Master of Business administration thesis: Improving employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam

The research has a root intention, started from manager’s dilemma. In these near years, employee turnover rate is very high (from 20% - near 35% in per head office, branch offices). Expenditure for recruiting new employee is very high. After recruiting, newcomers need probationary process, they maybe pass or fail, even if newcomer fails, the company lost more expenditure for looking for other candidates, for training, etc. By determining factors affect to employee’s loyalty, motivation, employee performance, reducing employee turnover rate, manager hopes the organization operating effectively, especially in human resources ensuring in also quality and quantity manner.

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

BUSINESS SCHOOL

DO NHU VY

IMPROVING EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

AT NTT DATA VIETNAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS

SUPERVISOR: ASSOC PROF DR NGUYEN VAN THANG

HANOI - 2018

Firstly, I would like to thank Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Van Thang - Director of Asia - Pacific Institute of management at Vietnam’s National Economics University He is seasoned, international experienced researcher

in business and management, the advisor of this thesis He instructed me how

to revise important points briefly, concisely, help enhancing the quality of research

I would like to express my gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr Le Lan Huong - Director of Business school at Vietnam’s National Economics University She

is the manager of my school where I study MBA course, also is my enthusiastic instructor in subject “Business research methodology” She equips me with a theoretical foundation, helped me creating a solid knowledge base in business researching

In research proposal reviewing process, I received many constructive comments, valued recommendations, suggestions from research-proposal-reviewing sub-committee: Assoc Prof Dr Dao Thi Thanh Lam (also is my instructor in subject “Managing Human Resources”), Assoc Prof Dr Vu Thanh Hung (also my instructor in subject “Business Strategic management”), Assoc Prof Dr Bui Duc Tuan (also Deputy Director of Business school at Vietnam’s National Economics University)

I would like to thank many other teachers, officers at Vietnam’s National Economics University who I cannot mention, list out fully

I thank to NTT DATA Vietnam Limited company’s officers, employees because they facilitate me about time, suitable workload, help me in work - life

- study balance in the thesis research conduction time

Of course, I would like to thank my family members: parents, brothers, and sisters who supported me in the time of thesis writing, also in other aspects of my life They facilitate me good conditions support my working, studying, and researching

Hanoi, December 2018

Do Nhu Vy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APAC Asia - Pacific

CEO Chief Executive Officer

EIT Enterprise Information Technology

FDI Foreign Direct Investment

IDE Integrated(/Interactive) Development EnvironmentJICA Japan International Cooperation Agency

MBA Master of Business Administration

N/A Not answer

LIST OF TABLES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

To accomplish organization’s goal, the organization must have human resource, finance resources, facilities, technology, brand name’s reputation, and so on In all type of organization’s resources, human resource is the most important factor A good human resource must have motivated labors Motivation is very important for any organization, especially in enterprise environment, because it allows management to meet the organization’s goals, operating in efficient way Based on good motivation, employees perform their tasks by their best effort, best performance

Employee motivation of knowledge workers of high technology fields even became more important In software industry, at the present, Vietnam is

in the process of international corporation and integration with many developing also many developed countries in the world, skilled labor demand for software development, information system integration is very high NTT DATA Vietnam (NDVN) is FDI company, the subsidiary of NTT DATA Corporation, and NTT DATA Corporation is the subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone - a company ranked 50th in Fortune 2017 Global500 list However, high employee’s turnover rate and low morale at NDVN impact to business operating of NDVN, it is risky for its quality of production and services, also long-term development strategy In few recent years, many NDVN’s employees has left job after short-time working due diverse reasons;

A large percentage of employees who left job are experienced specialists Recruiting alternative staffs cannot fill the shortage left by employees who have left work In a long-term development strategy of the company, high turnover rate of employees is risk for business opportunities and maintaining quality of products, services at NDVN

Many labor issues need attention from managers at NDVN Based on that premise, research objectives of the study include:

+ Current employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam

+ Identify factors affect to employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam.+ Suggest solution to improve employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam

Study of employee motivation plays an important role in attracting and retaining talents for the company This thesis used quantitative research also qualitative research methodology Presence of quantitative research methodology is in-depth interview, then the author detects most influence factors to employee motivation through analyzing interview transcripts Presence of qualitative research methodology is sample choosing, questionnaire designing, analyze survey raw data by statistics methods.

