Low organizational commitment at unitrade joint stock company

determined the remained issue of the company recently : low level of commitment at Unitrade Joint Stock Company.. 1.3.3 Justify the importance of the problem The low level of organizati

International School of Business

-

Nguyen Huynh Hoai Binh

UNITRADE JOINT STOCK COMPANY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – 2016

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Nguyen Huynh Hoai Binh

UNITRADE JOINT STOCK COMPANY

ID: 22 12 00 04

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Supervisor: Le Nhat Hanh

Ho Chi Minh City – 2016

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 7

Chapter 1: Problem Identification 8

1.1 Company background 8

1.2 Background of problem 9

1.2.1 Symptoms 9

1.2.2 Possible problems 9

1.3 Problem Justification 12

1.3.1 Problem definition 12

1.3.2 Justify the existence of the problem 13

1.3.3 Justify the importance of the problem 14

High Turnover Rate 14

Ineffective Performance of Employees 15

Employee Absenteeism 16

1.4 Potential causes of the problem 18

1.4.1 Organizational Policies 18

1.4.2 Compensation & Benefits 19

1.4.3 Job satisfaction 19

1.4.4 Supervisory Support 20

1.4.5 Working environment 21

1.4.6 Training and career development 21

Initial Causes And Effect Map 23

1.5 Causes validation 24

1.5.1 Training and career development 24

1.5.2 Organizational policies & Compensation 25

1.5.3 Working environment & Supervisory Support 26

1.5.4 Job Satisfaction 26

2.1 Alternative Solutions 28

2.1.1 Dismissal and Recruitment 28

2.1.2 Team Building 29

2.1.3 Workplace Training 30

2.2 Solution Comparison 31

2.3 Recommendations 33

Chapter 3: Action Plan 35

Conclusion 42

Supporting Information 43

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaire of problem existence: 43

Appendix 2: Results of survey questionnaire of problem existence: 45

Appendix 3: Open questions for problem existence 46

Appendix 4: Interview transcript for problem existence 47

Appendix 5: Survey questionnaire of problem potential causes: 51

Appendix 6: Open questions for the causes of the problem: 54

Appendix 7: Focus group data on causes justification and recommendations 55

Appendix 9: Detailed Implementation Plan 58

REFERENCES 59

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1: The overall Turnover rate in year 2013 and 2014……….14 Table 2: Initial causes and effect map……… 23 Table 3: The comparison between solutions: training, teamwork and recruitment……….32 Table 4: The action timeline and objects for the project……….35 Table 5: The cost and budget for the solution……….40

ACKNOWLEDMENT

I would like to extend the warmest thanks and debt of gratitude to the following people who have truly made vital contribution to the completion of this dissertation Indeed, without them I definitely would not have written this paper

Firstly, I would like to express my truthful thanks to my advisor, Ms Le Nhat Hanh for her kindly guidance and deeply encouragement from the beginning to the

ending

Secondly, special thanks to Ms My Anh, Ms Tran Lan, Ms Anh Van, Ms Thanh Huynh, Mr Thu Nguyen for their valuable and precisely information during the

information collection period and in-depth interviews at the Unitrade Company

Last but not least, big thank you to all of my family’s members and my close friends who made precious contributions I hope to receive more support from all of them

in the future

Executive Summary

Unitrade is one of leading companies supplying environment processing equipments in the entire Vietnam However, in a high competitive market and due to economic crisis, nowadays Unitrade had to face to some serious problems According to the recent report of the company, a large number of sales staff of the Company is laid off and if this lasts for long, it will affect development strategies and cause big losses for the company in the long term Hence this thesis studies the issue of low commitment of employees with the company at Unitrade; this issue has recently become more serious because of its large role in competitive advantage among companies So, this project will seek for an appropriate solution based on the literature and the actual situation in the Company to resolve the ongoing problems After collecting data, studying theoretical sources, the author have identified the main cause of problems is lacking of training and career development program Data from these interviews has helped the author propose

03 appropriate solutions to solve the above problem: Training program, dismissal and recruitment and building team work Through the analysis and evaluation phase, a most effective solution is training program would be selected to assist the enterprise to overcome the problem of human loss

