Luận Văn Poor Cooperation Between Employees At Thai Tu Company.doc

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APPENDIX 3: Thesis cover page.
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------
VO THI HAI THUONG
POOR CO-OPERATION BETWEEN
EMPLOYEES AT THAI TU COMPANY
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

APPENDIX 4: Thesis title page.
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------
VO THI HAI THUONG
POOR CO-OPERATION BETWEEN
EMPLOYEES AT THAI TU COMPANY
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SUPERVISOR: DR. TRAN HA MINH QUAN

1
CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...............................................................................................3
CHAPTER 1: COMPANY INTRODUCTION ..............................................................4
1.1. Company background..................................................................................................................4
1.1.1. Company Overview.................................................................................................................4
1.1.2. Business activities of customers:.............................................................................................4
1.1.3. Organization Structure.............................................................................................................5
1.2. Symptoms ....................................................................................................................................6
1.3. Initial cause effect map ................................................................................................................7
1.4. Updated cause effect map ..........................................................................................................12
1.5. A discussion to eliminate some potential central problems and focus on a central problem of
interest.....................................................................................................................................................14
1.5.1. Discussion to eliminate some potential problems .................................................................14
1.5.2. A discussion to focus on a central problem...........................................................................15
CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION..............................................................16
2.1. Problem definition .....................................................................................................................16
2.2. Problem existence......................................................................................................................16
2.3. Problem importance...................................................................................................................17
2.3.1. The importance of problem ...................................................................................................17
2.3.2. Consequences of the problem................................................................................................18
CHAPTER 3: CAUSES VALIDATION AND SOLUTIONS .....................................20
3.1. List of real causes of the central problem ..................................................................................20
3.1.1. Lack of Leadership................................................................................................................20
3.1.2. Unclear Goals and Duties......................................................................................................21
3.1.3. Lack of training program.......................................................................................................21
3.1.4. Disengaged Employees..........................................................................................................22
3.1.5. Virtual Teams ........................................................................................................................22
3.2. The solutions..............................................................................................................................25
3.2.1. Solutions for Clear Goals (about 2 weeks)............................................................................25
3.2.2. Solution for Specified Roles (about 2 weeks) .......................................................................27
3.2.3. Solution for Processes and Procedures (about 2 months)......................................................29
3.2.4. Solution for Interpersonal Relationships (about 3 months)...................................................32
3.2.5. Cost-benefit analysis of the development of cooperation between employees plan .............33
APPENDIX.......................................................................................................................35
Appendix 1: Interview transcription - Mr. Thuy - Manager of Sale Department ...................................35
Appendix 2: Interview transcription - Mr. Tuan – Manager of Planning Department ...........................38
Appendix 3: Interview transcription - Mr. Tung – Manager of Support Department.............................40
Appendix 4: Interview transcription - Ms. Thao - sales staff of Sale department ..................................41
Appendix 5: Interview transcription - Ms. Ngan - sales staff of Sale department..................................43

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REFERENCES ................................................................................................................45
Figure 1: Operation structure of Thai Tu Company ...................................................................... 5
Figure 2: Initial Causes-effect Map ............................................................................................. 11
Figure 3: Updated Causes-effect Map ......................................................................................... 13
Figure 4: Finnal Causes-effect Map............................................................................................. 19
Figure 5: Potential Causes for Thai Tu Company’s central problem .......................................... 23
Figure 6: Real Causes for Thai Tu Company’s central problem ................................................. 24
Figure 7: The GRPI model........................................................................................................... 25
Table 1: Financial report from 2015 – 2017.................................................................................. 6
Table 2: Annual operating management report from 2015 – 2017................................................ 7
Table 3: Human resource management report from 2015 – 2017 ............................................... 15

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This study analyzes the case of Thai Tu company with the symptom is the decline
in number of customers. There are four main chapters in this paper; they are the overview
company, the problem identification, the causes validation and solutions in company and
the supporting information. Based on information from interviews with relevant
individuals and data from the company, the problem of poor cooperation between
employees has been analyzed and chosen as central problem to be solved. Next chapter is
a list of causes of central problems; they are lack of leadership, unclear Goals and duties,
lack of training program, disengaged employees and virtual teams. In this chapter, a set
of solutions to solve the problem has been proposed as well. Continuing, selecting one
solution in this set of solution for action plan in organization. Finally, in the final chapter,
interview guides, transcripts or reports will be composed to support this paper.

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CHAPTER 1: COMPANY INTRODUCTION
1.1. Company background
1.1.1. Company Overview
Thai Tu Company was established in September 2007. In the past eleven years,
the company's operation has been gradually stabilized and developed. The company's
business scope has been gradually expanded, supplying drugs to units in Ho Chi Minh
City and southern provinces and central. Revenue and profit of the company in recent
years increased stably.
In 2012, despite the difficult economic situation, the revenue and profit of the
company still grows well, the number of units that the company has increased, the number of
contracts signed also increased. Company activities gradually come into stability.
In 2013, the company has actively participated in bidding packages of Health
Services of Vinh Long, Tra Vinh and Quang Ngai provinces. The bidding packages of
Cho Ray Hospital, Tropical Disease Hospital and some units have won large drug supply
contracts. The number of drugs provided to units in need increases, the trend of
development of drug supply network to the provinces are expanding.
In 2014, the orientation of continuing to supply medicines in the territory of
Vietnam and supply of medicines on the list of drugs for health insurance in hospitals in
Ho Chi Minh City and in provinces and units continue to expand the bidding of Bidding
packages for drug supply shall be organized by the provincial / municipal Health Services
or provincial-level hospitals.
The company has been granted the certificate of good practice of distribution of
medicine (GDP) since 2008 and the GDP license dated 11/02/2010. It has been granted
the certificate of qualified drug business by the Health Department of Ho Chi Minh City.
1.1.2. Business activities of customers:
− Main business lines: Trading in pharmaceuticals
+ The main products and services of the company: The company specializes in
providing medicinal products for hospitals, health departments and health care
agencies in Ho Chi Minh City and provinces. Drugs are offered through the form of
bidding or contracting when the unit needs medicine.
− Production capacity:

5
+ The head office of the Company is located at 116/1/10 Hoang Hoa Tham St., Ward
12, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City.
+ Human resources: The number of employees working for the unit is about 20 people.
+ Method of organization of production and business activities: The company orders in
large quantities. Good business relationship with prestige in payment of goods has
helped the unit receive many incentives from partners. Some partners have delayed
payment of 30-45 days. Hospitals supplying drugs to hospitals is mainly, the value of
the winning package is ranging from several million to several billion, the time for the
average partner from 45 to 90 days to pay for the purchase of goods when the
application. VAT invoice for partners.
+ Operating network, location: The company's customers are mainly in Ho Chi Minh
City and neighboring provinces
1.1.3. Organization Structure
Figure 1: Operation structure of Thai Tu Company
General
Director
Planning Human Support Accounting Sale
Department Resource Department Department Department
Product Finance Bidding

