High workload at G6 center in Bien Hoa - VietNam.pdf
1. UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------
Nham Thi Thu Thao
HIGH WORKLOAD AT G6 CENTER
IN BIEN HOA - VIETNAM
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019
2. UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------
Nham Thi Thu Thao
HIGH WORKLOAD AT G6 CENTER
IN BIEN HOA - VIETNAM
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SUPERVISOR: Dr. PHAM PHU QUOC
Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2019
3. SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE THESIS PROPOSAL SUBMITTED
FOR DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINSTRATION
High workload
at G6 Center in Bien Hoa –Vietnam
Student Name: Nham Thi Thu Thao
Supervisor: Dr. Pham Phu Quoc
1. General comments
Remarks on the student’s attitude:
.............................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................
Remarks on the assignment’s academic quality:
.............................................................................................................
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2. Overall assessment:
Meet requirement for submitting
Not meet requirement for submitting
3. Other remarks:
- Did the student follow the report schedule?
Yes No Other ………………………………
- The Turnitin plagiarism percentage:
Supervisor’s signature
4. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Academic Department is responsible for setting the study programs, controlling the
quality of learners, evaluating the teaching of teachers and setting the training
programs for teachers. Besides, it also helps other Departments with the academic
contents in any of their programs. Therefore, any problems happening to this Dept. can
affect the function of the whole English center and lead to bigger problem. The
consequences, which can hurt the function of the center as a whole, are also found to
be low professional efficacy and unattractive working environment. Due to its
importance, Academic Department needs to be paid much attention.
Nevertheless, over a year of operation, the academic manager position in G6 Center
has been taken by 4 people and it is still unoccupied. Several depth interviews and
surveys are conducted with related people within the center, and even though person-
organization fit and pay-work expectation are considered potential problems, the
central one is found to be the high workload. By using the NASA Task Load Index
(TLX) which has been used in variety of fields as the criteria workload assessment
techniques, the overall workload for academic managerial position in G6 is measured
and claimed to be very high. The result number even comparatively exceeds the max
researched number of NASA-TLX Global Workload Scores at the same cognitive and
process control category.
Out of 3 causes leading to high workload, increased workload is the key to solve
current issue in the center. In order to deal with the increased workload in G6, the
combination solution of outsourcing and technology integration is given out along
with action plan. Within 3 criteria of needed resources, ability to improve and benefits
of the improvement, the recommended solution is expected to help academic manager
with more flexible time for core activities in G6, help supervise the academic
operation in new subsidiary center more smoothly.
5. TABLE OF CONTENT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CHAPTER 1 – PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
1.1. Company background 1
1.1.1. Company introduction 1
1.1.2. Company structure 2
1.2. Symptoms 3
1.3. Possible problems 4
1.3.1. High workload 6
1.3.2. Person – organization unfit 8
1.3.3. Pay – work expectation unmet 10
1.4. Main problem 11
CHAPTER 2 – PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION
2.1. Problem definition 13
2.2. Problem existence 14
2.3. Problem consequences 16
2.3.1. Unattractive working environment 16
2.3.2. Low professional efficacy 17
CHAPTER 3 – CAUSES VALIDATION AND SOLUTIONS
3.1. Lists of potential causes 20
3.1.1. Increase workload 20
3.1.2. Unsuitable work allocation 22
3.1.3. Weak collaboration from other Departments 23
3.2. Root cause: increased workload 26
3.3. Possible solutions 27
3.3.1. Solution 1: Work outsourcing 27
3.3.2. Solution 2: Increase the manpower 29
6. 3.3.3. Solution 3: Information Technology integration 31
3.3.4. Solution 4: Combination of Outsourcing and IT Integration 33
3.4. Action plan 35
3.4.1. Best possible action: Solution 4 35
3.4.2. Work breakdown schedule 35
3.5. Conclusion 37
REFERENCES 38
APPENDICES 42
SUPPORTING INFORMATION 48
Research methodology: Qualitative research 48
Interview Transcript – Summary of finding 49
7. List of figures
Figure 1. Problem mess 42
Figure 2: Potential problem map 5
Figure 3. Overall workload and its composition 15
Figure 4: The numbers of learners dropped off quarterly 18
Figure 5: Cause – Effect map 25
List of tables
Table 1. The interview result summary – Reasons of high academic manager
turnover 4
Table 2. Academic staff’s opinion on their workload 12
Table 3. Sources-of-workload and weighted rating result in G6 14
Table 4. The reasons why learners dropped out and teachers’ comments 19
Table 5. The interview result summary – Potential causes of the problem 20
Table 6. Cause evaluation from group interview in academic department 26
Table 7. Overall cost and time needed for work outsourcing 28
Table 8. Overall cost and time needed for new staff recruitment 30
Table 9. Overall cost and time needed for work outsourcing and camera system
installation 34
Table 10. The work breakdown structure (WBS) 36
8. 1
CHAPTER 1 – PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
1.1. Company background
1.1.1. Company introduction
In order to meet the increasing demands of customers in Biên Hòa City on facilities
and quality of education while reaching out of the city market, Circle G6 English
Center was founded and officially went into operation in December 2017. G6 English
Center, which is a subsidiary of Đại Mỹ Việt Educational Limited Company, operates
in Bien Hoa city, Dong Nai province at the capital of 2 billion VND. Its main function
is to provide English education to young children and teenagers from age of 4 to age of
18 in public schools, private schools and classes at the center. Besides, business
English courses for employees working in Dong Nai and Vietnamese language courses
for foreigners are also provided.
