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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI HONG THAM

THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES ON
INCENTIVE SYSTEMS IN VIETNAMESE ENTERPRISES

SPECIALTY: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
CODE: 62.34.01.02


ADMINISTRATION AND BUSINESS DISSERTATION SUMMARY



HANOI, 2014


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INTRODUCTION
a. The rationale for studying
Researches into the relationship between cultures and
incentives have exposed a significant gap and there are not many
studies considering directly this relationship. Studies that focus on
the impact of cultures on incentive systems mostly examines the
influence of national culture on the difference in incentives of
organizations in different countries and mainly study of the value

perspective. Therefore, this dissertation will test the influence of
organizational culture, specially department cultures on incentive
systems applied for these sections in Vietnamese enterprises. This is
an issue not answered clearly in previous studies.
b. The purpose of this study
The general purpose of this dissertation is to research of the
relationship between the organizational culture and the incentive
system. The study will answer the questions whether the
organizational culture has significant influences on the incentive
system, including frequency of incentive use, parity or equity
allocation principle, the base to allocate and the way to pay
incentives or not.
c. The research subject and scope
The research issue is the effect of the organizational culture
(specially the section culture) on the incentive system applied in the
department in enterprises .
Study scope: Enterprises in Hanoi and provinces that are


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next to Hanoi. The survey was implemented from November, 2012
to April, 2013.
d. New findings in the dissertation
Different from many previous researches, this research
investigates differences in the relationship between organizational
culture and incentive system within one country, Vietnam. The
findings in this thesis reveals that organizational culture has

significant influence on incentive system, including the incentive
frequency, the principle, the base and the way to allocate bonus.
These are new findings that are not answered clearly in previous
studies. In particularly, in employee – oriented organization, the
frequency of bonus is higher, the parity allocation principle and the
group – based bonus is used more largely while in less employee –
oriented organization, individual – based bonus is used more highly.
To the tight or loose control dimension, the investigation results
indicate that in tight control units, the equity allocation principle and
individual – based bonus is used more largely. Another new finding,
contrast with the result of Western researches and the qualitative
study, is that in less employee – oriented units, bonus is paid secretly
is more popularly.
On the practical perspective, firstly, the findings in this study
help predict reward system applied in an organization when
understanding its culture. Secondly, the findings also help managers
comprehend the relationship between organizational culture and the
incentive system. Therefore, they are able to design, fulfill and
change incentive plans to have better results.


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CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BASIS AND LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Theoretical basis
1.1.1. Culture and organizational culture
1.1.1.1. Culture
Culture is specially difficult to define. Asif (2011) indicated

that “culture is one of two or three words that is the most
complicated in English”. Generally, researchers have agreed that
culture refers to belief and value, expressed in practice, in behavior
and other things, shared by the members of an organization or a
nation. However, besides the common agreement, authors shows a
lot of different opinion about culture.
1.1.1.2 Organizational culture
According to Hofstede et al (1990), organizational culture
appeared in academic studies in the United State in 1979 and it is
quite recent appearance. Up to now, organizational culture definition
become a controversial definition in both theory and practice. It
continuously shows different development trends in academics and
new definitions to understand this concept develop endlessly.
Although there are various views, scholars are becoming
more consensus. While most researchers have agreed that
organizational culture includes artifacts, shared value, belief and
underlying assumptions, their viewpoints about each part are clearly
different. Some authors emphasize the value perspective of
organizational culture. On the contrast, other scholars highlight the
artifact aspect of organizational culture. Many remaining authors are


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in the middle of two above viewpoints.
Researchers also do not have agreement about the dimension
to assess organizational culture. According to the findings of
Hofstede et al (1990), the difference in organizational cultures

among companies mainly to be observed and evaluated by 6
dimensions, including process versus result orientation
organizational culture, employee versus job orientation
organizational culture, parochial versus professional organizational
culture, open or closed system organizational culture, loose control
versus tight control organizational culture and normative versus
pragmatic organizational culture.
1.1.1.3. The departmental culture
Hofstede et al (1990) found that organizational culture could
be studied at whole organizational level or lower levels, such as the
department or unit level depends on its cultural homogeneity. These
authors found that many organizations included sections that have
different cultures and jobs with different culture.
This is confirmed in some researches of Hofstede after that.
In addition, Martin (2002) found that the subculture in enterprises
appeared because of difference in the jobs and functions. Moreover,
according to Schein (2004), if an organization become successful, it
was sure that it would create lower units and start creating their
culture basing on their own leaders. Besides, other authors also
supplied evidences on difference in culture among departments and
units. In addition, Reiman et al (2005) studied organizational culture
of the maintenance units in two nuclear power factories and Kunda
(2006) researched into the culture of the engineering unit in an