6
1.2. Symptoms
Losing Customers
Data from financial report from 2015 – 2017 shows that:
Net revenue at the end of 2016 is VND 15,947 million, decreasing 7.02% to
VND 1,205 million compared to the end of 2015. Revenue of 2017 is VND 14,591
million, equivalent to 91.5% compared to the end of 2016. The decline in revenue is
due to the bidding units require the participating units for the price of the product
must be the lowest. To compete with the other participants, the company must reduce
the selling price to achieve the bidding packages.
Corresponding with the decrease in revenue, cost of goods sold at the end of
2017, the company reduced the selling price by VND 1,924 million compared to the
end of 2016, because the company negotiated the price with the input partners to have
the lowest selling price of the output partners.
Accordingly, after-tax profit in 2017 reached VND 144 million equivalent to
2016 reached VND 130 million but reducing sharply compared to 2015 reached VND
978 million. The company's profit fell sharply due to higher management and interest
expenses (details shown as table below).
Table 1: Financial report from 2015 – 2017
Unit: million VND
Terms 2015 2016 2017
Sale Revenue 17,152 15,947 14,591
Cost of goods sold 13,219 12,917 10,993
Gross Profit 3,933 3,030 3,598
Operating expenses 2,244 2,521 2,955
- Selling expenses 606 529 502
- Administration expenses 1,638 1,992 2,453
Interest expense 386 336 451
EBT 1,303 173 192
Tax Expenses 325 43 48
Net Income 978 130 144

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According to annual operating management report, Thai Tu Company has
increased bidding packages for the last 3 years.
Table 2: Annual operating management report from
Content Unit 2015 2016 2017
Sale Revenue
million
17,152 15,947 14,591
VND
Total bidding
Package 24 18 15
packages
Total customers Customer 16 14 12
According to the general report of the sales department, in 2016, the company
lost two customers Van Phuc Medical Joint Stock Company and An Giang General
Hospital. Of which, the total value decreased from these two customers compared to
2015 is 3.455 million equivalents to 20% of sales revenue in 2015. In 2017, the
company continues to lose two bidding packages of Pharmaceutical Joint Stock
Company District 3 and Hung Vuong Hospital with the total value of 2.962 million.
This shows that in the past 2 years the company has lost a large revenue from close
customers. Although the company has tried to boost the value of its existing
customers' orders by maintaining the cost of sales, the cost of managing the business,
however, with the downward trend in revenue and the number of customers, drop in
profit that are symptoms make the management of the company is not satisfied.
1.3. Initial cause effect map
From 2016 – 2017, due to the influence of the pharmaceutical market, the
price of medicines decreases by 10-15% based on regulation of government, cause of
the objective factor of the market, sales revenue of the company has reduced as a
result. However, it is worth noting that the customers number reduced from 16
customers in 2015 to 12 customers in 2017. To find out what causes losing customers,
interview was conducted with Mr. Thuy - Manager of Sale Department about this
issue. He said that there are two causes:
The first is high bidding price compared to competitors. He explained that
Thai Tu Company is a company with many years of experience in pharmaceutical

8
distribution. The company has many large and loyal customers in Ho Chi Minh City
and West provinces. However, among the bidding packages they did not reach
because their bidding price was higher than competitors that also caused the company
to lose some important bidding packages such as: Van Phuc Medical Joint Stock
Company and Hung Vuong Hospital. According to interview with Ms. Thao who is
sales staff, directly manage Van Phuc Medical Joint Stock Company. She said that
Van Phuc Medical Joint Stock Company is very interested in the price factor. She also
spent a lot of time negotiating on prices and their requirements on orders. However,
they give Thai Tu Company the price that cannot be met. Similarly, Ms. Ngan who is
responsible for supporting to Hung Vuong Hospital, shared the reason that they left.
Because drug prices on the market are down but the company based on the actual
situation of the company to calculate the bidding price and can not offer the low price
as required by the Hung Vuong hospital.
To find out more about this issue, in interview with Mr. Tuan who is manager
of Planning Department, is responsible for planning and managing the entire business
plan of the company including finance, input and bidding. He said that the prices of
the packages are reviewed and decided by the management based on the relationship
with customers and the general interests of the business to offer price for each bidding
package.
Besides, he explained that the price of the drug when bidding is based on the
requirements of the contractor and the actual situation of the company. Some drugs are
high price because of the high cost of input. The reason is that sometimes some drugs in
the warehouse have higher input price than the actual time. This affects the calculation of
drug bidding prices to ensure that the company does not suffer losses and meet the
requirements of the contractor. However, the company lost some bids because of poor
inventory forecast that affects bidding price. Mr. Tuan further explained that the cost of
goods sold of each drug is now calculated by beginning inventory of each drug plus
purchases during the period of that drug minus ending inventory of its. Consequently,
poor inventory planning is the reason for the high inventory of some drugs compared to
the actual demand leading to high cost of goods sold. According George N. Root pointed out
that good inventory control means that time to fulfill orders stays low. If using inventory
management system to analyze product sales, company can

9
have popular items in stock and ready to instantly fulfill any customer's order. Company
also knows which special orders sell on occasion and have those products available in a
limited quantity to keep inventory costs down and to develop a positive reputation for
quickly filling special orders. Part of giving good customer service is giving accurate
information even if the customer does not plan on making a purchase that day. By being
able to give clients accurate inventory information, company improves the image of its
and add one more element to customer retention.
The second is the company received a lot of feedback from customers about their
dissatisfaction with company's service quality. Mr. Thuy said that the delivery time to the
provinces takes quite a long time so the situation is more delayed compared to the
requirements of customers that make them dissatisfied. Therefore, An Giang General
Hospital even though they are long-term partners when bidding selected new constructor
which is the company based in An Giang province. Ms. Thao who manages An Giang
province, said that their representative also complained to her that the time of cooperation
with Thai Tu company, they are not satisfied when many of their orders are often delayed
that affects the operation of the hospital. From some points as above, it can be seen
clearly that, poor support department make long delivery time.
Data from interview with Mr. Tung – Manager of Support Department also
reveals information about poor support department. According to Mr. Tung, this cause is
often encountered with the provincial customers. There are two reasons: Firstly, the
company has three trucks, his department has to coordinate them for a lot of orders from
Ho Chi Minh City to the provinces. Sometimes, there are orders at the same time that
need to be delivered but not enough trucks. There are times when the orders are
overloaded, the company has also hired external transporters, however, this must through
the board of directors and explain the reasons. The reason is the support department has
no clear delivery planning, resulting in restrictions on vehicle arrangements. Secondly,
the support Department receives requests from the Sales Department and arrange vehicles
according to those requirements. However, they can't sort closely the delivery schedule
because the delivery requestments are informed suddenly, no previous plan. The main
reason for this is the poor delivery planning. Besides, he maintains that poor delivery
schedule is due to poor saleman’s information affect the support staff's implementation.
Mr. Tung said that the lack of cooperation

