ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH
---------------------

NGUYỄN THU TRANG

IMPROVING TELLER’S MOTIVATION AT JOINT STOCK
COMMERCIAL BANK FOR INVESTMENT AND
DEVELOPMENT OF VIETNAM (BIDV) – SGD1 BRANCH
NÂNG CAO ĐỘNG LỰC LÀM VIỆC CHO GIAO DỊCH
VIÊN TẠI NGÂN HÀNG TMCP ĐẦU TƯ VÀ PHÁT TRIỂN
VIỆT NAM – CHI NHÁNH SGD1

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH

HÀ NỘI - 2020


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH
---------------------

NGUYỄN THU TRANG

IMPROVING TELLER’S MOTIVATION AT JOINT STOCK
COMMERCIAL BANK FOR INVESTMENT AND
DEVELOPMENT OF VIETNAM (BIDV) – SGD1 BRANCH
NÂNG CAO ĐỘNG LỰC LÀM VIỆC CHO GIAO DỊCH
VIÊN TẠI NGÂN HÀNG TMCP ĐẦU TƯ VÀ PHÁT TRIỂN
VIỆT NAM – CHI NHÁNH SGD1

Chuyên ngành: Quản trị kinh doanh
Mã số: 60 34 01 02
LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. TRẦN KIM HÀO

HÀ NỘI - 2020


DECLARATION
The author confirms that the research outcome in the thesis is the result of
author’s independent work during study and research period and it is not yet published in
other’s research and article.
The other’s research result and documentation (extraction, table, figure, formula,
and other document) used in the thesis are cited properly and the permission (if required) is
given.
The author is responsible in front of the Thesis Assessment Committee, Hanoi
School of Business and Management, and the laws for above-mentioned declaration.
Date…………………………..


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to send my sincere thanks for the help and support of parents, lecturers,
family, friends, and colleagues, all of whom helped me complete this study. Particularly, I
would love to send my gratitude toward the following significant advisors and
contributors:
I would like to extend my warmest thank to Tran Kim Hao for his support and
encouragement. He spent much time on reading my research and offering invaluable
detailed advices on grammar, organization, and the theme of the study.
Second, I would like to thank all lecturers from HSB-MBA for advising much

valuable intellectual knowledge during the course. I would like to thank my classmates for
their provision of valuable advices.
I also would like to thank my colleagues, tellers and managers at BIDV – Transaction
Center 1, managers for their help and support to complete this thesis.


CONTENT

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1
1. Rationale ........................................................................................................................ 1
2. Literature review............................................................................................................ 2
3. Aims of research ............................................................................................................ 3
4. Objects of research ........................................................................................................ 3
5. Scope of research ........................................................................................................... 4
6. Research methodology .................................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION ....... 6
1.1. Overview of employee motivation ............................................................................. 6
1.1.1. Definition of employee motivation...................................................................... 6
1.1.2. Nature of employee motivation ........................................................................... 8
1.1.3. Factors impacting employee motivation.............................................................. 9
1.2. Theories on employee motivation ............................................................................ 14
1.2.1. Herzbergs’s theory............................................................................................. 14
1.2.2. Maslow's theory ................................................................................................. 16
1.3. Employee motivation in banking sector ................................................................... 18
1.4. Employee motivation experience in some banks ..................................................... 22
1.4.1. Employee motivation experience of Technology and Commercial Joint Stock
Bank ............................................................................................................................. 22
1.4.2. LienViet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank (LienVietPostBank) ................... 23
1.4.3. Lessons drawn in terms of employee motivation in BIDV – Transaction Center
1 ................................................................................................................................... 24

CHAPTER 2: ASSESSING THE SITUATION OF TELLER’S MOTIVATION AT BIDV
– TRANSACTION CENTER 1 .......................................................................................... 26
2.1 Introduction of BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ........................................................... 26


2.1.1 History and development of BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ................................ 26
2.1.2 Human resources of BIDV - Transaction Centehr 1 .......................................... 28
2.2. Job description and human policies applied for tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center
1 ....................................................................................................................................... 31
2.3. Analyzing current employee motivation at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ............... 33
2.3.1. Demographic data of respondents ..................................................................... 33
2.3.2. Analyzing current employee motivation at BIDV - Transaction Center ........... 37
2.4. Summary of finding of tellers’ motivation at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ........... 62
2.4.1. Overall assessment of tellers’ motivation at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ...... 62
2.4.2. Achievements .................................................................................................... 63
2.4.3. Limitations and possible causes ........................................................................ 65
CHAPTER

3:

