Role of internal communication in responding to people’s complaints at the office of people’s council and people’s committee of district 8th, HCMC

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business

------------------------------

NGUYỄN HOÀNG CẨM TÚ

ROLE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION IN
RESPONDING TO PEOPLE’S COMPLAINTS
AT THE OFFICE OF PEOPLE’S COUNCIL
AND PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE
OF DISTRICT 8TH, HCMC

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business

------------------------------

NGUYỄN HOÀNG CẨM TÚ

ROLE OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION IN
RESPONDING TO PEOPLE COMPLAINTS
AT THE OFFICE OF PEOPLE’S COUNCIL
AND PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE
OF DISTRICT 8TH, HCMC

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SUPERVISOR: PROF. TRAN HA MINH QUAN

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2018


CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
1.1. Introduction about the Office: ……………………………………………. 6
1.1.1. About the Office of People’s Council and People’s Committee of
district 8th, HCMC:……………………………………………………………………. 6
1.1.2. About human resource and structure of the Office:……………………6
1.1.3. About the receiving and responding of people’s complaints in the
Office:…………………………………………………………………………………. 7
1.2. Problem identification:……………………………………………………. 8
1.2.1. Evaluation satisfaction level of people in HCMC:……………………. 8
1.2.2. Symptom of Organization:……………………………………………10
1.2.2.1. Duplicated messages/phones:……………………………………..11
1.2.2.2. Negative feedbacks:………………………………………………12
1.2.3. The initial problem:…………………………………………………. 13
1.2.3.1. Responding time is not on the appointment time :………………..14
1.2.3.2. Responding results are not completed when meeting deadlines:....16
1.2.3.3. Responding results have not been unity among channels:………..20
1.2.4. Core problem:………………………………………………………... 23
1.2.4.1. Barriers of problems:…………………………………………….. 23
1.2.4.2. The core problem:………………………………………………... 25
CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION
2.1. The existence of problem:……………………………………………….. 31
2.2. The importance of problem:……………………………………………... 32
2.2.1. Lack of motivation and commitment of employees:………………… 32

2.2.2. Low job satisfaction:………………………………………………….33
2.2.3. Low job performance: ………………………………………………34
2.2.4. Work pressure: ……………………………………………………….35
2.3. Cause validation:………………………………...………………………. 36
2.3.1. Main causes of problem: ……………………………………………36
2.3.1.1. Lack of mutual information and knowledge cooperation: …………37
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2.3.1.2. Lack of providing information for needs of employees: …………..37
2.3.2. Links between core problem and two main causes; and evaluation….40
CHAPTER 3: DESIGN SOLUTION
3.1. Suggest solutions:………………………………………………………... 41
3.1.1. Set up common link information systems: …………………………41
3.1.2. Assign work, divide benefit equally and effectively: ...………………41
3.1.3. Merge current three (3) groups into a new teamwork: ……………….42
3.2. Solution evaluation:………………………………………………………44
3.3. Action plan: ………………………………………………………………45
CHAPTER 4: SUPPORTING INFORMATION:
4.1. Problem identification – Symptom of organization:.. ……………………47
4.2. Initial problem: …..………………………………………………………50
4.3. Barriers of problem:…………………………………………………….. 56
4.4. The existence of problem: ………………………………………………..57
4.5. The importance of the problem:…………………………………………. 58
REFERENCES

……………………………………………………………62

LIST OF TABLE
Table 1: evaluate level of solving people’s problem:…………………………..9

Table 2: The statistic duplicated and negative feedback messages/phones:… 10
Table 3: The rate of duplicated messages/phones for 5 years:………………. 12
Table 4: The rate of negative feedbacks for 5 years:………………………….13
Table 5: Activities of communication:……………………………………….. 27
Table 6: Main objectives of internal communication: ………………………..28
Table 7: Teamwork quality construct:………………………………………...42
LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1: The initial cause – effect map:……………………………………... 30
Figure 2: The cause – effect map:……………………………………………. 39

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The receiving and responding to people’s complaints at the Office has been
existed some problems due to affect product’s quality negatively and views of people
towards the state. This research finds out some problems which are related to internal
communication among departments of Office of People’s Council and People’s
Committee of district 8th, Ho Chi Minh city. Based on data from in depth interview and
survey questionnaires for five (5) respondents including that are two (2) staffs and
three (3) managers of the Office who work about receiving and responding to people’s
complaints as expertise and concurrent tasks, this research finds out two (2) main
causes as: lack of mutual information and knowledge cooperation; lack of providing
information for needs of employees. From that, the writer suggests solutions, action
plan to relate around internal communication at Office to improve current existences
and enhance positive views of people towards the local state.