10
between the sales staff and the support staff is still a problem in the company. In
today's world of intense competition, the key to sustainable competitive advantage
lies in delivering high quality service that will in turn result in satisfied customers
(Shemwell et al., 1998). Therefore, there is not even an iota of doubt concerning the
importance of service quality and customer satisfaction as the ultimate goals of
service providers. Besides, Bougie et al. (2003) found customers may experience
anger and other undesirable emotions when waiting for service, dealing with
unresponsive or impolite employees, and a host of other behaviors. Bitner et al.
(1990) found avoidable service failures include the unavailability of a service, slow
service, or errors in delivery (Bitner et al., 1990).
About customers’s dissatisfaction, Mr. Thuy shared that many employees
often deal with issues based on personal experience. Therefore, many solutions to
problems do not optimize the interests of customers. Ms. Ngan agrees that
Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company District 3 has temporarily stopped trading to
Thai Tu Company beacause of poor problem solving skills. “Pharmaceutical Joint
Stock Company District 3 deals with us only a short time and now has temporarily
stopped trading. The most recent order they asked us, because of problems with
source information, quantity inspection, input prices are unclear, so take time to
respond to them. So, when we respond to them, they put from another company”.
Besides, she said that sale staffs who are to work directly with clients, address
customer inquiries and receive feedbacks from them, also have to work with other
departments to support the requirements of the customer is going on accurately and
quickly. However, they often receive a lot of information and large workload from
customers and other departments. Therefore, many jobs are not treated exactly as the
customer's request. The reasons may be that when taking over the job the sales person
does not understand the requirements and communicates inaccurately to other
departments and leads the results of the work are not correct or employees in other
departments do not properly understand the requirements of works, handle works
based on personal perception without comunicating to the sales staff in charge. In
addition, the exchange of information between employees between departments is
rather slow. This affects the feedback to the customers.
Based on the information above, the initial cause and effect map are as follows:

Poor inventory planning High inventory
Limited
transportation
Poor delivery
planning
Poor delivery
schedule
Poor saleman’s
information
Misunderstood
Expectations
Poor co-operation
between employees
Slow responses
11
Depends on the
board’s decision
High COGS High bidding price
Losing customers
Poor support Long delivery
department time
Poor Customer
Satisfaction
Poor problem solving
skills

Figure 2: Initial Causes-effect Map

12
1.4. Updated cause effect map
When intending to approach an organization or a customer as a supplier, it is
best to have a competitive advantage. This can be gained by enhanced knowledge of
the status, needs, values, and goals of the consumer, gained from new knowledge and
experience of the supplier. To achieve a competitive advantage, it is necessary to have
advanced knowledge of one’s possibilities and drawbacks, the customer’s situation
and expectations, the competition, and the whole macro- and micro-sphere of the
market. “If you don’t know what the customer needs, very quickly they can go to a
competitor who understand them better.” (1)
Accordingly, Mr. Thuy continued to be interviewed to clarify this issue. Mr.
Thuy said that it is possible that the employees are not good at dealing with problems
is that they find their poor current customer knowledge. For the job requirements of
Sales staff, the customer knowledge factor must always be cultivated and learned.
Because when employees do not grasp the needs and expectations of customers, they
will handle incorrect problems and make customers not satisfied.

Poor inventory planning High inventory
Limited
transportation
Poor delivery
planning
Poor delivery
schedule
Poor saleman’s
information
Misunderstood
Expectations
Poor co-operation
between
employees
Slow responses
Poor knowledge
of sale peoples
Depends on the
board’s decision
High COGS High bidding price
Poor support Long delivery
department time
Poor Customer
Satisfaction
Poor problem
solving skills
13
Losing customers

Figure 3: Updated Causes-effect Map

14
1.5. A discussion to eliminate some potential central problems and focus on
a central problem of interest
1.5.1. Discussion to eliminate some potential problems
Investigating the potential problem "Poor inventory planning" and “Depens
on the board’s decision” in interview with Mr. Tuan - Planning Manager of the
company, he said that the inventory plan of the company is limited, inventory
management plan. The company has not changed over the years and still maintains
a 10% increase over the previous year. All decisions on the bid price are based on
the actual situation and decisions of top management of the company. “The
company's annual inventory plan is planned to increase by 10% compared to the
actual demand of the previous year. Therefore, this problem at the present time can
not be controlled when the market fluctuates in price and the planning department
only makes bids based on the actual situation and the decisions of top
management" he said. Therefore, the problem of poor inventory planning will be
eliminated from the analysis”.
As mentioned in the previous section, Mr. Tung - the manager of the
support department, said that the support for delivery requirements depends largely
on coordination with the sales department. Therefore, the delivery plan of the
support department will not occur immediately. Mr. Tung said the support
department will update the plan after a change in the sales department to create
close coordination between sales staff and support staff. Therefore, the problem of
poor delivery planning can not be resolved immediately and this will be eliminated
from the analysis.
Data from human resource department shows that most of the staff in the
sales department have experience working over 2 years. According to interview
data with Ms. Trang - Manager of Human Resources Department, she says "all
employees of the Sales Department meet the recruitment requirements of the
company and have undergone a recruitment process included knowledge test and
interview". She does not think that they have poor knowledge but they have not
applied that expertise to their jobs appropriately leaded to subjective judgments
about their ability. Therefore, the problem of "poor knowledge of salepeoples"

15
should be eliminated from the cause effect map.
Table 3: Human resource management report from 2015 – 2017
Month 2014 2015 2016 2017
Number of employees recruited 1 1 0 0
Number of employees resigned 1 0 0 0
Total 5 6 6 6
1.5.2. A discussion to focus on a central problem
After considering all the potential problems, “Poor cooperation between
employees” problem will be chosen to solve. Reasons for this choice are as follows:
- Based on information from the interview with the manager of Sale Department,
the board of directors really considered this an important problem. They want
to solve this problem and have assigned the departments to meet and resolve it.
As Mr. Thuy said that “The management is keen to improve the working
process with clear coordination among departments to improve work
efficiency, increase cooperation among employees, and limit negative
responses from internal and customers”.
- Sales Department is the department working directly with customers,
representatives of the Company to resolve the requests and feedback of
customers. In addition, this problem has a close association between
departments. If an uneffective department will affect the results of other parts.
Mr. Thuy shared that “The works of the sales department need timely
cooperation from other departments. Therefore, if this problem is solved, the
efficiency of working with the customer will be improved.”
- Since this issue is related to the level of customer satisfaction, solving this
problem will limit customers leaving the company and increasing their ability
to engage old customers, reach new customers. According to information
provided by Mr. Thuy, the end of the first 6 months of 2018, his department
has received feedback from customers, among the current 12 customers of the
company, 5 customers complained about providing information is quite slow
and orders are not delivered on time required. Therefore, solving the problem
of cooperation among employees of the departments will improve the quality
of customer service.

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CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION
2.1. Problem definition
Poor cooperation between employees:
As the nature of work has changed, cooperation among employees has become
increasingly important (Hedge & Borman, 1995; Mohrman & Cohen, 1995;
Motowidlo & Schmit, 1999). Work is increasingly scheduled around group-based
projects rather than individual job descriptions, with individual employees working in
several different groups at any given time (Ilgen & Pulakos, 1999; Mohrman &
Cohen, 1995). The performance evaluation and compensation systems that govern the
employees in such groups often build in cooperative components, with members
appraised and rewarded on the basis of shared achievements (e.g., Bartol & Durham,
2000; DeMatteo, Eby, & Sundstrom, 1998). Such systems may also supplement the
traditional focus on “taskwork” behaviors by considering “teamwork” behaviors on
the part of individual group members (e.g., LePine, Hanson, Borman, & Motowidlo,
2000). As a result, the very conceptualization of job performance has changed, as the
concept of “doing a good job” has become more dependent on the concept of “being a
good group member.” (2)
2.2. Problem existence
This section aims to validate whether poor cooperation between employees
is real central problems of Thai Tu Company.
Michael A. West, Dean Tjosvold, Ken G. Smith, cooperation in the
workplace can make the difference between success and failure for many
businesses. In a cooperation-rich workplace, individuals voluntarily engage in
open communication. Management and lower-level employees work together and
try to keep arguments to a minimum. Workers are proactive in the sense that they
try to prevent problems before they have a chance to occur. Cooperation is not
always an easy thing to achieve in the workplace, but it is worth the effort because
it leads to a more harmonious and productive operation (3).
According to the information, Ms. Thao and Ms. Ngan complained about the
poor co-operation between the sales staff and other department staff. For detailed