PROPOSAL

ON

SOLUTION

FOR

IMPROVING


TELLER’S

MOTIVATION AT BIDV – TRANSACTION CENTER 1 ............................................... 68
3.1. Development orientation of BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ...................................... 68
3.1.1. General business development .......................................................................... 68
3.1.2. Development orientation of human resources ................................................... 69
3.2. Recommendations to improve tellers’ motivation at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 72
3.2.1. Increasing income for staffs .............................................................................. 72
3.2.2. Supplementing more promotion opportunities and better policies for tellers ... 73
3.2.3. Improving working conditions by dividing work into many shifts to reduce
working time for tellers ............................................................................................... 75
3.2.4. Other recommendations..................................................................................... 79
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 80
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 81
APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................... 83


ABBREVIATION
ATM

Automatic Teller Machines

BSNEU

National Economics University Business School

Dept.

Department


EFA

Exploratory Factor Analysis

HR

Human resource

HRD

Human Resource Department

Techcombank

Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint stock bank

VND

Vietnam Dong


LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Herzbergs Two-Factor Theory of Motivation................................................... 14
Figure 1.2: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs ........................................................................... 16
Figure 1.3: Proposed model of employee motivation for tellers at BIDV - Transaction
Center 1 ............................................................................................................................... 19
Figure 2.1: Organizational structure of Transaction Center 1 ............................................. 28
Figure 2.2: Gender of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ............................................ 34
Figure 2.3: Maritualstatus of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ................................. 34
Figure 2.4: Age of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ................................................. 35

Figure 2.5: Education of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ........................................ 35
Figure 2.6: Major of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 .............................................. 36
Figure 2.7: Seniority of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ......................................... 36
Figure 2.8: Work itself of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ...................................... 38
Figure 2.9: Salary of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 .............................................. 43
Figure 2.10: Salary for staff at banks in Vietnam ............................................................... 45
Figure 2.11: Working conditions of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ...................... 47
Figure 2.12: Promotion of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ..................................... 51
Figure 2.13: Training and development of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ............ 54
Figure 2.14: Direct supervisionof tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1.......................... 57
Figure 2.15: Overall work motivation of tellers at - BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ............ 61


LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Staff’s qualification at BIDV - Transaction Center 1......................................... 29
Table 2.2: Staff’s gender at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 .................................................. 29
Table 2.3: Staff’s age at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ....................................................... 29
Table 2.4: Staff’s seniority at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ............................................... 29
Table 2.5: Work itsefl of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ....................................... 37
Table 2.6: Salary of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ............................................... 42
Table 2.7: Working conditions of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ......................... 46
Table 2.8: Promotion of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ........................................ 50
Table 2.9: Training and development of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ............... 53
Table 2.10: Direct supervision of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 .......................... 56
Table 2.11: Overall work motivation of tellers at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ................ 60
Table 2.12: Overall assessment of tellers’ motivation at BIDV - Transaction Center 1 ..... 63


INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale

In the market economy, businesses if wishing to survive and develop, in addition to
the infrastructure is fully equipped with modern and advanced ones, need to maximize
human resources because people are the most important factor for business success.
Having a team of loyal and dedicated people for business is thing any leaders want to
achieve.
However, in fact, there is now common phenomenon is that employees often move
another job, they do no longer work with the business. After a period of inadequate sense,
they will find new job. This considerably influences the organizational structure as well as
the company’s direction of business development. There are many reasons leading to this
situation, one of the important reasons is that the company has not satisfactorily fulfilled
the compensation, working conditions ... which cannot stimulate and create motivation to
work for them.
Finance - Banking is a key area in the economy. Therefore, employees in such
industry are passionate, creative, dynamic and always have to adapt to change. Over the
years, Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV)
always strives to maintain its leading position, of which the bank is considerably
contributed by the staffs. Banking sector is one of the particular sectors since the quality of
products and services depends mainly on suppliers and staffs directly serving for
customers.
More than 60 years of establishment and development, up to now, BIDV is one of
the three biggest joint stock banks in Vietnam. BIDV is not only famous for its great
development in technology, successfully rapid growth, a large number of customers, it also
possesses more than 24,000 officials and staffs in more than 180 branches and over 800
transaction offices. Transaction center is one of the Top biggest branches of BIDV. Of
which, position of tellers in BIDV in particular and in banks in Vietnam in general is very
necessary and important. Every day, they have to contact with customers to receive
requests, handle transactions and record all transactions related to cash transactions,
checks, savings, transfer, foreign currency exchange, account opening. ... arising at the
counter. Every teller has the role of a salesman and introduces a cross-service, while also
creating an image, brand and excellent service quality of a bank; thereby helping banks