Chapter 1: Problem Identification 1.1 Company background

Unitrade Joint Stock Company was established in 2000, operates mainly in the area of supplying medical and environment processing equipment Since 2005, the company has become the exclusive partner of Chi Sun, Shinmaya and Graatech to supply its products

in Vietnam Their customers are various ranging from universities, research institutes, physiochemical laboratories to hospitals, manufacturing firms, restaurants, hotels, and civil works We also consult and offer European brand-new products to customers Performance of after-sales services includes: instructions for use, package installation, equipment guarantee and maintenance These services are implemented with assistances

of the firms from accessories supply, technical advice, specialistic training to complex installation together with foreign experts The company is operated according to ability and qualification of experienced staff, who are approached to modern technologies from many developed countries Their mission is to bring high quality units and professional services of technical supports Over the past 15 years of operation and development, Unitrade has become one of leading companies supplying environment processing equipments in the entire Vietnam Unitrade with its head office located in Ho Chi Minh City has developed strongly workforce with more than 40 staffs and 3 members of Board

of Directors (BOD) Their products are widely distributed to almost all provinces of VietNam

1.2 Background of problem

1.2.1 Symptoms

Nowadays, high competitive market and high inflation which led to a significant VND depreciation Prices have been soaring and inflation is getting worse, at the same time, the stock exchange is going down, causing a negative effect on consumer purchasing power So it had caused quite a great deal of difficulty in searching for new customers which then made the sales goal targeted by the company at the end of 2014 unaccomplished In addition, the real estate market totally frozen in 2004 which has significantly increased bad debt ratio of banks Since borrowing from banks got more difficult, Unitrade had to cut down operation cost and readjust the personnel which have decreased greatly the revenues of the company since the end of 2004 Hence, the company had to seek for appropriate approach to continue its operation and carry out some cut-down policies such as Top sales of the year, reducing rates of salary increase, holiday leaving policy, etc which affected directly a large party of the company staff, especially Sales department Under that bad circumstance, the number of staff quitting job increased dramatically These staffs were prone to leave and seek for better opportunities in other companies rather than staying and resolving remained problems together with the company during the tough time

1.2.2 Possible problems

The brief interview with Mr Minh Do, Sales supervisor, revealed that there might

be some possible causes that leads to the aforementioned symptoms

The first tentative problem is the prolonged economic crisis has made companies affected Unitrade also faced many important issues such as reducing profits and difficulty in finding new customers Economic crisis has taken the bad effect on domestic market As the result, the buying power decreased Besides, due to the freezing of real estate and the stock market as the business lasted very careful in spending According to

Ms Thanh Nguyen – Business manager: Because of the increase in bad debt ratio, banks tightened lending policies In addition, companies met many difficulties in raising capital because of the high borrowing interest rate With the current economic situation, not only the finding new customers but also the maintaining of the loyal customers are the big challenge for Unitrate

The second tentative problem is the competitive rate among companies in the same industry is very high According to Ms Huong Le – Sales Department, in the market, many companies have large capital, they can storage a large number of product, and as a result, their price is always cheaper than general price In addition, many foreign companies began investing in Vietnam with the strength of the good quality and diversity

of products, after sales service and maintenance are also much more professional than domestic companies, thus providing customers have more choice Unitrade, has been struggling in finding potential customers These competitors have made Unitrade improve service quality and product diversification, and investing more on the after-sales service and customer care

The third tentative problem is difficulties in human resources Sales team is a very important force in the company, which is one of the main factors contributing to the

success or failure of the enterprise According to data reported by the HR department, the proportion of staff quit in 2013, 2014, 2015, respectively 8%, 21% and 27% The company's leaders were really worried because if this situation extended, it will led to incalculable dangers for companies In addition, through the interview, Board of Directors of Unitrade said they received a lot of complaints about the attitude of the staffs, the staffs seem to not really care about their jobs That made the work delayed and resultant revenue was not as expected On the side of the staffs, it has been disclosed that the remuneration policy of the company is not really fair; the management board needs to listen to the opinions of employees Employees in the company feel unmotivated and have no excitement in working That is the cause of the high drop-out rates as recently Thus it is very difficult for the company to keep the loyalty of employees and as a consequence the profit from the business of the company was very low Since the above symptom is not good for the company in the long term It is necessary to looking for the underneath problem that causes those bad condition of the company According to the literature review, that phenomenon might reflect the low level commitment of employees

