Luận văn Cải thiện văn hóa doanh nghiệp - Improving Corperate Culture Thesis

NATIONAL ECONOMIC UNIVERSITY
BUSINESS SCHOOL

IMPROVING CORPORATE CULTURE AT NAVIGOS GROUP
VIETNAM JSC, HANOI BRANCH
Bachelor of Business Administration in English (E-BBA) Thesis

HANOI, 2019


NATIONAL ECONOMIC UNIVERSITY
BUSINESS SCHOOL

IMPROVING CORPORATE CULTURE AT NAVIGOS GROUP
VIETNAM JSC, HANOI BRANCH
Bachelor of Business Administration in English (E-BBA) Thesis


HANOI, 2019


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Doing this thesis was a great chance for me to learn and gain some
professional development of analyzing and researching. This work has been fully
completed thanks to the help of many people. I would love to show my deepest
appreciation for their supports and helpful recommendations that contributed for my
writing in the thesis.

First and foremost, a special thank I would like to give to my supervisor for
his dedicated instructions, recommendations and encouragements during the writing

process. To be honest, I am definitely not able to accomplish the thesis with the best
result.

Second, I always appreciate and be grateful to all lecturers at EBBA Program,
Business School for providing the foundation of knowledge and useful lessons,
which are extremely important to my future career. Thank you all for creating a
wonderful study environment for us not only to learn but also develop ourselves and
meet our beloved friends.

Thirdly, I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to my mentor and
colleagues for their careful guidance and supports from the first day at work until the
end of my internship. It was a challenging time but they were exceedingly
welcoming, helpful and offered me invaluable career advice to help me get through
it.

Last but not least, a big thank you to my family and friends, who are always
on my side, supporting and encouraging me to accomplish this thesis.

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Hanoi, May 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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ABBREVIATIONS

JSC

Joint Stock Company

HR

Human Resources

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LIST OF TABLES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The corporate culture is formed and advanced in parallel with the
development process of the organization. It plays a crucial role in creating
competitive advantage, identity and sustainable development of every organization.
For employees, corporate culture makes each member understand their own values,
gives them motivation to work and directs them toward a common mission and
vision to achieve goals. Every big companies could develop successfully based on
the existence of a healthy and flexible culture.
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Navigos Group Vietnam Joint Stock Company is one of the leading
companies regarding to recruitment, which has been existed for more than 15 years.
To maintain its position today, the company focuses not only on developing the
services but also a strong corporate culture to create its own identity, which can help
the company outperform the competitors. However, the developing culture process
is facing many problems.

This thesis has three main objectives:
-

Identify the suitable model and indicators to evaluate Navigos Group
Vietnam JSC’s corporate culture.

-

Analyze and evaluate the current status of Navigos Group Vietnam JSC’s
corporate culture.

-

Propose recommendations to improve the corporate culture in Navigos
Group Vietnam JSC.

To accomplish these objectives, the author used both the primary data and
secondary data. The survey was done by 124 employees who are working in
Navigos. The author also had in-depth interviews with a manager and an employee
in Navigos in order to have deeper understanding about the corporate culture and the
issues that Navigos is facing.

After analyzing the current situation of corporate culture in Navigos and
having a comparison with employee’ previous companies though Denison’s model,
the author found out some strong points of Navigos’ culture. The company culture is
stable and have a long-term focus. Navigos focuses more on internal culture with
high investment in developing employees’ skills and knowledges.

On the other hand, Navigos is now engaging some serious problems. The
culture of the company is too stable that lessens the flexibility of the organization

toward the external environment. The customers have not been put up as the top
concern of employees. The company is also weak at the coordination and connection
between employees.

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Based on the strengths and weaknesses of Navigos’ corporate culture, the
author suggested some recommendations to enhance the organization culture at
Navigos Group by improving the flexibility of the company and the cooperation of
employees as well as upholding employee’ capability development and setting clear
directions and strategies.

The author expected that this research could support Navigos Group Vietnam
JSC to have a direct view into the strong and weak points of the company culture
then propose some recommendations to enhance the current situation. As a result,
the company can have the ability to keep the high quality labor force and have a
better organizational performance.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1.