Mission: With a system of modern learning equipment, optimal facilities, Circle
English Center promises to bring students a modern international learning
environment.
Vision: Circle G6 will be a well-known brand for its quality and expand itself into
other English educational services.
Strategy: G6 follows best-cost provider strategy which gives added value to the
leaners. Meantime, G6 also wants to build a working environment where people feel
like a member in G6 family.
Competitors: APAX, AMA, VUS, VMG
9. 2
1.1.2. Company structure
Organizational chart:
In Circle G6, there are 6 Departments with one IT supporter under the management of
Director. Every Department has its own duty, own responsibility and works
coordinately.
Sales Department: with Sales manager in charge and 3 staff members under, takes
responsibility for looking for more sales opportunities with the current and new
customers.
Administration Department: consists of one Admin. Manager and 3 staff members,
supporting teachers by reminding teachers of the lessons or printing materials,
checking on students’ study performance, and talking to the parents about students’
issues.
Academic Department: has one academic manager and 3 staff member, with duty is to
observe and evaluate teachers’ performance; be responsible for the quality of teachers,
the quality of the materials, and quality of students’ performance; support other
Departments on academic content programs.
Director
Sales
Manager
Admin.
Manager
HR
Manager
Marketing
Manager
Accounting
Manager
IT
support
Academic
Manager
3 people 4 people 3 people 8 people 2 people 1 people
10. 3
HR Department: with one head manager in charge of regulations, contracts and 8 other
staff members – 4 members in security team, 3 members in cleaning team and one in
property controlling.
Marketing Department: one marketing manager and 2 staff member, take over the
strategic marketing.
Accounting Department: one head and one supporter, responsible for accounting
section.
1.2. Symptom
After 1 year operation, 3 people have quit their job as the academic manager, while the
current person who is contemporarily taking over the job also has intention to find
another job. As is seen, the academic manager turnover rate in Circle G6 is 100% and
it is quite high. the sector which has most talent turnover according to research from
LinkedIn is Technology with just 13.2%. Meanwhile, the surveyed education sector’s
turnover is just ranked at 5th
with only 11.2% (1), quite a small number compared to
the high managerial turnover rate in G6.
Academic Department is centered and responsible for all the teaching and learning
activities in G6. Since academic department plays a very important role in the center,
the fact that there is no academic manager controlling the academic system as well as
supporting other Departments in their programs, can hurt the work performance of the
center in general since the number of students is decreasing and long-term skillful
teachers are leaving. Therefore, the high voluntary turnover rate in academic manager
position is the symptom that needs further investigation of the potential central
problems.
11. 4
1.3. Possible problems
To find out the true reason and prevent bias, all the aspects at work based on SHRM’s
report (2) are brain-stormed and considered before in-depth interviews on qualitative
method are conducted. Since G6’s function is to provide education service and the
issue is revolving round the academic manager turnover, the considered aspects are
- The work itself with workload, specific skills required
- The candidates themselves with work capability, health capability, personal
goal, personal issue
- The leadership with communication, recognition, autonomy
- The work environment with organizational culture, teamwork within the
department, communication between departments
- The pay and benefits with the salary, the benefits and system of reward.
In-depth interviews then take place with related interviewees who are the Director,
former academic managers (Ms. Nina, Ms. Ella, Mr. Victor), and the senior academic
staff, Ms. Bella, who is currently taking over the position. Based on the answers of the
respondents with the concerned aspects, the problem mess (figure 1 – appendix 1) is
created, and a summary of the reasons and potential problem map are listed below.