Due to the limitations of time, cost and accountability, low commitment of employees with the company was chosen as the main issue of this essay Solving this problem will not only reduce the incidence of staff quit, but also promote work motivation of employees, management support to overcome current difficulties and continue to grow the company

1.3 Problem Justification

1.3.1 Problem definition

Organizational commitment has been defined by Mowday, Porter, and Steers (2013) :

“an identification with the goal’s and values of the organization, a desire to belong to the organization and a willingness to display effort on behalf of the organization” According to Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, and Topolnytsky (2002) commitment has three components including affective commitment (i.e., individuals want to be

attached to the organization, because they fell their goals and values are similar with the organization); continuance commitment (i.e.,individuals feel they need to be attached to the organization, because they aware the cost associated with leaving the organization); and normative commitment (i.e., individuals feel they ought to remain with the organization, which is guided by sense of duty, obligation and loyalty toward the organization) Differentiating from engagement, organizational commitment refers to a person’s attitude and attachment towards their organization (Saks, 2006)

In addition, the commitment related literature by Porter et al (1979) implies that

employee performance and job satisfaction are intensely interrelated to the

satisfaction of employee needs in term of economic and non-economic

1.3.2 Justify the existence of the problem

In order to measure the staff’s commitment to the company, I adopted the scale to measure commitment from Mowday et al (1979) for interviewing 10 staffs and 30 questionnaires were sent out Questions were designed to ask for the staff’s opinions about their job, commitment to the company; future career orientation, motivations of development, and the detailed questionnaires and questions of the interviews were attached in the appendix

The questionnaire comprised of 24 questions and 8 multiple questions for affective commitment, 8 multiple questions for continuance commitment and 8 multiple questions for normative commitment All questions was scored on the 5 point rating scale ranging from 1 (not agree) to 5 ( totally agree) the average result was 2.1 Meanwhile, when I conducted the interview with 30 questionnaires from Nhat Anh Company, the direct competitor with Unitrade, the average result was 3.9 which indicated the alarming low commitment of the Unitrade staffs It means the staffs were not really interested in their job and performed the job at the minimal level, avoiding extra working as best as possible Besides, the interview was conducted to hear the staff’s thoughts and feelings about the company Most of them were tired of work pressure, unsatisfied with remuneration policies, and working environment of the company, as well as lacked of motivations to develop in career Nine out of ten interviewees reported that they would quit their job upon encountering a better job opportunity The outcome of the interview

determined the remained issue of the company recently : low level of commitment at Unitrade Joint Stock Company

1.3.3 Justify the importance of the problem

The low level of organizational commitment has an negative effect on the performance

of employee and the productivity of the company The following section is to identify the importance of the existing problem at Unitrade

High Turnover Rate

Turn over refers to the cessation of membership in an organization by an individual who received monetary compensation from that organization Turnover is often categorized as voluntary or involuntary Voluntary turnover is turnover initiated by the employee such as quitting or resigning Involuntary turnover is initiated by the organization or by circumstances which were beyond the control of either the employee

or the organization Involuntary turnover includes dismissal, layoff, retirement, disability and death (Rose,1991)

Shuck and Wollard (2010) stated that the lower level of employee engagement was more likely to report the higher level of intention to turnover In addition, Carmeli and Weisberg (2006) claimed that the turnover is the consider of an individual about the probability that they will quit their organization in the near future In Unitrade in 2014 and a half of 2015, the turnover rate was over 21%, while that of 2013 was only 8% In fact, this number is considers as a high turnover ratio for a environmental equipment supplier in Vietnam since the average turnover ratio in 2014 is approximately 10%

Year 2013 2014

2015 (first 6 months)

Ineffective Performance of Employees

Borman & Motowidlo (1993) defined that job performance is the aggregated value that employee concentrate both directly and indirectly to organizational goals Mone & London (2010) suggest that upon improving performance management, organizations can create and sustain high levels of employee engagement, and thereby higher levels of performance According to Anitha (2014): “ employee performance indicates the financial or non-financial outcome of employee” In addition, Macey (2009) stated that it

is often recognized that commitment is predictive of employee outcomes, success and financial performance of organizations

