| 摘要: | This thesis aims to illustrate the cultural differences in the work-related values between Northern and Southern Vietnam by using Hofstede's Value Survey Module (VSM), one of the most popular measures of cultural values. In the literature, national culture differences and the effect of various cultural dimensions on leadership styles, organization structures, employee's performance and management practice were investigated through many studies in the last two decades. Such cultural differences were shown to be the most difficult factor faced by the organizations in today's global business environment (Wisma, 2008; Krishna, Sahay & Walsham, 2006). However, the limitation of previous studies is that scholars tried to relate 'culture' to a nation as a whole. In fact, a variety of cultures may exist in many single regions within the country. Vietnam is a country with huge regional differences in culture, especially in the North (Hanoi City which is influenced by China) and the South (Ho Chi Minh City is influenced by the US). The purposes of this study are: first, to analyze the subcultural value differences between employees who live in the Northern and Southern Vietnam; second, identifying the factors that impact cultural differences across regions; third, applying five cultural dimensions of Hofstede in the case of Vietnam to identify regional differences in term of work-related values. Survey questionnaire has been conducted in this research and it will be dissimilated via the Internet to those employees who are working at small and medium enterprises in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. As the results of this study, the most significant differences are found in terms of individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. First, in term of individualism and uncertainty avoidance, Ho Chi Minh City records higher scores than that of Hanoi. It is reasonable to assume that a positive correlation may exist between the economic development and individualism as well as uncertainty avoidance due to relatively comfort life contributed by fast economic development. In fact, Ho Chi Minh has recently become one of the biggest cities in Vietnam with the economic growth accelerated over others. Second, the score of long-term orientation in Hanoi is contrastively higher than Ho Chi Minh. Such observation can be explained by the theoretical concept that savings will be reduced when incomes rise, which is the way economic development affecting long-term orientation through savings (Edwards, 1996; Tang & Koveos, 2008). Hofstede’s dimensions have been studied in more than 50 countries, but this is the first study that tries to explain the influence of cultural differences to the work-related values in different parts of Vietnam in term of five cultural dimensions. Based on the findings of this study, managers may have a better insight of the Vietnamese labor market, which consists of people from various parts of the country. Furthermore, foreign investors can also establish an appropriate strategy to deal with the cultural difference before penetrating Vietnamese markets. |
