The Moderating Impacts of National Culture on Managerial Workforce

Behaviours in Local Hotels: A Case Study in Vietnam

By

Cheah, Kuan Yean

Master of Business Administration (RMIT, Vietnam)
Bachelor of Arts in Hotel and Restaurant Administration
(Washington State University, USA)

Newcastle Graduate School of Business

Faculty of Business and Law
The University of Newcastle, Australia

Submitted on 11th December 2015

For the partial requirement of the degree of
Doctor of Business Administration

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DECLARATION

“This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other
degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another
person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to this
copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being made available for
loan and photocopying subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.
I hereby certify that the work embodied in this dissertation is the result of original
research, the greater part of which was completed subsequent to admission to
candidature for the degree.”

___________________

Cheah, Kuan Yean

11th December 2016

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to give my sincere appreciations and acknowledgement to my supervisor,

Dr. Roslyn Larkin, for her valuable support, guidance and patience throughout my
research journey.

This research is whole-heartedly dedicated to Cheah Sek Soong, my father, who always
believed in education and Ng Yoke Lin, my mother, who always wanted a doctor in the
family.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ......................................................................................................……... ii

Acknowledgements…...…………………………………………………………….. iii

Table of Contents…………………………………….…………….……………….. iv

List of Figures......................................……………………….....………………….. x

List of Tables ………………………………………………..................................... xi

List of Charts ………………………………………………..................................... xii

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………... xiii

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………. 15

1.1 BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH ……………………………...………… 15

1.2 RATIONALES AND PROBLEM STATEMENT ………………………… 16

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS …...……… 20

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH ………………………………………... 21

1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF RESEARCH..…….…………………….. 23

1.6 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY ..………………………………………… 24

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………………………. 27

2.1 INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………... 27

2.2 CULTURE ……………………………………………………………………... 28

2.3 NATIONAL CULTURE ………………………………………………………. 33

2.3.1 Vietnam National Culture – A Brief History …………………………….. 37

2.3.2 Ethnocentrism…………………………………………………………….. 43

2.3.3 Ethnocentrism and Egocentrism …………………………………………. 45

2.4 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE …………………………………………….. 47

2.5 HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY AND HOTEL CULTURE ……………………... 51

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 2.5.1 Western Hotel Service Standards in Local Hotel ………………………... 59

2.5.2 Cultural Clash Between Vietnamese Culture and Western Hotel Service
Standards ……..………………………………….………………………. 62

2.6 NATIONAL CULTURE INFLUENCES ON WORKFORCE ………………... 64

2.7 MANAGERIAL WORKFORCE BEHAVIOUR.. ……………………………. 68

2.8 CURRENT RESEARCH REFERENCE SOURCES ………………………….. 70

2.8.1 Hofstede Cultural Dimensions …………………………………………… 70

2.8.1.1 Vietnam - Hofstede Cultural Dimensions ……………………….. 77

2.8.2 Berrell, Wright and Tran Research, (BWT Research) .………………….. 82

2.8.3 Henry Hoang PhD Research ……………………………………………... 85

2.9 RESEARCH QUESTION ……………………………………………………... 86

2.10 CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………. 89

CHAPTER 3 – METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………… 91

3.1 INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………….. 91

3.2 RESEARCH CONTEXT ……………………………………………………… 91

3.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………… 92

3.3.1 Research Paradigm ……………………………………………………... 92

3.3.2 Research Theoretical Framework ………………………………………... 94

3.3.3 Research Design …………………………………………………………. 97

3.3.4 Research Strategy - Case Study …………………………………………. 97

3.3.5 Data Collection …………………………………………………………... 100

3.3.5.1 Research Instruments …………………………………………….. 103

3.3.6 Sample and Sampling ……………………………………………………. 104

3.3.7 Main Case Study Sample Demographic Context ...……………………… 106

3.3.8 Participant Selection and Recruitment …………………………………… 108

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 3.3.8.1 Local Hotel Company ...…………………………………………. 108

3.3.8.2 Participants ………………………………………………………. 109

3.3.8.3 Participant Information Statement and Consent Forms ………….. 110

3.3.8.4 Participant Recruitment ………………………………………….. 110

3.3.9 Research Ethics …………………………………………………............... 111

3.3.10 Data Analysis ..………………………………………………………….. 112

3.4 GOODNESS OF FIT…………………………………………………………… 115

3.5 LIMITATIONS ………………………………………………………………… 117

3.6 CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………… 119

CHAPTER 4 – CASE STUDY RESULTS ……………………………………… 122

4.1 INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………….. 122

4.2 RESEARCH QUESTION RE-VISIT …………………………………………. 123

4.2.1 National Culture and Influences …………………………………………. 123

4.2.2 Hofstede Cultural Dimensions …………………………………………… 124

4.3 MAIN CASE STUDY RESULTS - RESEARCH QUESTION (A) ……….... 125

4.3.1 Sub-question One: How do you think the Vietnamese national culture
impacts on the behaviour or performance of the hotel‘s Vietnamese 126
managerial staff ? …………………………………………………………

4.3. 2 Sub-question Two: From your experiences at work, what is/are your
opinion or examples about Vietnamese national culture's moderating
impacts on the behaviour or performance of local managerial staff in
Vietnamese hotels? ………………………………………………..…….. 126

4.4 MAIN CASE STUDY RESULTS - RESEARCH QUESTION (B) …………... 129

4.4.1 Sub-Question One: Power Distance ……………………………………... 130

4.4.1.1 To what extent, do you think that Power Distance affects

the managerial staff behaviour or performance in the hotel? …… 130

4.4.1.2 What are the examples of Power Distance impacts or influences

which you have experienced or observed in the hotel? ………….. 131

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 4.4.1.3 Open Communication ……………………………………………. 132

4.4.2 Sub-Question Two: Collectivism/Individualism ………………………… 135

4.4.2.1 To what extent, do you think that Collectivism/Individualism

affects the managerial staff behaviour or performance in the
hotel? ……..………………………………………………………. 135

4.4.2.2 What are the examples of Collectivism/Individualism impacts

or influences which you have experienced or observed
in the hotel? ……..………………………………………………... 136

4.4.2.3 Community Spirit ………………………………………………... 138

4.4.3 Sub-Question Three: Masculinity/Femininity …………………………… 142

4.4 3.1 To what extent, do you think that Masculinity/Femininity affects

the managerial staff behaviour or performance in the hotel? .…… 142

4.4 3.2 What are the examples of Masculinity/Femininity impacts or

influences which you have experienced or observed in the hotel?.. 143

4.4.3.3 Nurture Others …………………………………………………… 145

4.4.4 Sub-Question Four: Uncertainty Avoidance …………………………….. 147

4.4.4.1 To what extent, do you think that Uncertainty Avoidance affects

the managerial staff behaviour or performance in the hotel?.……. 147

4.4.4.2 What are the examples of Uncertainty Avoidance impacts or

influences which you have experienced or observed
in the hotel? ……………………………………………………… 148

4.4.4.3 Risk-Taking ……………………………………………………… 149

4.4.5 Sub-Question Five: Long-Term/Short-Term Orientation ……………….. 152

4.4.5.1 To what extent, do you think that Long-Term/Short-Term

Orientation affects the managerial staff behaviour or performance
in the hotel................................................................................................... 152

4.4.5.2 What are the examples of Long-Term/Short-Term Orientation

impacts or influences which you have experienced or observed
in the hotel? ……………………………………………………… 153

4.4.5.3 Paternalistic Orientation …………………………………………. 154

4.5 OUTSIDE CASE STUDY RESULTS…………………………………………. 157

4.5.1 Do Vietnamese National Culture Impacts and Cultural Clash Exist? …… 157
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 4.5.2 Outside Case Study Samples – Research Question B ………………….... 159

4.5.2.1 Power Distance …………………………………………………... 159

4.5.2.2 Collectivism / Individualism ……………………………………... 161

4.5.2.3 Masculinity / Femininity …………………………………………. 162

4.5.2.4 Uncertainty Avoidance …………………………………………... 163

4.5.2.5 Long-Term / Short-Term Orientation ……………………………. 164

4.6 OTHER RESULTS – NEGATIVE IMPACTS ………………………………. 165

4.6.1 High Power Distance..….………………………………………………... 166

4.6.2 High Individualism …………………..…………………………………... 167

4.6.3 High Masculinity .……..………..………..………………………………. 167

4.6.4 High Uncertainty Avoidance ...…...…………….………………………... 168

4.6.5 Short-Term Orientation …..……………..…………………………….…. 168

4.7 CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………… 169

CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSION ………………………………………………….. 172

5.1 INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………... 172

5.2 RESULT SUMMARY ………………………………………………………… 172

5.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ……………………………………………………. 173

5.3.1 Research Question (A) …………………………………………………… 173

5.3.2 Research Question (B) …………………………………………………… 175

5.4 RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS ………………………………………………. 176

5.5 RESEARCH LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

DIRECTIONS …………………………………………………………………. 177

REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………… 180

APPENDICES …………………………………………………………………….. 196

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Appendix 1: Berrell, Wright And Tran Research - Culture-Influenced 197
Managerial Behaviour ………………………………………………..

Appendix 2: Interview Script ……………………………………………………… 200

Appendix 3: Hotel Information Statement ………………………………………... 204

Appendix 4: Participant Information Statement …………………………………… 208

Appendix 5: Hotel Company Consent Form ………………………………………. 213

Appendix 6: Participant Consent Form ……………………………………………. 215

Appendix 7: Data Coding Details of Main Case Study - Research Question (A) … 217

Appendix 8: Data Coding Details of Main Case Study - Research Question (B) … 221

Appendix 9: Code Count and Result of Hofstede Cultural Dimensions …………... 269

Appendix 10: Outside Case Study Sample: Data Coding Details of Research
Question (A) ………………………………………………………… 280

Appendix 11: Outside Case Study Samples: Data Coding Details of Research
Question (B) …………………………………………………………. 287

Appendix 12: Negative Impacts of Cultural Dimensions …………………………. 309

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 A Theoretical Model Of Culture‘s Influence On Behaviour……………. 31

Figure 2.2 The Culture-Managerial Activities Linkage …………………………..... 36

Figure 2.3 Impact of National Culture ……………………………………………... 41

Figure 2.4 Organisational Culture Creation and Maintenance ...…………………... 50

Figure 2.5 Pizam‘s Hierarchy of Cultures ………………………………………..... 69

Figure 2.6 Hofstede Cultural Dimension Scores – Vietnam ………………………. 77

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Chronological Events of Vietnam …………………………………...……… 39

Table 3.1 Research Strategy Situations ………………………………………………. 98

Table 3.2 Profiles of Main Case Study Interviewees ………………………………….. 107

Table 4.1 Recategorized Thematic Code; Low Power distance .….………………....... 132

Table 4.2 Recategorized Thematic Code: High Collectivism ...………..……………… 137

Table 4.3 Recategorized Thematic Code: High Femininity..…………….……………. 143

Table 4.4 Recategorized Thematic Code: Low Uncertainty Avoidance ..…………….. 148

Table 4.5 Recategorized Thematic Code: Long-Term Orientation ..………………….. 154

Table 4.6 Cultural Dimension Recategorised Themes ………………………………… 170

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LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 3.1 Data Analysis Framework ………………………………………………….. 113

Chart 3.2 Research Theoretical Framework …………………………………………... 115

Chart 3.3 Current Research Methodology Flowchart …………………………………. 119

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ABSTRACT

The research examines the proposition that Vietnamese national culture has moderating
impacts on the behaviour or performance of local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff in
Vietnamese local hotels. As the Vietnamese hotel managers are cultural in origin, the
research study has a potential contribution to illustrate and identify the nature of the
moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture when the hotel managers observe
and practice the universalistic conceptualised standards or western hotel service
standards in their work behaviours or performances. This has presented the problem
statement that whether the Vietnamese national culture moderating impacts hinder or
help the local hotel managers‘ work behaviours or performances in the local hotel as the
Vietnamese national culture could exert positive or negative moderating impacts on the
local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff. Therefore, there is a challenge for the research
study to address the following two research questions: A and B. The research question
(A) is to find out how and whether there is a generalisation that Vietnamese national
culture has moderating impacts on the behaviour of local hotel managerial staff. The
research question (B) is to find out the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national
culture on the local hotel managerial workforce in terms of the Hofstede Cultural
Dimensions.

An exploratory nature of a case study method structured with one-to-one semi-structured

interview was used to investigate and study the research objective. The case study was
done at a company level with one local hotel company in Vietnam. The model of
Hofstede Cultural Dimensions was adopted as the measurement criteria to investigate
and study the research phenomenon. There were two sample populations to be
investigated, which were the Main Case Study sample and the Outside Case Study
sample. The Main Case Study sample of the research was from the Vietnamese
managerial staff of the three participating local hotels of the local hotel company in Ho
Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In addition, the findings of Outside Case Study‘s samples of
senior managers from an international hotel and one other local hotel, and the non-
managerial staff of the participating local hotels had substantiated that there was a
challenge for the research proposition and had further supported the findings and results
of the Main Case Study with an outsider perspective. The purposive sampling was used

xiii
and the total number of participants (interviewees) for the Main Case Study sample was
12 interviewees and for the Outside Case Study sample were 9 interviewees totalling a
final count of 21 interviewees and the interviews were recorded for transcription
purposes.

The analysis of the case study data had acknowledged and demonstrated that the model
of Hofstede cultural dimensions was feasible and pragmatic measures to investigate the
research objectives. The Main Case Study sample has identified positive moderating
impacts on the Vietnamese hotel managers in the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions of Low
Power Distance, High Collectivism, High Femininity, Low Uncertainty Avoidance and
Long-term Orientation. By recategorising the thematic items of these identified Hofstede
Cultural Dimensions, it is found that that the effects of moderating impacts or influences
were found and illustrated in the themes of Open Communication, Community Spirit,
Nurture Others, Risk-Taking and Paternalistic Orientation, which are constructive and
beneficial attributes to the behavioural traits of the western hotel service standards such
as managers must lead by example, exceed expectations, anticipate needs, display
teamwork, command attention to details, teach, coach, and help others. The research
findings have also discovered that the opposite dimensions to these positively
contributing cultural dimensions are undesirable and have negative impacts on the
behaviours and performances of the Vietnamese local hotel managers. These opposite
dimensions are High Power Distance, High Masculinity, High Individualism, High
Uncertainty Avoidance and Short-Term Orientation,

In the context of the research result, it has implied and suggested that the research
findings can be the management premises or themes for the Vietnamese hotel managers
to improve and enrich their hotel management, to create management benchmarks or
guidelines, and to assist the Human Resources Department to monitor and control
employee work behaviours or performances. Altogether, these also serve to enrich and
contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the Vietnamese national culture in the
business industry and for the academia. The future directions for the research are
to structure and investigate other perspectives of the Vietnamese culture, to study
the Vietnamese sub-culture influences on the local hotel managerial staff, and to conduct
the research study at a national level.

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH

Culture is defined as the ―collective programming of the mind‖ (Hofstede, 2001, p.9). It has
been given much attention by researchers, in particular, the role of cultural values and
beliefs in impacting and ―shaping the orientation of the strategic philosophies and
orientations of managers around the world‖ (Ayoun & Moreo, 2008a, p.65). This has
brought a strong recognition that national and organisational culture has impacts or
influences on the work behaviour and performance (Berrell, Wright & Tran 1999; Culpan &
Kucukemiroglu, 1993; Hoang 2008; Hofstede, 2001; Noe, 2005). It is also suggested by
Hoang (2008) that culture cannot be ignored in the current world of business, and Bernard
(2000) argues that it is necessary to analyse local cultures before researchers and business
practitioners use the concept of culture for their purposes. Through their study on
Vietnamese and Australian managers in one organisation, Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999)
have indicated that there are impacts or influences of culture on managers‘ work
performances or behaviours,. Hence, this has supported the proposition that there is an
actuality of the moderating impacts of culture, such as national culture, on the organisational
personnel and, particular for this study, the hotel managerial staff behaviours.

Like any business industry, the hotel industry in Vietnam has to deal with the important
challenges of cultural tensions and effects between the national culture and organisation
culture. A hotel will have an organisation culture of shared values and beliefs which provide
the organisational functioning behavioural norms in the organisation (Deshpande &
Webster, 1989). Similarly, every country has its distinctive national culture of shared and
―unique values‖ identified to be specific to national cultures (Mwaura, Sutton & Roberts,
1998, p.212). Because of these unique values, the respective organisational and national
cultures present in a local hotel will take the opportunity to interact and affect the
15
managerial workforce behaviours (Berrell, Wright & Tran, 1999; Kong & Jogaratnam,
2007). Like cross-cultural encounters, this creates the occasions for the national culture, in
this case Vietnamese, to exert its moderating impacts to influence hotel managerial
workforce behaviours. These moderating impacts of national culture can influence the
managers‘ behaviours, including their values, attitudes, beliefs and identity, to become more
similar (convergence), even where they might be dissimilar (divergence). In another
perspective, embracing ‗crossvergence‘ when the managers "blend their cultural values with
the influences from work environment; they develop a unique set of behaviours that borrow
from both culture and work environment‖ (Ralston, Gustafson, Cheung, & Terpstra, cited in
Hoang, 2008, p.10). Consequently, this leads to the explorative study of the current research
proposition, which involves an investigation of the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese
national culture on Vietnamese hotel managerial staff in the local hotels.

The Hofstede cultural dimensions are used as the research measurement criteria to
investigate the research proposition. This is supported by the acknowledgement from Ayoun
and Moreo (2008a) that ―measuring national culture in terms of dimensions and value
orientations has been used commonly in scholarly work‖ (p.66). Therefore the cultural
dimensions of Power Distance, Collectivism/Individualism, Masculinity/Femininity,
Uncertainty Avoidance and Long-term/Short-term Orientation (Hofstede, 2001) are used in
the investigation process to gauge the moderating impacts of Vietnamese national culture on
the Vietnamese local managerial staff behaviours.

1.2 RATIONALES AND PROBLEM STATEMENT

The research has a proposition that the national culture has impacts or influences on the
behaviour or performance of the local managerial staff in Vietnamese local hotels. This has
raised a problem statement that whether the Vietnamese national culture moderating impacts
hinder or help the local hotel managers‘ work behaviours or performances in the local hotel.
Thus, creating the challenge for the research study to investigate and examine whether the

16
Vietnamese national culture moderating impacts have positive or negative influences on the
local hotel manager‘s work behaviours or performances of the participating local hotels.

Referring to Nguyen and Aoyama‘s (2013) research , they have found that there are
―obvious effects of Vietnamese culture on the current Japanese management style as it
relates to internal work organisation and administration‖(p.13) in their exploration of
cultural differences in implementing technology transfer in Japanese manufacturing
subsidiaries located in Vietnam. This has related a message that when the Vietnamese
culture is exposed and interacted with a different work environment setting, there are certain
degree of moderating impacts of cultural differences on the managerial staff behaviours and
performances. In this context, a different work environment setting is staged for the
moderating impacts or influences of Vietnamese national culture on the Vietnamese
managerial staff to be felt when the ―universalistic conceptualised‖ hotel standards or
western hotel service standards are observed and implemented in the local hotel (Kong &
Jogaratnam, 2007, p.280). Additionally, the research by Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999)
has indicated that the Vietnamese managers have management behaviour differences at
work when compared to their Australian counterparts. Interestingly, from the research study
of Vietnamese cultural influences on management style in the western environment of
Chicago, Henry Hoang (2005) has found that the Vietnamese managers have contrasting
cultural dimensions index results against Hofstede‘s cultural dimension indexes in the
dimensions of Power Distance, Collectivism/Individualism and Long/Short-Term
Orientation. It is recognized by Hoang (2008) that culture has important roles in the shift of
business behaviours which refers to a significant fact that culture has moderating impacts or
influences on the performances of management functions or activities.

These research outcomes have related a fact that the native culture of the Vietnamese
managers has impacted and influenced them in social-psychological manner to behave and
perform differently when exposed to different cultural environments. In the same context,
Torbion (1985) has argued that the managerial roles are affected by national culture, and
―the main interest of culture and management research lies in the issues of cultural
influences on managerial behaviours‖ (Hoang, 2008, p.3). Likewise, Ayoun and Moreo‘s
17
(2008) research study in finding out whether national culture affect hotel managers'
approach to business strategy has introduced the importance of national culture‘s role in
influencing manager‘s work behaviours. Since the host country has its unique cultural
values, which Hofstede (2001) defined as the collective mental programming specific to the
individual national cultures, the Vietnamese hotel managers are considered to be cultural in
origin. When working in the local hotels, the Vietnamese hotel managers need to adopt and
practice the western hotel service standards which set the hotel managers to experience the
nature and certain degree of resistance to change in their hotel work behaviours or
performances due to the impact or influences of the Vietnamese cultural norms and values.
This provides the occasions for the Vietnamese national culture to exert its desirable
(positive) or undesirable (negative) moderating impacts on the Vietnamese hotel managerial
staff behaviours and performances. In this perspective, this has crafted the challenge for the
research study.

Drawing from the above discussions, it has developed the current research‘s interest to
direct the challenge to investigate whether the Vietnamese national culture have moderating
impacts on the Vietnamese hotel managers when they are exposed to the western hotel
service standards in their work environments. Furthermore, the current research‘s challenge
might be able to find out results which are valuable additions or contributions of different
hotel employee behavioural perspectives to the existing Vietnam hotel industry‘s
management and intelligence. This has served as a motivation to commence the research
study to investigate the research questions.

As discussed in Chapter 2, it is commonly known that most of the hotel organisations have
their own unique hospitality cultures sculptured by the founders or owners, and/or fashioned
by the management team (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013; Cameron & Quinn, 1999; Robbins,
2005) to formulate a hotel‘s standards and image. Every hotel company has its own
distinctive organisational culture which influences the staff to perform or behave with an
attitude of ―the way we do things here‖ (Hall, 1995, p.25). It tends to acculturate the
employees to identify with their daily work activities and events. This implies that the
hospitality climate and culture of the local hotel can be impacted or influenced by the
18
cultural values, beliefs and norms of managerial staff, which in turn, have roles in impacting
the hotel management performances and behaviours. With the explanation from Culpan and
Kucukemiroglu (1993), culture is strongly linked to management style and that ―as long as
we have different cultures, management systems as a by-product of culture will manifest
unique characteristics‖ (p.39). This implies an important assumption that the understanding
of the national culture context and its impacts can have serious implications or the success
or failure of an organisation (Hoang, 2008). Imperatively, these are important rationales for
the consideration of the moderating impacts or influences of the national culture on
Vietnamese local hotel managerial workforce behaviours and performances when the hotel
managers are exposed to the universalistic conceptualised hotel standards or western hotel
service standards. Therefore, the Vietnam's hotel industry has to take serious note of the fact
that ―national culture has a greater impact on employees than does their organization‘s
culture‖ (Chon & Sparrowe, 2000, p.245) which enhances the importance of the current
research‘s objectives. Therefore, it is significant to investigate the research proposition in
order to be more knowledgeable and to have a better understanding of such national culture
impacts, to improve the local hotel management competency and efficiency.

As Vietnam is a developing country with ―a market-based economy‖ (Vo, 2011, p.41), the
hotel industry in Vietnam is also in its developing stages, in terms of employee
performance, competency and employee socialisation into the hotel strategised service
standards and qualities of ―universalistic conceptualization‖ (Kong & Jogaratnam, 2007,
p.280). The universalistic conceptualisation of a hotel‘s product–service standards are
termed as the international standards to meet customer and guest expectations competently
and precisely to provide a high level of guest satisfaction. This universalistic
conceptualisation will create and present an atmosphere of familiarity and comfort in the
hotel, which affects and stimulates customer satisfaction. It is also observed by Truong &
King (2010) that this seems to be the strategy for most hotels. Therefore, in order to be
competitive in the hotel market, the local hotels need to adopt and practise the universalistic
conceptualized hotel‘s product–service standards and qualities to satisfy guest expectations
and satisfaction. Consequently this has created a situation similar to a cross-cultural
situation in the local hotel workplace environment, which presents opportunities to allow the
19
native culture to exert its moderating impacts on the managerial workforce behaviours. As
such, the Vietnamese national culture's moderating impacts on the managerial workforce is
felt and it seems to be pragmatic as the Vietnamese hotel managerial staff strives to
maintain the western hotel service standards, which harbour the western hospitality-based
values. Therefore, the encounter of the Vietnamese hotel managers with the western hotel
service standards at work has developed the notion that a cross-cultural scenario exists for
the Vietnamese national culture to have an influential role in exerting its moderating
impacts on the Vietnamese hotel managerial staff behaviours.

Furthermore, Bae, Chen and Walker (1998, p.655) have supported that national culture is a
determinant of organisational action and is a vital issue of transferring employment practices
across cultures, especially for hotel businesses which are ―culturally sensitive‖ (Burgess,
Hampton, Price & Roper, 1995, p.79). It is significantly identified by Reade (2001) that by
sharing the organisation‘s core values and goals, it will foster the employee identification.
As a consequence, within this perspective, the presence of the hotel manager‘s national
culture and the hotel culture will interact in ways to generate impacts on the managerial staff
behaviours. Mwaura et al., (1998, p.215) suggest to have ―crossvergence‖ whereby work
perspectives and country culture intermingle to craft a new and unique value system. In this
perspective, the western hotel service standards can be merged into the local hotel culture.
The unique value system thus created is able to generate viable advantages for the respective
hotel to stay competitive in the market. Therefore, it is important to realise and understand
the issues of the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the managerial
workforce behaviours, to harvest its attributes for the benefits of the local hotels.

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research proposition has a context of one factor affecting another factor in terms of the
national culture moderating impacts and the hotel managerial workforce performances or
behaviours. Therefore, in order to investigate the moderating impacts of Vietnamese
national culture, the Hofstede cultural dimensions are used as the investigative and
20
measurement criteria. To address the problem statement, there are two research questions to
investigate the research proposition, which are:

A. How does Vietnam‘s national culture impact the behaviour or performance of

local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

B. How does the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions explain the moderating impacts of
the National Culture on the behaviour or performance of local Vietnamese hotel
managerial staff?

The research question (A) is to find out how and whether there is a generalisation that
Vietnamese national culture has moderating impacts on the behaviour of local hotel
managerial staff. The research question (B) is to consider which aspects of Vietnamese
national culture have moderating impacts on the local hotel managerial workforce in terms
of the Hofstede cultural dimensions. Also, in the perspectives of these two main questions,
there are sub-questions in the form of open-ended questions, created to investigate and study
the phenomenon of interest during the interview process, as indicated in the interview script,
see Appendix 2.2. The interview script is used because of its flexibility to add, change or
discard questions during the semi-structured interview process, so that the researcher can
probe for better understanding and delve deeper into the research study (Bryman & Bell,
2011).

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH

The primary significance of the study is that the research findings present a fact that the
knowledge of cultural impacts is important to the managers because of its ―influences on
different behaviours and management styles‖ Noe (2005, p.311). It is also recognised that
individual managers hold their own set of beliefs, values and attitudes that are moulded
from their own national cultures (Laurent, 1983). Significantly, it is widely acknowledged
by researchers, practitioners and scholars that culture is an important influential element on
21
management behaviour (Ayoun & Moreo, 2008b; Berrell, Wright & Tran, 1999; Hoang,
2008; Hofstede, 2001). As such, the current study of moderating impacts of a national
culture on hotel managerial staff behaviour will contribute to the context of hotel
management and enrich the hospitality knowledge in the academia.

Since Vietnam became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007, it has
developed into ―a market economy with a socialist character‖ (Quang, Swierczek & Dang,
1998). The hotel industry has been developing together with the market-based economy, as
Vietnam opens for foreign investments and improved inbound and outbound businesses but,
at the same time, it has been exposed to ―both threats and opportunities‖ (Quang & Vuong,
2002, p.36.). This has stimulated the hotels to observe, and adapt their hotel performance
standards towards the universalistic conceptualised standards, which embrace Western
hospitality-based values, to satisfy guest expectations. Thus, the native culture of Vietnam
and western-based hotel standards present a synonymous situation of a work environment
with cross-cultural impacts on the managerial staff behaviour. Furthermore, Berrell, Wright
and Tran, (1999) find that an awareness gap exists because the cultural impacts seem to be
embedded in levels whereby many hotel managers may not be aware of the ―cultural
influences either on their own management behaviour, or on the behaviour of others‖
(Neupert, Baughn & Dao, 2005, p.165). Therefore, it is significant to find out what are the
national culture impacts on managerial staff behaviour at company level so that
management can adopt the positive impacts and address the negative impacts. By
understanding the research findings, hotel managers can tap the attributes to structure more
viable and valuable training and decisions and to ensure hotel quality performance. Overall,
the current research findings should be able to contribute positively to assist hotel
management in the Vietnamese hotel industry.

It is noted that there are numerous interests in the study of cultural impacts on managerial
workforce behaviours or on management performances. Lim and Firkola (2000) have found
that ―from the 1960s onwards, management researchers have shown interest in the concept
of culture because it was believed that culture has an influence on managerial behaviour and
performance‖ (p.133). Importantly, Ayoun and Moreo (2008b, p.8) have essentially pointed
22
out that there are very few studies of global hotel companies addressing ―the role of cultural
heritage and its potential effects on managerial and organizational practice‖. There are
numerous studies about culture and hospitality issues, but they are usually involved in
identifying cultural and managerial dimensions (Kennedy, 2002; Peterson & Hunt, 1997)
which seldom illustrate the cultural impacts and influences in the hotel industry. There is not
much research involving concepts and theories indigenous to a culture (Lowe, 2002;
Sekaran, 1983), and limited research concentrating on a particular culture specific (Hoang,
2008). Therefore, the significance is that the current research findings will add to the
existing Vietnamese hospitality industry knowledge and resources for future reference in
hotel management and for academic purposes. The research findings may encourage and
activate future researches into the culture and hotel context. These are also important for
future research of the hotel industry in Vietnam and also to widen the knowledge horizon of
the role of culture in the Vietnamese hotel industry.

1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF RESEARCH

This research is conducted on the local hotel properties of the participating Vietnamese
hotel company, all located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The local hotel company has 3-
and 4-star hotel properties and the research is at a company level. The research concentrates
on the population samples of Vietnamese managerial staff of supervisory position and above
in the participating hotels. Therefore, the limitations of the research scope are that the
research is conducted only in Ho Chi Minh City in South Vietnam; the sample is from one
local hotel company and the managerial staff of its local hotel properties are investigated
and interviewed. However, besides the Main Case Study samples, samples outside the case
study‘s sample size are interviewed to re-affirm and substantiate the research questions.
These Outside Case Study samples are the non-managerial staff (rank and file employees)
and senior managers from one other local hotel and international hotel. The research is
based on the context of Vietnamese national culture with the perspectives of Hofstede
cultural dimensions to investigate the moderating impacts, and the Vietnamese sub-cultures
are not taken into consideration.
23
1.6 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY

The structure of the research study is reflected in the thesis organisation of five chapters.
Chapter 2 will provide the literature review of the culture and discusses the terminology and
context of national and organisational culture in relation to the impact on workforce
performance or behaviours. The following literature review will provide a general
discussion on culture and will continue with the elaborations on the national culture,
organisational culture and their impacts or influences on workforce behaviours. A brief
historical event timeline of Vietnam is illustrated, in order to provide a better understanding
of the psychology of the nationals' behaviours. A discussion on Hofstede cultural
dimensions is presented as these are taken as the essentials of the cultural system to
configure part of the semi-structured interview instrument to investigate the current
research's objective. Additionally, the hospitality and hotel culture are introduced to further
support and link to the other sections' discussions. Managerial staff behaviour and its
associations with national culture are also discussed. The research of Berrell, Wright and
Tran (1999), and Hoang (2008) are introduced accordingly because the current research has
references to their research findings, and consequently, the research questions are illustrated
to support the research investigation and study.

Chapter 3 – Methodology, introduces the research design which justifies the methodological
approaches for the research. The current research has a proposition to investigate and
illustrate whether the national culture has moderating impacts on the Vietnamese managerial
staff behaviour in the local hotels, which is exploratory in nature. Since the research is a
behavioural study in a hotel work context, a discussion of the constructivist and qualitative
approaches is provided. Additionally the application of a case study approach is examined
and a discussion of the case study applicability is presented. The chapter progresses to
consider the primary data collection methods, identifying semi-structured interviews as
applicable to the qualitative method. The selection of semi-structured interviews as the
primary method of data collection from the purposive sampling of Vietnamese managerial
staff in the participating hotel company is reviewed. The adoption of the Grounded Theory
coding process for data analysis, to categorise and generalise findings, will be justified.
24
Besides the practice of verification strategies (Morse, Barrett, Mayan, Olson & Spiers,
2002), a descriptive analysis of the Main Case Study‘s sample demographics is provided to
ensure better validity and reliability for the research study. In addition, the research ethics
and goodness of fit measure will be elaborated to validate and provide credibility to the
research methodology.

Chapter 4 – Case Study Results, presents the findings of the research. Discussions on the
analysed interview data and findings of the Main Case study and the Outside Case Study
will be provided. An introduction to the research context and summaries of the national
culture and its influences, and model of Hofstede cultural dimensions are given. These will
assist the presentation of the applications, and implications of the model to the results and
findings of the research study. A brief discussion to revisit the research question is given.
The results and findings of the data analysis of each research question are elaborated
separately in different sections. The aim of the discussions is to justify how the data analysis
results, or findings, relate to the research questions. For research question (A), the data
analysis result is discussed to find out whether there is a generalisation of agreement that the
Vietnamese national culture has moderating impacts or influences on the Vietnamese
managerial staff of local hotels and how does it impact. For research question (B), the
findings of the five Hofstede cultural dimensions are discussed individually to illustrate the
moderating impacts or influences of the national culture on the local hotel-management staff
behaviour. The direct quotations of the interview responses are used to support and report
the findings of the data analysis. The findings are summarised into generalisation outcomes
as the results for the two main research questions. This chapter ends with a Conclusion
section illustrating the generalisation outcomes of the re-categorised themes of the Hofstede
thematic items, which illustrated the moderating impacts or influences of the Vietnamese
national culture on managerial staff behaviour in local hotels. The findings of the Outside
Case Study are elaborated to substantiate the results and findings of the Main Case Study.

Finally, Chapter 5 concludes the thesis with discussions of the primary themes which
emerged from the research findings, presents implications of the study, and discusses
limitations of the study and future research directions. A summary of Chapter 4 is presented
25
to affirm the research findings of the national culture moderating impacts on the local hotel
managerial workforce. This chapter sums up the conclusion on the feasibility of the
Hofstede cultural dimensions for the research study. The implications and applications of
the findings are shown to have valuable attributes for the hotel industry, and will be
discussed. Also discussed are the themes of the moderating impacts or influences of national
culture on the local hotel work environment. The research is done within its limitations of its
methodology, time, scope and context, and a summary of these limitations is provided. The
chapter ends with the recommendations for future research to be continued from this study,
in order to generate more directions, contributions and knowledge for the hotel industry and
academia.

26
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

This literature review discusses and reveals that the national culture has the potential to
exert moderating impacts on the behaviour of Vietnamese managerial staff in local hotels.
The empirical understanding that culture develops values, which in turn affirm beliefs to
create the attitudes to evoke behavioural intentions (Schiffman, O‘Cass, Paladino,
D‘Alessandro & Bednall, 2011), is a paramount fact to be observed in this research. The
local hotels‘ work environments have necessitated that the performance and behavioural
intentions of managerial staff are aligned with the ―universalistic conceptualization" (Kong
& Jogaratnam, 2007, p. 280) of product–service quality and standard operating procedures.
By practising this, the expectations of guests and customers can be satisfied. Consequently,
this has imposed a realistic work challenge of maintaining the expected experiences of
international hotel product–service standards in Vietnam. Through these work performance
processes, there are occasions for the national culture to exert its ethnocentric tendencies on
the local hotel managers, influencing them to exhibit certain behavioural intentions. These
have been observed by researchers such as Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999), Hofstede
(2001), King-Kauanul, Su and Ashley-Cotleur (2006), Truong and King (2010), and others.
As such, there are opportunities for the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national
culture to be created and exhibited in the hotel work environments. As a result, by
distinguishing such culture-moderated impacts and associating them with the behavioural
intentions of the managerial staff, the current study would reveal the moderating impacts of
national culture on the behaviour of hotel management staff in Vietnam.

In order to illustrate that national culture has a role in exerting moderating impacts on the
behaviour of Vietnamese managerial staff in local hotels, the Hofstede cultural dimensions
(Hofstede, 2001) of Vietnam are adopted as the cultural measurement criteria to support the
27
current research studies and findings. Therefore, these cultural dimensions become the
investigative foci to study the moderating impacts of national culture on the behaviour of
Vietnamese managerial staff in local hotels. A discussion on Hofstede‘s cultural
dimensions is presented and the cultural dimensions are taken as the essentials of the
cultural system to configure part of the semi-structured interview instrument to investigate
the current research's objective. Together with the adaptations from the findings of Berrell,
Wright and Tran (1999) and Hoang (2008), they are used to contribute to the construct of
the qualitative method instrument.

The following literature review will provide a general discussion on culture. Then, it will
continue with elaborations on the national culture, organisational culture and their impacts
or influences on workforce behaviour. In order to better understand, and appreciate, the
national-culture moderating impacts, a brief discussion on Vietnamese history is also
illustrated. Additionally, the hospitality and hotel culture are introduced to further support
and link to the other sections' discussions. The managerial staff behaviour and its association
with national culture are also discussed. As the current research has references to the
researches of Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999) and Hoang (2008), their research findings
will be introduced accordingly. Finally, the research questions are illustrated to support the
research investigation and study.

2.2 CULTURE

Culture is frequently defined in many ways with reference to the values, beliefs, customs
and norms which exist characteristically in a society (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013; Smircich,
1983; Trice & Beyer, 1984). This leads to the reality that there are many ways to define
culture because of the fact that there is ―no universal set of cultural dimensions‖ (Javidan &
House, 2001, p.293). Imperatively, this is supported by Samovar and Porter (1991), namely
that culture is determined by how we experience, perceive and interpret meanings.
Therefore, potentially, this has resulted in many definitions of culture being introduced in
different perspectives. However, most of the definitions lead to the fact that culture is the
28
driver of the way we behave in respective contexts, subjectively and objectively (Cox,
Hannif & Rowley, 2014; Hofstede, 1980; Zaichkowsky & Sood, 1988).

Significantly, it is empirically noted (for example, Hofstede, 2005) that culture embeds
values into an individual‘s memory, which provides recognition that management practices
are inculcated by cultural values. These cultural values form beliefs which in turn create ―an
attitude of learned predisposition to behave in a consistent favorable or unfavorable way
with respect to a given object‖ or situation (Schiffman et al., 2011, p.224). Many studies
have determined that there is a causal relationship between attitude and behaviour.
Highlighting this fact, Robbins (2005) has summarised that the attitudes of an individual
have a propensity to exhibit a strong relationship to behaviour, determining what the
individual will do.

From the viewpoint of Adler and Jelinek (1986, p.74), culture is ―frequently defined as a set
of taken-for-granted assumptions, expectations or rules for being in the world‖, and the
―culture concept emphasizes the shared cognitive approaches to reality that distinguish a
given group from others‖. As such, culture can be defined as ―a system of values and norms
that are shared among a group of people and that when taken together constitute a design of
living‖ (Hill & Hernandez-Requejo, 2011, p.120). For the same reason, the Global
Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) study has given culture
the definition of ―a set of shared values and beliefs‖ (Javidan & House, 2001, p.293). As
such, it is claimed by Haag, Duan and Mathews (2010, p.27) that ―culture determines
behaviour in all areas of life‖. As such, this could also explain that the natives of a national
culture like the Vietnamese hotel managers could inculcate their subjective cultural system
of norms and values into their work environments where the employee could experiences
social-psychological influences. These influences or impacts are socialised consciously or
unconsciously into their hotel‘s cultural system, which is representatively illustrated in
Figure 2.1. Subsequently, this contributes or proliferate the effects of moderating impacts of
the Vietnamese national culture on the Vietnamese hotel managers‘ behaviours and
performances. Hence, this has presented the notion that culture influences our perceptions
and induces us to perceive what is deemed to be acceptable and apposite behaviour in the
29
organisation (Wei, Crompton & Reid, 1989). Therefore, it is conclusively claimed that
―perceptions are reliant on cultural values, expectations, experiences and interests and are
influenced by culture‖ (Truong & King, 2010, p.20).

In order to further understand how the national culture can impact or influences on an
individual, the influence of the subject culture on the cognitive beliefs of an individual is
discussed. By observing the theoretical model of culture's influence on behaviour has
identified that the subjective culture to be one of the main driving forces to create impacts,
and that it influences the behaviour and intentions of an individual, as shown in Figure 2.1
(Schiffman et al., 2001, p.376). The components of subjective culture such as regional,
ethnic, religious, linguistic, national and organisational group, provide avenues to
understand how the culture influences the cognitive beliefs, practices and values of an
individual (Schiffman et al., 2001). These components categorise and form experiences,
values, beliefs and others to become the ―human-made part of environment‖ (Phatak,
Bhagat & Kashlak, 2009, p.111). Consequently, this in turn, will influence and shape the
individual‘s attitudes and norms to guide their social, as well as their work, behaviour. In
this perspective, it can be said that the subject culture instigates and socialises subjectivity
into the individual‘s choices of behavioural intentions. Hence, the following Figure 2.1
demonstrates that the subjective culture has its moderating impacts to determine our beliefs,
values and practices, which have national and organisational culture as one of the subjective
culture‘s components. These cultural impacts are further emphasised by Chen, Wang and
Chu (2011, p.73) who observe that ―culture is essential for many aspects of hospitality
industry‖ because of its impacts on the ―way employees relate to one another, to customers,
and to business partners‖. As the subjective culture impacts on an individual is recognised,
there are also external environment factors like the economic state of the country and
competition forces, and the other internal factors like employee well-being, customisation of
work standards and workforce diversity need to be considered. These factors could play
important influential roles in the subject culture to guide and shape an individual‘s
behaviours.

30
Figure 2.1 A Theoretical Model of Culture’s Influence on Behaviour

Source: Schiffman. O‘Cass, Paladino, D‘Alessandro and Bednall (2011, p. 376).

The astute moderating impacts of the culture are bestowed upon the group of people through
the manners and ways of distinguishing, appraising and displaying ―common codes of
conduct and expectations that influence and control a large majority of beliefs, norms and
values‖ (Phatak et al., 2009, p.114). This plays the paramount role in impacting and
affecting an individual‘s social norms and attitudes through the subjective culture, which
govern behavioural intentions to produce the initiated behaviour (Schiffman et al., 2001).
Since national culture is a component of the subject culture, this has justified a view that
national culture has moderating impacts or influences on an individual‘s behaviour
including their work behaviour or performance. As the implication to the research, this
refers to the moderating impacts or influences on the behaviour or performance of local
managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels. Later in the chapter, the national culture and its
consequences will be discussed. Therefore, this has identified an investigative area to study
how the component of subjective culture, like the Vietnamese national culture, impacts on
the behaviour of local hotel management staff.

31
This is further supported and pointed out by Schiffman et al., (2011) that there is an
―Invisible Hand of Culture‖ (p.375) to mould the individual‘s behaviour with different
perceived or subjective levels of cultural values and norms. Consequently, this has identified
that culture has an intellectual and directive role in generating the moderating impacts or
influences on an individual heuristics and managerial activities at work (Pineda &
Whitehead, 1997). According to this perspective, it can be synthesised that what we are
referring to are exhibitions and comparisons of the cultural impacts on a person‘s
behavioural blueprint, both in society as well as in a local hotel management role. With
important reference to this, an explanation on why national culture has moderating impacts
on the behaviour or performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels is provided
and discussed further in the following section.

Furthermore, Hall (cited in Hofstede, 2001) has categorised countries into low- and high-
context cultures which demonstrated culture saliently as a driver of attitudinal behaviour in
communication which comes into play in the societal and organisational environments. By
this, Hall has made a "distinction of cultures on the basis of their ways of communicating"
(cited in Hofstede, 2001, p.212). The interesting claim is that in a high-context culture,
many things are left unspoken, letting the culture to take its course to explain. Furthermore,
high-context culture nationals are collectivist, preferring group harmony and consensus to
individual achievement, and low-context culture nationals are logical, linear, individualistic,
and action-oriented (Hall, 1976). From these cultural context characteristics, it is noted that
a low-context culture impacts objectively on a person‘s attitude preferences in their daily
way of life, whereas a high-context culture does so, subjectively. Furthermore, the cultural
relativity derived from the mental programming has shown that ―traditional ways of living
within a social group or culture take on the force of habit and custom‖ which encourages the
thought in the social group that it is ―the only way, or the only reasonable way, to do things‖
(Paul & Elder, 2012, p.219).

Culture can be viewed as national or organisational. Both have similarities in their

definitions, for example national culture and organisational culture are commonly expressed
as a system of shared core values, meanings and beliefs of the society members in the
32
former, and of the organisation's members in the latter. On the other hand, they differ in
respect to the fact that the organisation develops its own values and culture, and national
culture is the result of the shared values, norms and preferences of a population group
(Robbins, 2005). Nonetheless, Sweeney and Hardaker (1994, p.5) have claimed that ―the
concept of culture as an integral part of managerial concept‖ with the ability to influence the
organisational control and management processes. Furthermore, Soderberg and Holden
(2002) have stressed that culture must be taken into account and it is important to have
cultural synergies in the transfer of knowledge, values and experiences. Hence, this
postulates that national culture does have an important role in exerting the moderating
impacts on individual behaviour including the behaviour of Vietnamese hotel management
staff. From this salient perspective, discussions on national culture and organisational
culture are provided in the following sections to further elaborate on their profound impacts
or influences on managerial staff behaviour.

2.3 NATIONAL CULTURE

National culture is defined frequently with the same philosophy that it is the ―shared cultural
characters that uniquely or specifically define the citizens of particular countries‖
(Schiffman et al., 2011, p.376). As Hofstede (1994, p.4) identifies ―cultural relativity‖ to
mean that the ―culture of the human environment in which an organization operates affects
the management process‖, this has given clear recognition that culture does influence and
impact management at the national level. Importantly, Testa (2007, p.470) has signified that
Hofstede simply referred to national culture as the ―software of the mind‖ of the nationals
which coordinates, monitors and controls their behaviour and performance. It is also
concluded by Berrell, Gloet and Wright (2002) that management behaviour is driven by
national culture‘s pervasive influence, to the extent of ordaining different styles of
management learning and decision-making. They also emphasised that national-culture
knowledge is a priority issue to secure competitive edges in collaborative partnerships. In
this simplistic form of recognition, the moderating impacts of national culture are
underscored.
33
Additionally, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE)
study has further identified that personal traits are expressed and enacted differently in
different societies (Vo & Hannif, 2011). This implies that unique and specific national traits
and values create distinctive social and work behaviour (Hofstede, 1980; Mwaura et al.,
1998). This has signified that culture is the way of life of the group of people (Foster 1962).
These shared values and preferences of a population lay the foundation of the national
culture. Consequently, the national culture induces national values (represented as cultural
dimensions) that allow managers to foster and nurture appropriate activities and behaviour
corresponding to their specific national cultural influences (Hofstede, 1983; Lenz, 2008).
For that reason, Newman and Nollen (1996) have claimed that national culture is
determined as the ―one way of acting or one set of outcomes is preferable to another‖
(p.755).Thus, it is apparent that ―national culture drives management behaviour‖ with
pervasive impacts or influences (Berrell, Gloet, & Wright, 2002, p.96). As such, it is
concluded that national culture does have moderating impacts on the behaviour of
managerial staff in local hotels.

According to Figure 2.1 above, it is acknowledged that the cultural elements of cognitive
belief, practices and values form the attitude formation which leads to behaviour intentions
(Schiffman et al., 2011). These cultural elements can be deemed as the ―clear tenets‖ of
values (Thornbury, 2003, p.69) which provide cohesion to align and empower people in an
organisation, and the strength of culture is determined by how strong these tenets are shared
and believed in the organisation. For example, in terms of Vietnamese culture, this clear
tenet can be represented by the strong practice of Confucianism in its cultural norms and
values (Penner & Tran, 1977). Together with the fact that ―values form the bedrock of a
culture‖ (Javidan & House, 2001, p.120), the society‘s attitudes (such as Vietnam‘s) initiate
values and justify its cultural norms to form the nation's culture. This will bond the nationals
with a set of common values and beliefs which leads to behavioural intentions. This bedrock
of culture, harbouring the "clear tenets", creates and drives the ethnocentric characteristics
and behavioural attitudes in their social and organisational state of affairs. Therefore, it is
significantly noted that Vietnam's "clear tenets" would impact or influence managerial work
34
behaviour and performance at work. Thus, this has justified that national culture does have
moderating impacts on workforce behaviour in an organisation.

Additionally, Thornbury‘s (2003, p.71) claim that national culture dictates the ―way we do
things around here‖ has significantly highlighted the fact that national culture does have
moderating impacts on individuals' behaviour in social circles, and likewise at their
workplaces. The capability of national culture to establish and sustain values, beliefs and
attitudes has assisted to create the algorithm for the ―Programming of the Mind‖ (Hofstede,
1998) of Vietnamese hotel management staff. The programming of the mind introduces and
locks in a ―pattern of shared assumptions‖ (Schein, 1985, p.19), which is the essence of the
cultural values and norms which impact and socialise hotel workforce behaviour. This has
provided the occasions and stages for the national culture to exert its moderating impacts.
Therefore, the culture definition by Schein (1985, p.19) to further identify and support that
national culture does have moderating impacts on managerial staff behaviour has stated that
culture can be perceived as:

pattern of shared assumptions that the group learned as it

solved problems of external adaption And internal integration,
that has worked well enough to be considered valid and
therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to
perceive, think, and feel in relations to these problems

This has provided a synonymous fact that, in the hotel workforce context, the above
definition has consequentially and conclusively identified that national culture has the
potential to exert its moderating impacts on managerial staff behaviour. Likewise, Testa
(2007) has highlighted significantly that it is important for leaders to ―be concerned with
national culture in the workplace because it impacts the beliefs and attitudes of a collective
group‖ (p.471).

The claim by Sekaran (1986) that individual behaviour is governed by culture as it provides
normative structures to condition an individual action, has further highlighted and
35
underscored the moderating impacts of the national culture. It is also argued by Pineda and
Whitehead (1997) that the cultural impacts or influences affecting organisational practices
do ―depend on the nature of the cultural system in question‖ (p.33). Thus, for this reason, it
is important to note the proposition that national culture does harbour the potential to
generate moderating impacts on the behaviour or performance of local managerial staff in
Vietnamese hotels. It is further illustrated in Figure 2.2 below that managerial activities can
be impacted and influenced by the cultural values and norms of the societal culture, which
affects the organisational process (Pineda & Whitehead, 1997, p.33). It is a demonstration of
the cultural—managerial connection in the workplace environments, which the current
research is set to investigate and study.

Figure 2.2 The Culture-Managerial Activities Linkage

Source: Pineda and Whitehead (1997, p.33)

Through the discussions above, it is profoundly noted that the managerial activities are
driven and impacted by the cultural values and norms as illustrated in Figure 2.2. This has
given the chance for the local hotel Vietnamese managerial staff experiences moments of
36
cross-cultural situation when they have to face the universalistic conceptualised or western
hotel service standards in their hotel. As the local hotel managerial staffs are cultural in
origin, this might present a cultural clash, which will be discussed further in the chapter.

In order to further realise and understand more about the influential elements of the
Vietnamese national culture on the local hotel work environment, a brief history of the
national culture is elaborated to give a better understanding of the psychology of the
national behaviours. Therefore, from the following discussions and illustrations of the
exposures of the Vietnamese culture to different cultural socialisations, it can be realised
that there is potential for national culture to form, and exert moderating impacts on the
behaviour of the local Vietnamese hotel managers.

2.3.1 Vietnamese National Culture – A Brief History

In this section, a brief history of Vietnam is presented and the chronological events are
summarised in Table 2.1. Historically, Vietnam had the Dong Son culture which bore the
features of Southeast Asian culture because of the common South Asian ancestry with
water-rice culture (Vietnam-History, 2014). The Dong Son culture was formed by the
joining of various local cultures from the ―Red River Delta in the north and the Mekong
River Delta in the south‖ (Vietnam-History, 2014) and others whereby community of
primitive tribes were formed. Then, the Van Lang–Au Lac culture appeared in the Bronze
Age as the first apogee in Vietnamese cultural history. Further down the line in the Dai Viet
(Great Vietnam) period, the Ly-Tran and Le dynasties had the Vietnamese culture under
remarkable influence of Buddhism and Taoism. However, during the Le-Mac and Trinh
Nguyen period, the country was not peaceful and was separated. Later on, after the Tay Son
dynasty brought the country together, the Nguyen dynasty had the faith to move towards the
Confucian culture. Nonetheless, at that time, Western culture was able to influence and
penetrate the country (Vietnam-History, 2014).

Subsequently, Vietnam was influenced by French colonisation between1880 and 1950 and
the 1954 Geneva Conference partitioning of North Vietnam (communist-led Vietminh) and
37
South Vietnam (pro-western forces); United States intervention up to 1975 exposed the
Vietnamese to Western values and lifestyles with the recognition of Western-based theories,
concepts and philosophies of societal and managerial practices (Dong, Liem & Grossman,
2010; Mcleod & Dieu, 2001). Since 1975, Vietnam has been committed to a ―Soviet-style
socialist-centralized economic system‖ (Cox et al., 2014, p.8). However, Borton (cited in
Le, Rowley, Truong & Warner, 2007) have found that ―the Vietnamese rarely accept the
beliefs and practices wholly as presented to them and modified both Soviet and US
influences in the North and South respectively‖.