raise capital and interests. However, nowadays rate employee turnover in teller position in
BIDV in general and in this branch in particular is quite high, approximately 22%. Most of
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tellers must work hard within more than 8 hours per day (usually before 8 a.m until about 7
p.m); meanwhile their income is much lower than other positions in the bank and they
seem not to be given the appropriate promotion and development opportunities. These are
the main reasons of demotivating at work of employees.
For many above reasons, the author decided to choose the topic “Improving
Teller’s motivation in BIDV – Transaction Center 1” with an aim of analyzing the current
situation of BIDV’s tellers at the Transaction Center 1 and then recommending solutions
for improving their motivation at work and reducing intention turnover in teller position.
2. Literature review
Studying about employee motivation in the banks in Vietnam and in the world,
there have been many researches conducted with the aim of helping the bank improve their
employee motivation. We can mention some following researches:
The article “The 1977 quality of employment” supposed, when people spend much
time for work, their understanding about factors influencing on their working motive and
motivation in their work is very important for improvement.
According to Andrew Oswald, in his 2001 book, "Are you happy at work," the
working motivation of people is the degree to which employees enjoy their work and the
attitude based on the perception of the employees (positive or negative) about their job or
working environment. Simply, the better the working environment meets demands, desires,
values and characters of employees, the higher employees get working motive and
motivation.
In 2007, Boeve studied about “Factor creating motivation for teachers in faculty of
assistant doctors in medical schools in the US” on basis of Herzberg theory and job
description indicator of Smith, Keendall & Hulin. He divided motivation factors into two
group such as internal factors: nature of work and opportunities training and promotion and

external factors: salary, support of senior managers and relationship.
In June, 2010, Quang Truong, Beatrice JIM and Chris Rowley showed their
viewpoint and research results on human government in Vietnam in the research
“Globalization, competition and human government in transition economy: The Case of
Vietnam”. According to the article, companies in Vietnam generally only have a General
Administration Office in charge of administration and personnel management. Typically,
this department focuses solely on paperwork or human resource management but not on
major human resources decisions such as planning, recruiting, training and developing and
retaining qualified employees.
2


Bui Thi Minh Hong (2015) studied about “Improving employee motivation in
Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock bank – Thang Long Branch”. The
research focused on clarifying general theoretical framework on employee motivation,
analyzing current employee motivation in Thang Long Branch through studying personnel
documents of the Branch and questionnaires; thereby proposing solutions to improve the
employee motivation for the employees in the whole Branch.
Nguyen Si Hung (2016) studied about “Creating employee motivation in Joint
Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam – Vietcombank Kon Tum”. In this
research, the author clarified basic theoretical framework about working motivation and
theoretical models; analyzing and assessing current working motivation of employees and
recommending possible solutions for enhancing working motivation of employees.
Research by Nguyen Khac Toan (2010) of "Factors influencing the employee
motivation in Asian Commercial Bank, Hue Branch”, there are 5 factors impacting on
employees' motivation such as: Working environment, wages and welfare, nature of work;
excitement in work; and development prospects. Most of the sales staffs are satisfied with
these factors of the Bank. The research results also show some shortcomings in human
resource management that the bank needs to address.
In general, the above researches only mentioned to the motivation for employees or

laborers in the bank and there has been no studies about motivation of teller in bank,
especially in BIDV – Transaction Center 1. Therefore, the author decides to choose this
topic as my research topic as necessity and distinction.
3. Aims of research
For the above research rationale, there are some main objectives the thesis should
cover as follows:
- To clarify the theories of motivation, then propose the most appropriate
motivation model.
- To analyze and find out strengths and weaknesses of tellers’ motivation at BIDV
– Transaction Center 1.
- To propose recommendations for improving motivation for tellers at BIDV –
Transaction Center 1.
4. Objects of research
Research object: Thesis focuses on identifying all factors related to improving
motivation for Teller at BIDV – Transaction Center 1.
Object: 240 tellers in BIDV – Transaction Center 1.
3


