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INTRODUCTION
The aim of this paper is to analyze organizational culture, politics using one of appropriate
theories, as well as evaluate their influence on the employees’ behavior and performance. Then,
a detailed recommendation for a better, more effective utilization of culture and politics would be
provided to put employees further, helping company achieve targeted objectives.

Aviation Industry is one of a huge concern in the world, as it enormously supports others, such
as travel industry, service industry, etc. which contributes to the global economic development.
Therefore, studying the culture of some Airlines’ culture would be suitable and essential to some
extent.
 TASK RESPONSES

I. BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE SELECTED COMPANY (VIETNAM AIRLINES)

 Established in 1995, Vietnam Airlines became the leader national aviation and has evolved
over years to become one of the most major carriers in Southeast Asia
(Vietnamairlines.com, 2023). Over 20 years, with a stable yearly rise (at average) in the
double-digits, Vietnam Airlines now becomes a pride of national aviation with a symbol
representing the Vietnamese Culture. The flag carrier also opened a wide global network, as
well as made a big statement to the regional aviation industry. Vietnam Airlines makes a
commitment to shareholders to disclosing all information to the public in order to show the
transparency, as well as to maintain and improve communication with stakeholders.
Besides, the company desires to attain successful business operation based on harmonious
balance between interests shareholders and the economic development in Vietnam.
 REMARKABLE MILESTONES OF VNA
 2006: Joined SkyTeam Alliance (first Southeast Asian Airlines to do so)
 2015: World’s Airline pioneer to operate both Boeing 787 and Airbus A350.
 2016: Received 4-star certificate from Skytrax.
 2021: First time launched direct flight to US.

II. POWER, POLITICS, CULTURE IN VIETNAM AIRLINES

Robin and Judge (2018) has defined Organizational culture as “a system meaning held by
members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations”.
Meanwhile, the use of power to direct others to course of actions for “self-serving” or
“organizational unsanctioned behaviors” is Organizational politics.
1. Indicating VNA’s uniqueness (using Edgar Schein model)
Edgar Schein has proposed one of the most popular Organizational culture model, in which
assumptions shape value and vice versa. There are 3 levels of this model, including Artifacts,
Espoused Values and Basic Assumptions.
 Schein’s model

1.1 Artifacts
Schein believed that Artifacts are the most visible things, so changing these will not mean too
much to the organizational culture. Artifacts aspects might consist of office layout, logo, uniform,
dress code, decoration, facility of the organization.
Both office layout and the aircraft layout are designed with blue and white selected as main
colors

Vietnam Airlines Office

 Regarding LOGO (Lotus symbol), over the years of evolvement, VNA has updated its logo for
3 times. The latest edition took place in 2015, which still remains the symbol Golden Lotus and
“Vietnam Airlines”, however the Lotus has been customized, with a warmer, more vibrant color.
This update is expected to bring the modernization, friendliness to the brand’s LOGO, helping
customers easily read, but still recalled to the VNA.
Vietnam Airlines has uniform for each position. Female flight attendants are required to wear
“ao dai” with blue or yellow color, while the male counterparts will wear suits with blue-color ties.
The pilots’ uniform was similar to that of male flight attendants, however the wrist of jacket has
yellow-black stripes.

Vietnam Airlines Logo

Vietnam Airlines uniform

 As mentioned above, the Artifacts outlined the brand identity, helping customers to easily
recognize. The yellow or blue-color ao dai, along with the Golden Lotus have been usual
things of Vietnam Airlines. However, since its change has the lowest impact on the
organizational culture, so the artifacts could easily be modified over the years. For
 example, since the Vietnam Airlines’s establishment, its uniform has been changed 5
times, or its logo has been evolved 3 times.