By the end of the French domination, the Vietnamese were presented with the fight between
patriotic culture and colonialist culture engaging patriotism and Marxism-Leninism to move
forward into modern civilisation and to enhance its national identity (Vietnam-History,
2014). Thus, we can observe that Vietnamese culture has three overlapping cultures in its
history: the local culture; culture that mixed with those in China and other countries in the
regions; and culture that interacted with Western culture. However, even though Vietnam is
in the Southeast Asian cultural origin, its culture has been rehabilitated and carries the East
Asian cultural characteristics because of the long domination and imposition of the Chinese
Han dynasty culture (Vietnam-History, 2014) . This is shown by the cultural norms whereby
Vietnamese do celebrate and enjoy the same festive activities and ceremonies of the
Chinese, for example, the Tet period (Chinese Lunar New Year period), Mid-Autumn
Festival (Mooncake Festival), Fifth Month Dumpling Festival, Seventh Month Ghost
Festival, Ancestral Worship and others. It is not surprising that almost all temples and
pagodas in Vietnam are usually decorated with Chinese-character wordings of blessing,
illustrating Chinese cultural influences. It is perceptible that the Vietnamese have a heritage
of Chinese influence with a strong Confucian system of social and moral ethics in their
national culture and also in their political system (Cox et al., 2014, Dong et al., 2010;
Rowley & Quang, 2009). While Confucianism does flourish, the Vietnamese embraced the
essence of Buddhism and Taoism in their cultural striving for open ideology and harmony in
people and nature (Vietnam-History, 2014; Mcleod & Dieu, 2001).

38
In order to aim for a better and enriched economy of an emerging country (Quang, 2006),
Vietnam had started a policy of reform by the Sixth Party Congress, Doi Moi, in 1987,
which transformed Vietnam from a command economy into a market-oriented economy
(Chien, Yen & Hoang 2012). Since then, further development milestones have been
membership of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations), joining AFTA (Asean
Free Trade Area), the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, and WTO membership in
2007 (Quang, van der Heijden & Rowley, 2010). Hence, Vietnam is a market economy with
a socialist character (Quang et al., 1998). This has opened Vietnam for foreign investments
and improved import and export business which has boosted its economy and the living
standards of Vietnamese but, at the same time, also exposed the country to ―both threats and
opportunities‖ (Quang & Vuong, 2002, p.36). The chronological events are summarised in
the below Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 Chronological Events of Vietnam

ERA / EVENT PERIOD COMMENTARY

Dong Son Culture 800-200BC South East Asian culture of

Southern Mongoloid and the
―First half of the first millennium water-rice culture – ― the
before Christ and flourished in the embryonic state of Vietnam‖
middle of this millennium‖

Van Lang-Au Lac Culture In the early Bronze Age – ―lasting The first apogee in the history of
for nearly 3,000 years up to the Vietnamese culture
end of the first millennium before
Christ‖

Dai Viet (Great Vietnam):
Ly – Tran Dynasty
Post-Chinese domination period
and ―period was the second
apogee of the Vietnamese culture‖
1009 – 1407
―Vietnamese culture underwent
comprehensive restoration and
quick boom, under the tremendous
influences of Buddhism and
Taoism‖

Le Dynasty 1428 – 1527

Divided Period: 1527 – 1802 The country was separated and

Le-Mac Period chaotic

39
Trinh-Nguyen Period 1428–1804

Tay Son Dynasty 1428–1804 Reunited the country and territories

Nguyen Dynasty and French 1802 – 1945 Tried to restore Confucian culture
Protectorate and Western culture started to
penetrate into the country

French colonisation 1874 – 1954 Since the 18th century, Vietnam

- Pacification Period 1859 - 1897 was exposed to western values.
The French colonisation in 1874
- French War 1946 - 1954 had further ―exposed the
Vietnamese to Western values and
Marxism-Leninism 1930s and 1940s lifestyles‖

―Intensive integration into modern

world civilisation and enhancement
of national identity‖

Geneva Conference 1954 ―Partitioning of North Vietnam

(communist-led Vietminh)‖ and
―South Vietnam (pro-Western
forces)‖

Vietnam Civil War 1954 – 1975 ―Division of country into

communist North, led By Ho Chi
Minh, and the non-communist
South, led by Ngo Dinh Diem‖

United States intervention 1955 – 1975 ―Exposed the Vietnamese to

- Vietnam War Western values and lifestyles with
the recognition of Western-based
theories, concepts and philosophies
of societal and managerial
practices‖

Doi Moi introduced 1987 ―Transforming Vietnam from a

command economy into a market-
oriented economy with free-market
incentives‖

Association of South East Asian 1995 ―Opened Vietnam for foreign

Nations, ASEAN investments and improved inbound
and outbound businesses which has
boosted its economy and the living
standards of Vietnamese‖

40
World Trade Organization, WTO 2007 Vietnam open to globalisation and
―influx of global influences which
impact on societal and
organisational culture‖

Sources: Vietnam-History, 2014; Chapius (1995); Miron (n.d.)

Through the eras of many cross-cultural exposures and impacts, the Vietnamese have been
influenced in their day-to-day social and work life affairs and realities. Gopalan and
Thomson (2003) have further illustrated the impact of national culture, saying that
"managerial values, beliefs, norms, and attitudes are impacted by national culture causing
managers to conceptualize human nature, relationship to nature, work, time, relationships,
space, and language very differently" (p.313). These impacts of national culture influence
the individual perceptions of "right and wrong" and "how things ought to be" as illustrated
in Figure 2.3 below.

Figure 2.3 Impact of National Culture

Managerial:
Perceptions of:
Values
National "right and wrong"
Beliefs
Culture and
Norms
"how things ought to be"
Attitude

Behaviour

Source: Gopalan and Thomson (2003, p.314).

The historical events as discussed above, like the Vietnamese national culture, would have
imposed a ―cultural imprint‖ which impacts and creates challenges for the implementation
of management knowledge in the Vietnamese organisational environment (Dong et al.,

41
2010, p.264) like the local hotel workplace. Therefore, as such, it has related that in a certain
degree, the historical events have attributed to the moderating impacts of Vietnamese
national culture on the Vietnamese hotel managers‘ values and beliefs in forming norms and
attitudes which impact and affect their perceptions of behaviour and performance. This has
form the ―bedrock of a culture‖ (Javidan & House, 2001, p.120) which harbours ―clear
tenets‖ of values (Thornbury, 2003, p.69) for the national culture to impact the Vietnamese
manager‘s behaviours. In the same context, Napier (2005) relates and describes similar
challenges in the article title ―Knowledge transfer in Vietnam: starts, stops and loops‖ which
indicates the potential impacts of culture on employee performance or behaviour. This is
also supported by the claim by Pineda & Whitehead (1997, p.33) in Figure 2.2 that the
cultural values and norms of the societal culture affects the organisational process. Hence,
this has provided added credence to the notion that there are moderating impacts of national
culture on the behaviour of management staff in Vietnamese hotels.

As noted from the discussion of the brief history of Vietnamese national culture, the
Vietnamese have experienced numerous moderating impacts from other cultures as they
passed through their epochs of life. This has affected and socialised them to adapt, and
adopt some of the foreign cultural impacts or influences into their social and cultural values
and norms. For example, having French influences in the Vietnamese language and cuisine;
using American expressions in their conversations especially by those who speak English;
observing the greeting custom of bowing like the Japanese; and last but not least, practising
Confucianism and Chinese cultural norms in their daily life, especially during festive
seasons and occasions. The most current cultural moderating impacts are the cultural trends
of Korea, in terms of music, fashion, food, language and arts. Hence, these and pertinent
future acculturation by the Vietnamese will develop and affect their beliefs and attitudes
both consciously and unconsciously. These will impact and moderate the Vietnamese
behavioural intentions according to intellectual moments or circumstances, and
subsequently, become socialised into their workplace environments as time goes by. These
workplace socialisations are related to, or associated with, the moderating impacts of the
national culture.

42
However, through the timeline of knowledge transfer from different cultures, the
Vietnamese had gained much knowledge of business and Western ideologies, ―but had no
context from which to make sense of it" (Napier & Thomas cited in Napier, 2005, p.621). It
is also noted by Napier and Thomas (2004) that the Vietnamese had a change in attitude as
they gained confidence and "later, they became defiant and unwilling to accept or value
foreign ideas" (pp.83-84). This has given further support to Hofstede's (1998) notion of the
collective programming of the mind, which provides potential precedent for a high-context
culture society like Vietnam (Lailawati, 2005) to generate ethnocentricity. From the above
discussion, the national culture is known as a component of the Vietnamese's subjective
culture. Because of this, the national culture is able to forge a certain degree of
ethnocentrism and egocentrism which contributes to the existence of the national culture
moderating impacts. As such, a discussion on ethnocentrism and egocentrism is given in the
following sections.

2.3.2 Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is defined as ―a belief in the superiority of one‘s own ethnic group or

culture‖ (Hill & Hernandez-Requejo, 2011, p.147). The ethnocentricity acts like a pre-
dominant culture which provides the acquired knowledge for the nationals to translate
experiences into specific values which creates attitudes to affects behaviour (Luthans &
Doh, 1999). It is an empirical understanding that every country or nation has its own ways
of living ethnocentrically in its own cultural context, socially and commercially. This refers
to the assumption of the first attempt by Edward Tylor (cited in Kashima, & Gelfand, 2012,
p.499) to define culture to be ―taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole
which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man as a member of society‖.

Consequently, the bonding in the group members in the organisation created by

ethnocentrism has enabled the members to feel ―proud of their own heritages by
subjectively using their cultural standards as criteria for interpretations and judgments in
intercultural communication‖ (Chen & Starosta, 2005, p.27). Importantly, it is revealed by
43
LeVine and Campbell (1972) that ethnocentricity can be a universal example of "in-group
favouritism" and "out-group hostility" (cited in Axelrod & Hammond, 2003, p.3). As a
result, ethnocentrism has impacted or influenced an individual‘s behaviours in the way of
fostering in-group survival, camaraderie, traditionalism, collaboration, faithfulness and
effectiveness (Sharma, Shimp & Shin, 1995), which is also true for the Vietnamese hotel
managerial staff. Furthermore, Neuliep, Hintz and McCrosky (2005) found that
ethnocentrism produces perception filters which affect the perceptions of verbal and non-
verbal communications, and also affect the point of view of the source. Complementary to
this, because of the unique social and work behaviour of the native individuals as prescribed
by the national culture, it is reasonable to say that national culture has moderating impacts
on an individual when encountering different or unfamiliar social or work situations. These
cultural impacts or influences can give rise to ethnocentrism whereby the ―ethnocentric
individuals believe that their ways of doing things are the best, no matter which cultures are
involved‖ (Phatak et al., 2009, p.116). Thus, this has shown that the strong influences of
national culture impact on the native individual's behaviour in society and the workplace.
From these perspectives, ethnocentrism can be said to be an influential element of national
culture with a force capable to create and drive the moderating impacts on managerial staff
behaviour.

An observation by Hofstede ( cited in Testa, 2007, p.471) that ―an employee‘s ethnic culture
can influence his or her perception of work environment and its various components‖ has
concurrently testified the prospects of the national culture's moderating impacts on
workforce behaviour. Correspondingly, this implies that the Vietnamese national culture
induces national values that form cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 1983) and that motivate
and induce hotel managerial staff to adopt appropriate procedures and behaviour. These
distinctive specific national values become the fundamental nature of the ethnocentrism to
encourage the self-centered behavioural intentions of the nationals, which in turn, provide
the leeway for the moderating impacts to appear. This is conclusively supported by
Hofstede‘s (1991) view that the sensitivity of the work environment and its various
components are perceived and influenced by the employee‘s ethnic culture, which is the
‗software of the mind‘.
44
Furthermore, it is noted by Truong, Swierczek and Dang (1998) that the Vietnamese are
ethnocentric, ―see themselves as uniquely one culture‖ (p.366) and that embracing
―Confucian ideology has remained predominant in Vietnam‖ (Penner & Tran, 1977, p.189).
From a cross-cultural perspective, Cheung, Baum and Wong (2012, p.41) have supported
that it is time to recognise that Western management theories and practices ―have value in
Asian cultural and commercial context‖. One of the objectives of observing and
investigating contrasting cultural activities or influences is to have a way to identify,
extricate and differentiate the subservient attributes or effects of either cultures, to realise
the respective cultural impacts or influences. As discussed earlier, the universalistic
conceptualised hotel standards observed by the local hotels are Western-oriented and the
Vietnamese culture is Eastern-oriented. In this case, there are perpetual interactions in a
cross-cultural context where the national culture exerts moderating impacts on hotel staff
behaviour. To further illustrate the influences of the moderating impacts of national culture,
Kanungo and Jaeger (1990) have significantly pointed out that the host nationals associated
and introduced their local cultural values and conditions to the western management
practices in their workplace. Therefore, this has highlighted and underlined the presence of
the moderating impacts of national culture on the behaviour of local managerial staff.

2.3.3 Ethnocentrism and Egocentrism

Egocentrism encourages an individual to view and understand the world from a narrow self-
serving perspective (Paul & Elder, 2012). Paul and Elder (2012) have stated that
"Ethnocentrism is a form of egocentrism extended from the self to the group" (p.381), which
could lead an individual or group to have uncritical or selfish critical thinking. The
egocentric thinking makes us believe that our thinking is rational and reasonable, which
illustrates Paul and Elder's (2012) claim that "humans often use self-centered psychological
standards to determine what to believe and what to reject" (p.196). It tends to offer
gratification and self-validation, which strives to gain its self-centered interests and to
corroborate current thinking systems and practices (Paul & Elder, 2012). As both
ethnocentricity and egocentrism have self-centered tendencies, they tend to be ‗comrades-in-
45
arms‘ to collaboratively generate vibrant moderating and influencing effects on a person's
functions of the mind, such as "thinking, feeling and wanting" (Paul & Elder, 2012, p.63).
This prescribes the opportunity for egocentrism to allow its psychological effects to impact
and influence workforce behaviour by adopting the egocentric tendencies of self-centered
psychological standards like innate egocentrism, innate socio-centrism, innate wish
fulfillment, innate self-validation and innate selfishness (Paul & Elder, 2012). These
egocentric tendencies could be the drivers of the national culture to develop the presence of
moderating impacts on the managerial workforce behaviour, since ethnocentrism has
imperative connections with cultural elements. These influences of egocentrism and
ethnocentrism contribute to affirm the proposition that the national culture of Vietnam does
have moderating impacts on its societal behaviour. Subsequently, the influences of
egocentrism and ethnocentrism are inculcated into the workforce behaviour. To support this,
Bucker and Poutma (2010) claimed that the final behavioural outcome of an individual is
influenced by the moderating variables of national culture context, and in addition,
Johnson, Lenartowicz and Apud (2006) have claimed that one of the major barriers of staff
behaviour within the cultural environment is institutional ethnocentrism.

In order to maintain a hotel's cultural value set, the hotel is directed towards a certain degree
of institutional ethnocentrism to protect and maintain its brand and image. It is important for
each hotel to craft its own distinctive hotel culture and image, for successful branding and to
stay competitive in the market. The institutional ethnocentrism generates the ideology of
"the home culture's ways of doing things" (Johnson et al., 2006, p.532), which is translated
as the hotel‘s organisational culture's way of doing things. Therefore, in the case of the local
hotels, the institutional ethnocentrism influences and steers the local hotel towards the
adoption of the Western-based universalistic conceptualised product–service standards. This
has illustrated the claim by Sutton (cited in Mwaura et al., 1998) that in the hotel industry,
the hotel corporate culture has "a definite bearing on the international travellers and their
expectations, but exerts an equal force on the employees within the industry,…."(p.214).
The following discussions will elaborate on the impact of national culture on organisational
culture, which as a result, influences the behaviour or performance of local managerial staff
in Vietnamese hotels.
46
2.4 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

Organisational culture is universally defined and rationalised as the ―the system of sharing
meaning within the organization that determines how employees act‖ (DeCenzo & Robbins,
2007, p.207), which also includes the shared values of the employees as they learn, work-
related behaviour and attitudes that are appropriate and inappropriate to the organisation
(Bauer & Erdogan, 2013).

The hotel‘s organisational culture, other than that being introduced by the founders or top
management, can also be formed and shaped by the values and norms of the employees as
they practise it in the performance of their workplace activities (Hill & Hernandez-Requejo,
2011). As such, it is noted that management practices being adopted are also influenced by
the national culture and not solely by the organisational culture (Ronen, 1986). This is
supported by Neupert et al.‘s, (2005, p.165) argument that ―cultural influences either on
their own management behaviour, or on the behaviour of others‖. To further support this,
Alvesson (1990) deemed culture to be the imperative factor for organisational
accomplishment and managerial activity, and Schein (1985) stressed that ―the only thing of
real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture and that the unique talent of
leaders is their ability to work with culture‖ (p.2). Hence, organisational culture is widely
known to direct and prescribe the way the employees do things or the employee behaviour
in the organisation but not without the prevalent and antecedent influences or moderating
impacts of the national culture (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013). From this point of view, it has
established that the hotel‘s organisational culture has such similar impacts or influences on
the hotel employees and managerial staff.

Organisations are nested within nations, and have the tendency to develop and evolve in
ways that are compatible with the surrounding national culture. Synonymously, for the hotel
like any organisation to function effectively, the hotel organisations must gain and maintain
some ―public legitimacy and adapt to the cultural characteristics in the home or host nation‖
(Skerlavaj, Su & Huang, 2013, p.102). As a result, the congruence between management
practices and the characteristics of the national culture produces better work performances

47
(Newman & Nollen, 1996). This is also true for the hotel It is also imperatively noted by
Lane (cited in Schwartz & Davies, 1981, p.5) that the managerial expectations of an
organisation are varied ―according to the national culture within which they are working and
within which they have been managerially socialized‖. This directly deliberated that culture
does have its moderating impacts on the workforce behaviour in an organisation. As such,
we can realise the effects culture will have on the managerial staff in their daily
management routines.

As Thang, Rowley, Quang and Warner (2007) stated, value sets are not common in national
and organisational cultures and this creates the occasions for national culture to have
moderating impacts on the managerial staff behaviour. This has also posited that national
culture, besides the hotel‘s organisational culture, does have moderating impacts on the
management practices or behaviours. The organisational culture has synonymous communal
effects on the employees in the organisation just as the national culture has on the natives in
the region. It inherits and introduces an invisible element as the unseen ―social energy that
communicates with people and, and motivates them to act‖ (Gundykunst & Ting-Toomey,
cited in Sweeney & Hardaker 1994, p.4). Therefore, it is said that organisation culture is
liked a ―cultural recipe‖ (Sweeney & Hardaker, 1994, p.4) of attitudes which fashions and
formulates the individual's work behaviours. This is further claimed by Schwartz and Davis
(1981) that culture influences the organisational ability to manage, control and deal with
strategic change. For this reason, it is shown that organisational culture is not only able to
promote business growth and effectiveness but also to influence and form behavioural
culture (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013).

The above discussions provide the assumption that the local hotel‘s organisational culture is
partly created and formed by the Vietnamese hotel owner or the management board. The
significance of this is that it implies the Vietnamese national culture exists as an important
ingredient of the cultural recipe as introduced by Sweeney and Hardaker (1994). This
underlines the fact that Vietnamese national culture exercises its moderating impacts on the
local hotel managers through the cultural recipe of the hotel‘s organisational culture which
has the western hotel service standards as the ingredients. Therefore, by reflecting on this, it
48
is argued that the work behaviours or performance of the local hotel managerial staff are
influenced or moderated by the Vietnamese culture as the managerial staff observe and
participate in the ―cultural recipe‖ of the local hotel.

To further understand and support that the Vietnamese national culture has a significant role
in moderating and forming the local hotel‘s organisational culture, the model of ―Culture
Creation and Maintenance‖ (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013, p. 378) is discussed. Drawing from
this model, it relates and shows the association of Vietnamese culture in impacting the local
hotel managerial staff behaviours or performances. This model suggests that the
organisational culture is normally created and formed by the founder who has embraced the
impacts and influences of his or her respective national culture socialisations, which is also
supported by Robbins (2005).

In this context, it is important to note that the case study‘s local hotel owner and
management board are of Vietnamese origin. As mentioned in the above Figure 2.1 by
Schiffman et al., (2011, p. 376), the subjective culture generates values which shape and
conceive cognitive beliefs, and the belief is the element to concoct and provoke attitudes
which drive and create the behavioural intentions. Therefore, through the claim by Bauer
and Erdogan (2013) and Schiffman et al. (2011), it provides the synthesis that Vietnamese
national culture as a component of the subject culture has infused Vietnamese culture values
and preferences subjectively to impact the local hotel‘s organisational culture creation and
maintenance. As such, it is identifiable that the Vietnamese national culture harboured in
the local hotel‘s founder or management board will set its moderating impacts in, or during,
the process of organisational culture creation and maintenance, as illustrated in Figure 2.4
below.

49
Figure 2.4 Organisational Culture Creation and Maintenance

Source: Bauer and Erdogan (2013, p.378)

Following this context, the claims by Schein (1985) that managers create, manage and to be
able to work with culture; Sweeney and Hardaker (1994) statement that cultural recipe is
concocted to be followed; and Newman and Nollen‘s (1996) argument that when there is
congruence between management practices and the characteristics of the national culture
better work performances can be produced has synthesised the fact that the Vietnamese
national culture have moderating impacts on the managerial staff behaviours or
performances.

Through the above discussions of national culture and organizational culture, it is

acknowledged that both have active and interactive parts in impacting the behaviour of
managerial staff. It is also clear that academic research has illustrated their profound
relationships and associations in workforce behaviour (Berrell, Gloet, & Wright, 2002; Hill
50
& Hernandez-Requejo, 2011; Hofstede, 2001). However, there is not much attention given
to the questions of how, and why the moderating impacts of national culture on managerial
staff behaviour, materialise and persist, especially in the Vietnamese national culture
context. This has driven the interest to pursue the current research addresses this gap by
illustrating the Vietnamese national culture's moderating impacts, with references to the
Hofstede Cultural Dimensions of Vietnam (Hofstede, 2001). Besides the above
acknowledgement, it is imperative to recognise that a hotel‘s culture and its environments
do contribute to the phenomenon of the moderating impacts of national culture on the
behaviour or performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels. Therefore, the
following section will elaborate on the hotel industry in Vietnam and the hotel culture.

2.5 HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY AND HOTEL CULTURE

The hospitality industry is a diverse and complex service business which ―incorporates
global business practices in a multinational environment‖ (Sledge, Miles & Coppage, cited
in Chen, Cheung & Law, 2012, p.53). In Vietnam, the hospitality industry includes the
combined industries of hospitality and tourism, such as lodging services, food and beverages
services, travel-related services, and product services in conjunction with the first four
components (Chon & Sparrowe, 2000, p.6). All of these components can be found in the
hotel industry in various product–service mixes, to address and satisfy guests‘ needs and to
provide product–service excellence. Similar to the hotel industry, it is important to recognise
the unique characteristic of the hospitality industry which is the dynamic of the delivery of
products and services while at the same time meeting the guests‘ expectations of them
(Walker, 2007). From this standpoint, it is salient to note that the ―hospitality employees
have the ability to affect human experience by creating powerful impressions – even brief
moments of truth – that may last a lifetime‖ (Walker, 2007, p.4). Furthermore, global trends
in the hospitality industry have ignited a competitive and innovative modernisation of
operations and services (Sufi, 2013). Hence, this brings out the most challenging reality for
the hospitality and hotel industries and for their employees.

51
In the hotel industry, the product nature is categorised as tangibles and intangibles to
produce guest satisfaction, which sets the hotel industry apart from others (Walker, 2007).
The tangibles are the physical evidences and products, and the intangibles are the
―ephemeral products‖ (Walker, 2007, p.8) like ―services which cannot be seen, tasted, felt,
heard or smelled before they are purchased‖ (Kotler, Bowen & Makens, 2010, p.35). These
are the concurrent or singular inputs into the hotel work processes to create and deliver the
product- and service quality standards to meet customer or guest expectations, and to create
high satisfaction. The hotel customers or guests evaluate the product and service
performance against their expectations, at every stage of the encounter and interactive
process, which demands ―the management needs to achieve high efficiency at all times‖
(Cheung et al., 2012, p.37). Therefore, the hotel culture context is driven to be a people
business with a service-oriented mentality (Walker, 2007) denoting that there are potential
involvements of culture in the hotel work processes. This is further supported by the above
discussion that the hotel organisational culture is being formed and influenced by the native
culture of the hotel‘s founder or management board, which is, in this case, the Vietnamese
national culture. This has highlighted an important fact noted by Kueh and Voon (2007) that
the way the product and service is produced and marketed to the customers has to consider
the influence of culture, which underscores the significance of the national culture
moderating impacts.

Hotels in Vietnam are graded and awarded with a star-rating system by the Vietnam
National Administration of Tourism (Hotel–Classification, 2003). The Vietnam star-rating
system is similar to the Western or International star-rating systems like the American hotel
rating system of the Mobil Travel Guides five-star rating system (Chon & Sparrowe, 2000),
but with a few local customisations to fit Vietnam's hotel industry requirements. As such, it
is said that Vietnam has its own star-rating system for its hotel industry. It is important to
note that Vietnam‘s hotel-rating criteria and requirements have bases and influences from
the Western rating criteria. This local rating system has sparked many controversies over the
understanding of the ideology and meaning of the international (Western) star-rated hotel-
quality standard requirements and practices. Through this, a

52
challenging quest is introduced to hotel owners to train and motivate their local managers to
adopt, and adapt an international management mindset in order to lead their managerial staff
away from ―being indirect in their communications‖; to ―being more doing-oriented than
being-oriented‖; and ―embracing the cultural dimensions of right relationships‖ (Le et al.,
2007). This has denoted and underscored the fact that culture has important moderating
impacts on hotel management practices and operations (Chen et al., 2012). Consequently,
this has provided the occasions for the Vietnamese national culture to generate its
moderating impacts on the behaviour of hotel staff.

Furthermore, this has encouraged the local hotels to adopt the ―universalistic
conceptualization‖ (Kong & Jogaratnam, 2007, p.280) of international standards of product
and service quality. As discussed earlier, these international standards are noted to be parts
of the star-rating‘s standard requirements in Vietnam. Besides this and most importantly,
these international standards are expected by the hotels‘ local or foreign customers and
guests, as the benchmarks for the hotel product-service quality values to match the
respective hotel‘s star-rating status in Vietnam. These guest expectations have created
challenges for the local and foreign hotel management in Vietnam. As a result of the
Vietnam star-rating system, it gives opportunities for local and foreign customers to
compare and evaluate hotel property service values as if they are ―an extension of basic
requirements of qualitative and intangible services‖ (Narangajavana & Hu, 2008, p.37). The
local hotel company participating in the current research has property ratings of 3-star and
4-star status, with the hotel product-service quality standards formulated to observe the
universalistic conceptualised international hotel standards. Therefore, in order to stay
competitive in the industry, there is a challenge for local hotels to demonstrate their
confidence to meet customer and guest expectations and to provide high levels of
satisfaction.

Like other national industries, the hospitality or hotel industry in Vietnam is also at its
developing stage, in terms of employee performance and competency and employee
socialisation in the local hotels‘ universalistic conceptualisation of international service
standards and qualities. Hence, it is realised that the hotel culture is perpetually socialised
53
with the Western-based universalistic conceptualised standards. Therefore, the universalistic
conceptualised standards are referred to as the western hotel service standards (to be
discussed in the next section). These international standards of product–service quality must
be maintained in order to provide the product and service consistency and assurance, which
are the essentials for hotel quality standards (Walker, 2007). It is also highlighted by Myers
and Tan (1997) that in the hospitality or hotel industry, culture plays a crucial and essential
part in many aspects of its business. This implies that it is important to address the
moderating impacts of culture on the behaviour or performance of the hotel staff. Within
this point of view, the conditioning of an individual action by culture is complementary to
the moderating impacts which the Vietnamese national culture has on the behaviour of hotel
management staff.

In Vietnam, the local hotel industry is in a very competitive environment. In order to secure
competitiveness, the local hotels hold the challenge of providing the universalistic
conceptualisation of standards or western hotel service in their product–service offers. This
practice is the strategy for most hotels, to ensure that the atmosphere of familiarity and
comfort is created to effect and stimulate positive local and foreign guest satisfaction
(Truong & King, 2010). Therefore, the hotel managerial staff is required to realise the
influential potential of their native cultural characteristics in providing ―the context for
standards of perception, evaluation, communication, and behaviour in use by individuals‖
(Georgianna, 2007, p.572). By realizing this, the hotel staff is able to prevent or negate
undesirable local cultural effects and impacts. The possibility of nurturing and perpetuating
a hotel's ―service culture‖ (Lovelock, Patterson & Wirtz, 2011, p.275; Ziethaml, Bitner &
Gremler, 2006, p.351) can build a permanent attitudinal stage for current and future service
quality performance and also to develop the managers as the role models for their staff
(Walker, 2007, p.35). In this way, local hotel managerial staff is able to recognise and
prevent adverse national culture moderating impacts while keeping the favourable ones to
formulate and generate a more positive and desirable work performance.

As such, hotel management training is consistently required to be strategically executed to

inculcate the knowledge transfer of the western hotel service standards and work procedures
54
to the employees correctly and precisely. This is to ensure that guest expectations are
delivered and received with a high level of satisfaction. Significantly, this has demonstrated
that culture and behaviours are critical influential factors for forging relationships which
―influence whether people can engage in knowledge transfer and transfer activities‖
(Harorimana, 2010, p.50). These are important management activities in the hotel
workplace, to ensure the expected hotel product–service quality and standards are performed
and delivered. Therefore, the practice of adopting the western hotel service standards by the
local hotels has signified a phenomenon of knowledge exchange of work performance or
behaviour. In the context of knowledge exchange, Guzman (cited in Luu, 2012, p.460) has
illustrated the moderating impacts of local culture by identifying that human resource
localisation is a reference to the ―adaptation of global knowledge to the local cultural
context‖. This phenomenon can be correlated to the situation of introducing or teaching the
western hotel service standards to local hotel staff. This has illustrated the opportunity
whereby the national culture can exert a certain degree of influential effect on an
individual‘s behavioural patterns and has supported the claim by Hill and Hernandez-
Requejo (2011) that ―management process and practices may need to vary accordingly to
culturally determined work-related values‖ (p.141).

Another salient point to be noted is the comprehension by Dawson and Abbott (2011) that
the hospitality or hotel organisational environment has the "hospitality climate and
hospitality culture" (p.291) in which the employees are immersed when they are at work.
The hospitality climate is similar to the work climate, which has elements of Herzberg's
"Hygiene Factors: company policy, supervision and relationships, working conditions,
salary, security", and "Motivator Factors: achievement, recognition, interesting work,
increased responsibility, advancement and growth" (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013, p.102).
Hospitality culture is synonymous with organisational culture but with the added
performance uniqueness and service context of a hotel's tangibles (product elements) and
intangibles (service elements) (Walker, 2007). These work-environment factors are the
essentials for successful employee motivation and commitment, to enhance work
performances or behaviour. However, just like other organisations, most hotel organisations
have their own unique hospitality cultures, structured by their founders or owners, and/or it
55
can be fashioned by the management team (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013; Cameron & Quinn,
1999; Robbins, 2005) so as to craft a hotel‘s standards and image. This has underscored the
claim by Bauer and Erdogan (2013) that "what leaders do directly influence the cultures
their organizations have" (p.382). Therefore, the implication is that the hospitality climate
and culture of a local hotel can be impacted or influenced by the managerial staff's cultural
values, beliefs and norms, as they manage and interact in the workplace. This is identifiable
with Williams (cited in Schwartz, 1999, p.25) expressing that "culture values represent the
implicitly or explicitly abstract ideas about what is good, right, and desirable in a society",
which dictates what is appropriate in various circumstances and moments for the people.
Similarly, Schwartz (1999) has postulated that shared values have moderating impacts on
workforce behaviour, by arguing that "shared cultural values in a society help to shape the
contingencies to which people must adapt in the institutions in which they spend their time"
(p.25). This can be felt in the current research's participating local hotel company, as its
culture is defined by the Vietnamese board of directors and all the managers are of
Vietnamese nationality.

Another important fact is that the hotel employees will bring their own values and beliefs to
work in the hotel environment. These values and beliefs can generate positive or negative
impacts. Hopefully, the employees are not harbouring their ethnocentric mindsets at work,
which might negatively impact the hotel's service and performance culture and hinder the
delivery of the hotel product and service quality standards. With respect to the academic
principle as represented in the above Figure 2.2, it is expected that there are Vietnamese
cultural elements as part of the Subjective Culture (Schiffman et al., 2011), which influence
the participating local hotel company's culture. Since Vietnamese culture has similarities
with most Eastern cultures (The Vietnamese Value System, 2006), the potential of the
Vietnamese culture's moderating impacts on the managerial workforce can be very real as
the managerial staff strive to maintain the western hotel service standards, which have
Western hospitality-based values. Conclusively, this challenge can be explained by the
situation of the national culture having specific unique values, and the organisational (hotel)
culture having assumed shared values (Mwaura et al., 1998). The presence of these different
value sets in the hotel work environments will evoke and bring about the moderating
56
impacts on the behaviour or performance of the local managerial staff. Hence, we can
conclude that this dilemmatic problem will exist if local managerial staff do not familiarise
themselves with, and practice the cultivated company mindset of the hotel management, to
prevent their work performance being influenced by national cultural values. It is also
observed by Noe (2005) that culture is important because ―it influences the effectiveness of
different behaviours and management styles"(p.311). Likewise, the study of Kogut and
Singh (1988) revealed that managerial cultural differences have to be considered to achieve
the desired service performance, which underlines the presence of the moderating impacts of
culture. Therefore, for this reason, the local managerial staff need a sort of ―cultural
immersion‖ (Noe, 2005, p.322) of the hotel culture to ‗internationalize‘ their management
acumens. This suggests that local hotel staff need to realise that they have to ‗live‘ in the
hotel culture and be aware of the moderating impacts of their national culture when they are
at work, in order to manage and perform well according to the stipulated hotel quality
standards. In other words, the employees are to be ‗corporate citizens‘ not national citizens,
when they are at work. By the above discussions and contexts, it is recognised that national
culture is an important factor to be considered in achieving a local hotel's product–service
performance and delivery because of its potential moderating impacts on managerial staff
behaviour.

From a human resource perspective, it is noted that in the hospitality or hotel industry, the
―organization‘s most important resources: the people‖ (Walker, 2007, p.586), are the human
capital. The hotel industry is highly dependent on the human capital of workforce. It is
crucial to know and understand how and why the behavioural drivers motivate and impact
employee performance. It is noted that a common philosophy of work for hotel is the way of
managing people to perform and serve to meet expectations, and to create satisfaction for
both the customers and employees (Walker, 2007). Therefore, in order to achieve its goal of
totally satisfying guest expectations and to create a competitive edge, it is significant for the
hospitality or hotel industry to hire individuals who share ―values appropriate to the
hospitality industry, thereby matching an applicant‘s value with the culture and climate of
the individual organization‖ (Tepeci & Bartlett, cited in Dawson & Abbott, 2011, p.290).
Hence, it is supported and highlighted by Dawson and Abbott (2011) that in order to gain
57
competitive advantage and to increase organisational commitment, a hotel has to select and
hire the "people who ‗fit‘ within the organizational culture and climate of the firm" (p.289).
The potential candidate or staff must be able to fit into the hospitality culture and hospitality
climate of the hotel. This is in line with the sound recruitment strategy of human resource
management, to hire suitable candidates who have "person-job-fit and person-organization-
fit" (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013, p.55) to ensure that they have the correct attitude, and do not
hold potential adverse cultural impacts in the line of work.

Through the above discussions, it is noted that the paramount challenge for hotel managerial
staff is to motivate individual employees to adopt the ‗hotel citizenship‘ whenever they are
at work, so that their native cultural mentalities and attitudes will not surface to impact their
organisational behaviour and performance. With the recognition that culture has moderating
impacts in the work environment and has potential to exhibit ethnocentric elements in
workforce behaviour, a common practice of human resource management is to remind the
employees to be the ‗corporate citizen‘ when they are at work, in order to eradicate culture
diversity and cultural impacts (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013). To be a ‗corporate (hotel) citizen‘,
the employee has to embrace the respective organisational (hotel) culture to experience the
‗corporate citizenship‘. In a strong cultural environment whereby "a high degree of
sharedness and intensity creates an internal climate of high behavioural control" (Robbins,
2005, p.231), the employees accept and commit to the core values of the organisational
culture. The hotel industry requires such commitments in order to create the (hotel)
"organizational citizenship behaviour" (Robbins,, 2005, p.25). This means that the hotel can
have greater influence on the employees' behaviour to guide their workplace performance
according to their achievements of the hotel standards. In other words, the employees are to
be motivated to be transformed into organisational (hotel) ‗citizenships‘ with esprit de corps
to maintain the hotel's product and service quality standards. In order to maintain the hotel‘s
brand image, quality standards and performances, it is a good organisational practice to have
individual employees transformed into the hotel citizenship. The ultimate goal of employee
motivation is to inspire them to embrace ―workplace spirituality‖ (Robbins, 2005, p.243),
which assists the employee to develop to their full potential and encourages the
transformation into organisational (hotel) ‗citizenship‘ and behaviour. Employees need to
58
be ‗hotel citizens‘ in order to act and perform correctly and rightfully in the hotel culture so
that their work performances meet guests‘ expectations, and at the same time, generate the
competitive brand image. This would make sure that the candidate fits into the hotel culture
with the right attitudes to become a ‗corporate (hotel) citizen‘.

Hence, the above discussions have provided the acknowledgement that a hotel‘s hospitality
climate and hospitality culture, together with the hotel product–service performance
requirements and the native cultural mentality of the hotel employees have created
opportunities for their national culture to exert its moderating impacts or influences on the
behaviour of managerial staff. Synonymously, this means that there is an occasion of cross-
cultural situation between the national culture and hotel culture in the hotel work
environment where the potential cultural moderating impacts have a chance to surface and
influence the hotel workforce. For Vietnam to develop a successful hotel culture and work
environments, such as those in other south-east Asian countries like Thailand, Singapore
and Hong Kong, there must be a marriage between the national culture and the hotel culture
to achieve a balance between the positive impacts of national culture on managerial staff,
which create a hotel‘s uniqueness, and the need to meet the universalistic conceptualized
hotel standards while, at the same time, satisfying guest expectations. This is one of the
most difficult and challenging tasks for Vietnam's hotel industry. Conclusively, Vietnam's
hotel industry has to take serious note of Chon and Sparrowe's (2000) statements that
―research indicates that national culture has a greater impact on employees than does their
organization‘s culture‖ and ―organizational culture does have a great influence on the
behavior of people at work, but national culture has even more‖ (p.245). Consequently, this
has encouraged and identified a research area to study how and why national culture exerts
its impacts or influences on the behaviour of managerial staff, and what is being impacted.

2.5.1 Western Hotel Service Standards in Local Hotel

The hotel‘s product-service performances and delivery are dependent on the tangible side as
well as the intangible side to meet and exceed guests‘ expectations (Walker, 2005). As
discussed earlier, it is important to note that the hotel managers and employees are impacted
59
by their subjective native culture‘s values and beliefs in forming the hotel‘s organisation
culture which influence or impact the hotel employees‘ behaviour and performance at work.
Consequently, this would intervene the local hotel managers‘ understanding of the western
hotel service standards which impacts their work behaviours or performances.

It is important to note that the western management style is geared towards building service
excellence by ―developing quality and customer satisfactions by building a sense of personal
ownership‖ (Mwaura, Sutton and Roberts, 1998, p.216). The sense of personal ownership
can be said to be equivalent to the unique image and product-services of the hotel that the
hotel management wants to build and hold in their hotel properties. In fact, Mattila (2000)
has pointed out that the product-service standards experienced by global travellers are
influenced by western cultural norms. A good reference is from Conrad Hilton who
describes his Hilton hotels as ―a little America‖, which indicates that, the American
expertise is spread through both the ―hard and soft aspects of hotel management‖ (Roper,
Brooke & Hampton, 1997, p.149). Furthermore, Roper, Brookes and Hampton (1997),
claims that hotel practices are ―continually changing to reflect individuals and groups both
internally and externally‖ (p.157). This means that the internal hotel employees and the
external hotel customers have significant roles in inciting and fostering cultural influences
which could develop synergistic cultural patterns for the hotel standards. This brings an
important point that service qualities can be interpreted differently because of cultural
differences (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler, 2009). It has also synthesised that there will be
expected variations of standard operation procedures, SOP, in the local hotels as they strive
to develop the western hotel service standards to discipline and symbolize their distinctive
unique hotel culture and image to capture competitive edges. This is reflected by Holiday
Inn Worldwide stating that ―although the basic parameters of the Holiday Inn product
provide a standardised framework, market sensitivity has to a key approach to each locality‖
(Parker, 1991 cited in Roper, Brookes & Hampton, 1997, p.157). To illustrate this further,
an American 5-star hotel chain, Four Seasons Hotels ―conducted a service quality audit to
identify some of the differences between French and North American business culture‖
before the American culture is introduced to the employees at the new location in France

60
(Ford & Sturman, 2011, p.120). In this context, it is inferred that the western hotel service
standard model does not have a one-fit-all model or solution for the local hotels to follow.

Significantly, Dawson and Abbott (2011) has claimed that the uniqueness of the hospitality
culture can be examined by making an effort to ―observe the culture at major international
hospitality firms and to provide examples of the characteristics of hospitality managers‖
(p.293).In order to meet or exceed guest‘s expectations, the western hotel service standards
are constructed within certain hospitality service qualities that are universally accepted by
customers and guests. These service qualities are better defined by adjectives such as
―friendly, pleasant, responsive, helpful, courteous, caring efficient and prompt‖ (Leland &
Bailey, p.218). The founder of ClubCorp International, Inc., Robert Dedman, puts in
perspectives that ―in order to succeed, managers must lead by example, exceed expectations,
anticipate needs, display teamwork, command attention to detail, teach, coach, and help
others‖ (Dawson & Abbott, 2011, p.295) which can be correlated with the above mentioned
service quality adjectives. Likewise, it is deemed that these service adjectives together with
the managerial behavioural traits as mentioned by Dedman to be the manager‘s behavioural
traits that hold the behavioural integrity of the local hotel managers. These manager‘s
behavioural traits or acumens are taken as the important foci of the western hotel service
standards for the local hotel management to create and discipline their standard operation
procedures and quality standards to lead their employee performances and to develop the
hotel. As a result, it is established that the western hotel service standards have stimulated
and engineered the behavioural integrity of the Vietnamese hotel managers, which is
associated to the positive (desirable) manager‘s behavioural traits such as:

- managers must lead by example

- exceed expectations
- anticipate needs
- display teamwork
- command attention to details
- teach, coach, and help others

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As such, the information from the interviewee responses are analysed and correlated to these
behavioural traits to gauge whether the moderating impacts are positive (desirable) or
negative (negative) impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the hotel managers, which
will be illustrated and discussed in Chapter 4. As the scores of the Hofstede Cultural
Dimensions can be identified and related to certain manager‘s behavioural traits (Hofstede,
2000), the associations of the above western hotel service standard‘s behavioural traits and
practices with the Vietnam‘s cultural dimensions‘ themes will be discussed in Chapter 4.

The potential cultural diversity simulated by the universalistic conceptualised western hotel
service standards in the hotel work environment may create competing understandings of
the working system and environments (Berrell, Gloet , & Wright, 2002). This could cause
the potential cultural impacts on a workforce to be manifested as ‗cultural clash‘ (Soderberg
& Holden, 2002), which might hinder management processes and disturbs harmonious
working environment. This cultural clash is felt and demonstrated in the moments of
―cultural distance involved‖ which ―can be measured according to the categories developed
by Hofstede, power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity and long-
term orientation‖ (Truong, Swierczek, & Dang, 1998, p.359). The cultural clash is further
elaborated in the next section.

2.5.2 Cultural Clash between Vietnamese Cultural Norms and Western Hotel Service
Standards

A cultural clash may occur in a hotel work environment because the local hotel culture
requires the staff to consistently adapt the western hotel service standards. Drawing from the
above discussions, it is inevitable that there is an influential relationship between the
Vietnamese cultural norms of the local hotel managerial staff and the western hotel service
standards as adopted by the local hotel. In their lines of hotel work, the Vietnamese hotel
managers need to observe and practice the western hotel service standards, which puts them
in an arena of East meets West challenges. The challenges exist could be because of the
perception that the ―Asian cultures prefer high-context communication, whereas most
Western culture prefer low-context communication‖ (Mattila, 2000, p.265). This has also
62
introduced and identified that the Asia is being ―more people-oriented‖ and the West,
―where the efficiency of the service delivery is highly valued‖ (p.265). The Hofstede
cultural dimension values of Vietnam (Asian country) have supported this by identifying
Vietnam to be high Collectivism and low Masculinity, which encourages people-oriented
society and behaviours. In addition, the study of Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999), when they
compared the Vietnamese managers (Asian) to the Australia managers (Western) of an
organisation, they have found that the Vietnamese managers are more collectivistic;
embrace agreeable relationship at work; not change-oriented; and dependent on tradition and
experience. These manager‘s behavioural traits can be related to Vietnam‘s Hofstede
cultural dimension values of being high Collectivism, high Femininity, low Uncertainty
Avoidance and being Long-Term Oriented (Hofstede, 2001). However, Hoang (2008)
research finds that the Vietnamese managers in the unfamiliar cultural environments of
Chicago, USA, exhibit low Power Distance behaviours in contrast to Hofstede‘s score of
high Power Distance. Furthermore, the self-centered behaviours encouraged from
ethnocentrism, the self-gratification and self-validation sculpted from egocentrism, as
discussed earlier, could have further stirred and provoked the cultural clash when the hotel
managers encountered the western hotel service standards in their work. Altogether, this
synthesises a fact that certain degree of conflicting work mentality, beliefs and attitudes do
exist when the Vietnamese managerial staffs are exposed to different or alien work
environment like the western hotel service standards in their daily hotel work. This has
provided the opportunities for a cultural clash between the Vietnamese hotel managers and
the western approach to hospitality management to create the moderating impacts on the
managers‘ behaviour and performance.

Consequently, the effects of the cultural clash can create discrepancies in the hotel
managerial staffs‘ behaviours and performances which can be seen as competitive product-
service gaps. Saleh and Ryan (1991) has pointed out the fact that ―series of gap might arise
to differences of perception and actual provisions‖ (p.326) because of different groups of
service provider involved in process like the hotel managers, employees and customers. The
competitive gap is classified by Camp (1989) into three performance gaps such as positive –
superior performance, negative – inferior performance and zero – in parity. With
63
consideration to the fact that the service providers like the local hotel Vietnamese managers
can be cultural in origin, the gaps can be generated by or related to the moderating impacts
of the manager‘s national culture when the managers are exposed to the western hotel
service standards.

Another domain of discussion is that the presence of cultural clash could evoke certain
degree of acculturation or socialisation ―to adjust an individual‘s behaviour to the exposed
contexts in order to ―successfully negotiate a given environment‖ (Gupta, 2012, p.2). This
could create an ―acculturatic stress‖ (Hofstede, 2001, p.424) when the local hotel employees
like the managers are exposed to the alien cultural environment of the western hotel service.
This has the synonymous effects when ―members of traditional cultures subject to
modernisation‖ (p.424), which brings about cultural social-psychological changes. During
the acculturation process, the individual might encompass certain reciprocations such as an
adaptation where the dominant culture is favoured, separation where the minority culture is
favoured, integration where the two cultures co-exist, and marginalization where both
cultures are not embraced (Rudmin, 2003). Equivalently, it is observed that the Vietnamese
local hotel managers are being exposed to the context of a given environment of western
hotel service standards to be accustomed and harmonised at work. Therefore, through the
acculturation process, the socialisation effects on the Vietnamese hotel managers might turn
out to be positive or negative impacts or influences on the Vietnamese hotel managerial
behaviours or performances depending on the context of the circumstances or issues. As a
result, these positive or negative impacts can undermine or underscore the western hotel
service standards as it widen or tighten the competitive gaps.

2.6 NATIONAL CULTURE INFLUENCES ON WORKFORCE

With recognition of the fact that the Vietnamese culture has experienced diverse cross-
cultural influences during its historical journey, it is imperative to recognise that ―the
implementation of knowledge management within the Vietnamese organizational
environment has a number of unique aspects which present some formidable challenges‖
64
(Dong et al., 2010, p.264). It is noted by Steer (cited in Neupert et al., 2005, p.167) that
there is ―evidence suggests that many managers in Vietnam do not adequately possess the
necessary skills and support to compete in the increasing competitive global market‖. This
can be due to the fact that ―national culture value systems influence patterns of thinking,
feeling and acting that may differ from one nation to another‖ (Hofstede, cited in Ayoun &
Moreo, 2008b, p.9). As such, it is rationalised that an individual‘s management practices
and decision-making can be impacted or influenced by national culture, thus explaining the
existence of national culture moderating impacts on the managerial staff behaviour.

Evidently, Nguyen, Neck and Nguyen (2008) have stated that Vietnam is a less-developed
emerging Asian country, dominated by a Confucian-Socialist market economy with a long
exposure to Western values. Rokeach (1973) theorised the values in which we believe, into
two related systems: terminal values (beliefs about an end-state of existence) and
instrumental values (beliefs about a mode of conduct) along a continuum of significance. By
observing this, the Confucian ideology will formulate a foundation of ―what differentiates
cultures is not so much their goals in life (terminal values) but rather the means by which
they attain these goals (instrumental values)‖ (Penner & Tran, 1977, p.189). ). Since
Confucian dynamism is predominant in Vietnam, the Confucian ideology has influenced the
individual to ―deal with mode of conduct rather than an end state of existence‖ (Penner &
Tran, 1977, p.190). As such, Penner and Tran (1977) have identified that ―Vietnamese are
prone to be more ―obedient (instrumental value)‖ and less worried about ―freedom (terminal
value)‖ when compared to Americans (p.190). Thus, a comparison note of difference is
observed between the Confucian (Vietnamese) and non-Confucian cultures (Western
cultures like Australia and the United States). This behavioural attitude would form a
―cultural fixation‖ (Zaichkowsky & Sood, 1988, p.21) to cultivate a belief reference system,
which could easily affect and impact the hotel management practices to assure the
prescribed product–service quality standards. It is also evidenced by Evans, Han and Sculli
(1989, p.12) that ―management development must be adapted to the requirements of local
culture and managerial style‖ because of the existence of the local core cultural values and
norms which are practised and experienced by every organisation in the local vicinity.
Notably, it is acknowledged that the unique cultural heritages of different countries will
65
characterise values and impact the way businesses are conducted (Firoz, Maghrabi & Ki,
2002). Accordingly, we can realise the conceivable moderating impacts of national cultures
on managerial workforce behaviour.

Furthermore, in an Asian high-context culture like Vietnam, the Vietnamese trust heavily on
non-verbal cues to gauge the meaning of their communications (Smith & Pham, 1996). The
communication process in meetings and at work is importantly articulated not only in words
but also in the context of ―situation, place, attitude, non-verbal behaviour and gestures‖
(Smith & Pham, 1996, p.47). In the study of culture and joint-venture success, Lane and
Beamish (1990, p.88) indicated that ―many western corporations seek co-operative ventures
as a ‗quick fix‘ to global competitiveness without understanding the relationships to be
established and the behavioural and cultural issues involved‖. In other words, the
moderating impacts of national and organisational cultures on managerial workforce
behaviour are not realised and not monitored for better management. This is also observed
by Ralston, Nguyen and Napier (cited in Quang & Vuong, 2002, p.36) that there is a
knowledge gap in management style as there is still ―no systematic study of managerial
styles in Vietnam and how they contribute to the effectiveness of organisations in the
Vietnamese cultural context‖ (Ralston cited in Truong & Nguyen, 2002, p.36), which carries
the credence of influencing the effectiveness of local hotel managerial performance.
Furthermore, Noe (2005) has identified that culture is important because of its influences on
different behaviours and management styles. Subsequently, this has iterated and implied that
culture is the core comrade in shaping a hotel‘s product–service quality standards and
performances (Myers & Tan, 1997). However, Kogut and Singh (1988) have pointed out the
cultural impacts or influences of culture, by highlighting the limitations on the service
industry to expand internationally because of managerial cultural differences which initiate
the effects of culture moderating impacts or influences on workforce behaviour.

To illustrate further the impacts and influences of national culture on workforce behaviour,
it is acknowledged by Le et al., (2007) that the success of foreign investment companies
depends on ―country specifics into local settings‖ which has issues of national culture
elements to be dealt with. With an improved frame of service mentality, Vietnamese
66
managers should be able to ensure the desired product–service quality standards and
performance in their hotels. This has escalated the importance of the current research
because it will assist in highlighting the managerial mindset for better monitoring and
controlling the behaviour and attitude of managerial staff.

The conclusion of Penner and Tran‘s (1977) study of the comparison of American and
Vietnamese value systems, has indicated the moderating impacts by claiming that although
they have goal differences in life, ―this difference was not as great as the difference in their
beliefs about how to reach these goals‖ (p.198). More significantly, Salk and Brannen
(2000) stated that the socialisation of managers is deeply rooted with national culture and ―it
is plausible that nationality continued to affect team members‘ preferences and work
behaviors‖ (p.192). This has drawn attention to the fact that the value hierarchies thus
generated or influenced by culture are able to craft illimitable differences in attitudes and
behaviour (Rokeach & Ball-Rokeach, 1989) to have moderating impacts on individual
behaviour and performance in the societal and organisational context. Likewise, the Global
Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) study has further
identified that leadership traits are expressed and enacted differently in different societies
(Vo & Hannif, 2011). Thus, it is apparent that ―national culture drives management
behavior‖ with pervasive impacts or influences (Berrell, Gloet, & Wright, 2002, p.96). This
has concluded that national culture does have moderating impacts on the behaviour of the
managerial staff of the local hotels. Likewise, the study of Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999)
has indicated certain managerial behaviour differences in the workplace, between Australian
and Vietnamese managers, because of the influences of their cultures. To further
substantiate this notion, Hofstede and Bond (1988) claimed that ―we could say that Western
thinking is analytical, while Eastern thinking is synthetic‖ (p.20). With these two different
paradigms of thinking, we ascertain that there are moderating impacts on managerial staff
behaviour when Vietnamese managers (national culture) are working collaboratively within
hotel workplace environments.

