MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM

RESEARCH PROJECT

FACTORS INFLUENCE TO BEHAVIOR
OF “TAKING CHARGE” AT URC
VIETNAM

STUDENT’S FULL NAME

: NGUYEN THI THAI NGUYEN

STUDENT ID

: CGS00019383

INTAKE

: March 2015

ADVISOR’S NAME & TITLE

: NGUYEN THE KHAI (DBA)


ADVISOR’S ASSESSMENT

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ADVISOR’S SIGNATURE
(July 2016)

NGUYEN THE KHAI (DBA)


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To complete this thesis, I have received many of support from teachers, lecturer
and my classmates and URC Vietnam. to:

First I would like to express my deep gratitude all the teachers of MBA
International program OUM University transferring the base knowledge and
specially my lecturer Nguyen The Khai (DBA) who expertly guide for me to
complete this research.
Second I would like to extend my sincerely thanks to the Board of Management
and Human Resource Manager of URC Vietnam for their suggestions and kind
supports related to my research.
And, I also specially thank to my family, friends, colleagues as well as who direct or
indirect have assisted and guide me to finish this research.

Once again, thank you very much all

Nguyen Thi Thai Nguyen


TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT


1

1 INTRODUCTION

2

1.1 About URC

2

Universal Robina Corporation

2

URC Vietnam

7

Organization chart

8

Product portfolio

10

1.2 Research problem statement

12


1.3 Research objective

13

1.4 Research scope

13

1.5 Significance of research

13

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

15

2.1 Definition of Constructs

15

Behavior of “Taking charge”

15

Empowerment of work

15

Role innovation


15

Person-Organization Fit

16

Job satisfaction

16

2.2 Argument for the relationship among the constructs

16

Taking charge at work: Extrarole efforts to initiate
workplace changes

16

Maslow’s theory

17

ERG theory

18

Grant and Ashford theory


18

2.3 Research model

19

2.4 Hypotheses

20


3 METHODS

22

3.1 Data collection

22

Design template scale

22

Data collection progress

26

3.2 Data analysis

27


4 RESULTS

28

4.1 Cronbach’s Alpha

28

Cronbach’s Alpha standard applied

28

Cronbach’s Alpha of constructs

28

4.2 Statistics information

29

Descriptive statistics

29

Correlation statistics

31

4.3 Hypotheses testing


32

Regression analysis

32

Regression testing

33

5 CONCLUSIONS

36

5.1 Conclusion

36

5.2 Recommendation

37

5.3 Limitation of the research

32

REFERENCES
APPENDIX


40
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FIGURE & TABLE

FIGURE
Figure 1

Maslow’s hierarchy needs

17

Figure 2

Research model “Factors influence to taking charge”

20

Figure 3

Mean

30

Figure 4


Standard deviation

30

Table 1

Proposed hypotheses

21

Table 2

Cronbach’s Alpha

29

Table 3

Descriptive statistics

29

Table 4

Correlation Statistic

31

Table 5


Model Summary

32

Table 6

Anova

32

Table 7

Regression coefficients

33

Table 8

Regression coefficients of 4 variables

35

TABLE

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ABSTRACT

T

he research “Factors effect to behavior of Taking Charge at URC
Vietnam” is designed to study the influences of factors
empowerment of work, role innovation, person-organization fit
and job satisfaction to behavior of taking charge at URC Vietnam

in order to offer recommendations for Management to improve the degree of taking
charge of the employees in the company.
The research was conducted by quantitative method: 600 white collar employees
working at URC Vietnam was required to answer the questionnaire follow the
convenient sampling. After screening and validate the feedback, total value
feedback is 276 samples. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive statistics
and regression analysis using the application SPSS 20.
Hopefully, the result of this research will be useful for URC Management in
understanding the recent degree of taking charge behavior of the employees and this
can be one of the reference sources to help for building human resource
management strategy and improve working productivity of the employee: proactive,
innovative, initiatives for better organizational changes in the context of the such
market competition today.
Key words: Take charge at work, empowerment of work, role innovation, personorganization fit, job satisfaction.