5. Scope of research
- Time: Secondary data: was collected from 2016 to 2018
Primary data: 2019
- Location: BIDV – Transaction Center 1, Vincom Tower, No. 191 Ba Trieu Street,
Le Dai Hanh Ward, Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi City.
6. Research methodology
The thesis uses collection methods of secondary data and primary data.
+ For collection methods of secondary data, it will be collected from both internal
and external sources. Of which, external sources consisted of the Internet resources,
newspaper, articles and agency related to employee motivation; meanwhile, internal
sources include annual reports of BIDV (2016, 2017 and 2018) to collect the relevant

information about employee motivation; employee effective survey 2019.
+ For collection methods of primary data, the author uses two methods namely
qualitative and quantitative method. For qualitative method, the author will conduct the
following in-depth interviews with 02 people including Director of Human Resource of
BIDV – Transaction Center 1 and Chief accountant of BIDV – Transaction Center 1. The
contents of the interviews with Director shall focus on getting his viewpoints about the
staff motivation at BIDV – Transaction Center 1 in particular, how the staffs think about
the branch’s motivation and motivation plans for improving working satisfaction for staffs
at BIDV – Transaction Center 1. The contents of the interview with chief account will
concentrate on her opinions about salary policy of the bank for the staffs, especially tellers
at BIDV – Transaction Center 1.
In term of quantitative method, primary shall be collected through structured
questionnaire survey: the survey shall be conducted via structured questionnaires. The
designed questionnaires aim at collecting employee assessment on conditions, work
environment, personal goals and organizational goals when working at teller position at
BIDV – Transaction Center 1.
- Respondents: Tellers who are working at BIDV – Transaction Center 1.
- Sample size: At the Transaction Center 1 has over 240 tellers, and with the
purpose of reaching the objectivity of the survey data, I would like to use random sampling
method and sample size chosen is all 240 people.
- Questionnaire design: the questionnaire covers motivation factors on Herzberg’s
two-factor theory. The author applies the measurement scale of Linkert, 5-point ranking

4


from 1: Strongly disagree, 2: Disagree, 3: Neither agree or disagree, 4: Agree, and 5:
Strongly agree.
Research results are as follows:
1,00-1,80: Strongly disagree

1,81-2,60: Disagree
2,61-3,40: Neither agree or disagree
3,41-4,20: Agree
4,21-5,00: Strongly agree
Qualitative data will be analyzed by using qualitative data analysis techniques such
as critical incident technique, content analysis,... Quantitative surveyed data will be
analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage (%), frequency (f) and mean.
+ Data processing method: The data was pre-processed by using the Microsoft
Excel for Microsoft Professional Windows XP and SPSS package for frequencies,
reliability analysis and correlation analysis. Such SPSS package helped the author illustrate
her study by many useful and effective charts, diagrams and pies.
7. Thesis structure
Besides introduction, conclusion, references and appendix, the research includes
three main parts as follows:
Chapter 1: Theoretical background on employee motivation
Chapter 2: Assessing the situation of teller’s motivation at BIDV – Transaction
Center 1
Chapter 3: Proposal on solution for improving teller’s motivation at BIDV –
Transaction Center 1

5


CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
1.1. Overview of employee motivation
1.1.1. Definition of employee motivation
There are many definitions of motivation defined by many authors and writers in
the world. In English, the word “motivation” is derived from the word “motive” which
refers to demands, expectations, desires, wants or drives of an individual. The motivation
is factors inside that influence action of people. Think of “motive” as the thing that moves

your actions and changes your behaviors.
According to Drummond (1990) “Motivation is in the individual and helps to
explain behavior. Motivation is an intricate inside process with three components: what
drives the individual to behave in certain ways, what steers the behavior, and what
maintains the behavior. To satisfy the employees’ need is very difficult because each
employee has different characteristics that affect behavior. The factors that organizations
have to be concerned with are self-concept, attitudes, values, interests, feelings,
personality, and life experiences. They have to encourage employees through a positive
organizational climate that is motivating”.
Bagraim, Cunningham, Potgieter and Viedge (2007) defined motivation as the
internal force of person that arouses, directs and sustains our behavior. It means motivating
employees is not only a process but also the methods and art. Organizations or managers
make employees understand the goals, personal responsibility and associated personal’s
goals with the organization's goals and then creating intrinsic motivation of employees
towards completion of organizational objectives.
Ebrahimi and Wachtel (1995) supposed motivation is a basic psychological
process. Luthan (1998) reckoned motivation as "a process that starts with a physiological
deficiency or need that activates a behavior or a drive that is aimed at a goal incentive". He
asserted motivation is the process that arouses, energizes, directs, and sustains behaviors
and performance. That is, it is the process of stimulating people to action and to achieve a
desired task. Then one way of stimulating people is to employ effective motivation, which
makes workers more satisfied with and committed to their jobs. Money is not the only
motivator. There are other incentives which can also serve as motivators.
There are some definitions of motivation, in my opinion, brief, the definition of
motivation refers to the internal force of person that arouses, directs and sustains our
behaviors. It helps to explain behaviors, and actioners.