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CHAPTER I: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
1.1. Introduction about the Office of People’s Council and People’s
Committee of district 8th
1.1.1. About the Office of People’s Council and People’s Committee of
district 8th
People’s Committee of district 8th is organized and operated on the principle of
democratic centralism and has responsibility to implement the Constitution, the laws,
the written decisions of the higher level State and resolutions of People’ Council of
district 8th, promotes the right of mastery of the people, strengthen of social legislation,
prevent and fight against bureaucratism, irresponsibility, arrogance, authoritarianism,
corruption, wastefulness and other negative manifestations at the offices, among State
employees and within the local administrative apparatus. It is located number 4, Duong
Quang Dong street, ward 5th, district 8th, Ho Chi Minh City, with twelve (12)
committee divisions, sixteen (16) People’s Committee of wards and eighteen (18)
departments without the schools and traditional markets to support it to implement
management state of the local state.
The Office of People’s Council and People’s Committee of District 8th is also
located the same above address, and one of twelve (12) committee divisions to assist
the top of managers of People’s Council and People’s Committee about all steering,
operating activities of Council, Committee and Chairman of Committee; ensures
facilities, tangible equipment to serve council and committee’s working, including that
the receiving and checking resolution the complaints, problems of local people.
1.1.2. About human resource and structure of Office:
Human resource: there are sixty - six (66) people, such as forty - five (45) civil
servants who are paid annual salary form government salary fund including that have
five (5) top of mangers of People’s Committee, a manager of People’s Council and
four (4) mangers of Office (a Chief, 3 deputies of chief); and twenty-one (21)
employees who are not officials and their incomes are paid from operating fund of
Office.
Chief of Office manages general activities and assigns official people at

departments.
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Deputies of Chief manages some specific sectors and general of some of seven
departments of Office depending on assignment of Chief.
Structure of Office: there are seven (7) departments, such as:
Citizen reception department
Receiving documents and returning results department
Synthesis and planning department
Accounting department
Security department
Clerical and storage department
Information technology department
1.1.3. About the receiving and responding of citizen’s complaints in the
Office:
Receiving channels and execution time: People’s Committee of District 8th
has main four (4) direct or indirect channels to receive and respond complaints,
problem of citizen and execution time as:
- Receiving letters directly in Citizen reception department. Execution time is
maximum thirty (30) days and 45 days for complex case that is classify when just
receiving them.
- Receiving complaints or problem from hotline of People’s Committee of
District 8th (19007208). Execution time is maximum ten (10) days and 20 days for
complex case that is classify when just receiving them.
- Receiving citizen complaints or problem from People’s Committee of HCMC
as hotline 0888 247 247 or mail address: Execution
time is maximum ten (10) days and 20 days for complex case that is classify when just
receiving them.
- Receiving people’s complaints directly from meeting of People’s Council

once every half of year and meeting of Fatherland Front Committee once every quarter
of year. Execution time is maximum thirty (30) days and 45 days for complex case that
is classify when just receiving them.

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Handling units: The receiving and tracking, urging the other agencies to solve
complaints, problem of citizen in district 8th is main responsibility of Office and this is
assigned to three (3) committee departments of Office to do such as:
The Citizen reception department receives and tracks complaints, problem from
letters of people directly.
The Synthesis and planning department receives and tracks complaints, problem
of people though focusing meeting of People’s Council and Fatherland Front
Committee.
Information technology department receives and tracks complaints, problem of
people from hotline of District 8th, hotline of HCMC.
Handling process: each channel has been separated implement process,
however, it has quite similarly functions as:
Receive,
select
complaints

Transfer
commitee
divisions to
solve

Receive
results

Respond to
citizen

Firstly, departments of office will receive people’s complaints though four
channels; then, supporting managers steer specific committee divisions to solve; the
next step is to urge and receive responding information from committee divisions; and
the last step will answer results to citizens. Each step has a specific execution time
which bases on complex level of information.
Handling human resource: there are eight (8) employees to to this task, as:
Manager: Chief manages the citizen reception department; a deputy chief
manages the synthesis and planning department; other deputy chief manages the
information technology department.
Staffs: five (5) staffs as: three (3) staffs are in the citizen reception department,
a staff is in the synthesis and planning department who are civil servants of office, and
a staff is in the information technology department who contracts annual, is not civil
servant.
1.2. Problem identification
1.2.1. Evaluation satisfaction level of people in HCMC:

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In now, the state of HCMC focuses on reforming public administration’s
activities to serve effectively rather than steering. It uses PAPI index (Vietnam
Governance and Public Administration Performance Index) which shows level of
people satisfaction with governance and public administration performance to know
and give some more effective ways to improve its activities better to meet people
demands. It shows five kinds of index as Participation at Local Levels, Transparency,
Vertical Accountability, Control of Corruption, Public Administrative Procedures,