1.2 Espoused Values

There are several missions and visions, as well as core values that Vietnam Airlines has
set to not only ensure that their customers’ demands will always be fully served, but also
to maintain its position in the World’s Aviation map. (spirit.vietnamairlines.com, 2023)
- MISSION AND VISION
 Consolidating its lead in the Vietnam’s aviation
 Becoming prioritized Asian Airlines of customers, also being a major force
transportation of Vietnam as a National carrier
 Meeting the customers’ expectations by diversifying high-quality air transport
 Civilizing and Professionalizing working conditions with promotion chances for
employees
- CORE VALUES
 Safety must be the highest priority in any activity
 Customer-centric approach
 Employees are the most valuable asset
 Creativity will always be encouraged for innovation
 VNA is a responsible airlines with all actions, decisions complied with the social
sustainability

 In order to achieve success in business, all individuals in an organization must be

well-aware of espoused values. For Vietnam Airlines, to become successful in
Aviation Industry, all missions, visions and core values must be properly set to
make sure that the employees’ actions will be in line with the organizational
targets. For example, all the Vietnam Airlines’ employees always assure their
customers by providing safe flights and high-quality services. Along with that,
VNA leaders offer appropriate compensation policy, which encourages employees
to work better, contributing to the increase of organizational performance.

1.3 Basic Assumptions

Basic assumption is the most difficult aspect to observe when researching a business’s
culture. Wilfred R. Bion (1961) uses the term basic assumption to “designate that which,
fundamentally, the individual must assume in order to be part of a group”. Basic
assumptions come into play at the unconscious, pathic, and affective levels. In Vietnam
Airlines, employees always are the most valuable asset that their beliefs, the solidarity
between them means so much to the VNA’s leaders (Dang Ngoc Hoa-Chairman of VNA)
and also is the core factor in every VNA’s action and decision. Therefore, the VNA’s
employees always collaborate with each other to work more effectively. During the COVID-
19 pandemic, thanks to strong cooperation and consolidation among the VNA’s employees,
 Vietnam Airlines survived through this challenging period, and now is aiming for a
sustainable development.

2. Vietnam Airlines’s culture (Using Quinn and Kim model)

By applying the culture model of Quinn and Kim (professors at the University of Michigan in
the United States), I will indicate type of cultures applied by Vietnam Airlines in this section.

According to Quinn and Kim, there are basically 4 types of culture, including Clan, Hierarchy,
Adhocracy and Market culture. The most unique characteristics of each type of culture are
shown below:

Nguyen Hai Quang (2017) researched on the organizational culture of Vietnam Airlines by
surveying 240 employees working here and indicated Vietnam Airlines is inclined to Clan and
Hierarchy Culture than Market and Adhocracy Market. Therefore, I will delve into Clan culture
and Hierarchy Culture and how they are implemented in Vietnam Airlines.
 2.1 Clan Culture in Vietnam Airlines
According to Hung, et al (2022), applying clan culture means that the managers really care
about employee, and most importantly, they emphasize on the member participation and
teamwork. Besides, the clan culture focuses on the employee commitment, trust. To sum up,
managers consider the employee as a core aspect of the organizational development.
As mentioned above, Mr Dang Ngoc Hoa (Chairman of VNA) supposed that the employee
solidarity is the most important thing that VNA currently possesses, which shows that clan
culture is applied in VNA.
2.2 Hierarchy Culture in Vietnam Airlines
Meanwhile, Hierarchy Culture put emphasis on strict management and rule to control
employees for smooth operation of organization. Good planning, organization skills of managers
really matter in this type of culture to ensure the reliable and effective output.

Organizational Structure of Vietnam Airlines

According to the above organizational structure, it can be easily seen that Vietnam Airlines is
also applying Hierarchy culture with clear structure, each Vice CEO (or Head Office) hold
accountable for each Department (specializing each area such as: finance, commerce,
technical,etc.). All departments must collaborate with each other for smooth and safe operation.
Rule-based culture is a need in Vietnam Airlines as the Aviation Industry demands on safety
of passengers. Unorganized and undisciplined behavior of each employee would lower the
customers’ trust and furtherly cause accidents.

 CLAN and HIERARCHY culture are harmoniously combined in Vietnam Airlines to make
sure that employees are experiencing flexible working environment but also must
commit to certain rules to maintain the customer’s trust as well as the face of flag carrier.