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2.7 MANAGERIAL WORKFORCE BEHAVIOUR

In the course of hotel management, the hotel managers perform many activities that are
common with managers in other industries to ―plan, organize, make decisions,
communicate, motivate and control‖ (Walker, 2007, p.490). As such, hotel management can
be defined as the process to accomplish the hotel's organisational goals efficiently and
effectively by working with, and through, the hotel employees (Walker, 2007). Emphasising
the moderating impacts of national culture, Robbins (2005) stated that the cultural
influences are to be recognised because of their significant influence on managers‘
―selection of problems, depth of analysis, the importance placed on logic and rationality, or
whether organizational decisions should be made autocratically by an individual manager or
collectively in groups‖ (p.98). It is also noted by Truong and King (2010) that perceptions
of information ―are reliant on cultural values, expectations, experiences and interests and are
influenced by culture‖ (p.17) affirming that it is important to realise that national culture has
moderating impacts on the behaviour of local hotel managerial staff.

The influence of national culture on workforce behaviour is demonstrated and epitomised by

Pizam‘s Hierarchy of Cultures ( cited in Chen et al., 2012, p.53) as shown in Figure 2.5,
which reveals how and where the national, personal, professional and industry backgrounds
of founders, key decision-makers, management and employees influence practices in hotel
groups (Roper, Brookes & Hampton 1997). Pizam‘s Hierarchy of Cultures has related and
further affirmed the earlier discussion that the national culture of the founder or
management board has significant influential roles in forming the organisational (hotel)
culture. Because of the continuous tasks of addressing customer needs, the people‘s
(employee) behaviours at the company level ―has become more vital to success‖ (Pizam,
1993 cited in Chen, Cheung & Law, 2012, p.53). Consequently, this affects the human
resource management of the organisation (hotel) in the employee selections, training
directions and manager‘s behavioural traits. Thus, it is related that the local hotel culture and
its employees (managers) embrace or impact by certain degree of dependence if their
national culture to structure and deliver the hotel product-services. This has imperatively
illustrated the fact that national culture starts, and also drives the influential path of
68
moderating impacts on industry cultures all the way to the organisational structure,
managerial practices and work attitudes. That is the reason why the national culture is at the
starting point of Pizam‘s Hierarchy of Cultures, which illustrates that national culture begins
a chain of influential dependency of other cultures to impact the organisational structure,
managerial practices and work attitudes (Chen, Cheung & Law, 2012, p.53). This implies
that the hierarchy of cultures can be seen in the local hotels as the ―country-of-origin
effects‖ tends to mould and institutionalise managerial workforce behaviour and
management systems to a certain desirable degree, by observing home country practices
(Almond, 2011, p.265). This has given the management the opportunity to choose its
strategic plan to have the standardisation and localisation in which the ―global best
practices‖, like the western hotel service standard practices, are adopted, regardless of host-
or home-country influences (Pudelko & Harzing, 2007, p.538).

Figure 2.5 Pizam’s Hierarchy of Cultures

Source: Chen, Cheung and Law (2012, p.53)

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The participating local hotels tend to observe the practice of standardisation and localisation
in order to have their employees retain the organisation‘s core values and goals (Reade,
2001), which reflect its brand identity, ‗servicescape‘, product standards and service
qualities. Consequently, with the host national culture influencing and interacting with the
organisational culture, it is unavoidable that there will be impacts arising from the process
of standardisation at the company level, especially in the local hotel's process of adopting
the universalistic conceptualised product and service standards. It is also found that the
culture embedded in the host country will have a certain degree of impact as Ayoun and
Moreo (2008b) have shown evidence that ―the particular ways of life, philosophy and value
systems of people of particular nation will influence their work behavior‖ (p.9). Continuing
the discussion, the research reference sources are discussed and elaborated on in the
following section to provide a better understanding of the research's investigation context.

2.8 CURRENT RESEARCH REFERENCE SOURCES

The current research has adopted Hofstede Cultural Dimension theory(Hofstede, 1984), the
findings of Berrell, Wright and Tran‘s (1999) research, and Hoang‘s (2008) qualitative
questionnaire on Hofstede cultural dimensions, to design the semi-structured interview for
the investigation of the moderating impacts or influences of national culture on Vietnamese
managerial staff behaviour in local hotels.

2.8.1 Hofstede Cultural Dimensions

Geert Hofstede‘s research on national cultures is based on sample populations of the

workforce in various IBM international subsidiaries. Hofstede (cited in Ayoun & Moreo
2008b, p.9) has stated that ―national culture value systems influence patterns of thinking,
feeling and acting that may differ from one nation to another‖. This has rationalised that
individual managers‘ management decisions are influenced by national culture, which give
the reasons for the existence of the moderating impacts. Therefore, conclusively, Hofstede‘s
research claims firmly that culture contributes to the "collective programming of the mind"
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(Hofstede, 2001, p. 9). Significantly, to further illustrate the ideology of the programming of
the mind, Dartey-Baah (2013) affirms that "drawing upon the Hofstede typology, it is not
difficult to see how a nation's culture might impact on practices related to performances"
(p.40). From the result and investigation of the organisation workforce attitudes, Hofstede
is able to identify and categorize the surveyed result into four cultural dimensions of the
national culture, which are Power Distance, Individualism versus Collectivism, Masculinity
versus Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and later, the Long-term versus Short-term
Orientation is added (Hofstede, 1991; Hofstede & Bond, 1988; Dartey-Baah, 2013).

Imperatively, Hofstede‘s study has demonstrated that culture does have moderating impacts
on workforce behaviours, when he compared employee attitudes and values to develop the
cultural dimensions summarising different cultures across 40 countries (2011). It is reflected
on the fact that national culture does have the potential to generate moderating impacts on
managerial workforce behaviours by noting Hofstede‘s (1980, p.43) claim that ―culture is
not a characteristic of individuals; it encompasses a number of people who were conditioned
by the same education and life experiences.‖ Thus, Hofstede (1980) conclusively pointed
out that the mental programming fashioned by the national culture leads to a blueprint of
behaviour that could be distinctive and differ from one nationality to another. Hofstede
(1994) also claimed that people‘s behaviour is influenced more by national culture than
company culture. The influences identifying the moderating impacts of national culture on
workforce behaviour are saliently revealed by Geert Hofstede‘s study on how ―culture
relates values in the workplace‖ (Hill & Hernandez-Requejo 2011, p.141). it is also
substantiated by Newman and Nollen (1996) that better performance results can be achieved
by the congruence between management practices and national culture characteristics.
Consequently, to highlight the moderating impacts of national culture on workforce
behaviours, Schneider (1988) supported that even for an organisation with a strong
corporate culture, the national culture plays a continuous major role in differentiating work
values. Furthermore, the GLOBE project has given culture the definition as ―a set of shared
values and beliefs‖ (Javidan & House, 2001, p.293). To further elaborates on this definition,
Javidan and House (2001) (p.293) have stated that ―beliefs are people‘s perceptions of how

71
things are done in their countries‖ and ―they are the reported practices in a particular
culture‖ (p.293).

The GLOBE project (Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness) has
acknowledged that leadership attributes ―were culturally determined‖ (Cox, Hannif &
Rowley, 2014 p.3) and concentrated on cultural dimension orientations, which have
similarities to Hofstede cultural dimensions. It has confirmed that leadership traits are
articulated and portrayed differently in different societies (Vo & Hannif, 2011), and other
researchers such as Kluckhohn and Strodbeck (1961), and Trompenaars (1993) have
studied value orientations to examine cultural differences which assist in explaining how
cultural differences affect business conducts. In a similar stance, Trompenaars (1994) also
used a set of bipolar dimensions of culture like Hofstede‘s model to investigate the essence
of national culture. However, Trompenaars has a more pragmatic view on culture whereby
he ―defines the concept as the way people solve problems, particularly related to
relationships, time and the external environment‖ (Trompenaars 1993 cited in Todeva, 1999,
p.610). From this, it is observed that Hofstede has not considered the aspects of time and
external environment influences in his study of the cultural dimensions. However, Hofstede
(1983) has saliently pointed out that more ―cultural sensitivity in management theories is
needed to perform better in intercultural activities and multinational corporations‖ (p.89).
This has advocated that there are moderating impacts when national and organisational
cultures interact and impact the local managerial workforce behaviour, like those in the local
hotel.

Even though Hofstede‘s research has brought about controversies, especially with the
research sample population focusing on just one company‘s subsidiaries, IBM (McSweeney,
2002), its massive research study has proven its stance as it continues to be referred and
cited in research. It is critiqued that Hofstede‘s cultural dimension study is done on a
country level but, there are majority of researchers have ―adapted them for use at the
individual or group/organisational levels‖ (Kirkman, Lowe & Gibson, 2006, p.288). There
are many authors and scholars who have used Hofstede‘s cultural dimensions for reference,
to explain and express their findings (Dartey-Baah, 2013; Kawar, 2012; Vo & Hannif, 2011;
72
Milliman, Luthans & Doh, 2009; Kirkman, Lowe & Gibson, 2006; Taylor & Czaplewski,
2002; Firoz et al., 2002;). It is also universally noted that there are numerous studies have
referenced Hofstede Cultural Dimensions to support research findings and arguments (Dong
et al., 2010; Nguyen, Terlouwb & Pilot, 2006; Vo & Hannif, 2011). Haag et al. (2010) have
supported that Hofstede cultural dimensions have been most widely used to investigate the
impacts of national culture on behaviour. It is also supported by Ayoun and Moreo (2008a)
that it is common in scholarly studies to measure "national culture in terms of dimensions
and value orientations" (p.66). To further support this, Luthan and Doh (2009, p.40) stated
that ―drawing upon the Hofstede typology, it is not difficult to see how a nation‘s culture
might impact on practices related to performance‖. This is also supported by the claim of
Hofstede and Bond (1988) that the cultural dimension differences can have numerous
significances and magnitudes for management practices which can be translated into
managerial workforce behaviour. One of the research studies like Hoang (2008) has adopted
Hofstede Cultural Dimension Model to study the Vietnamese managers in western
environment of Chicago, USA. Another study by Ralston, Nguyen and Napier (1999)
focused on Hofstede‘s cultural dimension of Individualism and collectivism to investigate
the Vietnamese managers. In the study of Ready (2008), the Hofstede cultural dimensions
are used to discuss the differences of expectations of factors that are important to job
satisfaction between the Vietnamese and American employees. In another study by Nguyen
and Aoyama (2013), the Hofstede cultural dimensions as the base for the Vietnam national
culture ―to explain the rationale behind the adjustments made to match the behaviours and
attitudes of Vietnamese employees and managers‖ (p.21). This approach is quite similar to
the current research, and has attested the fact that Hofstede‘s cultural dimensions are
appropriate source and reference to be used to study the national cultural effects on
managerial staff‘s behaviours and performances.

As the purpose of the current research is to investigate the impacts of national culture on the
behaviour of Vietnamese managerial staff in local hotels, it is important to recognise how
these cultural dimensions guide and influence staff behaviour. This has highlighted the
claim from Kirkman, Lowe and Gibson (2006) that ―cultural values were associated with
outcomes in management and applied psychology domains, including: change
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management,; conflict management; decision-making; human resource management(HRM);
leadership; organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB); work-related attitudes; negotiation
behaviour; reward allocation; and individual behaviour relating to group processes and
personality‖ (288). To present a framework for aligning managerial behaviour with cultural
work values, Michael and College (1997) have adopted Hofstede cultural dimensions to
form propositions of the national culture impacts on workforce behaviour. This is factually
shown by Hofstede‘s renowned quest to study national cultures, which has been performed
in organisational environments to investigate and hypothesise work behaviours to conclude
the cultural findings ―that help to explain how and why people from various cultures behave
as they do‖ and ―understanding culture‘s effect on behaviour‖ (Luthans & Doh, 2009,
pp.104, 109).

The modified Rokeach Value Survey, a questionnaire developed by Milton Rokeach and
used by Asian and Pacific academic researchers, has substantiated strong support for the
―universality‖ of Hofstede‘s cultural dimensions (Hofstede & Bond, 1988, p.15). From
Bond‘s Chinese Value Survey, it is found that the result has yielded three dimensions,
namely Power Distance, Individualism/Collectivism and Masculinity/Femininity, which are
similar to Hofstede‘s IBM survey of Western countries (1988). From the Chinese Value
Survey, another dimension, Long-term/Short-term Orientation is identified, which is based
on Confucian dynamism and is only pertinent to East Asia countries like Vietnam (Dartey-
Baah, 2013; Hofstede & Bond, 1988). The Chinese Value Survey has also shown a cultural
synergy indicating the fact that ―national cultures can undoubtedly be complementary‖
(Hofstede & Bond, 1988, p.21). Within these advocacies, it is pragmatic to employ
Hofstede‘s cultural dimensions to explore and explicate the managerial workforce behaviour
context of local hotels in Vietnam.

Hence, the Hofstede‘s cultural dimensions are defined as follows:

 Power Distance, PDI – ―the extent to which the less powerful members if
institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is
distributed unequally‖ (Hofstede, 2001, p.98).
74
  Individualism, IDV – ―Individualism stands for a society in which the ties between
individuals are loose: Everyone is expected to look him/herself and her/his
immediate family only‖ (Hofstede, 2001, p. 225). This is also observed as
Individualism versus Collectivism.

 Masculinity, MAS – ―Masculinity stands for a society in which social gender roles
are clearly distinct‖ (Hofstede, 2001, p.297). On the other hand, Femininity is ―a
cultural characteristic in which the dominant values in society are caring for others
and the quality of life‖ (Luthans & Doh, 2009, p.105). This is also observed as
Masculinity versus Femininity.

 Uncertainty Avoidance, UAI – ―the extent to which the members of a culture feel
threatened by uncertain or unknown situations‖ (Hofstede, 2001, p.161). Luthans and
Doh (2009) defined it as ―the extent to which people feel threatened by ambiguous
situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these‖ (p.105).

 Long-Term Orientation, LTO – ‗Long Term Orientation stands for the fostering of
virtues oriented towards future rewards, in particular perseverance and thrift‖
(Hofstede, 2001, p.359). This is also observed as long-term versus short-term
orientation.

From the further analysis of the cultural dimensions, Hofstede and Bond (1988) have
concluded that the dimensions and their correlations can affect, and have certain impacts or
consequences on management behaviour, practices and performance. Some of the common
impacts or consequences are:

 Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance have impacts on employees‘ motivations.

When Uncertainty Avoidance is low, employees tend to accept personal risks more
willingly, and in a masculine culture, introducing and having competition is more
effective and feasible (Dartey-Baah, 2013; Hofstede, 2001; Luthans & Doh, 2009).
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  Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance together impact perception of an
organisational image. The high Power Distance organisation tends to have greater
centralisation and the stronger Uncertainty Avoidance organisation like to adopt
more formalization (Hofstede, 2001; Luthans & Doh, 2009).

 Power Distance and Individualism affect, and have impact on leadership style and its
effectiveness. In a high Power Distance culture, the ideal leadership is a benevolent
autocrat. The individualist culture promotes freedom and incentives to be given to
individuals, and the collectivist culture promotes teamwork and group loyalties with
incentive given collectively (Dartey-Baah, 2013; Hofstede, 2001; Luthans & Doh,
2009).

 The Confucian Dynamism of the East Asian countries has been coined the Long-
term Orientation dimension. This dimension is mainly active in East Asian countries,
which links culture to economic growth. Long-term oriented people value
perseverance, thrift, having a sense of shame (face-saving), and respecting tradition
of generational orders, hierarchy, paternalism and loyalty (Hoang & Dung, 2009;
Hoang, 2008). The Long-Term oriented culture ―teaches virtues directed at the future
whereas the Short-term Oriented culture ―teaches virtues directed at the past and
present‖ (Hofstede, 2001, p.363). Therefore, the short-term oriented individual have
needs for cognitive consistency, the bottom line, immediate gratification of needs
expected, fuzzy problem solving, fast decision-making processes and attention to
facts and reality (Dartey-Baah, 2013; Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede & Bond, 1988).

With these cultural value dimensions, Hofstede (1983, p.88) has demonstrated that
―management and organization are culturally dependent‖, and ―are penetrated with culture
from the beginning to the end". Additionally, Dong et al. (2010) have significantly stated
that it is not enough to rely solely on traditional cultural dimensions ―to explain all of the
intricacies surrounding organizational behaviour in such complex settings as modern-day
Vietnam‖ (p.264). Therefore, with the applications and implications of the cultural
76
dimensions of Geert Hofstede (Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede & Bond, 1988), there is a gauging
tool to identify, assess and determine how a nation‘s cultural sensitivity ―affects our
thinking differently from other peoples‘ thinking, and what this means for the transfer of
management practices and theories‖ (Hofstede, 1983, p.89). In order to have a good
understanding of the influences of moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture, it
is important to be familiar with their cultural elements, as illustrated in the Vietnam scores
of the Hofstede cultural dimensions. Therefore, this is elaborated in the following section.

2.8.1.1 Vietnam – Hofstede Cultural Dimensions

The Hofstede Centre has its own website with a variety of courses and webinars on the
subject of national and organisational culture. The important tool of the website is the menu
point of national culture where the Hofstede cultural dimension scores of the selected
country are provided and a comparison between three countries is possible (Hofstede, 2001).
Since cultural values are known to influence how societies ascribe to work (Schwartz,
1999), it is pertinent to study the cultural dimension scores of Vietnam to have a better
understanding of the national culture impacts or influences on managerial workforce
behaviour so as to substantiate the potential findings of the current research. The Hofstede
Cultural Dimensions are used to provide parameters for identifying and explaining
managerial workforce behaviour (Dong et al., 2010; Dartey-Baah, 2013; Hofstede & Bond,
1988; Hofstede, 2001). The Vietnam cultural dimension scores are represented below:

Figure 2.6 Hofstede Cultural Dimension Scores – Vietnam

Source: Hofstede (2001, p.502)

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As illustrated in Figure 2.6, the Hofstede Cultural Dimension Scores – Vietnam shows the
five cultural dimension scores as:

Vietnam Cultural Dimension Scores:

Power Distance, PDI: 70 (high)
Individualism, IND: 20 (low; high in Collectivism – 80)
Masculinity, MAS: 40 (low; high in Femininity – 60)
Uncertainty Avoidance, UAI: 30 (low)
Long-term Orientation: LTO 80 (high; low in Short-term Orientation)

These cultural dimension scores are related to certain behavioural intentions which Hofstede
has prescribed and indicated (Hofstede, 2001). It is found that Vietnam has scored high in
Power Distance; low in Individualism; low in Masculinity; low in Uncertainty Avoidance
and high in Long-term Orientation (Hofstede, 2001).

These cultural dimension scores will dictate, or assist in providing explanations of the
behaviour of Vietnamese hotel managerial staff as they experience the moderating impacts
of their national culture in their work environments.

For Power Distance, the Vietnam index (score) is high. The High Power Distance leads to
the understanding that there are ―mechanistic characteristics‖ (Dartey-Baah, 2013, p. 41).
This dictates that the Vietnamese accept a hierarchical order, subordinates expect to be told
what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat and challenges to the leadership are
not well-received‖ (What about Vietnam?,n.d.; Hofstede, 2001). The presence of High
Power Distance could also indicate that there is a lack of feedback and two-way
communication; repressing of employee creativity, discouraging employee participations;
perceiving differences between peers and subordinates as natural; entitling superiors with
more privileges; placing more value on control than performance; having a more
performance-oriented leadership style; and a more centralized operational and organization
structure (Vo and Hannif, 2013; Hoang, 2008; Luthans and Doh, 2009; Dartey-Baah, 2013).
This advocates that the leader-subordinate relationships derived from High Power Distance
78
in Vietnam conflicts with the participative leadership style of the western hotel management
context where managers hold behavioural traits like managers must lead by example,
display teamwork, teach, coach, and help others as discussed in Chapter 2.

In the Hofstede Cultural Dimension index, Vietnam has scored very low (20 %) in
Individualism which means High Collectivism is practiced (Countries, 2012). The
collectivism discussed in this context only ―refers to the group, not to the state‖ (Hofstede
and Bond, 1988, p. 11). Collectivism seems to acculturate reciprocal responsibility between
the leader and their followers to emphasize moral obligations which encourage the managers
to lead and care for their employees in an individualized manner (Bass, 1998). This
―paternalistic orientation‖ (Quang and Vuong, 2002) has molded the Vietnamese managers
to be people-oriented emphasizing on communication and positive relationships in contrast
to international managers who are prone to formal processes to guide performances (Quang,
Swierczek & Dang, 1998). This leads to the nature of collectivism encourages knowledge
sharing which improves mutual relationships of in-group members (Dong, Liem and
Grossman, 2010). Therefore, the collectivist nature can concede attitudinal and behavioral
characteristics of Vietnamese managerial staff behaviours such as unequal power
distribution, less individual creativity and innovative spirit, prefer group integrations,
respect for authority, protective of subordinates, avoiding disrespect of other‘s face, and
long-term orientation (Dartey-Baah, 2012; Dong, Liem and Grossman, 2010; Luthans and
Doh, 2009; Hofstede and Bond, 1988; Quang and Vuong, 2002). Furthermore, on the less
desirable side, Cox, Hannif and Rowley (2013) concluded that ―the collectivist nature of
Vietnamese culture means individuals may shy away from decision-making and taking
personal responsibility‖ (p. 7). Likewise, in order to maintain a harmonious rapport and not
to be impolite and disrespectful, Vietnamese tend to agree upon decisions which they may
not agree or have no intention to see it through (Smith and Pham, 1996), which is an
example of saving face. This could inflict undesirable negative impacts on the hotel
managerial staff behaviours or performances.

The low score in Masculinity (40 %) for Vietnam means that the culture is more feminine.
(Countries, 2012). Within the Vietnamese culture context, the feminine behavioral traits of
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gentleness, sensitivity and empathy are exercised in their societal and organizational
conducts (Dartey-Baah, 2012). The prevailing values in a feminine culture are ―caring for
others and quality of life‖ supporting the idea of doing what an individual likes to do (What
about Vietnam?, n.d.). In an organization perspective, the employees are less
competitiveness, encourage employee involvements, nurturing teams, fostering
collaborations in and out of organization, treating employees fairly and tends to follow
rules, policies and regulations willingly and equally and negotiation to solve conflicts
(Dartey-Baah, 2012; Hoang, 2008; Hofstede, 1983; Hofstede & Bond, 1988). These
feminine behavioural traits are deemed to succour and benefit the behavioural traits of the
western hotel service standard approach as the hotel manager practices to lead by example,
display teamwork, and teach, coach, and help others in order to command attention to
details to satisfy and exceed guest expectations.

As the Vietnam cultural dimension has indicated low Uncertainty Avoidance, it reveals that
the Vietnamese has a high uncertainty–acceptance culture which are more accommodating
to others‘ opinions and behaviors but, they are more unemotional, apathetic, and reflective
(Hofstede & Bond, 1988). They embrace flexibility and casualness in the workplace which
allows the managers to have more autonomy and discretion in their management instead of
trusting on strict formalities (Dartey-Baah, 2012). It is noted by Hofstede (2005) that human
beings have deceiving tendency to act and think from their own experiences when they
confront uncertainty or ―unstructured situations‖ as described as ―novel, unknown,
surprising or different from usual‖ (Hofstede & Bond, 1988, p. 11). As such, low
Uncertainty Avoidance constructs stability and security in an individual and produces more
intuitive risk-taking managers and more aspiring employees (Luthans & Doh, 2009).
Consequently, the low Uncertainty Avoidance orientation would encourage the hotel
managers to take risks and not afraid of making any possible loss (Dartey-Baah, 2012).
Thus, with the Vietnamese hotel managers being collectivist-oriented, the tensions of
moderating impact can be built up and explored in their hotel managerial workforce
behaviours or performances. The low Uncertainty Avoidance orientation could inspire the
hotel managers to have positive management behavioural traits to engage their staff better
by practicing empowerment, providing pro-activeness to solve problems, and prompt
80
recognition for immediate service recovery (Walker, 2008). These management behavioural
traits are positive attribute s to the western hotel service approach to the local hotel
management.

In the Hofstede Cultural Dimension index, Vietnam has scored very high (80 %) in Long-
Term Orientation (Countries, 2012). The Long-Term Orientation dimension is uniquely and
―only relevant to countries in East Asia‖ (Dartey-Baah, 2013, p. 41) because of the
influence of Confucian Dynamism (Hofstede & Bond, 1988). This Long-Term perspective
promotes persistence, thrift and future rewards (Hoang, 2008). These future–oriented values
are related to the good aptitude to solve distinct problems, perseverance towards time-
consuming results, and ability to adjust traditions to changed environments. (2008).

In hotel management, it is inevitable to deal with changes to maintain product-service

quality performances to satisfy the customers and guests. The workforce behaviour of
Short-term Orientation culture (Australia and United States) is likely to resist change efforts
and likely to maintain status quo (Dartey-Baah, 2012). This will contravene with the Long-
Term oriented Vietnamese workforce‘s future oriented mentality that is more willing to be
persevered and socialized into the changes. Since this dimension refers to the ―Confucian
Dynamism‖ (Hofstede and Bond, 1988, p. 16), it is potentially transcribing the moderating
impacts of Eastern culture - Vietnam and Western culture – western hotel service standards
on the workforce behaviours in the workforce environment where both cultures are staged to
interact and inter-play cross-culturally. Such moderating impacts are resulted from the
major cultural differences, as Truong and King (2010) stipulated that ―Vietnamese are
influenced by Buddhist and Confucian thought‖ (p. 17). This Long-Term perspective
promotes persistence, thrift and future rewards (Hoang, 2008). These future–oriented values
are related to the good aptitude to solve distinct problems, perseverance towards time-
consuming results, and ability to adjust traditions to changed environments (Hoang, 2008).
The future-oriented values also spelled out into the hotel managers believe in training their
staff to achieve better performance and to have returned customers to their properties. In this
context, it can be justified that Long-Term Orientation has encouraged the behavioural traits
of western hotel service approach such as anticipate needs, command attention to details,
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display teamwork, anticipate needs, and exceed expectations to be practiced or implemented
by the Vietnamese hotel managers. Therefore, the current research is driven to investigate
the hotel managerial staff behaviours and matched to the Hofstede Cultural Dimension
scores of Vietnam to determine and explain the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese
national culture on the behaviour of local hotel managerial staff. Further discussions and
illustrations to relate the cultural dimensions to the research findings will be provided in
Chapter 4.

2.8.2 Berrell, Wright and Tran Research, (BWT Research)

The Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999) research, abbreviated as BWT Research, investigates
the influence of culture on managerial behaviours between the managers of Australia and
Vietnam, with a qualitative methodology. The research has concluded that the Vietnamese
social, cultural and political environment shaped the internal structure of local companies in
such a way that "culture produced an environment in which scepticism and apprehension
sometimes infiltrated management practices‖ (Berrell, Wright & Tran, 1999, p.586). This
research has argued that the influence of culture on management behaviour is part of the
unawareness of an organisation (Berrell, Wright & Tran, 1999), which identifies the
opportunity for a management performance gap to exist between the Vietnamese and
Australian managers. The influences not only showing the moderating impacts of national
and organization culture on managerial staff behaviour but, saliently highlighting and
exemplifying the Vietnamese managerial behaviours are initiated and influenced by their
native culture. As a result, occasions arise to inveigle the Vietnamese managers to exhibit
their ethnocentric management behaviours to show the moderating impacts of national
culture on the managerial workforce. It is also argued by Berrell, Wright and Tran (2002)
that when a cultural mix is present in the workforce, a setting is created in which there will
be ―competing understanding arise about the purposes and function of system and
organizational culture‖ (p.84). As a consequence, it has determined that ―the external
Vietnam social, cultural and political environment also shaped the internal structure of the
companies, as from within the ways of culture produced an environment in which

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scepticism and apprehension sometimes infiltrated management practices‖ (Berrell, Wright
& Tran, 1999, p.588).

The significant fact to be noted from the cross-cultural interactions of different national
managers within the same organisation is that opportunities are presented for the cultures to
stand out from each other to display its impacts and effects, which substantially evoked the
managers to exhibit their profound ethnocentric managerial behaviours. In certain
circumstances, reinforcing and acclaiming their behaviours. This phenomenon is tantamount
to the influences of the national culture's moderating impacts during the workplace
interactions and involvements of Vietnamese hotel managerial staff who are of a national
culture mindset. This seems to be exceptionally so when they are directed to pursue the
work demands of the universalistic conceptualised work behaviours and performances in
order to achieve their hotel‘s product and service quality standards.

One of the objectives of observing and investigating contrasting cultural activities or

moments is to have a way to identify, extricate and differentiate the subservient attributes or
effects of either of the cultures, to realise their respective cultural impacts. The current
research takes the opportunity to bring forward the applicability of BWT Research findings
to the Vietnamese hotel industry. Therefore, the cultural differences in management
behaviour determined by BWT Research are used as references and as literature resource to
match, relate and explain this research‘s findings regarding Vietnamese cultural impacts on
managerial staff behaviour.

Academically, it is significantly noted that the BWT Research has been used as reference
and citation for several studies and researches such as:

 Ayoun and Moreo (2008a, b) in ―The influence of the cultural dimension of

uncertainty avoidance on business strategy development: A cross-national study of
hotel managers‖; and ―Does national culture affect hotel managers' approach to
business strategy?‖

83
  Le et al., (2007) in ―To what extent can management practices be transferred
between countries?: The case of human resource management in Vietnam.‖

 Trim (2004) in ―Human resource management development and strategic

management enhanced by simulation exercises‖.

 Berrell, Wrathall, and Wright (2001) in ―A model for Chinese management

education: adapting the case study method to transfer management knowledge‖.

 ―Leadership development: Paths to self-insight and professional growth‖ (2002) by

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers

 King-Kauanul, Su, and Ashley-Cotleur (2006) in ―Impact Of Human Resource

Management: SME Performance In Vietnam‖

 Berrell, Gloet, & Wright (2002) in ―Organizational learning in international joint

ventures: Implications for management development‖

Supporting Hofstede cultural dimensions, the BWT Research has identified that culture is an
interred prevalent motivator for behaviour which influences Vietnamese and Australian
managerial behaviours. It is scholarly recognised that Hofstede cultural dimensions are
applied in cross-cultural management studies ―to explore the elements contained in national
cultures that impact the overall performance in organizations‖ (Dartey-Baah, 2013, p.40;
Nguyen et al., 2006; Vo & Hannif, 2011) and understanding of what, how and why culture
can impact the transfer of management practices and theories (Hofstede, 1983). Hence, the
findings of BWT Research on the influence of culture on managerial behaviour are observed
as references to gauge the impacts of Vietnamese culture on the effectiveness of Vietnamese
managers‘ performance in the participating local hotels. Some of the culture- influenced
Vietnamese managerial behaviour patterns and attitudes identified by BWT Research are
illustrated in Appendix: 1.

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From the culture-influenced work behavioural patterns and attitudes, the moderating
impacts of the national culture on Vietnamese managerial workforce behaviour are revealed
and exemplified by the BWT Research. These have identified that cultural issues are
imperative to product–service delivery (Ayoun & Moreo, 2008b), and have confirmed the
claim by Robbins, DeCenzo and Coutler (2011, p.334) that ―national culture affects
leadership style because it influences how followers will respond‖ to serve customers and to
achieve the organisational goals. Therefore, these research findings are significant examples
for references to the current research data analysis and as a literature resource for the
research discussion.

2.8.3 Henry Hoang PhD Research

The PhD dissertation by Hoang (2008) is a research on the cultural influences on

management styles related to Vietnamese managers in the society in Houston, USA. He
stresses that understanding the Vietnamese culture will assist to increase self-awareness,
promote relationships and cooperation among the diverse cultural business community. The
mixed method is used with qualitative and quantitative methodology for the research.
Hoang‘s (2008) study identifies significant differences in the Vietnam indices against those
of Hofstede cultural dimension scores. Contrastingly, the Vietnam indices are found to be
low for Power Distance instead of high, more individualistic instead of collectivist and of
relatively short-term instead of long-term orientation. The research illustrates the influences
of culture on Vietnamese managers in Houston, which inferred that their home country's
culture (Vietnamese) can be impacted or influenced by a host country's culture (American)
when exposed to it. Within this perspective, the national culture is highlighted and
underlined that it has its fair share of moderating impacts on the managerial workforce
behaviours. Therefore, it is noted that the national culture of the United States, as the host-
country culture, has impacted the Vietnamese, who embrace a home-country culture, to
score differently and almost totally opposite to Hofstede cultural dimension - Vietnam
scores. In a summative conclusion, this has provided the acknowledgement that national
culture does have moderating impacts on individual management style and work behaviour,
as concluded by Hoang‘s (2008) research.
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For the current research‘s one-to-one semi-structured interviews, the qualitative questions of
Hofstede cultural dimensions from Hoang‘s research (2008) are adapted and modified "to
understand the social phenomenon from the actor‘s perspective through participation in the
life of the actor" (Taylor & Bogdan, cited in Hoang, 2008, p.61). Therefore, the following
section will discuss the research questions to investigate the research objective.

2.9 RESEARCH QUESTION

Through the above discussions and illustrations, it is acknowledged that national culture
does have the salient role in exerting impacts on workforce behaviours in local hotels. The
current research is to illustrate that the Vietnamese national culture has moderating impacts
on the behaviour of local hotel managerial staff, which generates the first main research
question as:

A. How does Vietnam‘s national culture impact on the behaviour or performance of the
local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

In order to investigate the main research question (A), the semi-structured interview has
questions designed to address the Vietnamese national culture impacts on local hotel
managerial staff behaviours, by gauging the extent of national culture moderating impacts,
finding out the interviewee's opinions about national culture moderating impacts on
managerial staff behaviour, and investigating the reasons why such circumstances occur.
The collected data or responses from these interview questions are able to provide the
information and examples to reveal and explain that the Vietnamese national culture has
moderating impacts on local hotel managerial staff behaviour.

Therefore, in order to address the main research question (A), the research has framed the
following sub-questions in the interview script or guide as:

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 A.1 How do you think the Vietnamese national culture impacts on the behaviour
or performance of the hotel‘s Vietnamese managerial staff?

A.2 From your experiences at work, what is/are your opinion or examples about
Vietnamese national culture's moderating impacts on the behaviour or
performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

With the standpoint that the Hofstede cultural dimension scores of Vietnam identify the
collective mindset of Vietnamese nationals (Hofstede, 2001), this has provided reasonable
opportunity to adopt these cultural dimensions as measurement criteria to arrive at a general
conclusion about the national culture moderating impacts on the behaviour of local hotel
managerial staff. These cultural dimensions have been demonstrated by scholars and
academia to have relationships and associations in influencing behaviour, including
workforce behaviour (Hofstede & Bond, 1988; Hoang, 2008; Hill & Hernandez-Requejo,
2011; King-Kauanul et al., 2006; Penner & Tran, 1977). Consequently, with the Hofstede
cultural dimensions as part of the measurement criteria, the second main research question is
structured as:

B. How does the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions explain the moderating impacts of the
National Culture on the behaviour or performance of local Vietnamese hotel
managerial staff?

Therefore, to address the second main research question (B), the interview has a question
format for each of the Hofstede cultural dimensions, to learn from the interviewee the what,
how and why of their recognitions and experiences of the moderating impacts of the
national culture on their work behaviour. The qualitative questions of Hofstede cultural
dimensions of Power Distance, Collectivism/Individualism, Masculinity/Femininity,
Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term Orientation are adopted and customised from
Hoang‘s (2008) research for the current research "to understand the social phenomenon
from the actor‘s perspective through participation in the life of the actor" (Taylor & Bogdan,

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cited in Hoang, 2008, p.61) like the behaviour or performance of local managerial staff in
Vietnamese hotels.

Therefore, for the second main research question (B), it is expounded into the following
sub-questions to investigate and to capture the instances of the national culture's moderating
impacts:

B.1 How does Power Distance have moderating impacts on the behaviour or
performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

B.2 How does Collectivism/Individualism have moderating impacts on the

behaviour or performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

B.3 How does Masculinity/Femininity have moderating impacts on the behaviour

or performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

B.4 How does Uncertainty Avoidance have moderating impacts on the behaviour
or performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

B.5 How does Long-Term /Short-Term Orientation have moderating impacts on

the behaviour or performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

Thus, for the semi-structured interview sessions, each of the above cultural dimension
questions (B1–B5) are re-structured as below to learn from the interviewees. The following
is a sample of the interview question format for the Hofstede cultural dimensions: Power
Distance, and the same question format is used for the other four cultural dimensions.

1. POWER DISTANCE

(Power Distance - the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and
organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally)
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Power in Work

1.a) To what extent, do you think that Power Distance affects the
managerial staff behaviour or performance in the hotel?

1.b) What are the examples of Power Distance impacts or influences which you
have experienced or observed in your hotel?

The interview script or guide is created with the full set of these questions for the researcher
reference, and it is represented in Appendix 2.

2.10 CONCLUSION

Through the discussions in this chapter, national culture is deliberated to have moderating
impacts on the behaviour or performance of the local hotel managerial staff in Vietnamese
hotels. It is so because of the ―Invisible Hand Of Culture‖(Schiffman et al., 2011, p.375),
which crafts and exerts its impacts at different perceived or subjective levels on cultural
values and norms, to play an intellective role to generate the moderating impacts or
influences on hotel managerial staff attitudes and behaviour. It is also due to the fact that the
common practice of local hotels, in adopting the universalistic conceptualisation of product–
service standards or western hotel service standards in their standard operating procedures
has presented opportunities for the moderating impacts to appear. Additionally, the national
culture is shown to have its fair share of involvement in formulating and influencing the
hotel's organisational culture, as the founder and the management team defines it. This, in
turn, provides opportunities for the national culture to exert its moderating impacts on the
behaviour or performance of the hotel managerial staff in the Vietnamese hotels. The
discussion has also concluded that the moderating impacts of national culture appear when
the hotel requires the staff to be ‗hotel citizens‘ and to exhibit ‗organisational citizenship‘
behaviour at work, in line with the hotel culture and climate. Besides this, the Hofstede
cultural dimensions are also identified to be the viable representation of the national culture,
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and to be used as the measurement criteria to investigate the moderating impacts of national
culture on the behaviour or performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels.

From the findings of empirical studies of Hoang (2008) and Berrell, Wright and Tran
(1999), it is noted that the current research findings might not be directly reflected the
reported results of Hofstede Cultural Dimension values. Hoang‘s (2008) research has shown
that when the Vietnamese managers are exposed in another cultural environment like the
Western culture in Chicago, they setting influenced the Vietnamese managers to behave
quite differently from the behaviour expectations of the Vietnamese index scores of the
Hofstede cultural dimensions. Also, the research study by Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999)
has investigated the Vietnamese and Australian managers in a same organisation but not a
hotel organisation. Therefore, these findings might not be directly reflected or to a certain
degree in current study of the local hotel company. This suggests that different findings
might surface. It is noted that the Hofstede Cultural Dimension scores and findings
(Hofstede, 2002) are reported more than a decade ago, there could be a certain degree of
changes or differences in the present Vietnamese cultural programing of their mind.
Therefore, the current research might have the opportunity to highlight interesting findings
to re-affirm cultural perspectives or might be able to identify new cultural influential
elements and information which other cultural researches on hotel have not. Acknowledging
all the above mentioned points and realising that there are not many cultural studies done in
Vietnamese local hotel context, the objective of the current research has created an
important challenge.

Significantly, the salient points expressed and discussed in the literature review have
elucidated important culture-related work issues and contexts for local hotel organisations to
address for better hotel management decision-making and practices. This has demonstrated
an important need for the current research to be carried out and its significant implications
and applications to the hotel industry will be discussed in Chapter 5.

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 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces and discusses the research design and methodology providing
justification for the methodological approaches to investigate the research objectives. As the
research is a behavioural study in a hotel work context, the discussion of the constructivist
and qualitative approaches (Bryman & Bell, 2011) to support an exploratory study of the
moderating impacts or influences on the behaviour of local Vietnamese hotel managerial
staff is provided. The chapter progresses to consider the primary data collection methods,
identifying semi-structured interviews as applicable to the qualitative method. The selection
of semi-structured interviews as the primary method of data collection from the purposive
sampling of managerial staff in the participating local hotel company is discussed.
Additionally the application of a case study approach is examined. The adoption of the
Grounded Theory coding process (Glaser & Strauss, cited in Bowen, 2006), for the data
analysis to categorise and generalise findings, will be justified. The collected qualitative
data was transcribed and coded with the assistance of the Nvivo 8 software to assist in the
data analysis. The research ethics and ‗goodness of measure‘ were elaborated to validate
and provide credibility to the research methodology. A descriptive discussion on the sample
demographic of the Main Case Study is given to justify more validity and reliability for the
goodness of fit of the research study. The chapter concludes with the consideration of
potential limitations and a summative conclusion of the chapter.

3.2 RESEARCH CONTEXT

The research examines the proposition that Vietnamese national culture has moderating
impacts on the local hotel managerial workforce behaviours. Understanding this relationship
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is important as it will assist local hotels to maintain their consistency with the ―universalistic
conceptualization‖ (Kong & Jogaratnam, 2007, p.280) of international service quality
standards as discussed in Chapter 2. By doing so, the local hotels in Vietnam can
strategically create brand values to meet guest expectations. Additionally, the hotel industry
and academia can also benefit from the potential attributes of the current research findings.

The Hofstede Cultural Dimensions of Vietnam is adopted as the measurement criteria to

investigate and study the research phenomenon. (Hofstede, 1984). As the current research
investigates local hotel managerial workforce behaviours, it is practical and reasonable to
use the Hofstede cultural dimensions of Power Distance, Collectivism/Individualism,
Masculinity/Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long/Short-term Orientation
(Hofstede & Bond, 1988) as an investigation and analytical tool.

3.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.3.1 Research Paradigm

The theoretical paradigm of the research needs to be identified in order to structure the
research design to direct the investigation and study (Patton, 2002). In this sense, the
research has an ontological consideration of constructionism, which is "often also referred to
as constructivism" (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.22), as it is concerned with the "nature of social
entities" (p.20) in the study of the moderating impacts of national culture on the behaviour
or performance of the Vietnamese local hotel managerial staff. The constructivist paradigm
observes the fact that "culture being seen as an external reality that acts on and constrains
people, it can be taken to be an emergent reality in a continuous state of construction and
reconstruction" (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.22). As Michael Crotty (cited in Patton, 2002,
p.97) claims, ―social constructionism emphasizes the hold our culture has on us: it shapes
the way in which we see things (even the way in which we feel things!) and gives us a quite
definite view of the world" (p.58). This view has supported the notion that national culture

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has the ability to exert moderating impacts to shape attitudes and behaviours, for example
the local hotel workforce behaviours, which can be explored.

There are several methods a researcher can select to investigate and study the research
objectives and propositions. These methods are classified into qualitative methods,
quantitative methods and mixed methods which use both qualitative and quantitative
methods (Bryman & Bell, 2011). As associated with the constructivist paradigm, the
research has taken the qualitative approach to explore and study the research's proposition.
The qualitative approach is selected due to the reasons that (Bryman & Bell, 2011):

- It has an inductive nature

- It allows the researcher to be an interpretivist to examine and interpret the
findings
- It supports constructionism to relate and study the social outcomes of the
individual's interaction.

The inductive nature of the qualitative method allows the research to ―focus on
interpretations, meanings and the cultural significance of some behaviour‖ (Punch, 2012,
p.46). In contrast, the quantitative method has data analysis dependency on statistic methods
which compute and equate relationships between variable constructs and explaining
variances to justify significances (Punch, 2012). It is noted that the quantitative method does
not allow the researcher to delve deeply into the research sample for richer and better
understanding of the phenomenon of the current research investigations. Hence, the
qualitative method provides the occasions for the researcher to have "inquiry into the
selected issue in great depth with careful attention to detail, context, and nuance" (Patton,
2002, p.227) which is important for the current research. In addition, the data collected from
the qualitative method is descriptive and story-like which communicates the individual's
experiences to "show how a critical incident can be a purposeful sample" (Patton, 2002,
p.47). Furthermore, with the "trivial details" (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.403) discovered, more
information can be provided for the explanations of the individual actions and behaviours in
the workplace. These qualitative-method attributes are informative and constructive for the
93
current research study, which signifies the constructivist paradigm, to draw the collected
information into findings. Hence, as qualitative methods "facilitate study of issues in depth
and detail" (Patton, 2002, p.14), the researcher is able to obtain a detailed account of the
context about how and why the national culture imposes its moderating impacts on the
managerial workforce behaviours. Also, according to Yin (2009), there are many occasions
whereby exploratory study is also able to bring out the "what" of the studied phenomenon.
As such, it is feasible for the current research to adopt a qualitative method, which is
"oriented toward exploration, discovery, and inductive logic" (Patton, 2002, p.55). By this
reasoning, through the qualitative research activities of collecting, analysing and interpreting
the participants' words, actions and records, an individual's behaviours can be understood
and explained (Berg, 2004). Consequently, from the results of these activities, a coherent
theory can be identified to support the current research proposition. Conclusively, the
research is directed towards the exploratory study approach with qualitative method which
has the constructivist philosophy (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

For the research measurement and investigative perspective, the Hofstede Cultural
Dimensions of Vietnam is adopted as the study and measurement criteria of the current
research. With the knowledge obtained from researching and studying the respective
literature sources, it is found that the Hofstede cultural dimensions reveal and signify certain
generalisations of the Vietnamese behavioural attitudes and intentions (Hofstede, 2001).
These are important criteria benchmarks to establish the national culture moderating impacts
on the hotel managerial workforce in Vietnam. In this perspective, the Hofstede Cultural
Dimensions of Vietnam provide the orientation and the cultural domains of investigation, to
explore the moderating impacts or influences of the national culture on the behaviour of
Vietnamese managerial staff in the participating hotel company at a company level.

3.3.2 Research Theoretical Framework

The research theoretical framework is based on a process of grounded theory whereby "the
aim is to discover kinds of concepts and hypotheses are relevant to the area one wishes to
understand" (Cassell & Symon, 2004, p.242). The current research proposition has a
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posteriori knowledge or justification that the national culture has moderating impacts on
workforce behaviours. The a posteriori knowledge of the influential ability of the national
culture on social and workforce behaviours has been empirically studied and acknowledged
by many researchers and the academia, with empirical data and evidence (Ayoun & Moreo,
2008a; Berrell, Wright & Tran, 1999; Bauer, & Erdogan, 2013; Gopalan & Thomson, 2003;
Hall, 1995; Hofstede, 2001; Hoang, 2008; Phatak et al., 2009; Triandis, 1989). The a
posteriori knowledge depends on experiences to derive logic and justification "by
experiencing it by one‘s senses as an aspect of the world, as something existing and found in
reality" (Angeles, 1992, p. 158). With the inductive nature and the dependency on "sense
experience" (Muller-Merbach, 2007, p.64), it allows the research proposition to have a
―sensitizing concept‖ (Bowen, 2006, p. 2) to assist in laying down the foundation of the
research to study social interactions and guidelines to "have a sense of how observed
instances of a phenomenon might fit within conceptual categories" (Bowen, 2006, p.7).
Likewise, for the current research, how the phenomenon of the moderating impacts of
Vietnam's national culture on the local hotel managerial staff behaviours fit within the
Hofstede cultural dimension categories. Therefore, the a posteriori knowledge has supported
the research proposition as such:

"The Vietnamese National Culture has moderating impacts on the Vietnamese managerial
staff behaviours in local hotels operating in Vietnam".

In view of the fact that the Hofstede cultural dimensions are an endorsement to the
programming of the ―software of the mind‖ (Hofstede, 2001), an interpretive approach is
observed to ―exploring the complex interaction between actors and their social context‖
(Leung, Bhagat, Buchan, Erez & Gibson, 2011, p.180) of the Vietnamese nationals, which
befits the qualitative research methods. In the current research, the ‗actors‘ are the
managerial staff participants of the local hotels and the social context refers to the hotel
work environment context. It is also noted that cultures are dynamic constructions.
However, over time, stability sets in to ―produce an environment that allows people to
develop constant orientations towards one another and their environment‖ (Mead, cited in
Berrell, Wright & Tran, 1999, p.579) which is happening in the local hotel work
95
environment. Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999) have also adopted a qualitative research
method to study the influence of culture on the management behaviours of Vietnamese and
Australian managers within the same organisation in Vietnam. Also, Ho (2012) has used the
qualitative research method to study "hotel expatriates' feelings, meanings and
interpretations given to their international assignments" (p.2). These cross-cultural studies
have identified and brought out the profound cultural influences on the Vietnamese
managers, with distinctive work behaviour differences from their Australian counterparts.
This has concluded an empirical discovery that culture does have significant influences or
impacts on the behaviours of the host- and home-country nationals during their interactions.
Analogously, in this perspective, the hotel culture is taken as the host culture and the
Vietnamese national culture is taken as the home-country culture. Therefore, as the hotel
characterises to its distinctive unique hotel culture, the Vietnamese local managers are
exposed and subjected to a cultural diversity situation. This, to some extent, is similar to the
exposures of the host- and home-country cultural encounters which provide the occasions to
demonstrate the moderating impacts of the national culture.

Other researchers like King-Kauanul et al., (2006) have confirmed that research on
management behaviour has found important differences as to how individuals deal with
management issues, as they are influenced by the moderating impacts of culture. These
cultural moderating impacts will advocate the ―collective mental programming‖ (Hofstede,
1983, p.76) of the national managers to exhibit and exemplify the influences or moderating
impacts of culture differences on management behaviours. Mwaura et al., (1998) have
claimed that managers, especially international managers, are relentlessly conscious of
cultural influences on managerial workforce behaviours and the salient roles of national
culture in influencing work performance, and customers‘ perceptions and expectations. In
accordance with this discussion, the following section will consider the research design
most applicable to investigate the research questions.

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3.3.3 Research Design

The research design is a holistic plan of how, and by what means, the research is conducted
and investigated to gather information from the sample population as pertaining to the
research question, and how the data is formatted and analysed. The research design is
illustrated by defining some steps as adopted from Tull and Hawkins (1990) such as:

 Select the data collection methods

 Select the measurement technique
 Select the sample
 Select the analytical approach

3.3.4 Research Strategy - Case Study

The selection of the research strategy has observed Yin‘s (2009) proposal of relevant
situations for different research strategies in respect to the three conditions of "(a) the type
of research question posed, (b) the extent of control an investigator has over actual
behavioural events, and (c) the degree of focus on contemporary as opposed to historical
events" (p.4). These conditional situations or limitations are not strictly adhered to each
strategy but may overlap depending on the nature of research context and philosophy.
However, by observing the conditions, the research strategy can be better guided to avoid
misfit (Yin, 2009). Therefore, with respect to these conditions, the research has chosen case
study as the research strategy, as it has satisfied the three conditions for case study
illustrated in Table 3.1 below. The three conditions are (Yin, 2009):

1) The research questions are posed with How? and Why?

2) There is no control needed over the behavioural events during the research
study of the phenomenon of interest
3) The study is focusing on contemporary events

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Table 3.1 Research Strategy Situations

Research Strategy Form of Research Requires control Focuses on

Question over behavioural contemporary
events events
Experiment How, why Yes Yes
Survey Who, what, where, No Yes
how many, how much
Archival Analysis Who, what, where, No Yes/no
how many, how much
History How, why No No
Case Study How, why No Yes

Source: Yin (2009, p.8)

As related to the research context, for condition (1); in chapter 2, the research questions
were illustrated with the what, how and why of the phenomenon of interest, to gauge the
moderating impacts of national culture on the local hotel managerial staff behaviours. The
condition (2) was satisfied, as the researcher had no control over the behavioural events of
the Vietnamese managerial workforce in the local hotels. As for condition (3); the research
investigation and study focused on the current or existing phenomenon of Vietnamese
managerial staff behaviour in the local hotels. Therefore, the selection of case study as the
research strategy was justified.

Other reasons for the qualitative case study to be selected as the research strategy is its
association with the constructivist paradigm and its ―inductive approach to the relationship
between the theory and research" (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.60) to fit the research context.
The exploratory and qualitative perspectives of the case study method are the underlying
essentials for the current research. The case study method is also noted to seek and to
"describe that unit in depth and detail, holistically, and in context" (Patton, 2002, p.55),
which is needed for the current research to deliver a cogent study. It is also supported by
Sekaran (2005) that case study usually generates qualitative data for investigation and
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interpretation, due to its nature of intensive in-depth study of the research's contextual
settings.

Conclusively, from the discussion above, the case study is justified to be the chosen research
strategy. However, there are several types of case study available for selection to suit the
research strategy. These are listed as (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.63):

 Critical case - researcher has specific hypothesis, and to investigate to have better
understanding whether the hypothesis will or will not hold

 Unique case - unique or extreme case, a common focus in clinical studies

 Revelatory case - an opportunity to investigate fact or occurrence previously

unapproachable to scientific investigation

 Representative or typical case - explore case that exemplifies an everyday situation

or form of organization

 Longitudinal case - type of case concerned with how situation changes over time

The main objective of the current research is to investigate and identify whether Vietnam‘s
national culture has moderating impacts on the behaviour or performance of local
managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels. Therefore, from the above types of case study, the
Critical case was selected for the current research as there was a specific hypothesis or
research proposition to be investigated to establish whether it would or would not hold. The
nature of the research objective was not Unique or Extreme case, and not Revelatory as the
subject of national culture had been studied and related to empirical studies. The current
research's proposition was to identify the association of moderating impacts of national
culture with Vietnamese managerial workforce behaviours, which was not defined as a
typical case because it involved a phenomenon of specific interest. Within the limited time

99
frame accorded to the current research, the case study was not designed or geared toward a
longitudinal case to further investigate changes over time.

The case study focused on a hotel company with seven local hotels in Vietnam. Because of
this, the multiple case study was adopted instead of confining to the study of a single case.
This is because the sample population for the current research involved the Vietnamese
managerial staff across the seven hotels of the participating hotel company. Therefore,
instead of examining a single case or single hotel, all the properties of the participating hotel
company were in the research study process. As such, the case study approach was deemed
to be appropriate to adopt the multiple case study involving cross-sectional design of
"sample of cases" (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.63). The cross-sectional design allows the
researcher to investigate the samples of managerial staff across the seven local hotels during
the research process. In this manner, the research was able to focus on producing both
general and unique findings in order to promote ―theoretical reflection on the findings"
(Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.63). With different local hotel cases being studied, the Vietnamese
national culture was taken as the common influencing agent in the research setting. This
increased the credibility of the research findings and also allowed cross-checking and
comparisons which led to a better understanding and more information for generalisation.
Having selected case study as the research design, the following discussions will introduce
and express the data collection method for the case studies.

