Low employee work motivation: a case of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd

Customers leaving South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd is mainly due to dissatisfaction with service quality that the company provided, in specific, inaccuracy in preparing accounting reports..

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Pham Thi Thuy Trang

LOW EMPLOYEE WORK

MOTIVATION: A CASE OF SOUTH

TAX CONSULTING CO., LTD

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Pham Thi Thuy Trang

LOW EMPLOYEE WORK MOTIVATION: A CASE OF SOUTH

TAX CONSULTING CO., LTD

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: ASSOC PROF DR NGUYEN THI MAI TRANG

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019

Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 4

LIST OF TABLES 5

LIST OF FIGURES 5

1 Company introduction 7

1.1 Company background 7

1.2 Business performance 10

2 Symptoms 13

3 Problem analysis 18

3.1 Problem identification 18

3.1.1 Initial cause and effect map 19

3.1.2 Potential problems 24

3.1.2.1 Work overload 24

3.1.2.2 Employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability 25

3.1.2.3 Insufficient supervisor support 26

3.1.2.4 Low employee work motivation 26

3.1.3 Updated cause and effect map 28

3.1.4 Updated possible problems 29

3.1.4.1 Work overload 29

3.1.4.2 Employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability 31

3.1.4.3 Insufficient supervisor support 33

3.1.4.4 Low employee work motivation 34

3.2 Problem validation 36

4 Main problem definition and consequences 38

4.1 Main problem definition 38

4.2 Main problem consequences 39

5 Cause analysis 41

5.1 Potential causes 41

5.1.1 No appreciation for job well done 42

5.1.1.1 No performance appraisal system 42

5.1.1.2 No compliment from manager for outstanding employee 43

5.1.2 No promotion and career advancement for current employee 44

5.1.2.1 Unqualified for mid level supervisor position 44

5.1.2.2 Insufficient trust from manager 45

5.1.3 Unpleasant work space 45

5.1.3.1 Poorly equipped office 46

5.1.3.2 Poorly designed office 47

5.1.3.3 Working office impacted by so much noise 48

5.2 Cause validation 50

6 Alternative solutions 52

6.1 Alternative solution 1: Investing in necessary equipment for working 52

6.2 Alternative solution 2: Redecorating the current office 54

6.3 Alternative solution 3: Renting new office 55

6.4 Solution justification 57

7 Change plan design 59

7.1 Objectives 59

7.2 Targeted outcomes 59

7.3 Action plan implementation 60

8 Conclusion 62

9 Supporting information 63

9.1 Methodology 63

9.2 Interview guide 63

9.3 Transcripts 64

References 81

Appendix 90

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Recently, the financial statement of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd has experienced a drop in revenue This circumstance is mostly impacted by increasing in number of defection customers Customers leaving South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd is mainly due

to dissatisfaction with service quality that the company provided, in specific, inaccuracy in preparing accounting reports In order to discover the issues that South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd is facing with, meeting with CEO of the company as well as interviewing relevant employee in accounting department and defection customers in

2018 has been implemented

Through interviewing relevant subjects, using data provided by the company and using related theory, main problem was identified as low employee work motivation Towards main problem of low employee work motivation, three potential causes have been found out are no appreciation for job well done, no promotion and career advancement for current employee and unpleasant work space After analysis, main cause that chosen to solve is unpleasant work space This study will focus on solution

to solve this cause in order to help the company improve business performance

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I sincerely thank ISB for giving me useful knowledge which possibly applies

to my study as well as support during the time of thesis Secondly, I would like to express my gratitude to my Supervisor - Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Mai Trang who has supported me during the time doing this thesis Without the guidance and support from Supervisor, my thesis can not be completed promptly Thirdly, I am also grateful

to members of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd who showed patient and support to help

me prepare this thesis Finally, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to

my family members for sympathizing and encouraging me to complete my Master program

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Fundamental information about competitors of South Tax Consulting Co.,

Ltd – March 2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Table 2 Categories of service provided by South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March

2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Table 3 Revenue in each group of customer at South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd in

2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Table 4 Fluctuation in number of micro trading customer of South Tax Consulting

Co., Ltd in the period of 2014 - 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

Table 5 Details about cases that inaccurate in tax reports in micro trading group –

announced by tax authority in 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

Table 6 Number of customers in each accountant‟s portfolio at STC in 2018

(Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Table 7 Measurement of average time to complete main task for accountant in

South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: Author synthesis) Table 8 Details about experience of accountants in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd

– March 2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Table 9 Assessment of knowledge, skill and ability of accountants in South Tax

Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: Author synthesis) Table 10 Measurement of average time to complete main task for manager in South

Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: Author synthesis) Table 11 Assessment of motivation of accountants in South Tax Consulting Co.,

Ltd (Source: Author synthesis) Table 12 Fluctuation in number of customers at South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd in

2014 – 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Table 13 Assessment for “Poorly equipped office” (Author synthesis)

Table 14 Assessment for “Poorly designed office” (Author synthesis)

Table 15 Assessment for working environment in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd

(Author synthesis) Table 16 Costs for alternative solution 1 (Author synthesis)

Table 17 Cost for alternative solution 2 (Author synthesis)

Table 18 Cost for renting – alternative solution 3 (Author synthesis)

Table 19 Costs for office decoration – alternative solution (Author synthesis)

Table 20 Costs for best solution (Author synthesis)

Table 21 Action plan (Author synthesis)

Table 22 Detailed description and objective for specific task (Author synthesis)

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Company structure of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March 2019

(Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Figure 2 Number of customers in each group of business of South Tax Consulting

Co., Ltd at the end of 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

Figure 3: Process in accounting service of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March

2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Figure 4 Revenue and profit from 2014 to 2018 of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd

(Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Figure 5 Revenue in each group of customer of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd in

2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Figure 6 The revenue growth rate of micro trading customers at South Tax

Consulting Co., Ltd from 2015 to 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

Figure 7 Number of micro trading customers at the year end in the period of 2014 –

2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Figure 8: Initial cause and effect map (Author synthesis)

Figure 9 Updated cause and effect map (Author synthesis)

Figure 10 The growth rate of revenue from 2015 to 2018 of South Tax Consulting

Co., Ltd (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd) Figure 11 Fish bone diagram of main problem in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd

(Author synthesis) Figure 12 Final cause and effect map (Author synthesis)

Figure 13 Gantt-chart for action plan (Author synthesis)