17
records of product and pricing, the sales person must rely on information from the
planning department. As for the information exchanged with Mr. Tuan above, for
requests for assistance with delivery, processing of bids, support department's
employees need detailed information and depend on the requirements from the
sales department. Therefore, the cooperation among employees is often
problematic when employees do misunderstand expectations each other and lose
time in exchange. This reduces the efficiency of employees of sale department
work with customers with this information, it can be concluded that the problem of
poor cooperation among employees is actually present in Thai Tu Company.
2.3. Problem importance
2.3.1. The importance of problem
According Fieschi, cooperation has been theorized to have a wide range of
beneficial effects. Indeed, it provides the basic rationale for an organization and
can bridge its two major interfaces: the organization with the environment and the
individual with the organization. By combining resources and ideas, cooperative
work can help an organization innovate and produce value so that it can continue
to gain necessary support from customers, governments, and other stakeholders
(Dunne & Barnes). By providing a rich and rewarding social environment,
cooperative work can also integrate organizational members and gain their
commitment (4).
Cooperative teams are practical mediums within which we can foster
communication between diverse people and build coalitions taht result in innovation.
Teams help employees and managers share hunches, doubts, and misgivings and
discuss emerging ideas and practices to solve and even find problems. Their mutual
support encourages them to consider these problems as opportunities to exploit. They
exchange ideas and suggestions that give them a fresh perspective, together withstand
frustration, and integrate ideas in unique, effective ways. They share the work of
collecting data on their solution, and together debate the virtues and pitfalls. Because
they have challenged the idea from several perspectives they have the condidence they
can be successful and believe they have

18
the resource and strength to see the idea through. Teams can involve and gain the
commitment of representatives from the groups and departments who must
implement the innovation (4).
2.3.2. Consequences of the problem
People may believe that their goals are competitive, that is, one’s goal
attainment precludes, or at least makes less likely, the goal attainment of others.
People with competitive goals conclude that they are better off when others act
ineffectively. This atmosphere of mistrust restricts information and resource
exchange. They withhold information and ideas to increase their chances of
winning the competition and may even actively obstruct the other’s effective
actions. These interaction patterns result in mutual hostility, restricted
communication, and mutual goal independence occurs when people believe their
goals are unrelated. The goal attainment of one neither helps nor hinders the goal
attainment of others. Success by one means neither failure nor success for others.
People conclude that it means little to them if others act effectively or
ineffectively. Independent work creates disinterest and indifference (4).
An effective workplace cooperation mechanism helps minimize
unnecessary misunderstanding, especially in times of changes and uncertainties.
While setting up or strengthening the mechanism for workplace cooperation may
sound complicated, costly and time consuming, it is worthy investment which will
bring enormous benefits to the enterprise in terms of enhanced efficiency,
productivity and competitiveness.
Current Sales Unit employees find it difficult to handle customer inquiries.
Therefore, this leads to results that make customers are dissatisfied and loss of
customers. Performance data as well as information from interviews show that the
company's key customers have left and focus primarily on failing to address
customer requirements. If the company does not solve the problem in time, the
customer dissatisfaction and leave the company will continue. Therefore, the task
of solving the problem of poor cooperation between employees is very important,
not only to reduce negative consequences, but also to improve the current situation
and achieve the development direction of the board.

The final cause effect map is shown below:
Figure 4: Finnal Causes-effect Map
19
Organization
Symptoms
Losing
customers
Potential Central
Problems
Poor co-operation
between employees
Misunderstood
Expectations
Poor problem
solving skills
Slow
responses
Poor
Customer
Satisfaction

20
CHAPTER 3: CAUSES VALIDATION AND SOLUTIONS
3.1. List of real causes of the central problem
As mentioned in the final cause effect map, the central problem is poor
cooperation between employees in Company. There are causes of a poor
cooperation between employees in Company as follow:
3.1.1. Lack of Leadership
Leadership of a team is an important contribution to the effectiveness of a
team (Zaccaro, Rittman & Marks, 2001). The team leadership needs to facilitate team
problem solving through mental processes (e.g., shared mental models), coordinating
the team, and keep the team motivated (Salas et al., 2005) (5). The team leadership
should receive feedback that shows how well they are facilitating the team. If the team
leadership is in training and is learning how to properly facilitate a team then that
would suggest real-time feedback should be used. Giving real-time feedback on each
problem-solving step is an effective form of tutor support for users attempting to
understand a complex problem solving skill (Corbett & Anderson, 2001) (6).
Employees look at their direct managers to manage and coordinate work, but when
managers is lack of leadership or there is no consistency in the management, it can
hinder the development of a company. As a result, it has a negative impact on the
collaboration between employees and teams in the workplace. Through the all
interviews, all informants mentioned about the problem of lacking of leadership,
employees do not receive much clear instruction about the tasks and lack of support in
solving problems. Ms. Thao shared her idea that “Difficulties in coordinating work
between departments require direct support from department leaders but they often
require us to actively address them. Therefore, the work we do is often delayed when
moving to the relevant department.”. Same Ms. Thao, Ms. Linh who is staff of the
support department, also comments “The department leaders have meetings to unify
the workflow. However, we do not receive specific instructions from the leadership
and the coordination is still based on information from other departmental personnel
require. Therefore, we can not grasp the importance of the work that are required to be
handled.”. Hence, lack of leadership is the first cause of central problem.

21
3.1.2. Unclear Goals and Duties
From the moment an employee enters their workplace, they should have a
proper understanding of what is expected in the role they are performing. Most
jobs do this by providing employees with a job description and a list of tasks, but it
is important for the managers to sit with the employees and deliver measurable
goals. To them have the basis of comparison, evaluation with performance. In
addition, managers create enviroment that employees easily cooperate
responsibilities, receive feedback on the status of ongoing jobs, and attract ideas
and suggestions later on. In Thai Tu Company, the feedback from the employees
show that employees work primarily on their own experience and on the guidance
of colleague. Therefore, they only grasp the tasks and the daily roles they handle
rather than the exact purpose of the organization and the role of other positions to
work together in a clear and coherent manner. So, unclear goals and duties can be
considered as the second cause of the poor co-operation between employees
problem.
3.1.3. Lack of training program
Training not only develops the capabilities of the employee but sharpen their
thinking ability and creativity in order to take better decision in time and in more
productive manner (David, 2006). Moreover, it also enables employees to deal with
the customer in an effective manner and respond to their complaints in timely manner
(Hollenbeck, Derue and Guzzo, 2004) (7). When employees are not properly trained
when joining a company, it can ruin communication down the line. As more
employees know about the company, how each department works together, and how
their role affects the overall success of the company, the better the employee is
communicating with the manager, the co-worker. and customers. Poor training leads
to inaccurate and inaccurate information transfer. Most of interviewees sadly said that
they did not receive any training program when just started the job at Thai Tu
Company. Some people do not even know the workflow and cooperation the work in
the company. Ms. Ngan shared that she does not understand the role and process of
the work of the departments in the company. Therefore, she also suggested that the
company should have regular training sessions so staff can understand work processes
of the departments in order to enhance the cooperation more effectively.