The author conducts in-depth interviews with 3 ex-employees, 3 current managers and 3 current employees, the results obtained from surveying for

150 current employees working at NDVN (Hanoi, Danang, Hochiminh city branch office)

In general, the research’s result points out employee motivation at NDVN did not met board of director’s expecting, which makes employees at NDVN become to dissatisfied, for example: low salary for junior level staffs, new technology is not applied, ineffective training, bias in position appointment, etc

Based on the result of study, the researcher has finding that employee motivation at NDVN affected by many factors: Salary and welfare, Leadership behavior, Working condition, Advancement, Autonomy at work, Corporate culture, and Colleagues relationship In order to improve employee motivation, NTT DATA corporation in general and NDVN, in particularly should improve incentive through salary and welfare; concretizing and implementation wage and welfare policy exactly as prescribed Give employee chances applying new technologies in software production for improving factor “Advancement”

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION1.1 Rationale of the research

Motivation function includes activities in human resources manager concerned how to help employees exert themselves at high energy, working with high effort The motivation function is one of the most important yet probably the least understood aspects of the human resources management process Human behavior is always complex Looking for what motivate employees at work is a long-time concern of management, human resources researchers

Labor’s motivation plays an important role at any organization because

it gains organization’s operating performance To achieve the organization’s goal, the organization must have many resources: capital, technology, good business macro-environment, favorable geographical location, especially, human resources (sometimes it called “human capital” because this factor is too important, equivalent to financial capital) Containing high motivation inside employees, that cause employees work actively, progressive, meticulous, carefully Ensuring organization utilize human resources fully In software industry, information system integration field, Vietnam is in the process of multi-national cooperation and global integration with almost other countries, skilled labor demand in software industry become very high, knowledge workers must work with high motivation for finishing many challenging works

Therefore, improving employee motivation has been becoming an urgent demand for many organizations and companies in Vietnam, including NTT DATA Vietnam (NDVN) NTT DATA Vietnam limited company was founded and officially went into operation on 10/2/2008, According to Mr Wantanabe, General director, NDVN’s employees have skills, knowledge enough to development sophisticated, complex information system and/or software for big enterprise also public sector

In this study, the atuhor just focus on issues of employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam due two reasons The first reason is that issues of employee motivation at NDVN are seriously concerned by management In

fact, NDVN faces low working morale from its employees, reflected in high employee turnover rate and un-enthusiasm in working: Turnover percentage is 25% in fiscal year 2017 (Hanoi branch 25%, Danang branch 20%, Hochiminh city 35%) As estimated, 5 managers and 30 staffs in three areas stopped working in 2017, because they didn’t feel satisfy with NDVN’s incentive policy Employees join work with low commitment They don’t want to participate in activities what organized by the company, or they are ready to quit if they can seek for another job which is nearer or with higher salary, etc Shorter seniority years, lower working performance, lower loyalty due to lacking motivation cause low-quality products and information system services So NDVN has many problems in managing human resources that affect to performance of the company directly Next reason, this research topic is feasibility for the author in collecting data manner, the author can delivery survey and author can receive feedback with high returned survey percentage, because the researcher is also an employee who worked at NDVN.

At the present, many issues of employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam need solving in a systematic approach Therefore, I decide to take

the topic: “Improving employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam” for my

MBA thesis The research will give the company’s leaders/managers some important insights into employee motivation at the company

The thesis is a science research, also an applied project Author’s idea

is basing on many previous employee motivation researches (literature review), has a list of popular factors impact to employee motivation at NDVN, through in-depth interview a small number of typical cases (a small number of employees), deciding factors impact to employee motivation in theoretical framework, decide questionnaire survey, then analyze survey data, hypothesis testing, make suggestion for manager The research uses qualitative research method (in-depth interview) also quantitative research method (analyze statistic data from survey result) The research is combination of human resources managing, statistic, labor psychology, etc based on existing achievement from previous researches then develop research ideas on reality

at NDVN

1.2 Research objectives

- Determining current employee motivation

- Identify factors affect to employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam

- Suggest solution to improve employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam

in human resources ensuring in also quality and quantity manner When determining factors impact to employee motivation ((In also 3 areas: Hanoi branch, Danang branch, Hochiminh city branch)?), ordering factors from highest to lowest impacting is important for suggestion solution for managers

Research questions are

- How is current employee motivation?

- What are factors affect to employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam?

- What are solutions for improving employee motivation at NTT DATA Vietnam?