1 Company introduction

1.1 Company background

South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (STC) was established in July 2011 The company is located in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City The firm‟s business is providing accounting service for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Phu Nhuan District CEO of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd is Mr Vuong who has over 10 years experience in accounting service area The structure of the company is simple It has

11 employees, in specific, 10 people in Accouting department (4 senior employees including 2 employees with more than 3 years experience and 2 employees with more than 2 years experience and 6 junior employees under 1 year up to 1 year experience) and 1 delivery man The responsibility of Mr Vuong – CEO is general management, developing new customers (as sales employee role), taking care of existing customers and supervising for accounting department Accountants are responsible for directly serving the accounting service to customers and delivery man is responsible for receiving – delivering accounting documents between the company and customers Company structure is presented as following

Figure 1 Company structure of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March 2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

Up to the end of 2018, STC has got 182 customers In terms of customer‟s business area, they have 4 groups of customer, such as service, manufacturing, construction and trading In terms of customer size, they have 3 groups of customer, such as customers who have under 10 billion VND in revenue per year, customers who have 10 up to 50 billion VND in revenue per year and customers who have over 50 billion VND in

revenue per year At the end of 2018, the main group of customer of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd are the corporates which run business in trading and have the size under 10 billion VND per year in revenue (counted for 65/182 customers of the company) According to Clause 1, Article 6 of Decree 39/2018/ND-CP on 11 March

2018 about Determining Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, this group of customer

is determining as micro enterprises Thus the main group of customers of STC is micro

2018, thus it takes a trivial part of market share of this area in Ho Chi Minh City Accounting service providers in Phu Nhuan District do not have big difference in service as well as price offering to customers As responses of Mr Vuong, he recognized 3 companies as his company‟s competitors in the area of Phu Nhuan

District These corporates provides the same service to customers and the price of service that they offer to customers are equivalent to each others In the aspect of company size, their revenue in 2018 is around 3.3 – 5 billion VND In details:

establishing

Revenue in 2018 (VND) - in rounded

Price (VND/issuer client/month)

Tran Cuong Co., Ltd 2012 3,300,000,000 800,000 - 4,000,000

is not much different Thus the price that they offer to customers is very competitive Services are offered by the company as follows:

 Preparing tax reports

 Preparing accounting books

 Preparing financial reports

Supplementary service  Classifying, arranging and storing accounting

documents

Table 2 Categories of service provided by South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March

2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

STC has two types of service providing to customers Firstly, core service is accounting service including preparing tax reports, accounting books and financial reports for customers This is the main source that generates revenue for the company Secondly, supplementary service is the service added for customers and this type of service is free Supplementary service includes classifying, arranging and storing accounting documents for customers

The process for main accounting service such as preparing tax reports, financial reports and accounting books for customers at STC is presented as below diagram

Figure 3 Process in accounting service of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March

2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

The Figure 3 shows main steps in the accounting service such as preparing tax reports, financial reports and accounting books for clients at STC from gathering accounting documents from customers to the end of the process that finishing tax reports, financial reports and accounting books Tax reports and financial reports after completing will

be submitted to tax authority Accounting books and documents of the whole calendar year will be returned to customers

1.2 Business performance

Based on the Figure 4, in the period of 2014 – 2018, the company‟s revenue tends to increase In specific, the revenue in 2018 increases 554 million VND (equivalent to the growth rate of 17.6%) compared to revenue in 2014 From 2014 to 2017, the revenue increases from 3.15 billion VND to 3.75 billion VND (equivalent to the growth rate of

19%) In 2018, the revenue decreases slightly from 3.75 billion VND to 3.7 billion VND (equivalent to the growth rate of -1.22%)

Figure 4 Revenue and profit from 2014 to 2018 of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

The growth rate of revenue tends to decrease from 10.57% in 2015 down to minus 1.22% in 2018 The revenue growth rate tends to decrease continuously from 2015 to

2018 These numbers indicate that the business of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd is facing with big trouble If we can not identify the problem and have suited solution for

it, the firm‟s business may get worse

Based on data that the company provided, revenue in each group of customer is listed

as follows:

Type of

customer

< 10 billion VND/year

10 - 50 billion VND/year

> 50 billion VND/year Total (VND)

53.7% over total sales Particularly, the group of micro trading customer takes 65.8% sales in trading group This is the one that contributes the most in total revenue at STC

Figure 5 Revenue in each group of customer of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd in 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

From the company data in Figure 5, there are 3 group of customers which contributed the most in revenue such as trading – sales under 10 billion VND per year (35.29%), trading – sales from 10 to 50 billion VND per year (16.93%) and construction – sales under 10 billion VND per year (12.83%) The group of customer in trading – sales under 10 billion VND per year is the main group of customer of STC which contributes the most in proportion of sales for the company Therefore, micro trading customers is the group of customer that the study focuses on The below chart will present the revenue growth rate of micro trading customers from 2015 to 2018

Revenue growth rate (%)

Figure 6 The revenue growth rate of micro trading customers at South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd from 2015 to 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

From Figure 6, the revenue growth rate of micro trading customer group tends to decrease continuously in the period of 2015 – 2018 In specific, the revenue growth rate was 9.52% in 2015 and it decreased consecutively until down to minus 1.79% in

2018 In the next part, the symptom that links to sequential decrease in revenue growth rate of this group of customer will be figured out

2 Symptoms

As interview with Mr Vuong – CEO:

„In recent years, my company performance is not good The revenue growth rate of

my company tends to be slow down, especially the main group of customer – micro trading customers The number of existing customers that leaving my company tends

to increase more than new customers Thus it impacts on the revenue of my company.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old)

As Mr Vuong mentioned, the revenue growth rate tends to be slow down recently He claimed for the decrease in number of existing customers had overcome the increase in new customers, thus it impacts to the revenue of the company The chart below will show the number of micro trading customers at STC at the year end in the period of

Number of micro trading customers

Figure 7 Number of micro trading customers at the year end in the period of 2014 –

2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

In general, the number of micro trading customers increase in the period of 2014 –

2018, in particularly, there were from 53 customers in 2014 up to 64 customers in

2018 However, the growth rate of customer of the firm tends to decrease in this period We can see that the increment in number of customers each year from 2014 to

2018 has decreased continuously in this period of time In 2018, number of micro trading customers in STC is 64, decreased 2 customers compared to the one in 2017