3.3.5 Data Collection

Within the case study method, there are many options for data collection. One of the most
common is the interview. The interview method is suitable for the current research due to its
association with the constructivist approach (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Sekaran (2005) has
claimed that the interview method is deemed appropriate for the exploratory nature for case
study, and is viable for the qualitative method. It is noted by Yin (2009) that the interview is
an important source of information for case study when the study is about human
behavioural events.

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There are several ways of executing the interviews. For example, interviews operate across a
continuum from tightly structured to unstructured and with semi-structured interview at the
middle of the continuum (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The following section will discuss the
benefits and pitfalls of each, in order to determine the most useful for this research.

The structured interview has pre-established questions that have predetermined response
categories (Punch, 2006). Therefore, the structured interview "promotes standardization of
both asking of questions and the recording of answers" (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.202) with
closed, pre-coded, or fixed-choice questions. The structured interview usually requires the
researcher to follow and administer an interview schedule (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The
interview schedule is a set of standardised, predetermined questions of specific relevant
objectives to be used during the interview process (Sekaran, 2005). In this manner, the
accuracy and reliability of the interview data might be high but it does not allow flexibility
for the researcher to probe and delve into the phenomenon of interest, as needed for the
current research. Because of this, the structured interview is more suitable for quantitative
research or where ‗yes‘ or ‗no‘ questions will suffice.

On the other hand, in an unstructured interview "interview questions and response

categories are not pre-established; interview questions are deliberately open-ended" (Punch,
2006, p.157). This indicates that the unstructured interview is non-directive and
unorganised, which may prevent the interviewee from responding objectively to the research
questions. Since the current research has a distinct objective of investigating the moderating
impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the behaviour or performance of the local
hotel managerial staff, the unstructured interview is not suitable for the research purposes.

In between these two interview methods of structured and unstructured interview, there is
the semi-structured interview method (Bryman & Bell, 2011). This method is selected for
the current research for the following reasons: the semi-structured interview allows the
researcher to delve deeply to learn more about the interviewee's view of the contemporary
event of workforce behaviour in order to gauge the national culture moderating impacts.
Furthermore, this allows the researcher to have flexibility and fluency for in-depth exploring
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during the interview (Bryman & Bell, 2011). If necessary, questions that are not in the
interview script or guide may be asked, to delve into the interview to have a more cogent
study. As the case study was ―holistic and context sensitive‖ (Patton, 2002, p.447), the semi-
structured interview was able ―to gather comprehensive, systematic, and in-depth
information about each case of interest‖ (p.447). Besides this, another reason that the semi-
structured interview is used is because of the practice of an interview script, see Appendix 2,
which assists to guide and cover the investigation of the specific research topics. This differs
from the structured interview as the unstructured interview method of questioning is
informal with question varying from interviews of the research process. Therefore, in the
unstructured interview, the interviewer presents and prompts a single, or set of, questions to
deal with the research topic and respond to points that are valuable to follow up (Bryman &
Bell, 2011). Thus, it is taken that the unstructured interview is not guided rigidly to
investigate the specific research interests and tends to be scanning and scouting for answers.
Consequently, compared to the structured interview, the less informally directed
interviewing approach and flexibility of the semi-structured interview method has justified
that it is suitable and selected to collect the current research data. Hence, it was appropriate
to select the option of case study with a qualitative method of semi-structured interview to
investigate and explore the moderating impacts of national culture on the Vietnamese
managerial staff behaviour or performance in the local hotels.

The triangulation process of ―using more than one method or source of data in the study of a
social phenomenon so that findings may be cross-checked‖ is adopted (Bryman & Bell,
2011, p. 720). Therefore, in order to triangulate the data, the hotel's internal private
operation documents including meeting minutes, shift briefing reports and memoranda
records are studied, to gather further information. These documents are used for meeting
communication as well as a reminder tool to disseminate the important messages,
management issues and concerns, guest requirements and history, and other important
information to the respective hotel employees. These essential operation documents are
usually located in the department‘s office for employee references and tits content to be
referred to during the daily shift briefing by the supervisor or manager. These documents are
private and confidential to the hotel properties and will be used in accordance with ethics
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obligations. However, they are able to provide "partial insights into past managerial
decisions and actions" (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.550), which can be important sources to
support the research findings. This documentary data is used as a triangulation to
corroborate and cross-check the study of the research's social phenomenon of the national
culture impacts. In this way, the triangulation allows the researcher to use several kinds of
methods and a variety of data resources to study the current research's objectives (Punch,
2006). The instruments used to gather the data in the semi-structured interview process will
be illustrated below.

3.3.5.1 Research Instruments

The primary research instrument for the semi-structured interview was the researcher
(Punch, 2012) who conducted the interviews to gather data. The semi-structured interview is
potentially affected by the issue of subjectivity. However, by being aware of subjectivity,
the researcher can ―monitor interpretations and constantly seek to detect and understand any
personal biases, prejudices, viewpoints, or preconceptions" (Ho, 2012, p.3) for more
truthful, realistic and pragmatic research. The one-to-one semi-structured interviews were to
investigate whether the national culture, as represented by the Vietnam scores of Hofstede
cultural dimensions, had associations and indications to illustrate its moderating impacts on
local hotel managerial workforce behaviours.

The semi-structured interview used an interview script or guide rather than an interview
schedule as the interview schedule does not allow flexibility to delve into the phenomenon
of interest. In this method, the researcher used a brief set of prompts to have the interviewee
respond freely, and the interviewer would choose to respond to points that were worthy to
follow up (Bryman & Bell, 2011). This method is said to be "very similar in character to a
conversation" (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.467), which enabled the interviewer to ask more
useful or important questions as the interviewer investigates along the interview. This
allowed the researcher to explore more deeply during the interview. In this way, further
questions were shaped, dropped or added according to the study needs of the researcher,

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during the semi-structured interview process. The following section will elaborate on the
execution of the semi-structured interview process.

3.3.6 Sample and Sampling

The sample population for the case study comes from the participating local hotel company,
which has seven local hotels of 3-star and 4-star category in Vietnam. The unit of analysis is
the interviewees of the research study. A single local hotel company is selected and by
engaging its various hotel properties for the research, the study has followed Testa‘s advice
that ―using a single organization but from varying locations allows generalizability‖ (2007,
p.474). This has also reflected Hofstede‘s (2001) research sampling of only one company,
IBM, with many subsidiary properties. For the research to remain anonymous, the hotel
company is not identified. The hotel properties are identified as Hotel A, Hotel B and so on.
All the seven hotels are invited to take part in the research, to have a cogent sample
representation and adequate respondent count for analysis. The rationale for using all seven
local hotels of the participating hotel company is to understand national culture as the
common influencing agent. Also, by having the participants (interviewees) from the local
Vietnamese managerial staff populations of the seven hotels, it has provided an opportunity
to have richer supported data for comparisons. Furthermore, this would provide better
reliability and validity of the interview data to investigate and identify the moderating
impacts of national culture on the Vietnamese managerial staff behaviour in local hotels.

In order to test and substantiate the argument that Vietnamese national culture have
moderating impacts on the hotel managers and there is a culture clash as discussed in the
literature review between the Vietnamese hotel managers and the western approach to
hospitality management that affects the managers‘ behaviour and performance, other
samples outside the case study are interviewed. This sample populations are the non-
managerial staff (rank and file employees) of the participating hotels with a sample size
targeted count at 6 interviewees (5 interviewed), and senior managers from an international
hotel and one other local hotel with a sample size targeted count at 4 interviewees (4
interviewed). The results of the Outside Case Study‘s samples could substantiate or re-
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confirm that there is a cultural clash, which provides the opportunities for the Vietnamese
national culture to exert its positive or negative moderating impacts on the local hotel
managerial staff behaviours or performances.

Therefore, for the current research study, the sample sizes are summarised as such:

 Main Case Study Sample : hotel managerial staff of the participating local hotels
(targeted count at 21interviewees: 12 interviewed)

 Outside Case Study Sample: non-managerial staff of the participating local hotels
(targeted count at 6 interviewees: 5 interviewed)

 Outside Case Study Sample : senior managers of an international hotel and one other
local hotel, which are outside of the Main Case Study‘s
sample population.
(targeted count at 4 interviewees: 4 interviewed)

The Outside Case Study‘s sample population comes from the non-managerial staff or rank-
and-file staff of the participating local hotels and senior managers of an international hotel
and one other local hotel. The senior managers are an Overseas-Vietnamese Training
Manager and an expatriate Department Head from an international hotel, and two
Department managers from a local hotel.

The sampling method is a non-probability purposive sampling in order to have the samples
from the local Vietnamese managerial staff (Bryman & Bell, 2011) of the participating hotel
company. Purposive sampling is used because of its strategic way of selecting its cases or
participants to make sure that the sample is relevant to the research objectives.it is
contended by Bryman and Bell (2011) that purposive sampling is usually selected in
qualitative research sampling of cases and for the sampling of "people within those cases"
(p. 441). Due to the time limitation of the research and the qualitative methodology used, the
expected respondent count from the sample population was no more than 21 interviewees
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from the Main Case Study and more than 12 interviewees from the Outside Case Study.
Typically, for qualitative studies, it is common to have small sample size because of its
intensive and in-depth research nature (Sekaran, 2005). Likewise, Patton (2002) also claims
that "qualitative inquiry typically focuses in depth on relatively small samples, even single
cases (N = 1), selected purposefully" (p.230). For the case study design, the researcher
interviewed the first three respondents of each hotel, which provided the possible sample
count of three interviewees for Hotel A; three interviewees for Hotel B; and three
interviewees for Hotel C and so on. This would ensure non-probability purposive sampling
and balance for a comparative study of the collected data from the participating hotels. As a
result, this would result in a better generalisation process. However, the final count for the
sample size was 12 interviewees for the Main Case Study and 9 interviewees for the Outside
Case study. The next section will discuss the participant selection and recruitment process.

3.3.7 Main Case Study Sample Demographic Context

The Main Case Study sample population comprised the managerial staff of the three local
hotels of the participating hotel company in Vietnam. The interviewees held managerial
positions – supervisor or above. All the hotels were in the common locality of Ho Chi Minh
City, Vietnam. From these hotels, the final sample size of 12 interviewees – 3 interviewees
from Hotel A, 5 interviewees from Hotel B, and 4 interviewees from Hotel C, was obtained.
The interview duration varied between 08-31 minutes with an average duration of an
approximate16 minutes. Of the interviewees, 67% (8) were male and 33% (4) were female
with an accumulative average age of 32 years. The interviewees represented three different
departments of the respective participating hotels. All of them had hotel-skill education and
56.10% (7) of them had tertiary education. They had been working in the hospitality
industry for an accumulative average of 9 years and working for an accumulative average of
3 years in their present hotels. A summary of the interviewee profiles is illustrated in Table
3.2 below.

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Table 3.2 Profiles of Main Case Study Sample

Interviewee Gender: Age Education: Job status: Length No.of

M-Male S – Secondary 1 – Manager of years
F-Female H – Hotel Skills 2 – Assistant Manager service working
T – Tertiary 3 – Supervisor in hotel in present
industry hotel

Hotel A:

WU1 M 32 S H 1 10 3

WU2 M 38 S H T 1 15 2

WU8 M 46 S H T 1 20 2

Average: M – 100% 38.6 S – 100%; H – 100%, 1 – 100% 15.0 2.3

F – 0% (37 years) T – 58.3% (15 (2 years)
years)

Hotel B:

WU3 F 29 S H T 2 6 3

WU7 M 26 S H 3 6 2

WU9 M 34 S H T 1 10 3

WU12 M 24 S 3 4 3

WU13 M 25 S T 3 3 2

Average: M – 80% 27.6 S – 100%, H – 60%, 1 – 20%, 2 – 20%, 5.8 2.6

F - 20% (28 years) T – 60% 3 – 60% (6 years) (3 years)

Hotel C:

WU6 M 28 S H 2 6 2

WU10 F 34 S H T 1 9 3

WU11 F 24 S H 3 2 3

WU14 F 32 S H T 1 7 2

Average: M – 25% 29.5 S – 100%, H – 100%, 1 – 50%, 2 – 25%, 6.0 2.5

F – 75% (30 years) T – 50% 3 – 25% (6 years) (3 years)

Total M – 67% (8) 31.9 S – 100%, H – 86.7% 1 – 23.3%, 2 – 15% 8.9 2.5
Population F – 33% (4) (32 years) T – 56.10% 3 – 28.3% (9 years) (3 years)
Average

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The interviewee profiles had contributed to the goodness of fit for the interview data.
Besides the practice of verification strategies (Morse et al., 2002) "to achieve reliability and
validity and ensure rigor" (p.10), the profiles of the interviewees had significantly identified
that the interviewees were valid samples for the research purposes. The interviewee profiles
had also acknowledged their professionalism and work experiences by indicating their years
of work experience in the industry and in the participating local hotels, together with their
job status and education, which reflected the worthiness of their interview data. Therefore,
the interviewee profiles had provided further support to the trustworthiness, validity and
reliability of the research data.

3.3.8 Participant Selection and Recruitment

3.3.8.1 Local Hotel Company

The research is based on the Vietnamese managerial staff of a local hotel company which
consented to participate in the research. The local hotel company is prominently positioned
in the region and it has won several Vietnamese hospitality awards. The selected company
owns and operates several hotel properties in Vietnam. The universalistic conceptualised
hotel product–service standards have a tendency to create work culture diversity when the
managerial staff practise or observe it. Consequently, this produces opportunities or
occasions for the Vietnamese national culture to exert its moderating impacts on managerial
staff behaviour or performance. Besides this, the research is highly supported by the hotel
company's board of directors, who can provide valuable resources for the research study.
Additionally, the selected company has all its hotel properties situated in the one location of
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This allows the national culture to be the common influencing
agent across the multiple case studies, in a single locality. Also, with the participation of
seven local hotels, the sampling population is a good size and provides more opportunities
to invite participants.

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3.3.8.2 Participants

The Main Case Study‘s sample population comes from the managerial staff of all
departments in the seven hotels of the participating hotel company, which are the main
departments of Room Division, Housekeeping, Food and Beverages, Engineering and
additional smaller departments consisting of Purchasing, Accounting, and Human
Resources. The managerial staff is considered as the supervisor, assistant manager,
manager, department head, and director.

In order to fulfill the research objectives, the hotels‘ managerial staff could participate in the
semi-structured interview if they met all the following criteria:

- The participants must be employees of the participating hotels

- The participants must be of Vietnamese nationality
- The participants must be able to read, speak and clearly understand English
- The participants must hold supervisory positions or above (managerial
positions)

The participants are required to have English proficiency because the researcher-interviewer
is of English-speaking only and the interviews are to be conducted in English. As the hotel
employees are hired with at least conversational English proficiency, they should be able to
communicate in the interview efficiently with good understanding. The interview
transcriptions will be sent to the respective participants to validate and to would allow them
opportunities to clarify or correct their responses. Therefore, the criteria of English
proficiency will not influence the research.

As the research involved human subjects, the participants were assured of the research‘s
ethics compliance by observing the requirements of the ethics approval, as granted by the
university before and during the research process. Therefore the following section provides
the discussion on the requirements of the research ethics.

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3.3.8.3 Participant Information Statement and Consent Forms

Although the managers‘ English proficiency is high, it is not their first language. Therefore
a measure is taken to make sure they do understand the research context clearly. In order to
make sure that the research subjects understand the current research requirements cogently,
the research Hotel Information Statement, see Appendix 3; Participant Information
Statement, see Appendix 4; Hotel Company Consent Form, see Appendix 5; and Participant
Consent Form, see Appendix 6, are given with a bilingual copy to address the issue of
English proficiency. The translation is done by a Vietnamese lecturer at Eastern
International University in Binh Duong, Vietnam. The university delivers all business
administration curricula in English. The final translation version is checked by another
Vietnamese lecturer, a Vietnamese manager of an international hotel group and a
Vietnamese director of an international company.

3.3.8.4 Participant Recruitment

Before the research interview process was conducted, the participating hotel company had
given its consent. Then, the respective hotel staff was to give their informed consent to the
researcher before they could take part in the interview.

Subsequent to the initial contact with the hotel company, the Hotel Company Information
Statement with Consent Form was individually addressed to the General Director and was
sent by hand delivery and also via email to seek the participation approval. After the
organisation‘s consent was given, the hotel group‘s Human Resource Manager emailed the
invitation or Participant Information Statement to the population of Vietnamese managers in
each hotel, such as supervisors, assistant managers, managers and directors. This provided
an opportunity for them to be familiarised with the study and to have a clear understanding
of the requirements and purposes, and invited them to participate in the one-to-one semi-
structured interviews.

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Once the official participant consent was received, the researcher then contacted the
participant to arrange a time convenient for the interview. The interview venue could be at
the hotel or at a venue option which the participant indicated. If at a hotel, a meeting place
was organised for the interview process so that the participant would not be disturbed or
influenced by the hotel environment. The semi-structured interviews were conducted in
English. Throughout the interviews, the researcher was able to ensure that the questions
were understood. The interviews were recorded by an audio-recorder and the interview data
was transcribed accordingly for analysis. Subsequent to this discussion, the data analysis is
discussed in the following section.

3.3.9 Research Ethics

The research ethics were represented by the Ethics Approval which addressed the ethical
questions of whether there was: harm to participants, lack of informed consent, an invasion
of privacy, or whether deception was present (Bryman and Bell, 2011). The research ethics
complied with the Ethics Approval, Reference No: H-2013-0242, granted by University of
Newcastle, Australia. The Ethics Approval must be granted by the university before the
research can commence. The terms and conditions of the Ethics Approval are strictly
complied with in the research process.

As such, before the research investigation was carried out, the participants were required to
read and understand the Participant Information Statement provided and to give their
consent, see Appendix 4, before participating. The participation was entirely voluntary.
There was no penalty on the hotel staff for not participating and no potential for the research
findings to adversely impact on their workplace relationships or their employment. The
information gathered from the participants (interviewees) was treated in the strictest
confidence and identifiable features (for examples: names, positions) were de-identified
during the analytical process. For example, work unit: WU1, WU2 and WU3 from Hotel A,
and so on. The anonymity of the participants (interviewees) was strictly observed. Only the
researcher and supervisor had access to the data and transcripts, and each participant was
offered the opportunity to review, edit, erase or withdraw the recording and/or transcript or
111
any part thereof. The data is held on a password-protected computer and accessible only to
the researcher, Kuan Y Cheah‘s office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam except as required by
law. It will be deleted five years after the approval of the dissertation.

3.3.10 Data Analysis

For the data analysis, the coding process of Grounded Theory was used to analyse the
interview data to "help to provide some standardization and rigor" (Strauss & Corbin, cited
in Patton, 2002, p.127) in order to conclude a coherent theory to match and support the
research proposition. The collected qualitative data was "deciphered, examined, and
interpreted into meaningful patterns or themes" (Malhotra, 2010, p.196) to determine the
meaningfulness and implications for the current research questions. The audio recordings of
the interviews were transcribed and tabulated into individual sections for analysis. The
collected qualitative data of the interviews were separated and quantified to be ―integrated
and categorized under appropriate themes‖ (Sekaran, 2005, p.411) in order to address the
research proposition to show any moderating impacts of national culture on the Vietnamese
managerial workforce behaviours in the local hotels. The data analysis framework is
illustrated in Chart 3.1 below.

Following Le et al. (2007) research methodology, the current research adopts the
―assumption-matching analytical approach to evaluate the possibility of transferring
management practices into different contexts‖ (p.117) which have the assumptions and
conditions of management practices ―matched against that country‘s standard national
culture dimensions‖ (p. 117) such as the Hofstede cultural dimensions. A similar approach
and analysis is also adopted by Kirkman and Shapiro (1997); Kovach (1994); Luthans,
Luthans, Hodgetts, and Luthan (2000); Nicholls, Lane and Brechu (1999) accordingly in
their research or studies (cited in Le et al., 2007, p.117). It is also supported by Todeva
(2000, p.609) that ―Hofstede‘s theoretical reasoning is linked with Kluckhohn and
Strodbeck and starts from the same assumption that a nation‘s culture, as a collective mental
programming , derives from the answers to fundamental problems related to human nature
and human existence …". Since the Hofstede Cultural Dimension scores of Vietnam have
112
identified the collective mind programming of the nationals (Hofstede, 2001), the
assumption-matching approach is used to relate and match between the findings of the semi-
structured interview and the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions of Vietnam, to illustrate the
moderating impacts of national culture on the Vietnamese managerial workforce behaviours
in the local hotels. Therefore, the assumption-matching approach improves the coding
process of the interview data. This has established, and contributed to, the convergent
validity and to a certain degree provided data reliability for the current research.

Chart 3.1 Data Analysis Framework

Analysis Procedures Analysis Objectives

Open Coding To examine, group and code data

Axial Coding Clustering the coded data into

themes or concepts of the Template

Selective Coding To organise concepts or themes to

relate to the categories of Hofstede
Cultural Dimensions
Form

Coherent
To validate the Research Proposition:
Concept or
Theory to relate The Vietnamese national culture has
and justify the moderating impacts on the Vietnamese
managerial staff behaviour in local hotels
research
operating in Vietnam
proposition

It is noted that "analytical generalization" is the main focus for case studies (Cassell &
Symon, 2004, p.331). The researcher analyses the transcribed interview data to determine
whether the themes from the data form categories to match to the Hofstede Cultural
113
Dimensions of Vietnam, and to discuss its literature in the analysis to reflect the moderating
impacts of Vietnamese national culture on the managerial workforce behaviours in local
hotels. The transcribed data is coded by Open Coding: summarising and creating tentative
labels based on the meaning that emerges from the data; Axial Coding: identifying
relationships among the open codes; and Selective Coding: developing the core variable that
includes all the data (Gallicano, 2013) to relate to the Hofstede culture dimensions. Nvivo 8
software is used to assist in the coding process, by developing Nodes and Child-Nodes
templates to form specific themes and areas of interest from the collected interview data
(Bryman & Bell, 2011). Synonymously, the Axial codes can be related to the Child-Nodes
and the Selective codes related to the Nodes. The open coding is performed to insert (code)
the transcribed data into the Axial codes. From the completion of the coding process, the
Nodes (Selective codes) are then used to create or form the concept theory to support the
proposition that the Vietnamese national culture has moderating impacts on the Vietnamese
managerial workforce behaviours in the local hotels.

To summarise the research design, it had adopted qualitative method of case study with
semi-structured interviews to investigate the managerial staff behaviour. Triangulation was
through the addition of documentary data from both publicly available documents and
others internal to the organisation. The purposive samples were taken from the populations
of the hotels‘ Vietnamese managerial staff at supervisory level and above. The total sample
population to be invited to participate was 70 managerial staff from the seven local hotels of
the participating hotel company. The research was expected to have no more than 21
participant interviewees from the sample population. The qualitative data was examined,
coded and interpreted into meaningful patterns or themes (Malhotra, 2010) with Nvivo 8
software application to determine the meaningfulness and implications for the current
research questions. The research ethics and goodness-of-fit measure were discussed in detail
accordingly to justify the viability of the research methodology. To summarise the
discussions, the research theoretical framework is illustrated in Chart 3.2 below.

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Chart 3.2 Research Theoretical Framework

3.4. GOODNESS OF FIT

The measurement instrument used for the research must be developed and set to measure
accurately the variables and concept of the current research to ensure reliability and validity
(Sekaran, 2005). Reliability is ―an indication of the stability and consistency with which the
115
instrument measures the concept and helps to assess the ―goodness of a measure‖; and
validity is ―that in fact, we are actually measuring the concept that we are set out to
measure‖ (Sekaran, 2005, p.202). However, for qualitative research, the concern of
reliability and validity is translated into "two primary criteria for assessing a qualitative
study: trustworthiness and authenticity" (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.395). This means that for
the current research, the instrument selected is accurately exploring the local hotel
workforce phenomenon and it is in reality reporting the findings of the phenomenon that is
set to be investigated.

However, this leads to a notion pointed out by Guba and Lincoln (1981) that apprehensions
exist when the social reality in question is being observed with a single truth or account.
Bearing this notion in mind, the practice of Verification Strategies as proposed by Morse,
Barrett, Mayan, Olson and Spiers (2002) is practicable to be adopted to deal with the issues
of reliability and validity for the current qualitative research. The Verification Strategies
include "the process of checking, confirming, making sure, and being certain" (p.9) during
the qualitative research process to have the researcher "reclaim responsibility for reliability
and validity by implementing verification strategies integral and self-correcting during the
conduct of inquiry itself" (p.1). Therefore, to practise the Verification Strategies to "achieve
reliability and validity and ensure rigor" (Morse et al., 2002, p.10), the collected data was
constantly and systematically checked by the researcher. The data congruence was checked
to make sure the focus was kept and that the fit of data was maintained along the research
process. The analysis of the data was constantly monitored and interpretation of the data
was substantiated and confirmed accordingly.

To further ensure better credibility, the "Respondent Validation" (Bryman & Bell, 2011,
p.396) is practised, whereby the researcher provides the research participant a copy of
his/her transcribed interview data to review, in order to make sure that the information is
correct and accurate. The copy of the transcribed interview data is emailed to the respective
participant for his/her review and feedback and with an option to request to have the
researcher's presence for discussions. In this way, the research participants have the
opportunity to feedback and ensure that what is said or expressed during the interview is
116
transcribed accurately. A peer review of the coding process and codes of the transcriptions is
also performed by a lecturer of Eastern International University in Vietnam, who is lecturing
in business research and management courses. The lecturer has field experience in
qualitative research methods in various countries. This would provide a paradigm of "face
validity", which is a qualitative aspect of measuring validity (Chisnall, 2005, p.40). The data
gathered from the research‘s cross-sectional case studies of the different hotels will provide
sample cases for relative and comparative analysis which assist to increase validity and
reliability for better theoretical generalization (Bryman & Bell, 2011).

3.5. LIMITATIONS

The current research has limitations to be considered because of the research design. Due to
the time limit of the current research, there is only one case study (of a hotel company in the
province of Ho Chi Minh City) investigating the moderating impacts of national culture on
Vietnamese managerial workforce behaviour in local hotels. Therefore, the generalisation of
the moderating impacts may not be representatively justified for the hotel industry as a
whole in Vietnam. For further studies, researchers could adopt, adapt or customise this
research to investigate other local hotels in different provinces in Vietnam.

Also, due to the fact that the samples are from a limited population of the participating
hotels of the local hotel company, the total sample size for the semi-structured interview
may have a weaker degree of generalisation. However, with good response rate, this could
be of a lesser problem. It is noted that the sample size covering the hotel company's different
properties would ensure the research findings to be substantiated and more cogent and the
purposive sample has provided sample consistency.

In terms of data collection, it is reasonable that a bias exists as the research is involved with
the attitudes and opinions of Vietnamese managerial staff – as the Main Case Study‘s
participants and the Outside Case Study‘s participants – who might show bias in giving their
responses to the survey, as an in-country perspective is explored. This could be due to the
117
limited time factor of the research study, which does not allow the researcher to cater for
more extensive sampling to obtain more cogent data for analysis. However, focusing on the
meaning of the interview data to relate and match it to the research objectives, and keeping
the research context in mind, would alleviate some of the bias. This is in line with the
Verification Strategy (Morse et al., 2002), as mentioned before, to ensure vigour for the
research.

Another limitation is that the Vietnamese sub-culture dimensions are not taken into
consideration, and the study is concentrated on national culture as a whole, as defined by
Hofstede cultural dimensions. This may have resulted from not taking other points of view
or reference which could provide good supporting knowledge to add into the research
findings. By these perspectives, the current research has a limitation on sample diversity.
Also, due to the time limitation of the research, the Hofstede cultural dimensions are only
used to investigate the national culture's moderating impacts.

Because of the qualitative nature of the inductive and interpretive approach of the research,
the accuracy of the data analysis and the merits of the conclusive result are dependent on the
intellectual competency of the researcher to gauge and justify the research information and
to arrive at the findings or conclusions (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The researcher may have
missed out some important elements or essence of the qualitative data, and may have
misunderstood and/or deleted some valid information and findings. Addressing this concern
by using extensive references from the literature reviews, academic resources and journals,
and with the academic guidance of the research supervisor, the researcher is better able to
analyse and discuss the findings and support their validity.

Besides the limitations, one of the problematic concerns of research of culture is that the
research study is investigated with individual interviewees to find out the national cultural
moderating impacts on the managerial staff behaviours or performances. Therefore, the
participants (interviewees) could be affected by their individual social–psychological traits
and subjective beliefs which might influence their responses during the interview. To further
support this, as discussed in the literature review, Neuliep, Hintz and McCrosky (2005) have
118
provided the assumption that the perception filters produced by ethnocentrism can affect the
perceptions of verbal and non-verbal communications. Another concern is the
ethnocentricity of the interviewees. As such, there could be an issue of participants being
ethnocentric and egocentric because of their Vietnamese culture as discussed in Chapter 2.
By re-quoting Paul and Elder (2012) that "Ethnocentrism is a form of egocentrism extended
from the self to the group" (p.381), this has provided a reason to believe that ethnocentrism
can incite and manipulate the participants to have uncritical or selfish critical thinking which
may create bias responses. This could encourage them to be self-centered and to embrace
self-gratification and self-validation as illustrated in the literature review. Suggestively, this
has related that the attitudes and approaches of participants‘ responses can be affected by
their individual mentalities and attitudes toward the research questions. As a result, the
participants might not be responding objectively but subjectively in their interviews.

3.6. CONCLUSION

The discussions in this chapter have concluded that the research methodology is viable and
suitable for the current research. The research methodology is summarised as a flowchart in
Chart 3.3 below.

Chart 3.3 Current Research Methodology Flowchart

Research and study scholarly resources and literature materials

Select

Select Hofstede cultural dimensions to be the national culture criteria for the current
research study

Select Qualitative Method:

Form Semi-structured interview questions with Hofstede cultural dimensions
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 Contact and confirm the Case Study's Hotel Company and Participant consents

Contact and interview consensual hotel participants of the local hotels

Gather and analyse the interview data to transcribe, examine, and give meanings by
Open Coding, Axial Coding and Selective Coding

Relate research findings to affirm and support the research proposition

This chapter has identified the exploratory and qualitative nature of the current research.
The research design and related methodology were introduced. As the research study was
about Vietnamese managerial workforce behaviours in local hotels, the use of semi-
structured interviews in the case study allowed the researcher to delve deeper into the
understanding of the research phenomenon. The use of purposive sampling and an interview
guide were discussed and they were deemed to be suitable for the interview process. The
adoption of these supported the constructionist paradigm in the research. It was also
reviewed and acknowledged that Hofstede cultural dimensions were viable for the current
research and had been used empirically in many researches, to study cultural influences or
impacts on individual behaviours in society and work environments. Therefore, by
analysing and relating the coded interview data of the research to the Hofstede Cultural
Dimensions of Vietnam, the moderating impacts of the national culture on Vietnamese hotel
managerial workforce behaviour were justifiably illustrated and explained.

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Furthermore, it is also saliently noted that the demographic analysis of the interviewees had
assisted in increasing the trustworthiness of the goodness of fit of the research study. The
demographic data of the interviewees had provided a salient contribution to increase the
validity and reliability of the interview information for the research purposes. The research
ethics were observed according to the requirements of the Ethics Approval as granted, and
the limitations of the research methodology were addressed and discussed. A discussion
about the case study results is provided the following Chapter 4.

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 CHAPTER 4

CASE STUDY RESULTS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the data analysis results and presents the findings of the Main Case
Study samples and the Outside Case Study samples. To do so, it draws from the Hofstede
model as discussed in Chapter 2 which is applied to provide a framework through which the
analysis was conducted. Primarily, the findings are discussed to illustrate the moderating
impacts of Vietnamese national culture on the behaviour or performance of local managerial
staff in Vietnamese hotels. The research questions are re-visited and the discussions are
presented in the sections on research question (A) and research question (B) accordingly.
For the first research question (A), the findings are discussed to demonstrate whether there
is an agreement that the national culture impacts on the local managerial staff in Vietnamese
hotels, and how it influences. As for the second research question (B), the discussions are
focused on illustrating how the moderating impacts of the five Hofstede cultural
dimensions, as representative of Vietnamese national culture, influenced the behaviour or
performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels.

The chapter is structured as follows: first, it will provide a brief recap of the principal areas
from Chapter 2, such as the national culture and its influences, and Hofstede cultural
dimensions, in order to position the analysis and discussion. Following from this, the
succeeding sections will consider and discuss the Main Case Study findings of research
questions (A) and (B). Then, the results of Outside Case Study are analysed and discussed
to substantiate the results and findings of the Main Case Study.

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4.2 RESEARCH QUESTION RE-VISIT

The objective of the research was to illustrate the moderating impacts of national culture the
national culture moderating impacts on the Vietnamese managerial staff in hotels in
Vietnam. In order to investigate and illustrate the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese
national culture, the model of Hofstede‘s cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 2001) was adopted
to be the measurement criteria in the qualitative interviews of the participating managerial
staff, to gather data to derive conclusive findings. As discussed in Chapter 2, there were two
main research questions formulated to conduct the research. These two research questions
were:

A. How does Vietnam‘s national culture impact on the behaviour or performance of

the local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

B. How does the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions explain the moderating impacts of
the National Culture on Vietnamese managerial workforce behaviours in the
local hotels in Vietnam?

From these two main questions, sub-questions in the form of open-ended questions were
created to investigate and study the phenomenon of interest during the interview process, as
indicated in the interview script, see Appendix 2. The interview script was used because of
its flexibility to add, change or discard questions during the semi-structured interview
process so that the researcher could probe for a better understanding, and to delve deeper
into the research study (Bryman & Bell, 2005). As there are two sample categories such as
Outside Case study Sample and Main Case Study Sample, the Main Case study Sample
result will be discussed first.

4.2.1 National Culture and Influences

To summarise from the literature review, the national culture is identified as a component of
subject-culture which categorizes and forms experiences, values, beliefs and others to
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become the ―human-made part of environment‖ (Phatak et al., 2009, p.111). Consequently,
this in turn influences and shapes individuals' attitudes and norms to guide their social, as
well as, their work behaviours. It is also concluded by Berrell, Gloet and Wright (2002) that
management behaviour is driven by the national culture‘s pervasive influence, to the extent
of ordaining different styles of management learning and decision-making. This creates a
―cultural relativity‖ whereby the ―culture of the human environment in which an
organization operates affects the management process‖ (Hofstede, 1994, p.4). Hence, this
presents opportunities for the national culture to exert its moderating impacts on the local
hotels‘ managerial workforce. These cultural moderating impacts are further highlighted by
Chen et al. (2011) who observe that ―culture is essential for many aspects of hospitality
industry‖ because of its impacts on the ―way employees relate to one another, to customers,
and to business partners‖ (p.73). The presence of cultural moderating impact is also
highlighted by Enz (2010) in that ―culture becomes a key management tool to influence
employee thoughts, feelings, and behaviours‖ (p.144).

Through the chronological events of Vietnam, as discussed in the literature review, it is

importantly disclosed that Vietnam is an emerging Asian, less-developed country and is
dominated by a Confucian-Socialist market economy with a long exposure to Western
values (Nguyen et al., 2008). This will assist in understanding the discussions of the
illustrated moderating impacts of the national culture on the behaviour or performances of
local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels.

4.2.2 Hofstede Cultural Dimensions

As summarised from Chapter 2, Hofstede‘s study has introduced the ―collective

programming of the mind‖, which provides the recognition that ―national culture value
systems influence patterns of thinking, feeling and acting that may differ from one nation to
another‖ (Hofstede, cited in Ayoun & Moreo, 2008b, p.9). The Hofstede research study was
engaged in investigating and studying the impacts or influences of the native culture on the
respective employees‘ behaviour and performance ‗... in the organisational environment of
the company IBM . This is similar to the context of the current research study whereby the
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native culture is the Vietnamese culture and the organisational environment is the local hotel
workplace. Imperatively, Hofstede‘s study demonstrated that culture does have moderating
impacts on workforce behaviours, when he compared employee attitudes and values to
develop the cultural dimensions summarising different cultures across 40 countries (2011).
Thus, this has provided the rationalisation that individual managers‘ management decisions
are influenced by national culture, which give the reasons for the existence of the
moderating impacts. And at the same time, this has also justified that the Hofstede cultural
dimensions are adopted as the measurement criteria to investigate the moderating impacts of
Vietnamese national culture on the local Vietnamese managers. The cultural dimension
scores are related to certain behavioural intentions which Hofstede has matched and coded
in thematic items (Hofstede thematic items) of the respective cultural dimensions (Hofstede,
2001). Therefore, the current research‘s analysed data were matched to the Hofstede
thematic items of the cultural dimensions, to determine and illustrate the moderating
impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the behaviour or performance of local
managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels. These thematic items were recategorised or
regrouped into more representative themes of hotel management perspectives for better
understanding of the research findings. The following section discusses the sample
demographic to provide more validity and reliability for the goodness of fit of the research
study.

4.3 MAIN CASE STUDY RESULTS – RESEARCH QUESTION (A)

Research Question (A):

How does Vietnam‘s national culture impact on the behaviour or performance of the local
managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

The results of the findings of research question (A) are discussed in the following two sub-
questions.

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4.3.1 Sub-question One: How do you think the Vietnamese national culture impacts
on the behaviour or performance of the hotel’s Vietnamese managerial staff ?

From the interview discussions, the results show that the answer to the main question (A)
indicated a strong positive generalisation identifying that the Vietnamese national culture
had moderating impacts on the behaviour or performance of the local Vietnamese hotel
managers (see coding details in Appendix 7). Through the initial coding process, many
themes were identified. There was a consistent use of themes, such as influence or impact,
to identify the presence of national culture. All interviewees from Hotels A, B and C agreed
and expressed that the national culture impacts or influences their work performances.
Interviewee WU8 from Hotel A saliently claimed that ―it impacts the way we think at work‖
and in Hotel B, WU12 commented on the strength of the culture, claiming that the
Vietnamese culture was ―carried to work‖. From Hotel C, it was strongly supported and
emphasised by WU10 and WU11 that there were strong impacts or influences and the
―Vietnamese culture influence is very strong to the local hotel managerial workforce‖
(WU6). Importantly, WU1 informed that the Vietnamese culture impacts the management a
lot and, because of the culture, it was difficult for them to change in a short time. Hence,
with respect to the statement by Javidan and House (2001) as discussed in the literature
review, the responses from the interviewees have illustrated and affirmed that national
culture is like the ―bedrock of a culture‖ (p.120) consisting of tenets, which creates and
drives the ethnocentric characteristics and behavioural attitudes of the local Vietnamese
hotel managers. In addition, Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999) claimed that ―the external
Vietnamese social, cultural and political also shaped the internal structure of the companies,
as from within the ways of culture produced an environment in which scepticism and
apprehension sometimes infiltrated management practices‖ (p.588). Therefore, the responses
provided by WU10 and WU11 has underscored that Vietnamese culture impacts the hotel
management remarkably.

4.3.2 Sub-question Two: From your experiences at work, what is/are your opinion
or examples about Vietnamese national culture's moderating impacts on the
behaviour or performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?
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The national culture‘s moderating impacts were illustrated in the hotel work environment
because of the local hotels‘ need to practise and incorporate the universalistic
conceptualised hotel standards or western hotel service standards in order to satisfy their
guests‘ expectations. The hotel industry has been affected in many different ways because of
the influence of globalisation on ―people‗s travel habits and preferences, and on employees‘
working attitudes and behaviour‖ (Chen et al., 2012, p.56). Therefore, it is important to note
that the hotel industry is a "service business in a multicultural environment that incorporates
global business practices" (Sledge et al., 2008, p.1669). This has contributed to the fact that
the universalistic conceptualised product–service standards, as discussed in Chapter 2, are
encouragingly required to be adopted by the local hotels to satisfy their guests‘ needs and
expectations. This is saliently highlighted by one interviewee from Hotel B that the hotel
management ―like to work with the international level to give good service for customer"
(WU3).

The hotel industry observes the ideology from Teare (1993) that the hotel service culture
needs to be revolutionised in order to meet different cultural needs in the business
environment. As such, the research found that the subjectivity of the native cultural
environment of the national culture and the universalistic conceptualised hotel practices
have created numerous occasions like cross-cultural phenomena which allow opportunities
for the hotel staff to experience the cultural moderating impacts or influences. This is
because culture impacts and influences an individual to ―perceive and assimilate phenomena
and prompts different perceptions‖ to represent what are suitable behaviours (Truong &
King, 2010, p.17). This perception has led to the comprehension of the moderating impacts
of the national culture on the work performances of the local hotel practices and standards.
The moderating impacts were demonstrated by the issues or obstacles the managerial
workforce had to face and experience, as they embraced the adoption of the western hotel
service standards in their local hotels.

As discussed in Chapter 2, it is also salient to note that the practices of western hotel service
standards in the local hotels have evoked a situation similar to a cultural clash with the local
hotel managerial workforce, which allows the Vietnamese national culture to exert its
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moderating impacts. As a result, the adoption of the western hotel service standards into the
local hotel standards had impacted or influenced the behaviour or performance of the local
Vietnamese managerial staff. From Hotel C one interviewee claimed that the attitude at
work is like ―the way they used to, used to do‖ and WU10 informed that it was difficult to
change as it ―becomes the habit‖. Furthermore, WU13 from Hotel B, expressed that the
national culture ―make them not to understand what is needed especially hotel standards‖.
This is built on by interviewee WU7 of Hotel B stating that the national culture was very
strongly ―influencing how we look at things‖. Likewise, Lu and Fo (2006) argue that the
effects of human resources practices were ―influenced by their own cultures‖ (p.195).
Consequently, this creates ample opportunities and occasions for the national culture to
exert its moderating impacts in the local hotels, in such a way that WU9 from Hotel B
commented that ―I think that makes us not to understand what is needed especially in hotel
standards‖.

It is contended by Nguyen and Aoyama (2013) that ―Vietnamese attitudes and behaviors
tend to allow for wide latitude and room for individual discretion at work‖ (p.23) which
reflects the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the managerial
workforce behaviours. To support this, Holbeche (2006) claims that ―culture moulds
behaviour‖ (cited in Luu, 2012, p.465), which indicates that the existence of the national
culture‘s moderating impacts is inevitable. Therefore, it was not a surprise that WU6 from
Hotel C recognised that ―Vietnamese culture influence is very strong to the local hotel
managerial workforce‖ and ―affects a lot to our management style‖ which influenced the
way the hotel staffs were being trained. This exemplified that the moderating impacts or
influences of national culture on workforce behaviours as epitomised by Pizam‘s Hierarchy
of Cultures, see Chapter 2, Figure 2.5. To build on this, the findings of Berrell, Wright and
Tran‘s (1999) research, illustrated in Appendix 1 of Chapter 2, have listed and demonstrated
that there are moderating impacts exerted by the individuals‘ cultures to influence their
work behaviour and performance.

This has additionally provided a substantial fact that the national culture creates and drives
the influential path of moderating impacts on industry cultures all the way to the
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organisational structure, managerial practices and work attitudes. This is further supported
by Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999) who contend that the ―external Vietnam social, cultural
and political environment also shaped the internal structure of the companies, as from within
the ways of culture produced an environment in which scepticism and apprehension
sometimes infiltrated management practices‖ (p.588). Furthermore, Chen et al., (2012) state
that whenever there are human interactions like those in servicing customers, the concern of
cultural understanding must be addressed in the organisation to ensure success. The above
interviewee responses are demonstrative examples of Chen et al.‘s (2012) study which has
identified that culture has a role in shaping employees‘ attitudes and behaviour, and its
effect on hotel operations. As such, the research result has indicated the fact that culture,
like national culture, has moderating impacts on individual behavioural intentions, for
example, the hotel managerial workforce behaviours. From the employee shift-briefing
logbook, it is noted that messages are written down by the managers to remind the hotel
staff to be cultivated and to practise the hotel culture, so that they can deliver the hotel‘s
product and service quality standards to meet guest expectations. Therefore, these have
assisted in justifying the proposition that national culture has moderating impacts on the
behaviour or performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels is affirmative.

The discussions of the results or findings of research question (B) will be presented in the
next section. With the understanding of the above discussions that the national culture does
have moderating impacts on the local Vietnamese hotel managers, the next section will
illustrate the moderating impacts or influences in terms of the Hofstede cultural dimensions.

4.4 MAIN CASE STUDY RESULTS – RESEARCH QUESTION (B)

Research Question (B):

How does the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions explain the moderating impacts of the
National Culture on the behaviour or performance of local Vietnamese hotel managerial
staff?
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The following will discuss the results and findings of research question (B). As introduced,
the Hofstede cultural dimensions were used as the measurement criteria to investigate the
moderating impacts of Vietnamese national culture on the local managerial workforce
behaviours of the participants in Hotels A, B and C. From Hofstede‘s research, Vietnam has
cultural dimension scores of: High Power Distance, Low Individualism, Low Masculinity,
Low Uncertainty Avoidance and High Long-term Orientation (Hofstede, 2001).

4.4.1 Sub-Question One: Power Distance

4.4.1.1 To what extent, do you think that Power Distance affects the managerial
staff behaviour or performance in the hotel?

The analysed data of the interview responses revealed mixed results for the Power Distance
dimension. There were 6 out of 12 (50%) interviewees who expressed that Low Power
Distance was experienced in their hotels, see Appendix 9. However, through the analysis of
the coded data, it is found that the summative result of all three local hotels is prone towards
Low Power Distance. It is shown that all 3 interviewees from Hotel A and 3 out of 4
interviewees from Hotel C had indicated Low Power Distance. One interviewee from Hotel
A stated that ―Power Distance is quite close‖. WU6 from Hotel C realised that the Power
Distance is ―lower than before‖, which is supported by WU11 who said that ―the hotel, the
power distance not very high‖.

It is noted that the result of the interview data analysis has shown that there is a
generalisation towards Low Power Distance in the hotel workplace environment, see
Appendix 9. This is an interesting outcome because the Hofstede study has contradictorily
identified that Vietnam has High Power Distance (Hofstede, 2001). However, in Hoang‘s
(2008) study on Vietnamese managers in Chicago, USA, he concluded that the Vietnamese
managers have Low Power Distance instead of High Power Distance. This has illustrated
that the native culture of the Vietnamese managers in Chicago has experienced the
moderating impacts on their management behaviours in the different business or work
environment. It also outlined a point that the Vietnamese managers were ―blending Western
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management values (such as effective communication and mindfulness) with Vietnamese
cultural values (such as respect, trust, and regarding co-workers as family members)‖ to be
successful in the different business environment in Chicago, USA (Hoang, 2008. p.119).
Synonymously, the managers in Vietnamese hotels are in the midst of a situation whereby
the hotel culture and climate, together with the demands of universalistic conceptualised
standards of operations, impose a different working environment in the hotels, which
influences the hotel staff. For example, Marriott International, an international hotel chain,
emphasised that the hotel culture ―influences the way we treat associates, customers, and the
community that impacts all our success‖ (Walker, 2007, p.10). This research found that the
interviewees revealed that Power Distance had impacted or influenced them. For example,
interviewee WU7 from Hotel B acknowledged that Power Distance had affected the
interviewee very much. This is further supported by WU10 from Hotel C claiming that
―Power Distance influence is very strong‖ and WU14 importantly stated that ―Power
Distance affects the managerial workforce behaviour in the hotel‖. Therefore, because of
the hospitality context, the local hotels under the research study have geared towards the
Low Power Distance dimension, as its characteristics are deemed to be more pragmatic for
the hotel industry. This in turn presents a platform of opportunity for the native culture of
the Vietnamese managers to exert its moderating impacts on the managerial workforce
behaviours. This has implied that the Vietnamese national culture can exert its moderating
impacts on the local hotel Vietnamese managerial staff and generates different impacts in
different working environments.

4.4.1.2 What are the examples of Power Distance impacts or influences which you
have experienced or observed in the hotel?

The interview responses were coded and matched with the identified Hofstede thematic
items of Low Power Distance (Hofstede, 2001) which were taken as the representative
premises of the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the behaviour or
performance of the local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff, see Appendix 8. As such, the
moderating impacts were said to exist in the Hofstede thematic codes of: subordinate–
superior relations, pragmatic; subordinates expect to be consulted; openness with
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information, also to non-superiors; flat organisation structure; consultative leadership leads
to satisfaction, performance and productivity; and managers rely on personal experience and
on subordinates. These Hofstede thematic items characterised a common theme which was
recategorised or regrouped to the theme of Open Communication as shown in Table 4.1
below.

Table 4.1 Recategorised Thematic Code: Low Power Distance

Cultural Dimension Identified Hofstede Thematic Items Recategorised

Thematic Code

Low Power Distance PDL1 - Flat organisation pyramids

PDL2 - Subordinates expect to be consulted

Open
PDL3 - Consultative leadership leads to satisfaction, Communication
performance and productivity

PDL4 - Subordinate-superior relations pragmatic

PDL5 - Openness with information, also to non-superiors

PDL6 - Managers rely on personal experience and on

subordinates

4.4.1.3 Open Communication

The results of the data analysis illustrated that the moderating impacts or influences of the
Vietnamese national culture, in terms of Low Power Distance, were in the context of Open
Communication as practised by the local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff. The research

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findings established that the Low Power Distance culture perpetuates ―organic
characteristics‖ (Dartey-Baah, 2013, p.41) which is less hierarchical and centralization
structure. This allows and encourages the hotel staff to interact and participate with fewer
ordinances which promotes their creativity and innovativeness. It was also indicated by
Dartey-Baah (2013) that Low Power Distance ―promotes employee interaction, lateral
communication and less emphasis on the rules‖ (p.41), which encouraged the practice of
open communication and team-oriented culture. This supports the research findings on the
local hotel managers‘ behaviours as discussed.

The responses of the interviewees indicated characteristic items of team-oriented culture

which were parts of Hofstede thematic items of Low Power Distance. Contradictorily, in
High Power Distance work environment, the managers hold high obedience level within the
organizations and staff-manager relationships are markedly and noticeably defined (Quang
& Vuong, 2002). For examples, interviewee WU1 from Hotel A declared that their
managers were ―willing to listen‖ and ―easy to talk to‖ and WU8 stated that they were ―open
to them‖. Likewise, another interviewee from Hotel A, WU2, declared that he, as a manager
―doesn‘t make a distance between management and the team‖. To build on this,
interviewees from Hotel C expressed that ―everybody is equal and they can speak their
opinions at any time‖ (WU6), the management ―pay attention to staff‖ (WU10), and they
could learn and get more experience because they were allowed ―to give feedback, give
question‖ (WU11). Likewise, the theme of care commonly appeared in responses from
WU1, WU2 and WU10 in terms of ―always care of us and he give me some advice all the
time‖ (WU1), ―culture that here people care about each other‖ (WU6), and ―care or
concern‖ (WU10). Therefore, the research findings illustrated that the moderating impacts
or influences of Low Power Distance steered the local hotel managerial workforce to care
for and assist their employees, through open communication.
The research findings showed further that the moderating impacts of Low Power Distance
influenced the local hotel managers to implement a participative management style
(Hofstede, 2001), which had the attributes of open communication, with team-oriented
culture. As a consequence, the managers were open and less likely to tolerate class
distinctions, were more democratic, and were less afraid of accepting and giving feedback
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(Hofstede, 1984). The participants interviewed demonstrated that they would like to ―make
people understand people, understand each other better and they cooperate better‖ (WU1).
Therefore, it is distinctively shown that the local hotel managerial workforce had
experienced the moderating impacts of the cultural dimension of Low Power Distance in
their management attitudes and behaviours. This attitudinal behaviour was encouraged in
the hotel industry because the hotel managers needed to serve the ―internal customer‖ of
employees, co-workers or colleagues, as well as the ‗external customers‘ who were the
traditional customers, in order to achieve service excellence (Leland & Bailey, 1995, p.7).
The phenomenon of the local hotel managerial workforce had provided justification to
Larkin‘s (2009, p.50) argument that the hotel managers need to respect the employees as ―an
integral part‖ of the business and to build leadership with employee relationships which are
―open and honest with them‖. Therefore, Open Communication was practised to impact or
influence the local hotel managerial staff to care for their workforce. The interviewees WU1
and WU2 from Hotel A and WU10 from Hotel C mentioned that the management care for,
and are concerned about them. Likewise, one interviewee from Hotel C outlined this with:

The boss–employee relationship is not like before not like old time
any more is equal to each other. In our hotel, everybody is equal, and
they can speak their opinions at any time.
Our management will see and will consider about their opinion and
… Give them chance to improve and give them chance to develop
their skill. (WU6)

This leads to the ideology that the local hotel management should ―treat employees as
customers‖ (Zeithaml et al., 2009, p.373). For example in the hotel industry, the Ritz-
Carlton group practises this ideology in its hotels by treating the guests and employees alike
with respect and dignity, which develops their motto to be ―We are Ladies and Gentlemen
serving Ladies and Gentlemen‖ (Walker, 2007, p.20). Thus, the research findings showed
that the moderating impacts of Low Power Distance encouraged and promoted more
behaviours of open and two-way communications. The nature of collectivism further
encouraged knowledge sharing, which improves mutual understanding and relationships of

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in-group members (Dong et al., 2010), and promotes team-oriented culture. As such, these
attributes further demonstrated the moderating impacts of Low Power Distance in the
context of open communication.

To summarise from the research findings, the moderating impacts or influences of Low
Power Distance inspired the local Vietnamese hotel management to foster and nurture open
communications in the hotel work environment. This impacted the hotel managers in such a
way that they were motivated to be more informing, clarifying and monitoring in their
communications. Michael and College (1997) argue that Low Power Distance has a more
open communication style by having ―a lot more two-way communication between bosses
and subordinates‖ (p.93). This stimulates more employee feedback and encourages
employee participations, as illustrated by the interviewee responses discussed above. As
such, the research findings illustrated that the moderating impacts of Low Power Distance
on the local hotel Vietnamese workforce had influenced them to behave in such a way that
the local hotel managerial workforce motivated their employees with equality and
opportunity for everyone. This valuable ―cooperative interaction across power levels‖
(Bauer & Erdogan, 2009, p.225) is facilitated through the practice of open communication
to provide care and assistance to the hotel employees. From the above discussions, it is
related that the Open communication complements the western hotel service approach in the
local hotels. It alleviates the work performances of the hotel managers in the tasks like
anticipating guest and employee needs, developing teamwork, commanding attention to
details and in teaching, coaching, and helping others. Therefore, as discussed, Open
communication as a theme of Low Power Distance has formulated desirable positive
moderating impacts on the Vietnamese hotel managers.