Table 1. The interview result summary – Reasons of high academic manager turnover
Interviewees Brief explanations Reasons
Ms. Ella + Work stress
High workload
Ms. Bella + Overtime a lot
Director, Ms. Bella,
Ms. Nina
+ Person – culture unfit
Person – organization fit
Director, Ms. Bella + Person – job unfit
Ms. Nina + Pay – work dissatisfaction Pay – work expectation unmet
13. 6
1.3.1. High workload
1.3.1.1. High workload and stress
Meanwhile, Ms. Ella, the successor to Ms. Nina, mentioned the reason why she left
was due to her heath as she had stress at work and never did so much work like that
before. It can be inferred that the workload at G6 she had to handle at that time was
too big for her. Her certificate of health was submitted to the G6 along with her
resignation letter. She claimed that:
“It was just because of my health which made me quit. I had stress at work and
honestly I had never worked that hard before. I felt unwell and went to see a
doctor who said that if I didn’t take time for your own and kept working like
this, my health would be extremely badly affected. Since working 8 hours and
teaching at the same time was a lot of work to me, it really stressed me out, I
decided to quit.”
According to World Health Organization (WHO) (3), there are many reasons causing
work-related-stress which plays a role as an alert. Once stress increases and becomes
unmanageable, not only health but also work performance of employees can be
damaged. Based on Statistics Canada cited in Global News (4), the percentage
reported to have at least some level of stress from the age 20 to 64 is 73 percent and
young people are having more stress than ever. Besides all those statistical numbers,
there are some researches (5,6) indicates that workload is one of the reasons causing
job stress and making people leave their jobs. Especially in educational field (7), it is
studied that academic staff easily has high workload; and when they do, they could
also easily have stress at work. The more workload academicians have, the more
stressed they feel and the clearer their intention to leave job becomes. More research
on educational field (8) also claimed that there’s a positive relationship between
workload and work stress found, while workload also has positive impact on turnover
intention.
14. 7
1.3.1.2. High workload and work-life balance
From Ms. Bella’s own point of view, it was also claimed that working overtime a lot
provides her less time with her family and that would be unsuitable after her soon first
child’s birth. She said:
“Right now, there are so many things we need to do because G6 is still on its
way of building and improving itself….. Our department can help other
departments with their work but not vice versa since they are not as academic as
us. For example, we can help them with sales, consulting, doing receptionists,
etc. but they cannot teach, change the curriculum etc. for us….. We are opening
new subsidiary center so there’s so much work to do. I stay here most of the
time and I work from 8 a.m. till 9 p.m….. I promised the big boss that I would
try my best until I give birth in September and since then current working time
with lots of OT may not be fit for me and my little family anymore. Maybe I
will try myself in a more suitable workplace.”
Work-life balance is a state where employees can equally balance and satisfied with
role at work and their role in family (9). When an employee spends more of his time
on work than family, the equality of engagement in both work and life now is broken.
Increase in workload can lead people to spend more time and effort at work in order to
catch up. This is a trade-off between time at work and time for family. More time
spent at work decreases the amount of time employees spend with their family. Work
demand in both perceived workload and working hours found in four researched
dissimilar cultures causes interference in family life and leads to high turnover
intention (10). According to a research (11) conducted in Belgium, Germany and the
Netherlands, overtime is one of the working-time-related factors that increase the
intention to leave jobs. It is also argued based on cited previous researches that
overtime, irregular working hours, limitation on working hours have positive impact
on the intention to quit.
15. 8
1.3.2. Person – organization unfit
1.3.2.1. Person – culture fit
The director is first interviewed and her answer is that organizational culture plays an
important part in turnover intention of any employees. The director said that:
“Organizational culture plays an important role in most of the employees’
behaviors. An here, people in this organization have known each other for quite
a long time and worked together since the beginning, we are as a whole like a
family and it creates a particular organizational culture. When someone new
comes in and finds themselves not fit into this organization, it is just of the
culture.”
Ms. Bella, the senior staff who is contemporarily taking over the position, agreed on
the culture that can cause the turnover. After resigning from G6, Mr. Vũ, the latest
former academic manager, cannot be contacted by any means, so Ms. Bella was asked
what she thinks made him leave G6. She commented that:
“He didn’t talk much about anything and it was like he didn’t seem to fit in
here. The organizational culture could be too different from what he expected.”
According to Forbes (12), organizational culture consists of “interlocking set of goals,
roles, processes, values, communications practices, attitudes and assumptions”. It is
the most challenge that any leadership could find in any organizations. The person-
organization fit (P-O fit) is the compatibility between the organization and the person
who is working in that organization (13). A research of Ryan (14) in hotel field reveals
that there is a relationship between organizational culture and P-O fit, and though
there’s unknown cause, the results also indicate a strong relationship between PO fit
and employees’ intention to quit. Further research in some organizational cultures
regarding Silverthorne’s research, the degree of P-O fit drives the level of employee’s
commitment to the organization which has negative impact on turnover rates. A good
fit plays an important role in boosting the commitment and job satisfaction of
employees’ and make people less likely leave their jobs (15). The employees will feel
16. 9
strongly involved, willingly contribute to organization’s success with their capability
and knowledge when they feel psychologically fit in the organizational culture and
values (16).