3. Vietnam Airlines power sources

The power-based concepts will be covered in detail in this section. According to French and
Raven (1958), the term “power” can be referred to the ability that one person can influence
others’ behaviors and even direct them to course of actions. Basically, there are 2 fundamental
types of power, personal and formal power. While formal power indicates one’s power which
stem from their position, personal power is type of power that comes from one’s characteristic.

3.1 Personal Power in Vietnam Airlines

There are several types of personal power
 Expert Power: This type of power stems from an absolute amount of knowledge,
competence, skills that person possess and could be gained appreciation from others.
 Information Power: Stems from the information a person owns that others are in need
for it.
 Connection Power: Stems from the “influential connection” that a person owns.
 Referent Power: Stems from the ability that a person possesses affecting others.

In Vietnam Airlines, there is an existence of Expert Power.

Vietnam Airlines has two active research centers with 02 main specialized departments:
Technology & Management Solutions Department and Science & Technology Service
Department, with 20 staff and technicians. The research center has the role of advising and
assisting the board of directors and the general director. Along with that, with essential and
expert skills, the center’s employees are also expected to propose solutions for technology
applied in aviation field and provide services for production and business activities of the
company. These research centers certainly have Expert Power.

3.2 Formal Power in Vietnam Airlines

There are 3 types of Formal Power:
  Coercive Power: Stems from fearful feeling of underperformed outcomes, meaning that
the employees must follow the direction of leaders as they are afraid of punishments.
 Reward Power: Stems from the power that leaders can decide whether their employees
could be rewarded.
 Legitimate Power: Stems from one’s position in a hierarchy (organizational structure)

Vietnam Airlines employees certainly work under huge pressure from the Coercive Power.
Working in Aviation Industry, especially for the flag carrier highly requires employees to provide
the best service to customers, because if employees (flight attendant, for example) show
unenthusiastic conducts and low customer service, it would damage the organization reputation,
thus could lower the VNA’s profits. With this deficit, employees could be punished (salary cut
down, for example) or even sacked. Therefore, with the fear of punishment inflicted on them,
VNA’s employees must comply with the rules to provide best service to customers.

Based on the VNA’s structure and the charter of VNA JSC (published in 2019), the Board of
Management (BOM) has rights to dismiss or appoint subordinates to suitable position, even the
dismissal or appointment of Chairman must be passed by BOM. Chairman of VNA-Mr Dang
Ngoc Ha is in charge of signing decisions on behalf of the BOM. For example, during the
COVID-19 pandemic, pilots and flight attendants’ salaries were cut off; or staffs are cut to
ensure VNA’s survival (Anh Tu, 2020). Those decisions must be finalized through the BOM
meetings. Mr. Dang Ngoc Ha, as a chairman, has some specific powers over others, such as
assigning and supervising tasks of each BOM member, including CEO. CEO-as a top manager
has same powers over Vice CEO and Head Office. Every action of subordinates must be in line
with the superiors’ direction, which is Legitimate Power. The existence of Legitimate Power can
lead to Reward Power. Reward system can only be operated by those have higher positions in
hierarchy than others. Each business has their own compensation policy for employees who
have high productivity, so does Vietnam Airlines. Vietnam Airlines has changed its
compensation policy, as instead of receiving 100% salary, those completing full tasks will be
rewarded salary 1.5 times higher than before, assuring employees and partly motivating them to
devote the best to the company.

4. Power tactics in Vietnam Airlines

Certainly, leaders of Vietnam Airlines also apply some power tactics to influence their
employees, then make them to follow their guides. In total, there are 9 power tactics (Toppr-
guides, 2023)
 Rational persuasion: Using reasonable arguments to persuade others.
 Consultation: Engaging employees in meetings, consulting them to make decision, as
well as contribute to building strategic plan
 Ingratiation: Referred to the manager’s friendly behavior to make employees satisfied
before making a request
 Personal appeals: Discussing about the friendship and loyalty prior to making a
proposal.
  Inspirational appeals: Manager makes emotional proposal to arouse employees’
enthusiasm and make them confident by appealing to their ideals.
 Exchange: Referring to rewards offered by manager to employees when they comply
with the request
 Coalition tactics: Getting others’ aid in organization to back up request.
 Pressure: Using commands, threatening others to force them obligate request
 Legitimating tactics: One’s request must be based on their authority in organization, or
must be under tacit approval of superiors, must be complied with the regulations.