4.4.2 Sub-Question Two: Collectivism/Individualism

4.4.2.1 To what extent, do you think that Collectivism/Individualism affects the

managerial staff behaviour or performance in the hotel?

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For the Collectivism / Individualism dimension, the data analysis identified that 9 out of 12
interviewees (75%) revealed that the local hotels had High Collectivism in the local hotel
workplaces, see Appendix 9. Therefore, there were moderating impacts or influences of
High Collectivism experienced by the participants from the three local hotels. The
summative result of all three hotels suggested High Collectivism. It was an overall feeling
that High Collectivism was felt in the local hotel environments. Interviewees WU9, WU12
and WU13 from Hotel B agreed that high collectivism was present and ―Vietnam is a
collectivistic society‖ (WU9). This was further illustrated by interviewee WU6, who stated
that they ―should work more as collectivism‖, and supported by WU14 that they move
‗towards more collectivism‘. Importantly, in the interview session, WU11 from Hotel C also
expressed that the ―the Vietnamese national culture really affected the managerial workforce
more to the collectivism‖. The moderating impacts of High Collectivism will be discussed
further in the following section.

4.4.2.2 What are the examples of Collectivism/Individualism impacts or influences

which you have experienced or observed in the hotel?

The above discussions have concluded that the local hotel managerial workforce of the
participating hotels had High Collectivism. However, in the Hofstede cultural dimension
indexes, it has also been identified that Vietnam has scored very low on Individualism. In
other words, it is deemed to be a High Collectivist society (Hofstede, 2001). This was also
affirmed by WU9 from Hotel B who said that ―Vietnam is a collectivist society‖. In Berrell,
Wright and Tran (1999) research, it was found that the Vietnamese managers are more
collectively oriented than their Western counterparts in the same company. There were
several themes surfaced from the interview responses, but the two themes most prominently
mentioned were ‗team‘ and ‗family‘. This had also been encouraged by the cultural
dimension of Low Power Distance of the hotel managerial workforce, which motivates them
to incline towards collectivism because of its team-oriented culture (Hofstede, 2001). One
interviewee from Hotel C saliently outlined this with the following response:

As for our hotel, we work as a family, as a team.

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 So, when we have any problem, we help each other to improve to
solve that problem, not as an individual.
But, we take responsibility as a team, as a family. (WU6)

The current research study had illustrated that High Collectivism ―heavily accents the group
and values harmony among members‖ (Newstrom, 2007, p.386). The interviewee responses
established that the moderating impacts of High Collectivism on the Vietnamese local hotel
managerial workforce were grouped into the Hofstede thematic items of High Collectivism,
namely: employees in the interest of their in-group, not necessarily of themselves;
management is management of groups; employees perform best in in-group; organisational
success attributed to sharing information, openly committing oneself, and political alliances;
belief in collective decisions; innovation champions in organisations want to involve others;
employee-employee relationship is basically moral, like a family link; incentives to be given
to in-groups, and direct appraisal of performance is a threat to harmony (Hofstede, 2001).
From these identified thematic items, it can be observed that they bring out the context of
in-group ideologies and group dynamics fostering and sustaining group conformity which
infers to the ―Community Spirit (low individualism)‖ (Nguyen & Aoyama, 2013, p.23).
Consequently, these allowed the thematic items to be re-categorised to the theme of
―Community Spirit (low individualism)‖ (Nguyen & Aoyama, 2013, p.23), see Table 4.2
below.

Table 4.2 Recategorised Thematic Code: High Collectivism

Cultural Dimension Identified Hofstede Thematic Items Recategorised

Thematic Code

High Collectivism (low CH1 – Employees in the interest of their in-group, not
individualism) necessarily of themselves
Community
CH2 – Employees perform best in in-group Spirit

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 CH3 – Belief in collective decisions

CH4 – Innovation champions in organisations want

to involve others

CH5 – Management is management of groups

CH6 – Employee-employee relationship is basically

moral, like a family link

CH7 – Incentives to be given to in-groups

CH8 – Organisational success attributed to sharing

information, openly committing oneself, and
political alliances

CH9 - Direct appraisal of performance is a threat to

harmony

In Nguyen and Aoyama‘s (2013) research, they have identified that High Collectivism
creates and promotes community spirit in Vietnamese culture. This identifies that the hotel
industry encourages its employees to take up the responsibility to create teamwork in the
work environment and to develop effective group dynamics and productive teams (Walker,
2007). The moderating impacts of influences of Community Spirit on the behaviour or
performance of local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff will be elaborated in the following
section.

4.4.2.3 Community Spirit

The community spirit established by High Collectivism had moderating impacts or

influences on the local hotel Vietnamese managerial workforce in such a way that the
managers were likely to have the attitude of ―what is best for the organization?‖ (Newstrom,

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2007, p.386). The community spirit was also essentially initiated by the team-oriented
culture of the Low Power Distance orientation of the local hotels‘ Vietnamese managers.
The current research findings found that the community spirit exerted its moderating
impacts by influencing the Vietnamese hotel managers to ―have stronger bonds to their
groups, and group memberships forms a person‘s self-identity‖ (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013,
p.42). An interviewee from Hotel A affirmed this by the following response:

You have to see what your team is doing, going and what energy.
Is not about you, is about the team, is about us.
So, they have to achieve that if they want to get bonus.
So, is not you, is about the team. (WU2)

This had affirmed the community spirit which was further illustrated by interviewee WU1
and WU3 that it was not good for the hotel to work in an individualistic manner.
Interviewee WU13 strongly stated that it was the employee‘s responsibility to cultivate the
―good attitude of working together or support together‖. Further expressions by the
interviewees indicating positive group dynamics include:

When we have any problem, the staffs always look for me and …..
We like, figure a way to solve the problem together…….
But, we don't like to solve the problem individual way.
We prefer to work as a team. I always tell them that!
We have to work as a team! (WU6)

The interview responses indicated that in a High Collectivism society, the individuals "stress
the importance of belonging to a group and making decisions that reflect the consensus of
the group" (Michael & College, 1997, p.84). It is also suggested by Hui (1988) that the
Collectivism/Individualism dimension impacts decision-making style, and the collective
culture tends to rely on group decisions.

Besides this, the hotel industry is noted to have an environment of group dynamics in the
workplace, which encourages the development of team players to deliver the hotel‘s product
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and service standards (Walker, 2007). In a hotel, the workforce is departmentalised into
several main departments such as Front Office, Food and Beverages, Housekeeping,
Security, Engineering, Sales and Marketing, Human Resource, Accounting and other
necessary departments or sub-departments. Therefore, it is notable that a hotel needs its staff
to be team players. These research findings show evidence of agreement with Bass (1998)
that the collectivism cultivates reciprocal responsibility between leaders and their followers
to emphasise moral obligations, which encourages the managers to lead and care for their
employees in an individualised manner. This is further encouraged by the moderating
impacts of Collectivism together with those of Low Power Distance, which assist the hotel
managerial staff to embrace the team-oriented culture of Community Spirit cogently, to
create more positive interactions that influence the attitudes and performances in their
workplaces. Therefore, the research result essentially indicates that the moderating impacts
or influences of High Collectivism generated the Community Spirit which encouraged the
Vietnamese hotel managerial staff to exercise behaviours that were nurturing, caring and
mentoring in their local hotel workplaces. As a result, because of these moderating impacts
or influences of Community Spirit, the local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff was initiated
to embrace team-oriented culture and to show family-like behaviours. For example, this was
illustrated by several interviewees that they had practised and felt managerial behaviours
like they were working as a family and took responsibilities as a team (WU1; WU2; WU3;
WU11; WU12; WU13; WU14). As shown below, the interview responses illustrated that the
moderating impacts of Community Spirit influenced the Vietnamese managers to treat
employees as family members and they believed that teamwork contributes to better success
in their work.

For our hotel, we work as a family, as a team

So, when we have any problem, we help each other
to improve to solve that problem, not as an individual
But, we take responsibility as a team, as a family. (WU6)

Community Spirit is highly recommended to be observed and practised in hotel

management because of its attributions to the employee work behaviours and performances.

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As mentioned in Chapter 2, the ultimate goal of employee motivation is to be able to inspire
the employees to embrace ―workplace spirituality‖ (Robbins, 2005, p.243) so that they can
develop their full potentials and to embrace the transformation into organizational (hotel)
citizenship and behaviours. The hotel staff as hotel citizens will then hold high
responsibilities and accountabilities to perform and deliver the hotel‘s standardized product-
service qualities to meet the guest expectations immaculately and professionally. Therefore,
it is imperative to acknowledge the moderating impacts or influences of Community Spirit
in the local hotels as an important essence in local hotel management. An interviewee from
Hotel B has typified this by expressing this response:

Everyone takes responsibility, for responsibility

Responsibility for members of their group and …Everyone,
employee relationships like a family link
So, each members of my team, they must have responsibility, good
attitude to work together or support together. (WU13)

This illustrated further that the moderating impacts of High Collectivism inspired
Community Spirit which influenced the managerial workforce to be team-oriented and
approve family-link-like behaviours. Importantly, Bauer and Erdogan (2013) emphasise that
―the importance of family in collectivistic cultures is critical to understanding their work
behaviours‖ (p.42). Therefore, the research study found that the moderating impacts of High
Collectivism illustrated the importance of being in a team like a family group, which was
likewise emphasised by the Community Spirit. Interviewee WU2 from Hotel A had outlined
this:

But, you need to aim to what your group achieves first.

You have to see what your team is doing, going and what energy
Is not about you, is about the team, is about us.
But, when you…..if you want to be a leader, you have to care
for the team, that for sure. (WU2)

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In the hospitality industry, Walker (2007) pointed out that team-oriented culture is important
as ―we are constantly working in teams to exceed guest expectations‖ (p.543). The constant
mention of family link emphasises the Community Spirit‘s moderating impacts on the hotel
managers‘ attitudes and behavioural intentions. It is also found that the team-oriented
culture is an outcome of the Low-Power-Distance-inspired participative leadership style,
with open communication as one of its important elements (Newstrom, 2007). Furthermore,
Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999) have found that Vietnamese managers value relationships
and networking among local managers and are less privacy-orientated. The Community
Spirit could be seen as an enhancing factor for the hotel managers in their practice of the
western hotel service standard‘s behavioural traits when they anticipate needs fo the
customers and staff, display teamwork and teach, coach, and help others. Consequently, this
cultivated and nurtured the Community Spirit in the local hotels. Therefore, from the
interview responses as discussed and quoted above, it is shown that the moderating impacts
or influences of the Vietnamese national culture are illustrated in terms of the practice of
Community Spirit.

4.4.3 Sub-Question Three: Masculinity/Femininity

4.4.3.1 To what extent, do you think that Masculinity/Femininity affects the

managerial staff behaviour or performance in the hotel?

The initial data coding and analysis identified the presence of a Low Masculinity dimension
in the participating local hotels, which defined that a feministic-oriented society existed in
the local hotels. Overall, 9 out of 11 interviewees (82%) had revealed that Low Masculinity
existed in their hotel work environments, see Appendix 9. This was significantly supported
by interviewees WU3 and WU13 from Hotel B together with interviewees WU6 and WU11
from Hotel C who commented that the hotel was ―feminine‖, and built on by WU9 from
Hotel B, who said that ―Vietnam considered a Feminine society‖. Importantly, it was
remarked by WU10 from Hotel C and WU12 from Hotel B that femininity affected the
managerial staff behaviours, see Appendix 9. This generalised the summative result to be
Low Masculinity which signified that the hotel managerial workforce culture had traits
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which were feminine oriented. Likewise, the Vietnam score of Hofstede‘s study is also Low
Masculinity, which is geared towards a feministic society (Hofstede, 2001).

4.4.3.2 What are the examples of Masculinity/Femininity impacts or influences

which you have experienced or observed in the hotel?

The research found that the moderating impacts of femininity (low masculinity) felt by the
hotel managerial staffs were demonstrated in Hofstede‘s thematic items as in Table 4.3
below. These identified Hofstede thematic items were: meaning of work for workers;
relations and working conditions; stress on equality, solidarity, and quality of work life;
management as a "menage" (unit or household living together); managers are employees
like others; managers expected to use intuition, deal with feelings, and seek consensus;
resolution of conflicts through problem solving, compromise, and negotiation; humanisation
of work through creation of work groups (Hofstede, 2001).

Table 4.3 Recategorised Thematic Code: High Femininity

Cultural Dimension Identified Hofstede Thematic Items Recategorised

Thematic Code

Low Masculinity ML1 - Meaning of work for workers: relations and

(Femininity) working conditions
Nurture Others
ML2 - Stress on equality, solidarity, and quality of
work life

ML3 - Management as a "menage" (unit or household

living together)

ML4 - Managers are employees like others

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 ML5 - Managers expected to use intuition, deal with
feelings, and seek consensus

ML6 - Resolution of conflicts through problem

solving, compromise, and negotiation

ML7 – Humanisation of work through creation of

work groups

The moderating impacts of femininity (low masculinity) can be related to Bauer and
Erdogan‘s (2013) claim that feminine cultures ―value maintaining good relationship, caring
for the weak, and emphasizing quality of life‖ and ―values are not separated from genders‖
(p.44). Therefore, these feministic characteristics have developed the manager to exercise
more intuitive, consensus seeking, values equality and cooperativeness (Hofstede, 1980). As
such, the local hotel managerial staff tended to embrace work behaviours which treat
employees fairly and equally. The interviewee WU9 from Hotel B commented that ―We are
caring for others and quality of life and nurturing teams‖ and WU6 from Hotel C affirmed
this with ―our management down to the staff, we like, have to take care of them as a
family‖. The common themes that appeared during the interview sessions were ‗family‘,
‗quality of life‘ and ‗nurturing team‘ which were the characteristic items of a feministic
culture. Consequently, the moderating impacts of these low-masculinity and feministic
characteristics on the behaviour of the local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff were
recategorised into the theme of Nurture Others. This was emphasised by the response of one
interviewee from Hotel A that:
We here, we care about family.
So, like we try to build a team where everyone is close to each other.
(WU2)

The next section will discuss the moderating impacts of Low Masculinity in the context of
nurturing others.

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4.4.3.3 Nurture Others

The Masculinity dimension looks at the division of roles between the sexes in society, and
the relationship between gender and work roles (Hofstede, 2001). Hofstede‘s research has
found that Vietnam has a low score in Masculinity which means that it is a feminine society
(Hofstede, 2001). Similarly, this research result has shown that the local managerial staffs
identified the presence of Low Masculinity. Within the Vietnamese culture context, the
feminine behavioural traits of gentleness, sensitivity and empathy are exercised in societal
and organisational conducts (Dartey-Baah, 2012). As such, the prevailing values in the
feminine culture have moderating impacts on the Vietnamese local hotel managers,
influencing them to be caring for others and looking for quality of life. The research
interviews found that the participants illustrated that they were ―caring for others and quality
of life‖ (WU9; WU13 from Hotel B), and ―everybody work together, take care of each
other‖ (WU11from Hotel C).

In this feministic culture, men and women appreciate the value of maintaining good
relationships, which further develops the nurturing traits. They care for the weak and
emphasise on quality of life (Bauer & Erdogan, 2013) and promote cooperation among
members (Hofstede, 2001). To put this dimension into a bipolar perspective, the masculine
is the assertive pole and the nurturing pole is the feminine (Hofstede & Bond, 1988).
Interviewee WU13 from Hotel B had distinctively stated that the staffs care for each other
and their quality of life as a ―nurturing team and encourage employee involvement‖. As
such, the research findings had identified that the moderating impacts or influences of
Nurture Others have positively motivated the local hotel managerial staff towards a leader-
member relations of high ―degree of confidence, trust, and respect subordinates have in or
for their leader‖ (Robbins, 2005, p.161). The Interviewee WU3 from Hotel B had outlined
this by the response:

I have behaviour with the my colleagues, my family

They willing to tell me any problem happened, and share the
experience together.

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 That‘s why we want to work like family. (WU3)

The degree of confidence, trust, and respect was further demonstrated by the interviewee
responses from Hotel B that the hotel staff ―look after them, make sure they are ok, they are
a team and we develop together‖ (WU9) and built on by interviewee WU12 stating that the
management ―care us like a family and they taught, they share‖.

To summarise the moderating impacts or influences of Nurture Others on the behaviour or

performance of local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff, the managers are less competitive,
managers encourage employee involvements, managers like to nurture teams, managers
fostering collaborations in and out of organization, and negotiation to solve conflicts
(Dartey-Baah, 2012; Hoang, 2008; Hofstede & Bond, 1988). However, whereas Luthans
and Doh (2009) have argued that unlike a ‗feminine‘ organisation which has a nurturing
environment, the ‗masculine‘ organisational environment has ―high job stress and many
managers believe that their employees dislike work and must be kept under some degree of
control‖ (p.105). Contrarily, the research findings identified that the moderating impact or
influence of the feministic culture had inspired the nurturing nature of Vietnamese local
hotel managers to care for others and promote quality of life, to have better harmony in the
workplace environment. This involves and encourages the hotel managers to practice the
western hotel service standard‘s behavioural traits such as anticipating the needs of the staff
in order to nurture them in ways of teaching, coaching, and helping the staff to exceed the
expectations of the customers or guests. Subsequently, by performing these behavioural
traits, the hotel managers exhibit and set desirable positive management styles and
approaches by leading by example. Furthermore, the moderating impacts or influences of
the Nurture Others theme are deemed to foster and inspire the practices of open
communication, team-oriented culture and community spirit in the local hotels, as discussed
earlier. These are valuable and essential effects of the moderating impacts which influence
and contribute positively to local hotel management practices.

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4.4.4 Sub-Question Four: Uncertainty Avoidance

4.4.4.1 To what extent, do you think that Uncertainty Avoidance affects the
managerial staff behaviour or performance in the hotel?

For the cultural dimension, Uncertainty Avoidance, the analysed interview data revealed
mixed results. There were 5 out of 10 (50%) interviewees who indicated the presence of
Low Uncertainty Avoidance, see Appendix 9. There were 2 invalid interviewee responses,
as they did not provide any comments for this question. However, through the analysis of
the coded data, it was found that the summative result for the participating local hotels was
inclined towards Low Uncertainty Avoidance. The interviewees WU2 from Hotel A, WU9
from Hotel B and WU6 from Hotel C agreed that Low Uncertainty Avoidance was
experienced in the hotel workplace. It was also found that in Hotel A and Hotel C, the
majority of interviewees illustrated Low Uncertainty Avoidance, which had impacted the
local Vietnamese hotel managerial workforce to have a risk-taking attitude.

The responses to the interviews identified that the Vietnamese local hotel managers
practised Low Uncertainty Avoidance. Similarly, in the Hofstede cultural dimension
indexes, Vietnam has a low score in Uncertainty Avoidance (Hofstede, 2001). The
Uncertainty Avoidance measure is the extent to which people feel threatened by ambiguous
situations and have created beliefs that try to avoid these. It indicates how society deals with
the fact that ―we are living with an uncertainty of which we are conscious‖ (Hofstede, 2001,
p.146). Therefore, the ‗uncertainty-accepting‘ culture observes a more relativist attitude
(Hofstede & Bond, 1988). Consequently, the research outcomes showed that this had
steered the Vietnamese local hotel managers to be ‗uncertainty-accepting‘ with a willingness
to embrace changes. The Low Uncertainty Avoidance orientation inspired the managers to
take risks and not to be afraid of making any possible loss (Dartey-Baah, 2012). By the
same context, the research findings illustrated that the managerial staff in local hotels
behaved in such a manner as outlined by interviewee WU9 from Hotel B:

We‘d like to take risk and accept change.

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 We do the things like.
We don‘t have to think in advance and….
What‘ll happen in the future. (WU9)

One interviewee from Hotel A stated that ―we take the risk‖ (WU1) which was substantiated
by WU11 from Hotel C, who said that ―they are willing to take risk‖. Comments such as
―you are in the hospitality industry, so, you cannot say that you scared of risk‖ from
interviewee WU2 from Hotel A, provide additional evidence that Low Uncertainty
Avoidance was present in their hotel work environments.

4.4.4.2 What are the examples of Uncertainty Avoidance impacts or influences

which you have experienced or observed in the hotel?

The above discussion concluded that the national culture had a cultural dimension of Low
Uncertainty Avoidance which exerted its moderating impacts or influences on the behaviour
or performance of local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff. The theme that appeared
regularly in the interview responses was ‗risk-taking‘. The matching of the coded interview
data to the Hofstede thematic items illustrated such a risk-taking orientation. The matched
Hofstede thematic items of Low Uncertainty Avoidance were: top managers involved in
strategy, tolerance for ambiguity in structure and procedures, relationship orientation,
innovators feel independent of rules, and superiors optimistic about employees' ambition
and leadership capacities, which are summarised in Table 4.4. Consequently, the Hofstede
thematic items were recategorised to the theme of Risk-Taking.

Table 4.4 Recategorised Thematic Code: Low Uncertainty Avoidance

Cultural Dimension Identified Hofstede Thematic Items Recategorised

Thematic Code

Low Uncertainty UAL1 - Top managers involved in strategy

Avoidance

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 UAL2 - Tolerance for ambiguity in structure and Risk-Taking
procedures

UAL3 - Relationship orientation

UAL4 - Innovators feel independent of rules

UAL5 - Superiors optimistic about employees'

ambition and leadership capacities

4.4.4.3 Risk-Taking

The Hofstede thematic items can be related to the perspectives of the work activities and
challenges that the hotel managerial workforce has to confront and address when dealing
with guests‘ expectations. This is because the guests have ―certain service standards in mind
prior to consumption (their expectations)‖ (Lovelock & Wright, 2002, p.87) which act like
benchmarks for the local hotels‘ product–service standards, to judge their satisfaction levels.
Therefore, the research study discovered that the Low Uncertainty Avoidance dimension
impacted and kindled the local hotel managerial workforce to be ―more willing to accept
risks and their actions incline more towards innovativeness and entrepreneurial spirit‖ (Chan
& Bothelho, 2010, p.263) in their work performances and behaviours. These moderating
impacts or influences were illustrated by the response of WU6 from Hotel C that:

Sometimes, you have to be flexible.

When you expect different kind of problem.
To solve it, not to be depending too much on the standard.
In the hotel, we….we want our staff to be low uncertainty
avoidance
Because, we have to be flexible to solve any problem (WU6)

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Hence, from the above discussions and quotes from the interviewee responses, the
moderating impacts of Low Uncertainty Avoidance were appropriate to be recategorised
into the theme of Risk-Taking. This is supported by Nguyen and Aoyama (2013) that
Vietnamese managers are ―adventurousness, eager to take new chance‖ and ―less care about
risk‖ (p.28). Hence, it is acknowledged that Low Uncertainty Avoidance had impacted and
stimulated the local hotel Vietnamese managers through the risk-taking orientation to have a
high uncertainty-acceptance culture, which moderates them to be more accommodating to
others‘ opinions and behaviours (Hofstede & Bond, 1988). Interviewee WU2 from Hotel A
expressively commented and illustrated that:

So, the risk is happen and we know it happen and……..

I always tell my staffs that are ok.
Let‘s see that coming. We see it coming.
So, just try to do anything, just follow procedure
When I tell you to do is a positive.
If it, if it happens, we know it happens. (WU2)

The research findings also discovered that because of this, the local hotel managers
embraced flexibility and casualness in the workplace which allowed the staff to have more
autonomy and discretion in their work performances and behaviours, instead of relying on
strict formalities (Dartey-Baah, 2012). The research found that in the perspective of the
risk-taking orientation, the Low Uncertainty Avoidance ―encourages personnel to use their
own initiative and assume responsibility‖ (Luthans & Doh, 2009, p.105). As a result, this
had promoted the innovative spirit in the local hotels. It is noted by Hofstede (2005) that
human beings have a natural tendency to act and think from their own experiences when
they confront uncertainty or ―unstructured situations‖ which is described as ―novel,
unknown, surprising or different from usual‖ (Hofstede & Bond, 1988, p.11). This excites
the innovativeness and entrepreneurial spirit of the individual and reflects the situation
whereby the local hotel managers, on many occasions, have to deal with guests‘
expectations, requests and conflicts, which is part of their normal work routine. As such, the
Low Uncertainty Avoidance moderating impacts produced a more intuitive risk-taking, and

150
more aspiring innovative managers and employees (Luthans & Doh, 2009), which was
illustrated by one of the interviewees at Hotel C, as outlined in the response:

Because they know that they need to change and adapt with the
circumstances.
Just like this, just only this way they can help the hotel develop and
along with the new hotel outside there.
If they scared of the challenge, the hotels just staying like this.
No development. (WU11)

As observed from the above interview responses, the moderating impacts of the cultural
dimension of Low Uncertainty Avoidance influenced the Vietnamese managers to be risk-
taking, which leads to innovative spirit (Schneider, 1989). The argument from Chong and
Park (2003) state that an individual in a Low Uncertainty Avoidance environment is more
comfortable with instability and engages more in entrepreneurial activities. Because of these
risk-taking characteristics, the local hotel managers were tolerance for ambiguity in
structure and procedures, relationship orientation, and trust their employees' ambition and
leadership capacities (Hofstede, 2001). The risk-taking attitude motivated by the Low
Uncertainty Avoidance encourages the hotel managers to exercise empowerment and
innovativeness. This allows the hotel managers to have more means and ways to structure
strategy to engage their staff to command attention to details as they anticipate the needs of
the customers to exceed the customer or guest expectations. In this manner, the Low
Uncertainty Avoidance dimension has positively assisted the hotel managers to practice the
behavioural traits of the western hotel service standards.

These moderating impacts or influences of Low Uncertainty Avoidance are positive

attributes for the hotel management which can drive the innovative spirit of the managers to
enhance the productivity of the hotel staff by taking risks in their hotel work environments.

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4.4.5 Sub-Question Five: Long-term/Short-term Orientation

4.4.5.1 To what extent, do you think that Long-Term/Short-term Orientation affects

the managerial staff behaviour or performance in the hotel?

For the Long-term/Short-term Orientation dimension, the result of the coding process
identified that 11 out of 12 interviewees (92%) agreed that they had High Long-term
Orientation, see Appendix 9. It was almost a unanimous result that all three local hotels had
Long-term Orientation whereby only one interviewee disagreed with this. The interviewees
WU1 and WU2 from Hotel A and interviewees WU9 and WU13 from Hotel B, together
with interviewees WU6 and WU11 from Hotel C agreed that they were long-term oriented.
Furthermore, there were interviewees from Hotel B and Hotel C who revealed that Long-
term Orientation had impacted or influenced their work performance and behaviours (WU7,
WU12; WU10, WU14).

Similar to the research findings, the Hofstede cultural dimension indexes have scored
Vietnam very high in Long-term Orientation. The Long-term Orientation is interpreted as
―the extent to which a society shows pragmatic future-oriented perspective‖ (Borker, 2013,
p.14), which interviewee WÙ2 from Hotel A clearly illustrated with the response:

So, we always have the plan.

How you deal with that, and how do we train a manager.
How do we train a waiter to be good one who can stand up and
then……We have to have very long term plan. (WU2)

The Long-term Orientation dimension is unique and ―only relevant to countries in East
Asia‖ (Dartey-Baah, 2013, p.41) because of the influence of Confucian Dynamism which
―captures attitudes toward time, persistence, ordering by status, protection of face, respect
for tradition, and reciprocation of gifts and favours‖ (Hill & Hernandez-Requejo, 2011,
p.144).

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4.4.5.2 What are the examples of Long-Term/Short-Term Orientation impacts or
influences which you have experienced or observed in the hotel?

The research of Berrell, Wright and Tran, (1999) about the influence of culture on work
behaviours has identified that Vietnamese managers view time as unlimited and changeable,
and they believe in promoting cooperative involvement in the workplace by sharing scarce
resources between individuals. The Long-term Orientation promotes persistence, thrift and
future rewards (Hoang, 2008; Hofstede & Bond, 1988). The research findings illustrated
that the moderating impacts on the Vietnamese hotel managers came from these future-
oriented values which are related to good aptitude to solve distinct problems, perseverance
towards time-consuming results, and ability to adjust traditions to changed environments
(Hoang, 2008). The Long-term Oriented Vietnamese hotel managerial staffs with their
future-oriented mentality are more willing to be persevered and socialised into the changes.
Unlike the Short-term Orientation, its society has the aspects of ―respect for traditions,
lower saving rate, quick results orientation, and concern with possessing the truth‖ (Dartey-
Baah, 2012, p.42), which lead to the conventional normative thinking perspective. One
interviewee from Hotel B outlined the moderating impacts of Long-term Orientation by the
response:

Like how we training our staff here.

We have everybody have to under training for the long…
For the long and for in the future of the hotel and…
We update many, many good services from other hotels, higher level
hotel than our hotel. (WU3)

From the coded interview data, it was found that the matched Hofstede thematic items of
High Long-term Orientation were that in business, building of relationships and market
position; people should live more equally; long-term virtues taught; vertical coordination,
horizontal coordination, control, and adaptiveness; and synthetic thinking, see Table 4.5
below. These thematic codes were recategorised into the theme of Paternalistic Orientation,
which will be discussed in the following section.

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Table 4.5 Recategorised Thematic Code: Long-Term Orientation

Cultural Dimension Identified Hofstede Thematic Codes Recategorised

Thematic Code

High Long-term LTOH1 - In business, building of relationships and

Orientation market position
Paternalistic
LTOH2 - People should live more equally Orientation

LTOH3 - Long-term virtues taught

LTOH4 - Vertical coordination, horizontal

coordination, control, and adaptiveness

LTOH5 - Synthetic thinking

4.4.5.3 Paternalistic Orientation

It is observed that the moderating impacts of High Long-term Orientation have influenced
the Vietnamese local hotel managers to be paternalistic orientated, to behave in a manner of
treating staff like members of family, caring and nurturing them to perform better, with
constant training and mentoring. There were several themes found during the coding process
but the most common themes that appeared from the interview data were ‗family‘, ‗care‘
and ‗training‘. The interviewee WU3 from Hotel B stressed that they have to work as a
family and to be trained for the future of the hotel, and WU6 from Hotel C supported this
with the comment that ―management down to staff, we like, have to care of them as family‖.
Likewise, Hoang (2008) has shown that Vietnamese managers treat their employees as
members of a family as they practise a paternalistic management style. Therefore, the
moderating impacts of High Long-term Orientation in the perspective of paternalistic
orientation had influenced the hotel managerial workforce to treat their employees as an

154
associative group, like a family, and they were being taken care of as such. This is further
illustrated by WU2 from Hotel A who outlined that:

We here, we care about family, so like we try to build a team where

everyone is close to each other.
Like yesterday, I bring my team to my home, my house so we make
party there with the team … close to everyone and trying to make
that turn … like each month we have a party. (WU2)

These thematic items represent the ―ethical imperatives of Confucius‖ which are directed at
future-oriented virtues such as education, frugality and persistence (Hofstede, 2001, p.363),
which in turn leads to the practice of ―Confucian Dynamism‖ (Hofstede & Bond, 1988,
p.16) in Vietnamese hotels. It is noted that Vietnam is a high-context cultural country rooted
with Confucianism practices which prioritises collectivism and ―focus on order and
hierarchy within sphere of both family units and society‖ (Vo & Hannif, 2011, p.4). The
long-term orientated individuals are focused on a ―harmonious relationship at work‖
(Berrell, Wright & Tran, 1999, p.582; King-Kauanul et al., 2006) which brings out the
Paternalistic Orientation of the local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff. Furthermore, the
moderating impacts of Nurturing Others and Community Spirit, as discussed earlier, had
contributed to inspire and motivate the local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff to embrace
the Paternalistic Orientation in the local hotel work environments. It is claimed by Truong
and Nguyen (2002, p.47) that the Vietnamese has ―paternalistic style‖ in the way they run
their businesses. This could be the reason why one of the common themes found in the
interview responses was ‗training‘. For example, WÚ1 from Hotel A informed that ―our
boss also train us how you to improve yourself and build up the company‖; WU3 from
Hotel B stressed that ―we have everybody have to under training for the long, and for in the
future of the hotel‖. Additionally, WU12 from Hotel B highlighted it with this response:

… our management also training and introduce us training new

programs, new property, help us to understand more about our
company. From that, we can proud of our comp … our hotel.
(WU12)
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The above discussions has shown that the behavioural traits of the western hotel service
standards such as managers must lead by example, exceed expectations, anticipate needs,
display teamwork, command attention to details and teach, coach, and help others are
desirable or positive factors or elements contributing to the Paternalistic Orientation.
Therefore, the High Collectivism dimension of the local hotel managerial staff cultivates
reciprocal responsibility between the leaders and their followers, to emphasise moral
obligations, which encourages the managers to lead and care for their employees in an
individualised manner (Bass, 1998). Likewise, Hall and Hall (1990) relate that Asians
(Vietnamese) are ―polychronic people‖ with associative cultures that are ―committed to
people and maintaining interpersonal relationships‖ (cited in Michael & College, 1997, p.
85). Therefore, the research findings identified that the moderating impacts of High Long-
term Orientation had inspired Vietnamese hotel managers to adopt a paternalistic approach
in their leadership to support, and show concern for, their employees. This ―paternalistic
orientation‖ (Quang & Vuong, 2002, p.47) had moulded the Vietnamese local hotel
managers to be people oriented focusing on communication and positive relationships, in
contrast to international managers who are prone to formal processes to guide performances
(Quang et al., 1998). This reflects the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott International hotel chains‘
philosophy of taking care of the employees to have happy employees in order to have happy
customers (Lovelock & Wright, 2002; Walker, 2007).

The above discussions showed that the desirable positive moderating impacts of the
Vietnamese national culture on the Vietnamese local hotel managers in the perspectives of
Hofstede Cultural Dimensions have associations and have underscored the hotel managers
toward the behavioural traits of the western hotel service standards and approaches, as
discussed in Chapter 2. The following section will discuss other findings of the Main Case
Study samples like the undesirable negative impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on
the hotel managers.

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4.5 OUTSIDE CASE STUDY RESULTS

The Outside Case Study samples was interviewed to substantiate research question A and B,
and also to test the argument whether there was a cultural clash between the Vietnamese
hotel managers and the western approach to hospitality management that affects the
managers‘ behaviour and performance. The interview result of the samples of non-
managerial staff from the participating local hotels, and senior managers from an
international and one other local hotel were to provide a substantial mix of interviewees to
confirm or challenge the self-reported behaviours and performances of the managerial staff
of the research.

4.5.1 Do Vietnamese National Culture Impacts and Cultural Clash Exist?

From the interview sample of 5 non-managerial staff from the participating local hotel A, B
and C; senior managers: SWU1 and SWU3, of an international hotel; and senior managers:
SWU2 and SWU4 from one other local hotel had revealed that the Vietnamese national
culture had moderating impacts on the hotel managerial staff behaviours and performances
and there was cultural clash, see Appendix 10. The common themes such as influence,
impact and affect were used in the interview responses to illustrate the presence of the
Vietnamese national culture impacts. Besides this, Interviewees NWU4 and NWU5 from
Hotel A and NWU3 from Hotel B had strongly claimed that the Vietnamese national culture
had impacted the hotel managers a lot. It was importantly expressed by NWU4 that his
managers were ―not like a hotel citizen but like a Vietnamese manager‖ who were
influenced more by their own culture than the organisational culture. Both, NWU4 and
NWU5 together with NWU1from Hotel C affirmed that the hotel managers were strongly
influenced by the culture of their Vietnamese subordinates. NWU2, an interviewee from
Hotel B, further supported this by saying that ―the hotel managers are influenced more by
the culture of subordinates than the hotel organisational culture‖.

The Interviewee SWU1 (overseas-Vietnamese manager) stated that the Vietnamese national
culture ―has big effect on the managers‖, and Interviewee SWU3 (expatriate manager)
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further elaborated that Vietnamese culture impacts the way managers assigning tasks and
the way that employees complete their tasks‖. In addition, SWU3 stressed that the
Vietnamese culture was more influential than organisational culture, which the Interviewees
from one other local hotel, SWU2 and SWU4 (Vietnamese managers), had totally agreed.
They expressed that ―the hotel manager is influenced more by culture of their colleagues‖
(SWU2) and ―it should be more influenced by the Vietnamese culture of subordinates‖
(SWU4).

Further on, all the interviewees; 5 non-managerial staff from the participating local hotels
and the 4 senior manager had also claimed that there was a presence of cultural clash
between the Vietnamese hotel managers and the western approach to hospitality
management that affects the managers‘ behaviour and performance. From hotel A,
Interviewees NWU4 did not show any hesitation to say that ―there is a big clash‖ and
NWU5 confirmed that ―there is a clash between the Vietnamese culture and the western
approach in hospitality‖. The response from NWU2 had significantly summarised the
Vietnamese national culture impacts and the presence of cultural clash by stating that:

They just want to do what they like and the Vietnamese culture
just stay in their mind. They know everything about western
standards. They learn by heart everything but when they work,
the Vietnam mindset is still there. (NWU2)

In fact, SWU3, an expatriate manager of an international hotel, stated ―Vietnam doesn‘t

have a service culture‖ and ―it is difficult to teach and perform the function in the hotel‖.
NWU1 from Hotel C re-iterated the above responses by saying that there are many clashes
between the hotel managers and the western service standards that affect the behaviours or
their performances. Consequently, these had added credibility to the above interviewees‘
responses.

Therefore, from the interview responses as discussed above, it had clearly shown and
supported the existence of the Vietnamese national culture‘s moderating impacts on the

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managerial staff behaviours and performances and the existence of cultural clash between
the Vietnamese hotel managers and the western approach to hospitality management.

The next discussion is about the interviewee result of the Outside Case Study samples about
the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions as reflected in research question B. This discussion is to
test whether the self-reported behaviours and performance of the interviewees of the Main
Case Study samples of managerial staff of the participating local hotels can be confirmed or
challenged to provide more credibility and validity to the Main Case study results or
findings.

4.5.2 Outside Case Study Result – Research Question B

In this section, the interview data of the Outside Case Study samples are analysed to confirm
or challenge whether the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions have associations with the above
discussed self-reported behaviours and performances of the Vietnamese local hotel
managers in the Main Case Study samples.

4.5.2.1 Power Distance

From the responses of the 5 interviewees of the non-managerial staff of the participating
local hotels, all had claimed that the Vietnamese hotel managers practice Low Power
Distance, except for NWU1, see Appendix 11. Interviewee NWU1 from Hotel C felt that
the Vietnamese hotel managers practiced High Power Distance because they were scared of
identifying each other faults and tend to protect each other. This prevented feedback from
other staff as they ―will try to keep face, keep the face for each other‖ (NWU1), which was
an undesirable negative impact on the behaviour of the hotel manager incurred by the High
Power Distance dimension. However, NWU4 and NWU5 from Hotel A, NWU2 and NWU3
from Hotel B had expressed responses that their Vietnamese hotel managers were Low
power Distance. The behaviour of the hotel managers like the way they treated and
―communicated with other employees just like friends‖ and using their experiences ―to
guide us, to teach us how to do things‖ (NWU4) had elaborated the positive desirable hotel
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manager‘s behaviour and performance brought about by the Low Power Distance
dimension. This was further identified by Interviewee NWU3 that:

…they are willing to listen to the employees. They ask

the opinions of the employees. They allow the employees
to participate…….. I see that the managers cooperate with
each other very well…. (NWU3)

From the 4 interviewees of senior managers from an international hotel and one other local
hotel, all had expressed that their managers were Low Power Distance except SWU1, see
Appendix 8. The Interviewee: SWU2 and SWU4 from one other local hotel, and SWU3, an
expatriate manager from an international hotel fully agreed the hotel managers practiced
Low Power Distance. Interviewee SWU3 stated that the hotel managers were able to discuss
problem, being collaborative and ―work out the solution together. The Low Power Distance
encouraged the hotel managers to allow junior staff to give feedback (SWU2) and Interview
SWU4 informed that ―the manager tends to be friend with their staff throughout the habit
routine‖. Altogether, these behaviours and performances have emphasised the rigor of the
western hotel service standards such as the managers must lead by example, anticipate
needs, and display teamwork, command attention to detail and teach, coach, and help others.

Contradictorily, Interviewee SWU1 claimed that the Vietnamese hotel managers were
Medium Power Distance as they did ask for feedback for the purpose of ―just to ask‖. In the
end, SWU1 firmly expressed that there was hierarchical behaviour as the hotel managers get
―to do what they like‖. An opposite perspective to Low Power distance was also given by
NWU1 who that the hotel manager were High Power Distance. This had illustrated that
Medium and High Power Distance incited negative impacts on the Vietnamese hotel
managers because open communication was not practiced and encouraged by these
dimensions. Therefore, this had challenged the managerial behavioural integrity of the
western hotel service standard approach to hospitality management.

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However, the majority (78%: 7 out of 9 interviewees) of the Outside Case Study samples
had given the response that the Vietnamese hotel managers embraced Low Power Distance.
Therefore, this result had affirmed that the Main Case Study sample of Vietnamese hotel
managers of the participating local hotels did embrace Low Power Distance.

4.5.2.2 Collectivism / Individualism

For this cultural dimension, it was clearly defined by all interviewees that the Vietnamese
hotel managers had High Collectivism, see Appendix 11. Interviewees: NWU4 and NWU5
from Hotel A, NWU2 and NWU3 from Hotel B, NWU1 from Hotel C, SWU1 and SWU3
from an international hotel, and SWU2 and SWU4 from one other local hotel had strongly
expressed that the hotel managers shown High Collectivism in their work behaviours and
performances. The response from NWU4 stating that the hotel managers had to work
together to guide and to run the whole hotel had supported and agreed with SWU3
(expatriate manager) claim that ―the staff always pulled together to solve problem or take
care of something‖. Thus, the common themes expressed in the interview were teamwork
and team-oriented. Importantly, it was summarised by SWU2 (Vietnamese manager from
one other local hotel) and SWU1 (Overseas-Vietnamese manager from international hotel)
by expressing that the hotel managers had ―community spirit‖ which was the recategorised
theme for High Collectivism in the Main Case Study result. These positive managerial
behaviours or performances can be identified with the some of the positive and desirable
hotel manager‘s behavioural traits of western hotel service standards such as display
teamwork and teach, coach, and help others.

It is noted that the all the interviewees (100%: 9 out of 9 interviewees) of the Outside Case
Study sample had given the response that the Vietnamese hotel managers had High
Collectivism. Therefore, this result had affirmed that the Main Case Study sample of
Vietnamese hotel managers of the participating local hotels did have High Collectivism.

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4.5.2.3 Masculinity / Femininity

All the 5 interviewees, non –managerial staff of the participating local hotels, had identified
that the Vietnamese hotel managers had High Femininity, see Appendix 11. The word, care,
appeared in all of their responses. Interviewee NWU4 from Hotel A pointed out that the
hotel manager wanted to ―show his care and his gentleness‖ and ―he wanted to let us know
that we are respected in this hotel‖. More of this caring attitude was shown in the responses
of Interviewee NWU2 from Hotel B that the hotel managers care for each other and they
tolerate each other, and from Interview NWU1 from Hotel C that ―they try to find the
problem and help each other‖.

As for the interview samples of senior manager; Interviewee SWU2 and SWU4 from one
other local hotel, and Interviewee SWU3 from international hotel had also identified the
Vietnamese hotel managers had High Femininity and they like to care and to assist each
other. However, Interview SWU1 from international hotel had contradicting opinion that the
hotel managers had High Masculinity because they were task-oriented. SWU1 claimed that
the Vietnamese hotel managers ―take ideas from others and they take credit for themselves‖.
The hotel managers always wanted in a way that ―it‘s in a way like I did it‖ (SWU1). These
undesirable attitude and behaviours had undermined and challenged the western service
approach to hotel management, which have managerial traits such as managers must lead by
example, display teamwork, exceed expectations, anticipate needs, command attention to
detail, and teach, coach, and help others.

However, majority of the interviewees (89%: 8 out of 9 interviewees) of the Outside Case
Study sample had claimed that Vietnamese hotel managers were highly feminine-orientated
in their work environments. Thus, this result had affirmed that the Main Case Study sample
of Vietnamese hotel managers of the participating local hotels embraced High Femininity.
In addition, Interviewee NWU4, SWU2 and SWU4 had pointed out that the hotel managers
nurtured their employees, which was consistent with the recategorised theme of ‗Nurture
Others‘ for the High Femininity dimension as discussed in the Main Case Study result.

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4.5.2.4 Uncertainty Avoidance

For this cultural dimension, all the interviewees, except Interviewee NWU1 and SWU1, had
revealed that the Vietnamese managers had Low Uncertainty Avoidance which meant that
they were not afraid to take risks, see Appendix 11. Interviewee NWU4 from Hotel A
claimed that all the managers in the hotel were not afraid of making mistake, and NWU2
from Hotel B supported this by responding that the hotel managers ―accept the risk and
learn the lesson‖ so that they would not in the same situation again. The response of
Interviewee NWU3 from Hotel B had affirmed that the Vietnamese hotel managers ―agreed
to be challenged‖ and to be questioned. In addition, Interviewee SWU2 from one other local
hotel claimed that ―all the managers in my hotel they are not afraid of making mistake‖, and
SWU3 from an international hotel supported this by claiming that ―they are risk-takers in a
sense of not questioning what they are told‖. Therefore, the common theme of risk-taking
was identified. This risk-taking mentality fashioned by the Low Uncertainty avoidance
could impact and assist the hotel managers positively to be more proactive, diligent and
immaculate in their work behaviours and performances. These desirable positive
behavioural impacts are significant attitudes and behaviours for the western hotel service
standards to display its behavioural traits such as managers must lead by example, exceed
expectations, anticipate needs, display teamwork, command attention to detail and teach,
coach, and help others. Furthermore, these findings support the recategorised theme of Risk-
Taking for the Low Uncertainty Avoidance dimension as discussed in the Main Case Study
results.

In contrast, Interviewee SWU1 expressed that they were high in uncertainty avoidance in
the context that the hotel managers wanted a stable environment and that ―they like the old
way because it makes it easy for them‖. The Interviewee NWU1 had similar perception of
the hotel managers that they were ―scared of giving an idea to change‖ and ―not open to give
idea to change‖. These negative impacts of High Uncertainty Avoidance did not fit into the
parts of the western hotel service standard‘s behavioural traits such as managers must lead
by example, display teamwork, and teach, coach, and help others in order to maintain and
deliver the hotel quality standards.
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It is important to note that the majority of the interviewees (78%: 7 out of 9 interviewees) of
the Outside Case Study sample had claimed that Vietnamese hotel managers were risk-
takers because of their Low Uncertainty Avoidance paradigm. Thus, this result had
supported that the Vietnamese hotel managers of the Main Case Study embraced Low
Uncertainty Avoidance.

4.5.2.5 Long-Term / Short-Term Orientation

For this cultural dimension, all the interviewees agreed that the Vietnamese hotel managers
had Long-Term Orientation, see Appendix 11. The common words expressed were training,
and employee welfare and benefits. Interviewee SWU2 and SWU4 from one other local
hotel stated that hotel managers train, motivate and guide the employees to be professional
in their work. This was also claimed by Interviewee NWU4 from Hotel A that the hotel
manager trained the employee ―how to be the hotel citizen‖, and SWU2, a Vietnamese
manager from one other local hotel, revealed that the hotel managers give training courses
―to learn about hotel‘s culture and how to be a hotel citizen to serve guests‖. It was also
pointed out that the hotel manager encouraged the employee in such a way ―all of the
employees should care about the future benefits‖ (NWU3).

The discussion in the Main Case study result had identified the re-categorised theme of
Long-Term Orientation to be Paternalistic Orientation. The Interviewee NWU3 from Hotel
C stated that the hotel managers worked with the staff ―like family members, not like co-
workers‖. This paternalistic instinct was also highlighted by Interviewee SWU3, an
expatriate manager from an international hotel, that ―the manager or boss is kind of as the
father figure of the group‖ and ―their subordinates listen just like children listen to their
parents‖. The paternalistic-oriented behaviour of the hotel manager also engaged them to
provide training, care and help to their employees. Thus, this information had further
supported that the Long-Term Orientation of the Vietnamese hotel managers had inspired
the managers to embrace the paternalistic orientation at work.

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As a large majority of the interviewees had confirmed that the Vietnamese hotel managers
were long-term orientated, it is important to note that Long-Term Orientation dimension is
uniquely and ―only relevant to countries in East Asia‖ (Dartey-Baah, 2013, p. 41) because
of the influence of Confucian Dynamism (Hofstede and Bond, 1988). With the influence of
Confucian strain, the Long-Term perspective promotes persistence, thrift and future rewards
(Hoang, 2008). These future–oriented values are related to the good aptitude to solve
distinct problems, perseverance towards time-consuming results, and ability to adjust
traditions to changed environments. (2008). These attitude and behavioural traits could be
positively related and enforced the western hotel service standard‘s behavioral traits
especially in anticipating needs of customers and employees, displaying teamwork and to
nurture staff by teaching, coaching, and helping others

4.6 OTHER RESULTS – NEGATIVE IMPACTS

The research results have identified that the majority moderating impacts of the Vietnamese
national culture on the Vietnamese hotel managers have or in the cultural dimensions of
Low Power Distance, High Individualism, High Femininity, Low Uncertainty Avoidance
and Long-Term Orientation which exhibit desirable positive behavioural traits of the hotel
managers‘ behaviours and performances. However, some of the interviewees have
expressed differently which indicated that the hotel managers have opposite cultural
dimensions such as High Power Distance, High Individualism, High Masculinity, High
Uncertainty Avoidance and Short-Term Orientation. The responses from the interviewees
have revealed that these opposite cultural dimensions have inspired and shown undesirables
negative behavioural traits or attitudes in the hotel manager‘s behaviours or performances,
which undermine the western hotel service standard approach to hotel management, see
Appendix 12.

As discussed earlier, the moderating impacts of Vietnamese national culture can be positive
(desirable) or negative (undesirable) impacts or influences on the Vietnamese hotel

165
managers. The undesirable negative impacts could or might undermine the hotel manager‘s
work behaviours and performances, which are illustrated in the following discussions.

4.6.1 High Power Distance

For Power Distance dimension, 5 out of 12 interviewees expressed that the hotel managers
had High Power distance. Interviewee WU7, WU9, WU12, and WU13 from Hotel B; and
SWU1 form an international hotel had claimed that the Power Distance is high. The High
Power Distance was summarised by Interviewee WU9 that the subordinates were expected
to be told what to do, they were to always obey orders, and employees were not allowed to
give comments. This is supported by the SWU1 that the staff ―still have to do what they
(managers) like‖ and ―it is just about the manager‘s ideas‖. Likewise, the High Masculinity
mentality (to be discussed later) would further reinforce these attitudes and behaviours as it
made the hotel managers more assertive and task-oriented. In addition, Interviewee WU9
stated that ―the ideal boss is a God‖, and WU14 agreed that the boss is ―the God, he or she is
always right‖. This had identified a hierarchical order in existence which did not encourage
two–way communication between the superior and the staff. In fact, it is pointed out by
Interviewee WU13 that there was lack of opportunity to talk to managers and this had
discouraged employee participations. Therefore, this may affect adversely on the human
resource management of the hotel in terms of developing teamwork and the training needs
to teach, coach, and help others so that the engagement of the employee can be increased.
Basically from these responses; it is found that the High Power Distance made the hotel
managers not to practice open communication, does not like to nurture others and do not
embrace paternalistic orientation. Consequently, these are identified to be undesirable
behavioural traits which hinder the western hotel service standards practices in the hotels.
As such, it is noted that the moderating impacts of High Power Distance on the hotel
managers‘ behaviours do not allow them to display teamwork and teach, coach, and help
others as part of the behavioural integrity of the western hotel service approach to hotel
management.

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4.6.2 High Individualism

The Interviewee: WU8 from Hotel A; WU7 from Hotel B; and WU10 from Hotel C had
claimed that the hotel managers had High Individualism because they always thought about
personal benefits. In such a society, individuals are given great deal of personal freedom,
independence, self-rule and does not center on group rapport and association (Dartey-Baah,
2012). It is highlighted by Interviewee WU7 and WU10 that the hotel managers did not like
to ―lose face‖ which meant that they wanted to be right and correct in front of their staff
even when they had made a mistake or given a bad decision or idea. The individualistic
employees tend to hold a need for achievement and career-oriented which lead to
competitiveness (Hoang, 2008). Therefore, we can gauge that there will be impact issues
when an individualist and collectivist work together in the same organization as the
individualistic culture would want their decisions to be executed regardless of other views
and the collectivistic culture would encourage teamwork and support (Dartey-Baah, 2012).
These impacts imposed by High Individualism do not align with the behavioural traits of
western hotel service standards, which the hotel manager are to lead by example, display
teamwork, teach, coach, and help others. As such, the High Individualism has negative
moderating impacts on the Vietnamese hotel managers.

4.6.3 High Masculinity

For this dimension, Interviewee WU8 from Hotel A and Interviewee WU7 from Hotel B
have expressed that the hotel managers were masculine-oriented. They were more gender-
preferred responses rather than phenomenon of managerial behaviours. WU8 stated that the
male gender was more suitable as they ―are more assertive ‖ in their managerial behaviours
and performances. However, WU7 claimed that the male manager ―make better decisions‖
and give a ―bigger view‖. Luthans and Don (2009) have characterized the masculine
organizational environment to have ―high job stress and many managers believe that their
employees dislike work and must be kept under some degree of control (p. 105) in contrast
to Vietnam‘s more feminine situation of nurturing. Hence, the moderating impacts are
posited to exist as the more masculine western hotel service approach to hotel management
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―emphasizes success, achievement, social status, and quantifiable realities‖. Concurrently,
while the eastern feminine host national culture (Vietnam) is focusing on the ― holistic
aspects‖ (Dartey-Baah, 2012, p. 43). As such, the high masculinity dimension might not
have feasible impacts or influences on the Vietnamese hotel managers‘ behaviours or
performances.