6



The definitions of the authors give us different perspectives on motivation and
how motivation affects human behavior. According to my personal opinion, when
considered in terms of motivation include internal factors, external factors and the factors
affecting the dynamics will help us to have the perspective to evaluate and promote work
motivation. Therefore, within the framework of this article the author used the definition of
Drummond (1990) “Motivation is in the individual and helps to explain behavior.
Motivation is an intricate inside process with three components: what drives the individual
to behave in certain ways, what steers the behavior, and what maintains the behavior. To
satisfy the employees’ need is very difficult because each employee has different
characteristics that affect behavior. The factors that organizations have to be concerned
with are self-concept, attitudes, values, interests, feelings, personality, and life experiences.
They have to encourage employees through a positive organizational climate that is
motivating”.
When individuals are intrinsically motivated, the drive comes from internal desires
or needs. Individuals usually have feelings of personal satisfaction or gratification after
completing a task successfully. Extrinsically driven motivation is determined by monetary
or tangible rewards that one receives for completing a task.

When an individual is

extrinsically motivated, they tend to look at what they will receive for completing a certain
task such as money or anything that is of value to the individual. And improving work
motivation is to lead employees to achieve the goals set for the largest effort.
Nguyen Van Diem and Nguyen Ngoc Quan in “Human Resource Administration”
(2003) defined employee motivation is the aspiration and voluntary of employees towards
achieving organizational goals.
According to the textbook of organizational behavioral of Bui Anh Tuan in
“Textbook of Organizational behavior” (2003), employee motivation is the intrinsic factors
to motivate people to work in conditions that enable productivity and high efficiency.
Expression of motivation is the willingness, efforts and passion to work with an aim of

achieving the organizational goals as well as the employees themselves.
Ho Ba Tham in “Motivation and Creating motivation for society development”
(2004) supposed employee motivation is the desires and willingness of the employees to
increase their efforts towards achieving the organizational goals. Personal motivation is the
result of many resources working simultaneously in human beings, in human living and
working environments.

7


Any emloyees going to work are expected to assert themselves, be successful, and
want to earn high income for their personal lives. When people are in different positions
with different psychological characteristics, they will be different desires. Managers need
to have different effects on each employee. Strong motivation will stimulatepeople to act
positively and effectively and vice versa.
Motivation is a system of measures, policies and organizational behaviors affecting
workers to make themmore satisfied with their works and to strive to achieve the personal
and organizational goals. Thus, employee motivation is understood as encouraging and
motivating activities that affect the employees’ needs to create a change in their behaviors
towards the organization’s hopes and goals. Creating motivation helps to motivate in every
business. Managers in the organizations who want to grow their businesses must use
appropriate policies, measures, and management tools that affect employees in order to
help them work with enthusiasm, create creativeness in the work process to contribute to
the organization. The important issue of employee motivation is to understand the
employees’ needs and then recommend solutions to stimulate, create motivation for
employees to work enthusiastically in the workplace.
1.1.2. Nature of employee motivation
Employee motivation is always associated with a job, an organization, a specific
working environment and a specific individual. This means that there is no general
motivation, as with each individual being different, with each job they perform differently,

with different working conditions and different attitudes that workers themselves will be
different work efforts.
Employee motivation is not inherent in every human being and it is constantly
changing. At this point, employee motivation is high, but at times labor force is low or it
does not necessarily exist in the workers themselves. In different conditions and
circumstances, employee motivation will be promoted differently. Thanks to this feature
managers can intervene and impact on employees so that they can promote employees'
work efforts.
Employee motivation is voluntary. Each employee will personally feel the effort to
work depending on the time they feel comfortable and interested. Human nature is to like
to be proactive in everything, not passive. Of course, in an organization the initiative of the
individual must be within the framework. And the manager must know this feature in order
to promote the best labor motivation and it must have the art to enhance the voluntariness
of workers.
8