Legitimating could be considered as the most popular influencing tactic in Vietnam Airlines.
The VNA’s mission and vision emphasizes that the working environment needs to be
professionalized, meaning that the everyone’s action must be based on their bounds of
authority. For example, a Vice CEO that holds commerce filed can ask a team of Sales and
Marketing Department to resubmit marketing plan if it is not financially effective or not attractive
enough to customers, which is in bound of his/her authority, while other Vice CEOs holding
other fields are disallowed to have similar request. Another remarkable note of this tactic is that
request must be in compliance with regulations, which means that superiors’ decisions must be
for mutual benefits of the company.
Besides, Consultation takes place in Vietnam Airlines. Mr Dang Ngoc Ha-Chairman of VNA
said that employees should be empowered to make decision, in which he believes that, along
with the managers’ encouragement and consultation, can reveal employees’ potential and
develop it to ensure higher effectiveness. (spirit.vietnamairlines.com, 2023).
Pressure tactic is partly applied in Vietnam Airlines, as there are specific rules that employees
here must comply to, and can be punished if not obligated to. According to core values
displayed on the company’s website, safety rules must be carefully obligated to make sure that
no one is put in danger. In Vietnam Airlines, employees are working under pressure, in which
their actions must not lead to any accidents.

5. Politics in Vietnam Airlines

Political behavior is also a note-worthy aspect when researching organizational behavior.
Generally, there are 3 concepts of political behavior that could be applied in a company. (David
Cook, 2015)
 Networking: Process emphasizing the development of one’s relationship for career
socialization. This development stems from the mutual benefits of related parties.
 Reciprocity: Involving the creation of obligations and the exchange of “mutual favors
and privileges” to achieve goals”.
 Coalition: Network of alliance helping managers achieve goals.
KEY Difference between Reciprocity and Coalition: Reciprocity is “used to achieve
ongoing objectives”, while specific goals are aim of Coalition.

Vietnam Airlines is using all mentioned politics.

Reciprocity is the most popular politic as in Vietnam Airlines or in each of its department, each
person would exchange something with coworker, subordinates, superiors for their mutual
favors, mutual benefits. The constant exchange between them is highly essential as periodically,
they have objectives together (ongoing objectives).
Coalition is another politic in Vietnam Airlines. According to the development strategy, regarding
the 2021-2030 period, Vietnam Airlines is aiming to invest in the Long Thanh Airport project.
“The service of Vietnam Airlines includes aviation raw material supply, ground technical service,
catering, cargo terminal, aviation logistics center, passenger lounge service, sales. free goods
TAX AND OTHER AIRLINE SERVICES...” (spirit.vietnamairlines.com). In order to do so,
reciprocity between departments is essential. Investment Department is in charge of proposing
project plan in details, with clear timeline for each activity, while members of Finance and
Accounting Department (giving advice of the cost-effectiveness of project) or Department that
holds service and ground field, etc. would also support to make sure that the project is
successful. The alliance between them is the key to succeeding in this specific goal.
Networking politic is also note-worthy, as mentioned before, the solidarity between members
of VNA has been a core factor to overcome difficulties. According to Mr Dang Ngoc Ha, VNA
staff always treat each other like family members, so employees find it easy to get along well
with each other and adapt to the working environment.-