4.6.4 High Uncertainty Avoidance

There was a mix result in this cultural dimension with 6 out of 12 interviewees claimed that
the hotel managers had High Uncertainty Avoidance which were not risk-takers. The
Interviewee SWU1 from an international hotel stressed that the hotel managers ―want to be
stable‖ and ―like the old way because it makes it easy for them‖. The common themes from
the responses were ―not take risk‖ and ―do not want to change‖. From Hotel B, interviewee
WU12 stated that the hotel managers ―did not want to change anything‖ and Interviewee
WU13 claimed that the managers did not want to change because they ―did not want to take
on challenges‖. These responses are expected from a high Uncertainty Avoidance hotel
managers who ‗tend to be risk-adverse, and favour rigid and formal decision-making
processes in the workplace‖ (Dartey-Baah, 2012, p.41). In addition, Interviewee WU7 from
Hotel B expressed that the hotel managers ―do not want to lose face so they just try to
choose the safest way‖. Therefore, this has demonstrated that the hotel managers favour
stability and they are inflexible and unengaging in their leadership and management style.
Consequently, this will undermine the practice of the western hotel service standards in the
local hotel as the managers embrace the behavioural traits of leading by example,
anticipating guest and staff needs, commanding attention to details and exceeding guest
expectations.

4.6.5 Short-Term Orientation

For this cultural dimension, almost all of the interviewees claimed that the hotel managers
had Long-Term Orientation, and only Interviewee WU8 from Hotel A claimed that they had
Short-Term Orientation. Interviewee WU8 pointed out that the managers cared for the
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―benefits in front of their eyes‖ and ―they do not look for things so far away‖. As such, the
Short-Term Orientation tends to encourage individualism and task-oriented approach which
does not engage and promote teamwork and people-oriented approach, which is paramount
for hotel management (Walker, 2007).

Altogether, the above information gathered can synthesise that the Hofstede Cultural
Dimensions of High Power Distance, High Individualism, High Masculinity, High
Uncertainty Avoidance and Short-Term Orientation have generated, stimulated and installed
undesirable negative attitudes and behaviours on the Vietnamese hotel managers of the local
hotels. Therefore, these cultural dimensions may hinder the local hotels‘ staff performance
in delivery their quality products and values while they adopting the western hotel service
standard approach to the hotel management.

4.7 CONCLUSION

The Outside Case Study result has confirmed that the Vietnamese national culture has
moderating impacts on the local hotel managers in the perspectives of the Hofstede Cultural
Dimensions. It has also identified a certain degree of cultural clash between the Vietnamese
hotel managers and the western approach to hospitality management that impacts and
influences the managers‘ behaviour and performance, which underscored the challenge of
the current research. Its findings have also highlighted that the positive cultural dimensions
of Low Power distance, High Collectivism, high Femininity, Low Uncertainty avoidance
and Long-Term Orientation have exerted desirable (positive) moderating impacts on the
Vietnamese hotel managers, which could contribute to strengthen their behavioural integrity
of the behavioural traits of the western hotel service standard in their work behaviours or
performances. Furthermore, the findings from the Section 4.5 has shown that the cultural
dimensions opposite to the respective positive cultural dimensions such as High Power
Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, High Uncertainty Avoidance and Short-Term
Orientation might not be good or have negative impacts in the hotel work environments.

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The research findings answered research question (A) positively with strong illustrations
and confirmation of the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the
behaviour or performance of local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff of the participating
local hotels. It was found that the moderating impacts influenced their work performances.
As for research question (B), the analysis of the case study data acknowledged and
demonstrated that the Hofstede cultural dimensions were feasible and pragmatic measures to
investigate the research objectives. The research findings of the Hofstede model identified
and illustrated the moderating impacts or influences of the Vietnamese national culture on
the local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff. By recategorising the Hofstede thematic items
of the respective cultural dimensions, these effects or influences of moderating impacts were
found and illustrated in the themes of Open Communication, Community Spirit, Nurture
Others, Risk-Taking and Paternalistic Orientation, which impacted or influenced the
behaviours or work performance of the local Vietnamese hotel managers, see Table 4.6.

Table 4.6 Cultural Dimension Recategorised Themes

Hofstede Cultural Dimension Recategorised Theme

Low Power Distance Open Communication

High Collectivism (Low Individualism) Community Spirit
Low Masculinity (High Femininity) Nurture Others
Low Uncertainty Avoidance Risk-Taking
High Long-term Orientation Paternalistic Orientation

The samples of the Outside Case Study like the 5 interviewees of non-managerial staff of
the three participating local hotels, and the 4 senior managers from an international hotel (an
expatriate manager, an Overseas-Vietnamese manager) and one other local hotel (2
Vietnamese manager) have provided a good mix of interviewee samples to test and confirm
whether the research objectives and the findings of the research results. The findings of the
Outside Case Study have also demonstrated that these recategorised themes exist in their

170
respective cultural dimensions. Besides this, it is illustrated that the recategorised themes are
desirable positive managerial orientations and practices, which enriches or contributes to the
behavioural traits of western hotel service standards of the case study‘s local hotels.

The next section, Chapter 5, will provide the research conclusion and discuss the
implications and application of the research findings. It also reviews the research limitations
and future research directions.

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 CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

5.1 INTRODUCTION

The chapter will draw together the primary themes to emerge from the research. It will do so
by giving a result summary, revisiting the primary research questions, providing final
discussion and the conclusions to be drawn. Following that, the implications of the research
findings are considered and discussed within the context of the research. A discussion on the
research limitations is provided and the opportunities and directions for future research are
outlined.

5.2 RESULT SUMMARY

The findings of the Main Case study and Outside Case study have identified desirable
positive and undesirable negative moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on
the Vietnamese hotel managers. The Outside Case study results have confirmed that there is
a nature or certain degree of cultural clash between the hotel managers and the western hotel
service approach to hotel management in the local hotels. Furthermore, it is pointed out that
the ethnocentricity of the Vietnamese hotel managers might incite the egocentrism in them
to aggravate the presence and intensity of the cultural clash in the hotel work environment
as the local hotel culture requires the hotel staff to consistently embrace or adopt the western
hotel service standards.

The moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the Vietnamese hotel
managers are related and are found to have associations with the manager‘s behavioural
traits of the western hotel service standard approach. As discussed in Chapter 2, the
universalistic conceptualised hotel standards are recognised as the western hotel service
standards. The western hotel service standard model does not have a one-size-fit-all model
172
and is customised to fit the hotel property and locality (Roper, Brookes & Hampton, 1997).
However, the discussion about the western service standards in Chapter 2 has suggested that
the western service standards are epitomized by certain successful manager‘s behavioural
traits as defined by Robert Dedman such as‖ managers must lead by example, exceed
expectations, anticipate needs, display teamwork, command attention to detail, teach, coach,
and help others‖ (Dawson & Abbott, 2011, p.295). This manager‘s behavioural traits are
assumed to merge, direct and govern the hotel manager‘s behavioural integrity in the
practices of the western service approach to hotel management of the Vietnamese local
hotels which are found to be illustrated in the interviewees‘ responses. The results of the
research questions have indicated that the Vietnamese are geared towards the behavioural
traits of the western hotel service standards as they embraced it in their hotel culture. It is
found that there is a merging of cultures like the convergence process whereby ―learning
will lead managers form different cultures to adopt the same efficient management
practices‖ (Vecchi & Brennan, 2009, p.149). The Interviewee NW5 from Hotel A has
expressed that the hotel managers train and nurture them ―how to do work in global
standards‖. It is also importantly claimed by Interviewee: SWU2, a Vietnamese manager
from one other local hotel and NWU4 from Hotel A that the managers encourage and train
them to be the ―hotel citizen‖ so that they can deliver the hotel quality standards
professionally. This has signified that the hotel managers embrace and practice the
behavioural traits of the western hotel service standards in their hotel management
approaches which have cultural perspectives of Low Power Distance, High Collectivism,
High Femininity, Low Uncertainty Avoidance and High Long-Term Orientation. From
these cultural dimensions, their recategorised themes of Open Communication, Community
Spirit, Nurture Others, Risk-Taking and Paternalistic Orientation are deemed to be the
positive factors to help and contribute in a synergic way to the western hotel service
standard‘s behavioural traits as mentioned above.

5.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

5.3.1 Research Question (A)

173
Research question (A) illustrated and concluded that the research findings had identified that
all three participating local hotels indicated a strong positive generalisation that the
Vietnamese national culture had moderating impacts or influences on the behaviour or
performance of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels. These moderating impacts were
experienced in the local hotel managers‘ work behaviours or performances. The research
findings revealed that some of the interviewees had experienced the moderating impacts
strongly, at work. The Interviewee WU12 from Hotel B commented on the strength of the
culture, claiming that the Vietnamese culture is ‗carried‘ to work. Furthermore, WU8 from
Hotel A and WU7 from Hotel B identified that even when they were trying to step out of the
influences of the culture it was very hard to do so. These examples of interviewee responses
have given further accreditation to Hofstede‘s reference to national culture as ―software of
the mind‖ of the nationals, which coordinates, monitors and controls their behaviour and
performance (Hofstede, 2001; Testa, 2007, p.470;). This has also objectively explained the
fact that ―culture inculcates organizational members into unity of purpose and action‖ (Enz,
2010, p.139), which is related by one interviewee from Hotel B who said that ―it makes us
do things we always used to do and do not want to change‖ (WU9), and WU10 from Hotel
C informed that it was difficult to change as it ―becomes the habit‖. Therefore, the presence
of moderating impacts was further amplified when the managerial staff of the local hotels
adopted and practised the western hotel service standards hotel standards.

As mentioned in Chapter 2, the local hotels adopt and practise the universalistic
conceptualised hotel standards or western hotel service standards in order to meet guest
expectations and stay competitive in the industry. These standards, as discussed in Chapter
4, have created a phenomenon similar to a cultural clash in hotel work environments which
present opportunities for the national culture to exert its moderating impacts on the local
hotel managers. This brought about responses to the interview, with regard to national
culture, such as ―make them not to understand what is needed especially hotel standards‖
(WU13), ―influencing how we look at things‖ (WU7), and importantly stressed by WU9
that ―I think that makes us not to understand what is needed especially in hotel standards‖.
Thus, these had given a reason why the interviewees said that the moderating impacts or
influences had strongly influenced their work performances in the local hotels.
174
The result of research question (A) has shown and concluded that the Vietnamese national
culture has moderating impacts on the local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff and the
influences are felt in their work performances. This is strongly supported by the findings of
the Outside Case Study result.

5.3.2 Research Question (B)

The answers to the research question (B) have provided a conclusion that the Hofstede
cultural dimensions are pragmatic and appropriate to be used as the exploratory and
measurement criteria of the moderating impacts of national culture in the research
investigations. By applying the Hofstede cultural dimensions, the moderating impacts of the
Vietnamese national culture on the behaviour or performance of the local managerial staff in
Vietnamese hotels can be understood. As discussed in Chapter 4, the research found that the
moderating impacts of the national culture had evoked the local Vietnamese hotel managers
to practise and embrace certain management attitudes and attributes as illustrated by the
thematic items in their work performances. Therefore, the research has illustrated and
concluded that the moderating impacts of the national culture have influenced the local
Vietnamese hotel managerial staff to behave or perform in their work in such a way that
they:
- practise open communication
- promote community spirit
- like to nurture others
- accept risk-taking
- embrace paternalistic orientation

Consequently, these traits will assist to improve and sustain their hotel staff‘s performance,
to deliver the local hotels‘ product–service quality standards. As mentioned earlier, these
traits involve in synergic ways to assist the western hotel service standard‘s behavioural
traits. Therefore, it has synthesised that the moderating impacts or influences of the
Vietnamese national culture as illustrated in Chapter 4, are essential success factor for the
Vietnam‘s hotel industry, and the moderating impacts are to be acknowledged. As such, it
175
can be seen that the Vietnamese culture characteristics do have positive behavioural
elements for hotel management in Vietnam. Hence, the implication is that the cultural
impacts can be part of the cultural intelligence to be advantageously incorporated into hotel
operations and strategies to create competitiveness for the local hotel properties. This has
illustrated the active influential part of culture and has also identified an imperative fact that
―culture becomes a key management tool to influence employee thoughts, feelings, and
behaviours‖ (Enz, 2010, p.144). Importantly, these traits or themes have positive
implications and applications to contribute to the local hotel management behaviour and
performance, which will be discussed in the following section.

5.4 RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS

The result of the research findings has identified desirable positive and undesirable negative
moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the behaviour or performance of
the local Vietnamese managerial staff. In the perspective of the desirable positive
moderating impacts, a few management premises or themes have been identified for
Vietnamese hotel managers to look into for better management and enrichment. These
positive management themes such as Open Communication, Community Spirit, Nurture
Others, Risk-Taking and Paternalistic Orientation are important traits for cultivating a
successful hotel culture and climate to guide the achievement of a hotel‘s objectives. It is
known that work in a hotel is team-oriented, which encourages open communication for
better understanding, and feedback to inspire innovative decision-making to produce high
guest satisfaction (Walker, 2007). This will create team spirit among hotel staff and
motivate them to nurture and care for each other to promote organisational ‗citizenship‘ and
to maintain a healthy work/life balance at work (Robbins, 2005). As such, the identified
themes of the moderating impacts of national culture are viable and pragmatic for the local
hotel work environment. Since the hotel product has dependent intangible elements like
guest service aspects of the hotel product (Walker, 2007), it is important ―to satisfy the
physical and psychological expectations of guests‖ (Chon & Sparrowe, 2000, p.13).
Therefore, local hotel managers can utilise the illustrated themes of the moderating impacts
176
as management benchmarks or guidelines to lead and perform their duties and to engage
their associates more competently to meet guest expectations. Thus, by applying and
practicing these positive management themes in the local hotels, the Vietnamese hotel
managers are able to align and integrate better into the western hotel service standard
practices in their hotel management.

In the perspective of undesirable negative moderating impacts on the Vietnamese hotel

managers‘ behaviours or performances, it is found that the negative impacts are generated
by the cultural dimensions of High Power Distance, High Collectivism, High Masculinity,
High Uncertainty Avoidance and Short-Term Orientation. These negative impacts as
illustrated in Chapter 4 have hindered the hotel managers in observing and practicing the
western hotel service standards in the local hotels. Hence, the potential values and
significance of the research revealed that the findings could provide assistance and
directions to guide workforce management and training strategy more substantially and
objectively. Therefore, the research findings not only have significance for theoretical
knowledge about the managerial aspect of local hotels but also to introduce practical values
for the local hotel industry in Vietnam. The findings have shown that the local hotel industry
can adopt the Hofstede cultural dimensions to investigate and monitor managerial behaviour
and performance levels. As such, the current research has assisted to justify and to add
credibility to the Hofstede cultural dimensions being used as a tool for cultural studies in the
hotel industry.

5.5 RESEARCH LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

As discussed in Chapter 3, the research limitations are summarised as follows. The study
has limitations in the research design as it is a case study of only one local hotel company in
Vietnam within a given time limit. In addition, the sample is limited by focusing on the
managerial staff of the three participating hotels and Vietnamese sub-culture dimensions are
not taken into consideration. In terms of data collection it is reasonable that bias exists, as
the research is involved in the attitudes and opinions of Vietnamese managerial staff (as the
177
participants), who might show bias in their interview responses. It is also noted that because
of the qualitative nature of the inductive and interpretive approach of the research, the
accuracy of the data analysis is dependent on the intellectual competency of the researcher
to gauge and justify the research information in order to arrive at the findings or
conclusions.

Future research is greatly encouraged as there are not many studies on the Vietnamese hotel
industry, especially in the area and context of the local hotels in Vietnam. It is known that
there has not been much research involving concepts and theories indigenous to a culture
(Lowe, 2002; Sekaran, 1983), and limited research concentrating on a particular culture-
specific (Hoang, 2008).

As illustrated in Chapter 4, the research study has discovered the positive aspects of
moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the local hotel managers. In the
hotel management or other industries, it is critical to acknowledge the negative effects of the
moderating impacts, so that more information is available for better management, decision-
making and strategic planning. Therefore, future research is recommended to be structured
to investigate the negative effects of the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national
culture on the behaviour or performance of local hotel managerial staff.

Future research is recommended to include the sub-culture influences on managerial

workforce behaviour. Besides this, it would be more cogent when the research also covers
the moderating impacts on the behaviour of local hotel managerial staff in different regions
of Vietnam, so that comparisons could be done to arrive at better result generalisation.
Furthermore, the identified thematic items of the moderating impacts can be used as
constructive variables to further explore the study of national culture impacts. Since the
research study is at company level, the future direction is for the research to be at a national
level to further justify the moderating impacts of the Vietnamese national culture on the
local hotel managerial staff. The current research hopefully is able to set a precedent for
researchers, practitioners and scholars to increase their interests and duplicate the research to
enhance the cultural study in the hotel industry locally and internationally.
178
179
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APPENDICES

196
 Appendix 1

Berrell, Wright and Tran Research - Culture-Influenced

Managerial Behaviour

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Appendix 1: Berrell, Wright and Tran Research - Culture-Influenced Managerial
Behaviour

The following are the research findings of Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999), which illustrates
the culture-influenced behaviour or performance patterns and attitudes of the Vietnamese
managerial staff.

 Vietnamese managers are often not willing to question the reasoning behind hotel
management decisions.

 Vietnamese managers do not like having other employees involved in their decision-
making.

 Vietnamese managers do not accept disagreements or opposing views.

 Vietnamese managers do not view forceful conversations as negative experiences.

 Vietnamese managers are indirect and restricted in voicing their unhappiness or

concern as the tool of control and tolerance.

 Vietnamese managers often take time to talk things over with other employees in the
other sections before taking action.

 Vietnamese managers do not recognise that the network of personal relationships

among local managers is important to assist the management process.

 Vietnamese managers are worried with their job position status which makes them
experience work in a less involved manner.

 Vietnamese managers view time as unlimited and changeable.

 Vietnamese managers are willing to share scarce resources such as office space,
supplies, equipment and others, with other staff.

 Vietnamese managers promote co-operation and involvement in the workplace by

sharing of scarce resources between individuals.

 Vietnamese managers are less privacy-oriented.

 Vietnamese managers believe in the ―Big-Picture‖ approach to the use of public and
private spaces, instead of an individual use.

 Vietnamese managers show behaviour that indicated ―what is different is

dangerous‖.
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  Vietnamese managers sometimes have different opinions about how best to get a job
done.

 Vietnamese managers accept disagreeable situations because facing problems

directly is seen as being argumentative.

 Vietnamese managers place great value on control and tolerance which avoids
excessive worry.

 Vietnamese managers do not have the attitude to ―allow things to happen‖, resulting
in considerable delays in making decisions or taking actions.

The above is adapted from the findings of Berrell, Wright and Tran (1999) research.

199
 Appendix 2

Interview Script

200
Appendix 2: Interview Script

INTERVIEW SCRIPT

The principal instrument for the data collection is a one-to-one semi-structured interview
with mainly open-ended questions. The interview questions were designed to get the
respondents talking about the cultural dimensions and its moderating impacts to identify the
theoretical constructs of the study of the moderating impacts of national culture on the
Vietnamese managerial workforce behaviours in local hotels. This interview should take
about 15 – 60 minutes.

The interview questions are as follows:

RESEARCH QUESTION (A)

A) How does Vietnam’s national culture impact on the behaviour or performance

of the local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

A.1 How do you think the Vietnamese national culture impacts on the behaviour or
performance of the hotel‘s Vietnamese managerial staff?

A.2 From your experiences at work, what is/are your opinion or examples about
Vietnamese national culture's moderating impacts on the behaviour or performance
of local managerial staff in Vietnamese hotels?

RESEARCH QUESTION (B)

B) How does the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions explain the moderating impacts of
the National Culture on the behaviour or performance of local Vietnamese
hotel managerial staff?

In your opinion, how would you explain the Vietnamese Culture involvement with respect
to the following areas as indicated below in the managerial workforce behaviors?

Please use examples of their moderating impacts if possible.

1. POWER DISTANCE

(Power Distance - the extent to which less powerful members of institutions and
organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally)

201
Power in Work

1.a) To what extent, do you think that Power Distance affects the
managerial staff behavior or performance in the hotel?

1.b) What are the examples of Power Distance impacts or influences which you have
experienced or observed in your hotel?

2. COLLECTIVISM / INDIVIDUALISM

(Individualism is defined as the relation between an individual and his or her fellow
individuals, and their tendency of people to look after themselves and their immediate
family only)

Individualism at work

2.a) To what extent do you think that Collectivism/Individualism affects the

managerial staff behavior or performance in the hotel?

2.b) What are the examples of Collectivism/Individualism impacts or influences

which you have experienced or observed in your hotel?

3. MASCULINITY / FEMININITY

(Masculinity / Femininity dimension looks at the division of roles between the sexes in
society, and the relationship between gender and work)

Gender's roles in work

3.a) To what extent, do you think that Masculinity/Femininity affects the

managerial staff behavior or performance in the hotel?

3.b) What are the examples of Masculinity/Femininity impacts or influences which

you have experienced or observed in your hotel?

4. UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE

(Uncertainty Avoidance is the extent to which people feel threatened by ambiguous

situationsand have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these)

202
Dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity at work

4.a) To what extent, do you think that Uncertainty Avoidance affects the
managerial staff behavior or performance in the hotel?

4.b) What are the examples of Uncertainty Avoidance impacts or influences which you
have experienced or observed in your hotel?

5. LONG/SHORT TERM ORIENTATION

(Long-Term Orientation or Confucian Dynamism shows an ability to adapt traditions to

a modern context; Societies score high on long term are more pragmatic approach;
encourage thrift and efforts)

The importance of adapting traditions to new circumstances at work, and the

values in particular of perseverance and thrift in future

5.a) To what extent, do you think that Long-Term Orientation affects the
managerial staff behaviour or performance in the hotel?

5.b) What are the examples of Long-Term Orientation impacts or influences which
you have experienced or observed in your hotel?

END

203
 Appendix 3
Hotel Information Statement

204
Appendix 3: Hotel Information Statement

205
206
207
 Appendix 4

Participant Information Statement

208
Appendix 4: Participant Information Statement

209
210
211
212
 Appendix 5

Hotel Company Consent Form

213
Appendix 5: Hotel Company Consent Form

214
 Appendix 6

Participant Consent Form

215
Appendix 6: Participant Consent Form

216
 Appendix 7

Data Coding Details of Main Case Study - Research Question (A)

217
Appendix 7: Data Coding Details of Main Case Study - Research Question (A)

Research Question (A):

How does Vietnam national culture impact on the local hotel Vietnamese managerial staff behaviours?

The coding process is to find out whether there is an agreement or generalization that the Vietnam‘s national
culture has moderating impacts on the local hotel Vietnamese managerial staff behaviour or performance.

Note: Positive – denotes that the interviewee agreed that there is/are Vietnam national culture impact on the
local hotel Vietnamese managerial workforce behaviours

Negative - denotes that there is/are no Vietnam national culture impact on the local hotel Vietnamese
Managerial workforce behaviours

No Comments – denotes that the interviewee has no experienced such perceived behaviours

Positive
Hotel Interviewee Negative
No Comments

HOTEL A

Hotel A WU1 1. National culture, yes (national culture influences all these
things that you…. have mentioned)

Aah…We come same…same culture, we live here, we study

here….

2. That's the balance….……that's the difficult thing. Because of

the Culture, we cannot change for….one day, two day or one
month , two month

3. Vietnamese culture affects us a lot!

4. So, it means impact for the…..it means behaviour is different.

…impact affects you …affect a lot…
Summative
Answer: Positive

WU2
1. I think it is quite much because we born here

2. That is a lot of influence.

Summative
Answer: Positive

WU8 1. Ah….to my idea it is very high on the working

performance

2. Emm,…I think yes. Ah…..It impacts the way we

think at work
Summative
3. Just medium Answer: Positive

218
For Hotel A, the Positive
concluded answer is:

HOTEL B

Hotel B WU3 1. I think the Vietnamese ...ah..national culture influence

….ah…many with the Vietnamese people

2. Ah,…ya….It very impacted us

Summative
Answer: Positive

WU7 1. Ah… yes, I think it influences very strongly and ….a…it‘s

very important because it‘s influencing how we look at things.

2. The culture impacts me quite much and …… I am trying to…

to step out of this but it is very hard for me.

Summative
Answer: Positive

WU9 1. Ah, yes I think that national culture influences very strongly on
the local hotel Vietnamese managerial workforce behaviours
Summative
2. Yes, it has strong impacts on my work performance and the Answer: Positive
way we think at work

3. It makes us do things we always used to do and do not want to

change and also influence our understanding of what is needed
for the hotel, for the hotel quality standards‖

WU12 1. I think it is very strong.

2. Will be effect by Vietnam culture and

3. You work to the hotel. After that , you will bring….you will
carry Vietnam culture to the work Summative
Answer: Positive

WU13 1. In my point, I suppose that it has a strong influence.

Summative
Answer: Positive

For Hotel B, the Positive

concluded answer is:

HOTEL C

Hotel C WU6 1. Ah…..still my opinion, I think Vietnamese culture

influence is very strong to the local hotel managerial
workforce Summative
Answer: Positive
2. The impacts on our behavior towards work and friends. So,
like it affects a lot to our management style

4. How we train the staff and also how we decorate everything in

219
 the hotel. Like it has very strong impact on my work
performance

WU10 1. I think it..it......ah…it influences...ah...very strongly

Summative
Answer: Positive

WU11 1. I think nowadays Vietnam's national culture.. is still

effect on Vietnamese manager workforce behavior but
its. lesser than before….
Summative
Answer: Positive

WU14 1. Yes, I think it influences strongly, and it causes

many the problem which to be occurred later
Summative
Answer: Yes

For Hotel C, the Positive

concluded answer is:

Result: As illustrated by all three local hotels, there is a positive summative result or
generalization that the Vietnamese national culture has moderating impacts
on the local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff behaviour or work
performance.

220
 Appendix 8

Data Coding Details of Main Case Study - Research Question (B)

221
Appendix 8: Data Coding Details of Main Case Study - Research Question (B)

Main Question (B): How does the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions explain the moderating impacts of the National
Culture on the behaviour or performance of local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff?

In the following coding process, the axial codes are to be identified and matched to the respective Hofstede Cultural
Dimensions, which are taken as the selective code. The Theme or Category item codes of the Hofstede Cultural
Dimensions are adapted accordingly from the Geert Hofstede's textbook: Culture's Consequences, Comparing Values,
Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations (Hofstede, 2001).

Illustrated below are the tables showing the coding details:

4.2a - Power Distance

4.2b - Collectivism versus Individualism
4.2c - Masculinity versus Femininity
4.2d - Uncertainty Avoidance
4.2e - long-Term versus Short-Term Orientation

Formula:

1. Count Score Percentage = total frequency count score of thematic codes, Z, divided by (number of open
codes, O, multiplied by number of thematic codes, T) multiplied by 100

Count Score % = Z / (O X T) X 100

4.2a Coding to Match Selective Codes of Hofstede Cultural Dimension: Power Distance

The thematic PDL code signifies Low Power Distance theme codes, and PDH codes signify the High Power Distance
theme codes.

The identified PDL codes are:

PDL1 - Flat organization pyramids

PDL2 - Subordinates expect to be consulted
PDL3 - Consultative leadership leads to satisfaction, performance and productivity
PDL4 - subordinate-superior relations pragmatic
PDL5 - Openness with information, also to non-superiors
PDL6 - Managers rely on personal experience and on subordinates

The identified PDH codes are:

PDH1 - Centralized decision structures; more concentration of authority

PDH2 - Subordinates expect to be told
PDH3 - Subordinate-superior relations polarized, often emotional
PDH4 - Subordinates influenced by formal authority and sanction: MBO cannot work
PHD5 - innovations and good support from hierarchy
PDH6 - The ideal boss is a well-meaning autocrat or good father, sees self as benevolent decision maker
222
PDH7 - Tall organization pyramids
PDH8 - Hierarchy in organization reflects the existential inequality between higher-ups and lower-downs
PDH9 - Large proportions of supervisory

POWER DISTANCE

Responses Extent / Degree Open Code Theme /Category Selective

of impact Codes Code

HOTEL A

Hotel A
WU1 1. It means….no effect at all, no No effect Towards
effect at all low
Indicates certain Power
2. Because ..eh..family…eeh….a degree of low Distance
family hotel….is..eeh….is easy PD
to deal with the…..the ….the
…………management………

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. We talk the same language 1. talk the same PDL1. PDL4

language
2. They are willing listen to
you………listen to you all the 1. willing listen to you PDL1, PDL2,
time PDL5, PDL6

3. In…in my opinion, it is easy to 1. easy to talk to our PDL1, PDL4,

talk to our boss if they have free boss PDL5
time
1. she willing to…. PDL1, PDL2,
4. ah….she willing to…. listen Listen and …… she PDL3, PDL4,
and…she give me the ..best give me the ..best PDL5
solution and…easy to talk to her solution ….. easy to
So,..the..in my experience…so …I talk to her…….
think now…I can don‘t talk to her think..my boss very
any more easy
Last year we have a small thing to
talk to her……..she gives me best
solution
So…..think…my boss very easy
1. he always take care PDL1, PDL2,
5. Ah…also because we……ah..up of us …… he give me PDL3, PDL4,
to my position, we have the some advice …all the PDL5
General Manager time……
So,…he always take care of us Easy to talk to the….
and he give me some advice …all General Manager also
the time
Because we meet him every day
So this…. because of that
Easy to talk to the…. General
Manager also

Out of O = 5 open
codes:

PDL1 - 5 counts
PDL2 - 3 counts
PDL3 - 1 count
PDL4 - 4 counts Medium
WU1 Summative Conclusion PDL5 - 4 counts - Low
PDL6 - 1 count Power
Total, Z = 18 Distance

223
 _______________
6 out of T = 6 Count
thematic codes Score %
identified :
60.0 %

WU2 1. Power Distance is quite close quite close Towards

low
Power
Distance
IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. So, …..keep smiling to the staff and 1. I don't keep the PDL1, PDL2,
…I don't keep the distance distance PDL5

2. ..at actually..apartment so that we 1. we make people PDL1, PDL2,

make people understand people understand people PDL3,PDL4,PDL5
understand each other better and they understand each other , PDL6
can cooperate better. better and they can
cooperate better.

3. So, basically, I just come straight to 1. any problem they just PDL1, PDL2,
them..ask for them and they have come to them they just PDL3, PDL4,
anything….. any problem they just come for me PDL5
come to them they just come for me

4. I..I want to know everything. So, the 1. they need anything PDL1, PDL2,
difference is what close so, I know from me, they just PDL4, PDL5
most of things and people. come direct.
So, the…My team here, if they need
anything from me, they just come
direct.
1. culture that here PDL1, PDL2,
5. So, basically, we live in the culture people care about PDL3, PDL4,
that here people care about each other each other….. don't PDL5
We don't make a distance between make a distance
management and the team ....so, we between management
keep it quite close to each other ...and and the team
I think sometimes, is quite good to do
it that way.
1. come direct to me PDL1, PDL2,
6. They come direct to me and they said …….. they just come PDL3, PDL4,
that "Ok, Mr Manh , what should we to me at the PDL5
do right now? end……..not keeping
Aah, of course, I give them the the distance……….
solution. But, I mean If any problem, they do not move
they just…….if we flow step by step away from me
and If they cannot find solution by
step, they just come to me at the end.
No scare enough, not keeping the
distance, not..so that they do not move
away from me
But just let me know and find the
answer.

Out of O = 6
open codes:

PDL1 - 6 counts
WU2 Summative Conclusion PDL2 - 6 counts
PDL3 - 5 counts
PDL4 - 5 counts
PDL5 - 6 counts
PDL6 - 1 count Strong -
Total, Z = 29 Low
_______________ Power
6 out of T = 6 Distance
thematic codes
identified Count
Score %
224
 :
80.6 %

WU8 1. I think it‘s very strong very Towards

strong high
Power
IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES: Distance

1. But,…emmmh..when Vietnam…. 1. they learn about the PDL2, PDL3,

when the country Vietnam, country way of the foreigner do PDL4, PDL5,
how have a lot of foreigner coming to PDL6
develop, people love to investment
…… 2. they can learn how to PDL2, PDL3,
So they learn about the way of the speak out with… the PDL6
foreigner do. higher level
So, now they can learn how to speak
out with… the higher level

2. If I dare to express…. my idea and I 1. I dare to express… PDL2, PDL3,

dare to say, to do something so I can my idea and I dare to PDL4, PDL5,
learn from there say, to do something PDL6
so I can learn from
there
3. I think about that….I understand that PDL1, PDL2,
…..so to my college I try to speak 1. Always open the door PDL3, PDL4,
out, to open to them for them to get the PDL5, PDL6
Always open the door for them to get ideas
the ideas

Out of O = 4 open
codes:

PDL1 - 1 count
WU8 Summative Conclusion PDL2 - 4 counts
PDL3 - 4 counts
PDL4 - 3 counts
PDL5 - 3 counts
PDL6 - 4 counts Strong -
Total, Z = 19 Low
_______________ Power
6 out of T = 6 Distance
thematic codes
identified Count
Score %
:
79.2 %

HOTEL B

Hotel B
WU3 1. Aah….in our hotel, it is medium Medium Medium
Power
2. Yes, I think so Distance
Is very…aah… influence……with very…aah
…ah…our hotel …
influence

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Ya, ….ah. I think ..the 1. ..the power… you PDH3, PDH4,

power….ah..the power… you cannot cannot ah… make… PDH8
ah… make… the….almost the staff the….almost the staff
with you…………………… with you
That's why,..ah….if you use the
higher power,…it affects a lot of with 2. use the higher PDH1, PDH3,
your work power,…it affects a PDH4
lot of with your work

2. For example, if the staff have 1. very..high power… PDH3, PDH4,

225
 problem with the customer they are so scarred PDH5
They look like very….very..high If they have problem,
power… they are so scarred they cannot share
If they have problem, they cannot …with..with me
share …with..with me

3. B'cos if I have any problem…ah...any 1. will call him… and PDH1, PDH2,
problem about the hotel share immediately PDH5, PDH6
I…….I will call him… and share
immediately 2. don't have the distance PDH2, PDH5,
So, we don't have the distance with with him PDH6
him

Out of O = 5 open
codes:

PDH1 - 2 counts
PDH2 - 2 counts
PDH3 - 3 counts
WU3 Summative Conclusion PDH4 - 3 counts
PDH5 - 2 counts
PDH6 - 2 counts Weak -
PDH7 - not High
applicable Power
PDH8 - 1 count Distance
PDH9 - not
applicable Count
Total, Z = 15 Score %
_______________ :
7 out of T = 9 33.3%
thematic codes
identified

WU7 1. Er… yes, for me, personally the power affects me High
distance affects me very……. much. very……. Power
much Distance
Researcher:
Er… very much you mean very highly,
very strongly?
Very
WU7: strong
Yeah…yes…………..

2. Er…… high power distance…. I

think. high

3. So… it‘s high power distance. high

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:
PDH2, PDH6
1. For example, when my employee did 1. wished to see them
something wrong, I was very angry at immediately to coach
the moment and I wished to see them them or even to
immediately to coach them or even to punish them
punish them… PDH1, PDH6
But, later, I would consider the case, 2. consider how the
consider how the people, how the people….consider
employee is or consider how he has how he has been at
been at work and then made the work
decision while I know it‘s gonna be
not fair for other employee in future.
PDH1, PDH4,
2. Yes, so whenever you want to give out 1. have to go through, PDH7, PDH8
any opinion so you have to go step by step, to your
through, step by step, to your senior senior one, supervisor
one, supervisor one and then manage one and then manager

Out of O = 3 open
codes:
226
 PDH1 - 2 counts
PDH2 - 1 count
PDH3 - not
WU7 Summative Conclusion applicable
PDH4 - 1 count
PDH5 - not
applicable Weak -
PDH6 - 2 counts High
PDH7 - 1 count Power
PDH8 - 1 count Distance
PDH9 - 1 count
Total, Z = 9 Count
_______________ Score %
7 out of T = 9 :
thematic codes 33.3 %
identified

WU9 1. Ah, yes, it‘s high and strong…….. Very high High
Very high and strong, yup and strong Power
Distance

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Ah, because Vietnamese employees 1. accept a hierarchical PDH1, PDH7,

accept a hierarchical order in which order PDH8
everybody has a place and which
needs no further justification 2. Subordinates expect to PDH2, PDH4,
And, ah…Subordinates expect to be be told what to do PDH6
told what to do and the ideal boss is a
God. 3. the ideal boss is a God PDH3, PDH6,
They always obey the orders and PDH7, PDH8
don‘t dare to say no to the boss
4. always obey the PDH1,
orders and don‘t dare PDH2,PDH3,
to say no to the boss PDH4, PDH6,
PDH7, PDH8

2. Local hotels, employees are not 1. employees are not PDH1, PDH2,
allowed to give comments or feedback allowed to give PDH4, PDH6
as what I see and observe, uh ah… comments or feedback
from real situation

3. And also I think, It‘s lack of feedback 1. lack of feedback and PDH1, PDH2,
and two–way communication and two–way PDH4
sometimes the boss stop employee communication
creativity

2. boss stop employee PDH1,PDH2,PDH

creativity 4,
PDH8

Out of O = 7 open
codes:

WU9 Summative Conclusion PDH1 - 5counts

PDH2 - 5 counts
PDH3 - 3 counts
PDH4 - 5 counts
PDH5 - not
applicable
PDH6 - 4 counts
PDH7 - 3 counts
PDH8 - 4 counts Medium
PDH9 - not - High
applicable Power
Total, Z = 29 Distance
_______________
7 out of T = 9 Count
thematic codes Score %
227
 identified :
46.0 %

WU12 1. Is very high very high High

Power
2. High High Distance

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. But, there are….got a lot of 1. got a lot of PDH7, PDH8,

players…between us and our players…between us PDH9
directors…something like that… and our directors.
Like if we got anything …if we got
anything or any problem ….right.. ..we 2. we just report to our PDH1, PDH4,
just report to our supervisor…and supervisor the PDH7, PDH8,
then…..ah…..the supervisor will supervisor will report PDH9
report to the manager….. to the manager…..
After that, the manger will report to the manger will report
the director…….and the highest…the to the director
highest..ah…..people like…..
The vice-president……will the….. is
the …the…last person who can
receive the information from us….

2. In the midnight, we don't have 1. We have to pass over, PDH1, PDH2,

anybody to assist us tomorrow we can ask PDH4
We cann….in the midnight, we cannot supervisor
make a call directly the assistant, right
We have to pass over, tomorrow we
can ask supervisor

3. Sorry, sometimes, we are scared about 1. we scared to get scold PDH1, PDH3,
that PDH4
We are scarred about that……we
scared to get scold for
us….ya……then….ya……

Out of O = 4 open
codes:

PDH1 - 3 counts
PDH2 - 1 count
WU12 Summative Conclusion PDH3 - 1 count
PDH4 - 3 counts
PDH5 - not
applicable
PDH6 - not
applicable
PDH7 - 2 counts Weak -
PDH8 - 2 counts High
PDH9 - 2 counts Power
Total, Z = 14 Distance
_______________
7 out of T = 9 Count
thematic codes Score %
identified :
38.9 %

WU13 1. Ah…..ah…Well, in reality, I high High

suppose that to some Power
extent…emh…. it has a high Distance
power distance

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Ah…yes 1. Employees are… PDH4, PDH7,

228
 Employees are…are often keep a are often keep a PDH8
distance with their boss….ah.. distance with their
They are not easy to reach the high boss……….
level manager. not easy to reach the
high level manager

2. Emh…ah…When….ah….when 1.they don't get any PDH1, PDH2,

employee…. ah…show out their .emh… response….. PDH4, PDH8
opinion, they don't get any….emh… don't have many
response…and…. opportunity to talk
They are not sure …ah…their opinion directly with…ah…
…..ahhh…… manager
They are not sure ….ah…their boss
has…ah… received their opinion or
not
Because they don't have many
opportunity to talk directly
with…ah… manager…emh…ah…
1. they turned not to PDH1, PDH2,
3. When..when..When employees show be in connect……. PDH3, PDH4
out their opinions.. their input are not
They don't get any response so many considered
times, many times, many
times…ahh… 2. discouraging PDH1,PDH2,PDH
They…ah….. feel …… not to be in employee …ah…. 4,
connect and…ah… they turned not to Participations…. PDH8
be in connect .. stop employee ..ah
As well as their input are not
considered ….ah….. and….. not ah….emh….employee
considered …….ah….not considered …crea….. creativity.
…ah……discouraging
employee…ah….
participations….and…..
So I think it will stop employee
…ah…
ah….emh….employee…crea…..
creativity.
Out of O = 4 open
codes:

PDH1 - 3 counts
PDH2 - 3 counts
PDH3 - 1 count
WU13 Summative Conclusion PDH4 - 4 counts
PDH5 - not
applicable
PDH6 - not Weak -
applicable High
PDH7 - 1count Power
PDH8 - 3 counts Distance
PDH9 - not
applicable Count
Total, Z = 15 Score %:
_______________ 41.7 %
_
6 out of T = 9
thematic codes
identified

HOTEL C

Hotel C
WU6 1. I think it is low….lower than before Low
low….lowe Power
r than Distance
before
IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. I think that …ah……………….. 1. equal to each other PDL1, PDL4

People accept the … people accepted
229
 which everybody has a place
and…………
The boss-employee relationship is not
like before…not like old time any
more…is equal to each other

2. But right here, we are working in a 1. working in a very PDL1, PDL2,

very equally environment equally environment PDL3, PDL4,
If …if my staff have any opinion, they ……. they will talk to PDL5
will talk to me and I will see that if is me and I will see that if
good or not, I will talk to them is good or not, I will
……..directly talk to
them…....directly

3. Ah…….just want-ah….. give my 1. they can speak their PDL1, PDL2,

opinion… opinions at any PDL4,, PDL5,
In our hotel, everybody is equal, and time….. will consider PDL6
they can speak their opinions at any about their opinion
time
Our management ….ah….will see and 2. Give them chance to PDL2, PDL3,
……will consider about their opinion improve………… PDL4, PDL5,
and……. Give them chance to PDL6
Give them chance to improve…..and develop their skill
………
Give them chance to develop their
skill……..ya

Out of O = 4
open codes:

PDL1 - 3 counts
PDL2 - 3 counts
WU6 Summative Conclusion PDL3 - 2 counts
PDL4 - 4 counts Strong -
PDL5 – 3 counts Low
PDL6 - 2 counts Power
Total, Z = 17 Distance
_______________
_ Count
6 out of T = 6 Score %:
thematic codes 70.8%
identified

WU10 1. Yes, Power Distance influence is very influence Not

strong is very Applicable
strong
IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

2. Ah……….Because the boss…..ready 1. the boss…..ready to PDL1, PDL2,

to take ..to pay attention to take .. to pay attention PDL4, PDL5,
staff…..ah…….care or to staff…..
concern…and…ah…..
2. ah…….care or PDL1, PDL2,
concern…and PDL4, PDL5
…ah…..
Out of O = 2 open
codes:

PDL1 - 1 counts
PDL2 - 2 counts
WU10 Summative Conclusion PDL3 - Not
Applicable
PDL4 - 2 counts
PDL5 - 2 counts Medium
PDL6 - Not - Low
Applicable Power
Total, Z = Distance
_______________
_ Count
4 out of T = 6 Score %:
230
 thematic codes 58.3 %
identified

WU11 1. I think in the hotel the power not very Medium

distance not very high… high… Power
Distance

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Like... You can get shorter the 1. can get shorter the PDL1, PDL4
distance between you and boss , then distance between you
you give your ideas, you can learn and boss
more from your boss and get more
experience, believe that you can do it 2. you give your ideas, PDL1, PDL2,
like your boss, in the future like this. you can learn more PDL3, PDL4,
from your boss and get PDL5, PDL6
more experience

2. Of course, they allow me, they allow 1. they allow me to give PDL1, PDL2,
me to give feedback, give question. feedback, give PDL3, PDL4,
question. PDL5, PDL6

Out of O = 3 open
codes:

PDL1 - 3 counts
WU11 Summative Conclusion PDL2 - 2 counts
PDL3 - 2 counts
PDL4 - 3 counts
PDL5 - 2 counts
PDL6 - 2 counts Strong -
Total, Z = 14 Low
_______________ Power
6 out of T = 6 distance
thematic codes
identified Count
Score %:
77.8 %

WU14 1. I think it's high power High High

Power
2. Yes…I think that, you know , the affects the Distance
power distance affects the managerial manageria
workforce behavior in the hotel l
workforce
behavior
in the
IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES: hotel

1. You know that, in Vietnam, people 1. in Vietnam, people PDH1, PDH4,

accept the hierarchical order in accept the hierarchical PDH7, PDH8
which everyone has a position. order in which
everyone has a
position.

2. You know, for almost of the 1. boss is even the PDH1, PDH2,
employees, the boss iseven the god, god, the God…… he PDH3, PDH4,
the God.. or she always right. PDH6, PDH8
So that he or she always right.
And….ah… many local hotel 2. Local hotel managers PDH1, PDH2,
managers in Vietnam, you know, they in Vietnam, you PDH4, PDH5,
just have the..you know….a downward now, they just have PDH6, PDH8
communication as an order or the…you know….a
command, or something like that. downward
The staff is hardly ever, you know, the communication as an
staff here seldom have a chance to ask order or command
why'd you give me this rule, this
231
 regulation, or something like that... 3. staff here seldom have PDH1, PDH2,
If the staff ask or…..not follow up that a chance to ask why'd PDH4, PDH6,
regulation , he will be under evaluated, you give me this rule, PDH8
and you know, can be seen or marked this regulation, or
as a disobey child to the parents and Something like that
….you know……….
The consequent is , you know, there is 4. not follow up that PDH1, PDH2,
an invisible space between them, and regulation, he will be PDH4
that stop employee creativity, and …. under evaluated

5. there is an invisible PDH1, PDH3,

space between them, PDH6, PDH8
and that stop employee
creativity

Out of O = 6 open
codes:

PDH1 - 6counts
PDH2 - 4 counts
WU14 Summative Conclusion PDH3 - 2 counts
PDH4 - 5 counts
PDH5 –1 count
PDH6 –4 counts
PDH7 - 1 count
PDH8 - 5 counts
PDH9 - not Medium -
applicable High
Total, Z = 28 Power
_______________ Distance
_
8 out of T = 9 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 51.9 %

4.2b Axial Coding to Match Selective Codes of Hofstede Cultural Dimension: Collectivism / Individualism

The thematic CL codes signify Low Collectivism theme codes, and a CH code signifies the High Collectivism theme
codes.

The identified CH codes for High Collectivism (low individualism) are listed as below:

CH1 – Employees in the interest of their in-group, not necessarily of themselves

CH2 – Employees perform best in in-group
CH3 – Belief in collective decisions
CH4 – Innovation champions in organizations want to involve others
CH5 – Management is management of groups
CH6 – Employee-employee relationship is basically moral, like a family link
CH7 – Incentives to be given to in-groups
CH8 – Organizational success attributed to sharing information, openly committing oneself, and political alliances
CH9 - Direct appraisal of performance is a threat to harmony

The identifiedCL codes for Low Collectivism (high individualism) are listed as below:

CL1 - Employees supposed to act as "economic men"

CL2 - Employer-employee relationship is a business deal in a "labor market"
CL3 - Employees perform best as individuals
232
CL4 - Employees can be seen as individual
CL5 - Incentives to be given to individuals
CL6 - Belief in individual decisions
CL7 - In business, task and company prevail over personal relationships

COLLECTIVISM / INDIVIDUALISM

Responses Extent / Degree Open Code Theme Selective

of impact /Category Code
Codes

HOTEL A

Hotel A
WU1 1. Group……..the group! 1. Group High
Collectivism
2. You know….is a…..when 3. individual
you…ah… are individual…is not …is not good
good you know
It is not good…... 3. work together
I mean the team work...if you work it is better than
together it is better than you you …….do by
…….do by yourself yourself

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Easy to work to, now, we are whole 1. we are whole group CH1, CH2,
group CH3

2. If you have the…big group, you 1. the best way we …

have so many opinions, ah……so opportune …we CH1, CH2,
many ideas have to work for CH3, CH4,
So that the best….ah…ah..the all…. team work CH5, CH8
best…the best way we …opportune
…we have to work for all…. team
work.....and
We have the pride…for
lesson…and good lesson and good
answer

3. If you have some problem with 1. You ask your CH1, CH2,
your……..your….software. You colleagues, you CH3
ask your colleagues, you ask your ask your team
team……so….they..and…..
They give you….give you …..good 2. They give you… . CH1, CH2,
advice and you get best solution give you …..good CH3, CH4,
and…..can be solved in your advice and you CH5, CH8
group….. the problem in the get best solution
software and…..can be
solved in your
group

Out of O = 4
open codes:

CH1 – 4 counts
CH2 – 4 counts
CH3 – 4 counts
CH4 – 2 counts
CH5 – 2 counts
CH6 – Not
WU1 Summative Conclusion applicable Medium -

233
 CH7 – Not High
applicable Collectivism
CH8 – 2 counts
CH9 - Not
applicable
Total, Z = 18 Count
_____________ Score %:
6 out of T = 9 50.0 %
thematic codes
identified

WU2 1. This…Collectivism, I thinkpeople Collectivism High

care about family, people care People care Collectivism
about the guests, people care about about
the society..and…ya…like this family,
people care
about the
guests,
people care
about the
society.

2. All our us, our leaders…..in you think

here…in this hotel. I try to turn the about the
thinking that you think about the team , not
team , not about yourself about
yourself

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Eeeh…we…here we care about 1. we…here we care CH1, CH3,

family, so ….like eeeh..we try to about family….we try CH5, CH6,
build a team where everyone is to build a team where CH8
close to each other. everyone is close to
each other.

2. Like yesterday I bring my team to 1. I bring my team to my CH1, CH5,

my home…my house so we make home …. we make CH6, CH7,
party there with the team..close to party therewith the CH8
everyone and trying to make that team….close to
turn…. Like each month we have a everyone
party.

3. at actually..apartment so that we 1. we make people CH1, CH2,

make people understand people, understand people, CH3, CH4,
understand each other better and understand each other CH5, CH8
they can cooperate better. better and they can
cooperate better.

4. I build up the team of this hotel 1. I build up the team…. CH1,

based on two things, one is one is teamwork CH2,CH3,
teamwork, the other one is CH4,CH5, CH8
theee…interpreted

5. If you want to get promoted, you 1. you have to be CH1, CH2,

have to be teamwork. That's mean teamwork. That's mean CH3, CH4,
you have see the bigger picture you have see the bigger CH5, CH8
picture

6. You have to see what your team is 1. You have to see what CH1, CH2,
doing, going and what energy your team is doing, CH3, CH4,
Is not about you..is about the team, going and what CH5, CH8
is about us, so…. energy……. Is not about
you.. is
about the team, is about us

7. But,..when you…..if you want to be a 1. you want to be a leader, CH1, CH2,

leader, you have to care for the you have to care for the CH3, CH4,
team..that for sure. team …....that for sure CH5, CH6

234
 8. So….eeeh…the sales target of 1. if they want to get CH1, CH2,
arriving rooms is like a quarter, the bonus…So, is not you, is CH3, CH4,
whole profile about the CH5, CH7,
So, they have to achieve that…. if team CH8,CH9
they want to get bonus…So, is not
you, is about the team and also they
have the up-selling bonus and the
up-selling is……

Out of O = 8
open codes:

CH1 – 8 counts
CH2 – 6 counts
CH3 – 7 counts
WU2 Summative Conclusion CH4 – 6 counts
CH5 – 8counts
CH6 – 3 counts
CH7 - 2
counts
CH8 - 7 Strong -
counts High
CH9 - 1 count Collectivism
Total, Z = 48
_____________ Count
9 out of T = 9 Score %:
thematic codes 66.6 %
identified

WU8 1. I think high collectivism is better. High Low

Individualism Collectivism
2. High Individualism

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. For example, If I ….my supervisors, 1. They just think about CL1, CL2,
when I train them I teach them how …….their benefits. CL4, Cl5, CL6,
to do a thing, But after that when CL7
they carry out the task work……
They just think 2. they don‘t think about CL3, CL4,
about………….their benefit. the ………effective CL6, CL7
How they get about from that. for the whole team,
But they don‘t think about the forthe whole department
………effective for the whole or for the hotel
team, for the whole department or
for the hotel

2. …….That one, I point to the

supervisor…… to follow and….do 1. supervisor scare about CL1, CL4, CL6
it, to make the report. the power of the staff,
But the supervisor scare about the maybe they scare that
power of the staff, maybe they they have to fight
scare that they have to fight or
………..get…ah.. harmful outside
the hotel

3. they want a very high career very 1. benefit is not enough CL1, CL2,
high position to qualify their… CL4, CL5, CL6
But if the salary, benefit is not current.. life so they
enough to qualify their.. current.. refused ………. make
life so they refused. So I mean they sure that the benefit must
just to make sure that the benefit be in front of their eyes
must be in front of their eyes so so they decide to take
they decide to take

Out of O = 4
235
 open codes:

CL1 - 3 counts
CL2 - 2 counts
WU8 Summative Conclusion CL3 - 1 count
CL4 - 4 counts
CL5 - 2 counts
CL6 - 4 counts
CL7 - 2 counts Strong -
Total, Z = 18 Low
_____________ Collectivism
7 out of T = 7
thematic codes Count
identified Score %:
64.3%

HOTEL B

Hotel B
WU3 1. Ah…Yes…. usually we have the group- More
group-oriented oriented Collectivism

3. Researcher: more
In a word, you are saying Collectivist
that..eeh,..…
In a hotel ….you tend to work in a
group ...tend to be more
Collectivist…?

WU3:
Yes,..correct!

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Oh….Because we….we working 1. we have to work on the CH1, CH2,

under the service. How to give good group CH3, CH4,CH5
servicefor the customer
So, that‘s why..hmm….we have to 2. we working in…… CH1, CH2,
work on the individual, we cannot CH3,
group……ya………………………… share any problem or … CH4,CH5, CH8
… handover
If we….we working in…individual, It is not…very good
we cannot share any problem or … ..good for our hotel
handover for the……next…….. or
other shift
It is not…very good …..good for our
hotel

Out of O = 2
open codes:

CH1 – 2 counts
CH2 – 2 counts
WU3 Summative Conclusion CH3 – 2 counts
CH4 – 2 counts
CH5 – 2 counts
CH6 – Not
Applicable
CH7 - Not
Applicable Strong -
CH8 – 1 count High
CH9 - Not Collectivism
applicable
Total, Z = 11 Count
_____________ Score %:
6 out of T = 9 61.1 %
thematic codes
identified

236
WU7 1. Because in Vietnam culture it‘s more more toward Individualism
toward the Individualism at work…. Individualism (Low
Collectivism
)
2. It‘s individualism because it‘s... he Individualism
just don‘t want to lose face..