Rationale

Every company has its own corporate culture no matter how big or small the
company is. It is the result of shared values, norms and philosophy that outstanding

the unique characteristics of that organization among others. Graves (1986) stated
that culture is “the one thing that distinguishes one firm from another, gives it
coherence and self-confidence and rationalizes the lives of those who work for it.
[…] It is life-enhancing to be different, and safe to be similar, and culture is the
concept that provides the means of accomplishing this compromise”. A weak
organizational culture company leads to uncertain and ambiguous connection
between employees and their organization’s benefits. Employees work for individual
benefits and concentrate on their own determination rather than organization’s aims
and purposes. In contrast, in an organization with a strong culture, staffs work
together to achieve mutual goals of the company as well as their personal aims and
benefits. Therefore, a strong organizational culture plays an important role in
improving the company performance in different perspectives. It enables businesses
to be successful and work effectively because this culture guides staffs to do the
right things - what creates the core distinctiveness of the organization that
contributes to its visions and values (Robbins and Judge, 2013).
Building and developing a successful corporate culture will bring great
advantages to the company. Firstly, corporate cultural identity is a significant
motivation of the organization in building trust and prestige for clients and the
market. Customers get the information of the company by ways of communication,
public relations or advertising however people and corporate culture are the key
factors to enhance awareness of the company image and reputation. Secondly,
organizational culture is like a magnet, helping companies appeal and retain high
quality staffs. People would prefer to work in an environment that is suitable to their
personalities. Thus, corporate culture is the driving force for the HR management in
attracting, using and developing and retaining talented staffs in order to successfully
achieve the strategic objectives of the organization. Thirdly, corporate culture is an
essential factor for enterprises to develop longevity. The growth in the size of the
enterprises will create a risk of failure, especially occurring if the developing
process is not built by standards or backgrounds of awareness, behaviors. Therefore,
corporate culture creates an environment for all employees to join together to

achieve the organizational goals and objectives. As a result, corporate culture helps

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organization to boost competitive position by creating the imprint inside the mind of
the outsiders, which helps the enterprises to develop sustainably.
The importance of corporate culture is realized and appreciated by almost
companies in the world as it leads to the success of every companies. Especially for
giant and famous companies namely Coca Cola, McDonald's, Apple, Google and
Disney, it is impossible for them to be prosperous without strong corporate cultures.
On the other hand, the majority of companies in Vietnam focus on profitability but
they forget how to enhance their own cultures - the best way to sustain and develop
their businesses in long term. There are several changes in improving organizational
culture in some companies. Nevertheless, the biggest problem of these businesses is
lacking of thorough understanding on organizational culture so that it is hard for
them to attain effective solutions to improve their cultures or even apply them in
superficial or wrong ways.

As corporate culture affects the way companies respond to the changes in
demands of consumers and external environment, it is crucial to understand clearly
about the culture. According to the rapid changes of business environment,
companies must continuously predict the needs of the markets and make use of the
organizational competences to adapt with the changes. Navigos has existed for a
long time and now is facing difficulty responding to changes and encountering
decline. Moreover, Navigos is a Vietnamese company at first with the majority of
employees are Vietnamese, but now it is taken over by a Japanese company. As a
result, there must be occur some conflicts between two different cultures.
Additionally, Navigos main services are about human resources, so the company has
no unique and typical products to be stand-out and hard to imitate like other

company such as iPhone of Apple, home furnishing products of IKEA and so on.
The only way to distinguish from other is creating its own characteristics by strong
and impressive corporate culture. Therefore, it is necessary for them to find a new
and better way to improve company culture that can catch up with the business
trends and stand out from the crowd. By analyzing the Navigos’s culture, it helps the
managers to have deeper understanding about the strengths and weaknesses of the
company, to know where to improve.

In this research, the author mainly focused on Navigos Group’s current status
of corporate culture and compared it with these previous company cultures of
employees so as to indicate the strong and weak points of this culture and give some
recommendations to improve the weaknesses and keep developing the strengths,
which help to build a stronger corporate culture. Therefore, the author has chosen
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the topic: “Improving Corporate Culture at Navigos Group Vietnam JSC, Hanoi
Branch”.