22
Some ideas from Mr. Linh, in her opinion the most important thing that the
company need to improve is training program for employees. With above analysis,
lack of training program is also a cause of the central problem.
3.1.4. Disengaged Employees
According to Bakker and Demerouti (2008, pp. 215–217), disengaged
employees experience negative feelings and have health problems more often than
engaged workers. Employees with a low level of engagement are more often likely
to suffer from anxieties and depression (Robinson 2010); they are more likely to
be emotionally exhausted, cynical (Maslach et al. 2001), and unhappy at the
workplace, as well as in their personal lives because of the inability to manage
with work stresses (Gallup 2006) (8). This will make them not put much effort into
work and no effort to convey ideas, feedback to their colleagues and managers.
They are also less likely to provide ideal customer service to their customers.
Many comments about employees engagement when interviews were
conducting among interviewees, all of them raised ideas that disengaged
employees was one of reason, which led poor cooperation in workplace. A saying
from Ms. Thao “Employees who are truly engaged with the job, associate with a
co-worker, and go beyond it are linked to the company that requires the employee
to have satisfaction for a job, a work environment and the policies of the company.
However, many employees feel overload works, cumbersome procedures and
limited support make them feel tired, depressed and less motivated.”. Thus,
disengaged employees is fourth cause of the central problem.
3.1.5. Virtual Teams
The rapid development of new communication technologies such as the
internet has accelerated this trend so that today, most of the larger organization
employs virtual teams to some degree (Herteletal., 2005). Information technology
is providing the infrastructure necessary to support the development of new
organization forms. Virtual teams represent one such organizational form, one that
could revolutionize the workplace and provide organizations with unprecedented
level of flexibility and responsiveness (Powelletal., 2004) (9). Virtual teams are
distributed work teams whose members coordinate their work predominantly with
electronic information and communication technologies (e-mail, video-

23
conferencing, telephone, etc.). This can be difficult if employees have obsolete
technology and software or they do not use technology effectively. In addition,
they communicate work without body language and facial expressions such as
face-to-face discussions. In Thai Tu Company, the departments exchange jobs via
phone, email and skype. This is very advantageous in terms of information
transmission quickly. However, in practice, the transmission information may not
be clear but there is no direct interaction to understand exactly the job
requirements. Employees are too dependent on information technology that
restricts the actual communication. So, virtual teams can be considered as the
finnal cause of the poor cooperation between employees problem.
Figure 5: Potential Causes for Thai Tu Company’s central problem
Potential Causes
Lack of
Leadership
Unclear Goals and
Duties
Undertrained
Employees
Disengaged
Employees
Virtual Team
Central Problems
Poor co-operation
between employees
Organization
Symptoms
Losing customer
From these potential causes, most of the interviewed staff identified
unclear goals and duties and disengaged employees as the two main causes of poor
cooperation between employees. As Ms.Thao shared that she always had difficulty
exchanging work with other employees because no one was fully aware of their

24
responsibilities and roles and that of other employees leading to frequent conflicts and
It takes a lot of time to get things done. In addition, employees have no cohesion,
making collaboration sporadic, less interactive and less effective. The same point with
Ms. Thao, Ms. Linh argues that poor co-operation has many causes, but the first is the
unclear the goals and duties of work that often lead to stagnation, conflict between
departments and low work efficiency. Second is that employees in the company do
not have much interaction opportunities to understand each other, which also makes
their cohesion less and affect collaboration in the workplace.
Therefore, focusing on solutions to the two causes of unclear goals and
duties and disengaged employees is a priority in the resolution plan.
Figure 6: Real Causes for Thai Tu Company’s central problem
Organiz
ation
Sympto
ms
Real Causes
Unclear Goals and
Duties
Disengaged
Employees
Central Problems
Poor co-operation
between employees
Losing customer

25
3.2. The solutions
Rubin, Plovnick and Fry were among the first who published team
effectiveness model back in 1977. This is known as GRPI Model (10) that stands
for Goals, Roles, Procedures and Interpersonal relationships as key aspects of
collaboration. Due to its simplicity (clear goals, specified roles, transparent
workflow, trustful and flexible relationship), GRPI model is commonly used in
team formation process, and in solving problems in teamworking caused by
different reasons. It is represented in a diagram as a pyramid:
Figure 7: The GRPI model
3.2.1. Solutions for Clear Goals (about 2 weeks)
In the Goals stage, this is considered a the "forming" phase. The goal is to
provide the foundation for good teamwork by setting the core mission of each
department and framing its purpose. In addition, each employee must know the
operational objectives of the company in each period. In this stage, we need to
guide the staff in each department, position them to understand where they are, to
identify where they want to go and unite each individual effort to achieve that.
3.2.1.1. Solution (What to do in the development of cooperation between
employees)
• Forming kick-off meetings:
- The company will hold kick-off meeting for new contracts or projects between
related departments. Participants included the company board, department
management. Through the meeting, the board of directors will implement the

26
objectives and direction of work to each department. They learn about the
project they are going to work on, discuss the goals / objectives of the project
and start thinking about their role in the project team. They are not yet working
on the project and just find way around how they might cooperate together.
- The department managers hold kick-off meeting for new contracts or projects with
employees. Through the meeting, they will develop new goals and work
directions, discuss the objectives of the project and begin to divide the roles of
each employee in the project. The department managers must ensure that all
members participate in defining the roles and responsibilities of the department
and provide guidance on how employees will work together in accordance with
each department criteria. All staff in the department should have the opportunity to
build upon their perceptions and their expectations about the work or project.
- Once a team has been assembled, the meeting begins between the staff of the
relevant departments established. Thereby, the meeting is a foundation of trust and
appreciation at the individual level, the goal should be to create an atmosphere of
openness and comfort shared between the staff of the department.
• Forming team mediation meetings:
- While a big step forward to avoid conflicts can be made by establishing processes
and communications from the kick-off meeting, manager of each department
identifies and address the goals of the staffs about what conflicts with those in the
department and other department. At the mediation meeting, the manager raises
internal and external censorship questions to understand the self-perception of an
individual or group as opposed to the views of other members of the group as well.
With goals, processes and insights developed. The purpose is to find out the "blind
spot" in one's self. Such conflicts can occur when employees try to minimize side
jobs or view the goals as unimportant, or believe that achieving goals will have a
negative impact on them.
3.2.1.2. Measurement of solutions
- Division leaders will jointly provide a common employee assessment index,
which includes self-assessment and cross-evaluation among staff involved in
the project. Include the level of indicators: the level of job grasp, the level of
coordination, the level of satisfaction of the results of the work.