Head of Sales Department of Unitrade emphasized that recently the performance quality has decreased dramatically Her staffs frequently submitted unsatisfactory reports and she had to spend time on checking and modifying before such reports reached customers’ hands In addition, the staffs usually handled their job at a slow progress resulting in the increasing overdue projects Previously, the company did not get many complaints from customers Nevertheless, according to a statistics of the company, in

2014 the complaints from customers rose by 39% comparing to that of 2013 The complaints were mainly about the attitudes and working manner of the sales staffs

Moreover, she also found that the number of staff distracting from their job was increasing A significant part of the staff, especially those being new employees usually spent working time on personal matters such as surfing the Internet, and logging on social pages, or reading online publications while others shopping online Once having free time, her staffs usually chit-chatted about personal matters of life instead searching for knowledge, improving necessary skills in work, or learning about experiences in dealing with customers from each other According to the statistics of IT Department, more than 65% of the company staff spent one to two hours a day on the Internet and personal matters This led to the worryingly decreased work performance

Employee Absenteeism

Voluntary absenteeism is pervasive across organizations, its costs to organizations are exorbitant ( Steers & Rhodes,1984) Absenteeism appears very simple on the surface but is actually a very complex area of study There is consensus among researchers that

there are two types of absenteeism: involuntary and voluntary ( Landau,1981) Herzberg (1993) suggested that absenteeism was a precursor to turnover Hill and Trist (1955) found that absenteeism was an alternative form of withdrawal behavior

Hackett and Guion (1985) suggested that voluntary absenteeism implied volition, or

an individual’s making a conscious choice whether to attend work on any given day They found that one’s decision to be absent from work may result from consideration of the costs and benefits of missing work on any given day Steer & Rhodes (1978) found that the expectancy-based issue was the key to understanding voluntary absenteeism And Fichman (1988) stated that people may have attitudes about absenteeism and that absenteeism may reflect a choice to pursue activities with greater subjective utility outside the workplace

In Unitrade, in accordance with the report of HR Department, over the past one year, the number of staffs going to work late or applying for leave due to personal reasons has increased greatly Especially, the figure reached 65% and 73% respectively in May and June of 2015 Although staffs of HR Department made frequent reminds via email, the situation was not improved The Department also proposed some solutions to improving the situation

In summary, it is proposed that low level of organizational commitment at Unitrade

is related to three major organizational outcomes: high level of turnover intention, low employee performance and employee absenteeism Hence, keeping sustainable development and advancing the quality are the overall goals of the company In order to accomplish those goals, the commitment of the staff to the company must be enhanced

Therefore, to develop the company outcome and productivity as well as completed the next 5 years strategy, it is necessary to increase the commitment of employees

1.4 Potential causes of the problem

Based on the review of literature, there are numerous factors that would causes the problem, the factors can be generally categorized as reward and recognition programs, employee empowerment, perceived organizational, supervisor support, training and career development

However, through the brief discussion with the Sales Manager, there are six potential causes of low commitment at Unitrade including organizational policies, compensation and benefits, job satisfaction, supervisory support, working environment, training and career development The following sections will present the conceptual knowledge for those causes:

1.4.1 Organizational Policies

According to Diamond (1992) specific organizational policies may represent a particularly salient target for employee commitment through their structured coursed of action that serve to focus and crystallize employees’ thinking and behavior Rao and Miller (1971) believed organizational policies are specific elements of the work environment that directly impact employees’ daily work activities, their interactions with coworkers, and their employer-employee relationship As explicit articulations of implicit credos ( actual or intended), organizational policies embody corporate values that guide the decision-making of managers and supervisor and shape employee’s work

experiences, immediately affecting their behaviors, work relationships, compensation, and sense of security ( Magjuka and Baldwin,1991)

1.4.2 Compensation & Benefits

Different people interpret compensation differently (Baldwin et al.,1991) In this paper compensation, reward, recognition, and wages are term used in different situations (Zoba,1998) The compensation is defined by American Association is “ cash and non-cash remuneration provided by the employer for services rendered” (ACA, p.9) The compensation includes salary and wages, bonuses, benefits, prerequisites, stock options, vacations, etc