III. ANALYZING AND EVALUATING THE IMPACTS OF CULTURES, POLITICS,

POWER ON VIETNAM AIRLINES’S EMPLOYEES.
There are several advantages and disadvantages of each culture, politic, power applied in
Vietnam Airlines, which will be covered in this section.
1. Impacts of CLAN CULTURE
1.1 STRENGTHS
- Obviously, as mentioned above, clan culture emphasizes on the friendliness of the
working environment, in which employees can tighten their bonds and get satisfied with
each other. In this type of culture, employees are allowed to make decisions to resolve
problems, express opinions or concerns.
 Impacts on Employees’ behavior: When Vietnam Airlines employees are empowered,
in which their opinions are welcome and appreciated, they would feel like they are
valued, are in a very positive environment thus would attempt to devote the best to the
company. Besides, once an employee raises their ideas, it would stimulate others to do
so. Therefore, the more ideas are raised, the better resolution is given to handle
company problems. Moreover, with a positive feeling of working environment, employees
are more likely to stay at the company. This would help Vietnam Airlines cut off the cost
for human resource training, aiming for professionalized and civilized environment.
 Impacts of the Accomplishment of Goals: Employees encouraged to make decisions
would produce creativity and flexibility while working, making it easier to complete the
goals. Additionally, the employees’ satisfaction could lead to lower employee turnover,
which might ensure the progress of work, as if Vietnam Airlines has to recruit more
employees, it would take more time for VNA to train them and wait for their adaptation to
new working environment.
 1.2 WEAKNESSES
There might be problems associated with this type of culture. In the culture that values
everyone’s opinions, it would be much tougher to finalize decisions. Clan Culture might
slower the finalization of decision-making process, triggering to slower productivity,
furthermore, would lead to negative effect, in which is taboo in an industry that demands on
fast-paced work but also safety and effectiveness like Aviation.

2. Impacts of HIERARCHY CULTURE

2.1 STRENGTHS
- As mentioned before, control and efficiency matter in this culture. Because of demanding
effective work, decision-making must be finalized as soon as possible, thus no
discussion needed. As all employees are aware of where they are in the organizational
hierarchy, they also clearly know about the salary they receive (at least based on their
position).
 Impact on Employees’ behavior: Employees always strive to work very hard to ensure
effectiveness. Besides, in Hierarchy culture, employees will always work with high
concentration and discipline, as they are tightly supervised. Given the circumstances
that the company is in Aviation Industry, high discipline is pivotal to ensure safety. In
some group work, employees might show cooperation for the highest sake of completing
tasks assigned to them, creating a positive working environment.
 Impact on the Accomplishment of Goals: In this culture, decisions are made quickly,
ensuring that the progress of work is always run as planned (no delay).
2.2 WEAKNESSES
- Sometimes, managers’ decisions might cause employees’ dissatisfaction (as they
cannot express their own ideas), which can affect an employee’s overall performance,
although they always attempt to work hard. This dissatisfaction, in long-term, could be a
reason why employees quit jobs.

3. Impacts of Power Tactics Applied in VNA

Legitimating is more effective in lateral direction (Yukl, 1990) for unusual proposal. I have
shown how the Legitimating is applied in Vietnam Airlines, in downward direction, in which,
does no to the Employees behavior, because normally, mangers have significant authority over
their subordinates.
Pressure has huge impact in a downward direction (Erez et al, 1986). According to Erez,
pressure is often used as a “follow-up tactic” when the first influence attempt is failed. The use
of this tactic means that the target commitment is hard to achieve.
 Impact on Employee behavior: Obviously, huge pressure burdened on employees can
dissatisfy them, probably leading to the organizational turnover. However, given the fact
that VNA is in Aviation Industry, and the company’s core values include safety priority,
using threats for unobligated actions are necessary. Accidents occurring during the flight
can lead to disasters, in which passengers’ life are being threatened, and no
 compensation is sufficient. Vietnam Airlines employees, therefore, are always strict
with themselves to follow special regulations.
 Impact on the Accomplishment of Goals: With dedicated, focused attitudes of
employees to the assigned works, the VNA’s prestige is expected to get improved in
public eye, thus VNA can realize their goals, such as being prioritized Asian Airlines of
customers’ choice, etc.
Consultation tactic could be used in lateral, upward or downward direction, but most suitable
in downward, as an agent has authority to plan project but can assign work to the target to
support for implementation.
 Every employee of an Aviation Industry brand is always under huge pressure, so
consulting them to contribute to the working process helps managers balance their
subordinates’ mood, which affects significantly overall performance (Yukl, 1990).