1.3.2.2. Person – job fit
The Director commented on one of the reasons a former academic manager left the
job:
“There were some other better candidates than one former academic manager.
That person who was thought to have had passion and the heart to get along
well here just couldn’t fit in. Sometimes you need to do more than staff in order
to boost others at work. And if you lack of engagement in the work, eventually
you will find the work not suitable for you on either organizational culture or
ability.”
Ms. Bella, the senior staff who is contemporarily taking over the position, also added
that ability in work can cause the turnover too, commenting on Mr.’s Victor leaving.
She said that:
“He came in with a lot of ideas that he said he wanted to apply to G6 but what
he did was just change the cover not the content. He didn’t seem to involve
himself enough or be willing to do the overtime work.”
When fit between organization and an individual is mentioned, it is common for
people to talk about whether the culture is suitable for employees (the person-culture
fit) and whether employees have the ability to conduct the job (the person-job fit). In
fact, the Person-job fit is more than just the match between skills and abilities required
for a specific position, but a cognitive capability of the individuals to cope with the
change in the work. According to Dr. Pascale Michelon, cognitive abilities are brain-
based skills not with any actual knowledge of ours, but rather with “the mechanism of
17. 10
how we learn, remember, problem-solve, and pay attention” (17). In managerial
positions, cognitive abilities need to pay even more attention to.
1.3.3. Pay – work expectation unmet
Ms. Nina, the very first former academic manager, said that she felt quite unsatisfied
with what she expected to earn and what she had for her contribution. Ms. Nina
answered:
“The salary was good enough for me to accept the job. However, after what I
was doing and my contribution in some months, I decided to write a letter
asking for a raise. They only replied that my performance was not good enough
for a raise without any further explanation on how they came up with that
conclusion. The evaluation was so unclear. That really made me feel frustrated
and unsatisfied. I felt like my contribution went unnoticed. Later, I saw a better
opportunity in other company and then I left.”
Employees have their own values and their own expectation when they work for any
organizations. It is likely that employees will stay and contribute to the company when
their expectations and values are met (18). Based on work expectation, a common
sense of obligations employees must fulfill to acquire their expectation. A mutual
obligation between the organization and the employees is what a psychological
contract is formed of, and that makes the feeling of betrayal of those with
psychological contracts is more intense. The decision to leave jobs is driven by the
disillusion and frustration when employees’ expectations are not met and their
psychological contracts are broken (19). Especially when it comes to work and pay
expectation. Pay is the basis drive of every work activity, which keeps employees
focused and motived from the beginning. Even though employees could be happy with
their pay in the beginning of the job interview, it doesn’t mean they would be kept like
that forever. The employees would not feel satisfied and confused about the vague
performance expectation and felt that their contribution is undervalued. Meanwhile,
18. 11
employees would be more engaged in the organization once their contribution is
highly regarded; or else, they would lose faith and lack of involvement (20).
1.4. Main problem
Out of the 3 given potential problems like Pay–work expectation unmet, High
workload and Person–organization fit, High workload is identified as the main
problem that needs immediate solution due to the following reasons:
First, when it comes to Person – organization fit, both of the fit in the culture; and the
fit in the job itself must be mentioned. The fit in the job including the qualification
which is checked carefully by HR Dept. before conducting interview, and cognitive
capability which is more personal issue to be improved (21) than organizational issue.
Moreover, recruiting young energetic candidates whose personal value could fit the
organizational culture is what the director is aiming to, which is stated clearly in the
in-depth interview. Therefore, it is not the central problem to be solved attentively. In
addition, since this is a family-run company, and the culture is already established
from the opening day, the change in organizational culture should be long-term plans
to not only improve the collaboration between departments but also the leadership
style. Training programs for improving academic knowledge of other departments and
adjustment in the scale of work in G6, along with the change in leadership style of the
director who happens to be the owner of G6 cannot be addressed under the scope of
this thesis.
Second, the company has been founded for about 1 year, the evaluation and
specification is surely incomplete. Moreover, the evaluation is usually conducted after
1 year working while this issue is addressed just right after a few month working.
Meanwhile, the question “Are/Were you satisfied with the salary offered in G6?” is
given out; all of the academic managers are quite content with what is/was paid.
Therefore, pay-work expectation seems quite a perception issue than a real problem.
19. 12
Last but not least, high workload is the main problem that needs the most attention as
it is not occurring at the academic manager position but also the whole academic
department as well. The 3 other staff in the department are group-interviewed to give
their opinion in a survey on the current workload and they all agree that they are
working longer hours with a lot of work to handle.
Table 2. Academic staff’s opinion on their workload
Questions
Results
(0)
Never
(1)
Sometimes
(2)
Often
(3)
Very often
How much do you think the
workload in your department is?