Compensation is very valuable tool for retention and turnover (Chiu et al., 2002) Compensation also shapes the culture of an organization Culture may be individualistic

or collectivistic; it depends upon the organizational characteristics and members of the organization (Kuhun,2009; Zobal,1998) Compensation is one of the most important tools for attracting and retaining employees (Chiu et al., 2002) It is used to attract the potential candidates, because applicants want to be aware of it while applying for vacancy ( Mocarz et al., 2009) Those organizations which have a high-wage system will have better recruitment and retention of employees as compare to others Employee can switch

if gets better opportunity in the external environment ( Mocarz et al., 2009)

1.4.3 Job satisfaction

As job satisfaction is a major concern for the organizational research, organizational performance and employee satisfaction are also the key components which are effected

by this (Willem et al.,2007) What employee feels and perceived about its job and what are their experiences on work, do they feel positive or negative about job, this all relates

to job satisfaction (Kim, 2005) Job satisfaction is the extent to which the employees is satisfied with his present work due to how many his needs and wants satisfied ( Finn, 2001)

Job satisfaction and dissatisfaction not only depends on the nature of the job, it also depend on the expectation what’s the job supply to an employee (Holland et al., 2007) Lower convenience costs, higher organizational and social and intrinsic reward will increase job satisfaction ( Willem et al., 2007) If employees are more satisfied with their job it will enhance their ability of creativity and productivity, it is also directly correlated with the customer satisfaction ( AL-Hussami,2008) In the past much of work has already been done by the researchers on the organizational commitment and the job satisfaction and they also developed the relationship between job satisfaction and the organizational commitment ( Yang, 2009)

1.4.4 Supervisory Support

When a supervisor provides mentoring, the relationship affects the skill development and intentions to remain with the employer ( Meyer & Allen, 1991) On the other hand non-supervisory mentor may increase mentee’s confidence by providing access to outside organization (Scandura and William, 2004) The immediate supervisor support of supervisor is very important in organizational change Although the support of supervisor is not very crucial in satisfaction but it have positive impact on satisfaction

(Griffin, Patterson & West, 2001) Supervisors also exchange the positional resources with the subordinate which include material and non-material things (Golden & Veiga, 2008) In organizing the working environment supervisor is a crucial component to pass

on the information to the employees (Patterson, Griffin, West, 2001)

1.4.5 Working environment

The physical workplace environment affects the worker satisfaction, productivity and well-being (Carlopio and Gardner, 1995) Understanding how different office workers perceive their working environment helps in creating better places for work This

is a challenge as different individuals have different - sometimes even contradictory -

workplace related preferences ( Rothe et al , 2011) Further, the type of work carried out

also influences how the workplace should be designed Creating a working environment that supports this kind of work is important, but the research done in the

field is limited (Rasila et al,2011) Miles (2001) show that employee engagement is the

result of various aspects of the workplace Deci (1987) stipulate that management which foster a supportive working environment typically displays concern for employee’s needs and feelings, provides positive feedback and encourages them to voice their concerns, to

develop new skills and to solve work-related problems

1.4.6 Training and career development

Training and development program utilized by organizations has an effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment of the employees (Meyer & Allen, 1991) Training has been defined as providing a significantly role to the organization

effectiveness (Schuler & Mac Millan, 1984) An inadequate research has established in Malaysia ( Ahmad & Bakar, 2003) found a positive connection between training and organization commitment and negative turnover intentions

A research on US health care exposed positive relationship between training and effective organizational commitment ( Bartlett, 2001) To observe the effectiveness of training, it has recommended to directly examining its correlation with organizational commitment Training must design in a way that achieves organizational commitment (Lang, 1992) Organizational commitment appears more significant in cultures and industries where employees increase high levels of self-interest that might increase thinking to leave one organization and join another ( Beyer, 1990)

Initial Causes And Effect Map

Based on the consequences and potential causes of low level of commitment at Unitrade, the causes-and-effect map can be described as follow:

Organizational Policies

( Magjuka & Baldwin,1991)

High Turnover Rate

Rose (1991),Shuck &

Wollard (2010)

Compensation

( Mocarz et al., 2009)

Low level of organization commitment

Training & Career Development

(Schuler & Mac Millan, 1984)