27
- Set deadlines to accomplish the goal of each stage based on the timeline of
each contract or project.
- Each department manager will receive daily work reports including the results
of the day's work and the next day's work plan from the employees to track the
results at the end of the day.
- Each department manager weekly evaluate according to the general evaluation
criteria to review completed work, unfinished work and cooperation of
employees.
- Summarize the results of the weekly assessment and make a monthly report.
3.2.1.3. The purposes of the solutions
- Employees involved in the project understand the purpose of the project, the
purpose of the work.
- To determine the organization of each department and the cooperation between
employees.
- Help employees understand their responsibilities and the responsibilities of
other employees.
- Create cohesion among employees through discussion of milestones or short-
term goals.
- Introduce the rules of the department including the date of the meeting in the
future and evaluation criteria.
➔
Through this solution, the lack of clarity about the goal will be improved, each
employee will understand their own job objectives and the company and determine
the correct way to work to complete into those goals.
3.2.2. Solution for Specified Roles (about 2 weeks)
At this stage, roles and functions are defined by tasks that need to be
performed and require kind of skills, knowledge, experience, etc. Each employee
must have a clear picture of who is doing what, who is responsible for what and
should know their level of authority. They must understand, agree and be satisfied
with their roles and responsibilities, individually and collectively. This is the basis
of a clear process of solving, clarifying and resolving issues.

28
employees)
• Evaluating the capacity and performance of each employee, and distribute
accordancely the works in with the capabilities of each employee.
- The manager of each department will set the criteria for each job position in the
project/contract and based on the profile and experience of each employee to
consider the distribution of work.
- During the department kick-off meeting, the manager will distribute the work
to each employee and the selection criteria. Employees will then discuss and
give their views on the assignment, which they will be able to accept or refuse.
- For job roles that require high levels of discussion and consistency, department
managers will ask employees to make their own proposals or to vote directly at
the meeting.
- After choosing the appropriate position in their department, the department
manager will inform all departments in the company about the person in charge
of each job, clearly state the role and responsibility by email.
• Identify and resolve conflicts employees feel about their roles
- Each department manager will create a mailbox for employee feedback,
employees who have questions and concerns about their roles or co-workers,
they will present the problems to their direct manager to that mailbox. Manager
will be based on information recorded to work with the people involved and
feedback results by email.
- In addition, at each weekly meeting of the department, the department manager
will receive feedback on the roles and responsibilities of employees. Employees
will then discuss and come up with solutions or reallocate the work role by voting
the entire staff in the room with the highest consensus. At the same time, with
job roles changing, department manager informs the whole company of the
change and timing of the change.
3.2.2.2. Measurement of solutions
- Based on the daily and weekly performance report of each employee, the
department manager can assess the level of accomplishment of each employee
and their work responsibilities.
- Based on the self-assessment and cross-evaluation of each employee, the

29
department manager can record the level of satisfaction of each employee
about his or her role and satisfaction in cooperation with other employees.
- Determining the capacity of each employee, managers will assign work the
right person who done more effectively work.
- Understanding roles and responsibilities, each employee will have clear
orientation in the work and create more motivation and effective productivity.
- Identify the role of each employee in the project, the coordination between the
members will be coherent, clear and limit the conflicts.
- Identify the work responsibilities of each employee, each department manager
easily grasp the correct and timely issues and discuss fast to find solutions.
➔
Through this solution, unclear role of each employee will be eliminated. Instead,
each employee will understand the responsibilities and roles of their own and other
employees to improve the process work, cooperation and supports.
3.2.3. Solution for Processes and Procedures (about 2 months)
Organizational processes are a tool that orient the work of each employee
and assists managers in overcoming inefficiencies in the areas of decision making,
control, coordination, and communication. Therefore, after clearly defining the
goals of each department and the whole company, each department should identify
the tasks and activities to achieve these goals. Establishing smart standardization
processes for action, decision making, conflict management, problem solving,
communication processes, resource allocation, etc. will effectively support the
goals of each department by defining interactions in one department and between
departments.
employees)
• Developing a communication process throughout the project, providing space
for the employees so that they can capture each other's work.
- Because the coordination between departmental staff requires accuracy and
tightness of information and time. Therefore, it is important for communication
and feedback among staff throughout the project. Communication in this phase

30
will give employees detailed and accurate information about what is happening.
- At present, meetings are held only between department managers and the board
of directors and some non-routine meetings of departments. In an organization,
meetings are supposed to be an effective means of achieving cooperation.
Hence, each department will hold weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings to
increase communication, feedback between employees and between employees
and department managers. In addition, monthly meetings will be held between
departments to increase engagement and interoperability among employees in
the company.
- In this stage, the role of managers (sales manager, support department
manager, planning department manager) at lower levels is very important.
They must communicate directly with the employee through a two-way
channel so employees can provide feedback. Managers will respond to these
responses as soon as possible. In some cases, if they can not answer all
employee concerns, they can pass on top management feedback, so that
company executives will be responsible for responding to employees.
- Communicate between existing departments of the company through mail and
skype. However, the flow of information is still unclear, the files is not yet
scientifically stored. The necessity of using social media as an effective
internal communication channel will improve employee satisfaction, increase
productivity and encourage information sharing. The company deploys to use
cloud solutions can be used to save documents, contract agreements, reports or
any regulations. As a result, employees access data is easy, managers can track
project progress with completed files or members using available data for the
next step. Thus, collaboration between employees are improved by working
anywhere, anytime. For example, sales staff only make reports on orders that
need to be delivered, including quantity, location and time. Planning and
support departments can track reports and conduct them at the same time and
avoid working delays.
• Setting up a comment box mail to get feedback from company employees
- For cooperation issues but departmental manager can not solve, this is a tool that
helps to capture employee feedback on internal constraints, conflicts, or ideas

31
contributions that improve the process of the company.
- The heads of the company can grasp the issues in each department in order to
find appropriate and timely solutions to minimize discontent in the work of the
employees, minimizing internal conflicts that affect the performance of the
whole company.
• Designing training program on coordination departments
- The human resources department coordinates with the department manager to
establish a standard process between departments within the company. From
there, the human resource department organizes training sessions for managers
and employees about the goals, roles, and procedures of the process. The HR
department is responsible for designing the tests at the end of each training
program to assess the understanding of employees.
- Developing a communication process within a company is important because it
improves efficiency and builds a common understanding of how employees
work together and increases productivity, minimizing errors and limiting
negative feedback from customers.
- If the group has clear rules about how to do it in coordination, the source of
potential conflicts will be minimized or eliminated among employees and
increased efficiency in management.
- Having a clear process also allows other employees to capture tasks schedule,
profiles to replace each other, or mutual assistance if an employee is busy or
involved in another task.
- Through the training program, improving the knowledge and skills for manager
and employees in the company. Giving employees the challenges and effort at
work
- To prevent strongly and minimize conflicts.
- Strengthening employee engagement: Communication actions during this
period help employees to voice their concerns and the ability to debate issues
around these concerns.
- Make sure employees receive the information they need to help them frame
and guide their daily work.