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advanced technology company. These are evidences of using

department level to be a research unit in organizational culture
studies. Therefore, the author decides to choose examination units
are department in enterprises.
1.1.2 Compensation system and incentive
1.1.2.1 Compensation system
Many researchers on compensation have agreed that
compensation oftend includes salary, benefits and bonus, share
options.
1.1.2.2 Incentives
Incentives is an important tool to promote managers to reach
the objectives of organization. Anthony and Govindarajan (2003)
indicated that incentive plans include two parts: short term plans and
long term incentive plans. The short term incentive plans include the
total bonus pool, carryovers and deferred compensation. Long term
incentive plans comprise stock options, phantom share, stock
appreciation right, performance shares and performance units.
Incentive can be based on the contribution or the working
time. It also can be based on the individual result or the group result.
Moreover, it is allocated equally or equitably.
1.2 Literature review on the effect of organizational cultures on
incentive systems in enterprises
1.2.1 The influence of the organizational culture on management
in enterprises


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Pheysey (1993) found that organizational culture had

relationship with various perspectives of enterprise management. In
particularly, this author indicated clearly the relationship between
organizational culture and the management aspects, such as change,
control, organizational design, job design, motivation, decision
making, group behavior, leadership and management, and
organization development. Culture is emphasized because it impacts
on many other things that is showed in the dissertation.
1.2.2 The influence of organizational cultures on incentive systems
in enterprises
1.2.2.1 Domestic literature review
In Vietnam, researches of the impact of culture on
management in generally and on salary, reward in particularly are
quite new. There are few studies that considered this issue. Most
studies focused on considering each subject separately, such as the
culture or the organizational culture or salary or reward. Some
authors investigated the effect of culture on compensation issue in
our country. For example, Thuc Anh (2010) found that although
Vietnamese culture stressed power distance, the Vietnamese wanted
the “equality” in compensation. The too big difference in
compensation is unacceptable to Vietnamese staffs. Huy and Thang
(2012) examined the effect of national culture (Vietnam) on
compensation practices applied in enterprises, then they proposed
some hints to help Vietnamese enterprises to design a suitable reward
system to culture value of Vietnamese labor, therefore it helps
strengthen the effectiveness of paying salary in enterprises.


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1.2.2.2. International literature review
Recently, there is an increasing interest in testing the
relationship between culture and parts of the management control
system, such as performance measure system or incentives. The most
remarkable research on the influence of organizational culture on
incentives system is made by Bento and Ferreira (1990). These
authors used the qualitative method, explored the influence of
organizational culture on incentive system at an university in the
United State. Researches on the effect of organizational culture on
incentive system only examined the impact of the value aspect (not
practice perspective) organizational culture on incentive system.
However, the practice side is more important and effective to
investigate organizational culture. Therefore, the dissertation will
examine the impact of the practice aspect of organizational culture
on the incentive system.
1.3 The research model










Control variables
Demographics of respondents: Job title, age, sex, number of year working for the company, education level
Firm characteristics: working unit, business sector, legal form of organization, company size, company age and

ownership

Organizational culture
Process versus result orientation
Employee versus job orientation
Parochial versus professional
Open or closed system
Loose control versus tight control
Normative versus pragmatic

Incentive system
Level of incentives
Incentive allocation principles
Group-based or individual-based
The way to pay incentive


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Figure 1.5: The theoretical model
(Source: The author synthesized and proposed)
Some hypotheses are proposed from literature review:
H1: In result-oriented units, incentives is more likely to used
highly than in process-oriented units
H2a: In employee-oriented units, incentive frequency is
likely to be higher than in job-oriented units
H2b: In employee-oriented units, the parity principle for
allocating incentives is more likely to be used broadly than in job-

oriented units.
H2c: In employee-oriented units, group-based incentives are
more likely to be used largely than in job-oriented units
H2d: In job-oriented units, individual-based incentive is
more likely to be used largely than in employee-oriented units
H2e: In employee-oriented units, the secret payment is more
likely to be used popularly than in job-oriented units
H3a: In tight control units, the equity rule for allocating
incentive is more likely to be used commonly than in loose control
units
H3b: In tight control units, individual-based incentive is
more likely to be used universally than in loose control units
Three other practice dimensions, including parochial versus
professional, open or closed system, and normative versus pragmatic
organizational culture have not been considered to produce
hypotheses because the author have not found any relationship
between these variables and various aspects of incentive system from
literature review



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Conclusion of chapter 1
Chapter 1 has systematized various different views of
researchers about organizational culture and incentive. Then, the
dissertation has given the accepted definition of two concepts. In

addition, chapter 1 has introduced literature review, proposed the
research model and hypotheses on the influence of organizational
cultures on incentive systems in Vietnam enterprises.
