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1

INTRODUCTION
1.1 About URC
Universal Robina Corporation (URC)
URC is among the Philippines’ pioneers in the
industry, having been in operations since 1954
when Mr. John Gokongwei, Jr. established
Universal Corn Products, Inc., a cornstarch
manufacturing plant in Pasig.
URC is engaged in a wide variety of
businesses. Its core branded consumer foods
group includes manufacturing and distribution
of

snackfoods,

beverages

and

grocery

products. In the Philippines, the Company is
also into food ingredients (flour milling, sugar
milling & refining) and allied agro-industrial
products (hog farming, animal feed milling, glucose, soya products, and veterinary

compounds). URC has also invested in ancillary segments mainly focusing into
renewable sources of energy to further add value and process by-products to
produce biogas, el grade bio-ethanol and power (biomass cogeneration).
In the Philippines, URC is the market leader in salty snacks, candies, chocolates,
and canned beans. It is also a significant player in biscuits, with leading positions in
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cookies and pretzels, the largest player in the RTD tea market, and a respectable
2nd player in noodles and coffee.
The Company has started building its Jack ‘n Jill and C2 mega-brands across the
ASEAN.
URC have market leading position in both biscuits and wafers in Thailand, the
number one RTD tea brand in Vietnam, and emerging strong challenger positions in
Indonesia for potato chips and confectioneries.
URC’s history:
 1945: Traced its beginnings of Universal Corn Products (UCP) by John
Gokongwei – produce glucose and Cornstarch.
 1961: Consolidated Foods Corporation was born – produce Blend 45, the
largest-selling coffee brand in the market, beating market leaders Café©
Puro and Nescafe. After coffee came chocolates. Nips, a panned
chocolate was a staple of Filipino childhood.

 1970s: Acquisition and expansion: entered the commodities business –
continental milling Corporation, for flour milling and production.


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 1980s: Saw the entry of URC into the plastic business, through URC
Packaging.
 1990s: Acquisition of three sugar mills and refineries.
 2005: Completed the structure of the group of Universal Robina
Corporation umbrella, divided into 3 focused groups:
o The Branded Consumer Food Group, comprise of BCFG Domestic
(including packaging) and International.
o The Agro-Industrial group, comprised of Universal Corn Products,
Robina Farms, and Robichem.
o The Commodities group, with the Sugar and Flour divisions.
Mission, Vision and core Values:
Mission:
URC is one of the largest branded food product companies in the Philippines
and has a growing presence in other ASEAN markets.
Vision:
URC’s vision is to be the best Philippine food and beverage company, with a
powerful presence throughout the ASEAN region, carrying a wide portfolio
of delightful brands of exceptional quality and value, equipped with efficient
systems and motivated people. We are committed in making lives a truly fun
experience.

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Values:
Passion to Win: We build organizational capability by being entrepreneurial
and proactive, driven by a sense of urgency and purpose. We continuously
challenge ourselves to deliver world-class brands and consistently rally our
people to strive for excellence.
Dynamism: We cultivate a culture of innovation and productive working
relationships.
We continuously find ways to improve organizational and people capabilities
to meet constantly challenging consumer needs.
Integrity: We are guided by transparency, ethics, and fairness. We build the
business with honor and are committed to good governance. Our processes
and products meet the highest standards. We are credible in our dealings with
both internal and external stakeholders.
Courage: We seize opportunities in building long-term, sustainable
businesses. We make tough people and business decisions to ensure
competitive advantage.

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URC Branches/Affiliates:

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URC Vietnam
URC Vietnam manufactures Biscuits, Snacks and Candies for the Vietnamese
consumers. This was also the very first URC subsidiary outside the Philippines to
manufacture and successfully market C2 Green Tea, which remains to be the
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number one brand in the RTD Tea category in this country. Recently, our energy
brand offering “Rong-Do” has also gained significant traction and now remains a
strong challenger in this category.

URC Vietnam Co. Ldt. was established since 2003 is 100% FDI Company located
in 42 VSIP Tu Do St, Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park, Thuan An Town, Binh
Duong Province. The business is focusing on Food and Beverage. After 13-year
operating in Vietnam, URC becomes top 10 FMCG in Vietnam (Based on Nielsen
data 2016). With 4 modern manufactures which are in international standard
operating in Binh Duong (2 manufactures), Hanoi (1 manufacture) and Quang Ngai
(1 manufacture), URC Vietnam have been bringing to Vietnamese popular products

in Foods and Beverages such as: C2 green tea, Rong Do Energy Drink, Cream-O
cookies, Magic Crackers, Dynamite candy, Chikki and Puffcorn snacks…

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URC Vietnam organization chart:

General Director

Marketing

Sales

Manufacturing

Supply Chain

Foods MKT

Field Sales

Factory VSIP 1

Beverage
MKT


Sales
Operation

Factory VSIP 2

Trade
Marketing

Factory Hanoi

Admin

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Factory Quang
Ngai

HR

Finance &
Accounting

IT


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Product portfolio:

URC Product
portfolio
Beverage

C2

Rong Do

Foods

Biscuits

+ Beverage: Since the brand C2 launched into
Vietnam market, C2 made remarkable step in the
battle of conquering consumers’ sentiment. Thru
the aggressive marketing strategy; recently, the
brand became popular among Vietnamese people
and be the leader in Ready-to-drink Tea category.

