Organizational Behavior Report

1. Introduction
The market economy is always the opportunity and challenge for every business of all
economic sectors, especially private-run company. Thus, each company has its own
development strategy and business philosophy to grow up. Mai Linh Group has also adopted
flexible operating principles, depending on specific conditions, to speed up development.
Being considered as one of the most reliable and famous groups in transportation field of
Vietnam, Mai Linh group has a long history with its attempting progress during 15 years all
over Vietnam. Mai Linh is confident to be an active Vietnamese group that is really interested
in social activities and is appreciated about accomplishing its responsibilities. With this
organizational behavior, Mai Linh gets a good impression and image to customers. Besides, it
also proves its own position in transportation market of Vietnam with its achievements in 8
different business fields and its provided services in 50 provinces in Vietnam. To help people
know more deeply about this group, this report is about its organizational structure and
culture of which many people are concerned about as well as factors influencing on
individual behavior at work. That is not the only reason to make this report spread Mai Linh
group’s trade-mark but also get further future and be good document for future research.

2. Organizational Structure
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2.1. Divisional structure

Figure 1: Mai Linh group organization by division structure
Organization structure is one of key factors whether a company operates efficiently or not.
For that reason, Mai Linh group really attaches special importance to how to organize their
structure conveniently and divisional structure is one of their choices to achieve their goals.
Divisional structure is a structure in which positions are grouped according to similarity of
products, services or market. In particular, the group carries out the divisional structure with
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diverse operations cutting across areas and products which are two typical types of this
structure.
a. Geographic
Mai Linh group’s geographic structure is based on areas of Vietnam including Mai Linh
Northeastern Vietnam, Mail Linh Northwestern Vietnam, Mai Linh Northern central Vietnam,
Mai Linh Southern central and Highland Vietnam, Mai Linh Southeastern Vietnam, Mai Linh
southwestern Vietnam and Mai Linh overseas.
Applying this type of structure, Mai Linh group has got many advantages. Firstly, geographic
structure helps the group serve local needs better because the managing area is limited so it is
easier for employees to understand the local people as well as the local culture. Also, the
small companies have good opportunities to compete positively across missions and
objectives of the group. With strengths of each area, this geographic structure could be a
useful tool for local companies of Mai Linh to discover and develop.
If Mai Linh Southeastern Vietnam is good for their population and high living standard, Mai
Linh Northeastern is proud of their convenient location with the beautiful images of Hanoi
capital and potential tourism system. On the other hand, no matter how each place’s strengths
are, the prices of services are the same and with Taxi Mai Linh it cost 10,000 VND for 0,8
first km, then 12,000 VND per km for next 20 kilometers and 8,500 VND per km for
customers who enjoy this service more than 20 km. Besides, organizing the structure based
on geographic division will make more effective communication between firm and local
customers with stronger customer orientation and more accurate measurement.
However, organization by location could not avoid its limitations in organization of the
company. The different among areas about economic and cultural situation is a difficult for
the group to solve, which is really easy to cause conflict between local and central
management. For example, Mai Linh Hanoi and Mai Linh Vinh Phuc ( a small province of
Northeastern Vietnam) are really different about economic conditions as well as purposes in
needs of people so with this structure, the group will have troubles in making balance in
managing methods for this structure.
Moreover, this structure can also make duplication of resources and functions among areas

and this could make repetition in the organizational structure of the group, so it will be a
challenge for the managers to compare and contrast the efficiency in the operation of the
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group based on organizational structure. This is also an important factor for the management
department to find out and consolidate weaknesses of Mai Linh.
b. Product
After 15 years with its ups and downs, Mai Linh group is confident to get many a lot of
success in 8 main services which is considered as organization by product of Mai Linh group.
Being non state-owned enterprise, Mai Linh brings jobs for more than 10,000 people in its
fields including Mai Linh transport, Mai Linh training, Mai Linh tourism, Mai Linh
manufacture and trading, Mai Linh finance, Mai Linh information technology, Mai Linh
security and bodyguard service, Mai Linh construction and other business and service.
Organization by product helps the group have clear focus on market segment and be more
convenient to meet customers’ needs. Each product has its own specialization in its characters
and objectives. According to the development strategy of Mai Linh Group in 2007-2010, it is
easy to see the differences among services:
 In transportation
Increasing the national TAXI network to 10,000 taxis
Expanding the 16-24 seat Express coaches to 1,000 units
Investing in the new national intercity coach system to 1,000 (45-60 seat) units
Upgrading transportation system to GPS technology.
 In tourism
Introducing new in-bound tourism packages and establishing more overseas tourism offices
to explore the growing interest of international visitors to Vietnam.
Increasing promotion activities in domestic and out-bound markets
Developing multifunctional tourism precincts, including hotels, restaurants, fun fairs, ecotourism areas, fully insured adventurous activities.
 In trading
Distributing vehicles for Mai Linh Group and other domestic partners through distribution