• Research designing

• Collect and analyzing data

• Write research report and publication

(Source: Thang, N.V., 2017, pp 21)

The author of this thesis inheritances above process, add more detail, tailoring a little in specific context of the company (Because the thesis written does not intent for publication on science journal, therefore purpose

“publication” is not necessary) Conducting in-depth interview before designing questionnaire, for assuring choosing factors impacts to employee motivation better As an applied research, section “executive summary” added

(Source: author)

1.4.2 Data collection

The author used two types of data include primary data and secondary data Primary data collected through in-depth interview with 9 people (6 current employees and 3 ex-employees) and questionnaire Secondary data collected from both internal and external resources External sources include Internet resources, news paper, articles, agency related to employee motivation Internal resources include business report, regulations of the company to get according information about employee motivation, career paths, welfare policy, company’s history, and so on

1.4.3 Data analysis

The research analyze data by using descriptive analysis, correlation matrix, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis on IBM’s SPSS version 23

1.5 Scope of research

Research conducted on three branches include Hanoi head office, Danang branch office, Hochiminh city branch office Research objects are current employees and new left-job employees (in period 1 year or less than from the day he/she left job from NDVN)

1.6 Thesis structure

Chapter I: Introduction

Chapter II: Theoretical background on employee motivation

Chapter III: Research design

Chapter IV: Result and discussion

Chapter V: Suggestion for improving employee motivation

And supplement documents are In-depth interview sheet, Questionnaire for survey, intermediate data analysis result

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON

EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION2.1 Term “motivation”

Motivation is an important topic in managing human resources In book

“Organizational Behavior” of Kreitner and Kinicki (1998), the term “motivation”

is derived from Latin word “movere” what means “move” Motivation is “those psychological process that cause the arousal, direction, and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal oriented” (Mitchell, T R 1982, pp 81)

Motivation defined as “The processes that account for an individual’s intensity,

direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal.” (Robbins, S 2001,

pp 156)

In Oxford Leaner’s Dictionaries, “motivation” is a noun, it means “the reason why somebody does something or behaves in a particular way” or “the feeling of wanting to do something, especially something that involves hard work and effort” In this definition of the dictionary, “motivation” stood at a larger context (it is motivation in all tasks, all types of jobs, not just in company environment) when comparing with the research’s context (at work at NDVN)

Motivation is giving interest, enthusiasm, reasons, motivation or cause a certain behavior or specific action The presence of motivation in all official survival as simple as drinking behavior is motivated by thirsty Even, motivation can be something from reward for coercion School admission is motivated by a desire to obtain knowledge

2.2 Literature review

Employee motivation has formed and presences in two directions, there are employee motivation from inside himself/herself and outside Intrinsic motivation is something inside of employees, such as money, physical body, talent, desire, passion, dreaming External motivation comes from external factors what are incentive policy, forcing, jealousy from colleagues, challenge, and so on In material perspective, money-earning purpose, social rewarding

or avoiding punishment are few examples of external motivation Evaluating personal characteristics is important in studying employee motivation Few

people have specific characteristics, but others haven’t these.

In book “Contemporary Management”, Gareth R Jones & Jenifer M George defined motivation as “psychological forces that determine a person’s behavior in an organization, the qualification of a person efforts, and the extent of a patient.” (Jones, G.R and George, J.M., Hill, C.W.L 2003)

Daschler & Ninemeier (1984) written “Motives are a valid state or within

an individual that makes the actions of employees a way designed to achieve several goals Taking this broad sense and put it into the context of supervision of hotel operations, we can say that the motive is what supervisors do not encourage and influence others to take necessary actions Motivation is, in fact, an internal driving force in the creation or personal scope provides incentive for the employee to take action.”

In 1990, Drummond has been written “Motivation is for individuals and help explain behavior Motivation is a complex process inside with three components: What make individuals behave in certain ways, what is driving behavior, and what maintains behavior To meet the needs of the employees is very difficult because each employee has different charactistics that affect behavior These factors must be related organizations the mind is self concept, values, attitudes, interest, emotions, personality, and life experiences They must encourage employees through a positive organizational climate that is motivating.”