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CHAPTER 2: CASE STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES ON INCENTIVE SYSTEMS
IN DEPARTMENTS OF TWO ENTERPRISES
Studying organizational culture is not an easy job. Bento and
Ferreira (1990) found that understanding how culture affect on
compensation policies requires “a period of immersion in that culture
and intensive use of the insider information”.

So the author has chosen to study insightly two enterprises
producing carton package in the northern region to see whether
enterprises in the same industry has differently organizational culture
or not and their incentive system are significantly different or not.
The author had chosen two cases that are two enterprises in the same
industry to eliminate the influence of the outside factors on the
incentive system. In addition, based on the results of previous
researches, enterprises that belongs to different legal forms has not
similar organizational culture. Therefore, two enterprises were
chosen. One of them was a private company (An Duy company) and
the another had been a state – owned company that is equitized
recently (Ban Mai enterprise). So two cases are anticipated to be
significantly different in organizational culture, then the author will
examine whether incentive practices in two enterprises are different
following the predictions given basing literature review or not.
At An Duy company, the author interviewed the chief
accountant, the vice manager and the assistant of the business
division. At Ban Mai enterprise, the vice manager of business
division and the chief accountant were interviewed. The interviews
were planned about time, place and were direct contacts. Each


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interview lasts from 1.5 to 3 hours. The information of interviews
was taken note and was typed within 24 hours. The interviews were
implemented with an interview guide including open questions
developed basing organizational culture scales of Hofstede et al

(1990) and incentive system scales borrowed from the research of
Segalla et al (2006), Mahoney and Thorn (2006) and Goktan and
Saatcioglu(2011). The interview guide and the detail information of
interviewees are showed in the appendix of the dissertation.
2.1. Case A: An Duy corporation
This part presents the general information of the company,
the divisional culture and the incentive system applied in the
divisions of the company
2.2 Case B: Ban Mai enterprise
This part presents the general information of the enterprise,
the divisional culture and the incentive system applied in the
divisions of the enterprise.
2.3 Some hypotheses were supported
H’1: In result-oriented units, incentives is more likely to
used highly than in process-oriented units
H’2: In result-oriented units, the equity rule for allocating
incentive is more likely to be used commonly than in loose control
units
H’3: In employee-oriented units, the parity principle for
allocating incentives is more likely to be used broadly than in job-
oriented units.


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Table 2.1: The comparison of organizational cultures and incentive systems at two enterprises
An Duy company Ban Mai enterprise Difference note
The

business
department
–The
culture

- Result-oriented culture
- Job-oriented culture
- Professional culture
- Open system culture
- Loose control culture
- Pragmatic culture
- Process-oriented culture
- Employee-oriented culture
- Parochial culture
- Open system culture
- Tight control culture
- Pragmatic culture, less clearly
- Quite clear
- Quite clear
- Little
- Quite similar
- Quite clear
- Little
The
business
department
–The
incentive
system
- Revenue bonus monthly for

each individual who has
completed his duty. The
percentage of bonus per
compensation was
dramatically higher than other
divisions in the company.

- Publicly
- Revenue bonus monthly with
the same percentage for all
indirect staffs (working in
office) if the enterprise get the
bigger revenue than planed. The
difference in the percentage of
bonus per compensation among
divisions that work in office was
lower
- Secretly
-
Significantly different in the
parity or equity allocation
principles.
-
Difference in the allocation
basis: individual/ enterprise
results.