network, agents, automobile and spare supermarkets.
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Importing and exporting automobiles spare parts, agricultural, aqua cultural, handicrafts,
textile and garment export, pure stilling water, industry-used white sand.
 In construction
Actively taking part in the tendering for Rest areas project
Being investor in the “Mai Linh Village” project in Dong Nai
Providing project management services for the “Mai Linh Office Building No.2”
Moreover, the group can get better control with each service because they operate based on
different usage and purposes so they also make separate profit. Another reason is that
stimulated decentralization is carried out efficiently; managing activities of the company
becomes freer then they have many chances to expand the market presence.
Look at the other side, Mai Linh also has to deal with a lot of troubles in using this
organizational structure. Unlike geographic structure, this type of structure makes negative
effects of competition. With the differences in usage purposes and ranks of customers,
services could tend to attract the same type of customers and this is easy to lead to scramble
customers between sectors representing each service. Furthermore, if stimulated
decentralization is regarded as an advantage of the structure, it also contains its disadvantage
that is lack of central control over each separate division and this might be a dangerous
problem for having grasp and exact information about the operation in every service of the
group.

2.2. Functional structure

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CEO of Mai

Linh Southern
Central &
Highland
Vietnam

Administrative

Inspection

Developmental

Financial

personnel

legislation

business

accounting

Technical

department

department

department

department

department

Project
management
department

Figure 2: Mai Linh Group organization by functional structure
The success of a company lies within its organizational structure and using more than one
organizational structure is also one of popular strategies of many companies. With Mai Linh
group, besides managing under geographic and product divisional structure, it also uses
functional structure which is defined a structure in which positions are grouped together into
productive units with a hierarchical reporting system according to their main functional
departments such as administrative personnel, inspection legislation, technical, financial
accounting or developmental business .

Being one of the oldest and most traditional structures, functional structure provides a variety
of benefits. Unlike divisional structure, functional structure concentrates on in-depth
expertise development which helps staff have grasp knowledge and experience about their
tasks, work and related fields. Hence, all Mai Linh staff are self-working and considering the
development of the company as theirs. It also provides positive atmosphere for skill
development. This leads to continuous growth and development within the organization from
simple day to day interaction with managers, instead of having to rely on specialized
seminars or workshops to improve the quality of work coming out of a department. This is a
good reason for their workers to work and coordinate with each other smoothly and
scientifically.

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On the other hand, dividing by functional structure makes gaps between sections on the
organization chart because of lack of communication; each department is only interested in
their work and tasks. Another point Mai Linh must face is taking many sections at the same
time that makes the group difficult to specialize and develop all of them. Therefore, it is easy
to create inequality among different sections.

As far as Lamar University’s definition is concerned, organizational structure is “the formal
system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates, and motivates
employees so that they cooperate to achieve an organization's goals.” This includes the
organization's policies, procedures and expectations. A healthy organizational structure will
enable employees to be more efficient, while an unhealthy structure can keep employees from
reaching their potential. To sum up, the two kinds of organizational structure that Mai Linh
group applied have their own advantages and disadvantages that influences on the
performance of the business and the effect is really good and positive with the operation of
the company. Nevertheless, in my opinion, divisional structure is more convenient and
suitable for Mai Linh group with its own goals and fields that it is aimed to be interested in.
There are many reasons for it but the above explanations are the main analysis that I want to
make, hopefully it is useful and necessary for people who are concerned about.

3. Organizational culture
Organizational culture which is known as personality and style of an organization is able to
change rootedly the functioning of organizations. It is made up of attitude, psychology, belief,
and experience, personal and cultural values of an organization. It is shown in two ways:
visible and invisible with its elements that are physical structure, language, rituals and
ceremonies and symbols belonging to visible and shared values and shared assumptions
belonging to invisible.

3.1 Types of organizational culture

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According to Handy’s classification, there are four types of organizational culture including
power culture, task culture, role culture and personal culture, which is summarized in this
figure:

Figure 3: Culture Quadrants after Harrison (1972)

 Power Culture (Zeus)
Power culture reflects the concentration of power of a family-owned business, which can
either be extremely large or small but the power concentrates on the hand of only one person
that is the boss. The boss is also the person who started the company and then the company is
usually named after the name of the boss. Therefore, this kind of culture shows high
centralization and delegation and it is so difficult to stay a power culture in a long time
because there are too much to know and too much to do for the boss.