4. Impacts of Politics applied in VNA

The spirit of working in coalition is always encouraged by Vietnam Airlines’ managers. With
good relationships constructed among the employees, the project and its effectiveness can
show significant improvement. When difficulties occur at work, managers and employees can
collaborate with each other and look for support. For example, the investment in the Long
Thanh Airport Project (mentioned above), is expected to succeed thanks to strong collaboration
among employees and leaders from many departments.
Reciprocity, on the other hand, is looking for fairness in a company, in all relationships
(between colleagues, superiors and subordinates). Managers provide detailed feedback to help
employees get improved when they complete assigned tasks, which can be a critical factor to
step closer to objectives set before. Ms Giang-Airline Reservation Agent said that employees’
work history is carefully recorded to evaluate their rewards and consider for promotion later. She
believes that managers setting specific objectives for employees can propel them to a hard-
working status, so they can force themselves to reach key performance indicators.

IV. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURES, POLITICS AND POWER

1. Clan Culture v Consultation-Reciprocity-Networking Politic
As mentioned above, Vietnam Airlines has formed Clan Culture to manage employees. The
key point of this culture is a tighten manager-employee bond, in which the combination of
Consultation Power, Reciprocity and Networking Politic would be important. Managers
implement Consultation Power to engage employees in a general meetings, so everyone can
contribute to overall performance of teams. With particular expertise knowledge, managers can
comprehensively consult employees and help them to make decisions. With the ability to
engage subordinates in a meeting, Mr Dang Ngoc Ha-VNA chairman, always create a positive
and energetic atmosphere among employees, which is a part of Clan Culture. When this
happens, he has more opportunities to implement Reciprocity and Networking politic.
Employees directed to participate general meeting would make them create new relationship
with surrounding colleagues to, at least, understand others well to perform their tasks well
(Reciprocity). Moreover, as positive working environment is encouraged, employees can easily
get along well with each other, so they are not necessarily in same groups or in a need to reach
objectives but still support others (Networking). Networking politic can also help employees in
their career path. For example, to get promoted, not only employees’ competencies but also the
support from colleagues that really matter. Working in the environment that emphasizes on
collaboration, along with the consultation from managers create dynamic and flexible
environment for everyone, motivating them to work more diligently.