On the other hand, the number of customers who stop working with STC tends to overcome the number of new customers of the company That makes the number of customers of the firm decrease, especially in 2018 In the period of 2014 – 2018, the number of micro customers in trading stop using the accounting service of STC reach

23 firms, account for 29.87% over the total of ex-customer in this period of time This group of customer is the main one in STC Thus it impacts the most on the total revenue of STC Details are as follows

Table 4 Fluctuation in number of micro trading customer of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd in the period of 2014 - 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

Based on data in Table 4, the leaving customer number tends to increase year by year from 2 up to 8 customers from 2014 to 2018, especially increase sharply in the period

of 2016 – 2018 There are 5 customers leaving in 2016, 7 customers leaving in 2017 and 8 customers leaving in 2018 In contrast, new customer number tends to downturn, especially from 2016 to 2018, from 9 customers in 2016 down to 6 customers in 2018

It results in the downturn of customer number at the year end from 2014 to 2018 The downturn trend of the group of micro trading enterprise is the same as the trend of the total customer portfolio of the company Thus it may represent for the whole customer portfolio of the company However, there is a noticeable fluctuation in the period of

2016 – 2018 in this kind of customer The decrease in new customers and loss in current customers in micro trading group of customers that partly contribute to the decrease in sales growth at STC

Furthermore, the revenue of the corporate comes from two sources: revenue from existing customers and from new customers Therefore, the issue of decreasing in total number of customers indicates something wrong with the business of STC We need to

consider two aspects of the issue: Firstly, why number of existing customers leaving

the company increase? Secondly, why number of new customers decrease? It is the

starting point that we need to work with in order to find out the trouble in the business

of STC However, based on Pareto Rule (1), it mentioned the rule that a small proportion of a total input contributed for a large proportion of the total output It is commonly called as the 80/20 rule (1) In case of STC, the study will focus on the main group of customer – micro trading customers, which possibly represents for the all groups of customer at STC Thus if we can figure out the problem that occurred to micro trading customers, it can be the one that happened to the company business In addition, researchers also stated that in managing customer relationship, it is necessary for corporates to emphasize on long-term relationship customers in order to increase their profitability (2) Based on the aforesaid study (2), it stresses on the important role

of existing customers towards the company business Thus, in case of STC, this study focuses on the issue that why number of existing customers leaving the company increase rather than why number of new customers decrease Therefore, the study will focus on the issue that number of existing micro trading customers leaving STC increases

Why number of existing micro trading customers leaving the company increase?

As responses of Mr Sang – CEO of Minh Sang Co., Ltd:

„I can not trust in STC when they prepared my company tax reports inaccurately My company was fined by tax authority and this made me unsatisfied with accounting service provided by STC.‟ (Mr Sang, CEO of Minh Sang Co., Ltd, 38 years old) Due to the reason that Minh Sang Co., Ltd was punished by tax authority and the cause was because South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd prepared their tax reports with deficit corporate tax value, it leads to the circumstance that customers must submit supplementary tax and fines for tax authority It caused a loss for customers thus it made customers feel dissatisfied and unable to trust in accounting service quality that South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd provided to them

As interview Mr Vuong – CEO of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd:

„There are two elements that we need to satisfy customers‟ expectation: accuracy in preparing tax reports and timeliness in delivery tax reports Recently, there are various cases happen in STC mainly related to failure in preparing accurate tax reports for clients, in specific, inaccurate calculation on client‟s corporate income tax.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old)

As responses of Mr Vuong, in accounting service, customers require for accuracy in preparing tax reports and timeliness in delivery tax reports from accounting service

provider Based on interview with Mr Vuong and data from company, there is a serious problem that has happened to STC recently: inaccurate calculation on client‟s corporate income tax After tax finalization in 2018, as statistics of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd, there were total 25 customers in which there were 8 micro trading customers (focus group of customer) cut accounting service with South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd due to this reason

According to responses from Mr Vuong:

„In corporate‟s tax finalization, corporates are mostly fined by tax authority when there is a deficit in corporate tax that submitted to tax authority In case insufficient tax submission, the firm is required to submit supplementary tax and fines for submitting late that amount of tax.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old)

As Mr Vuong sharing, if his company prepare customer tax reports with deficit in customer‟s corporate tax value, it leads to the problem that customer will submit corporate tax insufficiently to tax authority In tax finalization, tax authority will find out the insufficiency in tax value submission from corporate They will ask the corporate to submit supplementary tax and fines for late submission that amount of tax It leads to the issue that customers were fined by tax authority for insufficient tax submission and this made customer dissatisfaction with accounting service quality that STC provides and they cut accounting service contract with STC Details about cases that inaccurate in corporate tax value in tax reports are listed as follows:

Table 5 Details about cases that inaccurate in tax reports in micro trading group – announced by tax authority in 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

From the data that the company provided in Table 5, there were eight micro trading customers that STC prepared inaccurate tax reports for in tax finalization in 2018 These customers cut accounting with STC in 2018 after this circumstance The total fine that tax authority announced in these 8 cases reached 103,012,137 VND In these cases, STC prepared tax reports for customers with inaccuracy in tax reports In specific, there was a negative discrepancy in corporate tax value in customer‟s tax reports It leads to the issue that customers will pay corporate tax based on the corporate tax value that STC calculate in tax reports Then when tax authority checks these customer‟s tax reports, they will figure out the inaccuracy in the tax reports They will punished these firms by requesting submit the discrepancy in tax report compared to the value that they supposed to submit and a sum of fine for late submit this amount of tax

As interview Mr Vuong:

„In 2018, when these unexpected cases occurred, I had to pay the cost for customers They did not accept to pay the fine due to mistakes came from my company In 2018, I had to pay 103,012,137 VND for the fine This expense was not brought to reasonable cost for my company.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old)

Through the interview with Mr Vuong, he states that when his company prepares inaccurate tax reports for customers, it also impacts to his company in terms of loss In case his company prepares inaccurate tax reports for customers, it is his company‟s fault and it leads to the issues that customers may have to spend a sum of money for tax fine in tax finalization And customers may ask him to pay this expense Moreover, this kind of cost is not allowed to add in reasonable cost for the company, thus the company can not deduct tax for this amount of expense It leads to a loss for STC As