- Differently
Accounting
department

–The
culture
- Process-oriented culture
- Employee-oriented culture
- Parochial culture
- Open system culture
- Tight control culture
- Pragmatic culture more
strongly
-Process-oriented culture clearly
- Employee-oriented culture
- Parochial culture
- Open system culture
- Tight control culture
- Pragmatic culture
- Little
- Little
- Quite similar
- Similar
- Similar
- Little
The
accounting
department
-The
incentive
system
- Only be rewarded once per
year before Tet holiday if the
company made profit in the

previous year. Each staff
received a bonus that was
equal to his monthly salary.
The manager got 1.5 monthly
salary.
- Publicly
- Bonus monthly with the same
percentage for all indirect staffs
(working in office) if the
enterprise get the bigger revenue
than planed. Having incentive
based on the result of a year and
on holiday occasions.
- Secretly
-
Significantly different in the
incentive frequency
-
Difference in the percentage
of bonus per compensation



-
Different in the way to pay
(Source: the author synthesized)


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H’4: In employee-oriented units, the secret payment is more
likely to be used popularly than in job-oriented units
H’5: In employee-oriented units, group-based incentives are
more likely to be used largely than in job-oriented units
H’6: In loose control orientation units, incentives is more
likely to used highly than in tight control orientation units
For other hypotheses on the influence of organizational
culture on incentive system, that are indicated in the chapter 1, the
result of the qualitative research has not provided evidence to
support.

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 2
This chapter has reported the result of the qualitative study
carried out at two enterprises that producing carton packages in the
northern region of Vietnam. The result reveals that some hypotheses
shown in the chapter 1 were supported. Therefore, the quantitative
study stage using questionnaires with bigger sample was followed.









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CHAPTER 3: THE SURVEY STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE
OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES ON INCENTIVE
SYSTEMS IN VIETNAMESE ENTERPRISES
3.1 The research method
The study sample was chosen from enterprises that belonged to all
legal forms in Hanoi and neighboring provinces. The questionnaires were
used to explore 150 enterprises that were chosen following different
standards to try assure the representative requirement. The scales were
borrowed from the previous researches.
3.2 The study result
The coding and data entering were implemented following
the instruction of using SPSS software. The data was checked by
using the frequency table. After that, analyzing factor and checking
scale reliability were applied. EFA model was used to check scale
reliability. When the scales were found reliable, the regression
analysis were done to examine hypotheses.
3.2.1 Sample description statistics
The sample size was 150 enterprises. This meant the
research could collect 300 answer sheets. However, in fact, only 230
answer sheets were collected. After excluding the answer sheets
lacking the important information or the respondents were not
suitable, 216 answer sheets were used to analyze data.
3.2.2 Checking the scale reliability
The primary statistical techniques used to analyze data in


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this study included factor analysis, checking scale reliability and
multivariate hierarchical regression analysis. The eigenvalue-based
method was used to identify the number of factors. After that, the
factors with “eigenvalue > 1” were kept. The result of factor analysis
revealed that for practice perspectives of the organizational culture,
seven factors were created rather six factors as expected from
Hofstede (1990). Among 7 factors, only 2 factors gained reliability
with Cronbach’s alpha were 0.7 and 0.67.
3.2.3 The result of correlation analysis, regression and testing
hypotheses
Hypothesis H1 were not tested because the result of the scale
reliability analysis to the process versus result oriented organization
culture dimension was too low. This is similar to analysis result of
other Vietnamese authors (Thuc Anh and Minh Hang, 2009).
H2a: The result of the regression analysis exposed that the
full model was significant (Adjusted R square .25, F: 5.006, p<.001).
The employee oriented organization culture variable had
significantly positive relationship with the incentive frequency (.153,
p<.05). It is consistent with hypothesis 2a.
H2b: The result of the regression analysis showed that the
full model was significant (Adjusted R square .05, F: 1.752, p<.1).
The employee oriented organization culture variable had
significantly positive relationship with parity allocation (.17, p<.05).
It is consistent with hypothesis 2b.
H2c: The result of the regression analysis presented that the
full model was significant (Adjusted R square .121, F: 2.912, p<.01).
The employee oriented organization culture variable had

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significantly positive relationship with group-based incentives (.217,
p<.01). It is consistent with hypothesis 2c.
H2d: The full model was significant (Adjusted R square
.064, F: 1.973, p<.05). The employee oriented organization culture
variable had significantly negative relationship with individual-based
incentives ( 157, p<.05). It is consistent with hypothesis 2d.
H3a: The result of the regression analysis indicated that the
full model was significant (Adjusted R square .087, F: 2.346, p<.01).
The loose vs. tight control oriented organization culture variable had
significantly positive relationship with equity principle for allocating
incentives (.241, p<.01). It is consistent with hypothesis 3a.
H3b: The result of the regression analysis directed that the
full model was significant (Adjusted R square .067, F: 2.01, p<.05).
The loose vs. tight control oriented organization culture variable had
significantly positive relationship with the individual-based incentive
(.15, p<.1). It is consistent with hypothesis 3b.
For the hypotheses supported in the qualitative study, H’1
and H’2 were not tested because the scales were not reliable. H’3 and
H’5 were supported. In addition, the results of the quantitative data
analysis indicated that the testing outcome of H’4 hypothesis was
contrast with the expectation shown in chapter 1 and the H’6
hypothesis was not supported.