Employee motivation is an important factor leading to an increase in individual
labor productivity and effective production in the context of other factors unchanged.
Employee motivation is like an invisible force from within that motivates them to work
harder, strive harder, work tirelessly. However it is important to understand that motivation
is a factor, not a source, that leads to an increase in individual labor productivity and
business productivity because this depends a lot on the qualifications, skills of workers,
and facilities, equipment and machinery ....
Even though employees are not motivated, they can still complete their assigned
jobs, and they can still meet the requirements of the managers, because they are still
responsible for the work, qualified and skilled. They work according to inertia and ability.
At that time, the results of that work did not reflect their best. When working motivated,
not only do the jobs get done, they also do a lot better. It is possible to get the job done
sooner, be able to make better products, do more, their ability is revealed, and this

capability will be an important factor for organizational development, giving organizations
competitive advantage in the current economy.
In short, the nature of workers is what motivates people to take action to achieve
certain goals. Human goals are one that is consciously reflected by workers' motivations
and their actions.
1.1.3. Factors impacting employee motivation
Motivation of employees does not naturally appear but is a combination of
resources on the part of the employee, the living and working environment of the
employee. Thus, the motivated behavior of employees in an organization is influenced by
many factors and can be divided into the following three groups:
a. Factors belong to the employee itself
Personal needs system: Human behavior is a purposeful act to satisfy certain needs
of yourself. Every individual participating in an organization wants to satisfy his or her
own needs. These needs constitute a system of personal needs, including physical and
spiritual needs such as high income, opportunities for advancement, and work in
accordance with competence and forte. If working at the organization, their needs are
satisfied, they will create a motivating force to motivate them to work hard,
wholeheartedly with the work, long-term commitment to the organization, but vice versa.
If demand is not satisfied they will not be motivated to strive to work, labor efficiency is
not high and tend to leave the organization to find another workplace where their needs are

9


met. Therefore, firstly, the manager must know the wishes of the employee in order to take
measures to satisfy their needs in order to create labor motivation.
Personal goals: Personal goals are the goals of each individual. It dictates what each
individual has to do and how to achieve it, and it also creates motivation to motivate
individuals to try hard to pursue their goals. In addition to personal goals, workers must
also be responsible to work to achieve the organization's overall goals. In fact, sometimes

the personal goals and the goals of the organization are in conflict, so without compromise,
the goals of both parties cannot be achieved. Therefore, the problem for managers is to
know the goals of the individual according to the expectations of the organization, make
employees understand and see when that the organization's goals are fulfilled is also to
achieve the goals of an individual in order to motivate an individual for the organization.
Ability and work experience: Many studies have shown that the higher the ability
and experience of employees at work, the more confident employees feel at work and they
will desire to demonstrate the competencies of employees through the results of work. In
these people, the need to be respected and highly appreciated by their superiors. Autonomy
in the work occupies a quite important position in creating labor motivation. Therefore, the
manager needs to arrange the jobs in accordance with the forte ability and experience of
workers to create conditions for employees to promote their advantages.
Individual characteristics of employees: some features such as gender, age,
psychology, personality, religion ... all affect the working behavior of workers. Each
employee is an individual with different personal characteristics so effective use of the
organization's human resources requires managers to care, capture and understand these
factors from which to build appropriate management policies to promote the strengths of
each individual and create labor motivation.
Living standard of employees: Any employee joining to work for an organization
firstly desires to have a high salary. However, depending on the economic status of each
individual, the "high salary" factor is evaluated in different importance levels. For the
workers with low income, difficult economic situation, they always consider salary as the
top goal while for those who have good economic status, wealth, salary is not the top work
goal, but instead there are other needs such as interesting jobs, career development
opportunities ... At present, Vietnam's per capita income is still low. So going to work to
get a high salary to meet daily physiological needs is still considered a top priority for most
workers.
b. Factors belongs to the company
10



Position and role of industries in society: The employees working in the fields that
society cares about and appreciates will feel proud, love their work, strive in task. In
contrast, for jobs in areas that society is less interested in and do not appreciate, workers
may be dissatisfied with the job, easy to develop an inferiority mentality towards the job
undertaken, reduce work motivation. Therefore, in order to motivate employees, managers
need to take measures to create an interest in the work for employees, affecting the
psychology of employees so they really respect and are proud of their work and at the same
time propose measures to enhance our position and image, to change society's perception
of the profession.
Technological characteristics: The technology level has a significant impact on the
working motivation of workers. Modern and advanced technology and techniques impose
that employees' qualifications must be improved to meet the requirements of the jobs. This
motivates employees to strive to study, research and improve their skills so that they can
survive and develop or they will be eliminated. Therefore, on the business side, it is also
necessary to pay attention to the training to improve the qualifications of employees, orient
the employees with the knowledge and skills that need to be trained in accordance with
public technical specifications of the enterprise.
Working conditions: Working conditions including factors such as machinery,
equipment, organization and workplace layout, environmental sanitation factors (dust,
noise, etc.), labor cooperation have a great impact on the ability to work, health, work
attitudes and work efficiency. If workers are able to work in good working conditions such
as: fully equipped with machinery and equipment, properly arranged workplaces, modern
production methods that bring high labor productivity, reduce lightening the hard work,
ensure occupational safety and protect the health of workers, make the atmosphere
comfortable, trusting ... All will make workers feel peace of mind to work, have conditions
to promote creativity in work to bring high productivity and vice versa. Therefore,
managers must constantly pay attention to creating favorable conditions for employees to
motivate them to work hard.
Management style of leaders: In an organization, the leader is the person who