Mr Vuong sharing, tax authorities will request a firm for tax finalization once for several years, thus if there is any inaccuracy in tax reports that can not be detected promptly, the firm will be fined by tax authority Hence, preparing accurate tax reports for customers is very important and the issue of preparing inaccurate tax reports happened in STC and it results in a loss of 103,012,137 VND for company in 2018 According to research (3), the paper mentioned relationship quality in business to business which comprises of “trust, commitment and satisfaction” had influence on customer‟s business retention Besides, according to Lee et al (4), the authors state

that service quality is a frequent element which is used by both researchers and practitioners in order to evaluate variables of trust, commitment and satisfaction of customer It is generally accepted that the satisfaction of customer depends on the product or service quality that offered by provider thus researchers have stressed the significant of service quality perceptions and their relevance with customer satisfaction (4) Moreover, according to the research of Jamali in 2007 (5), the author mentioned SERVQUAL instrument which was mostly utilized to measure service quality Authors mentioned determinant of reliability which affects to service quality and reliability was descripted as providing service accurately, on time and dependently Combining related theories and the issue of providing inaccuracy tax reports to customer of STC, in case of STC, they provide accounting service inaccurately to customers thus it leads to customer dissatisfaction to service quality that the firm offers In case customers do not satisfy with the service from STC, they might stop using accounting service from the company and even worst, they can choose to switch

to another rival of the company Moreover, with inaccuracy in accounting service providing to customers, it partly has negative impact on customer‟s trust to the corporate‟s service quality and commitment with doing business with such firm It leads to a decrease in the strength of business relationship and also limits the possibility for customers to maintain the business with STC Thus assurance the accuracy in tax reports for customers play an important role in adapting customer‟s service quality perception so that it leads to customer satisfaction and repeating business with STC Therefore, in the scope of this study, I will focus on the issue that occurred in STC: deficit in client‟s corporate income tax, which results in the circumstance that customers submit insufficient corporate tax for tax authority and they receive punishment from tax authority due to insufficiency in tax submission In the next part of problem analysis, potential problems that lead to these symptoms will

be in turn figured out

3 Problem analysis

3.1 Problem identification

In accounting process in STC, there are four elements that participate in the process to make tax reports such as customers, accountants of STC, accounting supervisor in

STC – Mr Vuong, and accounting software that Mr Vuong‟s company has utilized (CeAC software) Thus there are four aspects that possibly lead to mistakes on client‟s corporate income tax Therefore, interview was organized in order to find out which elements cause the mistakes in customer‟ tax report the STC prepared for customers

3.1.1 Initial cause and effect map

Based on in-depth interview with CEO of STC – Mr Vuong and his accountants – 10 accountants at Accounting department (Bui Thi My Oanh, Tran Ngoc Vy, Nguyen Thi Nga, Tran Thi Anh Tuyet, Tran Thi Lan, Phan Thanh Thanh, Nguyen Tram Anh, Phan Kim Thy, Ta Ngoc Lien and Huynh Thi Hong), the summary of initial cause and effect map is presented as follows There are three symptoms: deficit in corporate tax value

in client‟s tax reports, insufficient in customer‟s tax submission to tax authority and tax authority‟s punishment for insufficient tax submission Problem leads to deficit in corporate tax value in client‟s tax reports is discrepancy in sales or costs value in client‟s tax reports From the side of accountants, problems lead to discrepancy in sales or costs value in client‟s tax reports are inserting inaccurate invoice value to accounting software, insufficient invoice input, insufficient manipulation in accounting software and wrong account determination From the side of Mr Vuong as a

supervisor, insufficient manager‟s supervision that results in hidden mistakes in client‟s tax reports leads to discrepancy in sales or costs value in client‟s tax reports

Potential

Figure 8: Initial cause and effect map (Author synthesis)

Discrepancy in sales or costs value in client’s tax reports

In case of South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd, based on interviews from Mr Vuong and his accountants, they mentioned about discrepancies in clients‟ sales or costs which will lead to discrepancy in corporate tax value, in specific:

accountants sometimes miss some particular steps on software; or wrong account determination by accountants Each of these problems will be in turn explained clearly

as following

Inserting inaccurate invoice value to accounting software

In the process to prepare tax reports in STC, customers provide input accounting documents for accounting service provider to prepare tax reports for them After receiving invoices and related accounting documents from customers, accountants in STC will insert information of invoices into accounting software As responses of accountants at STC, they usually make mistakes as inserting inaccurate invoice value

to accounting software

As response from Ms Oanh – accountant in STC:

„The stage of inputting information is very important, especially value of invoices If the invoice value is inserted inaccurately, it will lead to inaccuracy in customer sales

or costs in tax reports.‟ (Bui Thi My Oanh, STC accountant, 25 years old)

In case of STC, one of the problems is because STC‟s accountants input invoice value inaccurately Thus it impacts to the value of revenue as well as expenses of customer‟s firm This resulted in the discrepancy in customer‟s corporate tax that needed to submit to tax authority In most of cases occurred with clients of STC, the tax amount that the firms submitted at that time was insufficient and the firms must submit supplementary tax and fines for late submit tax for tax authority

Insufficient invoice input

in negative discrepancy in corporate tax that needs submit to tax authority Thus the tax amount that the firm submitted at that time was insufficient and the firm must submit supplementary tax and fines for late submit tax for tax authority

Insufficient manipulation on accounting software; Wrong account determination

Through interview Mr Vuong, he emphasized the essential role of accounting software in his business Suitable accounting software helps decreasing accountant‟s manual manipulation as well as mistakes in inputting and processing data Mr Vuong mentions that his company is using CeAC accounting software with basic package The software has run quite well to support his work However, there are several inconveniences about the accounting software that he thinks it might impact on the accuracy of customer‟s tax reports In details:

„There are various functions in the software still not automatic such as account determination, account closing and forwarding, awareness of coincident codes and so

on, accountants must process and recheck manually thus it may result in inaccuracy in tax reports.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old)

After interviewing Ms Nga – accountant in STC, in case of T&F Co., Ltd – the company that she handled to prepare tax reports for, she missed a step in manipulation

on accounting software In specific, she forgot to make account closing and forwarding for account of revenue in May 2017, thus it resulted in the shortage of 527 million VND in revenue Due to this shortage amount in revenue of T&F Co., Ltd, it impacted

on revenue of the company in Quarter II, 2017 Revenue of the company in this quarter decreased 527 million VND, equivalent to a decrease of 105 million VND in income tax that T&F Co., Ltd must submit to tax authority Thus, after tax finalization, T&F Co., Lt must submit supplementary tax and fine for late submit this amount of tax

to tax authority Besides, in case accountants make wrong account determination, it also leads to errors in clients‟ tax reports As Ms Thanh – accountant in STC mentioned:

„Account determination is very important However, with inexperienced accountants,

it is difficult for them to accurately determinate account in complex case.‟ (Phan Thanh Thanh, STC accountant, 24 years old)

As Ms Thanh explain, one of difficulties that inexperienced accountants may face with is account determination and with current accounting software in STC, they have

to do it manually thus it is easy to make mistakes in this stage As Ms Thanh sharing,

in accounting reports, there are many types of account and each account has its own use If the accountants choose wrong account for a particular expense, it will affect to the accuracy of client‟s tax reports In addition, as Ms Tuyet‟s response, in case of Hanh Ngan Co., Ltd – the company that she handled to prepare tax reports for, she admitted that she often made mistake in determining wrong account when she prepared tax reports for customer since at that time, she had not much experience as well as deep knowledge in accounting Therefore, insufficient manipulation on accounting software and wrong account determination partly impacts on the accuracy

of tax reports that STC prepares for clients

Insufficient manager’s supervision; Hidden mistakes in client’s tax reports

According to responses from Mr Vuong and his accountants, they mentioned about lacking prompt supervision from manager, in specific:

„At the current, there is not enough supervision from manager – Mr Vuong in order to recheck the work result of accountants in accounting team or give us support promptly.‟ (Nguyen Tram Anh, STC accountant, 24 years old)

In accounting process, the manager take responsibility to check in 3 stages: after accountants input information into accounting software, after exporting draft tax declaration and after exporting draft tax reports However, due to taking multiple jobs

in the company such as developing new customers, taking care of existing customers, accounting supervision, general management… thus Mr Vuong does not have enough time to complete all the jobs with full of attention, especially supervise accounting team‟s work result Thus it led to the result that there were many mistakes that could not be figured out and it affected to the accuracy of customer‟s tax reports Moreover, sometimes Mr Vuong assigned the job to supervise the junior employee‟s work to senior employee without cross-check the job that he assigned Those senior employees also do not have enough time as well as capability for managing their own job and supervising job of other junior accountants with the best result Thus it also resulted in the inaccuracy in customer‟s tax reports It can be shown that supervision form manager – Mr Vuong is very important in supervising the work quality of accountants

in his company Therefore, without sufficient supervision from manager, mistakes in accountant‟s work can not be figured out thus it results in the discrepancy in corporate tax in client‟s tax reports

3.1.2 Potential problems

From the aforesaid problem mess, in-depth interview with Mr Vuong and his accountants to explore potential problems was continued As result, four potential problems identified are work overload, employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability, insufficient supervisor support and low employee work motivation

According to responses of accountants in STC, they opine that with such high workload that they are handling, they have to work up to 10 hours/day and overtime for Saturday every week, especially it becomes normal in tax finalization in the first quarter of the year They admit that they just concern about meeting the deadline and finish all tasks that they are assigned, not about the quality of the work Thus, with high workload assigned, accountants just focus on how to complete all the tasks that they assigned, in specific, get all customer‟s tax reports done within time given but not pay much attention on the quality of the work that presented through the accuracy in customer‟s tax reports

As Mr Vuong sharing:

„If we are late in preparing tax reports for customers, it affects to the deadline that we must submit customer‟s tax reports If it is late, customers will be fined by tax authority Thus meeting the deadline is very important.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old)

He believes that the most important thing is that his employees complete their assigned job within deadline so that client‟s tax reports can be submitted to tax authority on time In case his accountants seem to get behind the schedule, he will push them for complete the workload as soon as possible They can stay at the company late for doing their job, especially in tax season or they can come to the company in Sunday if they need more time for the job The accountants admit that they feel extremely exhausted with the work, particularly in tax season Thus it is easy to make mistakes in

doing assigned job Therefore, one of potential problems that lead to mistakes in client‟s tax reports made by the accountants in STC is due to high workload that they handle daily

3.1.2.2 Employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability

As accountants in STC sharing, they have not received much training for necessary skill or professional knowledge when they work for STC, in particularly:

„During the time working in STC, I have not received much official training from Mr Vuong It was just asking for his advice or permission case by case The company also has not provided any necessary skill training program for staff.‟ (Ta Ngoc Lien, STC accountant, 23 years old)

Through sharing from accountants in STC, they all have intermediate or college diploma in accounting During the time working for STC, the company has not offered any training program for them to enhance knowledge or skill that may necessary for them in daily work They just implement the job passively based on Mr Vuong‟s guidance Thus in daily working, they depend much on Mr Vuong‟s guidance

Towards accountants‟ knowledge, skill and ability that make them qualify for the job

at STC, Mr Vuong stated that:

„My company is small thus it is very difficult for me to recruit high level accountants Thus in recruiting, most of my accountants are fresh and inexperienced At least, they have degree in accounting.” (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old)

As Mr Vuong responses, in accounting service, it is necessary for the accountants to know how to use accounting software and have deep knowledge in accounting and auditing; skills in communication in order to work well with customers and colleagues; and positive attitudes to overcome difficulties in this job In case of inexperienced employee, they do not have much experience thus they easily make mistakes in the tasks assigned These employees need more support from Mr Vuong as well as senior employee to complete the tasks assigned However, Mr Vuong has to handle many kinds of work in the company, most of time, he can not follow junior employee closely

in their daily work, thus in some cases, he can not figure out all the mistakes that they did in their work Therefore, employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability is one of elements that impacts on the quality of the tax reports that STC prepares for clients

3.1.2.3 Insufficient supervisor support

As mentioned earlier in the above part, the accountants in STC depend much on Mr Vuong‟ guidance and support in their daily work due to lacking of qualified knowledge, skill and ability and not receiving enough necessary training from the company Towards this issue, Mr Vuong stated that:

„When new employees join in my company, they need my support for guiding, supervising and giving them advices when they have difficulties in their work.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old)

Mr Vuong mentions his role in supporting for new employees in his company However, he has too many works that need to handle in a given day He has to do general management, finding new customers, meeting new customers as well as current customers if there is any occurred that need his participation, doing supervision role and so on At the current, he works over 11 hours/day Thus he shares that sometimes, he feels that he can not do everything with the best effort because he does not have enough time for doing everything carefully Therefore, sometimes, mistakes happen On the other hand, the role of supervising is very important, if he can not do it well, mistakes that his accountants made in their issuer clients tax reports can not be figured out At the current, in STC, the works of Mr Vuong are too diverse and he himself can not have sufficient source to deal with Thus, insufficient supervisor support from Mr Vuong is one of possible problem that causing mistakes in clients‟ tax reports that happened in STC