1.5 Causes validation

In general, those who were interviewed have mentioned the various causes of the weak commitment of the company and its employees This section of the thesis will justify the most important factors affecting the main issue

1.5.1 Training and career development

Most of the interviewees believed that the employees’ working insufficiency under high and prolonged working pressure and stress leading to the severance is mainly resulted from the fact that these employees have not been adequately trained Based on the survey questionnaire of the problem potential causes in appendix 5, it comes up with several sales related problems; for example, the turnover targeted for each individual is often too high whereas the company has not given the appropriate development strategy Besides, when I extended my interview to the company’s leaders, they acknowledged that currently, the sales staff of the company has been facing several obstacles on some necessary skills, including their weak communication and negotiation skills, little expansion of cooperation and relationship with potential customers and partners Meanwhile, the company’s sales team has not been flexible and sensitive to the requirements of the customers and able to capture the customer sentiment toward the company's products Another important thing is that these Unitrade staff with their product knowledge, strengths and weaknesses as compared to the company’s competitors has just provided the customers with advices and consultancies, but the buyers are not fully persuaded Furthermore, it is the fact that the salespeople should demonstrate their

capacity through their achievements and turnover, as well as they are required to be able

to withdrawn and overcome the high pressure with the strong-mindedness While the official sales staff of Unitrade at the moment, after two month of probation, is facing various challenges and obstacles due to their lack of basic skills

1.5.2 Organizational policies & Compensation

This is one of the key issues affecting employees’ loyalty to the company When beginning the work, one question always arises how much you will get paid and in addition to salary, what about other benefits? Such as the supports in terms of social welfare, financial support, tours in the year If the Company has the general salary rates higher than that of rival companies, it will be an advantage to attract good employees Employees will feel secure to work and dedicate if they feel financially guaranteed In addition, the company's policies such as health care, promotion, or other welfare policies have also greatly affected the decision on staying or leaving of staff Especially, Unitrade has the policy on reward and commendation for sales: based on the business results, the Company has policies on rewarding individuals or groups for achievements or initiatives

in production and business activities; rewards are calculated and paid immediately into the salary Also, at the end of each fiscal year, based on the results of business operations, the Company will have the reward policy based on the degree of completion of individual indicators which are evaluated monthly Most interviewed employees admit that their salary and bonus in Unitrade are fairly and they live quite comfortably with the salary and benefits they get from the Company

1.5.3 Working environment & Supervisory Support

Since December 2014, Unitrade has moved to new headquarters with the spacious office and comfortable with upgraded facilities, most employees feel comfortable in this new working environment In addition, the Board of Directors has regularly exchanged comments with staff about plans and objectives of the Company, encouraging employees

to propose ideas, working more efficiently with merit, reward, giving employees the quality working environment Besides, the Management Board should support staff in challenging works requiring expertise And employees should be treated fairly and have confidence in their careers Ms Phuong Quynh also shared about important and necessary factors for a business, that is the sustainable cohesion She feels that if she finds the enthusiasm, passion and job loving in the staff but without the long-term commitment elements, it will be a great concern for the Company

1.5.4 Job Satisfaction

Most of the staff are not really satisfied with their current jobs The main reasons they give are that works require too high pressure, demanding customers, high competition with rivals in finding new customers and retaining existing customers “Sales staff is like an engine operating with many features and remarkable endurance” Thanh Phuong Bui said This happens because the introduction of the company’s products to customers has to undergo a lot of preparation steps For example, after finding potential customers, each seller will send the fax to customers If he receives the reply, he will propose an appointment, but this is very rare Therefore, the sellers often come and talk

with customers directly According to Mr.Tuan, Sales Supervisor of Unitrade, skills and spirits of sales staff are that they can meet the tough demands of our customers and make customers happy and very few current staff of Unitrade can do this Sales staff is often confused when customers question, leading to the loss of confidence In addition, the sales staff must be patient, hard-working, not think in the way “the customer is not there, another customer will be.” So, sales staff should be equipped with knowledge, learning experiences, improve and know how to refresh themselves, refresh ways of approaching customers, improving foreign language, classes on customer sentiment