directly manages and directs the employees so the leadership's working style has a great
influence on psychology and results of subordinates. Currently, leadership styles can be
divided into three categories. An authoritarian autocratic style of leadership is the manager
himeself makes decision and forces employees to comply without questions. This style
often creates stressful psychological work for the employee. They work as a the machine,
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without the motivation to work. However, it is effective in situations that require quick and
assertive decisions. A democratic leadership style is a leader who is interested in attracting
employees into the decision-making process, consulting with employees to make the final
decision, establishing a spirit of cooperation but sometimes will have difficulty as well as
delay in making decisions if the leader is not assertive. Liberal leadership style means that
the leader increases autonomy for subordinates by allowing subordinates to make
decisions, reducing intermediary management costs, but if the subordinates are not capable
and committed with the organization, it will bring damage to the organization.
Each leadership style has its own advantages and disadvantages, so the leader needs
to identify himself a suitable leadership style to motivate employees at work to achieve the
organization's goals.
Corporate culture: Corporate culture is created from the overall goals, management
policies, human relationships, working atmosphere, working style, material and mental
symbols such as post singing, costumes, etiquette and etc., which creates a corporate
identity, values, beliefs, lifestyles and modes of action as well as behavior attitude of
workers. Enterprises with strong business culture will help members of the company to
stick together, understand each other better, create a spirit of self-discipline, friendly
colleagues to work together to achieve the general goals of the organization.
Human resource management policies: including aspects from recruiting, staffing,
evaluating work performance, training and developing human resources, labor
remuneration, hygiene and labor safety. Such factors have great influences on lemployee
motivation. Proper personnel management policies not only help managers effectively run

the business to achieve the organization's goals, but also ensure the rights and expectations
of the laborer, thereby affecting the working motivation of workers. If the employee is
working in a safe, high-paying environment with the performance of the job, many
opportunities to advance and study, treated fairly, facilitated to promote his/her ability forte
... they will stick with the company, trying their best to contribute to the company. On the
contrary, if the personnel management policies are unreasonable or not well implemented
without amendments, in the long term, the employees may feel dissatisfied, reduce their
motivation and even leave the business to find better places to work. Therefore, in order to
motivate employees, it is necessary to set up scientific, clear, fair and flexible personnel
management policies.
Organizational Structure: The organizational structure is a system of tasks,
relationships, reports and power to maintain the operation of the organization.
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Organizational structure has a decisive role to the entire operation of the organization.
Reasonable, compact organizational structure, few clues, clear, flexibe, non-overlapping
and consistent powers and responsibilities of each department as well as each member help
to implement tasks quickly and effectively, and at the same time making employees aware
of their position in the organization and from there, they will be proactive and committed
to their work. On the contrary, if the organizational structure is unreasonable, many clues
and manyoverlapping departmentss, it will lead to stagnation and inefficiency.
Factor belongs to the work that workers undertake.
The work that employees perform: Employees are interested, motivated to work
when they are arranged to do jobs suitable for their forte, have the opportunity to use
knowledge and skills into work, are autonomous in the job and receive feedback on work
results, enjoy the right benefits when successfully completing the assigned work. However,
along with long working hours, the repetitive task will appear boredom leading to reducing
and eliminating employee motivation. Therefore, in order for the job to keep employees
interested, managers need to pay attention to the analysis and design of the work so that the