3
Do you have to work overtime? 3
Do you often have to support other
Departments?
3
Do other departments support you? 3
20. 13
CHAPTER 2 – PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION
2.1. Problem definition
In some researches (22, 23), two types of workload are mentioned, which are said to
be physical workload involving muscular activity and mental workload involving
cognition, judgment and emotional load. Meanwhile, a definition of workload is given
out as it is the demanded amount of work assigned to an individual to complete and
that individual must have both mental and physical ability to meet those demands (24).
Workload is also argued to have many types such as quantitative or qualitative one,
objective or subjective one, and it is believed to be human-centered rather than task-
centered (25). No matter what type, it is based on the perception of people to define
the quantity of work tasks. The work assigned can be identical to some people while
with the same given time, it could be a little struggling for others.
Workload starts to increase when task demand increases and the overload happens
once the individual’s resources such as mental and physical one are exceeded by the
demand (24). Individual’s resources vary according to the fact if that person is a
novice or an expertise. In physical work, an individual’s effort and exertion can be
measured by using The Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale with a simple
numerical list (26). Physical sensations that an individual experiences such as heart
rate, breathing rate, sweating, muscle fatigue, etc. will tell how hard the body is
working. Meanwhile, for the mental workload, there are several scales which can be
used for the measurement. Among those, NASA task load index (TLX), and Overall
workload scale (OW) are considered the sensitive scales for measurement (27). Since
the NASA task load index (TLX) has sensitivity, low intrusiveness, reliability, and
ease of implementation which are the criteria workload assessment techniques need to
possess, it is argued to be used in variety of fields (28).
21. 14
2.2. Problem existence
To identify and evaluate the academic management workload existing in G6, NASA
TLX paper version will be used as the scale. NASA TLX has 6 dimensions (appendix
2) with 3 out of 6 such as Mental, Physical and Temporal Demands related to subject
demand while the other 3 like Effort, Frustration, and Performance related to the
subject’s interaction with the task. The evaluation procedure to measure the high
workload comprises both weights and ratings. The weights of each sources of load can
be calculated by the times a scale which is considered a more important contributor to
workload is chosen repeatedly in 15 possible pair-wise comparisons of the 6 scales
(appendix 3). The numerical (raw) ratings in magnitude of load for each scale are
measured with the NASA TLX sheet (appendix 4) with range from 0 (very low) to 100
(very high).
Table 3. Sources-of-workload and weighted rating result in G6
Scale Title
Weight
(1)
Raw rating
(2)
Adjusted Rating
(3) = (1) x (2)
Mental Demand 3 80 240
Physical Demand 1 55 55
Temporal Demand 2 80 160
Performance 3 30 90
Effort 6 90 540
Frustration 0 40 0
Total 15 1085
Weighted rating = total (3) / total (1) 72.3
After the survey, effort contributor is both weighted and rated the highest at 90 and 6
respectively. Frustration though rated 40/100 is weighted the least at nearly zero.
Mental demand whose rating is second highest at 80, and performance whose rating is
the lowest at 30 are considered the same with weight at 3. Even though temporal
22. 15
demand has the same rating as mental demand, its weight is 1 mark lower, and at 2.
The physical demand is weighted the second lowest at 1 but the raw rating is moderate
at 55. The weighted rating for overall workload in G6 is significant high at 72.3.
Compared the result in Circle G6 with NASA-TLX Global Workload Scores (29) to
other cognitive tasks, and process control tasks with their max researched number of
64.9 and 69.7 respectively (Appendix 5), the overall workload for academic manager
in G6 at 72.3 is claimed to be very high.
Figure 3. Overall workload and its composition
The bar graph on overall workload and its composition illustrates quite clear the
proposition of each scale contributing to the workload. Effort and mental demand as
23. 16
well as temporal demand are the biggest contributors affecting the workload on both
weight and rating, which is explained by Ms. Bella that:
“There are many programs running within a year in order to attract new
learners and maintain the number of current ones. Some are in short term while
some are in long run. Once a program is set up, a lot of work and unnamed sub-
tasks will come from the process of monitoring, evaluating. You need to try
your best to manage all and try to be ready to jump in to fix when things go
wrong and even ready to start over. Try best, work hard and always be ready
are 3 elements to work here.”
2.3. Problem consequences
Based on literature review and in-depth interviews in section 1.3 and current high
perceived workload measured, high workload is considered as a serious problem in G6
Center. It not only creates work stress to the former academic manager but also makes
the current one have work-life imbalance. In addition, lack of time, contributing to
incomplete strategic plan for developing teachers and a drop-off in number of students,
is lowering the professional efficacy in G6. If the problem continues to exist, it will
cause G6 surfer from both unattractive working environment and low professional
efficacy.