3.1.2.4 Low employee work motivation

As responses of accountants in STC, they admitted that they do not have much motivation for working in STC in a long time, in details:

„I do not have much satisfaction for working here thus not much motives for me to work here in a long-term Perhaps, 2 or 3 years is enough for me.‟ (Tran Thi Anh Tuyet, STC accountants, 24 years old)

After interviewing accountants in STC about their motivation for working, they share that they are not satisfied with working in STC thus it impacts on their motivation to work for the firm in a long time or even in the present time In their opinion, they think that they had better working for STC in around 2 -3 years After that, they will jump to

a bigger firm Perhaps they will continue to work for an accounting service firm or change to work as an accountant in accounting department for a company in the area that they have experience about from working in STC

As Mr Vuong‟s sharing:

„I understand and sympathize if my employees do not have strong desire to work for such a small company like mine However, I have to accept that truth.‟ (Mr Vuong, CEO of STC, 34 years old)

Mr Vuong sharing that, in his company, the accountants just have basic salary In tax finalization season, they have to work overtime frequently, even in Saturday In that season, every month, Mr Vuong gives them extra 500,000 VND/month for overtime

He thinks that it is a way to encourage his accountants in making their effort in busy season In the accountants‟ point of view, they admit that they do not feel much motivation for the work except for receiving salary at the end of month

As responses of accountants in STC, they mentioned about three aspects that they concerned for working for a company, in details:

„To work for a company, I care about three main components: working condition, having a supportive and encouraging boss and a clear career path However, in STC, it

is below my expectation.‟ (Nguyen Thi Nga, STC accountant, 25 years old)

According to responses of accountants in STC, they expect that the firm that they work for need to have three main elements such as good working condition, a boss who is supportive and know how to encourage employee and promotion in career path However, STC can not satisfy their expectation Thus it impacts on their motivation for working in STC at the present and in long-term Due to lack of strong motive for sticking with company, the accountants do not pay full attention on their job It leads

to mistakes in their assignments Therefore, low employee work motivation is considered one of potential problems that impacts on the quality of the work of accountants in STC

In general, according to general information collected from in-depth interview with

Mr Vuong – CEO of STC and his accountants which was presented in initial cause and effect map, the potential problems were determined as high workload; employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability; insufficient supervisor support and low employee work motivation These elements impact on the performance of not only

accountants but also the whole company which was indicated in inaccuracy in client‟s tax reports that the company had prepared for them Without accuracy in customer‟s tax reports, it affected to the corporate tax that customers must submit to tax authority Due to insufficient tax submission for tax authority, customers were fined by tax authority This resulted in customer dissatisfaction with accounting service that the company provided to customers Therefore, in the next part, these issues will be deeply explored by connecting with relevant literatures After that, the main problem that impacts on the accuracy in customer‟s tax reports that STC accountants prepared for customers will be discussed to choose amongst potential problems

3.1.3 Updated cause and effect map

The summary for updated cause and effect map is drawn as follows:

Insufficient invoice input

Insufficient manipulation on accounting software

Wrong account determination

Hidden mistakes

in client‟s tax reports

Discrepancy in sales or costs value

in client‟s tax reports

Tax authority’s punishment for insufficient tax submission

Insufficient manager‟s supervision

Deficit in corporate tax value in client’s tax reports

After identifying possible problems as mentioned above such as high workload; employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability; insufficient supervisor support and low employee work motivation, literatures related to these aspects were explored

in order to recheck the match between theory and interview with the company and also figure out any relevant aspects that link to the issue of STC After that, the next in-depth interview with Mr Vuong and accountants in STC was organized in order to check whether the literatures applied in the case of STC and deeply explored for further details about potential problems which were found in the first interview Based

on literatures, previous researchers have mentioned the impact of high workload; employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability; insufficient supervisor support and low employee work motivation on work quality as well as performance of employee that in case of STC, it is partly measured by preparing accurately in customer‟s corporate tax value in tax reports Next part will explain in details about

possible problems updated with literature

3.1.4 Updated possible problems

3.1.4.1 Work overload

According to research of Wright and Bonett, the authors find out that intense workload results in a decline in work performance (6) Besides, Hutchins et al mentioned in his research about the inverse relation between workload and job satisfaction (7) Thus high workload leads to the negative in employee‟s job satisfaction Shaukat and Nazir stated that low job satisfaction possibly results in low commitment amongst employees with their job (8) Chen opined that with weak employee commitment to their job and further their organization, there was an influence over employee‟s job performance which represented through the quality of the job that they were assigned (9) Thus, with such decline in employee‟s work performance, it affects to the performance of the company (9)

According to responses of accountants in STC, they have to manage a lot of kinds of work that related to clients‟ accounting documents Senior accountants will manage more customers than junior accountants Below table will show number of customers

in each accountant‟s portfolio that they need to take care of

No Name of accountant Title Years of experience Number of customers

Table 6 Number of customers in each accountant’s portfolio at STC in 2018 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

Refer to Table 6, senior staffs manage 22 – 28 customers and junior staffs manage 9 –

18 customers in their portfolio Accountants in STC stated that they have a lot of work related to customers in their portfolio including preparing tax reports, financial reports and accounting books for customers Besides, they also have to receiving and responding for customer‟s email, messages and calls relevant to their documents Below table shows main tasks that accountants in STC handle daily and time measurement for completing each task

in average (hour/day)

Level of complexity

on the scale 1 - 5

Total time for 1 issuer client/month 14

Total time for 182 customers/month 2548

Average working time per employee/month 255

Working hour/day for a employee (26 days/month) 10

Table 7 Measurement of average time to complete main task for accountant in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: Author synthesis)

Besides daily task that mentioned above, senior employees are usually assigned to supervise the work of junior employee This task also takes lots of time for senior employee As senior employee sharing, they spend about 1 hours/day for helping supervising junior employee‟s work Thus in average, senior employees spend about

11 hours/day (6 days/week) for working The workload of accountant especially senior employees in STC is too heavy especially in tax season Due to high workload, STC accountants have low commitment themselves with the quality of their work Their priority is complete customer‟s tax report within deadline given Thus, mistakes occur

in preparing client‟s tax reports In general, based on interview and literatures collected, one of potential problems that lead to mistakes in client‟s tax reports is determined as high workload in STC‟s accounting team