1.2.

Research objectives
There are three main research objectives:

1.3.

-

Identify the suitable model and indicators to evaluate Navigos Group
Vietnam JSC’s corporate culture.

-

Analyze and evaluate the current status of Navigos Group Vietnam JSC’s
corporate culture.

-

Propose recommendations to improve corporate culture in Navigos Group
Vietnam JSC.

Research questions
The research questions for this thesis are:

1.4.

-

What are the suitable model and indicators to evaluate the corporate
culture status at Navigos Group Vietnam JSC?

-

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the corporate culture at Navigos
Group Vietnam JSC?

-

What are recommendations to improve the current situation of corporate
culture at Navigos Group Vietnam JSC?

Research methodology

1.4.1 Research process
Research process is shown in the following figure:
Identify research topic

Define research objectives
of the thesis
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Choose the most suitable
model to assess corporate
culture
Collecting data

Analyze the current status of
corporate culture at Navigos
Group Vietnam JSC

Recommendation to improve
corporate culture in Navigos
Group Vietnam JSC

Figure 1.1 Research Process
Source: The author’s design
1.4.2. Research scope
Research object: the research aims at analyzing and improving Navigos
Group’s corporate culture

-

Subjects of this research are 150 employees of Navigos Group

Research location: the research is implemented at Navigos Group Vietnam
JSC in Hanoi Branch
Address: 125-127 Ba Trieu Street, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi, Vietnam

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Research Time: the research was carried out from 01/10/2018 to 29/12/2018
+ Primary data: 10/2018
+ Secondary data: 2015 – 2018
+ Recommendation: 2019 – 2021

1.4.3. Data analysis
After collecting the questionnaires, the author analyzed through frequency
statistic on SPSS in the processing data.

1.4.4. Data collection
Both primary data and secondary data were collected to achieve the research
objectives and provide reliable and trustworthy information. Each method will be
discussed in detail below.

1.4.4.1. Secondary data
Secondary data takes an essential part in this study. It is collected from both
internally and externally.
Internal Source: The data is mainly collected from the website, Facebook
page, reports, major policy of Navigos Group. It provides useful information for the

company overview, recognizing the current situation of employees and finding out
which aspects are highly considered. Furthermore, the course about Business
Culture which I studied at the university helps me to acquire more knowledge about
corporate culture and easier to analyze this topic.
External sources: Previous and related studies on the same journals, topic,
textbooks and the Internet are trustworthy sources used to complete the rationale and
theoretical framework.

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1.4.4.2. Primary data
Personal observations, surveys result from employees and deep interview was
collected to be sources of the primary data.
Survey:
Objectives: The survey was conducted for collecting employee’s views,
feedbacks and their evaluations to the present situation of organizational culture in
Navigos Group.
-

Instruments: Questionnaire

Respondents: People who are working at Navigos Group Vietnam JSC
Sample size: The company size was quite big so I sent to half employees in
the company. Thus, the sample size for data analysis was 150 staffs; however, 26
answers sheet were invalid after being checked as deficient information. Therefore,
the actual sample size was 124 staffs.
Sampling method: The most popular sampling method is convenience
sampling which is both time saving and money saving as well as convenient to
gather information in wide ranges. The survey link (Google Form) was delivered to

150 business emails of staffs, which can be chosen through the internal networking
system. Because personal company email accounts of Navigos are provided for all
the staffs at the first day at work, it is the fastest way to get the answers. The
percentage of response was 82.67% which 124 staffs took part in and accomplished
the survey.
-

Questionnaire Design:

The questionnaire is based on the Denison Organizational Culture Survey. 60item instrument was designed in this survey to display a simple but complete
analysis of a company's culture by assessing the underlying cultural characteristics
and management practices that affect the performances of businesses.
It includes 2 parts: The first one collects the demographic information of
employees participating in the survey like age, gender, how long have they been
working there and whether they are in managerial position or not. The second part is
about the cultural questions that ask respondents to express their opinions and
perspectives about their previous and current company culture by ranking the 5point Likert scale statement.
There are 36 questions for employees to assess from 1 point (strongly
disagree) to 5 point (strongly agree) in order to have deeper understanding about
four traits of Denison’s model in Navigos, which are Involvement, Consistency,
Adaptability and Mission.
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-