32
- Sympathy for the difficulties of the workers in the process of work. Create a
close link between company leaders and employees.
➔
Through this solution, the cohesion of each employee will be enhanced because
with a clear, concrete workflow that will create a professional working
environment, employees will comply with the regulations and The law set out,
limiting errors and contradictions when working together to solve problems.
3.2.4. Solution for Interpersonal Relationships (about 3 months)
This is an important stage in helping employees in departments interact
with each other. The relationship between the employees is really about the
company's long-term motivation to achieve the goals set. It is therefore important
to consider more technical measurement results and to develop coordination
among employees through social activities that encourage and facilitate the
creation of relationships. the deeper between employees.
employees)
• Encouraging employees by the spirit of competition
- Based on the monthly review of the performance of each employee, reward
employees who have accomplished their tasks well, minimizing operational
errors, quickly handling the requirements. Reward funds will be set up for each
department.
- Because in this phase, coordination is brought into the norm, so focusing on
controlling the performance of the staff. The managers monitor and evaluate
faults of employees in the department, to promptly come up with a resolution.
In addition, according to the degree of wrongdoing, there will be criticized or
salary cuts to give employees more effort and responsibility.
• Organizing team building, social activities
- Because employees who work together often have little time to understand
each other's strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, through these activities, they
will have the opportunity to interact and understand each other outside of work.
- At work, there is a decentralization between leadership and employees.
However, through these extra-curricular activities, staff and leaders will have

33
more open, friendly contact opportunities.
- Individuals will be aware of their roles and responsibilities and work towards
achieving the best results.
- This is about how the employees in the company have the opportunity to
interact with each other and understand each other.
- Create cohesion and intimacy between company leaders and employees.
- Encourage and facilitate the creation of deeper interpersonal relationships
- Create a dynamic, comfortable environment after work that promotes personal
well-being, minimizes work pressures, enhances their level of satisfaction.
➔ Through this solution, the relationship between the employees in the company
is improving. A friendly, dynamic and open working environment is an
opportunity for each individual to express and develop their skills and
relationships. In addition, the challenges of work are the motivation for each
individual to constantly try to learn and develop, create resonance for people
around the same effort and promote the company growing.
3.2.5. Cost-benefit analysis of the development of cooperation between
employees plan
Costs Benefits
Qualitative - Time consuming (about 6 - Reduce ambiguity about goals
months during the period of and roles in the workplace
cooperation development - Reduce job dissatisfaction
time in company) - Strengthen commitment and
coordination of staff
- Build trust from employees and
the spirit of employees.
- Facilitate the process of
collaboration among the
divisions within the company

34
Quantitative - Estimated costs for
employee rewards: VND 50
million
- Estimated costs for media
(print media, electronic
media, social media): VND
10 million
- Estimated costs for other
communicationtools
(meeting, presentation,
notice board, mailbox):
VND 5 million
- Estimated costs for training
programs: VND 10 million
- Estimated costs for social
activities: VND 30 million
Total estimated costs: VND
105 million
- Increase employees’
productivity.
- Reduce the error in the
cooperation of the employees
- Increase the level of customer
satisfaction of the quality in
service to re-attract lost
customers, keep current
customers. It is estimated that if
pulling the lost customers, the
company can improve sales
revenue of 6.41 billion dong
more than the previous year and
increase 10% revenue each year
by developing new customers.

35
APPENDIX
Appendix 1: Interview transcription - Mr. Thuy - Manager of Sale Department
Please share some personal information: your
Interviewer
job/responsibility/position within the company
Interviewee
Hi Thuong, I am currently managing the sales department of Thai Tu
Company
Interviewer
How long have you been working for Thai Tu Company? Please
kindly share more about your job in Thai Tu Company?
I have been working for over 7 years in the company with 3 years as
sales manager. My responsibility is to organize the management and
operation of the sales department to meet the requirements of sales
Interviewee revenue and service quality of the Company. In addition, I have to
regularly report on business performance for the company's board of
directors; Receive, disseminate and timely implement the instructions
of the board of directors.
Interviewer
As your position, can you share me a little about the business
situation of the Company in the past?
From 2016 – 2017, due to the influence of the pharmaceutical market,
the price of medicines decreases by 10-15% based on regulation of
Interviewee
government, Cause of the objective factor of the market, sales revenue
of the company has reduced as a result. However, it is worth noting
that the some of customers reduced from 16 customers in 2015 to 12
customers in 2017.
Interviewer
The number of customers of the company tends to decrease. Has
the company developed new customers in the past?
Interviewee
We have not developed new customers and the two of four leaving
customers are our close customers.
Interviewer What does the losing customers mean to you?
For the direction of our management, we not only want to maintain
Interviewee but also expand the market and the number of customers. Therefore,
with the current results is not what we want and the company needs to

36
consider the shortcomings that lead to lose customers
Interviewer So, can you categorize customers among those who left?
We lost 4 customers in the last time. Two clients of those customers
are An Giang General Hospital and Hung Vuong Hospital that had
Interviewee traded to the company for the past five years. The other two clients
are Net Joint Stock Company and Pharmaceutical Joint Stock
Company had traded for more than one year.
Interviewer
As you shared above, what caused some of customers to leave your
company?
In my opinion, there are two causes; the first is high bidding price
Interviewee
compared to competitors, the second is the company received a lot of
feedback from customers about their dissatisfaction with company's
service quality
Interviewer
What is the most important reason for above issue that company
have been facing?
Thai Tu Company is a company with many years of experience in
pharmaceutical distribution. In particular, the company has a large and
loyal customer numbers in Ho Chi Minh City and West provinces.
However, among the bidding packages we did not reach because our
bidding price was higher than competitors that also caused the
company to lose some important bidding packages. Besides, the
Interviewee delivery time to the provinces takes quite a long time so the situation
is more delayed compared to the requirements of customers that make
they are dissatisfied. Therefore, some customers when bidding will
select partners with favorable locations. In addition, many employees
often deal with issues based on personal experience. Many solutions
to problems do not optimize the interests of customers and they are
unhappy with the frequent mistakes in work requirements.
Interviewer
Why does not the company adjust prices so that it can compete and
retain customers?
Interviewee
The company has thoroughly considered. However, the cost of each
bid calculated by the planning department and approved by the

37
management of the company, our business department only made
those decisions.
Interviewer Is late delivery often occurring?
Interviewee It is frequently occurred, especially it is provincial clients.
Interviewer Why? Who is responsible for this?
We receive orders and forward to support department, we always note
Interviewee
some of orders should be made urgently, they are responsible for
fulfilling those requirements. However, the coordination of their work
is quite late, so we often are complained by customers.
Interviewer As you said above, so who has poor problem-solving skills?
I generally evaluate the employees in our department because they are
the ones who work and handle the issues directly with the customer.
Interviewee
However, this is also a problem encountered by employees of other
departments. When the implementation of the work requires the
coordination of the employees of the departments, they do not
understand each other and often to delay work

38
Appendix 2: Interview transcription - Mr. Tuan – Manager of Planning
Department
Interviewer
Interviewee As you know, I'm the manager of the company's Planning Department
Interviewer
I have been in this position since entering the company about 4 years. I
Interviewee am responsible for planning and managing the entire business plan of
the company including finance, input and bidding
According to information obtained from Mr. Thuy, the company
Interviewer lost a lot of customers due to the high price of the bidding package,
can you confirm this issue?
Interviewee
Not most of the loss of customers is due to price factors. However, there
is also a real cause at some point
Interviewer Can you explain in detail?
The price of the drug when bidding is based on the requirements of the
contractor and the actual situation of the company. Because some drugs
are high price because of the high cost of input. The reason is that
Interviewee
sometimes some drugs in the warehouse have higher input price than
the actual time. This affects the calculation of drug bidding prices to
ensure that the company does not suffer losses and meet the
requirements of the contractor. However, the company lost some bids
because of poor inventory forecast that affects bidding price
Interviewer
Exclude above factor, is the price of the package depends on other
factors?
Basically, we calculate the price of the package depending on the input
Interviewee
price, the desired profit level and are approved by the management. In
some cases with large orders, close customers, company leaders still
accept the low profit or the break even
Interviewer Why does not the company accept losses to keep customers and

39
solve the inventory?
There are some bid packages we accept losses to get it. However, some
Interviewee bid packages make us big loss if we accept their rates. Meanwhile, if
we keep the goods, we can still distribute to other units.