2.3.1. Unattractive working environment
2.3.1.1. Work stress
Statistics Canada cited in Global News (4) claims that 73 percent of people at the age
of 20 to that of 64, have at least some level of stress and young people are having more
stress than ever. When there is an increase of stress at work and it becomes
unmanageable, health of employees’ can be damaged (3). Workload is shown to be
one of the reasons causing job stress and making people leave their jobs (5,6). In
educational field, academic staff easily has high workload, which could make they
24. 17
easily stressed at work (7). The more workload academicians have, the more stressed
they feel and the clearer intention to leave job becomes. In G6’s case, work stress did
occur and was the reason for one of the former academic managers left her job.
2.3.1.2. Work-life imbalance
Work-life imbalance is a state where employees cannot equally balance and satisfied
with role at work and their role in family. High workload will lead people to break the
balance between the role at work and at home by making them spend more time and
effort at work. Work demand in both perceived workload and working hours found in
four researched dissimilar cultures causes interference in family life and leads to high
turnover intention (10) in many places all over the world (11). This is also the reason
that the current academic manager is leaving her job after her giving birth to her baby.
2.3.2. Low professional efficacy
2.3.2.1. Incomplete strategic plan for developing teachers
Teachers are required to obtain not only academic knowledge but also teaching skills.
Ms. Bella said that:
“Knowledgeable teachers applying for jobs are not few but they mostly have
lack of needed teaching skills. It is no doubt that they will need a little extra
training after doing the demo class here. But currently, I don’t have enough
time for observing most of the classes here.”
Accordingly, one of the works that an academic manager has to do is to go observe
classes, especially those classes of new teachers or teachers in their intermediate
teaching scale. Therefore, new teachers can have contributing comments, while
teachers with outstanding performance can have better offer in higher level classes
with higher benefits, and teachers with high potentials can be trained in progress of
taking higher level classes. This is also claimed by Ms. Bella that “currently, I don’t
have enough time for observing most of the classes here.” High workload which leads
25. 18
to no time to plan, and implement training programs for teachers, the role of academic
manager currently has not been developed to a high degree.
2.3.2.2. Learners dropping out
The internal report from Sales Department shows that the revenue is on a slight
upward increase due to the increase in new enrollment. However, there is a decrease in
the number of young learners dropping out throughout 4 quarters in 2018 and the first
quarter of 2019. With the percentage of dropping out at 15% which is quite high for
G6, this will hurt G6’s long term goal in the future.
Figure 4: The numbers of learners dropped off quarterly
Answering the main reasons why young learners decided to drop out, the
Administration manager said that there are 3 reasons. The number 1 reason is that
students cannot really catch up with what is being taught in the class, which leads to a
big gap between the knowledge they are supposed to learn and the knowledge that they
actually obtain. Besides, the second common reason given is that the study-load at
26. 19
school and at the center makes the students feel overwhelmed and lose interest.
Meanwhile, the last reason doesn’t comprise much of proposition.
In addition, the academic department also receives a lot of complaints from teachers
saying that the textbooks are too difficult for the students with many topics irrelevant
to the students’ life. Moreover, there are so many things that need to be covered within
a session and they are not connected with each other.
Table 4. The reasons why learners dropped out and teachers’ comments
Ranking Reasons from the students Teachers’ comments
1 ▪ Cannot catch up
▪ Textbooks are difficult compared to
students' level
▪ The parts in textbooks are not really
relevant with the students’ life
2
▪ High study load
(both at school and at the center)
▪ So many parts must be covered in 1
session
3
▪ Others
(Money, transportation…)
–
It is academic manager’s job that the right materials for learners must be chosen,
checked and applied carefully and strategically in order to boost the quality of learning
and teaching. To monitor the application of new materials, it usually takes 3 to 6
months (around 1 or 2 courses) to make sure of the materials. However, the fact that
frequent replacement in academic manager position makes it less strategic since new
academic manager tends to try new materials due to unawareness of his predecessor’s
strategic move and seeing flaws in the old materials. “When the academic manager left
without completing the program that they set up, it’s like a mess here since we have to
do the implementing monitoring, etc. all over again.”, said Ms. Bella.
27. 20
CHAPTER 3 – CAUSES VALIDATION AND SOLUTIONS
3.1. Lists of potential causes
Based on the in-depth interviews and the answers of the related respondents who are
the Director, former academic managers (Ms. Nina, Ms. Ella), and the senior academic
staff, Ms. Bella, who is currently taking over the position; there are 3 potential causes
leading to high workload listed in the table below.