Public Service Delivery (1), include to have 3 indexes related to evaluate level of
solving people’s problem as: Participation at Local Levels, Transparency and Vertical
Accountability.
Participation at Local Levels index measures people’s understanding of their
participation rights, opportunities and the quality of village head elections, and the
extent to which citizens participate in and voluntarily contribute to local infrastructure
projects.
Transparency index measures people’ “rights to know” about state policies that
affect their everyday life and livelihoods.
Vertical Accountability based on three subdimensions: the frequency and
effectiveness of citizen interactions with local authorities, the proactiveness of local
governments in responses to citizen proposals or complaints, and the coverage and
effectiveness of People’s Inspection Boards.
Compare between HCMC and big cities in VN
No

City/province

Participation at

Transparency

Local Levels

Vertical
Accountability

1

HCMC

4.7

5.75

4.92

2

Ha Noi

5.34

5.08

4.26

3

Da Nang

5.27

6.02

5.82

4

Can Tho

5.79

5.94

5.69

Table 1: Evaluate level of solving people’s problem (1)
(source: PAPI 2016 – www.papi.org.vn)
This table shows that Ho Chi Minh City is biggest city in Vietnam, but has all
three (3) indexes quite low if comparing with others three (3) big other cities as Ha
9


Noi, Da Nang, Can Tho, even there are two (2) indexes under point five (5) (average
point), including that as: Participation at Local Levels index is lowest and 3 others are
low, lower than Da Nang, Can Tho are. With general view, evaluation with contents
about HCMC is period of medium point. Additional, at meeting about building
developing plan in HCMC in 2017, chairman of People’s Committee of HCMC
Nguyen Thanh Phong (2) suggested all government agencies need to focus on
implementing administrative reform, effective solutions to improve PAPI index to
push HCMC to be top five (5).
1.2.2. Symptom of organization:
Although the administrative reform and resolving people’s complaints of local
state have been improved significantly for recent two (2) years, they have not still
made satisfactions of managers of Office and residents. According to Mr. Nguyen Nha
Kha, Chief of Office, shared that local residents have still not satisfied about the
receiving and solving complaint’s people of district 8th.
Based on report data, in depth interviews with five (5) respondents (3 managers
and 2 employees of Office), the resolving people’s complaints has shown big

weakness to make resident’s dissatisfaction and it is also organization’s symptom with
two (2) specific expressions as:
+ Duplicated messages: Receive the same contents of resident’s complaints,
problem which they did before in the different channels, even the same channels.
+ Negative feedbacks: Receive negative feedbacks about responding contents,
time though some channels.

Duplicated
messages/phones
Negative feedback
messages/phones
Total complaints
for 2016 - 2017

Hotline of

Hotline of

Focus

HCMC

district 8th

meetings

77 12.52%
56

9.1%

615

Channel of
Citizen reception
department

21

6.73%

24

10.3%

19

6.53%

11

3.52%

15

6.44%

7

2.4%

312
10

233

291


Table 2: The statistic about duplicated and negative feedbacks
(Source: data reports of four channels from 2016 - 2017)
Additional, based on data source, the writing only considers about this task for
recent two (2) years from started 2016 to 1st September 2017, there are total 1,451
complaints though direct or indirect forms though four (4) channels. Reason that the
study only collects data at nearly last two years is 3 channels started in 2016, such as
hotline of district 8th started at 1st January, 2016, hotline of HCMC started at 19th
February, 2016, focusing meetings between the local state and people have been
concentrated in starter 2016. The receiving complaints though Citizen reception
department has started for long time but no improving so much and according to Mr.
Nguyen Van Thong, former Chief of Office (is cited by Mr. Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief
of Office), this task did not focus more than other factors and did not also have few
highlight improvements. And Mr. Nguyen Nha Kha considered that this task has not
changed positively since then until 2016.
Both of these specific manifestations show resident’s dissatisfaction with
responding results of local government and they also show symptom of Office that
need to modify, analysis in order to improve more.
1.2.2.1. About duplicated messages/phones:
Mr. Nguyen Nha Kha, chief of Office, shared that although district 8th has been
promoted administrative reform and resolving people’s complaints, requests with
outstanding developments more than nearly three (3) years ago, however, the rate of
the solving people’s complaints did not reduce, even increased significantly to over

10% in 2017 while the target expectations of the top managers of People’s Committee
and People’s Council might reduce year by year, average rate was about 5% - 6%.
Mrs. Tram Anh is staff of Synthesis and planning department Office who
follows complaints though the focusing meetings revealed that the rate of duplicated
messages was regularly, about from 9 to 10% of total complaints of this channels, even
some messages/phones were duplicated three or four times which made
dissatisfactions of manager of Office and top managers of People’s Committee and
People’s Council.

