Phuong Dong Clothes Printing Firm

Abstract

Motivating employees is specially considered a vital point in human resource

management. In a dynamic business world, employee motivation has exerted great
influence on productivity of the business. With the aim to inspect how managers motivate
their workers , our project’s team have interviewed the head of Phuong Dong clothes
printing firm and paid a visit to the real workplace, talking with a number of employees.
Based on the data obtained from that research, we could identify the business’s strength,
weakness, opportunity and threat in term of motivating employees.

Introduction

“Our people are our most important asset”. (…) That saying has been proved to be true in
the case of every business. In order to utilize, however, such a resource manager should
master the art of motivating employees. And that’s extremely important and challenging
activities manager is supposed to do. Our project team would like to put interest in this
area. In this report, we look at a proprietorship which specializes in printing clothing
products. The most impressive point that we decide to choose this the bbbb.

Established in 2002, Phuong Dong is a single, small business with a total number of 30
employees. The business is located in Thanh Tri, a suburban district of Hanoi capital.
Although Phuong Dong is quite modest in size, it has a strong culture and a team of hard
– working, honest and loyal workers. All the employees are from the same hometown.
The main customers of the company are garment manufacturers are respected with a
slogan “customers are always right”. Keeping this in mind that determination, the
manager has developed the business so quickly into domestic market with focus on the
young.

Strength

Company Visit Report – 2009 1

 Phuong Dong Clothes Printing Firm

As mentioned initially the business owns hard working employees. Although the work
time is not so moderately arranged, workers are eager to complete the tasks given. High
spirit of working and responsibility might be necessary characteristics for employees to
be motivated themselves. Besides, every worker tends not to be attracted by another
business nearby. This fact proves that employees have loyally accompanied the firm for a
long time.

Another considerable advantage of the business must be free accommodation which

freely offered to all employees. It is undoubtedly convenient for all workers whose homes
are too far from the workplace. They won’t be worried about huge rent expense any more
and therefore be more encouraged to devote for the business.

Especially, business manager is a clever boss indeed. He thoroughly understand the

relationship between salary paid and bonus or rewards. Mr. Dong thinks that a higher
reward is more expected than a salary. That is, when comparing two salaries paid by two
companies, Mr. Dong realizes that an employee prefers a larger bonus to a higher salary.
This can be the reason why people wish a regard of being awarded, not paid for their
effort. Such a strategy has greatly motivated almost all of his employees.

Opportunity

In the future, there will be lots of chances for the firm to recruit its employees because of
his close relationship with his employees. Recall that all of his workers are from the same
hometown which is also of the boss. Mr. Dong finds it quite easy to welcome all the
individuals he is fully aware of. Once he anticipates his employees’ personal traits, he can
manage and motivate them far better.

In addition, the work characteristic requires higher and higher specification skills of
employees. The manager has decided to offer a number of his workers an overseas
training course to enhance their professional. Such a good chance could bring about
motivation for those workers to do better for both themselves and for the firm as a whole.

Company Visit Report – 2009 2

 Phuong Dong Clothes Printing Firm

Trang nhung

I.HOW THE FIRM MOTIVATES EMPLOYEES:

Those above are just some certain aspects of motivating employees in theory,
however, in practice there are still many other unexpected issues. This part demonstrates
the results of the company visit we have carried out to investigate whether the firm has
actually motivated its workers well or not.
In view of working conditions, it can be said that the firm has a relatively good
infrastructure with a two-floor building and modern machinery imported from China.
However, during printing process, employees unavoidably contact with so many
poisonous chemicals which have considerably negative influences on their own health.
Furthermore, it can not be denied that the working place, to some extent, is actually
dangerous to the workers. There is not any air conditioner or any fire extinguisher to
support people in emergent situations. The employees are also not given (wan ao bao ho
lao dong) to protect themselves when working. Besides, unlike other companies, the
working time here is not certainly set. When there are many orders, both the manager and
the employees ought to work through nights to reach the deadline. Conversely, they have
some days off when they don’t find any new contract. As a result, they sometimes feel
bored and lose interest in the job, some workers said.
Secondly, as we know, salary is one of the most important reasons why labors go to
work .And many managers have take advantage of this to motivate their employees, so
does the boss of Phuong Dong printing firm. Here the salary is fully paid every month
and based on employees’ skills. Each can get about one million five hundred VND per
month, not including any extra bonus or rewards. Especially, it is the rule that anyone
who contributes to the firm for a long time is paid more and able
to gain many (uu tien) such as promotion. The payment is regularly made at the end of
the month, regardless of at that time the business runs well or not. In addition, in the

Company Visit Report – 2009 3

 Phuong Dong Clothes Printing Firm

interview, we found that Mr.Thang, the manager of the firm do actually care about bonus
very much. He said:
‘ I know anyone likes the feeling of being rewarded, so I usually give them bonus, or
even some small gifts when they do a good job. Maybe
the salary in my firm is in fact lower than in others, but I see doing like that is really a
very effective way to keep the employees.’