2. Hierarchy Culture v Legitimate Power-Coercive Power-Pressure Tactic-Reciprocity

On the other hand, management method in the Hierarchy Culture is opposite to Clan
Culture. Key features of this culture depend on some power or political tactics such as:
Legitimate, Coercive Power or Pressure Tactic and Reciprocity politic. Hierarchy culture focuses
on controlling employees to ensure smooth operation. To operate great control over a business,
Legitimate Power in Vietnam Airlines comes first, as only members of Board of Management
and those who are delegated authority can control others. The authority delegation is also a
specific characteristic of Hierarchy Culture to run business more smoothly and effectively. To do
so, each authorized leaders must implement appropriate method to direct employees work hard
and ensure efficiency of the work, where the Pressure Tactic would be ideal. Using pressure
tactic means that managers force employees to follow their direction and threaten subordinates
by punishments if they are likely to disobey. By this way, managers obviously own Coercive
Power over their subordinates, as they are afraid of being punished, thus remind themselves to
work hard to meet the leaders’ requirements. Additionally, thanks to the Coercive Power that
managers own over subordinates, they can forcefully assign employees to each group (if
necessary), thus, employees corporate with each other to ensure the overall performance of
their assigned tasks is good (Reciprocity).
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The existence of Legitimate and Coercive Power, as mentioned above,
can be a crucial factor to establish a new power: Reward. Ms Giang, as an Airline Reservation
Agent said that she has monthly KPI, and if she does not reach that objective, her salary might
be cut off as a result. In this case, Ms Giang’s manager has considerable Legitimate Power over
her, therefore can decide amount of salary allocated to Ms Giang (Reward Power).
3. Relationship between Clan Culture and Hierarchy Culture
It is clear that Clan Culture is different from Hierarchy Culture, with contrast leadership and
management methods. However, Vietnam Airlines has turned this contrast to a perfect
combination to manage their employees effectively, which will be covered in this section.
Clan Culture allows strong corporation and positive atmosphere among employees, which
positively influence employees’ emotion and satisfaction while working; the relationship between
subordinates and superiors would be maintained. “When the relationship among the Vietnam
Airlines members is positive, managers burdening pressure on employees for successful
outcome would not turn their mood down”-Mr Hoang Ngoc Bich-Chief Flight Attendant of
Vietnam Airlines [Interview-April 2nd, 2023]. As an experienced member of cabin crew, Mr Hoang
Ngoc Bich clearly understands the pressure that his boss puts on him, as well as pressure of
leading cabin crew of national carrier. He always roots for a friendly and sociable atmosphere
among members of cabin crews so that they can reciprocate with each other well. However, he
also sets specific service-related rules and asks cabin crews to follow to reach the goals set
before. Before any flight, apart from creating an energetic atmosphere among cabin crew
members, he also reminds them to always focus on the task and emphasizes specific rules to
help passengers assured. “Leadership concept relates to a harmonious combination between
the flexibility and discipline.”

 In conclusion, Clan Culture directs employees to a collaborating culture and delves into
Internal Focus (Employees) with the belief that can boost their creativity and flexibility.
On the other hand, Hierarchy Culture focuses on the stability of an organization with
specific rules to keep employees disciplined. Harmonious combination of these 2
cultures is expected to keep the Vietnam Airlines members highly disciplined, but also
show flexibility.

V. RECOMMENDATION FOR EFFECTIVE CULTURE, POLITICS, POWER APPLIED

IN VIETNAM AIRLINES.
Currently, Vietnam Airlines culture is considered to be strong, however the desire of both
employees and managers to adjust culture has existed, with the belief of continuous
improvement. In this section, I will deploy 3 main parts: Employees desire to change culture,
Managers desire to change culture, and my recommendation for adjusted culture.

1. VNA Employees desire to change culture

As mentioned above, the research of Vietnam Airlines cultural model by Nguyen Hai Quang
shows that overall, employees suppose that Vietnam Airlines is inclined to Clan and Hierarchy
Culture. They wish that in the future, Vietnam Airlines would continue to strengthen Clan Culture
and develop Adhocracy Culture, as well as reduce Hierarchy Culture. This means that
employees of VNA are looking for more flexible and dynamic environment, which can foster their
creativity.
Vietnam Airlines employees desire to change cultural model (Nguyen Hai Quang, 2017)

2. VNA Managers desire to change culture

Similarly, Managers of Vietnam Airlines (34 managers interviewed) also look for the
development of Clan and Adhocracy Culture, and the fall in Hierarchy Culture. What managers
of VNA is looking for is strict procedures and regulations should receive less attention. Most
importantly, the managers should supervise activity via vision, sharing goals and outcomes with
subordinates, thus employees are more self-reliable on their work.
Vietnam Airlines Managers desire to change cultural model (Nguyen Hai Quang, 2017)