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Candy

Snack


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Besides C2, the energy brand offering “Rong-Do” has also gained significant
traction and now remains a strong challenger in this category.
+ Biscuits: Per Nielsen reading 2016, URC Biscuit is within top 5 in Biscuit market
in which, Cream-O and Magic is leading in Cream-filled cookies and Cream-filled
crackers segment. And there are still room for the company to expand the business
in wafer and non-cream-filled segments which contributing biggest in Biscuits.

+ Candy: URC is presenting in hard candy with center-filled
(Dynamite BigBang and Dynamite Engergy) and chewing candy
(Dynamite Chew). URC can explore in hard plain candy to build
the bigger business.
+ Snack – young business in URC: Snack is still small but it show
potential when the market grow 2% Y15 ad URC snack growed at 20% the business
in Y15 driven by the new snack Puffcorn and
Chikki launched mid of Y14, the success
comes from highly acceptance from end users
due to new innovative and unique product
concepts.

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1.2 Research problem statement
Taking charge is a kind of extra-role behavior of employee to go beyond the

boundaries of their jobs to bring about positive changes. Behavior of taking
charge is motivated to promote innovation and initiatives among the employees
to challenge the current organizational status in term of work policy, procedure,
methods… to complete their jobs at a highest level. Obviously, Taking Charge
is very important in any company, especially for the company have long history
and established position in the market.
As Bill Hewlett, Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, says, "Men and women want
to do a good job, and if they are provided with the proper environment, they
will do so." In short: give your employees what they need to do the best job
they can with as much of their own initiative as possible, and your results and
success as well as theirs will inevitably improve.
URC Vietnam is belonging to the global corporation with long run time in the
market and be in top 10 FMCG in Vietnam. The company inherited the
organizational quo from the corporate such as: Technology, rule, cultural,
policy… This is both strength and weakness for the company, because in front
of fast changes of world, URC need to move forward thru productive changes
more than keep the old thing forever. Therefore, how to motivate and energize
people to take charge is the concern of URC Management in general and
Human Resource in specific.

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Based on those concerns, the research of “Factors effect to the behavior of
Taking Charge at URC Vietnam” was chosen. The results will help URC
Management and HR know what and how factors impact to Take Charge, then

develop the programs to improve the behavior of Taking Charge in the
company.
1.3 Research objective
This research was conducted to:
 Discuss the influences of four factors Empowerment of Work, Role
Innovation, Person-Organization Fit and Job Satisfaction on the behavior of
Taking Charge at URC Vietnam
 Introduce and test a model of relationship between the four factors to the
Take Charge.
 Propose conclusion and recommendation to improve influencing factors,
since then promote behavior of Taking Charge for the company management.
1.4 Research scope
This research target is for all white collar employees from staff to Management
at URC Vietnam in four branches and one office it included 600 people and not
included blue collar workers.
The survey was conducted in 1st Jan 2016
1.5 Significance of research
This research is to help Management of URC Vietnam understand current
expectation of the employee about the working environment and the feeling of

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their job satisfaction, and the degree of innovation in work as well as the fit of
their personal values and organizational values; Since then the management can
improve to create a good environment and develop the programs from

recruitment stage for the better and productive changes.

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2

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Definition of Constructs
Behavior of “Taking charge”
“Taking charge” was developed by Morrison and Phelps (1999) “Taking charge
is discretionary behavior intended to effect organizationally functional change”.
It is extra role which employee willing to take action to challenge the current
status to make the productive changes.
Empowerment of work
Spreitzer (1995) gave out the job characteristic “empowerment of work” which
describes the extent to which employees believe they are empowered in their
jobs. There are four cognitions reflecting an individual’s orientation to his or
her work role: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact.
According Business dictionary, empowerment is based on the idea that giving
employees skills, resources, authority, opportunity, motivation, as well holding
them responsible and accountable for outcomes of their actions, will contribute
to their competence and satisfaction.
Role innovation
Role innovation was developed by West (1987), askes employees to indicate
the ways in which they are doing their job differently from the person(s) who

did the job previously or from others doing this job in the organization.

