasks, even have felt work overload lead to be under pressure at work because of not being able to covering all tasks, including to expertise and concurrent works

The overload for work makes high pressure for employees to face to complete works with higher performance within limited time And this consequence is some employees who support some concurrent jobs can not complete all and must ignore some tasks, specific concurrent tasks, including that the solving people’s complaints to lead

to impact responding results negatively for citizen within regular time

- Lack of motivation labor force for this task

Lack of focusing on settling complaints has concentrated to not only employees, but also managers who had done this task concurrently and several civil servants have not adapted job requirement effectively In now, there is over haft of total eight (8) employees of Office who work concurrently, specific four (4) people including to an employee of Synthesis and planning department and three managers of Office

The reason was explained in detail above in regular time is not finished, need more time to solve The labor has been lack of motivation for this work with some reasons as:

According to Mr Trong, deputy of chief, revealed that he and his staff in

Synthesis and Planning department actually did not complete all works well, they must cover their main responsibility to support some expertise factors and concurrent works, including to have the solving people’s complaints though focusing meetings, hence, they did not have enough time to work, had to accept to lack of concentrating in

concurrent jobs And Mr Tam, other deputy of chief, admitted that sometimes he ignored this task in order to focus on his main responsibility According to Mrs Tram Anh, a staff, complained that she could not complete all concurrent tasks well because she has not time enough to do; furthermore, the office did not gain any benefits for concurrent tasks to lead to have no motivation herself to try to accomplish them And

Mr Kha, chief of Office, also admitted that there were not any funds of the Office to pay for concurrent tasks; beside that, working skills of three eighth (3/8) labor have not still adapted job requirements effectively

Sum of them, there are three (3) modified main issues to explain people’s

dissatisfaction for the solving their complaints These belong to labor force not only in office, but also in committee divisions However, this research only modified

weaknesses in internal Office, from that, other committee divisions can study and apply appropriating ways for their own Beside that, the reason Need more time to analysis and solve them must depend on the working results of the directions of

HCMC’s managers and other committee divisions of local state, therefore, the research will not modify more The weaknesses of internal Office are also impacted on quality

of responding results to lead to make dissatisfaction of citizen

1.2.4 The core problem:

- Firstly, the recruitment and rotation of personnel are carried out by the Department of Home Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City and district 8th, the Office does not select personnel actively with professional criteria Moreover, the training courses are conducted by two above units, and are trained common regulations, soft skills as communication, administrative writing, etc for the all departments of district 8th, sixteen (16) people’s committed of ward with the short time courses, only one to two (1-2) days, and have not specialized training courses intensively, especially for new comers; the training of Office is mainly old employees training to new employees and self – study

Mr Kha, chief of Office, shared that it is hardly to join the recruitment, rotation and training in the local state because they are depended totally on Department of Home Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City and district 8th, so, the trainings with some professional criteria for specific departments are hardly applied on; moreover, the time of training courses are always too short to transfer all necessary skills for Office’s labor

- Secondly, according to Decree number 108/2014/ND-CP dated 20th November,

2014 of the Government Regulation on personnel reduction is applied from 2015 to 2021 (9), number of civil servants have reduced to lead to be big barrier for reducing work overload of personnel Additional, job performances are increasingly demanding more quality by top of managers Therefore, the employees must work concurrently more and more Mr Kha, Chief of Office, shared that he might have high pressure to face with reducing labor force year by year while job requirements, performances were rising Mr Trong, deputy of Chief, also added that he used to propose to recruit more personnel to decrease working overload for his staffs, but it was not accepted because of this regulatory barrier

- Moreover, taking more benefits, bonuses in addition to salary for employees who work concurrent tasks is one of some difficulties because operational cost of Office has been clearly specified in terms of expenditure, it has been one of big barriers to improve working motivation for workers Mr Kha, Chief of Office, honestly shared that the office’s expenditure was also regulated, some employees have worked more tasks without benefits due to reducing labor force for several years (regulated in Decree number 108/2014/ND-CP dated 20th November, 2014 of the Government Regulation

on personnel reduction is applied from 2015 to 2021 (9)), and have taken extra tasks to

help elderly labors or labors who have not meet job requirements as manager’s expectations for some tasks

The recruitment, rotation, training and additional funding are really difficulties from current regular policies, papers which internal office has not been able to determine totally to improve labor’s abilities, skills of internal organization in order to meet job requirements as managers’ expectations Moreover, the facing to reduce labor force year

by year, working concurrently some tasks without benefits have made more working overload, and reduced working motivation for existing employees in internal organization who have still been working under pressures