Measurement: The author applies Likert Scale ranging from 1 to 5.
1: Strongly Disagree
2: Disagree
3: Neutral

4: Agree
5: Strongly Agree

In-depth interview:
Objectives: The author can have an opportunity to know more about the
company's corporate culture issues, get a deeper understanding of what the
employees think, want, especially asking for an explanation of the scores they are
evaluating and suggestions to enhance the organizational culture through in-depth
interviews.
Interview method: The author had face-to-face interviews with two
employees in Navigos’s office in break time and took around 10 minutes.
Interview structure: The structure consists of 8 questions, which is about the
current status of the company culture and solutions to improve that.
Interviewees: The interviewees were 1 employee and 1 director in the
company
+ Nguyen Ha Ly - Customer Experience Representative
+ Pham Thi Hoai Linh - Human Resources Director

1.5.

Thesis structure

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Theoretical background
Chapter 3: Overview of Navigos Group Vietnam JSC
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Chapter 4: Analyzing the current situation of corporate culture at Navigos Group
Vietnam JSC

Chapter 5: Recommendations to improve corporate culture of Navigos Group
Vietnam JSC

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1. Definition and importance of corporate culture
2.1.1. Culture
Culture has been defined in various ways. There is no consensus among
sociologists and anthropologists about the meaning of culture. Kroeber and
Kluckhohn (1952) stated that there were about 164 definitions of cultures regarding
real life and the literature of social science. Since the word “culture” was used for a
number of purposes, there was a lot of controversy about its definition (unesco.org,
2016).

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In The Cambridge English Dictionary, culture is defined as "the way of life,
especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a
particular time”. Hofstede (1980a, p. 25) defined culture as “…the collective
programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group
from
another”.
The British anthropologist Edward Tylor (1874) identified culture was the
“complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any
other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. With a more
modern definition, it is “a society’s shared and socially transmitted ideas, values,
and perceptions, which are used to make sense of experience and generate behavior
and are reflected in that behavior.”, says William A. Haviland (2013). In general,
culture is the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large group of people.

Culture is the way of life as it affects how people dress and behave. It guides the use
of language and rituals and is the foundation of norms and belief systems.

2.1.2. Corporate culture
According to several researches on the Internet, regarding to the term
“culture”, there are lots of different opinions and perspectives. It is hard to tell which
is the best definition of corporate culture, however almost all of them are approved.

In “Business in context: An introduction to business and its environment”,
written by David Needle (1989), corporate culture is the combination values of
members in the organization as well as a creation of many factors, including history,
product, technology, strategy, market, type of employees, management style and
national culture. Corporate culture is the corporation's visions, values, assumptions,
systems, norms, beliefs, symbols, language and habits.

Donnelly (1992) stated that corporate culture referred to the impact on the
environment, which resulted from group norms, values, philosophy and informal
activities, meaning that corporate culture has the same characteristics as a society
culture.

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Corporate culture is the share of constant beliefs and values which are
developed along with the firm in a period of time (Gordon and Ditomaso, 1992).
The definition takes the time factor to the whole picture. It means that the culture of
the company would grow follow the time it has existed. It can be concluded that the
more developing of the organizational culture, the harder it takes for the
organization to change.

