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i STATUS OF KNOWLEDGE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT IN PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL COMPANIES IN VIETNAM: BASIS FOR ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School Southern Luzon State University, Lucban, Quezon, Philippines in Collaboration with Thai Nguyen University, Socialist Republic of Vietnam In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Management MS. LE THU HANG (MOON) April, 2014 ii APPROVAL SHEET In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor in Education Management, this research study entitled “Status of knowledge enabling environment in private educational companies in Vietnam: basis for enhancement program of knowledge management” has been submitted by Ms. LE THU HANG (MOON), and is hereby recommended for oral examination. GASCON Research Adviser Approved by the Oral Examination Committee, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor in Education Management offered by Southern Luzon State University, Republic of the Philippines in collaboration with Thai Nguyen University, Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

DELA CRUZ Member Member DR. MUELLO Member Member DR. NORDELINA ILANO Member DR. GASCON Chairman iii Accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor in Education Management offered by Southern Luzon State University, Republic of the Philippines in collaboration with Thai Nguyen University, Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

DELA CRUZ DR. MACARAAN Dean, Graduate School Vice President for Academic Affairs Date___________________. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I am most grateful to my adviser, Prof. Gascon, for her valuable academic and moral support, which I shall never forget, during the doctoral program in education management of Southern Luzon State University of the Philippines.

I highly appreciate very helpful suggestions made by Prof. Dang Quoc Bao about the research at an early stage in its development. I wish to record my particular thanks to Dr. Dela Cruz, Dr.

Espinosa and Dr. Muello, Southern Luzon State University, for their constructive and useful advice to improve the dissertation. While collecting data for this research, I was lucky enough to receive support from a number of colleagues and friends of EduTrust and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. At the EduTrust, thanks are due to colleagues of the office of the Chairman.

Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, special thanks go to Le Thuy, Project Director. In addition, I am indebted to leaders and staff of Thai Nguyen University, of ITC for their enthusiastic supports during the program as well as to Dr. Judith Narrow and Dr. Bertil Olsson, Dalarna University, Sweden, for their moral support at the most difficult moments.

Also, I would like to express my gratitude to all interviewees and group discussants who took the time to share their lives and thinking with me and thus enriched my understanding of the problems to which this dissertation addresses itself. Last but not least, I dedicate this work to my family members, with thanks for all they have done for me over the years. Le Thu Hang (Moon) v TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE. ii-iii ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. v-vi LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF FIGURES. viii LIST OF APPENDICES.

INTRODUCTIOIN Background of the Study. 1 Statement of the Problem. 4 Significance of the Study. 4 Research scope, paradigm and limitations.

4 Definition of Terms. REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Review of Literature. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Locale of the Study. 39 Population and Sampling.

41 Research Instrumentation and Data Gathering. ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA Chapter 5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Summary of findings. 143 vii LIST OF TABLE Table No.

Page Table 1 Summary of the aspects within human resources and its 23 management Table 2 Summary of the aspects within the communication activities of 29 the company Table 3 Summary of the aspects within the information technology 31 infrastructure Table 4 Summary of the aspects of the learning arenas 33-34 Table 5 Summary of the aspects of the use of knowledge 37 Table 6 Number of employees per company and contract arrangements 51 Table 7 Knowledge enabling constructs scales binary recoded through the 63 median split method by company Table 8 Bivariate Pearson correlation between construct scales and 66 effective measurements Table 9 Bivariate Pearson correlations of the knowledge creating 69 indicators Table 10 Knowledge creation indicators binary recoded through the median 70 split method by company and sector Table 11 Bivariate Pearson correlation between knowledge enabling 71 constructs and knowledge creation indicators Table 12 Pearson correlation among knowledge creation and effectiveness 73 indicators viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure No. Page Figure 1 Research paradigm 5 Figure 2 Knowledge management and lifelong learning 13 Figure 3 Knowledge management activities 20 Figure 4 Conceptual framework for knowledge management in SMEs 22 ix LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix Page Appendix A Communication letters 90 Appendix B Interview, questionnaire and document data 92 Appendix C Descriptive Statistics 108 Table 1 Number of employees per company and contract arrangements Table 2 Number of employees per company and type of professional role (professional, supports or leaders) Table 3 Number of employees per company and contract arrangements Table 4 Number of respondents by educational attainment as a percentage of all respondents Table 5 Number of tiers and work organization Table 6 Recruitment and selection aspects Table 6a Frequency of the methods for advertising available positions Table 6b Frequency of the method of selecting employees Table 6c Frequency of the different selection criteria Table 7 Aspects related with new recruitments Table 7a Policy for new employees Table 7b Having a mentor Table 7c Policy for newly employed Table 8 Aspects within employee turnover Table 9 Criteria to determine salaries Table 10 Companies salary level x Table 11 Bonus system Table 12 Aspects within the communication activities Table 12a Number of companies by frequency of the general information meetings by sector Table 12b Number of companies by scheduled meetings of professional workers and sectors Table 12c Companies with newsletter by sector Table 12d Number of companies by person in the gatekeeper position and sector Table 13 Number of hour formal and informal meetings (cells refers to percentage of respondents) Table 14 Respondent’s perceived usefulness of formal and informal meetings Table 15 Distribution of information (cells refer to percentage of respondents) Table 16 Information technology infrastructure Additional tables Table 1 Workforce stability indicators Table 2 Bivariate Pearson correlations of the binary recoded indicators of the stability construct in the selected companies (above 0.4) Table 3 Workforce experience indicators Table 4 Professionalism indicators Table 5 Bivariate Pearson correlation of the binary recoded indicators of the professionalism construct in the selected companies (above 0.3) Table 6 Recruitment policy indicators Table 7 Company monetary reward system indicators Table 8 Bivariate Pearson correlation of the binary recoded indicators of the monetary reward aspect construct in the selected companies (above 0.4) xi Table 9 Communication patterns indicators by company Table 10 Information technology infrastructure indicators by company Table 11 Bivariate Pearson correlation of the binary recoded indicators of the information technology investment binary indicators (above 0.40) Table 12 ANOVA of course length by sector (consultancy and education) Table 13 ANOVA of course training cost by sector (consultancy and education) Table 14 Number of training events and yearly estimated training time by purpose of training and company Table 14a (Cont’d): Number of training events and yearly estimated training time by purpose of training and company Table 15 Average scores and standard deviations of the informal learning items by company Table 15a (Cont’d): Average scores and standard deviations of the informal learning items by company Table 16 Total variance explained by the factor analysis of the knowledge creation indicators Table 17 Rotated component matrix from the factor analysis of the knowledge creation Table 18 Bivariate Pearson correlation between knowledge enabling construct and knowledge-creation indicators in each service Table 18a (Cont’d) Bivariate Pearson correlation between knowledge enabling construct and knowledge creation indicators in each service xii Title: STATUS OF KNOWLEDGE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT IN PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL COMPANIES IN VIETNAM: BASIS FOR ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Researcher: Ms. LE THU HANG, MA. Degree Doctor of Philosophy, Education Management Name/ Address of the Southern Luzon State University Institution Graduate School Lucban, Quezon Date Completed April 2014 Adviser Dr.