In the study, author uses combination of those above definitions that

“Employee motivation can be explained as the driving force that energinzes, directs and sustains employees toward attaining an organizational goal.” Motivation become to important toward society (country, economics), organization (company), and an individual (employees, staffs, workers)

Creating motivation in per person makes labor productivity higher, when employees have motivation, employees love his/her job and they willing to work hard, then good result is personal productivity improved significantly Therfore, employees’ productivity increased than wage will raise At another perspective, creativity is often promoted if people are comfortable, volunteer when doing certain job More engagement with work and the present

company: When labors feel their job are exciting works, they form inside their commitment to the organization An additional benefit for employees, when the work was coordinated, they will see their own efforts to benefit and achieve work outcome effectively The good result of work contributes back to improve employee themselves as a round-trip cycle.

Motivation toward to organization: Human resources in the organization will be using the most efficient and can optimally exploit the capabilities of employees and improve business efficiency Form a valueable asset of the organization is a team of skilled employees, with passion, with commitment, engaged with the organization and attract more talented people to work for the organization Creating an atmosphere work of work hard, comfortable, contributing to building company culture helps ehancing brand-name value and good image of company

Motivation impacts to society, employee motivation supports per person accomplish goals, his/her purpose, spiritual life of each person will become plentiful, live in wealthy, then forming new values to society indirectly Indirect labour motivation to build more and more prosperous society more based on enterprise development When their needs are met, society members have a comprehensive living and they become happier, better learning conditions, better health care

In 1946, Foreman Facts at Labor Relations Institute of New York has been created a survey based on questionnaire, then show model factors impact to employee motivation on industrial workers This research model then become popular, many researchers, institutions applied in many different industries such as:

Research of Kennett S.Kovach (1987) add supplement and given 10 factors motivate employees such as: (1) Joyful job; (2) Fully appreciated finished works; (3) Autonomy in work; (4) Stability job; (5) High salary; (6) Promotion and advancement in career; (7) Good working conditions; (8) Engagement between line-manager and employees; (9) Disciplining in clever, subtle ways; (10) Supporting from superior to resolve personal issues of employee (Kovach, K.A 1995)

Follow these above researches, many applied researches such as Bob Nelsson, Balanchard Training & development (1991), Colin P Silverthorne (1992), Charles & Mashal (1992), Simons & Enz (1995), Wong, Siu, Tsang (1999) conduct research in this direction.

The author of this thesis based on existing research and integrated with in-depth interview process at company, then decide choosing follow factors

(1) Autonomy in work: Follow research “Motivation through the design of

work: Test of a theory” (1976) by JR Hackman and GR Oldham, determine methodologies of working how to make employees motivated from inside of job Employee should understand working process from start to finish, and they should play a specific important in job, this fact allow employees feel their responsibilities about their works Lastly, doing task must assured has feedback from superior, recognize employee’s achievement, also suggestion, constructing criticism help employee work better at latter tasks Therefore, employee know the real last result of their works

(2) Salary and welfare: Researcher J Stacy Adams given negative state of

tension provides the motivation to do something for correcting it The referent

an employee selects adds to the complexity of “equity theory” There are four referent comparisons:

Self-inside An employee’s experiences in a different position inside

employee’s current organizationSelf-outside An employee’s experiences in a situation or position outside

employee’s current organizationOther-inside Another individual and/or group of individuals inside

employee’s organizationOther-outside Another individual and/or group of individuals outside

organization

Table Four referent comparisons in Adam's Equity theory

(Source: synthesis from Adams, J.S 1963)

Employee maybe compare he/she to colleagues, friends, neighbors, or team-mates in same/other organizations; or even compare their current job to past jobs There are 4 moderating variables include level in organization, gender, amount of education or professionalism, and length of tenure

Ratio comparisons Perception

Inequity due to being under-rewarded

(3) Advancement: In Herzberg’s Two-factor theory, training and advancement

opportunity belong to hygiene factor group In research of Wong, Siu, Tsang (1999), training and advancement is the most important factor in hotel staffs in Hong Kong

(4) Corporate culture: According to Stephen Overell, 2009, five key factors of

incentive and motivating: Develop corporate’s brand name from inside, communication values of organization, Good leadership, creating joyful and challenge working environment, administration in working result and constant reach excellent The research of N Tavassoli (2008) in article “Branding from the inside out” points out “Conducting brand-name communication and make it

become to lively through human resources make higher profound in employees, feeling better about common target of organization and higher motivation level”