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Mr. Cao Le Minh Tam, deputy of chief, honestly revealed that he was really
stress when recognizing several of sum complaints of citizen’s reflection has just
answered in other channels after urging and tracking, however, this rate was not much,
took about under 15% at hotline in HCMC, about rate of hotline of district 8th was
much less.
The rate of duplicated messages/calls
10.55%
8.96%

2013

10.93%

10.31%

8.63%

2014

2015

2016

2017

Table 3: The rate of duplicated messages/calls for five years (2013 – 2017)
(Source: data report in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 of all of channels of Office)
The receiving messages, phones, letters which duplicated with similar contents
though four (4) channels in the different period of time, base on data reports though
five (5) years, average rate of duplicated messages/phones takes 9.87% per total
complaints. This rate is quite higher than target expectations of top managers to be
about 5% - 6%, especial in 2016, 2017, when People’s Committee of local has pushed
the administrative reform and resolving people’s complaints, but this rate does not
reduce, even increase sharply in 2017. It made dissatisfactions of top manager of
People’s Committee, People’s Council, and people in local.
1.2.2.2. About negative feedbacks:
According to Mr. Nguyen Nha Kha - chief of Office, the other difficulty of
solving some resident’s complaints to bring their dissatisfactions was negative
feedbacks though four (4) channels, and the rate of negative feedbacks has not reduced
year by year and average rate was about over 5%, higher than target expectations of
top managers to be about 3% - 4%, although the solving people’s complaints has been
concerned and promoted more.

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Mr. Trong and Mr. Tam, who are two deputies of Chief said that the receiving
negative feedbacks of people was occasionally though hotline of district 8th, HCMC

and directly focusing meetings.
The rate of negative messages/calls
6.27%

5.66%

6.56%
5.75%

5%

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Table 4: The rate of negative feedbacks for five years (2013 – 2017)
(Source: data report in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 of all channels of the Office)
Based on data, there were the average rate about resident’s negative feedbacks
for the responding results of People’s Committee was about 5.848% of total
complaints, special in 2017, the rate has highest rate, although target expectation of top
managers was about 3% - 4% and the administrative reform and responding people’s
complaints has been improved more. Therefore, the top mangers have felt
dissatisfaction for responding results of Office and committee divisions; moreover, it
shows people’s dissatisfaction for this service of district 8th.

The rate of negative and duplicated messages/calls is shown dissatisfactions of
not only people, but also top managers of People’s Committee and People’s Council of
district 8th. Moreover, review some results of indexes of PAPI index in 2016 of
HCMC, specially for Vertical Accountability of HCMC relating to the study with three
(3) elements as interactions with local authorities, responsive to citizen actions,
people's inspection boards achieved quite lowly when comparing two (2) big cities of
Vietnam as Da Nang, Can Tho, and only was higher than in Hanoi. It is shown that the
citizens of local has not really satisfied about answering results of government in order
to connect and make happy to residents with local state.
1.2.3. The initial problems:
The above symptom of organization has existed for several years and it has
shown two (2) specific manifestations as the duplicate feedbacks, negative feedbacks
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of residents. Based on interviewing in depth with five (5) respondents, including to
three (3) managers of Office and two (2) staffs, there are three (3) initial problems to
be clarified for this symptom as:
Responding time is not on the appointment time.
Responding results are not completed and needed more time to solve.
Responding results have not been unity among channels.
1.2.3.1. Responding time is not on the appointment time:
Mr. Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, shared that the office has still
unanswered or answered late to residents when meeting deadlines took average high
proportion. This issue was also unified by other five (5) interviewees. Though in depth
interviews, there were three (3) problems to be recognized as:
Regular time to respond residents is too short to solve on time.
Current regulars, resources of local state have not met legitimate needs of
people.
Overload for some parts of labor force of People’s Committee.

- About regular time responds residents is too short to solve on time
Based on regular papers of local state, each channel has specific execution time
to receive, solve and respond complaints, problem of citizen as: execution time of
receiving letters directly in Citizen reception department are maximum 45 days;
Execution time of hotline of People’s Committee of District 8th (19007208), hotline of
HCMC (0888 247 247) or mail address: is maximum
20 days; execution time of the meetings of People’s Council and Fatherland Front
Committee are maximum 45 days; and also based on in depth interviews of
respondents, the complex complaints are often related to urban, repairing infrastructure
factor to account for high proportion, about 70% of total complaints.
According to Mr. Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, execution time for some
complex cases was too short to solve because there were many regular steps,
procedures needed to implement; in some situations, when meeting deadlines, all steps
have not been implemented, the office has had no data, results from committee
divisions to answer people; and this rate took about 25% for total number of duplicated
and negative feedbacks of residents.
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About Mr. Nguyen Minh Trong, deputy of chief, shared that some complex
complaints about urban, repairing infrastructure factor need more time to solve
because they implemented some regular steps; so, depend on urgency, priority works,
committee divisions would prioritize to do before; this rate took about a quarter of total
duplicated and negative feedbacks.
Although regular time for complex cases is about from 20 to 45 days. It is
considered that being too short to solve. When meeting deadlines, committee divisions
have not finished working processes and have given feedback later, even having not
any feedbacks to Office in order to respond people. This was accounted for high
proportion about average 25% for total duplicated and negative feedbacks.
- About current regulars, resources of local state have not met legitimate