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Table 3.13: Results of Regression Analysis for Each Dependent Variable

(
Standardized coefficients are shown

Significance levels: +p<.1. *p<.05. **p<.01 ***p<.001
)

Variables Incentive frequency
(H2a)
Parity/equity allocation rule
(H2b, H3a)
Individual/group incentive
(H2c, H2d, H3b)
Control
Model
Full Model Full Model Full Model Full Model Full Model Full Model
Controls
Job title .122 .104 235
**

.095 236
**

.026 043

Age 265
*

280
*

.128 .022 .296
**

100 072
Sex .026 .033 017 .070 020 .090 .111
Number of year working for current
company
.156

.174 029 .047 033 .070 .059
Education level 181
*

179
*

082 .158
*

052 .168
*

.185
*

Working units 378
***

-387
***

063 088 021 .026 .065
Business sector .207
*

.204
*

029 .111 .129 .138
+

.147
+

Legal form 060 062 125 .019 192
*

100 084
Company size .141 .115 094 058 194
*

011 064
Company age 005 .004 220
*

027 .081 107 131
Ownership .027 .056 034 040 .058 -020 021
Independent Variables
Employee orientation .153
*

.017
*

.217
**

157
*


Loose/tight control orientation .241
**

.150
+

F 4.983
***

5.006
***

1.752

+

2.346
**

2.912
**

1.973
*

2.010*
Adjusted R
2

.233 .25 .051 .087 .121 .064 .067
Number of observations 145 145 169 170 168 172 170






THE THIRD CHAPTER CONCLUSION
Based on the hypotheses shown in the chapter 1 and some
results supporting a few hypotheses in the qualitative study stage in
the chapter 2, the chapter 3 of the dissertation has implemented the
survey study of the influence of organizational cultures on incentive
systems with the bigger sample, 150 enterprises in Hanoi and
neighboring provinces. The sample selection considered various

standards, such as the enterprise size, business sector, company age,
legal form and ownership. The analysis result indicated that most
hypotheses presented in the chapter 1 were supported, excluding H1
hypothesis was not tested because the scale was not reliable and the
one result was contrast with the hypothesis shown, H2e. This
demonstrated that the division culture affect dramatically on various
perspectives of the reward system applied in that divisions, such as
the reward frequency, the reward allocation principles, the base for
allocation, group or individual based, and the way to pay, secretly or
publicly. These are new findings that the dissertation help to clarify
the relationship between the organizational culture and the reward
system that is interested by many researchers and managers.









CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND PROPOSAL
4.1 The study result and discussion
Different from many previous researches about the
relationship between culture and compensation that study pay
preferences of individuals or compensation systems in different
organizations in dissimilar countries, this research investigated
differences in organizational cultures and incentive systems in a
country, Vietnam. The findings in this research reveal that
organizational cultures have significant influences on incentive

systems, including the level of incentive use, the allocation principle,
the base and the way to allocate
4.2 The contribution of this dissertation
4.2.1 The theoretical contribution
Firstly, most of the prior studies of the relationship between
culture and incentive examined the organizational culture at the
whole organization or enterprise level, this research was
implemented at the lower level, departments or units. Secondly, the
dissertation has tested some organizational culture scales of Hofstede
et al (1990). The reliability analysis outcome in this thesis and some
earlier researches indicated that these scales should be developed and
improved more. Finally, this study is done in the transitional
economy. However, the research outcome is quite similar to previous
studies when it shows the relationship between organizational
cultures and incentive systems
4.2.2 The practical contribution






Firstly, the findings helps predict an incentive system
applied in an organization when understanding its organizational
culture. Secondly, to managers, it helps them understand the
relationship between the organizational culture and the incentive
system, so they can design their reward systems more effectively.
Thirdly, the outcome of this dissertation directs changes in the
organizational culture and the incentive system to have better results.
4.3 Some suggestions to managers

Firstly, managers should assure the fitness between the
organizational culture and the incentive system. Secondly, managers
in merge and acquisition companies should analyze the
organizational culture to avoid collision. Thirdly, managers should
control organizational culture differences in multinational
companies.
4.4 Some policy suggestions
Firstly, the government should have measures to develop the
stock market to support enterprises change their reward practices.
Secondly, the government should strengthen the education
system and the enforcement of implementing legal rules to intensify
the belief to each other among Vietnamese people in generally and
managers in particularly. This helps to make advantages to apply
effectively various forms of incentives that are popular in developed
countries but have not been applied effectively in Vietnam, such as
carryovers and deferred compensation, to get the benefit of applying
these kind of compensation, after that it brings more benefits for both
enterprises and workers.