Robbins and Judge (2013) mentioned corporate culture as a system of shared
meaning created by employees that differentiates this company from the others.
Corporate culture also refers to the common perceptions which employees share
about their company. It is same feelings of people about the values of the
organization or how the works are done.
Every company has its own way of doing businesses which affect almost
aspect of working life - from how long the coffee breaks are to how the products and
services are sold. Therefore, in the broadest sense, organizational culture refers to
the underlying values, beliefs and principles that are shared by all the members in
the organization and served as a foundation for an organization’s management
system. It dominates organizational members’ emotions, thoughts and ways of
behaving in the process of pursuing and achieving common goals and creates the
identity of each business.
2.1.3. The importance of corporate culture
Corporate culture is an invisible asset of every organization; however, it has
strong and positive impacts on the formulation and sustainable development.
Corporate culture creates a unique characteristic of organization, which helps to
distinguish between one business and another. It is created by many factors: business
philosophy, customs, rituals, habits, ways of training, education, legends, myths of
some members of the organization. The culture of a company plays an important
role in the organization performance. It is not difficult for us to realize that the
specific style of successful companies often impresses the outsiders when they think
about or have a business with the company and especially, it is the pride of every
employee in that company whenever they talk about it.
First of all, a strong corporate culture will help businesses retain talents and
strengthen the loyal of employees to the company. Kerr and Slocum (1987)
indicated the strong relationship between employee retention and organizational
values. They advocated that the cultural values influence the HR strategies, which
include recruitment, rules, promotions, developments and system of rewards. That
leads to vary levels of commitment and retention of employees to the organization.

In the organization that appreciates employees for their contributions to the business,
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employees would feel they belong to the organization and be a part of it. In the
“Organizational culture and employee retention” (1992), John E. Sheridan stated
that “organizations have cultures that emphasize values of respect, security and
teamwork for every member would foster the loyalty and long-term commitment to
the organization among all employees”. A positive corporate culture enables
employees to be conscious of their roles and responsibilities in the organization, so
that they will be devoted and work for the mutual goals and objectives of the
company. As a result, they experience high working spirits and positive attitudes
toward the organization. Furthermore, a shared corporate culture supports
connecting employees of different backgrounds, traditions and cultures. Owning a
common culture when working provides employees a sense of unity and
understanding to the others, promotes better communications and lessens conflicts.
Additionally, this culture encourages fairness by making sure that no employees are
neglected and treating them equally. Working in that culture makes them feel like
home and be loved. Therefore, there is no reason for them to quit the job that leads
to the low percentage of turnover rate. When the turnover rate is low, the company
can save a huge amount of money as they do not have to spend money on
recruitment, hiring and training. Therefore, a strong organizational culture supports
the companies in retaining dedicated and high quality employees and reducing HR
expenses.
Secondly, a company with a strong corporate culture would get a positive
reputation from customers as well as workers. There is a direct connection between
corporate culture and corporate reputation, which is shown in the survey conducted
by Goldman Sachs (2012). The research findings revealed that 75% of the
interviewed business leaders believed that corporate reputation is significantly
driven by the company’s corporate culture. The company external reputation is

determined to a very great extent by attitude and working culture of their employees.
Employees plays an important part in conveying company’s core values and
missions, especially when they have direct interaction with customers. Their norms,
beliefs and values, which are derived from the organizational culture, affect the
actions and the messages when they are communicating with the outsiders. That
determines the perceptions of people toward the company and the value of its
products and services that contributes to the customers. Therefore, effective
corporate culture and image management become essential for every company to
manage the reputation in a way that protect their integrity and credibility
(Handelman, 2006). A company with great reputation enables them to charge a
higher price for products or services and increases the company’s value in the
external market. Customers are more likely to have businesses with a company that
have a solid corporate reputation. Moreover, companies with strong corporate
cultures have better reputation among potential workers, that helps to attract skilled
and talented employees for organizations. That potential staffs can be aware of the
company by the company reputation itself or sometimes, it is through the word of
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mouth of the employees that are working for the company. “The best people, always
want to work with the best companies, and the best people are the catalyst for
creating ongoing business success”, said Peter Ashworth (2015). Talented employees
want to do business with the best organizations because it suits with their
expectation and values. These people see the corporate culture as a strong
differentiator by how the company does business rather than the product or service
alone.
Lastly, the corporate culture impact strongly on the employee performances.
Kandula (2006) indicated that “the key to good performance is a strong culture”. A
positive culture helps an average individual to obtain brilliant achievements while a
negative culture may demotivate an outstanding employee to underperform. Deal