(5) Colleagues relationship: Employees need supporting from colleagues

when they need, looking for comfortable, friendly when working together (Hill, Charles W.L & Jones, Gareth R 2008) Bellingham, 2004 points out, employees must have the devoting for work at colleagues in order to reach best working result Ralph Chami and C Fullenkamp 2002 in research paper

“Trust and efficiency” point out, colleagues must be reliable persons

(6) Leadership behavior: In research “The influence of human resource

management practices on the retention of core employees of Australian organisations: An empirical study” by Janet Cheng Lian Chew in 2004, employee’s motivation depends on leader’s behaviors, working relationship, corporate culture and structure, working environment The result from research “2012 Global Workforce Study” of Towers Watson, enforcement opinions about direct superior has strong impact to the cement of employee with his/her job, company and willingness to contribute to the success of his/her company

(7) Stability: Follow Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, people always looking for

safety, and employees are also Stability and safety share almost same characteristics

(Source: Maslow)

(8) Working conditions: Safety, clean, fully facilities office help employees

have more motivation to finish work, according to the research of Kennett S Kovach in 1987

2.3 Theoretical framework on analyzing employee motivation

Based on literature review and in-depth interview at a specific context, the author of thesis decides these below factors for the research

(Source: author)

2.4 Attributes for employee motivation analysis

Before deciding factors affect to employee motivation, the author conducted interview with 6 current employees and 3 ex-employees in near time The content of questionnaire for in-depth interview at the appendix

For specifying the above theoretical points in business reality, I use many attributes to evaluate per factor Use a five-level Likert item for

- Independence variable: Working conditions

+ Company supply working facilities (PC, laptop, internet connection, Wi-Fi, dual-screen for programming, licensed software, development tools, SDK, etc.) fully

+ Working room is clean, silence, enough large, non-toxic factors

+ No overtime working

+ Feel comfortable with ancillary services (motor parking, car parking, lunch restaurant, building staff)

- Independence variable: Stability

+ Employees don’t worry about losing their jobs

+ The company operates stably and effectively

- Independence variable: Advancement

+ The company often has suitable training courses

+ Learn new technology from applying new technology in new software project

+ Employee has chance to learn from talent colleagues

+ The company has clear career paths and employee feel satisfaction with evaluation to next ladder on the path

- Independence variable: Corporate culture

+ Employees are proud of the company brand

+ Employees recognize that the entire customer partner values the company's brand

+ Employees like corporate culture

+ The company has a sustainable development strategy

+ Employees feel the company’s vision and values is suitable

+ The company always product high quality products also services.

- Independence variable: Colleagues relationship

+ Colleagues are reliable and honest

+ Teamwork operate effectively

+ Colleagues often share, support experience in work also in life

+ Colleague are comfortable, joyful and sociable

- Independence variable: Salary and welfare

+ Wages paid are worth the effort the employees spend

+ Wages can guarantee the life of staffs and families

+ Reward policies are timely, clear and transparent

+ Welfare regime is complete and correct employee group is entitled.+ Staffs are satisfied with the welfare policy of the company

+ Welfare, wages, bonuses paid timely and satisfactory yet?

+ Policy salary, bonus, welfare regime has really care about employees

or not?

- Independence variable: Autonomy at work

+ Take risks by creativity and innovation

+ Employee are asked about number of jobs that fit their capacity

+ Be involved in production planning

+ Division of labor is reasonable

+ Employees are involved in decisions that affect their work

- Independence variable: Leadership behavior

+ Leaders evaluate employee achievement in terms of equity and recognition

+ Leaders help and support staff to complete the work assigned

+ Leaders provide feedback to help employees improve job performance

+ Leaders protects the rights of employees

+ Leaders believe the ability of employees

+ Leaders is subtle when criticized

- Dependence variable: Employee motivation

+ Employees are interested in the current job

+ The staff's attitude is always good, cheerful and optimistic.+ Staff willing to working with his/her best performance

+ Employees appreciate the incentive policies of the company

CHAPTER III RESEARCH DESIGN3.1 Overview of research design

Three components constitutive a research project include idea, designing, and instruments Idea proposed goal and meaning of the research Research designing points out evidence are need collecting for proving or rejecting proposed idea Research instruments are tools, specific processes to implement idea (Thang N.V., 2017, pp 5)