 Role Culture (Apollo)

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Role culture reflects the functional units of the organisation and different people have
different roles so people can focus on their own tasks. On the other hand, in this case, people
sometimes think that the job description is more important than the skills and abilities. For
that reason, Handy suggests that this culture is appropriate in organisations which are not
subject to constant change.

 Task Culture ( Athena)

Task culture is the great emphasis on getting the job done and achieving the tasks. With this

culture, people do not depend so much on job’s specification but information and expertise
are the skills that are of value here. Influence in this culture is based on expertise and up-todate information where the culture is most in tune with results. The dangers for this culture
exist when there is a restriction in resources causing it to become more ‘power’ or ‘role’
orientated.

 Personal (Dionysus)

Based on personal culture, individuals within the structure are allowed to determine
collectively the path which the organisation pursues. When emerging a formalised structure,
it tends to service the needs of the individuals involved in the structure. Organisations which
apply this culture reject formal hierarchies for ‘getting things done’ and exist solely to meet
the needs of their members. The rejection of formal ‘management control’ and ‘reporting
relationships’ expresses that this may be a suitable culture for a self-help group or a
commune, etc., but it is not appropriate for business organisations.

3.2. Culture of Mai Linh Group
Mai Linh group belongs to role culture and it is obvious to see it from the organizational
structure of this company. Each department, product or area is divided clearly which bring
many advantages in business performance of this corporation.

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With its mission is to provide better satisfaction for better life, Mai Linh Group wishes to
bring best things for their customers through their culture. According to Mr. Ho Huy – CEO
of Mai Linh Group, ‘Culture is the spirit of our company’, so the group extremely appreciates
the role of culture in the company’s operation. The important thing is that cores values are
essential factors building their culture. Recognizing this, Mai Linh gives their core values as
follow:

Effectiveness

Ownership

Professionalism

Core
Values

Leadership

Teamwork

Figure 4: Core values of Mai Linh Group
These core values are shown and applied based on the operation of the company and
behaviors of people in the company. One of the most purposes of this company is to fulfill all
essential skills for their employees to work confidently and effectively. When assessing the
value of Mai Linh, it is not monetary value but the culture Mai Linh sets up so that people are
impressed when they hear, see, and think about this company. That is power that helps Mai
Linh get their position in Vietnam.

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4. Individual behaviour at work

There are many ways to assess the influence of different factors on individual behaviour at
work but in this case, MARS model is considered as a standard to evaluate how the factors
affect individual behaviour at work.

Figure 5: MARS Model of Individual behaviour at work and results.
MARS model of individual behavior is known as a model that is used to explain individual
behavior as a result of internal and external factors. The name of the model is an initial for
individual Motivation, Abilities, Role Perception and Situation Factors. These are regarded as
the four major factors in determining individual behavior at work.
However, individual values, personality, perceptions, emotions, attitudes, and stress are
original factor building the logical evaluating system of behavior at work, following that is
motivation, ability, role perception and situational factors. Therefore, there are two parts in
this theory and the first thing I would like to explain is the effect of motivation and ability.
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A person with a good motivation and ability, their performance in situational factors will be
positive and then they will have right behavior. This could be understood that if someone
have their own motivation strategies to encourage themselves in their work, they will have
more inspiration and enthusiasm in their tasks. Similarly, if the person has talent and
particular knowledge in their work, they could work more efficiently.
Another thing is that each person should know their own role well so that they could know
what they should do and how to do. From that they will have clever thought as well as action
to show their behavior at different situation at work.

After investigating the factors that influences most on the great development of Japan,
researchers identified that human resource is one of its invaluable assets. From then,
organizations are really interested in this area, especially individual behaviour at work. There
are many factors that influence this but below only refer to two factors as the most typical
examples that are personality and ability.

4.1. Personality
Personality is one of factors that influence most on individual behaviour at work. To make
this clear I took a MBTI test on and I got a

result with my type_ISFJ symbolizing introverted, sensing, feeling and judging shown in the table
below:

ISFJ

Strength of the

Introverted
Sencing
Feeling
Judging

preferences (%)
56
50
50
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Description
Moderately expressing introvert
Moderately expressing sensing personality
Moderately expressing feeling personality
Slightly expressing judging personality

Figure 6: The result of personality test
(From website: />
According to Jung Type Description ISFJs are traditional, loyal, quiet and kind. They are
very sensitive to other people's needs because they are very observant. They have rich inner
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thoughts and emotions. They value stability and cultural norms. They are very adept at giving
attention to detail and actually, this is also my awareness of my personality.