and Kennedy (1982) advocated that if the organizational culture was monitored
effectively, the employees would be expected to perform maximally that led to the
sustainable development of the organization. Campbell and Stonehouse (1999)
additionally emphasized on the high influence of corporate culture on employee
motivation, attitude of employees in the work place, employee productivity and
efficiency, the quality of work, innovation and creativity in the organization.
Innovation is fundamental to the growth, wealth and success of the organization.
"Corporate culture is, above all, the most important factor in driving innovation,"
said Rajesh Chandy. Corporate culture encourages the process of innovation and
creativity. At the enterprise where have a strong culture environment, the highest
level of self-sufficiency is created means that employees are encouraged to give
ideas, initiatives. These incentives will contribute to promote the creative dynamics
of all members in the enterprise as a foundation for the research and development
process of enterprises. On the other hand, the success of employees at work will
motivate them to stick with their company for a long time and be positive. Besides,
the improvement in attitude of employees working in a strong corporate culture can
increase productivity. Once employees work productively, the organizational finance
health of the organization will be improved and profits will rise. Increasing in
productivity illustrates efficiency and effectiveness of the business. Employees
benefit from increases in productivity with higher salaries from employee benefit
programs. Moreover, companies with cultures valuing the highest quality
encourages staffs for delivering services that meet high standards. Excellent cultural
standards create products or services with reputations for high quality.
2.1.4. Cultural roles of people in the organization
Leaders and employees are the one who play a key role in creating and
developing a strong corporate culture.
2.1.4.1. Cultural role of leaders:
Schein (2006) compared corporate culture and leadership as two sides of a
coin. John Kotter showed in Corporate Culture and Performance (1992) that
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leadership is corporate culture creation. The key mission of leadership is to build
and strengthen the organizational culture. Therefore, leaders are essential in building
and developing corporate culture. They are the one who create the corporate culture
foundation by setting clear goals and routes so that everyone can be aware of the
role and influence of themselves with the company's goals. Leaders form, nurture
the environment and cultural standards. Selecting people who are suitable for the
cultural value system. Leadership is an example and motivation for employees. They
are role models for all employees. Managers cannot expect their employees to
change their habits if they don’t become a pioneer. Therefore, if wanting a business
to have a positive culture with exemplary employees, managers must become a
typical “model” so people can look at it to adjust their behavior and attitudes.
Leaders are people who change the corporate culture.
2.1.4.2. Cultural role of employees:
Founders play a critical role in setting the organizational culture, however,
employees are the one who uphold and nurture it. The beliefs and norms of an
organization form its culture which gives direction for all staffs. The staffs are the
most valuable asset of an organization. They contribute excellently towards the
operation of an organization, which helps the organization to be successful and longterm development. The behaviors of the staffs form the organizational culture in the
working environment through the thinking processes and assumptions of the people
in the company.

2.2. Dimensions of corporate culture
Hofstede (1980) deciphered cultures by focusing on the distinction between
one culture and another. Hofstede's cultural definition asserts that culture is a
collective program of mind that distinguishes members of a group from others.
Behavioral tendencies of members in a group are driven by culture. In the
beginning, Hofstede categorize cultures according to four set of contrasting values:
low and high uncertainty avoidance; low and high power distance; individualism

and collectivism; masculinity and femininity. The framework of Culture Dimension
had been extended to two more pairs of values: long-term and short-term
orientation, and indulgence and self-restraint in 2010 (Hofstede et al., 2010).

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2.2.1. Power distance
“The extent to which a society accepts the fact that power in institutions and
organizations is distributed unequally” (Hofstede, 1980b, p. 45) is the definition of
power distance. That means it is not supposed for employees to show disagreement
with their boss and the involvement subordinates in the decision-making process of
superior (Hofstede, 1980a; 2001). This dimension measures the extent to which
power inequality is accepted by members with less power.
For a culture with high power distance, employees are usually fearful and
reliant on their boss. Therefore, they tend to be affected by personal feelings when
working and making decisions. In contrast, with low power distance cultures,
managers act as the leader who guide and share things as friends. They allow their
employees to express opinions, ideas contributing for the company. That flat
structure makes the relationship between managers and staffs more friendly and
open.