needs of people.
The rate of complex cases takes significant numbers of total complaints,
specific in urban, repairing infrastructure field due to waiting specific policies, steers,
even waiting the finance resources from People’s Committee of HCMC, departments
of HCMC to solve.
Mr. Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, revealed that some complex cases
waited steers, finance resources of departments of HCMC, People’s Committee of
HCMC because their solutions were beyond local state’s jurisdiction, so, People’s
Committee of district 8th would not reflect any information to people if the higher level
states did not sent information to local state when meeting deadlines; the rate for
similar cases took about 15% of total duplicated and negative feedbacks.
Mr. Cao Le Minh Tam, deputy of chief, shared that 20 days for hotline of
HCMC and district 8th was too short, some cases were beyond the scope of local state
and must consult with departments of HCMC, People’s Committee of HCMC, so, the
Office has not had any data to respond to people from higher lever units when meeting
deadlines.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Trong, deputy of chief, shared that the waiting responses of
higher level states for local residents’ complaints sometimes took more time than
regular time was, so, the office had no data to answer to people. The rate took about 13
– 15 % of total duplicated and negative feedbacks
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District 8th can not solve some cases actively because they were beyond the
local state’s jurisdiction and must wait the steers, resources of higher lever units to
solve. Period of time received the superior’s answers was to exceed the deadlines.
Therefore, the office has also not had any data to respond to residents on time and in
this study, this issue does not research to modify deeply.
- About overload for some parts of labor force of People’s Committee:
The method of in depth interviewing process, the writer recognized that work

overload occurred for some civil servants of Office who worked concurrently.
Parasuraman et al (3, p280) cited that work overload is the feeling which “there are too
many things to do and not enough time to do them” and “to be associated with increased
time commitment to work and decreased time commitment to family”.
Mr. Trong, deputy of Chief of Office, revealed that over 70% people’s
complaints was in urban and repairing infrastructure field, they made more burden to
staffs of urban management department which those staffs has worked this task as
concurrent tasks; depending on urgency, priority of complaints, they would be given
priority, others would need more time to solve.
Moreover, there are three (3) people as Mr. Trong, Mr. Tam who are two
deputies of chief, Mrs. Tram Anh who is staff, honestly admitted that this task is one
of their concurrent tasks, and in some situations, they accepted not to complete or
delayed deadline, and they have felt working overload because of not being able to
covering all tasks in the same periods of time.
In the office, working overload easily makes difficulties to complete tasks on
time and they need more time to process. This situation takes places 50% of labor
force, including to three (3) managers and a staff of Synthesis and Planning department
and 100% labor force of committee divisions in urban and repairing infrastructure
field. In consequence, they have accepted not to complete or delay deadline when
meeting the same periods of time.
1.2.3.2. Responding results are not completed when meeting deadlines
Beside that responding nothing to people when catching deadline, there are still
many cases to respond latest information to residents about work progresses but these
have not been final results.
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According to Mr. Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, there was about over 30%
in complex complaints which the Office answered to residents on time, but they have
not achieved final results. And though in depth interview with other five (5)

respondents, there are four (4) reasons of internal office to explain this issue as:
Regular time is too short to solve on time.
Current regulars, resources of local state have not met legitimate needs of
people.
Working overload for labors of People’s Committee.
Lack of motivation of a part of labor force for this task.
- Regular time is too short to solve on time
The execution time is as receiving, solving and responding to people about
complaints, problem to be maximum from twenty (20) days to forty-five (45) days
(depending on each channel) is too short to finish on time with many working
procedures and urge committee divisions to do, special some complex cases. The
office tried to answer to people latest information, processes in appointment time and
would continue to update information in the next time by the office (as similar
comments of Mr. Kha and Mr. Trong shared in above issue (responding time was not
on the appointment time)). This rate took about 30% of total duplicated and negative
feedbacks.
Mrs. Tram Anh, staff of Office, who supported channel of People’s Council and
Fatherland Front Committee, shared that the execution time for some complex
complaints took about 30% in duplicated and negative feedbacks, the committee
divisions needed more time to solve, moreover, they were still required to complete
professional work on urban development, so, depending on urgency, priority of
complaints would be given priority. Mr. Tam and Mr. Trong, two deputies of Chief
and Mr. Tu, staff of Office, also shared similar comments like Mrs. Tram Anh about
the channels that they supported.
However, when the writer asked regular time about maximum execution time
must finished totally, all five (5) above interviewees revealed that there were not
specific regulations to complete; many cases had finished after a half of year, a year,