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Of course, it should be good for the 1. decision affects to their CL1, CL2,
hotel or for the wholeteam personal benefit ……… CL4, CL7
But if somehow that decision affects they may consider again
to their personal benefit like touching or more carefully….
the bonus or touching the allowance If they should sacrifice
of them so they may consider again or it or they should… for
more carefully…. them.
If they should sacrifice it or they
should… for them.

2. Yup, of course, offered free of charge 1. offered free of charge CL1, CL4, CL6
then because the only reason so the then because the only
employee must‘ve like losing face reason so the employee
and…. must‘ve like losing
Then asked the manager and she got face………Did not want
explained by the manager just did not to lose face
want to make any report, did not want
the guest to shout or….
Did not want to lose face when he
refused the guest or he may get
shouted by the guest at the public
area.

Out of O = 2
open codes:

CL1 - 2 counts
CL2 - 1 count
CL3 - Not
Applicable
WU7 Summative Conclusion CL4 - 2 counts
CL5 - Not Weak - Low
Applicable Collectivism
CL6 - Not (Individualism)
Applicable
CL7 - 1 count Count
Total, Z = 6 Score %:
_____________ 42.9%
4 out of T = 7
thematic codes
identified

WU9 1. High in Collectivism High High

Collectivism Collectivism

2. I think Vietnam is a collectivistic Collectivistic

society society

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. I think Vietnam is a collectivistic 1. offence leads to shame CH9

society and offence leads to shame and loss of face
and loss of face
When you show them their
mistakes, they….. they lose face
or don‘t want to listen to you
anymore

Out of O =
237
 1open codes:

CH1 – Not
applicable
CH2 – Not
applicable
CH3 – Not
WU9 Summative Conclusion applicable
CH4 – Not
applicable Very Weak
CH5 – Not - High
applicable Collectivism
CH6 – Not
applicable Count
CH7 – Not Score %:
applicable 11.1 %
CH8 – Not
applicable
CH9 - 1 count
Total, Z = 1
_____________
1 out of T = 9
thematic codes
identified

WU12 1. High Collectivism…. High High

Collectivism Collectivism

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Because…..umh……when I work 1. work together with my CH1, CH2,

together with my colleagues colleagues right…they CH3, CH4,
right…they can help me to do what can help me to do what I CH5, CH8
I cannot do and…. cannot do

2. I cannot ..I cannot …ah….do 1. supervisor and CH1, CH2,

properly on the system…. colleagues help me, CH3, CH4,
then…ah…our supervisor and teach me how to do that CH5, CH8
colleagues help me, teach me how
to do that and then…….

3. I think I work in the good team 1. I work in the good team CH1, CH2,
CH3, CH4,
CH5, CH6,
CH8

Out of O = 3
open codes:

CH1 – 3 counts
CH2 – 3 counts
CH3 – 3 counts
WU12 Summative Conclusion CH4 – 3 counts
CH5 – 3 counts
CH6 – 1 count
CH7 – Not
applicable
CH8 – 3 counts Strong -
CH9 - Not High
applicable Collectivism
Total, Z = 19
7 out of T = 9 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 70.4 %

WU13 1. Ah……more towards more Towards

238
 …ah….Collectivism towards more
…ah……… Collectivism
Collectivism

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:
1. Responsibility…emh… CH1, CH2,
1. Everyone takes responsibility for members of their CH3, CH5,
….ah…..for respon………ah… group CH8,
responsibility……….ah….
Responsibility…emh… for 2. Employee…ah….
members of their group and…ah.. relationships CH1, CH5,
Everyone...ah….Employee…ah… like ..a….family link. CH6, CH8
. relationships like ..a….family
link.

2. So, each members of my team, 1. good attitude to work CH1,

they must have responsibility, together or support CH2,CH3,
good attitude to work together or together CH4, CH5,
support together……. CH8

3. We often stay 1. stay overtime to support CH1, CH2,

over….ah….stay…..stay overtime our colleagues CH5, CH7,
to support our colleagues CH8

4. Ah……About my superior…ah… 1. superior…ah… they CH1, CH4,

they always have training lessons always have training CH5, CH8
for us…emh…. lessons for us
It make us…ah…emh….to save
time…ah…., work better, limit
errors and …ah….especially in
increase work performance.

Out of O = 5
open codes:

CH1 – 5 counts
CH2 – 3 counts
CH3 – 2 counts
WU13 Summative Conclusion CH4 – 2 counts
CH5 – 5 counts
CH6 – 1 count
CH7 – 1 count
CH8 – 5 counts
CH9 - Not Medium -
applicable High
Total, Z = 24 Collectivism
_____________
8 out of T = 9 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 53.3%

HOTEL C

Hotel C
WU6 1. So, I think that we should work Collectivism Collectivism
more……..We should
work…………….as a collectivism

2. Ya,… more collectivism More

3. So, I think …..the culture……the National

Vietnamese national culture really culture
affects the managerial workforce really affects
more to the collectivism the
managerial
workforce
more to the
collectivism

239
 IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. As for our hotel, we work as a 1. we work as a family, as CH1, CH2,

family, as a team a team. So…ah… when CH3, CH4,
So…ah… when we have any we have any problem, CH5, CH6,
problem, we help each other to we help each other to CH7, CH8
improve to solve that problem, not improve to solve that
as an individual problem, not as an
But, we take responsibility as a individual take
team, as a family responsibility as a team,
as a family

2. When we have any problem, the 1. staff always look for CH1, CH2,
staff always looks for me and …. me………. don't like to CH4, CH6,
We …like … figure a way to solve solve the problem CH8
the problem together individual way
But, we don't like to solve the
problem individual way
We prefer to work as a team. I 2. We .prefer to work as a CH1, CH2,
always tell them that! team. I always tell them CH3, CH4,
We have to work as a team! that! CH5, CH6,
CH8

Out of O = 3
open codes:

CH1 – 3 counts
CH2 – 3 counts
CH3 – 2 counts
WU6 Summative Conclusion CH4 – 3 counts
CH5 – 2 counts
CH6 – 3 count
CH7 – 1 count
CH8 – 3 counts
CH9 - Not Strong -
applicable High
Total, Z = 20 Collectivism
_____________
8 out of T = 9 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 74.1 %

WU10 1. That is Individualism…… Individualis Individualism

behavior m (Low
Collectivism
2. More in Individualism More )

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Ah…….Base on the Vietnamese 1. they don't want to face CL3, CL4,

culture because…some time……., the..the problem CL6,
they don't want to face the..the
problem and……… 2. the staff point the….. CL2, CL3,
Behind that ……they a different manager mistake…… CL4, CL6, CL7
way or ……..how to They become….…
say………………just how to ah….don't like that staff
say…………..ah……. or…. they kill the staff
Sometime…..the staff point the…..
manager mistake or something like
that and
They become….…ah….don't like
that staff or…..they kill the staff or
want to kick their position or
something like that

Out of O = 2
open codes:

240
 CL1 - Not
Applicable
WU10 Summative Conclusion CL2 - 1 count
CL3 - 2 counts
CL4 - 2 counts
CL5 - Not
Applicable Medium -
CL6 - 2 counts Low
CL7 - 1 count Collectivism
Total, Z = 8
_____________ Count
5 out of T = 7 Score %:
thematic codes 57.1 %
identified

WU11 1. Ah……High in collectivism High in High

collectivism Collectivism

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Oh.... From my boss to all staffs 1. From my boss to all CH1, CH2,
together everyday, we got training to staffs together everyday, CH3, CH4,
change to learn the new things to serve we got training to CH5, CH6,
the customer…ah… to make change to learn the new CH8
them ..ah…feel…ah…comfortable things to serve the
when they come here like home and customer
hope that in the future they will come
back here again 2. we work together to get CH1, CH2,
That we work together to get it, that it, that cannot individual CH3, CH4,
cannot individual do it do it CH5, CH6,
CH8

Out of O = 2
open codes:

CH1 – 2 counts
CH2 – 2 counts
CH3 – 2 counts
WU11 Summative Conclusion CH4 – 2 counts
CH5 – 2 counts
CH6 – 2 count
CH7 – Not
applicable Strong -
CH8 – 2 counts High
CH9 - Not Collectivism
applicable
Total, Z = 14
_____________ Count
7 out of T = 9 Score %:
thematic codes 77.8 %
identified

WU14 1. You know, that's not balanced , More More

you know…….it towards collectivism Collectivism
more collectivism
than individ….individualism
Collectivism
2. I have to tell you that collectivism
in Vietnam is a circle,
individualism is a square, and…
You know the…obviously….
definitely, the square is always
covered by the circle

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. In my In my opinion, in Vietnam, 1. operate and work with CH1, CH2,

241
 many managers and employees the match of two of them H3,CH4, CH5,
they…you know……ah…. CH8,
They operate and work with the
match of two of them,

2. Each of department, you have the 1. They work as a team CH1, CH2,
head…heads of departments, and …collectivism first, CH3, CH4,
the managers,and you know….. then you need to CH5, CH7,
They work as a team ….then you connect with them CH8
need to have a bit…you
know…collectivism first, then you
need to connect with them..and then
you have to ………you
know……….individua……….
I have to show you that………….
I have to tell you that collectivism in
Vietnam is a circle, individualism is
a square, and…
You know the…obviously….
definitely, the square is always
covered by the circle

3. Because you know, if you want to 1. to aim to the ….. CH1, CH2,
aim to the …..company's success company's success CH3, CH4,
You need to be worked in the group You need to be worked CH5, CH7,
first…you know….ah…. in the group first…… CH8
Ah…..You don't pay more attention need to aim to what
about the what've you got, what've your group achieve first
you earned…..you know…
But, you need to aim to what your
group achieve first

4. Researcher: 1. group- oriented CH1, CH2,

So, it is group- oriented? CH3, CH4,
CH5, CH6,
WU14: CH7, CH8,
Yes, exactly

Out of O = 4
open codes:

CH1 – 4 counts
CH2 – 4 counts
WU14 Summative Conclusion CH3 – 4 counts
CH4 – 4 counts
CH5 – 4 counts
CH6 – 1 count
CH7 – 3 counts
CH8 – 4 counts Strong -
CH9 - Not High
applicable Collectivism
Total, Z = 28
_____________ Count
8 out of T = 9 Score %:
thematic codes 77.8 %
identified

4.2c Axial Coding to Match Selective Codes of Hofstede Cultural Dimension: Masculinity / Femininity

The identified ML codes for Low Masculinity (Femininity) are listed as below:

ML1 - Meaning of work for workers: relations and working conditions

ML2 - Stress on equality, solidarity, and quality of work life
ML3 - Management as a "menage" (unit or household living together)

242
ML4 - Managers are employees like others
ML5 - Managers expected to use intuition, deal with feelings, and seek consensus
ML6 - Resolution of conflicts through problem solving, compromise, and negotiation
ML7 – Humanization of work through creation of work groups

The identified MH codes for High Masculinity (Masculinity) are listed as below:

MH1 - Managers expected to be decisive, firm assertive, aggressive, competitive, just

MH2 - Successful managers seen as having solely male characteristics
MH3 - Fewer women in management
MH4 - Humanization of work through provision of task challenge

MASCULINITY / FEMININITY

Responses Extent / Open Code Theme Selective

Degree of /Category Code
impact

HOTEL A

Hotel A
WU1 1. But, no effect at all….you know because if equal Equality
you are same position…is equal..equal

2. Eeh,….now in Vietnam culture, it change a

lot
Is a….it is equal …equal amount for the
male and female,….. I think

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. So that male and female work for 3 shift also 1. male and ML2, ML6
They can work for night shift………if not at female work
all male in this hotel and for 3 shift
now…we…….male…. also..….
We have the ……….female staff work for
night shift
The staff have to submit or dismiss

Out of O = 1
open codes:

ML1 – Not
WU1 Summative Conclusion Applicable
ML2 – 1 count
ML3 – Not Weak -
Applicable Low
ML4 – Not Masculinity
Applicable (Very High
ML5 – Not Femininity)
Applicable
ML6 – 1 count Count
ML7 – Not Score %:
Applicable 28.6 %
Total, Z = 2
_____________
2 out of T = 7
thematic codes
identified

243
WU2 1. I also protect them..ok… a bit both ..a bit of a bit of Equality
balance. balance

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Eeeh…we..here we care about family, so 1. we care ML1, ML2,

….like eeeh..we try to build a team where about ML3, ML4,
everyone is close to each other. family….we ML5, ML7
try to build a
team where
everyone is
close to each
other

2. My point is…..ok...I don't care who you are, 1. I don't care ML2, ML5,
just tell me what you can do about that. That's who you are, ML6
it. But in Vietnam, some of ….the hotels they just tell me
prefer to get good looking female what you can
But not here, I don't care about that do about that.
That's it

3. Ok ..is someone……. This is only by my 1. They said….I ML1, ML4,

knowledge ……….is someone. do this…this ML5, ML6,
They said..I do this…this for me, so they will for me, so ML7
try harder. they will try
But, sometime we need some person like harder……so
that ..to make the team me person
To tell the team that you can be like that ..to
better………….. make the
Team

Out of O = 3
open codes:

ML1 – 2 counts
ML2 – 2 counts
WU2 Summative Conclusion ML3 – 1 count
ML4 – 2 counts
ML5 – 3 counts Strong -
ML6 – 2 counts Low
ML7 – 2 counts Masculinity
Total, Z = 14 (High
_____________ Femininity)
7 out of T = 7
thematic codes Count
identified Score %:
66.7 %

WU8 1. I think Vietnamese culture is in almost Almost

Masculinity… ….not the….not for the masculinity Masculinity
Femininity

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. From the pass, but in general, people always 1. but in eneral, MH1, MH2,
choose the men because they are more people MH4
assertive and……..affective. always
choose the
men because
they are more
assertive
and……..affe
ctive

2. The female is more professional than the man . 2. They choose MH2, MH3
But when the whole team choose….. which the… the
one can promoted to the supervisor. man
244
 They choose…the….. the man…they don't
choose the female…..so

Out of O = 2
open codes:

MH1 – 1 count
MH2 – 2 counts
WU8 Summative Conclusion MH3 – 1 count
MH4 – 1 count High - High
Total, Z = 5 Masculinity
_____________
4 out of T = 4 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 62.5 %

HOTEL B

Hotel B
WU3 1. Ya…..I think more feminine More High
feminine Femininity
2. Ah….ah…eeh….very high.. (Strong -
Very high Low
masculinity)
IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. I have behavior with …the…my 1. My ML1, ML2,

colleagues,..ya…my family colleagues,... ML3, ML4,
Ah…they willing to tell me any problem ya …….my ML7
happened, and share the experience family
together,…ya…
That‘s why we want to work like family 2. share the ML1, ML2,
experience ML3, ML4,
together ML5, ML7
….we want
to work like
family

Out of O = 2
open codes:

ML1 – 2 counts
ML2 – 2 counts
WU3 Summative Conclusion ML3 – 2 counts
ML4 – 2 counts
ML5 – 1 count Strong -
ML6 – Not Low
Applicable Masculinity
ML7 – 2 counts (High
Total, Z = 11 Femininity)
______________
6 out of T = 7 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 78.6 %

WU7 1. Ah… I could say it‘s more More

Masculinity……umh masculinity Masculinity

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Yah, I think the masculinity, male boss they 1. they think for MH1, MH2,
think for something big, making big decisions something MH4
But the female boss thinks for something more big, making
detail like closer to the staff, being friendly, big decisions
caring and supporting …

2. He is giving me something bigger at a bigger 2. giving me MH1, MH2,

245
 view so it‘s good for me and… something MH4
bigger at a
bigger view so
it‘s good for me
and…

Out of O = 2
open codes:

MH1 – 2 counts
MH2 – 2 counts
WU7 Summative Conclusion MH3 – Not
applicable High - High
MH4 – 2 counts Masculinity
Total, Z = 6
______________
3 out of T = 4 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 75.0 %

WU9 1. More toward to Femininity than Masculinity Toward to Femininity

Femininity (Low
Masculinity)
2. Ah, uhm….Vietnamese, Vietnam considered Feminine
a Feminine society society

3. Ah, Feminine Feminine

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. and conflicts are normally resolved by 1. conflicts are Ml5, Ml6

compromise and negotiation normally
We don‘t like to arguing resolved by
We are caring for others and quality of life and compromise
nurturing teams. and
So, we believe that men and women are negotiation
equally capable of doing any tasks, that‘s it…
2. We don‘t like ML1, ML2,
to ML3, ML4,
arguing……… ML5, ML6,
……..caring ML7
for others and
quality of life
and nurturing
teams

2. I‘d like, you know, take care of the group, you 1. take care of ML1, ML2,
know the group. .. ML3, ML4,
Look after them make sure they are ok, they look after ML5, ML7
are a team and we develop together them make
We learn and develop sure they are
ok, they are a
team and we
develop
together

Out of O = 3
open codes:

ML1 – 2 counts
ML2 – 2 counts
WU9 Summative Conclusion ML3 – 2 counts
ML4 – 2 counts Strong -
ML5 – 3 counts Low
ML6 – 2 counts Masculinity
ML7 – 2 counts (High
Total, Z = 15 Femininity)
_____________
7 out of T = 7
246
 thematic codes Count
identified Score %:
71.4 %

WU12 1. Umh…I Femininity Femininity

think…ah..…femini….femininity…is effect (Low
the…the mang…. managerial Masculinity)
workforce…….like…a…

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Ah….Because…ah…..they care us like a 1. they care us Ml1, ML2,

family …ya….and…. like a family ML3, ML4,
They taught, they share eventhough like ML7
the….performance……and …ah…...every
detail…..like a… 2. They taught, ML1, ML2,
they share ML3, ML4,
eventhough ML6,
like the
performance
……and
…ah
…...every
detail

2. And…ah…sometime…ah…..when we have 1. anything like ML1, ML2,

anything like personal…they can also share personal…the ML3, ML4,
with us.. y can also ML5, ML6
Make us feel...ah…ya….feeling better share with
feeling…then we can work …you ……….Make
know….better…ya ..…and us feel…
ah….ya.…
feeling better

3. They are quite strict……like…a…. our 1. they also ML5, ML6

supervisor……there isa female ….. teach me how
They quite strict …….even though the small to do nicely
thing, they also teach me how to do nicely …. keep
and….. talking, keep
Every time keep talking, keep reminding…
reminding……let us can…… improve…you …let us can
know….. improve

Out of O = 4
open codes:

ML1 – 3 counts
ML2 – 3 counts
WU12 Summative Conclusion ML3 – 3 counts
ML4 – 3 counts
ML5 – 2 counts Strong -
ML6 – 3 counts Low
ML7 – Not Masculinity
Applicable (High
Total, Z = 17 Femininity)
______________
6 out of T = 7 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 60.7 %

WU13 1. Towards more femininity….ah…… towards Femininity Femininity

femi…femi…femininity (Low
Masculinity)

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. I feel comfortable when I….I show out my 1. easy to share ML1, ML2,
opinion with female boss and…a….. with ML4, ML5
247
 They are easy to share with employee …
employee….ummh….. interested
As well as................interested in …ah…more in ...ah..more
than…ah…..male boss..

2. Ummh….Ah……aha….ah……..emh…….bec 1. caring for ML1, ML2,

ause…emh….ah…..have some caring for ours ours and ML3, ML4,
and ….ah….quality of life…..ah ….ah….quali
They..they…they take care all member in our ty of life
group……ah..…nurturing team and
….ah….and…ah…encourage ….encourage 2. take care all ML1, ML2,
employee …ah…involvement………emh….. member in ML3, ML4,
I feel…ah…female boss easy to take our ML5, ML6,
them…….(laughing) group……ah. ML7
.…nurturing
team and
….ah….and
… ah…
encourage

Out of O = 3
open codes:

ML1 – 3 counts
ML2 – 3 counts
WU13 Summative Conclusion ML3 – 2 counts
ML4 – 3 counts
ML5 – 2 counts Strong -
ML6 – 1 count Low
ML7 – 1 count Masculinity
Total, Z = 15 (High
_____________ Femininity)
7 out of T = 7
thematic codes Count
identified Score %:
71.4 %

HOTEL C

Hotel C
WU6 1. We are more to the feminine….feminine Feminine Femininity
culture… more than the masculinity (Low
Masculinity)

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Because from our management to…. down to 1. take care of ML1, ML2,
the staff, we like…have to take care of them them as a ML3, ML4,
as a family and supporting the ideas family ML7
of….ah… what they want, encourage them to
improve, to like give us…… 2. Supporting ML1, ML2,
We have to….emh…. support them to the ideas ML4, ML5,
improve everyday so that they can give…. our of….ah… ML6
hotel the best performance and…. what they
want,
encourage
them to
improve

3. support them ML1, ML2,

to improve ML3, ML4
everyday so
that they can
give…. our
hotel the best
performance

2. We also treat the employees fairly, equally 1. treat the ML1, ML2,
Not..emh…not of them is like…… this one is employees ML4, ML5,
more…this one is better than the other fairly, ML6,
248
 We treat them equally….ya…and equally……
We have to negotiate to solve any conflict We have to
between negotiate to
department………..departments….and solve any
between the staff in one department conflict
between
department
...departments
… and
between the
staff in one
department

Out of O = 4
open codes:

ML1 – 4 counts
ML2 – 4 counts
WU6 Summative Conclusion ML3 – 2 counts
ML4 – 4 counts Strong -
ML5 – 2 counts Low
ML6 – 2 counts Masculinity
ML7 – 1 count (High
Total, Z = 19 Femininity)
______________
7 out of T = 7 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 67.8 %

WU10 1. Ah….I think…ah…… Femininity affects Femininity Femininity

the managerial workforce behavior….ah… (Low
Masculinity)

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Because Vietnamese people afraid of 1. afraid of ML6

losing…..the…losing face when somebody losing….
else…. figure out their mistake………. the …losing
or…………… face when
somebody
else…. figure
out their
mistake

2. The staff pinpoint out or find out the manager 1. manager feel ML5, ML6
mistake and ……… embarrassed
They suggest on the comment and we change and denied or
the way…the plan…and .. ……..ah…ref
The manager feel embarrassed and denied or used to…to
……..ah…refused to…to that comment that comment

Out of O = 2
open codes:

ML1 – Not
applicable
WU10 Summative Conclusion ML2 – Not
applicable
ML3 – Not Weak - Low
applicable Masculinity
ML4 – Not (High
applicable Femininity)
ML5 – 1
counts Count
ML6 – 2 Score %:
counts 21.4 %
ML7 – Not
249
 applicable
Total, Z = 3
2 out of T = 7
thematic codes
identified

WU11 1. Ah……In the hotel I think that feminine Femininity

feminine……feminine (Low
Masculinity)

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. So...it like..ah…..ah…the…the more social 1. Everybody ML1, ML2,

in this hotel work ML3, ML4,
Everybody work together, take care of each together, take ML5, ML6,
other and …. care of each ML7
We need to co-operate with each other to other………
make sure that our job like from the…ah… …need to
the beginning to the end…ah…like work be cooperate
finish good with each
other to make
sure that our
job like…….
be finish
good

2. All need to work together to make the 1. All need to ML1, ML2,
customer feel like..ah… good when they work together ML3, ML4,
staying here to make the ML5, ML6,
customer feel ML7
like..ah…
good when
they staying
here

Out of O = 2
open codes:

ML1 – 2 counts
ML2 – 2 counts
WU11 Summative Conclusion ML3 – 2 counts
ML4 – 2 counts Very Strong
ML5 – 2 counts - Low
ML6 – 2 counts Masculinity
ML7 – 2 count (Very High
Total, Z = 14 Femininity)
_____________
7 out of T = 7 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 100 %

WU14 1. We've to agree that, from the past until now, Masculinity Masculinity
the masculinity…..defeat
the…….Femininity.
More
2. In the working place, you know…….you masculinity
have to be more masculinity…..as if…..give
your more …ah…advantages than………..

3. Researcher: More
Overall, what do you think…towards more masculinity
masculinity… or femininity?
Towards more masculinity?

WU14:
Yes, exactly

250
 IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES: No Comments

Out of O = 2
open codes:

ML1 – Not
applicable
ML2 – Not
applicable
WU14 Summative Conclusion ML3 – Not
applicable Invalid
ML4 – Not
applicable
ML5 – Not
applicable
ML6 – Not
applicable
ML7 – Not
applicable
Total, Z = 0
_____________
0 out of T = 7
thematic codes
identified

4.2d Axial Coding to Match Selective Codes of Hofstede Cultural Dimension: Uncertainty Avoidance

The identified UAL codes for Low Uncertainty Avoidance are listed as below:

UAL1 - top managers involved in strategy

UAL2 - Tolerance for ambiguity in structure and procedures
UAL3 - Relationship orientation
UAL4 - Innovators feel independent of rules
UAL5 - Superiors optimistic about employees' ambition and leadership capacities

The identified UAH codes for Low Uncertainty Avoidance are listed as below:

UAH1 - Rational championing

UAH2 - Top managers involved in operations
UAH3 - Power of superiors depends on control of uncertainties
UAH4 - Highly formalized conception of management
UAH5 - Appeal of hierarchical control role
UAH6 - Task Orientation

UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE

251
 Hotel Intervie Responses Extent / Open Code Theme /Category Selective
wee Degree Code
of impact

HOTEL A

Hotel A
WU1 1. Ya…..Yes, we take the risk, we take Low
we take the risk the risk Uncertainty
Avoidance

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. We train them how to avoid 1. train them how to UAL1, UAL2, UAL5
the problem and we do not avoid the problem
care the staff is female or
male

2. I think in our company, we 1. don't care about the UAL2, UAL4, UAL5
not…. we not…….don't care male or female staff
about the male or female
staff…..you….you
understand?

Out of O = 2 open
codes:

UAL1 - 1 count
WU1 Summative Conclusion UAL2 - 2 counts
UAL3 - Not applicable
UAL4 - 1 count Low
UAL5 - 2 counts Uncertainty
Total, Z = 6 Avoidance
___________________
4 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
60.0 %

WU2 1. That's right, Ya… low Low Low

Uncertainty
Avoidance
IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. So, the…My team here, if 1. they need anything UAL3, UAL4

they need anything from me, from me, they just
they just come direct. come direct

2. Eeeh…Ok, you are in the 1. in the hosp…….

hosp..hospitality industry, so, hospitality industry, UAL2, UAL4
you cannot say that so, you cannot say that
you…scared of risk you…scared of risk
So… the risk …is
happen…and we know it 2. just try to do
happen…and.. anything….. just UAL1, UAL2, UAL3,
I always tell my staff that follow procedure when UAL4, UAL5
…ok....let‘s see that I tell you to do is a
coming…..We see it coming positive
So….. just try to do If it…If it happens, we
anything…just follow know it happens
procedure when I tell you to So, eeeh….can we
do is a positive carry on..
If it…If it happens, we know
it happens
So, eeeh….can we carry on..
Out of O = 3 open
codes:

UAL1 - 1 count
WU2 Summative Conclusion UAL2 - 2 counts
252
 UAL3 - 2 counts
UAL4 - 3 counts Low
UAL5 - 1 count Uncertainty
Total, Z = 9 Avoidance
___________________
5 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
60.0 %

WU8 1. High High High

Uncertainty
2. No, they don‘t take risk. They Avoidance
They don't take risk. don't take
risk

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Because when they do 1. when they do UAH1, UAH3

something they scare about something they scare
reputation, benefit and the job about reputation,
losing. But they do not benefit and the job
understand that …that is losing
dedication or creativity,…….is
not a destruction. 2. they dare not to do, UAH1, UAH4, UAH6
So they dare not to do, just just want to take
want to take 100% to make the 100% to make the
job done. So they cannot job done. So they
develop… cannot develop

2. Ah…that's mean…ah. 1 of my 1. scare about the …the UAH1, UAH6

fellow when I take him to distance from home
follow me to a very far to the working place
working place, and the family to be
So that on, first thing, he no one to take care
qualified to do that but he scare
about the …the distance from
home to the working place and
the family to be no one to take
care. So, he refused.

Out of O = 3 open
codes:

UAH1 - 3 counts
WU8 Summative Conclusion UAH2 - Not
applicable
UAH3 - 1 counts
UAH4 - 1 count Weak -
UAH5 - Not High
applicable Uncertainty
UAH6 - 2 counts Avoidance
Total, Z = 7
___________________ Count
4 out of T = 6 thematic Score %:
codes identified 38.9 %

HOTEL B

Hotel B
WU3 1. Ah…..Very…very Very high High
high……ya Uncertainty
Avoidance

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES: No
comment

WU3 Summative Conclusion No count Invalid

253
WU7 1. Er…. Like I said…ah…risk it‘s half- Medium
making the job more half at least Uncertainty
interesting and then Avoidance
So… yeh… of course, before take
taking something risky
So I‘ll have to consider
carefully, make sure it‘s half-
half at least and then take.

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Ah…yes I think it does 1. influence highly UAH1, UAH2, UAH3,

affect… highly in…like…in… in…at work….. UAH5, UAH6
influence highly in…at Yah…….because the
work….. managerial
Yah…….because the workforce needs to
managerial workforce needs to show the employees
show the employees that they that they are good
are good
So, whenever they give 2. they will choose the UAH1, UAH2, UAH3,
decisions out, they will choose safest way to give UAH5
the safest way to give because because they don‘t
they don‘t want to take risk or want to take risk
they don‘t want it to be risky
and..

2. For example,……...Er… yeh… 1. some managers they UAH1, UAH2, UAH3,

so and for some managers they don‘t want to lose UAH5
don‘t want to lose face so they face so they just try
just try to choose the safest to choose the safest
way to give out way to give out

Out of O = 3 open
codes:

UAH1 - 3 counts
UAH2 - 3 counts
WU7 Summative Conclusion UAH3 - 3 counts
UAH4 - Not
applicable Strong -
UAH5 - 3 counts High
UAH6 - 1 count Uncertainty
Total, Z = 13 Avoidance
___________________
5 out of T = 6 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
72.2 %

WU9 1. I think its low, sir Low Low

Uncertainty
Avoidance
IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. For sure, sir 1. We‘d like to take risk UAL1, UAL2, UAL4,
We‘d like to take risk and and accept change UAL5
accept change

2. We do the things like, we 1. we don‘t have to think UAL2, UAL4, UAL5

don‘t have to think in advance in advance and what‘ll
and what‘ll happen in the happen in the future
future
We just do like…umh,
ah…actually I…I don‘t have
a good example for this

Out of o = 2 open
codes:

254
 UAL1 - 1 count
WU9 Summative Conclusion UAL2 - 2 counts
UAL3 - Not
Applicable
UAL4 - 2 counts High - Low
UAL5 - 2 counts Uncertainty
Total, Z = 7 Avoidance
___________________
4 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
70.0 %

WU12 1. I think ……that is very high Very high High

right now Uncertainty
Avoidance
2. No, they do not want to take Do not
risk…They try to stay away want to
from risk take
risk…
They try
to stay
away
from risk

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. You know…..they afraid to 1. they afraid to change UAH1, UAH3, UAH4

change to the new things and to the new things
even though they
change………
Even they got the new thing
have to change…they are
afraid of
that…….and…..still….

2. But, they afraid of …got 1. they afraid of '…got UAH1, UAH2, UAH3,
anything problem they have to anything problem they UAH4
take responsibilities…..then have to take
they don't want …..they don't responsibilities…they
want to change anything…..and don't want to change
then…… anything

3. Researcher: 1. people are not flexible UAH1, UAH2, UAH4,

It's fine, perfectly… UAH6
It does mean that people are
not flexible

WU12:
Ummh….Yes, exactly……

4. Ah….They just tryto do the 1. ….just try to do….to UAH1, UAH4, UAH5,
….just try to do….to follow by follow by UAH6
the…policy…..ya…… the…policy…Even
Even though this is shorter and though this is shorter
better, they don't want to and better, they don't
change…ya…. want to change

Out of O = 4 open
codes:

UAH1 - 4 counts
UAH2 - 2 counts
UAH3 - 2 counts
UAH4 - 4 counts
WU12 Summative Conclusion UAH5 - 1 counts Strong -
UAH6 - 2 counts High
Total, Z = 15 Uncertainty
___________________ Avoidance
6 out of T = 6 thematic
255
 codes identified Count
Score %:
62.5 %

WU13 1. Ah…….In the hotel, I High High

supposed…ah….ah…. to Uncertainty
work…ah… high uncertainty Avoidance
avoidance

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Yes….ah….because the safety 1. the safety method is UAH1, UAH2, UAH3,

method is often often chosen…emh… UAH4, UAH6
chosen…emh… by by manager……
manager……ah..….. Because they...ah… do
Because they...ah… do not not want to take
want to take risks…..they do risks…...they do not
not want to take on challenges want to take on
They don't want to challenges
change……ah They don't want to
change

2. They are afraid of 1. They are afraid of UAH1, UAH2, UAH3,

responsibility and ..ah responsibility UAH5, UAH6
……suppose that ……… ……They will loss of
They will loss of face…ah…… face…ah…… when
when they...ah… make any they....ah… make any
wrong decision…..ah…. wrong decision

Out of O = 2 open
codes:

UAH1 - 2 counts
UAH2 - 2 counts
UAH3 - 2 counts
WU13 Summative Conclusion UAH4 - 1 count Very Strong
UAH5 - 1 counts - High
UAH6 - 2 counts Uncertainty
Total, Z = 10 Avoidance
___________________
6 out of T = 6 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
83.3 %

HOTEL C

Hotel C Low
WU6 1. Researcher: Low
So, you mean that you are low Uncertainty
uncertainty avoidance because Avoidance
of that?

WU6:
Yes…because…. I think is low

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Sometimes, you have to be 1. you have to be UAL1, UAL2, UAL4,

flexible………………… flexible……….. To UAL5
When you….ah… when you solve it,……. not to be
expect….ah….. different kind of depend too much on
problem… the standard
To solve it,………. not to be
depend too much on the standard

2. Ya, in the hotel, we….we want 1. we want our staff to be UAL1, UAL2, UAL3,
256
 our staff to be low uncertainty low uncertainty……. UAL4, UAL5
avoidance avoidance
Because, we have to be flexible we have to be flexible
to solve any problem to solve any problem

Out of O = 2 open
codes:

UAL1 - 2 count
UAL2 - 2 counts
WU6 Summative Conclusion UAL3 - 1 count Very High -
UAL4 - 2 counts Low
UAL5 - 2 counts Uncertainty
Total, Z = 9 Avoidance
___________________
5 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
90.0 %

WU10 1. So, I think it is very high…. very high High

Uncertainty
Avoidance
IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Ah, I think it….it affects 1. they don‘t want to UAH1, UAH2, UAH3,
highly…..ah…. accept the risk…..or they UAH4, UAH5
push the risk to other one
Because
manager….Vietnamese the
manager usually they don‘t
want to accept the risk…..or
They push the risk to other one
….and …ah…..

Out of O = 1 open
codes:

UAH1 - 1 count
UAH2 - 1 counts
WU10 Summative Conclusion UAH3 - 1 counts
UAH4 - 1 count
UAH5 - 1 counts Very Strong
UAH6 - Not - High
applicable Uncertainty
Total, Z = 5 Avoidance
___________________
5 out of T = 6 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
83.3 %

WU11 1. Its mean that we will face Low

low uncertainly avoidance Low
Uncertainty
2. Ah……..Yes, they are Willing Avoidance
willing to take risk to take
risk

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. We…. are willing to face with 1. willing to face with the UAL1, UAL2, UAL4,
the new challenges new challenges UAL5

2. Because they know that they 1. they know that they UAL1, UAL2, UAL3,
257
 need to change and adapt with need to change and UAL4, UAL5
the circumstances adapt with the
Just like this , just only this circumstances….
way they can help the hotel …… ..like this , just
develop and along with the new only this way they can
hotel outside there…ya…. help the hotel develop
If they scared of the….the
challenge the hotel just staying
like this, no development

Out of O = 2 open
codes:

UAL1 - 2 counts
UAL2 - 2 counts
WU11 Summative Conclusion UAL3 - 1 count Very Strong
UAL4 - 2 counts - Low
UAL5 - 2 counts Uncertainty
Total, Z = 9 Avoidance
___________________
5 out of T = 5 Count
thematic codes Score %:
identified 90.0 %

WU14 1. Hmmm…..they don't want to Don't High

take the risk want to Uncertainty
take the Avoidance
risk
IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Most of the young 1. the young leader….. Neutral comments

leader…..you know and you know and
ah…..they can face the truth, ah…..they can face the
that they can take the risk truth, that they can
But for all of the old men, or take the risk
the old boss, they don't
want……. 2. the old boss, they don't
want……

WU14 Summative Conclusion Not enough Invalid

supportive response

4.2e Axial Coding to Match Selective Codes of Hofstede Cultural Dimension: Long/Short-Term Orientation

The identified LTOL codes for Low Long-Term Orientation are listed as below:

LTOL1 - in business, short-term results: the bottom line

LTOL2 - Meritocracy: economic and social life to be ordered by abilities
LTOL3 - Probabilistic thinking
LTOL4 - short-term virtues taught
LTOL5 - Analytic thinking

The identified LTOH codes for High Long-Term Orientation are listed as below:

LTOH1 - In business, building of relationships and market position

LTOH2 - People should live more equally
LTOH3 - Long term virtues taught

258
LTOH4 - Vertical coordination, horizontal coordination, control, and adaptiveness
LTOH5 - Synthetic thinking

LONG-TERM / SHORT-TERM ORIENTATION

Responses Extent / Open Code Theme /Category Selective

Degree of Code
impact

HOTEL A

Hotel A WU1 1. You know…ah….ah ….most of Most of Long -term

people they….they have to go people Orientation
forward and…… they…they
You think you do better than have to go
yesterday forward

Go forward,
2. You have…you……and if you go you got to
forward, you got to live with ..…the live with ..
good future….good future for you the good
…your…your …or….and your future for
company also you ….or
and your
company

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. We take care of them. 1. We treat them LTOH1, LTOH2,

We treat them as a family,…and as a family,… LTOH3
they…..I mean they come often and they….. I
and…….. mean they come
Also, they recommend for another often
guest…… to come to same place

2. Ah…. my example, …………….you 1. boss also train LTOH1, LTOH3,

know self start first just one hotel us…….how LTOH4, LTOH5
only you to…..
So, our boss build for 3 or 4 more improve
now… maybe more ….for the next yourself …..and
few years ah…build up
So, mean …ah…..our boss also train the company
us ..how you ….how you
to………how you to….. improve
yourself …..and ah…build up the
company

3. So now, we…. develop a lot. So, 1. we…. develop a LTOH1, LTOH3,

we have few hotels for…..for the lot. So, we have LTOH4
next future few hotels
for…..for the
next future

Out of O = 3 open
codes:

LTOH1 - 3 counts
LTOH2 - 1 counts
LTOH3 - 3 counts Strong -
WU1 Summative Conclusion LTOH4 - 2 counts High Long-
LTOH5 - 1 count Term
Total, Z = 10 Orientation

259
 ___________________
5 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
66.7 %

WU2 1. Long-term orientation, Long-term Long -term

eeeh, ..ok…this is……….. orientation Orientation

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. People think about today, tomorrow, 1. they think about LTOH1, LTOH3
the most and they think about next next year and ten
year and ten years from now years from now

2. They know the reason and then 1. Everything you LTOH1, LTOH3,
everyday,… I will repeat that this is do, you have to LTOH4. LTOH5
where we are, this is what we are think about it….
going to be and….. in the long way..
Everything you do, you have to think in the long time
about it…. in the long way…in the
long time

3. Don't let our next 1. Our next LTOH1, LTOH2,

generation…because which we generation LTOH3, LTOH4
cannot be in this hotel forever because which
There is some….the new team will we cannot be in
replace us and… this hotel
Don't let them…..think about……ok, Forever…… the
this guy, those guys, create very bad new team will
records replace us
So, That's....not nice to hear Don't let them
that…just think about that and do it think about……..
now this guy, those
guys, create very
bad records

1. So, we always have the plan..how 1. we always have LTOH3, LTOH4,

you deal with that, and how do we the plan..how LTOH5
train a manager, how do we train a you deal with
waiter ..to be…. good one… who that…….. how
can stand up and then, we have to do we train a
have very long term plan manager……….
we have to have
very long term
plan

2. Ok, tell me what is your plan and 1. we adjust…. our LTOH1, LTOH2,
then we adjust…. our plan to meet plan to meet LTOH3, LTOH4,
your plan….so we can grow your plan….so LTOH5
together we can grow
together

Out of O = 5 open
codes:

LTOH1 - 4 counts
WU2 Summative Conclusion LTOH2 - 2 counts
LTOH3 - 5 counts Strong -
LTOH4 - 4 counts High Long-
LTOH5 - 3 counts Term
Total, Z = 18 Orientation
_________________
5 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
72.0 %

WU8 1. I think Vietnamese they just think Short-term Short-term

260
 about the short term. Orientation

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. They see the benefit in front of their 1. benefit in front of LTOL1, LTOL3,
eyes. They don‘t look at things so far their eyes…. They LTO4, LTOL5
away. don‘t look at
So, for example…they want a very things so far
high career very high position away…….. But if
But if the salary, benefit is not the salary, benefit
enough to qualify their..current life is not enough to
so they refused. qualify
So I mean they just to make sure that their..current.. life
the benefit must be in front of their so they refused
eyes so they decide to take

2. Just one thing I want to tell you that 1. in the pass I scare LTOL2, LTO3, LTOL5
in the pass I scare of foreigner a lot of foreigner a
But now I like to say, to talk to share lot……… in the
with the foreigner because from that pass I scare of
way I can learn a lot of foreign foreigner a
culture,…of… so many lot…… But now I
like to say, to talk
to share with the
foreigner because
from that way I
can learn a lot of
foreign culture

Out of O = 2 open
codes:

LTOL1 - 1 count
WU8 Summative Conclusion LTOL2 - 1 count
LTOL3 - 2 counts Strong -
LTOL4 - 1 count Low Long -
LTOL5 - 2 counts Term
Total, Z = 7 Orientation
_________________
5 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
70.0 %

HOTEL B

Hotel B
WU3 1. Ah, I think the culture….don‘t ..don‘t Long Long -term
have a…talk a lot about the…about orientation Orientation
the….long….orientation

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Ah…Like...ah…how we training our 1. how we training LTOH1, LTOH2,

staff here our staff here LTOH3, LTOH4,
We have ….everybody have to under We have LTOH5
training…for the long…for the long ………everybody
and for …in the future of the hotel have to under
and… training…for the
We up… update…emmh….many long…for the long
….emh...…many good service from and for …in the
other hotels..….higher level hotel than future of the hotel
our hotel
2.We up… update
….emmh …many LTOH1, LTOH3,
….emh... many LTOH4, LTOH5
good service from
other hotels
Out of O = 2 open
261
 codes:

LTOH1 - 2 counts
WU3 Summative Conclusion LTOH2 - 1 count
LTOH3 - 2 counts Very Strong
LTOH4 - 2 counts - High Long-
LTOH5 - 2 counts Term
Total, Z = 9 Orientation
_________________
5 out of 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
90.0 %

WU7 1. Ar… I think the long-term orientation Long-term Long -term

is very very important and that I could Orientation
give the huge YES and…

2. It‘s influencing to the behavior for the Influencing

workforce to the
behavior for
the
workforce

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Because the long-term orientation like

giving you a plan for your work and 1. giving you a LTOH1, LTOH2,
actually work is a part of your life plan for your LTOH3, LTOH4,
So when you have a plan you have work…… LTOH5
something when like you have orientation for
orientation for you to follow and… you to follow…..
You can make the plan of being plan of
promoted, plan of making money, improving
plan of improving yourself yourself……….
and…a.h…. By that you get
By that you get inspired to work every inspired to work
day and you can use that to inspire every day and
your staff…. you can use that
Making them arr… feel…arrr…like to to inspire your
be motivated, or.. staff
In case anything happens…. er… they
would think for the long-term 2. they would think LTOH1, LTOH3,
business or making decision or yeh for the long-term LTOH4, LTOH5
like motivation for the staff….ah…to business………
give decisions to guest at least why we have the
so that‘s why we have the repeated repeated guest
guest because at the first time we give because at the
decision that for the long term benefit, first time we
long term business. give decision
that for the long
term benefit,
long term
business

2. Uhm…Yah because for the long- term 1. can make the LTOH1, LTOH3,
orientation, you can make the staff staff feel more LTOH5
feel more patience and…ah… patience.
They could save or they could invest ……They could
more….ah… to work… save or they
Yeh… and it‘s somehow making the could invest
entire hotel developed. more….ah… to
work…
somehow making
the entire hotel
developed

Out of O = 3 open
codes:

LTOH1 - 3 counts
262
 LTOH2 - 1 counts Very
LTOH3 - 3 counts Strong -
WU7 Summative Conclusion LTOH4 - 2 counts High Long-
LTOH5 - 3 counts Term
Total, Z = 12 Orientation
_________________
5 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
80.0 %

WU9 1. Researcher: Long-term Long -term

Ok, now are you telling me that Orientation Orientation
national culture is toward long term
Orientation and that affects you in
term of your workforce behavior?

WU9:
Yes

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Uh, Vietnamese ah…Nowaday, 1. managers are LTOH1, LTOH3,

managers are trying to build long term trying to build LTOH4, LTOH5
business relationship long term
To have repeat guests and they start business
thinking of long-term gains instead of relationship. To
instance or short-term benefits……. have repeat
That what I have and what I know guests and they
start thinking of
long-term gains

Out of O = 1 open
codes:

LTOH1 - 1 count
LTOH2 - Not
WU9 Summative Conclusion applicable
LTOH3 - 1 count Very Strong
LTOH4 - 1 count - High Long-
LTOH5 - 1 count Term
Total, Z = 4 Orientation
_________________
4 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
80.0 %

WU12 1. Ah…nowadays, Long-term Long-term Long -term

orientation is affect our…..ah….our Orientation Orientation
workforce behaviors

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Because you…our…our hotel try to 1. our hotel try to LTOH1, LTOH3,

give training every week… give training LTOH4, LTOH5
To open our mind and training the every week
knowledge to stand by everything in ….To open our
case that happen…… mind and
In case the problem happen, we can training the
handle that… knowledge to
stand by
everything

2. We try to remind our 1. we just make a LTOH1, LTOH3,

customer……then…ah…we…we lot of return LTOH4, LTOH5
just…….we just make a lot of return program…
program like....ah…return customer introduce us
263
 come with us training new
We also…our….our management also programs, new
training property, help us
and….ah..…..produc…ah…..sorry….i to understand
ntroduce us training new programs, more about our
new property, help us to understand company
more about our company
From that,we can proud of our 2. From that we can LTOH1, LTOH3
comp….our hotel proud of our
comp….our hotel

3. We also have …ah….the new hotel 1. the new hotel is LTOH1, LTOH3
property like a.…ah… the new hotel opening soon …
is opening so on this is a big
Then after that when they look at us company
right …they will…will think in their ……maybe they
mind…. this is the… this is a big will trust us
company…maybe they will trust us right…more
right…more trust trust
us……sorry……trust in us more…..

Out of O = 4 open
codes:

LTOH1 - 4 counts
LTOH2 - Not
applicable
WU12 Summative Conclusion LTOH3 - 4 counts Medium -
LTOH4 - 2 counts High Long-
LTOH5 - 2 counts Term
Total, Z = 12 Orientation
_________________
4 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
60.0 %

WU13 1. Ah…..In my Vietnamese Long-term Long -term

culture…ah….long-term orientation is Orientation Orientation
applied at work………..ah….

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Managers often talk…..always talk 1. always talked LTOH1, LTOH3,

about….ah….always talked about the about the LTOH4, LTOH5
development of the development of
hotel……ah…..and…ah… the hotel………. It
Ah… … It makes their employees makes their
think that….ah….this is the ideal employees think
place to work that….ah….this is
the ideal place to
work

2. Ah….They will be..ah… 1. They will be..ah LTOH1, LTOH2,

recognized……they will … recognized .. LTOH3, LTOH4,
be…....ah...ah…..considered for they will be….... LTOH5
promotion…emh…..ah…..ah….. ah...ah….
This can encourage their employees considered for
to work better…….and ah…. promotion……
Always remind employees..ah…about This can
long-term benefits….. encourage their
employees to work
better……. and
ah….Always
remind employees
…ah.... about
long-term benefits

3. Ah…yes…you have…ah… work 1. you can have long- LTOH1,

instruction…ah… up here and ...ah… term business LTOH3,LTOH4,
264
 hotel…and ….ah… relationship…… LTOH5
So you can have long-term business …
relationship… ..you have many , you have many ,
many return guests…and…ah….. many return guests
After training lessons…ah…every day
shift supervisors…ah…she always 2. every day shift LTOH3, LTOH4,
reminded them …….always supervisors… … LTOH5
remind…ah….ah… me to save always remind…
and…ah… invest for future… ah….ah… me to
For example, save and…ah…
use…ah…ah…one…one sided invest for
paper…to save…ah…ah….to save for future…. to save
future to get more benefits for future to get
…ah…ah…. for me and bonus or more benefits
something like that.

Out of O = 4 open
codes:

WU13 Summative Conclusion LTOH1 - 3 counts

LTOH2 - 1 count
LTOH3 - 3 counts Strong -
LTOH4 - 4 counts High Long-
LTOH5 - 4 counts Term
Total, Z = 15 Orientation
_________________
5 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
75.5 %

Hotel C
WU6 1. I think that….ah…. we have to Towards Long -term
move… towards to long-term than to long- Orientation
the short-term… term

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. We have to keep our guest to come 1. We have to keep LTOH1, LTOH3,

back to our hotel and encourage the our guest to LTOH4, LTOH5
staff to be….to give the guest the best come back to our
experience hotel…
encourage the
staff to be….to
give the guest
the best
experience

2. So, we prefer the long-term 1. We want the staff LTOH1, LTOH3,

orientation and….. also to stick with LTOH4, LTOH5
We want the staff also to stick with us…ah….for long-
us…ah….for long-term more than term more than
short -term….ya short –term

3. They, Long-term business relationship 1. Long-term business LTOH1, LTOH3,

between….ah… our hotel to another relationship………. LTOH4, LTOH5
friend hotel or any…. company We would like to
The business between company and keep a long-term
our hotel business relationship
We would like to keep a long-term with our ……like
business relationship with our comp…companion
……like comp….companion.

Out of O = 3 open
codes:

LTOH1 - 3 counts
LTOH2 - Not
Applicable Very
LTOH3 - 3 counts Strong -
265
 WU6 Summative Conclusion LTOH4 - 3 counts High Long-
LTOH5 - 3 counts Term
Total, Z = 12 Orientation
_________________
4 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
80.0 %

WU10 1. I think ..ah…Long-term Long-term Long -term

affects…..emh….to the managerial Orientation
workforce behavior.

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:
1. both ways, LTOH1, LTOH3,
1. Ah, both ways, especially for especially for LTOH4, LTOH5
business, they want to gain the long business, they
benefit….ah…after that they can get want to gain the
the long-term bonus or benefit for the long benefit
staff
For example, why they don‘tlike to 2. they don‘t like to LTOH1, LTOH3,
work for temporary job…. work for LTOH4, LTOH5
But the…….not the long-term temporary job….
They cannot build their plan or the They cannot build
future……the career for the future their plan or the
future……the
career for the
future

Out of O = 2 open
codes:

LTOH1 - 2 counts
WU10 Summative Conclusion LTOH2 - Not
Applicable
LTOH3 - 2 counts Very Strong
LTOH4 - 2 counts - High Long-
LTOH5 - 2 counts Term
Total, Z = 8 Orientation
_________________
4 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
80.0 %

WU11 1. In my hotel, my manager always think Long-term Long -term

about long term orientation orientation Orientation

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Because the benefits of the hotel in 1. Because the LTOH1, LTOH3,

the future right now we have benefits of the LTOH4, LTOH5
to…like…we have to built the hotel in the future
standard from the small things … right now we have
Make sure that everything is good so to…like…we
in the future we don't have to worry have to built the
anything standard from the
That what i think about the long term small things….
orientation Make sure that
everything is good
so in the future we
don't have to
worry anything

2. Umh…….in Viet…..I think 1. Vietnamese LTOH1, LTOH3,

Vietnamese culture we so flexible culture we so LTOH4, LTOH5
and… flexible and…We
We....we easily to adapt with the new easily to adapt
266
 environment with the new
That's why when we work in the hotel environment…..
environment……. we can recognize That's why when
that we need to change we work in the
hotel
environment…….
we can recognize
that we need to
change

Out of O = 2 open
codes:

LTOH1 - 2 counts
WU11 Summative Conclusion LTOH2 - Not
Applicable Very
LTOH3 - 2 counts Strong -
LTOH4 - 2 counts High Long-
LTOH5 - 2 counts Term
Total = 8 Orientation
___________________
4 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
80.0 %

WU14 1. On the processing , there's long-term Long-term

orientation and you know…….you Long -term
know……. Orientation
Our country is developing country, the
market is quite diversified…. and that
helps us to promote our business.

IMPACTS OR INFLUENCES:

1. Ya…..but i know, and I‘ve heard in 1. Ya…..but I know, LTOH1, LTOH3,

my mind that….you know…. to keep and I‘ve heard in LTOH4
in the long term orientation is the only my mind
way for me that….you
know…. to keep
in the long term
orientation is the
only way for me

2. And…the…. in particular, in the 1. He more concern LTOH1, LTOH3,

hotel, a long-term oriented managers about the future, LTOH4, LTOH5
know the hotel as the back of his what …what will
headand… be the hotel in the
He more concern about the future, next 10 years, or
what …what will be the hotel in the 20 next years
next 10 years, or 20 next years..