tasks must be specifically designed, challenging, responsibilities must be clearly defined,
jobs are assigned in accordance with the capacity and forte of employees so that they can
maximize their capabilities.
External environmental factors.
Government law: especially labor law is the legal basis to ensure the rights and
obligations of parties in labor relations. The more strict the law and the more effective it is,
the more peace of mind that employees will work because their rights are protected by the
law, they are not afraid of being exploited and unreasonably forced by their employers;
thereby motivates them to work. To do this, the government and interdisciplinary agencies
must constantly study and improve the legal system more and more effectively.
Social welfare system: The social welfare system has a role to ensure and support a
part of life for workers after retirement or due to labor accidents, occupational diseases,
maternity ... As the social welfare system is growing, workers' lives are increasingly
guaranteed. When employees are fully covered by social insurance, they will feel more
secure in their post-retirement life, so they will pay more attention to their work, work in
the motivated and effective manner.
Cultural values and national traditions: In European countries like the United
Kingdom and the United States, individualism is promoted, individuals first care about
their own interests and then their relatives. They value their own efforts, want to assert
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themselves by their own capacity, so the cohesion and collectivism in labor are not high.
Meanwhile, in the East, people tend to uphold the collective spirit, desire for cooperation,
solidarity, support, and mutual protection. This difference affects the morale and working
attitude of workers. Therefore, when developing human resource management policies, it
is necessary to pay attention to cultural values and national traditions.
1.2. Theories on employee motivation
1.2.1. Herzbergs’s theory
F. Herzberg introduced two-factor theory of job satisfaction and motivation. He

divided the elements of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction into two groups:
- Group 1: includes the key elements of motivation and job satisfaction such as
achievement, recognition of achievement, work itself (intrinsic nature of the job),
responsibility and promotion. These are the factors of work and workers. When these
needs are met, it creates motivation and job satisfaction.

Figure 1.1: Herzbergs Two-Factor Theory of Motivation
Source: Motivation to Work, Herzberg 1959
- Group 2: consists of elements of the organizational environment such as
company policy/ administration, direct supervision, income, interpersonal relations and
working conditions. According to Herzberg, if these factors are positive, they will help

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prevent job dissatisfaction. However, if only their presence, they are insufficient to create
motivation and job satisfaction.
According to Herzberg, the factors that lead to job satisfaction are separate and
unrelated to the factors that create dissatisfaction in the job. Therefore, managers seeking
to eliminate the elements that create dissatisfaction can bring stability but are unlikely to
give motivation to work. Hence, characteristics such as company policy and mechanism,
supervision, interpesonal relations, working conditions and salary are attributed to the
characteristics of the conditions. When guaranteed, people will not be dissatisfied and they
will not be satisfied. In his opinion, if we want to motivate them, we should emphasize on
achievement, work itself, responsibility and promotion.
He also said that the hygiene factors need to be first and then the motivators will
be contributive. The uniqueness of his theory lies in the fact that he distinguishes factors
that lead to satisfaction and the factors that lose satisfaction. Managers need to encourage
people through motivators. Hygiene factors need to be reached to some extent first to
ensure that motivation is not diminished, but then to focus on motivators. According to

him, many managers have tried to use motivators to encourage, which is wrong and
ineffective.
Herzberg’s theory has both advantages and disadvantages as follows:
- Advantages: the theory is demonstrated through considerable empirical data.
Moreover, the theory is also included in other research which is assistant for the original
hypothesis. The theory provides practical solutions for corporations as well as
organizations. In addition, this theory is applied at every level of an organization and
section.
- Disadvantages: Research methodology is criticized. Moreover, the theory does
not consider individual personalities relating to motivator factors or hygiene factors. The
theory does not provide a motivational value for each motivator. The research which was
conducted by Herzberg only focused much on satisfaction and ignored productivity. The
reliability of theory is uncertain.
Many authors have applied Herzberg’s theory to analyze the current situation
about satisfaction and motivation. According to Business case studies, it showed the
subject about “Motivational theory in practice at Tesco: A Tesco case study”. The study
applied Herzberg’s theory to analyze the employee motivation. Through applying the
theory, Tesco indicated that Tesco staff can even be affected by restaurant menus.

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Employees thus become motivated in making choices that will increase their use of the
restaurants.
1.2.2. Maslow's theory
Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is one of the most widely used models
when studying about personal motivation. He argues that in every individual, there always
exists a complex system of five need groups, from low to high. Of which:
- Physiological needs: are at the lowest position in the system. These are the needs
that people are always trying to satisfy first, like air to breathe, sleep, and drinking. These

needs are basic and people are always thinking first.
- Safety needs: After satisfying the mentioned above physiological needs, this
need will appear. At this level of demand, people will respond to signs of danger that
threaten themselves, and workers do not like to work in dangerous conditions that prefer to
work in the safer conditions.

Figure 1.2: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Source: Abraham Maslow, 1943
- Love/ belonging needs or social needs: When meeting these two needs, social or
emotional needs will become important. It is the needs to be loved, to have a friendship
and to be part of a community.
- Esteemed needs: include the needs or desires to obtain the high value of
automation or stimulation and respect of others. Maslow has divided into two categories:
the categories of desires for power, achievement and faith for all, for independence and
freedom.

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