Thirdly, the government should change actively our national
culture following the international integration trend to support the
suitability between the organizational culture and the national
culture.
4.5 The research limitation and directions for future researches
This research has some limitations. Firstly, most measures

are borrowed from earlier studies, so they were not completely
suitable to the Vietnamese context. The second limitation of this
research is that the study uses some single item measures to
investigate some perspectives of the incentive system.
The third limitation is the research sample. While the study
scope is all Vietnamese enterprises but the study sample is only
selected from enterprises located in Hanoi and neighboring provinces
because of the resource shortage. Therefore, this is the limitation of
the dissertation although many prior studies in this field that were
implemented by other authors also share the sample limitation
similar to this dissertation.
In addition, in current conditions, Vietnam is in the first
stage of the market economy development, the time of opening its
door is not long so many factors are not created like in developed
countries. The incentive forms are evidences. So when the
Vietnamese economy become more developed and enterprises are
integrated more, it is sure that the incentive types will become
diversified and the study subject will be bigger. These are
opportunities for future researches in this field. Moreover, the
dissertation only concentrates on studying bonus, while it is a part of
the compensation package received by labors. There are many






researches investigating the relationship between culture and
compensation but considering the national culture, future researches
can explore the effect of the organizational culture on compensation

in generally, including salary, benefits to find how the organizational
culture affect on the selection of compensation parts: salary, benefits
and incentives. In particularly, future researches can look for
answering to the questions: what culture an organization has will fit
the situation that salary is bigger or benefits are used more.
Furthermore, the findings are supported in the qualitative stage but
are not tested in the quantitative study will be issues that future
researches continue considering.


THE CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 4
In chapter 4, the dissertation has synthesized the results
confirmed by testing hypotheses in chapter 3. The dissertation has
presented the explanation for the difference in the testing outcome
and the hypothesis (H2e). Based on the study results, the dissertation
indicates contributions created and give some proposals to managers
and administration agencies, such as the government. The study
limitations and directions for future researches were clarified.

CONCLUSION
How to have suitable rewards to stimulate efforts is the
consideration of enterprises. So this issue is interested by theoretical
researches. In this thesis, the author has clarified the incentive
definition, incentive types, base to determine incentives, the
incentive allocation principles and ways. After that, the thesis has
considered the reward system under the influence of the
organizational culture. Based on results of previous studies of the
relationship between two factors, the dissertation has concentrated on
clarifying the effect of the organizational culture on the reward
system, answering questions that are not considered clearly in the
prior studies. In particularly, this research find that there is a positive
relationship between the employee-oriented organizational culture
and the reward frequency in units. The employee-oriented
organizational culture also has positive relationship with using the
equality allocation principle and the group-based bonus. The findings
of this study reveal that in organizations with less employee-oriented
organizational culture, the secret principle and the individual-based
reward are used more commonly. Moreover, the research results of
the dissertation indicate that in organizations with loose control
orientation culture, the equity allocation principle and individual-
based bonus is used more frequently.
Based on the findings, this dissertation has both theoretical
and practical contributions. On the theoretical perspective, the
dissertation has answered questions that are not considered in
previous researches on the relationship between the culture and the
incentive system. On the practical side, by showing the effect of the

organizational culture, the dissertation helps managers to have more
understanding about designing and implementing bonus plans better,
so improve the business results of enterprises. Furthermore, based on
the findings, the anticipation of the incentive system can be made
when understanding its organizational culture. The dissertation has
indicated some limitations and directions for future researches ared
introduced. Therefore, researchers who are interested in studying
insightfully the relationship between organizational cultures and
rewards can find the gap to continue researching in this dissertation.

LIST OF THE AUTHOR’S STUDIES PUBLISHED
1. Nguyen Thi Hong Tham (2011), The bonus at the end of a
year in enterprises, The Trade journal, volume 35, pp 46-48.
2. Nguyen Thi Hong Tham (2011), Some findings in researches
of the relationship between the culture and the incentive
system in enterprises, Contemporary business management,
National Economics University publishing, pp. 105-124.
3. Nguyen Van Thang and Nguyen Thi Hong Tham (2012),
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