1.2.4.2 The core problem:

From barriers of problems and three (3) initial problems with some specific issues which are identified above and related to human factor Labor force has most important within any organizations’ development P.Subba Rao (10, p5) cited that

“most of the problems of organization section are human and social rather than

physical, technical or economic; no industry can be rendered efficient so long as the basic fact remains unrecognized that it is principally human It is not a mass of

machine and technical processes but a body of men” Mr Nguyen Van Tham (11) gave some evaluations about some officials in public organizations that the responsibility, discipline organization are still weak, the working style of many officials has not

innovated, the spirit of servicing of people has not been improved; the bureaucracy, corruption, waste has not been prevented, fought off; and this is one of big barriers for administrative reform, has made the state agencies to do ineffectively

Based on big barriers are related to determination about labor force of

organization and finance which expend for bonus and benefits for some extra tasks to make to limit to internal organization, specific as:

The problem Current regulars, resources have not met legitimate needs of

people has been identified that it will modify more because the solutions of some cases are beyond jurisdiction of district 8th and depend on higher level state’s steers, policies, resources totally District 8th only responds each implementation progress which higher level state answered to residents For this issue, District 8th can not intervene actively, only urge and wait their feedbacks

Most of complex cases which relate to urban, repairing infrastructure factor need more time than regular time from 20 – 45 days to solve thoroughly because they must spend many regular steps to solve; from that, district 8th can not solve complaints thoroughly on time as regular time, the office can not respond results to people on time

Moreover, the working overload due to limitation about number of labor force but not recruit more, even facing to reduce labor force year by year as the current regulation while job requirement has been increasing to make high pressure for

employees to complete many tasks with limited regular time to respond people

Therefore, the office has encountered difficulties to improve it

There are no any funds to support extra tasks for employees to make barrier for employees improve work motivation to get job performance better and try to solve resident’s complaints on time

From that, the office can not improve actively some weaknesses for the

receiving and responding complaints of people, eliminated lack of sharing

information, communicating to the internal organization which can solve actively Depending on the importance, urgency, available local resources, and level on

consequence of problem if not resolved promptly, affect to satisfaction and trust of

residents for local government, this problem is important to need to resolve

Moreover, if this issue is solved immediately, then the above issues will also be

improved better

According to Ruck (is cited by Elise) (12, p10), internal organizational

communication is corporate level information made available to all staff, with viable opportunities for any staff member to provide carefully considered feedback to upper management Alessandra Mazzei (13, p221) stated that internal communication is defined as flow of communication among people within internal organization and

“relationship management and commitment building function”; and consists both formal and informal communication networks, which can potentially enhance or

inhibit the effectiveness of the organization And why good internal communication within an organization is important Research has suggested effective communication created an aura of information sharing (Slater is cited by Elise (12, p11)), rather than

feelings of isolation within the organization (Perlow & Williams is cited by Elise (12, p11))

Chauder (14) gave summarized information though following activities to understand communication as:

Monitoring Search for and understand a content

Collect, record and save of information Interpretation Provide the information with its intended

purpose Distribution Provide the information effectively according to

its value Sharing Understand the meaning of information by all

members of the team Realization Practical implementation and use the

information for setting of the processes and standards in the company

Table 5: Activities of communication

According by Hola (15, p34-35), the main objectives of internal communication and determining it can be summarized, such as:

Main objectives of internal

communication

Determine internal communication

- Information and motivation

connection

- Mutual understanding and

cooperation

- Forming desired working

positions (of performance and

- Consolidation of employees’

stability and loyalty (communication necessary for company activities coordination,

processing, standards, building of company culture)

- Set up of feedback

Table 6: main objects of internal communication

Work processing skills have not had consistent among staffs together, in some situations, they supported the top managers to steer to be wrong functions and tasks of committee divisions lead to waste working time to do again or get dissatisfactory results, extend time to answer residents, said Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, chief of Office

Moreover, there are no common link tools, system to collect necessary

information in internal organization, even between the office and committee divisions, wards in order to support effectively for their works is weakness to catch information quickly, accurately This weakness was also confirmed by all five (5) interviewees (is modified more in Appendix) Beside that, it is hard to detect, reduce some complaints have similar contents in order to decrease tracking information, decrease work

overload for employees, especially for personnel works concurrently, give the

feedback’s quality to be consistent among channels together

Additional, the benefit is unfair between employees of citizen reception

department and others, specific these employees who work this task professional have been supported some benefits (fund from People’s Committee of HCMC), but others are not while they (for employees work concurrently) must work some concurrent tasks to cause less motivation to work actively and make instability in the work