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Person-Organization Fit
Person-Organization Fit was developed by Bretz and Judge (1994) to reflect fit
between an employee’s knowledge, skills, and abilities and his or her job
requirements; congruence between employee needs and organizational systems
and structures; agreement between an employee’s value orientations and the
perceived values orientation of the organization; and perceived match between
an employee’s personality and the organization’s personality or image.
Job satisfaction
Job Satisfaction was studied by various scholars and gave out their own
definitions; However, the two most common definitions describe job
satisfaction as: “the pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of
one’s job as achieving or facilitating the achievement of one’s job values and
“the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their
jobs.
This measure, developed by Cammann, Fichman, Jerkin, and Klesh (1983) as
part of the Michigan Organizational Assessment.
2.2 Argument for the relationship among the constructs
Taking charge at work: Extrarole efforts to initiate workplace changes
Morrison and Phelps (1999) define Taking charge is discretionary behavior
intended to effect organizationally functional change. In the paper, they indicate
 The employees will be more to take charge when they perceived top

management support so they will open suggestions and to employee-initiated

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change and effort to bring about improvement because they may be more
confident that taking charge will be effective and less concerned about potential
costs.
 Besides, employees will be more take charge to the extent that they had a
high level of self-efficacy and an internalized sense of responsibility for
bringing about change in their workplaces.
Maslow’s theory
Abraham Harold Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was a psychologist
best known for creating a theory of a hierarchy of needs moving from basic
survival needs to ones of self-actualization. These needs are:
 Physiological needs: basic physical needs necessary for staying alive.
 Safety needs: Need for physical and emotional security.
 Love and belonging needs: These include personal relationships and group
membership.

Examples:

marriage, joining a fraternity.
 Esteem needs: Both selfesteem

and


feeling

appreciated by others.
 Self-actualization needs:
Realizing one's full potential.

Figure 1: Maslow’s hierarchy needs

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ERG theory
 Clayton Alderfer proposed a modification of Maslow’s theory in an effort to
simplify it and respond to criticisms of its lack of empirical verification. His
ERG theory identified three categories of needs:
 Existence needs. The needs for physical well-being.
 Relatedness needs. The needs for satisfactory relationships with others.
 Growth needs. The needs that focus on the development of human potential
and the desire for personal growth and increased competence.
Need hierarchy theory helps explain why organizations find ways to recognize
employees, encourage their participation in decision making, and give them
opportunities to make significant contributions to the organization and society.
Maslow theory and ERG theory relates to Job Satisfaction and Role
Innovation at work. When people are full filled their needs they will give
out efforts for Initiatives and innovation at work (Taking Charge)

The dynamics of proactivity at work by Grant and Ashford 2008
Proactive behavior was defined as anticipatory action that employees take to
impact themselves and/or their environments (Parker et al.,2006).
In an increasingly global and ambiguous world of work, proactivity is perhaps
more important than ever before as organizations shift from production
economies to knowledge economies, they rely on employees to engage in
proactive behavior in order to promote creativity, innovation, and change.
Followings are some factors increase proactivity:

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 Accountability: Situational accountability refers to circumstances in which
others expect employees to justify and explain their thoughts, emotions, and
behaviors (Lerner & Tetlock, 1999; Tetlock, 1985)
 Ambiguity situation: when employees encounter situations of ambiguity,
they are often more to display proactive behavior (e.g., Griffin et al., 2007).
Researchers have linked various sources of situational ambiguity – including
role ambiguity, environmental uncertainty, career transitions, and organizational
change
 Autonomy: situational autonomy increases proactive behavior
 Reward and punishment reinforcements
This theory relates to Empowerment of Work because it proposes that
when people are given power at work, autonomy, encouraging
environment, they will be more proactive to give thought ideas for positive
organizational changes.

2.3 Research model
This model study about relationship between factors effect to behavior of
“Taking charge” at URC Vietnam. Behavior of “Taking charge” show in the
angles as following:
 The willing of employees to apply improved procedure, new method,
technology... to improve their job.
 The extend of employees to challenge the organization rule and policy for
effective changes.

Student: Nguyen Thi Thai Nguyen