Table 5. The interview result summary – Potential causes of the problem
Interviewees Brief explanations Causes
Director, Ms. Bella
+ work from new subsidiary
center
Increased workload
Ms. Bella
+ change of whole new
materials in G6
Ms. Bella + Uneven workforce
Ms. Nina, Ms. Ella,
Ms. Bella
+ responsible for other
departments’ programs
Unsuitable work allocation
Ms. Nina, Ms. Ella,
Ms. Bella
+ Academic English is not so
good
Weak collaboration from other
departments
Ms. Nina, Ms. Bella
+ “Not my responsibility”
attitude
3.1.1. Increase workload
When task demand increases and it exceeds the individual’s mental and physical
resources, work overload happens (24). People with different cognitive abilities will
have different decision making regarding workload and individuals can be helped to
deal with high workload if they practice first with low task workload (30). Academic
manager at G6 doesn’t have flexible time with moderate workload to get used to when
28. 21
the workload just keeps increasing. While academic department has its regular work to
do, it also has to look into over all the materials and the syllabus to fix and replace
them with better ones, claimed by Ms. Bella.
“When the former academic manager left without completing the program that
they set up, it’s like a mess here. Since the results were not as expected and it
causes drop-out in the number of learners, we have to do the implementing
monitoring, etc. all over again. The workload just seems to be more.”
At the same time, G6 is opening one new subsidiary center for advanced level running
parallel. The information is confirmed by both the Director and Ms. Bella in the in-
depth interview (Supporting information). That move just adds even more new
workload to the current workload in the academic department at G6. Ms. Bella stated
that:
“We are opening new subsidiary center so there’s so much more work to do.
Hiring new teachers and train them while composing the new materials, etc. So
much work, you see.”
On the other hand, the human resource in academic department which used to be 5
people only totals 4 members now. As it is addressed, both all academic staff (Table 2
in section 1.4) and the manager have to work overtime very often in order to keep up
with the work pace. Ms. Bella answered in her in-depth interview:
“We used to be 5 but now only 4 people in the academic department. I stay here
most of the time and I work from 8 a.m. till 9 p.m. The others in the department
have to do overtime too.”
29. 22
3.1.2. Unsuitable work allocation
Besides the required duty that academic manager must perform (appendix 6), he/she
must also help other departments implement their programs and help them at their
work.
First, to both attract new learners and retain high revenue without sacrificing the
profits, sales and marketing teams propose a lot of programs involving extra courses
with extra tutoring. Thus, as it is related to academic aspects, the implementation is in
academic department’s responsibility. The ideas are usually proposed at the weekly
meeting and accepted by the director but the content of the programs and the
implementation are drawn to academic department. As it is explained not only by Ms.
Nina but also by Ms. Ella as following:
“First, most of the ideas were related to academic fields which was our
responsibility. Second, since people wanted to attract new learners and retain
high revenue without sacrificing the profits, so sales and marketing teams
proposed a lot of programs involving extra courses with extra tutoring as a
means of promotion which was much cheaper and less costly than other means
of promotion.”
Ms. Bella also agrees on the unsuitable work allocation when she was mentioning the
collaboration with other departments.
“The programs they have proposed always involve us, academics, which means
we are responsible for conducting and monitoring their programs while we still
have our own.”
Moreover, the help from the admin department, which used to be the “little
support…on checking students’ homework and doing the extra classes for students
who fell behind” said Ms. Nina, is now no longer there. As it is due to the new work
allocation explained in Ms. Bella’s interview:
30. 23
“In addition, the Admin Department used to help us with academic stuff now no
longer do so due to new work allocation and their limit English capability.”
3.1.3. Weak collaboration from other Departments
The collaboration is one way from the academic department to the other departments
and not the other way around or reciprocal. The first reason is that most of the
employees in other departments are not good at academic English while every activity
is revolving around it. Even if other depts. want to help, they still cannot help much in
such specialized field. This is claimed by not only Ms. Nina, the first former academic
manager as following:
“Every department has its own work to do, and it would be not much help from
other departments when you need because their English is not good. Therefore,
the responsibility would be pretty much like this: each department has its own
responsibility but anything related to academy would be academic
department’s.”
but also Ms. Ella, the second former academic manager, as she said:
“As other departments’ English was not good and because I am a foreigner, so
there were some challenges working with them and they are not much of help
when it comes to academic work. That’s pretty much added to the workload.”
Ms. Bella, the current one, is no exception when she mentioned that twice in her
interview:
“We can help other departments but they cannot help us and we usually support
them in their programs since they are not as academic as us….Our department
can help other departments with their work but not vice versa since they are not
as academic as us. For example, we can help them with sales, consulting, doing
31. 24
receptionists, etc. but they cannot teach, change the curriculum etc. for us. Not
much reciprocal of the collaboration between the departments.”