17

even several years; and the rate of complaints that was over regular execution time
took over average 30% in duplicated and negative feedbacks.
When meeting deadlines, the office has not given final results in order to
respond to people on time. From that, the office must delay people’s deadline. In some
cases, the delaying about a half of year, a year, even several years makes residents’
dissatisfaction with this service and this is one of reasons that people still continue
duplicated, negative feedbacks to local state, higher level state.
- Current regulars, resources of local state have not met legitimate needs of
people
Current regulars, resources of local state are beyond the local authority to solve
some complaints of residents, they must wait specific policies, steers, finance
resources from People’s Committee of HCMC, departments of HCMC.
Mr. Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, shared that when the Office received
feedbacks of higher level states to solve local resident’s complaints before deadlines,
his staffs tried to respond to people about latest information and still continued to send
next information to them in the next time. His comment also received agreements of
four (4) other interviewees. This rate took average 30% of total complaints.
This issue depends on higher level state’s steers, policies, resources totally,
because they are beyond local state’s jurisdiction. District 8th only responds each
implementation progress which higher level state answered to residents. For this issue,
District 8th can not intervene actively, only urge and wait their feedbacks. Therefore, in
this study, this issue does not research to modify deeply.
- Working overload for labors
Working overload of labors has made dissatisfactions of residents because the
Office has not responded or has responded later than is in the appointment time.
However, for some situations, the labor of office still responded on time with latest
information without final result.
Mr. Trong, deputy of Chief, revealed that over 70% people’s complaints was in
urban and repairing infrastructure field, they made more burden to the urban

management staffs who being working concurrent job for this task, so, urgent, prior
complaints would be given priority; others would need more time to solve.
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Moreover, there are three (3) people as Mr. Trong, Mr. Tam, two deputies of
chief, Mrs. Tram Anh, staff of Office revealed that this task has been one of their
concurrent works in office, and in some situation, they have accepted failure to
complete or delay deadline for work, and they have also been felt working overload
because of not being able to covering all tasks in the same periods of time and must
neglect in reminder committee divisions before meeting deadline.
The overload for work makes high pressure for employees to face to complete
works with higher performance within limited time. And this consequence is some
employees who support some concurrent jobs can not complete all and must ignore some
tasks, specific concurrent works lead to impact responding results negatively for citizen
within regular time.
- Lack of motivation of a part of labor force for this task.
Lack of focusing on solving complaints has concentrated to not only employees,
but also managers because of feeling overload and several employees have not adapted
job requirement effectively. In now, there is a haft of total eight (8) labors of Office
who work this task concurrently.
According to Mr. Trong, deputy of chief, revealed that he and his staff in
Synthesis and Planning department did not actually complete all works well because of
covering their main responsibilities and concurrent tasks, hence, they did not have
enough time to work, and had to accept lack of concentrating in concurrent jobs. And
Mr. Tam, deputy of chief, admitted that sometimes he neglected this task in order to
focus on his main responsibilities. According to Mrs. Tram Anh, staff of Office,
complained that she could not complete all concurrent tasks well because she did not
have enough time to do; furthermore, the office did not gain any benefits, bonuses for
concurrent tasks lead to have no motivation herself to try to accomplish them. And Mr

Kha, chief of Office also admitted that there were not any funds of the Office to pay
for concurrent tasks; beside that, working skills of three eighth (3/8) specialized labors
have not still adapted to job requirements effectively.
The solving people’s complaints has actually not been focused as others. It is
assigned to three different departments of office and met some difficulties such as: not

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concentrate for this concurrent task, not make motivation to work, have not still
adapted to job requirements as expected.
1.2.3.3. Responding results have not been unity among channels
Mr. Nguyen Nha Kha, Chief of Office, admitted that there had not have
unification about responding contents among channels such as this channel had
completed the answer with people’s petition clearly, but others were duplicated
messages need to settling time more, or even give a bit different contents, specific
different schedule time of repairing infrastructure, urban field.
Mr. Trong, Mr. Tam who are two deputies of Chief, revealed that they also
detected some cases as Mr. Kha said, and beside that some committee divisions
sometimes transferred some solved information to the office non-uniformity because
their organizations have not been uniformly assigned, civil servants still worked
concurrently; additional, the resolution processes of channels were quite similar, but
there were three different departments of the Office to settle independently. Its
consequence was difference about answering style, even its contents sometimes have
not had uniform among channels and the non-uniform qualities sometimes occurred to
impacts perception, satisfaction of people to local government negatively.
Based on in depth interviews, there are four (4) reasons to explain more this
issue as:
Lack of sharing information, communicating to the internal organization.
Staffs’ abilities have not met job requirements as expected.