3. Ah… so that, they need to be 1. they need to be LTOH1, LTOH3,

determined, making decision, what is determined, LTOH4, LTOH5
the hotel destiny making decision,
So….. She or He has to ….has to what is the hotel
think positive, and need to have a destiny…….. has
master plan to meet the success, and to think positive,
you know………. and need to have a
He does strong believe that he 's on master plan to
the right way. meet the success

4. I mentioned that …you know…that 1. make me feel LTOH1, LTOH3,

affects me…you know…make me feel more LTOH4
more enthu…siastic… enthu..siastic……
Because…you know…..if you got the you need to be
enthusiasm, you can know who you focused………….
are, and what you do, and … Because in the
You know… the Life…you know future …..if short
that… is just one time that …… you term, you cannot
267
need to be focused… do anything
You need to make it for the long term
….orientation, not short term,
Because in the future …..if short term,
you cannot do anything, and it make
none sense for me…

Out of O = 4 open
codes:

LTOH1 - 4 counts
LTOH2 - Not
WU14 Summative Conclusion Applicable
LTOH3 - 4 counts Strong -
LTOH4 - 4 counts High Long-
LTOH5 - 2 counts Term
Total, Z = 14 Orientation
___________________
4 out of T = 5 thematic Count
codes identified Score %:
70.0 %

268
 Appendix 9

Code Count and Result of Hofstede Cultural Dimensions

269
Appendix 9: Code Count and Result of Hofstede Cultural Dimensions

A. Result and Code Count of Hofstede Cultural Dimension: Power Distance

The thematic PDL codes signify Low Power Distance theme codes, and PDH codes signify the High
Power Distance theme codes, see Appendix 4.2. for coding details.

PDL signifies Low Power Distance and PDL (number) signifies thematic code
PDH signifies High Power Distance and PDH (number) signifies thematic code
N.A. signifies Not Applicable

Formula: Average Count Score % = Sum of all Count Score Percentages of the respective
cultural dimension divided by the respective number of Count Score Percentages used

The identified PDL codes are:

PDL1 - Flat organization pyramids

PDL2 - Subordinates expect to be consulted
PDL3 - Consultative leadership leads to satisfaction, performance and productivity
PDL4 - subordinate-superior relations pragmatic
PDL5 - Openness with information, also to non-superiors
PDL6 - Managers rely on personal experience and on subordinates

The identified PDH codes are:

PDH1 - Centralized decision structures; more concentration of authority

PDH2 - Subordinates expect to be told
PDH3 - Subordinate-superior relations polarized, often emotional
PDH4 - Subordinates influenced by formal authority and sanction: MBO cannot work
PHD5 - innovations and good support from hierarchy
PDH6 - The ideal boss is a well-meaning autocrat or good father, sees self as benevolent decision maker
PDH7 - Tall organization pyramids
PDH8 - Hierarchy in organization reflects the existential inequality between higher-ups and lower-downs
PDH9 - Large proportions of supervisory

Result and Code Count of Cultural Dimension: Power Distance

270
Result of Thematic Code: Power Distance

Hotel Interviewee PDL, Low Power Distance, or Summative Result

PDH, High Power Distance

Hotel A WU1 PDL

WU2 PDL
WU8 PDL
Hotel A
PDL - Low Power
Conclusion
Distance

Hotel B WU3 PDH

WU7 PDH
WU9 PDH
WU12 PDH
WU13 PDH
Hotel B PDH - High Power
Conclusion Distance

Hotel C WU6 PDL

WU10 PDL
WU11 PDL
WU14 PDH
Hotel C PDL - Low Power
Conclusion Distance

Summative Result of All Three Hotels PDL - Low Power

Distance

Low Power Distance, PDL: High Power Distance, PDH:

(Summative 3 Hotels) (Summative 3 Hotels)
Average Count Score % = 71.1 % Average Count Score % = 40.9 %
Number of Interviewee = 6 Number of Interviewee = 6
Strong - PDL = 4 interviewees Strong - PDH = None
Medium - PDL = 2 interviewees Medium - PDH = 3 interviewees
Weak - PDL = none Weak - PDH = 3 interviewees

Low Power Distance, PDL = 6 out of 12 interviewees (50%)

High Power Distance, PDL = 6 out of 12 interviewees (50%)

B. Result and Code Count of Cultural Dimension: Collectivism/Individualism

The thematic CH codes signify High Collectivism thematic codes, and CL codes signify the Low
Collectivism thematic codes, see Appendix 4.2. for coding details.

CH signifies High Collectivism and CH (number) signifies thematic code

CL signifies Low Collectivism and CL (number) signifies thematic code
N.A. signifies Not Applicable
271
Formula: Average Count Score % = Sum of all Count Score Percentages of the respective
cultural dimension divided by the respective number of Count Score Percentages used

The identified CH codes are:

CH1 – Employees in the interest of their in-group, not necessarily of themselves

CH2 – Employees perform best in in-group
CH3 – belief in collective decisions
CH4 – Innovation champions in organizations want to involve others
CH5 – Management is management of groups
CH6 – Employee-employee relationship is basically moral, like a family link
CH7 – Incentives to be given to in-groups
CH8 – Organizational success attributed to sharing information, openly committing oneself, and political
alliances
CH9 - Direct appraisal of performance is a threat to harmony

The identified CL codes are:

CL1 - Employees supposed to act as "economic men"

CL2 - Employer-employee relationship is a business deal in a "labor market"
CL3 - Employees perform best as individuals
CL4 - Employees can be seen as individual
CL5 - Incentives to be given to individuals
CL6 - Belief in individual decisions
CL7 - In business, task and company prevail over personal relationships

Result and Code Count of Cultural Dimension: Collectivism / Individualism

272
Result of Thematic Code: Collectivism /Individualism

Hotel Interviewee CH, High Collectivism (Collectivistic) Summative Result

or
CL, Low Collectivism (Individualistic)
Hotel A WU1 CH
WU2 CH
WU8 CL
Hotel A
CH- High
Conclusion
Collectivism

Hotel B WU3 CH
WU7 CL
WU9 CH
WU12 CH
WU13 CH
Hotel B CH- High
Conclusion Collectivism

Hotel C WU6 CH
WU10 CL
WU11 CH
WU14 CH
Hotel C CH- High
Conclusion Collectivism

Summative Result of All Three Hotels CH- High

Collectivism

High Collectivism, CH: Low Collectivism, CL:

(Summative 3 Hotels) (Summative 3 Hotels)
Average Count Score % = 60.2% Average Count Score % = 54.8 %
Number of Interviewee = 9 Number of Interviewee = 3
Strong - CH = 6 interviewees Strong - CL = 1 interviewee
Medium - CH = 2 interviewees Medium - CL = 1 interviewee
Very Weak - CH = 1 interviewee Weak - CL = 1 interviewee

High Collectivism, CH = 9 out of 12 interviewees (75%)

Low Collectivism, CL = 3 out of 12 interviewees (25%)

C. Result and Code Count of Cultural Dimension: Masculinity/Femininity

The thematic ML codes signify Low Masculinity thematic codes, and MH codes signify the High
Masculinity thematic codes, see Appendix 4.2. for coding details.

ML signifies Low Masculinity and ML (number) signifies thematic code

MH signifies High Masculinity and MH (number) signifies thematic code
273
N.A. signifies Not Applicable

Formula: Average Count Score % = Sum of all Count Score Percentages of the respective
cultural dimensions divided by the respective number of Count Score Percentages used

The identified ML codes are:

ML1 - Meaning of work for workers: relations and working conditions

ML2 - Stress on equality, solidarity, and quality of work life
ML3 - Management as a "menage" (unit or household living together)
ML4 - Managers are employees like others
ML5 - Managers expected to use intuition, deal with feelings, and seek consensus
ML6 - Resolution of conflicts through problem solving, compromise, and negotiation
ML7 – Humanization of work through creation of work groups

The identified MH codes are:

MH1 - Managers expected to be decisive, firm assertive, aggressive, competitive, just

MH2 - Successful managers seen as having solely male characteristics
MH3 - Fewer women in management
MH4 - Humanization of work through provision of task challenge

Result and Code Count of Cultural Dimension: Masculinity / Femininity

Result of Thematic Code: Masculinity / Femininity

Hotel Interviewee ML, Low Masculinity (High Summative Result

Femininity) or
MH, High Masculinity
(Low Femininity)

Hotel A WU1 ML

274
 WU2 ML
WU3 MH
Hotel A
Conclusion ML – Low
Masculinity
(Feminine)

Hotel B WU3 ML
WU7 MH
WU9 ML
WU12 ML
WU13 ML
Hotel B ML – Low
Conclusion Masculinity
(Feminine)

Hotel C WU6 ML
WU10 ML
WU11 ML
WU14 Invalid
Hotel C ML – Low
Conclusion Masculinity
(Feminine)

Summative Result of All Three Hotels

ML – Low
Masculinity
(Feminine)

Low Masculinity, ML: High Masculinity, MH:

(Summative 3 Hotels)
Average Count Score %= 63.0 %
Number of Interviewees = 9
Very Strong - ML = 1 interviewee
Strong - ML = 6 interviewees
Weak - ML = 2 interviewees
(Summative 3 Hotels)
Average Count Score %= 68.8 %
Number of Interviewees = 2
Strong - MH =2 interviewees

Invalid = 1 interviewee

Low Masculinity, ML = 9 out of 11 interviewees (82%)

High Masculinity, MH = 2 out of 11 interviewees (18%)

D. Result and Code Count of Cultural Dimension: Uncertainty Avoidance

The thematic UAL codes signify Low Uncertainty Avoidance thematic codes, and UAH codes signify the
High Uncertainty Avoidance thematic codes, see Appendix 4.2. for coding details.

275
UAL signifies Low Uncertainty Avoidance and UAL (number) signifies thematic code
UAH signifies High Uncertainty Avoidance and UAH (number) signifies thematic code
N.A. signifies Not Applicable

Formula: Average Count Score % = Sum of all Count Score Percentages of the respective
cultural dimensions divided by the respective number of Count Score Percentages used

The identified UAL codes are:

UAL1 - top managers involved in strategy

UAL2 - Tolerance for ambiguity in structure and procedures
UAL3 - Relationship orientation
UAL4 - Innovators feel independent of rules
UAL5 - Superiors optimistic about employees' ambition and leadership capacities

The identified UAH codes are:

UAH1 - Rational championing

UAH2 - Top managers involved in operations
UAH3 - Power of superiors depends on control of uncertainties
UAH4 - Highly formalized conception of management
UAH5 - Appeal of hierarchical control role
UAH6 - Task Orientation

Result and Code Count of Cultural Dimension: Uncertainty Avoidance

Result of Thematic Code: Uncertainty Avoidance

Hotel Interviewee UAL, Low Uncertainty Avoidance Summative Result

or
UAH, High Uncertainty Avoidance

Hotel A WU1 UAL

WU2 UAL

276
 WU8 UAH
Hotel A UAL, Low
Conclusion Uncertainty Avoidance

Hotel B WU3 Invalid

WU7 UAH
WU9 UAL
WU12 UAH
WU13 UAH UAH, High
Hotel B Uncertainty Avoidance
Conclusion

Hotel C WU6 UAL

WU10 UAH
WU11 UAL
WU14 Invalid
UAL, Low
Hotel C Uncertainty Avoidance
Conclusion

Summative Result of All Three Hotels UAL, Low

Uncertainty Avoidance

Low Uncertainty Avoidance, UAL: High Uncertainty Avoidance, UAH:

(Summative 3 Hotels)
Average Count Score %= 74.0 %
Number of Interviewee = 5
Very Strong – UAL = 2 interviewees
Strong - UAL = 1 interviewee
Medium - UAL = 2 interviewees
(Summative 3 Hotels)
Average Count Score % = 68.04
Number of Interviewee = 5
Very Strong – UAH = 2 interviewees
Strong - UAH = 2 interviewees
Weak - UAH = 1 interviewee

Invalid = 2 interviewees

Low Uncertainty Avoidance, UAL = 5 out of 10 interviewees (50%)

High Uncertainty Avoidance, UAH = 5 out of 10 interviewees (50%)

E. Result and Code Count of Cultural Dimension: Long-Term/Short-Term Orientation

The thematic LTOL codes signify Low Long-Term Orientation thematic codes, and LTOH codes signify
the High Long-Term Orientation thematic codes, see Appendix 4.2. for coding details.

LTOL signifies Low Long-Term Orientation and LTOL (number) signifies thematic code
LTOH signifies High Long-Term Orientation and LTOH (number) signifies thematic code
N.A. signifies Not Applicable

Formula: Average Count Score % = Sum of all Count Score Percentages of the respective
cultural dimensions divided by the respective number of Count Score Percentages used

The identified LTOL codes are:

277
LTOL1 - in business, short-term results: the bottom line
LTOL2 - Meritocracy: economic and social life to be ordered by abilities
LTOL3 - Probabilistic thinking
LTOL4 - short-term virtues taught
LTOL5 - Analytic thinking

The identified LTOH codes are:

LTOH1 - In business, building of relationships and market position

LTOH2 - People should live more equally
LTOH3 - Long term virtues taught
LTOH4 - Vertical coordination, horizontal coordination, control, and adaptiveness
LTOH5 - Synthetic thinking

Result and Code Count of Cultural Dimension: Long-Term / Short –Term Orientation

Result of Thematic Code: Long/Short-Term Orientation

Hotel Interviewee LTOL, Low Long-Term (Short-term) Summative Result

Orientation or
LTOH, High Long-Term Orientation

Hotel A WU1 LTOH

WU2 LTOH
WU8 LTOL
LTOH, High Long-
Hotel A
Term Orientation
Conclusion

Hotel B WU3 LTOH

WU7 LTOH
WU9 LTOH
WU12 LTOH
WU13 LTOH

278
Hotel B LTOH, High Long-
Conclusion Term Orientation

Hotel C WU6 LTOH

WU10 LTOH
WU11 LTOH
WU14 LTOH
LTOH, High Long-
Hotel C Term Orientation
Conclusion

Summative Result of All Three Hotels LTOH, High Long-

Term Orientation

Low Long-Term Orientation, LTOL: High Long-Term Orientation, LTOH:

(Summative 3 Hotels)
Average Count Score %= 70.0 %
Number of Interviewee = 1
Strong - LTOL = 1 interviewee
(Summative 3 Hotels)
Average Count Score % = 75.8 %
Number of Interviewee = 11
Very Strong - LTOH =1 interviewees
Strong - LTOH =9 interviewees
Medium - LTOH = 1 interviewee

High Long-Term Orientation, LTOH = 11 out of 12 interviewees (92%)

Low Long-Term Orientation, LTOL = 1 out of 12 interviewees (8%)

279
 Appendix 10

Outside Case Study Sample: Data Coding Details of Research Question (A)

280
Appendix 10: Outside Case Study Sample: Data Coding Details of Research Question (A)

Research Question (A):

How does Vietnam national culture impact on the local hotel Vietnamese managerial staff behaviours?

 Is the hotel managerial staff behaviours or performance influenced more by

organisational cultural dimensions or that their behaviours are influenced by the culture
of subordinates?

 Is there a clash of culture between the Vietnamese hotel managers and the western
approach to

 hospitality management that affects the managers‘ behaviour and performance?

The outside case study samples are from the non-managerial staff (rank and file employees): NWU, and
senior managers from an international hotel and one other local hotel: SWU.

The coding process is to find out whether there is an agreement or generalization that the Vietnam‘s
national culture has moderating impacts on the local hotel Vietnamese managerial staff behaviour or
performance.

Note: Positive – denotes that the interviewee agreed that there is/are Vietnam national culture impact
on the local hotel Vietnamese managerial workforce behaviours

Negative - denotes that there is/are no Vietnam national culture impact on the local hotel
Vietnamese Managerial workforce behaviours

No Comments – denotes that the interviewee has no experienced such perceived behaviours

A. Coding of Non-Managerial Staff of The participating Local Hotels: NWU

Positive
Interviewee: Responses Negative
Non- No Comments
Managerial
Staff

HOTEL A

NWU4 1. …..the Vietnamese national culture has a very big impact on the managers Positive
who working at the hotel....at least in my hotel.

2. ...the way that they...the managers treat the staff, the....ah...employees Positive
there who are in lower level and the way they treat other customers.

3. I believe that the managers behaviours are influenced by the culture of

Vietnam....Vietnamese culture. Positive

4. I‘ve seen a lots of cases where my managers...ah...act....not like a hotel

citizen but like a ...a Vietnamese managers...ah...She‘s influenced by her Positive
own ...ah...culture more than the organizational culture

5. Ah...of course yes! Yes, there is a clash....a big clash. Positive

6. like...ah...save ―face‖ of that employee, she also point out where Positive
he‘s wrong privately instead of…..saying in front of his face and in
front of the whole....whole team. She will take him to a private place
281
 and say about that mistake.

NWU4 concluded - Vietnam national Culture does have moderating impact Positive
result:
- There is a cultural clash Positive

NWU5 1. Alright…a…yes. It is really a lot. They…they have a… Our Vietnamese Positive

culture has a lot of impact on the behaviour of the…the staff also…and
also the…the boss.

2. … I think their behaviours are influenced by…more by the culture of their Positive
colleagues means the people around them

3. our Vietnamese culture is quish..is quite strong so when…someone want Positive

to have to adapt the western global standards they have to face with
the…the strong force of the other people around them so I think…Yes.
There is a clash between the Vietsnamese culture and the western
approach to hospitality Positive

4. ……but the Vietnamese staff like a middle managers. He is a Vietnamese

so he tend to be easy on his staff and as well as himself so he can take a
nap when the…the top one don‘t… is not there. Positive

5. they go to drink beer together outside,.. this guy will have more intentive
with the boss than the other. I think this.

NWU5 concluded - Vietnam national Culture does have moderating impact Positive
result:
- There is a cultural clash Positive

HOTEL B

NWU2 1. I think Vietnamese culture impact too much….. Actually, when the Positive
staffs want to make a decision, and their decision makings are
influenced by their subordinates and their colleagues.

2. …..the hotel managers are influenced more by the culture of Positive

subordinates than the hotel organizational culture….

3. …….there is a conflict between the Vietnamese hotel managers and the Positive
Western approach.

4. They apply the Western standards, but the Vietnamese also affect to Positive
them and also not work like a Western standard, they just want to do
what they like and their Vietnamese culture just stay in their mind. The
know everything about Western standards, the learn by heart everything
but when they work, the Vietnam mindset is still there

NWU3 1. I think the Vietnamese national culture does impact on behavior of…or Positive
performance of …the hotel‘s Vietnamese managerial staff

2. … like… observe the managerial staff… like sometimes when they deal Positive
with situations...they like tend to…ugg…be friends… like they tend to be
nice and polite at first when they deal with any situations.

3. They would like to ugg… like try to stop themselves and but put
themselves in a. Yeah… they try to ugg… follow the international Positive
standards of how they should be…how they should behave ugg…in
ugg…a lodging industry

4. Ugg…Yeah! I think there is. (cultural clash)

282
 Positive
5. Thus… she… doesn‘t want the employees know that she doesn‘t know
how to do the booking. But she wants the employees to feel that like they Positive
are helping her to do something. (face-saving)

6. the managers they tend to ugg… sit in groups and like be in the group of
their department when they like have break time or like when they have Positive
uggg… lunch… I see that managers tend to sit with employees like..like a
family member. Like to not talk about the work anymore but like enjoy
the meal with each other.

NWU2 and - Vietnam national Culture does have moderating impact Positive
NWU3 concluded
result: - There is a cultural clash Positive

HOTEL C

NWU1 1. in my opinion, oh… each culture will affect the behaviour or Positive
performance of the staff in any organizations, not only in the hotel.

2. However, with the Vietnam‘s national culture, because ah… in the hotel Positive
environment, the behaviour and the performance of the staff… really
important. Because it likes a relationship between people and people in
the hotel environment.

3. like they… the culture like when they grow up with the… respect the… Positive
ah… respect the… older people or… the way they treat each other when
they are in the family, they will show it in the… the way they behave
with the guests or behave with their colleagues.

4. What you show… what you show out, people will think that… ah… that Positive
is how you are. So that affect ..on the ways managers behave to the
guests.
Positive
5. I think that their behaviours are influenced more by the culture of
subordinates. Positive

6. Because like Vietnamese, they ah… quite, now they still live quite
tradition, in the traditional way, so their behaviours tend to be influenced
more…they keep the… what they grow up with and when they receive
the new things, they are very difficult to accept the different things from Positive
the outside.

7. ….. like now we try to ah… apply the international standard to the ah…
to the hotel, but with the hotel‘s managers, ah Vietnamese hotel Positive
managers, they very hard to receive and accept the new standards

8. Because there are many clashes between the… the hotel managers and
the Western, that affect the behaviours on their performance

NWU1 concluded - Vietnam national Culture does have moderating impact Positive
result:
- There is a cultural clash Positive

283
B. Coding of Senior Managers of An International Hotel and One Other Local Hotel

Positive
Interviewee Responses Negative
No Comments

One Other Local Hotel

SWU2 1. …it is true that Vietnamese national culture impact on the Positive
(Vietnamese behaviour or performance of the hotel Vietnamese managerial
manager) staff. …..the managers seem to sympathize with the mistakes made
by their employees and try to find the reason to cover up theirs
mistakes or faults
Positive
2. The hotel manager is influenced ….eh.. more by culture of their
colleaques……I mean Vietnamese culture
Positive
3. …my colleagues as managers or even myself...ah...act....not like a
hotel citizen but like a ...a Vietnamese manager
Positive
4. We easily show off our emotion which is influenced by our own
culture ...ah... Vietnamese culture more than the organizational
culture so called hotelier‘s culture or the international standards.
Positive
5. Yes, of course! For instance, The Western hotel managers….. aim
to set the international standard for their approach to hospitality
management……. whereas the Vietnamese one…… seem…. to be
emotional and their behaviour is easily affected….. by their
personal and sensitive issues Positive

6. GM always says he tries to set the international standard for our

hotel and would like his managers to be a hotel citizen…… and
follow up….. the standard one and the workflow…. during their Positive
hospitality management.

7. Yes. There is. (cultural clash)

SWU2 concluded - Vietnam national Culture does have moderating impact Positive
results:
- There is a cultural clash Positive

SWU4 1. Vietnamese national culture does strongly impact on the behaviour Positive
(Vietnamese and performance of the hotel Vietnamese managerial staff
manager)
2. Vietnam is country with many complicated traditions and….and ..it Positive
affects directly to the human personality

3. I think it should be more influenced by the Vietnamese culture Positive

subordinates

4. Yes , there is…………… (cultural clash) Positive

5. They still work with their emotional ,..uhmm.. however, they

confident , shared their experience and willing ..to to change to Positive
adapt ..uggg new things, new evolutions…..something like that

SWU4 concluded - Vietnam national Culture does have moderating impact Positive
results:
- There is a cultural clash Positive
284
 International Hotel

SWU1 1. Err… I… I think it err…. Errr has a big effect on on on the Positive
(Oversea- managers.
Vietnamese Positive
Manager) 2. So and... and i think many are like that. They are not
straightforward. They don‘t say feel or what they think um..
And… yeah… and… and i think it‘s also… if you look at
families, there is like a hierarchy. So you see that at work as
well. Positive

3. you see that it‘s from the culture like at home… you know….
Come from your parents your children. You all have to say
yes… so whenever they come here to work. It‘s the same
system actually. So they expect you…. yeah ...just to listen to Positive
them to really what they say.

4. Yes, because we always want to be nice to everyone. We

always want to be… the manager. So i...i think sometimes it
overrules organizational culture. But they still pick… i… i Positive
wouldn‘t say only influenced by the local culture by the
subordinates Positive

5. Err.. i think a bit more local.- (Vietnamese culture) Positive

6. Yes! (there is cultural clash)

7. The Vietnamese culture… you are afraid to lose face and you
don‘t really say what you think you know.. It.. it delays things.
At...at the end goals are still achieved. But it delays things.
Because ...you just go around and around in a circle. You just
don‘t go straight to the point you know yeah.. So … i...i think
it does affect a lot…

SWU1 concluded - Vietnam national Culture does have moderating impact Positive
answer:
- There is a cultural clash Positive

SWU3 1. I believe that…ah…Vietnamese culture impacts the…..the Positive

(Expatriate way managers assigning tasks and the way ….ah…that
Manager) employees complete tasks

2. I…I think the...the Vietnamese culture is more influential than Positive

the organizational culture.

3. …. but I think in the majority of hotels that…the…the Positive

Vietnamese culture…ah…impacts the staff more than the
organizational culture.
Positive
4. I think that the Vietnamese managers are….have a
different…a…different idea of what is priority than a Western
manager has and I think because they‘re ….because their
priority is different….because of the culture…I think that
affect how they ..ah...assigning tasks and delivers…ah…and
deliver service in the hotel.
Positive
5. ah…characteristics like…ah…being proactive or taking
initiative er...are….lacking in Vietnamese culture…like…for
instance…ah…Vietnam doesn‘t have a natural service culture.
There‘s….there‘s often …ah…employees find it difficult to
understand why you should do something for someone when
you don‘t get anything in return which is…which is based on
what hospitality service is. So…if that‘s not part of your own

285
 culture Positive

6. …… it‘s difficult to…ah…it‘s difficult to..to.. teach and

perform that function in the hotel.

SWU3 concluded - Vietnam national Culture does have moderating impact Positive
answer:
- There is a cultural clash Positive

286
 Appendix 11

Outside Case Study Samples: Data Coding Details of Research Question (B)

287
Appendix 11: Outside Case Study Samples: Data Coding Details of Research
Question (B)

Main Question (B): How does the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions explain the moderating impacts of the
National Culture on the behaviour or performance of local Vietnamese hotel managerial staff?

Illustrated below are the tables showing the coding details of Power Distance, Collectivism versus
Individualism, Masculinity versus Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-Term versus Short-Term
Orientation

8a. For Non-Managerial Staff: NWU of the participating hotels

8a.1. Power Distance Coding

Power Distance

Interviewe Responses Theme /Category Selective Code

e Codes

HOTEL A

NWU4 1. I think that the ....in my hotel, it has low Power Distance
really low Power Distance

2. Because sometimes the managers

communicate with other employees like friends
just like friends...or..just like a
...ah...hey...to describe in another
way, she does not act like she‘s our
boss
guide us, to teach us Low Power
3. She uses her experiences to guide Distance
us, to teach us how to do just not like order us
things....just not like order us to do
something....and ah....sometimes the
Power Distance between her and the really low
lower level employees is really
low.....not big gap like other
...ah...Vietnamese organization.
joined with us
4. we had a very big group...and
instead of sitting in the office and
just do computer work...she joined
with us directly how to make
things easier
5. directly how to make things easier,
how to solve particular
problems......and how to...how to
satisfy customers

NWU4
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Power Distance
result:

288
NWU5 1. That is low…Low Power Distance. low Power Distance
Opps! Misunderstanding

2. Yeah. Easily! (allowed to talk to easy communication Low Power

boss) Distance
low Power Distance
3. No, they are low…low Power supervisors they come
Distance like a in a case that there is together and talk
a big group coming to our work
they… the supervisors they come really low distance
together and talk, discuss about this
and brainstorm about the event and I
think it‘s really low distance.

NWU5 The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Power Distance

concluded
result:

HOTEL B

NWU2 1. ……And do the think that they are they do negotiation. Low Power
right, they do negotiation. ….they Distance
are low power distance….. And low power distance
do what they think they are right,
they just ask the staff like the ask the staff
general information, to figure out
and make sure that. to figure out

NWU2
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Power Distance
result:

NWU3 1. I think there is a low power low power distance

distance
they are willing to
2. … because I see that many listen to the employees
managers… they are willing to Low Power
listen to the employees. They ask ask the opinions of the Distance
errr… the opinions of the employees.
employees. They allow them to…
like… participate. They allow them to
participate
3. …. I see that the managers… they
like… they cooperate with each they cooperate with
other very well. each other very well.

NWU3 The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Power Distance

concluded
result:

HOTEL C

NWU1 1. … quite easy way to see that like high power distance
with the high power distance, it
means the distance between the
manager and the staff, very high,
very long High Power

289
 Distance
2. ah… between the managers to each try to keep face
other, ah… with power distance,
they will try to keep face, keep the
face for each other. So…

3. face saving for each other. Like

when something wrong and the… and protect each other
the fault from the other managers
so they scared of ―ok, ah… like scared of telling
they‘re scared of telling that ―this forward
this‘s your fault and you have to fix
it‖ or they just‘re go around, go telling right away
around the fault and protect each
other or scared of telling forward,
ah… telling right away that ―ok‖
it‘s not right

NWU1 The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Power Distance

concluded
result:

8a.2. Collectivism versus Individualism

Collectivism versus Individualism

Interviewe Responses Theme /Category Selective Code
e Codes

HOTEL A

NWU4 1. I don‘t know about other hotels but really high

in my hotel, it has really high collectivism.
collectivism.

2. ….they have to work with each High Collectivism

other...they have...they cannot work
alone or run the team ...ah...alone.
They have to work together to
guide, to run the whole
hotel…………… We have to work
with each other...I think that...it‘s
really high...In our hotel...we have
really high collectivism.
they cannot work alone
or run the team alone
work together to guide,
to run the whole hotel
really high collectivism

NWU4 The Vietnamese hotel managers have high Collectivism

concluded
result:

NWU5 1. ……happen so there is also their

problem but not the individual‘s team work
high in collectivism…

2. Because a…what I see is they also like a team

290
 like a team they…they… they High Collectivism
solve the problem together and but they solve the problem
not like each member has the together
problem but the whole team will
solve it because as long as whole team will solve it
something can happen will problem
they discuss about this
3. …It is like the example that I gave together.
you when they have the event and
all of the supervisors they…they
discuss about this together.

NWU5 The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Collectivism

concluded
result:

HOTEL B

NWU2 1. I think that 90% collectivism 90% collectivism

2. Vietnamese people have the habit habit like follow the High Collectivism
like follow the crowd, they do not crowd
want to get out of the box.

3. They follow the crowd……….. like to work in group

and they do not want to take risk or
stand by alone………. They would do not want to stay
like to work in group. They do not alone
want to stay alone and take the
responsibility by alone.

4. She think that she do not make the

right decision without receive our receive our complaint,
complaint, our advice. our advice.

5. So in that case, collectivism make

you all work as a team. They have all work as a team
more powerful when work in team
more powerful when
work in team

NWU2
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Collectivism
result:

NWU3 1. I would say that it goes err… to the high collectivism

high collectivism side.
ask for the opinions
2. when the manager deals with High Collectivism
difficulty. I think… i see that she subordinates how
often like… ask for the opinions of would she ….best way
the … like her subordinates how to deal with the
would she.. What is the best way to situation
deal with the situation.

NWU3
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Collectivism
result:

291
 HOTEL C

NWU1 1. uhm…, for… to me… it is Collectivism

collectivism

2. Collectivism, you mean… can I like a teamworks High Collectivism

think about it‘s like a teamworks
required a lot of
3. oh… because, with my teamwork
experiences, I work with a team
and many works about team have
required a lot of teamwork.
teamwork to support
4. yes, even the managers and each other
managers, they require a lot of
teamwork to each… to support to connected to each other
each other. Even… ah… different to make the job done
departments, managers, they have
to collect… they have to… ah… do
a teamwork and connected to each
other to make the job done
the collectivism affect
5. Uhm… that why the collectivism their behaviours a lot
affect their behaviours a lot. If they
don‘t have the collectivism, may be collectivism
the work will not be done or not
good as they should be.

NWU1
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Collectivism
result:

8a.3. Masculinity versus Femininity

Masculinity versus Femininity

Interviewe Responses Theme Selective Code
e /Category
Codes

HOTEL A

NWU4 1. I don‘t think that our hotel has high Low Masculinity.
Masculinity.

2. Because almost all of the

department heads...they‘re
male...only the front office
manager is female but the way
that...the lower level employees every managers
being treated by other...by every is really gentle High Femininity
managers is really gentle. And the
managers sometimes is really cute
and care about their employees.

292
 3. I‘m working at the front office nurture staff
department but Mr.A....who is the
...ah...who is the head of
housekeeping department...He goes
around the hotel and give chocolate
for every female employees.
show his care and
4. Ah..he just wanted to show his care his gentle
and his gentle and maybe who
ah....he wanted to motivate the
female employees on that day. He
wanted to let us know that we are
respected in this hotel.

NWU4
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Femininity
result is:

NWU5 1. female manager is a suitable I

think…a…high Feminity… High Femininity
Femininity

2. The way they…the way they care It‘s like a… team

to each other is different. It‘s like
a… team is…the team has more High Femininity
female staff and colleague. I think
the one but not the…the male one.
So they care for
3. They care for the whole team the whole team
like… Teamwork right? So they
care for the whole team but not
really the…the individual like
female or male individual is like
the part of the
4. At the end of the day that is team
the…how good the event that they
deal with but not like the made of the
individual…the individual is like whole
the part of the team. They care for
the individual but made of the
whole.

NWU5
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Femininity
result:

HOTEL B

NWU2 1. Yes, in the hotel for the managerial Femininity is

staff, Masculinity or Femininity is much more as
much more as 70%. 70%. High Femininity

2. Base on my experience, like for

they care for each other, they are they care for each
tolerate. other

3. Working as a team but they focus They care about

more on ambitious and their staffs
business. They care about benefit
and the results for the hotel as well
as a whole. They care about staffs
when they make the right decision.

293
 4. I go to my office, they always try they always try to
to make my mood calm down. I make my mood
think that the staff will satisfy with calm down
their receive, not about the salary
but also about the benefit.

NWU2
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Femininity
result:

NWU3
1. Because my manager… she like… often takes care
often takes care of the staff…. Like of the staff
if… she even told me that if i have
something urgent, i can stay at
home instead of going to the work High Femininity
on a particular day.

2. I think feminine. Because errr Feminine

during lunch time and i can see
they tend to ask each other what is ask each other
going on and how is everything? what is going on
And i think they are more errr and how is
feminine. everything?

NWU3
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Femininity
result:

HOTEL C

NWU1 1. From my experience and Femininity

observation, I think they are High Femininity
towards femininity
give the direction
2. However, most of the time, they
show that they… when they give care for the staff
the require, they also give the and also their
direction and they care for the staff colleagues
and also their colleagues.
quite care for
3. …here, the managers, they quite their staff
care for their staff and when they…
something happen or something solve the problem
wrong, they try to solve the with their staff
problem with their staff step by step by step
step, not just ok, masculinity like
what one is one, two is two. They help each other
try to find the problem and help
each other.

NWU1
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Femininity
result:

294
8a. Uncertainty Avoidance Coding

Uncertainty Avoidance

Interviewe Responses Theme /Category Selective Code

e Codes

HOTEL A

NWU4
1. But..ah...almost all the managers in they‘re not afraid of Low Uncertainty
my hotel they‘re not afraid of making mistake Avoidance
making mistake, they care about
how the employee fix that mistake risk-taking
and to ...not to make that mistake
again.
NWU4
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Uncertainty Avoidance
result:

NWU5 1. my workplace there is low Low Uncertainty

Uncertainty Avoidance Avoidance

2. In some cases, like a for example

but in case like a dealing with a solve the problem
direct cus..a...cus..guests, if the themselves
manager are not there so they some Low Uncertainty
kind of right that to solve the organic Avoidance
problem themselves. More organic.

3. Ah…Not really high but… close to close to high. (risk-

high. (risk-taking) taking)

4. They are not there so the supervisor

they have the…some kind of power power to make their
to make their own decision on own decision
solving a problem.

5. Yeah. Empowerment.
Empowerment
NWU5
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Uncertainty Avoidance
result:

HOTEL B

NWU2 1. They accept risk accept risk

2. They do not want to lose the

benefit for the long term, actually
for the short term it is ok, but for for long term they have
long term they have to take risk. to take risk

3. They …..to take risk….. and to take risk Low Uncertainty

accept the risk and learn the lesson Avoidance
and they do not want to step in one learn the lesson
place and just satisfy with the
material result. they do not want to step
in one place
295
NWU2
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Uncertainty Avoidance
result:

NWU3
1. But in general, i think most of the they are very high risk-
managers err… other managers taking
they are very high err risk-taking.
Low Uncertainty
2. I think errr… i would say high risk- say high risk-taking Avoidance
taking.

3. So i think she is like she errr… she agrees to be challenged,

agrees to be challenged, she agrees she agrees to be
to be errr…. questioned. questioned

NWU3
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Uncertainty Avoidance
result:

HOTEL C

NWU1 1. I observed that they‘re quite very very rarely to accept

rarely to accept the risk. Accept the the risk
risk taking is quite ah… not
common in the hotel managers

2. So during the event, if… they try to keeps the standard

avoid the risk taking to make sure
that ok it keeps the standard is the feeling of the guests High Uncertainty
same. Ok, they afraid that if they may be different Avoidance
do something differently, maybe
the standard or the feeling of the
guests may be different

3. So, sometimes, I feel that the not take the risk

managers, they try to not take the
risk or do something different… to not do something
differently to what they perform different
before to keep the same feeling
from the guests to keep the same
feeling

4. they‘re still not open to give the not open to give the
idea to change something like in idea to change
the hotel we have… already have something
some procedure or already have the
process, and when they see scared of give an idea
something wrong, they still scared to change
of give an idea to change.

NWU1 The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Uncertainty Avoidance

concluded
result:

296
8a.5. Long-Term versus Short-Term Orientation Coding

Long-Term versus Short-Term Orientation

Interviewe Responses Theme /Category Selective Code

e Codes

HOTEL A

NWU4
1. I believe that the managers are high high long-term oriented
long term oriented.

2. the hotel strategy ...ah..and it affect

in there action...like...our hotel
strategy is focused on the main 4 managers they apply it
words ―Care and Help; Calm and into the way into their Long-Term
Romantic‖. And all the managers leadership style Orientation
they apply it into the way that
...ah..into their leadership style. It we can see this through
affects a lot on their employees and the way
we can see this through the way
that those managers/employees
treat the customers.

3. Like...we have training courses training course we can

and..ah...In those training course learn about the hotel‘s
we can learn about the hotel‘s culture
culture, the organization culture
and how to be a hotel citizen, not a how to be a hotel
Vietnamese employee. And citizen
sometimes the managers
encourage...ah...encourage their
employees in the hotel.

4. Uh....like...our manager....She‘s on encourage the

the way of doing a project that customers to save
help, encourage the customers to
save the cost of the hotel

5. …….. about the Cost Saving with

the employees, my manager always
tell a And sentence that ― save cost, save the cost for the
higher bonus‖, it means that, while hotel, maybe in the
we working, if we can find any future, we can get
way to save the cost for the hotel, higher bonus.
maybe in the future, we can get
higher bonus.

NWU4 The Vietnamese hotel managers have Long-Term Orientation

concluded
result:

NWU5 1. Yes. Yes sir. (Long-term oriented) long-term oriented

2. …….they do orientation training do orientation training

like every month…every month the like every month
people come together and talk
about the same problem and they
share to each other the experience trainers show them how Long-Term
on specific case so…and also the to do the work in global Orientation

297
 trainers show them how to do the standards.
work in global standards.
training and orientation
3. …when they train…opening the programs
train and train…training and
orientation programs…ah…the
employees and also the staff…the get close to hotel so we
managerial staff will get closer to will stay longer
the…the…get…close to hotel so
we will stay longer and so they
don‘t have to take more cost kind of cost saving.
on…pay more on the employees so
they don‘t have to train again so it
is some kind of cost saving.

NWU5
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Long-Term Orientation
result:

HOTEL B

NWU2 1. They do not think about short term, think about long term
they have to think about long term.

2. If they think about long term think about training

orientation, they have to think Long-Term
about training staff, not only about staff are well-training Orientation
training staff, make sure that the or professional
staff are well-training or
professional
welfare and benefit
3. they think about welfare and
benefit as well and make sure that nurture
they staff can work for them,
nurture their volunteer worth for make sure staff can
them…… satisfy with their work for them
expectation, they make sure staff
can work for them, not persuade
them.
NWU2
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Long-Term Orientation
result:

NWU3 1. the managerial staff are very long

orient…. Oriented
Long-term oriented
2. She even told all of the employees Long-Term
during like the meeting, all of the Orientation
employees should care about the
future benefits. Like all of us all of the employees
should be friends with each other. should care about the
future benefits
3. Because in the long term we will
like work with each other very
err…. Reliably. And like family Reliably
members not like co-workers. work with each other

like family members

not like co-workers.

NWU3
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Long-Term Orientation
result:
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 HOTEL C

NWU1 1. uhm… the long term orientation… long term orientation

2. yes, so the answer here is yes the affect the managerial

long term orientation do affect… staff behaviours Long - term
ah does affect the managerial staff orientation
behaviours
high long term
3. because they… ah… hotel orientation
managers, they have the high long
term orientation

4. when they step on the manager

position, they have to think ok like
how to make the guests not just good result for a long
satisfied at that moment; after the time for the hotel
guests leave, they have to
remember and lead to other results.
That will make a good result for a
long time for the hotel, not just a
moment.
5.

NWU1
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Long-Term Orientation
result:

The summarised results of the Hofstede Cultural Dimension coding for the outside case study sample of non-
managerial is listed as below:

Interviewee Hofstede Cultural Dimension Result

NWU4 Low Power High High Femininity Low Uncertainty Long-Term

Distance Collectivism Avoidance Orientation
NWU5 Low Power High High Femininity Low Uncertainty Long-Term
Distance Collectivism Avoidance Orientation
NWU2 Low Power High High Femininity Low Uncertainty Long-Term
Distance Collectivism Avoidance Orientation
NWU3 Low Power High High Femininity Low Uncertainty Long-Term
Distance Collectivism Avoidance Orientation
NWU1 High Power High High Femininity High Long-Term
Distance Collectivism Uncertainty Orientation
Avoidance

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8b. For Senior managers of an international hotel and one other local hotel: SWU

8b.1. Power Distance Coding

Power Distance

Interviewee Responses Theme /Category Selective Code

Codes

One Other Local Hotel

SWU2 1. in my hotel, it has really low low Power Distance

(Vietnamese Power Distance
manager)
2. I mean the junior staff can give junior staff can give the Low Power
the feedback and they can discuss feedback Distance
with each others to solve the
problem.
can help his staff to
3. …the Sales Manager can help his fulfill the multi tasks
staff to fulfill the multi tasks with
appropriate instruction and even gets involved with
he gets involved with single step single step of the
of the workflow to get things workflow
done together.

SWU2 The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Power Distance

concluded
result:

SWU4 1. the manger tend to be like a a friend with their staff

(Vietnamese friend with their staff,
manager) throughout the habit routine, they can hang out Low Power
they can hang out together, together Distance
sometime they work like a
teammate whenever we have a they can hang out
big event or big group so..u.. I together
think it have they can hang out
together

2. he willing to help us to get get information

information from other
department even from guest
instead of pass away to us

SWU4 The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Power Distance

concluded
result:

International Hotel

SWU1 1. Umm… power distance affects affects the managerial

(Overseas- the managerial staff behaviours staff behaviours
Vietnamese or performance in the hotel Medium Power
Manager) Distance
300
 2. Ohh please share ...share your still have to do what
opinions.. Let me know what they like
you think…and it‘s just to ask.
But at the end, you still have to it‘s not really really
do what they like. So to me it‘s open
not really really open

3. In here, it just looks like it. But just looks like it

at the end, it‘s just about the
manager's ideas… the boss just about the
ideas. manager's ideas

SWU1 The Vietnamese hotel managers have Medium Power Distance

concluded
result:

SWU3 1. They…they tend to be able discuss problem

(Expatriate to discuss …to discuss
Manager) problem and work on… work out the solution
work out the solution together
together
Low Power
2. Ah…I‘d say there will be low power distance Distance
low power distance.

3. when there‘s …there‘s an

issue often…ah…in
Western hotels, you‘ll be
told the way to do
it…ah…In Vietnam, there more collaboration
is more collaboration on
coming up with the
solution…ah…to whatever
issue is occurring

SWU3
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Power Distance
result:

8b.2. Collectivism versus Individualism Coding

Collectivism versus Individualism

Interviewee Responses Theme /Category Selective Code

Codes

One Other Local Hotel

SWU2 1. Our GM always highlights the high collectivism

(Vietnamese high collectivism within our
manager) hotel by inspiring the
community spirit and people-
oriented attitude that we always
work as a team player and help
each other.
High Collectivism
community spirit and
people-oriented attitude
work as a team player
and help each other

301
 high collectivism
2. The high collectivism can
influence the managers
accordingly and encourage them
to create better performance

SWU2
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Collectivism
result:

SWU4 1. It usually high collectivism or high collectivism

(Vietnamese affect the managerial staff
manager) behaviour in the hotel High Collectivism

2. my ex manager take me around

the hotel, to show me how the show me how
other department work. I found
one of FO manager try to do the help them
role like a receptionist to help
them when there are so crowded
check in guest

SWU4 The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Collectivism

concluded
result:

International Hotel

SWU1 1. i think in Vietnam as a culture. community spirit

(Overseas- It‘s very like community spirit
Vietnamese High Collectivism
Manager) 2. But it‘s...this teamwork we help each other, i
spirit..where you think get done with my work
like...ok… if we help each faster as well
other, i get done with my work
faster as well. So you have like
your own benefit in this team
work. collectivism

3. I think collectivism.

SWU1 The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Collectivism

concluded
result:

SWU3 1. …the Vietnamese is very team oriented

(Expatriate very…ah…very team oriented,
Manager) so…ah…it‘s not low individual and high
uhm…the…it…it‘s low team
individual and high team … High Collectivism

2. …the staff always pulled together to solve the

together to solve the problem or problem
take care of something. It‘s not
usually left like….this is one like everyone‘s job
person‘s job…it‘s like until it‘s finished
everyone‘s job until it‘s finished
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 3. ….that would be high high collectivism
collectivism and low
individualism

SWU3
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Collectivism
result:

8b.3. Masculinity versus Femininity Coding

Masculinity versus Femininity

Interviewee Responses Theme /Category Selective Code

Codes

One Other Local Hotel

SWU2 1. There should be Low

(Vietnamese Masculinity and High High Femininity
manager) Femininity instead we must be High Femininity
aware….

2. …..that we should nurture others nurture others

by caring for each other; assist
other department to get things
done; use personal time to assist.
assist other department
use personal time to
assist

SWU2
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Femininity
result:

SWU4 1. There should be Low High Femininity

(Vietnamese Masculinity and High High Femininity
manager) Femininity….
nurture others
2. instead we must be awared that
we should nurture others by caring for each other
caring for each other; assist
other department to get things assist other department
done; own time to help……..
own time to help

SWU4 The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Femininity

concluded
result:

International Hotel

SWU1 1. Because i...i see sometimes they take credit for

(Overseas- take ideas from others. They themselves
Vietnamese take credit for themselves. So High Masculinity
Manager) it‘s in a way like i did it i did it
303
 2. So it...it goes… it leans to that masculine
direction. Being masculine.

SWU1 The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Masculinity

concluded
result:

SWU3 1. I think that kind of… like

(Expatriate ….uh…the high …….
Manager) collectivism they work as a High Femininity
team. They work with each
other till they finish work with each other
something. No one‘s left
to…. to just do the job No one‘s left to…. to
alone. just do the job alone

2. this would be high

femininity
high femininity

SWU3
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Femininity
result:

8b.4. Uncertainty Avoidance Coding

Uncertainty Avoidance Coding

Interviewee Responses Theme /Category Selective Code

Codes

One Other Local Hotel

SWU2 1. I think low uncertainty low uncertainty

(Vietnamese avoidance results in Risk Taking avoidance
manager) due to not question, do things
without discussing with other to not question Low Uncertainty
managers, do not think about Avoidance
their emotions – just show it do things without
discussing

do not think about their

emotions

2. Yes, of course! (high risk- high risk-takers

takers)
not afraid of making
3. But..ah...almost all the managers mistake
in my hotel they‘re not afraid of
making mistake………..

SWU2

304
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Uncertainty Avoidance
result:

SWU4 1. I think Low Uncertainty results Low Uncertainty

(Vietnamese in Risk Taking
manager)
2. they do not ask question,…just do not ask question Low Uncertainty
act….. do things without Avoidance
discussing with other managers, do things without
just show emotions without discussing
thinking…just show it….
just show emotions

don‘t mind whenever

3. My manager don‘t mind the staff doing wrong,
whenever the staff doing wrong,
he just afraid that the staff
refused to do it or give it up…

SWU4 The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Uncertainty Avoidance

concluded
result:

International Hotel

SWU1 1. No.. Not risk takers Not risk takers

(Overseas-
Vietnamese 2. ... they want it to be stable you to be stable High Uncertainty
Manager) know. so .. because..um… at the Avoidance
moment, we go through a lot of
training with them to talk about
changes. And i do realize that
they don‘t really like it that
much. like the old way
because it makes it easy
3. Changing… no! and ...so i… for them
i… it‘s not as easy. So i...i… i
feel like they like the old way
because it makes it easy for
them.
like to back up things
4. Yeah! So...err…. And… i also
realize they like to back up
things. For example, err… you
need to have plan A, plan B and
C just in case err… something
happens. So it‘s not too risky
for them you know. So they
don‘t get in trouble

SWU1 The Vietnamese hotel managers have High Uncertainty Avoidance

concluded
result:

SWU3 1. ...they...they don‘t mind taking a they don‘t mind taking

(Expatriate risk to do something. There...If a risk
Manager) there‘s...if the... if...if they are
given...if they are given a job to they don‘t question Low Uncertainty
do. Then they don‘t question it. Avoidance
They‘ll just complete it. just complete it

305
 high risk takers
2. I think they are high risk takers
in a sense ..of...of not not questioning
questioning what they‘re told

SWU3
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Low Uncertainty Avoidance
result:

8b.5. Long-Term versus Short-Term Orientation Coding

Long-Term versus Short-Term Orientation

Interviewee Responses Theme /Category Selective Code

Codes

One Other Local Hotel

SWU2 1. I believe that the managers are high long-term oriented

(Vietnamese high long-term oriented
manager)
2. they tend to follow and apply
..ah….the hotel regulations and Long-Term
discipline so that the…the ..staff can get promoted Orientation
can get promoted and….good and….good career in
career in the future……….. the future

3. the managers looks for ways to improve better for hotel

improve better for hotel

4. the managers always always give training

give………….. training courses courses
and..ah...In those training course
we can learn about the hotel‘s
culture………..how to be a
hotel citizen, to serve guests.
help to save cost for
5. They always encourage …… hotel
have a good team, help to save
cost for hotel and serve guest have returned guests
well to have returned guests

SWU2
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Long-Term Orientation
result:

SWU4 1. Most of managers should high long-term oriented

(Vietnamese be………. high long-term
manager) oriented. Long-Term
motivate and guide us Orientation
2. My manager was trying to
motivate and guide us on the his experience to make
way to work accordingly but a plan
could complete its work.. He
intend to use his relationship in
his experience to make a plan

306
 for effective sales strategy
to…to improve the total
occupancy

SWU4 The Vietnamese hotel managers have Long-Term Orientation

concluded
result:

International Hotel

SWU1 1. Umm… the thing i feel like they train others

(overseas- train others because they can be Long - term
Vietnamese better than them if i would develop that person Orientation
Manager) develop that person.
…………..If i would invest in
that person.
train that person
2. They think ...ok if i train that
person, the person will be better promotion
than me. And… maybe that
person will get a promotion. invest into that person
……..They think ok… i invest
into that person that person will
take my role and in the future i
will get the promotion

SWU1 The Vietnamese hotel managers have Long-Term Orientation

concluded
result:

SWU3 1. ... you know in..in.err... father figure of the

(Expatriate Vietnamese society, the... group
Manager) whoever the manager or...boss Long-Term
is... kindda seems as the father Paternalistic Orientation
figure of the group. .

2. And they...and.. and.. their

subordinates listen just like listen just like children
children listen to their parents.

SWU3
concluded The Vietnamese hotel managers have Long-Term Orientation
result:

307
The summarised results of the Hofstede Cultural Dimension coding for the outside case study sample of
senior managers are listed below:

Interviewee Hofstede Cultural Dimension Result

SWU2 Low Power High High Femininity Low Uncertainty Long-Term

(Vietnamese Distance Collectivism Avoidance Orientation
manager)

SWU4 Low Power High High Femininity Low Uncertainty Long-Term

(Vietnamese Distance Collectivism Avoidance Orientation
manager)

SWU1 Medium Power High High High Long-term

(Overseas- Distance Collectivism Masculinity Uncertainty Orientation
Vietnamese Avoidance
Manager)

SWU3 Low Power High High Femininity Low Uncertainty Long-Term

(Expatriate Distance Collectivism Avoidance Orientation
Manager)

308
 Appendix 12

Negative Impacts of Cultural Dimensions

309
Appendix 12: Negative Impacts of Cultural Dimensions

Cultural Dimension Interviewee Responses–Negative Impacts or

Influences

High Power Distance WU7 2. Have to go through, step by step, to your senior
one, supervisor one and then manager

WU9 5. The ideal boss is a God

6. Always obey the orders and don‘t dare to say no
to the boss
7. Lack of feedback and two–way communication

WU12 1. we just report to our supervisor, the supervisor

will report to the manager, the manger will report
to the director

WU13 3. Employees are often keep a distance with their

boss
4. Don't have many opportunity to talk directly with
manager

WU14 1. In Vietnam, people accept the hierarchical order

in which everyone has a position.
2. Boss is even the god, the God…… he or she
always right
3. There is an invisible space between them, and
that stop employee creativity

SWU1 1. You still have to do what they like

2. But at the end,it is just about the manager‘s ideas

High Individualism WU8 1. They don‘t think about the effective for the
whole team, forthe whole department or for the
(Low collectivism) hotel

WU7 1. Did not want to lose face

WU10 1. They don't want to face

High Masculinity WU8 1. But in general, people always choose the men
because they are more assertive
(Low Femininity)
WU7 1. They think for something big, making big
decisions

310
(High Uncertainty WU8 3.They dare not to do…. So they cannot develop
Avoidance)

WU7 1. They will choose the safest way to give because

they don‘t want to take risk
2. Some managers they don‘t want to lose face so
they just try to choose the safest way to give out

WU12 1. They afraid to change to the new things

2. People are not flexible

WU13 1. The safety method is often chosen

2. They do not want to take on challenges. They
don't want to change
3. They will loss of face when they make any
wrong decision

WU14 1. They don‘t want to accept the risk…..or they

push the risk to other one

SWU1 1. They want to be stable

2. I feel that they like the old way because it makes
it easy for them
3. They like to back up things

Short-Term Orientation WU8 1. Benefits in front of their eyes…. They don‘t look
at things so far away……..

311