In this research project that appears in the thesis, the author has idea of transforming the manager’s dilemma to research question The manager’s dilemma is how to retain employees (reduce staff turnover rate) with manager level and also normal employee level, with high seniority years employees and also new or low seniority years employees; because at the moment, staff turnover rate is too high (average of staff turnover rate of overall company is about 25% per year, if calculating for per branch office, staff turnover rate about 20 to 35% per year) Expenditure for recruiting a new employee, training them to an official staff position is very high Even, the company paid $400 for success referring (after job probationary period) a new staff-level employee, paid $600 for success referring (after job probationary period) a new manager-level employee; the number of success referring is still low It is an example shows that recruiting new employee is hard, retaining existing employees is better solution

So, the management question has been established, the author try to convert these questions to research questions What cause staff turnover rate high (two-number staff turnover rate!) and why employee working with boring and leaking enthusiasm situation? The author has idea about factors affect to employee motivation, try to prove the relationship between factors and employee motivation, if the relationship is existing, the author goes to further, how much affecting in specific value are?

After the appearing of research’s idea, the author designs the research follow a quite popular “motif” from literature reviewing (studies in same topic in foreign countries also in Vietnam), point out knowledge lacking, based on research question to conduct qualitative research based on in-depth interview

and quantitative research based on survey methodology.

Research instruments are descriptive statistics and inferential statistics Descriptive statistics use mean, standard deviation value of sample of observed variables to conclude about characteristics of overall from observed sample set Inferential statistics use Exploration Factor Analysis (Measurement scale reliability, Rotated components matrix), forming multi-variances regression equation, accepting or rejecting research hypothesis, then lead to research summary

Then from research summary lead to recommendation for managers, it

is an open suggestion to resolve management questions, help removing manager’s dilemma in the company

3.2 Research secondary data at desk

NDVN is a company belong to NTT DATA Corporation NTT DATA Corporation is a public corporation listed on Tokyo stock exchange, the author utilizes public information source as secondary information source for research Some news related to NDVN also be helpful for assert it business activities Research at desk use document form many reliable sources: NDVN’s regulation documents, NDVN’s human resources’ reports, Annual report from NTT DATA Corporation at end of fiscal year, news, website of NTT DATA Corporation, website of NDVN, many existing researches on topic employee motivation in Vietnam and in foreign countries, textbooks, research papers on topics Business research methodology

3.3 Qualitative research

For early determining factors impact employee motivation, beside literature review, based on existing research in same theme, the author use in-depth interview as a qualitative research method for this purpose The author conducts interview with few current employees (3 employees and 3 managers) and ex-employees (3 alumni employees), at also 3 areas (North area - head office, Middle area - Danang city branch, and South area -

Hochiminh city branch office) The purpose of in-depth interview is collecting a set of factors may be are principal factor in research context.

Based on previous theoretical background section, major context must

be done in interview sessions are descripted likes below:

+ Age

+ Status: Current employee or Ex-employee

+ Seniority years at NDVN

+ Number of working years in all companies with all majors

+ Number of working years in all companies with the major what used at NDVN

+ Branch office (Hanoi head office, Danang branch office, or Hochiminh city branch office)

+ Qualification

+ Position (job title)

+ How is his/her feeling about motivating at work

+ What factors make he/she feel motivated at work? Ordering factors from what is most impacting factor to what is lowest impacting factors

+ What are the factors make he/she feel boring, depressed at work? Ordering factors from what is most impacting factor to what is lowest impacting factor

And the author tries asking open questions like these:

+ Complaint about what NDVN policies and practices affect to employee motivation

+ Suggestion to improving employee motivation

3.4 Quantitative research

Qualitative research is most important in the research, based on survey data through statistics method To ensure reliability, the author based on number of independence variables, number of observed variables inside per variable group, decide the size of sample enough for statistics signification

Data analysis are descriptive statistics, referential statistics (Explore Factor Analysis, Regression equation)

3.4.1 Questionnaire designing

Based on literature review, theoretical framework, in-depth interview, the author creates questionnaire what cover all factor (in theoretical framework) with its attributes for surveying The questionnaire has one dependence variable is “Employee motivation”, this center variable has four attributes (Interest with current job; Feel good, cheerful, optimistic; Willing to work with best performance, and Appreciate incentive policies)

The questionnaire covers eight independence variables/factors, these are Working condition (4 observed variables), Stability (2 observed variables), Advancement opportunities (4 observed variables), Corporate culture (6 observed variables), Colleague relationship (4 observed variables), Salary and welfare (7 observed variables), Autonomy at work (5 observed variables), and Leadership behavior (6 observed variables)

The author adds more meaningless questions for checking respondents read question carefully or random fill in answers:

How many company trips in a year?