2.2.2. Individualism versus collectivism
Individualism - collectivism are “the degree to which people in a country
prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups” (Hofstede, 1994, p. 6).
This dimension aims at the personal relationship within group.
Individualism is the preference for social with loosely-knit framework that
individuals are concentrate on taking care of themselves and immediate families. All
they care are their goals, needs and interests. They are independent and hardly be
affected by others.

On the other hand, Collectivism represents for tightly-knit framework where
everyone can have the believe that their friends, relatives to care for them in
exchange for whole-hearted loyalty. Behavior as social norms which are established
to maintain social harmony between members in a group. They tend to give up their
personal interest for collective interest. Individuals always consider the group
achievement is important than their own goals as they are reliably and supportive.

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2.2.3. Masculinity versus femininity
Masculinity is “the extent to which the dominant values in society are
“masculine” - that is, assertiveness, the acquisition of money and things” (Hofstede,
1980b, p. 46) and oppositely, femininity is defined as the dominance of feminine
values such as “preference friendly atmosphere, position security, physical
conditions, cooperation” (Hofstede, 2001, p. 281).

In the study of Hofstede, he presented a dimension that can make a
distinction between two different forms of culture. Masculinity represent for
assertive and competitive while femininity is more affectionate, thoughtful and less
competitive. I It refers to the traditional roles among two genders, males are usually
considered to be more ambitious, powerful whereas caring, soft are reflected in the
characteristic of female.
Nevertheless, when applying masculinity and femininity aspect to analyze
organizational culture, it helps researchers to tell apart attitude toward the jobs,
relationships among cultures. A job, which is challenging and have high rewards,
recognition and appreciation from other people, is highly considered in masculinity
culture. This culture force people perform at full capacity and be competitive when
working and achieving goals. On the contrary, femininity culture concentrates on
relationship among co-workers in a company. They want jobs that are stable and

have cooperation oriented. They tent to take care of each other and usually not be
self-centered.

2.2.4. Uncertainty avoidance
The definition of uncertainty avoidance is “the extent to which a society feels
threatened by uncertain and ambiguous situations and tries to avoid these situations
by providing greater career stability, establishing more formal rules, not tolerating
deviant ideas and behaviors, and believing in absolute truths and the attainment of
expertise” (1980b, p. 45). It should not be misunderstood between uncertainty
avoidance and risk avoidance – “it does not describe one’s willingness to take or
avoid risk, but rather is associated with preferences for clear rules and guidance”
(Hofstede, 2001, p. 149). Uncertainty avoidance dimension refers to the tolerance of
society towards ambiguity and uncertainty.

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In Risk Intelligence series, Sandeep Bhatnagar stated that a society with low
uncertainty avoidance maintains relaxed attitude which prefers practice than rules
and principles. They have no problem with changeable environments along with
trying to have less regulations as possible. However, in high uncertainty avoidance
culture, people are prone to avoid risk so that they want to be safe and make sure
things go right when unusual circumstances happen by proceeding with careful
planning and implementing regulations, rules and laws.

In a company with high uncertainty avoidance, regulations and policies are
established by the managers to avoid staffs from ambiguities. Managers are problem
solvers and have ability to give detailed and correct guidance for all employees. On
the other hand, managers normally set the policies and regulations only when urgent
situations happen in order to control the high turnover rate of labor in organizations

in low uncertainty avoidance culture.

2.2.5. Short term versus long term orientation
According to Confucius, they are shown clearly in life such as unequal
relationships which exist among human to ensure stability. Maintaining some links
with the past and facing with the challenges of present and future are necessary for
ever society. The society prioritizes two goals in a different way.

People with long-term orientation are futuristic, dynamic mentality and prefer
perseverance and persistence. They care about future and often have relationship
order depending on status, and observance of this order. Countries with a long-term
orientation tend to be pragmatic, modest and have more savings.
According to the note of Hofstede in the book Culture’s Consequences (2001,
2nd ed. p 359), short-term orientation culture often enhances the virtues of past and
present, appreciates traditions and implements social obligations. People with this
orientation are usually comparatively static and more conventional mentality. They
emphasis on saving face and personal steadiness. Overall, each orientation has their
own strength that contributes to improve the culture and organization should choose
orientation that suit their vision.

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