3. Individual recommendation for culture adjustment

Based on the desire of VNA employees and managers desire to change culture model, it can
be interpreted that dynamic environment is what both leaders and employees are looking for.
According to them, Clan and Adhocracy Culture are encouraged to develop, while Hierarchy
Culture should be reduces, and Market Culture should be unchanged. In this section, I will
provide some pros of Adhocracy Culture to explain why both employees and managers are
rooting over Hierarchy Culture.
ADHOCRACY CULTURE: Flexible environment is highly welcomed in this culture, this means
that each employee’s function is interchangeable, and they can make their own decision with
high level of self-reliance. To make their own decisions, employees ought to have multiple
knowledge fields, so sometimes they exchange their jobs. Continuous innovation is a unique
feature of this culture. (Mathur, 2021)
Comparison with HIERARCHY CULTURE: Lesser constraints with disciplines and rules would
lessen pressure burdened on each employees, which is highly essential, especially for an
unpredictable industry like Aviation. In some unexpected turbulences on flight, employees being
flexible with fast processing actions is a need.
RECOMMENDATION:
I would suggest Vietnam Airlines to reduce Hierarchy Culture and develop the Adhocracy culture
based on some major reasons. First, it is a desire of both Employees and Managers here, not to
mention staffs here, managers have certain expertise knowledge of leadership, so they
understand that rules policies of the company are restricting competency of employees. As Mr
Dang Ngoc Ha has said before, employees should be empowered more than constantly
supervised, and leaders should know how to encourage and consult employees to explore their
own potential. Second, employees’ opinions are also worthily considered, as their comfort while
working also contributes to the overall performance of the company, strict rules definitely
discomfort them. Third, the emergence of the domestic brand such as Vietjet Air, Bamboo
Airways, with a focus on the development of dynamic working environment, which is favored by
many Vietnam Youngers threatens VNA in terms of human resources. This cultural adjustment
would help Vietnam Airlines to equally compete with rivals in terms of human resources.
Besides, as mentioned above, the Basic Assumption of Vietnam Airlines is about creating
friendly environment, where the belief among employees must be maintained, so the model of
Adhocracy culture should be developed to strengthen basic assumption.
On the other hand, although Hierarchy Culture is recommended to be reduced in Vietnam
Airlines, specific rules and policies that elevate Vietnam Airlines to the leader of Vietnam
Aviation Industry must be maintained, discipline is a lifeline of organization, which is also a key
to the effective work.
 With a harmonious combination between multiple types of culture, Vietnam Airlines is
expected to strengthen culture that that show flexibility and collaboration, but also
disciple and effectiveness.
 REFERENCE LIST

1. Introduction (no date) Vietnam Airlines. Available at:

https://www.vietnamairlines.com/vn/en/vietnam-airlines/investor-relations/introduction
(Accessed: March 13, 2023).
2. Tầm nhìn - SỨ mệnh và Giá Trị Cốt Lõi (no date) VietNam Airline. Available at:
http://spirit.vietnamairlines.com/vi/emagazine/tin-tct-105/tam-nhin---su-menh-va-gia-tri-
cot-loi-9160.html (Accessed: March 17, 2023).
3. Nguyen Hai Quang, 2017. “Organizational culture model of vietnam airlines”,
International Journal of Current Research, 9, (10), 59468-59472
4. Hung, Ying-Cheng & Su, Tzu-Cheng & Lou, Kuo-Ren. (2022). Impact of Organizational
Culture on Individual Work Performance with National Culture of Cross-Strait Enterprises
as a Moderator. Sustainability. 14. 6897. 10.3390/su14116897.
5. VnExpress (no date) Vietnam Airlines to cut salaries of pilots, flight attendants by half -
vnexpress international, VnExpress International – Latest news, business, travel and
analysis from Vietnam. Available at:
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/business/companies/vietnam-airlines-to-cut-salaries-of-
pilots-flight-attendants-by-half-4142188.html (Accessed: March 30, 2023).
6. Toppr-guides (2020) . The Concept Of Power - Tactics, Bases, And Sources Of Power.
[online] Available at: [Accessed 4 March 2023].
7. Yukl, G. (1989). Leadership in organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
8. Yukl, G. (1990). Skills for managers and leaders. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
9. Mathur, D. (2021) Adhocracy culture: Meaning, examples, pros and cons, Harappa.
Available at: https://harappa.education/harappa-diaries/adhocracy-culture/ (Accessed:
April 15, 2023).
10. [Interview, March 31st, 2023]: Ms Giang-Airlines Reservation Agent
11. [Interview, April 2nd, 2023]: Mr Hoang Ngoc Bich-Chief Purser