1 time 2 times 3 times

If respondent chosen (2 times) or (3 times), his/her questionnaire form become invalid, and need removing

Working time is

08:00 - 12:00 and 13:45 - 18:00 from Monday to Friday (a)

08:00 - 12:00 and 13:00 - 17:00 from Monday to Friday (b)

08:00 - 12:00 and 13:00 - 17:00 from Monday to Friday, and 08:00 - 12:00 Saturday (c)

If respondent chosen (a) or (c), his/her questionnaire form become invalid, and need removing

3.4.2 Sampling

Picking surveying objects in sampling process conducted carefully All employees in employee list has chance to chosen equally Sample is assured

balancing between employee ratio between three branch offices (geographical area), age, seniority years, genders, departments, nationality, qualification Author used list of NDVN’s employees (nearly 200 employees), use random function in software to generate order number of employees are picked in sample

3.4.3 Data entry

Not all returned questionnaires are valid, researcher remove invalid answer sheets Researcher enter data two times to two different data files, comparing two raw data files for assuring the data entry is correct When catching unclear answers, researcher ask respondent to make the answers is clear

3.5 Suggestion for executives for improving employee motivation

This thesis is an applied research, suggestion is one part of it, after so much effort to determine most affecting factor cause the changing in employee motivation Suggestion based on positive methods therefore it is objectivity, helpful and meaningful

CHAPTER IV RESULT AND DISCUSSION4.1 Secondary data collection

Secondary data collected in 6 months from early of May 01st, 2018 to November 30th, 2018 from many sources, main sources include:

- Report of NTT DATA Corporation as a public company, a listing company on Tokyo stock exchange These documents include Annual report, Corporate social responsibility report, Audited annual/quarterly finance report, Disclosure statement, website

- Information about NTT DATA Vietnam on its website, and business newspapers

The author collects reliability document (audited), from reliable sources, then extracting useful information for the research, especially information about human resources Secondary data collection process done at desk via internet searching, then extracting useful information

4.2 Overview information about NTT DATA Vietnam

NTT DATA Vietnam supplies management information system development for two main sectors: Enterprise sector and Public (government) sector About enterprise sector, the company almost only deliveries management information system development services for FDI enterprises from Japan (other FDI enterprises from other countries, such as from Korea, U.S., Australia, etc or 100% capital from Vietnamese entrepreneurs are not prominent customers of NTT DATA Vietnam) NTT DATA Vietnam has close relationship with presences of big Japan corporations in Vietnam (Sumitomo Corporation Vietnam LLC, Obayashi Vietnam Corporation, Taisei Vietnam, AceCook Vietnam Joint Stock Company, Honda Vietnam, etc.) About public (government) sector, the company only supplies management information system development services for projects what received funding from Japanese government to Vietnam, almost these projects goes through JICA Vietnam NTT DATA Vietnam often keeps close relationship with Japanese government agencies at Vietnam (JICA Vietnam, Embassy of Japan in

Vietnam) It is also an easy-to-understand fact, because NTT DATA is a subsidiary of NTT Group (old name: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) what is

a Japan state-owned company group These facts also clarify the business culture of Japan, which is reflected in the international business environment and, of course, in the business environment of Vietnam The symbiotic relationship, cohesive good hold Japanese enterprises together, Japanese enterprises with Japanese government agencies in the country firmly

Major product lines of the company include Warehousing management system, Business workflow software, Production management software, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software, Digitalization document for public libraries

4.3 Managing human resources at NTT DATA Vietnam

4.3.1 Hierarchical structure

The author collected general information of NDVN from desk-based research NDVN The helpful information at here is secondary data NTT DATA split from Nippon telegraph and telephone public corporation (NTT Group, at now) to become an independent company in 1988 NTT DATA has engaged in building numerous ultra-large-scale systems Its philosophy is using information technology for creating new values and new paradigms, which help contribute to a more harmonious and affluent society At the current, NTT DATA had been changing its business structure At fiscal year

2017, net sales have continued to grow for 28 consecutive years and its sales outside Japan (NDVN contributed a little part) have expanded to more than 40%, compared with just 1% when NTT DATA first ventured out into global market NTT DATA used three values for employees working orientation and communication with customers, partners: “Client first”, “Foresight”,

“Teamwork” (Website NTT DATA) NDVN is a subsidiary company of NTT DATA Corporation, therefore it also followed three values The thesis focus on employee motivation, therefore, the value “Teamwork” needed more attention

In thesis’ theoretical framework, “Colleague relationship” depended much the value “Teamwork”

Major subsidiaries of NTT Group

Figure Major subsidiaries of NTT Group.