Another assessment of this kind of personality that could affect on individual behaviour at
work is from The Nurturer (Lifeplore) "At work, ISFJs contribute loyal, sympathetic,
consistent, and considerate service to others. They are known for their kindness and for
their willingness to go to any length to help those in need. They take the practical needs of
people into account when they do their work, and their strong follow-through skills allow
them to carry out organizational goals. They do at least what is expected to them and
oftentimes more, without attracting attention to themselves. They are painstaking and
responsible with detail and routine, and feel it is important to have the right things in the
right places at the right times."
Then I could get jobs that are suitable for me in the future are homemaker, office worker,
health care worker, receptionist, health educator or some kinds of jobs like that, while my
unsuitable career is rock star, performer, writer, comedian, CEO so with this recognization
about career, I can consider to choose a job that is good for me. Making right choice about
the career which is based on my personality will help me promote my good personalities and
this also makes me peaceful in my mind.
After graduating from ITP of Banking Academy, I will work in economic field that requires
active, extrovertive people. However, belonging to ISFJ type, I do not have any
characteristics that are good for this kind of job, so I will have to deal with a lot of difficulties
in different situations at work in the future. In other words, the opposite in personality
requirement will be a great barrier for me to deal with and this will have negative influence
on my behaviour at work which could lead to inefficiency of work. As a result, it will be easy
for me to get confused or even stressed with facing tasks of the career.

4.2. Ability

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Somebody always believe that employees are attracted by high salaries, good organizational
structures or great organizational culture but hardly do people think that these are only
external factors and more important thing that has impact on individual behaviour at work is
internal factors. No matter how big the company is or how good the company care for their
employees, they couldn’t have good behaviour at work if they don’t have passion on their
task. In this case, the problem is not from the company but from each person who have their
own desires, interests or ability which every manager really wants to know about their staff.

After doing multiple intelligences test which based on Howard Garder’s MI Model, the
results is shown
below:
Figure 7: The
result of Multiple
intelligences test
© V Chislett MSc and A
Chapman 2005, based
on Gardner's Multiple
Intelligences Model.
From
www.businessballs.com.
Not to be sold or
published. The authors
accept no liability.

According to the result of this test, I can see what my strengths are so that I have
my own direction in promoting my strengths and improving my weaknesses. Look
at the overview, my skills are quite equal, except for body-kinesthenic skill whose
mark is the lowest, only 18, while the highest mark is 27 for logical-mathematical

and intrapersonal skill. This also illustrates that I am good at these skills and jobs
which require these are very suitable for me.Therefore, I could have a very positive
and good behavior with jobs that could exploit and develop my ability.
Besides, the physical capacity of an individual to do something can be termed as ability and
skill that are able to be defined as the ability to act in a way that allows a person to perform
well. There is a close relationship between individual behaviour and performance and ability
and skills. A person can perform well in the organisation if his abilities and skills are matched
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with the job requirement. Therefore, managers play vital role in matching the abilities and
skills of the employees with the particular job requirement.
Taking an example from my aunt who has been working as a leader of accountants at Bank
for investment and development of Vietnam in Vinhphuc province. She actually graduated
excellently from Banking Academy so she is very good at professional knowledge and she
really deserves to takes over this position which many people are dreaming about. However,
she never finds happiness or satisfaction in her job except for tiredness and boredom that lead
to her worse and worse behavior at work. The problem is that she is really bad at leadership
skill even doesn’t have ambitions in her job, which is called lack of requirement skills. This is
really dangerous for this organization because if they know the abilities and skills of each
employee, they are not only good managers but also take use of abilities and power of people
to complete their tasks more easily.

From the example above, we can see that accomplishing skills and ability is really important
in showing the behavior at work. A person could be excellent at their specific field but that
does not mean that they could be a good leader. Actually, a person who gets good impression
from others is not only good at their area but also clever in showing their skills and ability to
improve their weaknesses as well as develop their strengths.
There are many other factors that impact individual behavior at work but above is two typical
examples for its serious effect on their work and quality of their work. These things are really

important not only for company in managing human resource but also for each person in
improving and making them better and better. The important thing this report focuses on is
that each person should find their own way to be always willing to face challenges at work as
well as in life. Hopefully, everyone has clear view about this point to get best rewards that
they deserve most.

5. Conclusion
Being a private enterprise that develop more and more strongly in Vietnam, Mai Linh is
proud to provide best services with their mission is to provide better satisfaction for better
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life. Hence, for Vietnamese people, Mai Linh is not only a realiable address on their travels
but also an honest friend in their life bringing them with interesting things in life.

The contents of this report not only focus on orhanizational structure, culture but the most
interesting section in the current study is individual behaviour at work. After doing a research
about any organizations, each person should make conclusion about how to behave
intelligently at work to make a good impression as well as positive business performance of
the company. Moreover, this report is also a product of finding out different aspects of factors
influencing on individual behaviour at work and new viewpoints about these factors. This
could be good references for future researchers and people who would like to accomplish
themselves to get satisfied in their work and life.

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