Working overload.
Lack of motivation of labor force for this task.
- Lack of sharing information, communicating to the internal organization
Although the settlement processes of channels are quite similar, there are three
(3) different departments to implement and work independently, there are no any
shared data sources, information, knowledge, even not communication among
employees together.
According to Malone et al (4, p362), “If there is no interdependence, there is
nothing to coordinate”. Meyer (5) viewed that organization communication had seen as
efficient tools to collect resources, data, reckon common problem, even compare
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organizations. Thompkins cited by A. Tkalac Vercic et al (6, p224) stated that being “a
central concept for organization and management theory”.
All five (5) respondents shared that they only received complaints, then
supported to the Office’s managers, top managers to steer, however, did not review or
share information to any common link systems, tools among departments in order to
remove duplicated complaints before, reduce the number of complaints being tracked,
and support top managers to steering directions effectively. According to Mr. Tam,
deputy of Chief, shared that until now, the office has not had link information among
channels, employees has checked up results hardly which were responded before in
order to reduce the number of complaints being tracked. Mr. Kha, Chief of Office
revealed that channels had quite similar functions but they operated independently, had
been separating processes, not to link, communicate information, knowledge,
responding results among channels together, they could not support working process,
moreover, product’s results sometimes were uneven, different. Mr. Tu, civil servant of
Citizen reception department, said that the sharing information among departments had
not mentioned in any regular papers, steers of Office’s managers, and there were no
linking tools, systems, so, it was hardly to share information to others.

From that, the sharing information, communicating to the internal organization
has not focused on from managers of office, top of managers of district 8th to impact
on quality products, special for some works with similar processes, tasks lead to
respond results negatively to make citizens’ dissatisfaction.
- Staffs’ abilities have not met job requirements as expected.
Enrique et al (7) stated about role of employee that human factor is become
vital element because employees are knowledge holders and must prove their ability to
be used precisely. Christopher (8, p1) gave fundamental assertion that “an
organization’s human resources are of strategic importance, because knowledge, skills,
abilities, behaviors, and interactions of employees have the potential to influence
organizational performance”.
Mr. Kha, Chief of Office, frankly admitted that he has not satisfied to job
performance of most civil servants with some evidences such as: three fifth (3/5) the
expertise employees worked ineffectively, inflexibility in solving ways and collected
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working knowledge, understanding passively; two (2) deputies of Chief, a staffs who
work concurrently have not focused on solving complaints deeply, sometimes
complete later than deadlines were. Both Mr. Trong and Mr. Tam, two deputies of
Chief also admitted that, even for some situations, their job performance were low to
lead to used to be complained by Chairman and Vice Chairman.
Based on that, this issue is significant weakness in the Office when most of
labor forces for this task have not adapted to job requirements effectively, including
that two managers. Therefore, the making products which is not quality as expected are
inevitable.
- Work overload.
The method of interviewing processes, the writer recognized that work overload
occurred for some civil servants of Office who worked concurrently, others are not
much. Parasuraman et al (3, p280) cited that work overload is the feeling which “there

are too many things to do and not enough time to do them” and “to be associated with
increased time commitment to work and decreased time commitment to family”.
There are three (3) people: Mr. Trong, Mr. Tam, who are two deputies of chief,
Mrs. Tram Anh, civil servant of Synthesis and Planning department admitted that they
have sometimes accepted not to complete or delay deadline of some tasks, even have
felt work overload lead to be under pressure at work because of not being able to
covering all tasks, including to expertise and concurrent works.
The overload for work makes high pressure for employees to face to complete
works with higher performance within limited time. And this consequence is some
employees who support some concurrent jobs can not complete all and must ignore some
tasks, specific concurrent tasks, including that the solving people’s complaints to lead
to impact responding results negatively for citizen within regular time.
- Lack of motivation labor force for this task.
Lack of focusing on settling complaints has concentrated to not only employees,
but also managers who had done this task concurrently and several civil servants have
not adapted job requirement effectively. In now, there is over haft of total eight (8)
employees of Office who work concurrently, specific four (4) people including to an
employee of Synthesis and planning department and three managers of Office.
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The reason was explained in detail above in regular time is not finished, need
more time to solve. The labor has been lack of motivation for this work with some
reasons as:
According to Mr. Trong, deputy of chief, revealed that he and his staff in
Synthesis and Planning department actually did not complete all works well, they must
cover their main responsibility to support some expertise factors and concurrent works,
including to have the solving people’s complaints though focusing meetings, hence,
they did not have enough time to work, had to accept to lack of concentrating in
concurrent jobs. And Mr. Tam, other deputy of chief, admitted that sometimes he