Da Nang city and Hochiminh city

Based on hierarchical structure of companies, human resources department also has vertical managing structure from Human resources management department of Headquarters (at Japan) to Human resources management department of China and Asia-Pacific sector (at Singapore), to Human resources management department of NTT DATA Vietnam (at Hanoi, Vietnam)

Figure Vertical structure of managing human resources

Branch structure of NDVN

Figure Branch structure of NDVN.

(Source: NTT DATA Vietnam)

Departments structure of NDVN (vertical organization structure)

Figure Departments structure of NDVN.

(Source: author)

Human resources are organized in also horizontal structure and vertical structure Horizontal structure: In three branch offices has human resources staffs, administration staffs, software engineers, salespersons.

Hanoi head office Danang branch

office Hochiminh city branch office

Board of

directors

Has General Director/ Director

of Hanoi head office concurrently

Director of Danang branch

Director of Hochiminh city branch office

Has HR staff Has HR staff

Administratio

n department Has Head of Administration

department, Telephone teller, Purchasing staff, Administration staff

Has reception/administration staff

Has reception/administration staff

Has software programmers, System analysis specialists, (English - Japanese - Vietnamese) Communicator staffs

Has software programmers, System analysis specialists, (English – Japanese –

Vietnamese) Communicator staffs

Sales EIT Has Head of Sale

EIT, Sale executives

Has Sales executives

Has Sales executives

Has Software programmers, System analysis specialists, (English - Japanese - Vietnamese) Communicator staffs

Has Software programmers, System analysis specialists, (English

- Japanese - Vietnamese) Communicator staffs

Vietnamese) Communicator staffs

Sales PIF Has Head of Sales

PIF, Sale Executives

Has Sale executives Has Sale executives

Table Human resources are organized in horizontal structure.

(Source: author)

The company has career path for many types of employee, these are chances for employee’s advancement Notice: All PIF’s employees need Japanese skills (N1, N2, N3, N4 or N5 Japanese certificate), and working much with Japanese partners EIT means Enterprise Information Technology, EIT’s employees mainly work in management information system for enterprise customers

8 Manager

9 System analyst

10 Senior system analyst

11 Senior software programmer (EIT)

12 Software programmer (EIT)

13 Senior software tester (EIT)

14 Senior software programmer (PIF)

15 Software programmer (PIF)

16 Software tester (PIF)

17 Senior software tester (PIF)

4.3.3 Career paths

NTT DATA has a long-history in business operating, NDVN inheritance career path designing from NTT DATA NDVN has a comprehension set of career paths for all type of employees The below result obtained by extracting and synthesis from common practices at NDVN’s human resources department

Career path for software specialist (4 paths)

Figure Career path for software specialist in EIT Business Unit.

Coding titles for software specialist

2 PG2 Senior Software programmer

Figure Coding titles for software specialist.

Career path for accounting staffs

Figure Career path for accounting staffs.

(Source: author)

Career path for administration, human resources staffs

Figure Career path for administration, human resources staffs.

(Source: author)

Career path for employee in Sales department (All employees in sale

department need Japanese skill, because almost enterprise customers or public sector customers that related Japanese citizens, companies,

government) Communicator staffs can reach advancement in career path of Sales staffs.

Figure Career path for employee in Sales department in EIT Business Unit

(Source: author)

Figure Career path for employee in Sales department in PIF Business Unit

(Source: author)

4.3.4 Performance evaluation and salary

Salary of employees based on ladder levels of employees The below result obtained by synthesis process from author

NDVN evaluates working performance of employees two times in a

year According to common practices at Japanese companies, one fiscal year start at April 1st to March 31st, but for suitable with Vietnam traditional context, company apply few principles are: Has an evaluation time at previous of Lunar New Year, Six months period for an evaluation time It is preparing for bonus before Lunar New Year.

MonthJapanese

Employee performance ranking

No Ranking Bonus (Net monthly salary * rate)

(Yearly employee performance ranking) = (First six-month period employee performance ranking) + (Last six-month period employee performance