Overall, current existing problem is the fact that sales staff lack of sale skilled or their skill failing to meet the high demands of the job, especially the soft skills such as customer negotiation skills, problem-solving skills These interviewed employees were very happy if thay have chance to joint training course which suited for their capacity and occupation Besides, the remuneration of sales employees have not been reasonable, the satisfaction of their work at a low level That makes employees feel unmotivated, distracted while working and leave the company

Chapter 2: Alternative solution analysis

Based on the most important factors causing weak commitment between employees with Unitrade, it is because staffs have not been adequately trained, leading to the fact that staff lacks of skills

2.1 Alternative Solutions

After referring to documents, combining interviews of staff and leadership, I hereby propose three suggestions to address key issues that the company is facing

2.1.1 Dismissal and Recruitment

Recruitment encompasses all organizational practices which may affect the number and quality of individuals who are attracted to particular job openings (Rynes, 1991) Recruitment activities are “the specific tasks, procedures, and actions undertaken for purposes of recruitment” (Barber, 1998) For works with high pressure, the organization can increase the number of recruited staff to reduce the load for each individual Specifically, if it could double the number of sales staff, then the sales of each staff will

be reduced down to half If the quality of recruited staff has good quality, then this staff will accomplish goals brilliantly This option can create professional development of individuals with the talent and experience

Because personal achievements are also associated with achievements of the Company; good employees will constantly improve their working performance, and they are really dedicated to the development of the enterprise

2.1.2 Team Building

A wide variety of team building models exist Duller (1986) stated: A planned series of meetings facilitated by a third party consultant, with a group of people having common organizational relationships and goals that is designed specifically to improve the team's task accomplishment by developing problem solving procedures and skills and then solving the team's major problems Liebowitz and De Meuse (1982) presented a similar definition of team building: A long-term, data-based intervention in which intact work groups experientially learn, by examining their structures, purposes, norms, values, and interpersonal dynamics, to increase their skills for effective teamwork It is a direct attempt to assist the group in becoming more adept at identifying, diagnosing, and solving its own problems Building teamwork will help Unitrade’s sales team work more efficiently Company leaders insist on direct training middle managers and staff in the Sales department by adopting new policies One of the challenges is how to make managers distinguish between levels of good, bad or average

The main problems of building teamwork are that Unitrade should assign each group with an excellent leader who will lead and guide the team towards completing targeted objectives The benefits of building groups are that: mobilizing the power of wisdom, experience, strength, time to solve the tasks, creating the sharing, inspiration, motivation and boosting the creation in working, effective trust of working, enhancing the sharing of works, always ready to react to changes and and risks

2.1.3 Workplace Training

Workplace Training is “ a set of planned activities on the part of an organization to increase the job knowledge and skills or to modify the attitudes and social behavior of its members in ways consistent with the requirements of the job” ( Landy and Conte,2009) The career development is the process which helps individuals to get information about their skills, identify their career goals and involve themselves in career activities and techniques in order to achieve career goals ( Mayo,1991) Sales staff at Unitrade has not had a suitable training program For example, newly recruited employees will be introduced to the departments and the works they will do, to the direct guiding person and for two months of probation, all will depend on the instructor In addition, the sales staff himself must seek for new customers because the list of current customers are managed

by existing employees The staff has not been trained to handle specific situations with customers: in case customers are so strick demanding certificate of origin and certificate

of quality, terms of the purchase contract

- Knowing how to guide customers to use products, guide customers

troubleshoot common issues, advantages and disadvantages of the products compared with similar products

Increasing ability to persuade customers to use its products

- Understanding the needs and mentality of

discerning customers to serve customers, and when customers feel satisfied, they will stick with the company

Providing employees with practical

knowledge and ways of handling situations with customers

- Increasing opportunities to practice, contact with the

customers, having the opportunities to promote the company as well as its products

- Increasing competitive opportunities, increasing number of signed

contracts, having the opportunities to achieve the targeted revenue

- Replacing the former employees of no experiences with good staff

- Re-training from the basic knowledge of sales skills

- Being to create a sales team which works efficiently and has more experiences than the old team

User

requirements

- Because a lot of sales staff lack of knowledge about their own products

The most important thing is to establish effective teamwork

- Unitrade shall enhance the recruitment of staff who has extensive