3.1.4.2 Employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability

Based on theory from literatures, researchers claim that if the firms expect to improve their organization‟s productivity, it is necessary to invest in corporate‟s human capital since employee‟s knowledge is one of main factors that help the company provides service or product with good quality (10,11,12) When employees obtain the essential knowledge, they can develop necessary skills which in turn become their own ability

in performing the work as assigned (13) In the research of Palmer et al., the authors mention the knowledge, skills, and abilities for accountants at entrance level as following: communication skills, problem solving skills, computer skills, knowledge

of general business and accounting, attitudes and competency of employee (14)

Details about STC accountants are mentioned below

1 Bui Thi My Oanh College diploma Senior employee >3 years

2 Tran Ngoc Vy College diploma Senior employee >3 years

3 Nguyen Thi Nga College diploma Senior employee 2 years

4 Tran Thi Anh Tuyet College diploma Senior employee 2 years

5 Tran Thi Lan College diploma Junior employee 1 year

6 Phan Thanh Thanh College diploma Junior employee 1 year

7 Nguyen Tram Anh College diploma Junior employee 1 year

8 Phan Kim Thy Intermediate diploma Junior employee Under 1 year

9 Ta Ngoc Lien Intermediate diploma Junior employee Under 1 year

10 Huynh Thi Hong Intermediate diploma Junior employee Under 1 year

Table 8 Details about experience of accountants in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd – March 2019 (Source: South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd)

According to sharing of Mr Vuong, 60% accountants in his company have around one year experience (junior), 40% accountants have more than two years experience (senior) 70% accountants have college diploma and 30% accountants have intermediate diploma

As Mr Vuong evaluated his employees based on the scale from 1 to 5 (1: very bad, 2: bad, 3: acceptable, 4: good, 5: very good) for criteria mentioned in literatures such as communication skills, problem solving skills, computer skills, knowledge of general business, knowledge of accounting, personal attitudes and competency All accountants in STC are in turn evaluated by Mr Vuong The result for this assessment

is given below

No Name of

accountant

cation skill

Communi-Problem solving skill

Computer skill

Knowledge

of general business

Knowledge

of accounting

Personal attitudes Competency

Average assessment

Table 9 Assessment of knowledge, skill and ability of accountants in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: Author synthesis)

According to evaluation of Mr Vuong – CEO of STC about his accountants, in sum,

he appraises that in terms of knowledge, skills and competency, senior employees have higher appraisal than junior employee; in terms of attitudes, all of his accountants have good evaluation The juniors need more time to experience, learn new knowledge and practice necessary skills in order to adapt with working environment and perform the job better Noticeably, in general, in terms of knowledge, skill and ability, there are 20% people that have high appraisal (4/5) They are Ms Oanh and Ms Vy, who have over 3 years experience The rest is evaluated at the average or below standard (2.6 – 3.3/5) Especially, in Mr Vuong‟s point of view, the most important element in the above assessment is knowledge of accounting Without firm knowledge of accounting,

the accountants are easily make mistakes in their assignments In the assessment, there are 80% employees have average and low evaluation in terms of knowledge of accounting (2 – 3/5), these employees mostly make mistakes in preparing customer‟s tax reports Thus employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability is also one aspect that affects the work quality of accountants in STC, in specific, preparing customer‟s tax reports with inaccuracy related to customer‟s corporate tax value which leads to the issue that customers are fined by tax authority for insufficient corporate tax submission

3.1.4.3 Insufficient supervisor support

Michael et al., state that direct supervisors have great impact on the performance of their subordinates that related to the work (15) Supervisors are linked with maintaining productivity levels, quality standards, solving complaints and training employee Two of the main channels that a supervisor can affect on the performance

of their subordinates are through giving them feedback and general support for their requirements The perceived feedback and support from supervisor can help increase employee‟s commitment and satisfaction with the job (16) Giving feedback and support adequately and constructively also help improve employee‟s attitudes, especially when giving with the purpose that help employee enhance their knowledge about their assigned roles and duties (17)

As measuring daily working time of Mr Vuong – CEO of STC, the result is presented

as Table 10 Based on Table 10, Mr Vuong does not have enough time for supporting

as well as giving necessary feedback for his employees Comprising with responses from interviewing Mr Vuong, he has many kinds of work to do in a day He has to do general management, finding new customers, meeting new customers as well as current customers if there is any occurred that need his participation, doing supervision role and so on At the current, he works over 11 hours/day Thus he shares that sometimes, he feels that he can not do everything with the best effort because he does not have enough time for doing everything carefully Therefore, sometimes, mistakes happen On the other hand, the role of supervising is very important, if he can not do it well, mistakes that his accountants made in their issuer clients tax reports can not be figured out Thus, at the current, in STC, the works of Mr Vuong are too diverse and

he himself can not have sufficient source to deal with Furthermore, due to busy with management work, Mr Vuong does not spend enough time for supporting junior employees when they ask for help Thus it leads to the result that the employee can not have responses from manager promptly, it affects to the task that they are performing Therefore, insufficient supervisor support is considered one of possible problems that result in the mistakes in clients‟ tax reports

Time to complete task in average (hour/day)

1 Checking for arranging and storing customer's documents 0.25

2 Checking for inserting input information into accounting software 0.5

3 Checking for preparing detailed items report - account receivables 0.5

4 Checking for preparing detailed items report - account payables 0.5

5 Checking for preparing detailed items report - inventory 0.5

6 Checking for preparing detailed items report - revenue 0.5

7 Checking for preparing detailed items report - expenses 0.5

8 Checking for preparing detailed items report - trial balance 0.5

9 Checking for preparing Value-added tax declaration 0.5

10 Checking for preparing tax reports - financial reports – accounting

11 Receiving and responding client‟s emails, calls and messages 1.5

3.1.4.4 Low employee work motivation

According to research of Kreitner & Kinicki (18), the authors mention the measurement scale to assess a person‟s motivation with three main elements Firstly, expectancy is considered as the probability to gain success or interested outcome in performing a specific task Secondly, instrumentality is considered as the assessment if the person succeeds in implementing the assigned task Finally, valence is considered

as the response to the outcomes that he or she had achieved such as feeling positive or neutral or negative As Sudiardhita et al stated in their study, they claimed that positive motivation could help improve employee‟s productivity as well as work

quality (19) Based on the above measurement scale of Kreitner & Kinicki (18), three questions used to ask STC accountants are:

 Do you have high expectation to gain excellent performance in implementing your assigned work? (Expectancy)

 Does STC have proper way to evaluate your excellent performance in implementing assigned work? (Instrumentality)

 What do you feel after completing your assigned work? (Please choose amongst positive, neutral and negative) (Valence)

The table to summarize above survey is given below

Table 11 Assessment of motivation of accountants in South Tax Consulting Co., Ltd (Source: Author synthesis)

Applying three components mentioned above into interviewing accountants in STC, the interview is related to their motivation for well performing work The results have synthesized as above Based on the interview, 70% accountants have neutral expect to succeed with the tasks that they assigned They explain that it is their duties thus they just try to deal with it and complete in given time They know that it they perform outstanding the work, there is no different appraisal from manager like usual and the company has not had incentive for encouraging employees to outperform their tasks They do not pay much attention on performing excellent their assigned job In their opinion, good or bad performance is considered the same Thus most of accountants feel neutral when they complete their assigned tasks There are only 30% accountants feel positive about their completion in the work task These 30% employee include 3 employees who have more than 2 years experience They said that they wanted to

perform well their work because they would have more experience so that it was enough for them to leave STC for another bigger company in near future Thus it begins from their inside motivation to work, not from motivation that created by STC such as achieving high appraisal, getting high monetary incentives, getting promotion and so on Moreover, with the result of 70% neutral in expectancy, 70% neutral in valence and 100% no in instrumentality, the assessment points out that the motivation

of employee in STC is very low In specific, most of them do not have strong expectancy in performing well the assigned task because there is no performance appraisal for what they did and they also do not receive any outcome from doing their job with the best or even worst Thus most of them do not have positive response to their work result Through the above assessment, it concluded that the work motivation

of STC accountants is low Low work motivation influences over the performance of accountants in the company In case performance of accountants decreases, it impacts

to the performance of the company especially accounting service quality that the company provides to customers

3.2 Problem validation

As analysis from previous part, potential problems are determined as work overload; employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability; insufficient supervisor support and low employee work motivation Firstly, in terms of work overload, many researchers have recognized that work demands for accounting reach its peak throughout the first quarter of the year and they often call it as the "busy season" or the

"tax season" (20) Work overload, time pressure and overtime requirements are mentioned as typical issues in accounting especially in tax season (21, 22, 23, 24) Mr Vuong said that the workload in his company was high especially in tax season and other companies in accounting service met the same issues as his company He considered working under time pressure and overtime to meet deadline of client‟s tax report submitting to tax authorities as ordinary issues and employees that chasing this kind of job had to comply with Thus this potential problem is eliminated

Secondly, in terms of employee with unqualified knowledge, skill and ability, Mr Vuong said that it was difficulty for him to recruit high level of employee because his company was small and employees just chose his company as a stop station in a short-

term thus normally, they would leave his company within two years for a bigger one in order to find advancement in their career path He has to recruit fresh men or students who have just graduated with relevant degree in accounting It results in inexperience and mistakes in assignments that new employee acquired Mr Vuong said that he had considered a lot about this problem and training for employee was the proper way From literatures, many researchers also mentioned training took the mediate role in helping employee acquire knowledge and skills and it also influenced over the performance of the corporates (25, 26, 27) Mr Vuong had accepted this circumstance because it was hard to change in case of his company and his apparent responsibility is training and guiding his employee Thus this potential problem is eliminated

Thirdly, in terms of insufficient supervisor support, researchers emphasized the important role of supervisor in keeping their subordinates work under particular standard and quality (28) In the case of STC, Mr Vuong admitted that he spent not enough support for his employees partly because he had to manage a lot of functions

in the company thus sometimes, he did not have enough time for his employee According to literatures, authors describe a top manager‟s working day in a small-sized company as “unplanned, informal, hectic and fragmented” (29) and they have to change their roles and duties continually in a given day (30) This is common issue in

a small firm and STC is in the same situation Mr Vuong believed that in this period

of time, it would be better if he directly handled main functions in STC and he could not handover these roles to other people Thus this potential problem is eliminated Finally, in terms of low employee work motivation, Mr Vuong admitted that he had never considered about this aspect in managing his firm whereas it might be a considerable element As he sharing, he just thought that the most important thing was that he could keep good relationship with customers in order to keep the company run days to days He cares about the survival of the company at the present rather than long-term vision that investing in his employees From literatures (31), researchers mentioned that in small company, most of owners run their business primarily for basic needs such as feeding, clothing and housing for their families and acquiring the satisfaction that the position of self-ownership brought along Hence, for their purpose, surviving is one of the main motives for them to run the company (31) This is suited

with Mr Vuong‟s purpose for running company On the other hand, encouraging employee‟s motivation is one of the growing responsibilities that managers need to take in order to run their business well (32) Through this study, Mr Vuong admitted that figuring out factors that motive employees for working possibly help him solving the problem that his company is facing with Therefore, to help the company overcome the current difficulties and improve its business performance, Mr Vuong is favorable with figuring out elements that can help improve his employee‟s working motivation

so that his firm‟s problem can be solved Thus low employee work motivation is chosen to be the main problem to be solved in the case of STC

4 Main problem definition and consequences

4.1 Main problem definition

According to research (33), authors states that the origin of the word “motivation” is from the Latin word “movere”, its meaning is "to move or stimulate" Motivation, as mentioned in many researches (34), is defined as the “desire and willingness” to make high level of effort in order to meet the corporate's goals; with such effort, it is driven

by the impulse to meet some individual expectation, need or desire Motivation can be considered as an intangible concept that forces people to action According to (35), there are two kinds of motivation: “intrinsic motivation” and “extrinsic motivation” Intrinsic motivation is about the inside desire and considered as self-driven towards succeed On the contrary, extrinsic motivation occurs when corporates utilize intentional actions and programs in order to motivate their employees It is external factor, in contrast with intrinsic motivation – internal factor According to literatures (36), organizational performance is the primary goal that worth all strategies that the firm implements It is the ability of the whole corporation to meet its stated objectives through operating and governing As stated in (37), there are three factors that contribute to the overall aforesaid organizational performance such as: “financial performance, operational performance and employee attitudes and behavior” Related

to the component of employee attitudes and behavior, it is claimed that motivation is a one of potential elements that leads to people attitude and behavior (38) Thus employee work motivation is a factor that affects to organizational performance