Besides, each department has their own performance evaluation which is separated
from one another. Trying to accomplish what they are asked to and stay away from
committing mistakes which are not their responsibilities seems to be the right attitude
they think they should have. Therefore, the collaboration from other departments
towards academic department is not strong. Ms. Nina, the first former academic
manager, commented on this as:
“Moreover, nobody wants to be thought of being useless just because of their
bad English; so they tried to work hard at their job and tried to separate
themselves from the job that could prove the otherwise. And that’s what all the
“not my responsibility” attitude took place.”
Ms. Bella seems to agree on this since in her response to the question on the working
environment, she stated that:
“…people really focus on what they can do to prove themselves and to make up
for the lack of English capability which is very important in any English center.
So the communication is pretty much like: I have my own responsibility and I
do my best to fulfill my work avoiding any possible mistakes; and so should
you.”
32. 25
Sub-causes Causes Problem Consequences
Figure 5: Cause – Effect map
High
workload
Increased
workload
Unsuitable work
allocation
Low professional
efficacy
Unattractive working
environment
New subsidiary
center
Changing to whole
new materials
Uneven workforce
Responsible for other
Depts.’ programs’
implementation
Academic English is
not good Weak
collaboration from
other Departments
“Not my
responsibility”
attitude
33. 26
3.2. Root cause: increased workload
In order to find a suitable solution for the central problem, the causes are evaluated
based on 3 following criteria:
- The resources needed to solve the problem
o How much time spent to solve the problem
o How much money spent to solve it
o How many people involved
- The ability to improve the indicators regarding the cause
- The benefits of the improvement
o Direct or indirect effect
o How significant of the improvement
Table 6. Cause evaluation from group interview in academic department
Causes
Evaluation criteria
Increased
workload
Unsuitable
work allocation
Weak
collaboration
1. Resources needed
Time Short Long Long
Money Measurable Hard to measure Hard to measure
Manpower
Within
department
Other
departments
Other
departments
2. Possibility of Improvement High Moderate Moderate
3. Benefits of improvement
Direct or indirect Direct Indirect Indirect
How significant Clear Unclear Unclear
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34. 27
Based on the group survey (table 6) conducted with the manager and staff in academic
department, it is claimed that they all understand everything related to academy is their
responsibility and in order to increase productivity, effectiveness and to create a
balance work life, the increased workload is the one that needs significant solving
attention. The other two causes, meanwhile, require an immeasurable amount of time
and money with a lot of people involved to really see the results, and cannot solve the
current problem occurring in academic department directly and quickly. The
possibility to improve the situation is also unclear and moderate. Therefore, to solve
the central problem, the cause of increased workload needs to be taken care first as the
root cause.
3.3. Possible solutions
3.3.1. Solution 1: Work outsourcing
3.3.1.1. Objectives
The current situation in G6 is that new center must be open soon in summertime, and
since everything seems to be ready for the opening, materials is not yet customized
completely. On the other hand, reputation plays an important role in helping corporates
quickly develop and be well-known as an excellence in the field (31). Therefore, the
objective of work outsourcing is to help the academic manager with the workload at
new subsidiary center while creating much less risk in terms of learning and teaching
materials, and consolidating the new center’s reputation.
3.3.1.2. Outsourcing service for new curriculum
Even though the academic manager along with her department can compose new
textbooks, evaluation tests for the new curriculum in the new center, the current
workload is quite high and could exhaust people on the long run. Besides, the risk of a
totally brand new set of materials is much higher when newly-composed than already-
applied ones. In the meantime, the new center is considered as the most priority right
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35. 28
now since the real estate lease has already been signed and the upper classes in G6
need a new platform for the higher learning.
Hiring an outsourcing party for the work seems to be a good option. Another center
located in different area which is specialized in the upcoming center’s service will be
contacted and collaborated in order to come up with a suitable curriculum and new
teaching-learning methodology for the specific new center. The workload academic
manager must take now is just going along with the outsourcing party to make sure all
the new curriculum, teaching and learning tool kit meet the requirements. Besides the
new materials, the training on how to apply the teaching kit in teaching and trigger
learners’ interest will also be provided by the outsourcing party.
3.3.1.3. Overall cost
Table 7. Overall cost and time needed for work outsourcing
Total cost: 55 million VND in total of 1 and a half months
Time required 02 weeks 1 month
What to do
Find the suitable party to
collaborate
Customize the new curriculum
and do the training
Human allocation
01 staff in academic
department
Academic manager
The work outsourcing will cost total 55 million dong for the whole package with only
01 person along in the whole 2-month process with 3 months for running. First, a staff
will be assigned to find information about the other centers which compose their own
materials and already have trial time with the materials. Suitable centers will be
contacted and asked for the collaboration and signing the contract. This stage will
consume 2-week-time. Then, in next 4 weeks, G6 and the chosen center will work
together on the curriculum which has to be customized due to the requirements and
desires of G6. Academic manager is the person who is involved in this step as all the
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