40
Appendix 3: Interview transcription - Mr. Tung – Manager of Support
Department
Interviewer
Please share some personal information: your job/ responsibility/
position within the company
Interviewee
My responsibility is managing of Supporting Department of Thai Tu
Company.
Interviewer
I work for the company from 2015 up to now. Our department is
Interviewee
focused on solving requests from the sales department for the drafting
and revision of tender documents and the coordination of delivery
vehicles. I am responsible for managing these stages.
Interviewer As your position, how are your difficulty during working daily?
As supporting department, we often depend on the requirement of the
Interviewee sale department. Therefore, sometimes, we are overloaded due to too
many requests that need to be processed quickly
According to the information I collected, there are many customer
Interviewer
feedbacks that they are unhappy about the delayed delivery time of
the company and your department is responsible for this, Do you
receive about these feedbacks?
Interviewee
Of course. This issue is often encountered with the provincial customers
and sometimes happened with customers in Ho Chi Minh City
Interviewer In your opinion, what is the most important reason for above issue?
Firstly, the company has three trucks, we must coordinate them for a
lot of orders from Ho Chi Minh City to the provinces. Sometimes, there
are orders at the same time that need to be delivered but not enough
Interviewee trucks. Secondly, as I mentioned above, we receive requests from the
sales department and arrange vehicles according to those requirements.
However, we can't sort closely the delivery schedule because the
delivery requestments are informed suddenly, no previous plan

41
Appendix 4: Interview transcription - Ms. Thao - sales staff of Sale department
Interviewer
Interviewee Now, I am sale people of Thai Tu Company
Interviewer
I have been working for the company for over 2 years. My main jobs
are to work directly with clients, address customer inquiries and receive
Interviewee positive and negative feedbacks from them. Besides, I have to work
with other departments to support the requirements of the customer is
going on accurately and quickly.
I know that two of your clients that are An Giang General Hospital
Interviewer and x have left for a while, so can you share the reasons for leaving
the company?
An Giang General Hospital is very close customer to Thai Tu
Company. However, now they do not cooperate with us anymore and
choose another contractor. I also find out through the representative of
An Giang General Hospital that our bid prices are very competitive with
new constructor but their advantage is the company based in An Giang
province. That representative also complained to us that the time of
Interviewee
cooperation with our company, they are not satisfied when many of
their orders are often delayed that affects the operation of the hospital.
Therefore, even though they are long-term partners, they still have to
choose other contractors.
For Van Phuc Medical Joint Stock Company, they are very interested
in the price factor. We also spent a lot of time negotiating on prices and
their requirements on orders. However, they give us the price that
cannot be met
Interviewer How are you difficulty during working daily?
Interviewee
I often receive a lot of information and large workload from customers
and other departments. Therefore, the shortcomings in the work process

42
is inevitable and that makes customers unhappy
Interviewer Can you explain me why so?
First, many jobs are not treated exactly as the customer's request. The
reason may be that when taking over the job the sales person does not
understand the requirements and communicates inaccurately to other
departments and leads the results of the work are not correct or
Interviewee employees in other departments do not properly understand the
requirements of works, handle works based on personal perception
without communicating to the sales staff in charge.
Second, the exchange of information between employees between
departments is rather slow. This affects the feedback to the customers

43
Appendix 5: Interview transcription - Ms. Ngan - sales staff of Sale department
Interviewer
Interviewee In company, I am a sale staff
Interviewer
I have worked in this territory for many years. Each sales staff takes
care of and handles a group of corporate clients. Every day, I have to
Interviewee handle requests from the customers. Also, when participating in the
bidding, I have to coordinate with the departments to learn about the
requirements from the investor to complete the application document
Interviewer How are your difficulty during working daily?
Handling customer requests is not an easy job for salespeople. Having
requests from customers can cause difficulties for the company and the
consideration to address them is a hindrance to us and the company. If
it is not possible to solve those problem then some of customers can
chose to leave the company. Besides, many jobs are not treated exactly
as the customer's request. The reason may be that when taking over the
Interviewee job the sales person does not understand the requirements and
communicates inaccurately to other departments and leads the results
of the work are not correct or employees in other departments do not
properly understand the requirements of works, handle works based on
personal perception without comunicating to the sales staff in charge.
Secondly, the exchange of information between employees between
departments is rather slow. This affects the feedback to the customers
So, two of your clients that are Hung Vuong Hospital and
Interviewer Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company District 3 have left for a
while, so can you share the reasons for leaving the company?
Hung Vuong Hospital is our longtime client. In 2017, we did not get
Interviewee their package because of the price issue. Drug prices on the market are
down, however, the company based on the actual situation of the

44
company to calculate the bidding price and cannot offer the low price
as required by the Hung Vuong hospital. However, we are still trying
to maintain a relationship with this side and try to get back other
bidding packages in the future.
Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company District 3 deals with us only a
short time and now has temporarily stopped trading. The most recent
order they asked us, because of problems with source information,
quantity inspection, input prices are unclear, so take time to respond to
them. So, when we respond to them, they put from another company

45
REFERENCES
1. Kuchař V. Melliferous marketing. Brno. BizBooks. Prague. Albatros Media; 2012.
2. Jackson CL, Colquitt JA, Wesson MJ, Zapata-Phelan CP. Psychological Collectivism. A
Measurement Validation and Linkage to Group Member Performance, Journal of
Applied Psychology. 2006; 91(12): p. 884 – 899.
3. ES. The Nest Web site. [Online]. Available from:
https://woman.thenest.com/importance-cooperation-workplace-14647.html.
4. West MA, Tjosvold D, Smith KG. International Handbook of Organizational Teamwork
and Cooperative Working; August 2002.
5. Zaccaroa SJ, Rittmana AL, Marksb MA. Team leadership. The Leadership Quarterly 12.
2001;(451 – 483).
6. Walton J, Dorneich MC, Gilbert SB, Bonner D, Winer EH, Ray C. Industrial and
Manufacturing Systems Engineering Conference Proceedings and Posters. Modality and
Timing of Team Feedback: Implications for GIFT. 2014 Jun;(45).
7. Elnaga DA, Imran A. European Journal of Business and Management. The Effect of
Training on Employee Performance. 2013; 5(4).
8. Heikkeri , Elena. Roots and consequences of the employee disengagement phenomenon.
Master‟s Thesis. Saimaa University of Applied Sciences; 2010.
9. Ebrahim NA, Ahmed S, Taha Z. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences.
2009: p. 2653-2669.
10. Raue S, Tang SH, Weiland C, Wenzlik C. The GRPI model – An approach for team
development. Paper Draft. Systemic Excellence Group; 2013.

46
SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE FINAL THESIS
SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER of
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Final thesis title: POOR CO-OPERATION BETWEEN EMPLOYEES AT
THAI TU COMPANY
Student name: VO THI HAI THUONG
Supervisor name: Dr QUAN TRAN
1. General comments:
Remarks on the student’s attitude:
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
Remarks on the assignment’s academic quality:
.....................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................
2. Overall assessment:
Meet requirement for submitting;
Not meet requirement for submitting.
3. Other remarks:

47
- Did the student follow the report schedule?
Yes No
Other.......................................................................
- The Turnitin plagiarism percentage:
Supervisor’s signature

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