Last but not least, the behavior and attitudes for cooperation and

communication among civil servants in internal organization is not attention to make hardly sharing information According to Mr Tu, staff of Citizen reception

department, shared information had not allowed because it was not specified in any regular documents, texts Mrs Tram Anh, staff of Synthesis and planning department, said that cooperation, sharing informationonly happened if there was direction by the leader in the specific cases, but it was little And this weakness also shared with similar contents by two (2) deputies of Chief, Mr Trong and Mr Tam

Based on them, the Office lacks attention to the internal communication in the internal organization If this core problem is solved, the work overload, job

performance of employee will improve much Therefore, the identification about internal communication is accurate, urgent, and to need to do as quickly as possible

INITIAL CAUSE – EFFECT MAP:

Figure 1: Initial cause – effect map

Resident’s dissatisfaction

Duplicated messages

Negative feedbacks

Responding time

is not on appointment time

Responding results are not completed

Regular time is too short

LACK OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION

Responding results have not been unity among channels

Current regulars, resources have not met needs of people Working overload Regular time is too short

Current regulars, resources have not met needs of people Working overload

Lack of motivation of labor force

Lack of sharing information, communication to internal organization

Staffs’ abilities have not met expected job requirements

Lack of motivation of labor force

Working overload

CHAPTER II: PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION 2.1 The existence of problem

The difficulty in internal communication is big weakness to have existed in the Office for long time and it does not receive highlight attentions form the top leaders as other areas When asking the respondents indicate their level of agreement or

disagreement about importance of solving resident’s problem versus others subjects such as economy, education, urban, etc with five (5) point scale as 1 is strongly

agreement to 5 is strongly disagreement, after measurement, average point was

approximately 3.75 showed that this task is not to focus on deeply from officials

Based on operating regulations of channels, it is recognized that there are not any regulations about information coordination among channels together Mr Nguyen Nha Kha, chief of Office, admitted that up to now, three (3) departments of Office which received and tracked all complaints, problem of people of all channels worked independently with specific regulations, was lack of linking, communicating internal information in organization Mrs Tram Anh, staff of Synthesis and planning

department, the Office has not been any common tools to contain necessary data, responded information in all channels to collect, select, tracking in order to update information easily, quickly

According to Philip et al (16, p47), in order to manage people effectively needs

to require communication Its quality among people integrates an organizations and decides success of them (Hargie et al (17)) Alessandra Mazzei (13, p223) cited that Communication defined to be constructive and constitutive Additional, it provides a tool for corporate members to join reflective learning and develop in available

strengths, stated by Jones (18) Internal communication is enlaced to enterprise’s structure, environment, culture (Grunig, 1992) and it is “not only a crucial variable in relation to achieving organizational success, it is also a precursor for organizational existence as well” and manage understanding, workers, internal communication are identified as being tools enterprise survival and development (Philip et al (16, p47))

Besides in depth interview, the writer implements questionnaire with 5 survey questions for five (5) people to be related to something about the sharing, tracking, link information, knowledge, tasks among channels together and collected 100% of

responses Establish five (5) point scales are with from one to five to match points with “strongly agree”, “agree”, “neutral”, “disagree”, “strongly disagree” Based on measurement, the average rate was approximately 2.3 and concentrate on barrier to open communication, specific share information, knowledge among channels which implement solve resident’s problem at Office of People Committee with 1.5

2.2 The importance of the problem:

In any organizations, the internal communication has important roles, even determine the effectiveness of that organization and motivation of workers

According to Tony et al (19, p270), poor communication was one of main reasons to get negative feelings among organization’s employees together and some rumors speared out from that And Gray & Laidlaw, 2002; Bartoo & Sias, 2004;

Rosenfeld, Richman, & May, 2004; Zucker, 2002 were cited by Candace et al (20) to

be “Numerous studies have linked internal communication and the degree to which employees are informed to job satisfaction and performance” According to Ray

(1993), Hargie, Tourish, & Wilson cited by Judy Gray (21, p427), the organizational communication is poor, not to focus much on, specific satisfaction of employee

communication is low, will affect to both organization and individual as for

organization, reducing commitment of employee, increasing absenteeism, increasing disruption, rising employee turnover, decreasing productivity; for individual,

increasing riskiness about situations, the persona, others, or relationships, even career stress, and burnout

In the data, the weakness about internal information is current big problem in organization and its consequence has made negative indications for organization and the self of staffs and manager of Office, such as:

Lack of motivation and commitment, low job satisfaction, low job performance, increase working pressure of staffs and manager of Office

2.2.1 Lack of motivation and commitment of employees:

Labor has become the biggest asset to company The lack of commitment, inattentiveness and ineffectiveness of employees always risks the vitality of every business