ignored this task in order to focus on his main responsibility. According to Mrs. Tram
Anh, a staff, complained that she could not complete all concurrent tasks well because
she has not time enough to do; furthermore, the office did not gain any benefits for
concurrent tasks to lead to have no motivation herself to try to accomplish them. And
Mr Kha, chief of Office, also admitted that there were not any funds of the Office to
pay for concurrent tasks; beside that, working skills of three eighth (3/8) labor have not
still adapted job requirements effectively.
Sum of them, there are three (3) modified main issues to explain people’s
dissatisfaction for the solving their complaints. These belong to labor force not only in
office, but also in committee divisions. However, this research only modified
weaknesses in internal Office, from that, other committee divisions can study and
apply appropriating ways for their own. Beside that, the reason Need more time to
analysis and solve them must depend on the working results of the directions of
HCMC’s managers and other committee divisions of local state, therefore, the research
will not modify more. The weaknesses of internal Office are also impacted on quality
of responding results to lead to make dissatisfaction of citizen.
1.2.4. The core problem:
1.2.4.1. Barriers of problems
These above issues are related to personnel, however, there are some big barriers
about regulations, policies and conditions in Ho Chi Minh City to make some difficulties
for the Office to improve these weaknesses actively, such as:

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- Firstly, the recruitment and rotation of personnel are carried out by the
Department of Home Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City and district 8th, the Office does not
select personnel actively with professional criteria. Moreover, the training courses are
conducted by two above units, and are trained common regulations, soft skills as
communication, administrative writing, etc for the all departments of district 8th, sixteen

(16) people’s committed of ward with the short time courses, only one to two (1-2) days,
and have not specialized training courses intensively, especially for new comers; the
training of Office is mainly old employees training to new employees and self – study.
Mr. Kha, chief of Office, shared that it is hardly to join the recruitment, rotation and
training in the local state because they are depended totally on Department of Home
Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City and district 8th, so, the trainings with some professional
criteria for specific departments are hardly applied on; moreover, the time of training
courses are always too short to transfer all necessary skills for Office’s labor.
- Secondly, according to Decree number 108/2014/ND-CP dated 20th November,
2014 of the Government Regulation on personnel reduction is applied from 2015 to 2021
(9), number of civil servants have reduced to lead to be big barrier for reducing work
overload of personnel. Additional, job performances are increasingly demanding more
quality by top of managers. Therefore, the employees must work concurrently more and
more. Mr. Kha, Chief of Office, shared that he might have high pressure to face with
reducing labor force year by year while job requirements, performances were rising. Mr.
Trong, deputy of Chief, also added that he used to propose to recruit more personnel to
decrease working overload for his staffs, but it was not accepted because of this
regulatory barrier.
- Moreover, taking more benefits, bonuses in addition to salary for employees
who work concurrent tasks is one of some difficulties because operational cost of Office
has been clearly specified in terms of expenditure, it has been one of big barriers to
improve working motivation for workers. Mr. Kha, Chief of Office, honestly shared that
the office’s expenditure was also regulated, some employees have worked more tasks
without benefits due to reducing labor force for several years (regulated in Decree
number 108/2014/ND-CP dated 20th November, 2014 of the Government Regulation
on personnel reduction is applied from 2015 to 2021 (9)), and have taken extra tasks to
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help elderly labors or labors who have not meet job requirements as manager’s

expectations for some tasks.
The recruitment, rotation, training and additional funding are really difficulties
from current regular policies, papers which internal office has not been able to determine
totally to improve labor’s abilities, skills of internal organization in order to meet job
requirements as managers’ expectations. Moreover, the facing to reduce labor force year
by year, working concurrently some tasks without benefits have made more working
overload, and reduced working motivation for existing employees in internal
organization who have still been working under pressures.
1.2.4.2. The core problem:
From barriers of problems and three (3) initial problems with some specific
issues which are identified above and related to human factor. Labor force has most
important within any organizations’ development. P.Subba Rao (10, p5) cited that
“most of the problems of organization section are human and social rather than
physical, technical or economic; no industry can be rendered efficient so long as the
basic fact remains unrecognized that it is principally human. It is not a mass of
machine and technical processes but a body of men”. Mr. Nguyen Van Tham (11) gave
some evaluations about some officials in public organizations that the responsibility,
discipline organization are still weak, the working style of many officials has not
innovated, the spirit of servicing of people has not been improved; the bureaucracy,
corruption, waste has not been prevented, fought off; and this is one of big barriers for
administrative reform, has made the state agencies to do ineffectively.
Based on big barriers are related to determination about labor force of
organization and finance which expend for bonus and benefits for some extra tasks to
make to limit to internal organization, specific as:
The problem Current regulars, resources have not met legitimate needs of
people has been identified that it will modify more because the solutions of some cases
are beyond jurisdiction of district 8th and depend on higher level state’s steers, policies,
resources totally. District 8th only responds each implementation progress which higher
level state answered to residents. For this issue, District 8th can not intervene actively,
only urge and wait their feedbacks.

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