Gascon xiii ABSTRACT The dissertation is an exploration of the ways Vietnamese knowledge intensive companies manage their knowledge. By doing analysis in private educational Vietnamese companies providing educational and consultancy services, the study explores the relationship between the “knowledge enabling environment” and the demand for training. These companies have participated in the program for developing employee competence, financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB). As results of the program these companies have evaluated their business activities and determined their training needs in order to remain competitive.

In this study knowledge is understood not only the structure but also the content of mental schemas, which embodies in individuals and can be tacit or explicit. It really differs from information and data and it is through the dialectic process that people learn. Looking at organizational processes for managing knowledge, it is important to consider formal organized activities for learning as well as informal learning activities which constitute so called “knowledge enabling environment”. It is argued here that through the knowledge management, companies are indeed implementing strategies for the promotion of lifelong learning, which has recently been used in policy arenas as a guiding principle for educational policies and reforms.

As results of the study, the different aspects of the equally heterogenous “knowledge enabling environment” do not present strong relationships in both education and consultancy companies. Each company in those fields is rather unique in organization and promotion of knowledge intensiveness in their ordinary business activities. The companies mainly provide training with the company profile. It is interesting to find out that employees demand for training if their engagement in informal learning is low.

Background of the Study According to the World Bank the competitiveness index of human resources in Vietnam reached 3.39/10 point and competitiveness of Vietnam economy reached 73/133 among participated countries. Furthermore the recent social survey showed that the capital scale of enterprises is rather small. Nearly 50% of businesses have their capital less than 1 billion VND. While nearly 75% of enterprises with capital of less than 2 billion VND, 90% of enterprises have their capital of less than 5 billion VND.

Due to the small capital scale, enterprises of Vietnam seem to be less competitive. The innovation and technology of enterprises are critical. Concerning human resources in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the number of PhDs accounted for only 0.66% while masters composed of 2.33%; labor graduated from universities and colleges as 41.38% while graduators of vocational schools as 12. It is noteworthy that a part of business owners who got their education from colleges and universities are not equipped with knowledge of economy, business administration and human resource management.

This has a great influence on the development of strategic planning, direction and management of business enterprises. Regarding technology, only about 8% of enterprises reached advanced level of technology. Most of them are FDI enterprises. Domestic enterprises are using less competitive technology.

In addition, the indicator on ICT use also showed that though businesses (more than 60%) use computers but only 11.55% use internal network – LAN and 2.16% with own websites. It is really critical for ability of enterprises to participate in electronic commerce and communication network as expected and desired by the government. It showed that technical issues, technology and innovation have not been highly considered by enterprises, which is one of determining factors of business success in the market. To serve the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country and to foster significant participation in globalization, important legal documents have been issued, especially the economic and social development strategy of 2011-2020 including the Resolution on Vietnam Workforce Development to the year 2020 adopted at the 11th Party Congress (April of 2011).