Ngoc

This part of the report will introduce you some theories of employee motivation. These
are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which is an early theory and the reinforcement theory,
which is a current one. The first thing I want to say is that there are scores of theories
studying about employee motivation, which is a must-have part in all managing jobs.
Among the early theories of motivation, besides Maslow’s theory, there are two other
theories which are McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, and Henzberg’s two-factor
theory. Reinforcement theory is just one of six contemporary theories of motivation
which have been studied and developed. They are: Three-needs theory, goal-setting
theory, reinforcement theory, designing motivating jobs, equity theory and expectancy
theory. To have a panorama about this issue, people have to study all these theories
thoroughly. However, in practice, just one or two theories are applied. The reason is
simple. Theory must cover all respects of the studied issue; therefore it tends to be
general. In real life, generally a manager only has to deal with some certain aspects. This
is the reason why we choose the above two theories which seem to be fit into our studied
business.

Managers always need to know how to motivate their employees. To do that the
managers have to know exactly what motivates them. Maslow’s theory and reinforcement
theory indicate the sources of motivation which are needs and external forces
respectively.

Company Visit Report – 2009 4

 Phuong Dong Clothes Printing Firm

1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Maslow, a psychologist, assumed that human always has needs. When these needs are
satisfied, human is motivated. The theorist supposed that within every person is a
hierarchy of five needs:

1. Physiological needs: Food, water, shelter, sex, and other physical

requirements.
2. Safety needs: security and protection from physical and emotional harm, as
well as assurance that physical needs will continue to be met.
3. Social needs: Affection, belongingness, acceptance, and friendship.
4. Esteem needs: Internal esteem factors such as self-respect, autonomy, and
achievement and external esteem factors such as status, recognition, and
attention.
5. Self-actualization needs: Growth, achieving one’s potential, and self-
fulfillment; the drive to become what one is capable of becoming.

Company Visit Report – 2009 5

 Phuong Dong Clothes Printing Firm

Maslow concluded that managers should satisfy employees’ needs in an order from one
level to the next one. Besides, the theory suggested that a substantially satisfied need no
longer motivates an individual. In other words, if you want to motivate someone, you
need to understand what need level that person is on in the hierarchy and focus on
satisfying needs at or above that level.

In addition, these five needs were ranked in two levels. Physiological and safety needs
were considered lower-order needs; social, esteem, and self-actualization were
considered higher-order needs. The difference was that higher-order needs are satisfied
internally while lower-order needs are predominantly satisfied externally.

Maslow’s theory was widely recognized during the 60s and 70s; however, it was only a
part of the larger picture.

2. Reinforcement theory
According to Maslow’s theory, the source of motivation is needs within people, which
are internal. Reinforcement theory introduces another view. The theory argues that
behavior is externally caused. What controls behavior are reinforcers.
Different from other theories, reinforcement theory ignores factors such as needs, goals,
and expectations. Instead, it focuses solely on what happens to a person when he ore she
does something. The theory can be explained as follows: People are most likely to engage
in desired behaviors if they are rewarded for doing so.
Therefore, what we can withdraw from the theory is that employees should be
encouraged frequently by managers when they perform well. Recognition or bonus can
be good ideas for managers who want to motivate their employees.

Company Visit Report – 2009 6

 Phuong Dong Clothes Printing Firm

RECOMMENDATION

We have already analyzed SWOT of Phuong Dong Company in the aspect of motivating
employees. There are certain points that the company is doing well; however, there are
still some points that the manager should improve.
As we know, the living conditions for the employees are not very good, but they are
acceptable. For the company has other concerns, living conditions can be set aside. The
labor safety is a weakness of the company. Fire accidents will happen sooner or later as
well as the employees’ health will be affected by working in a chemical environment
without safety equipment. According to Maslow’s theory, one certain thing is that the
employees will be much motivated when the company is able to guarantee labor safety
for them. We think this should be the number one concern of Phuong Dong company at
the moment. The workers must be equipped fully with masks, gloves, clothing and other
labor safety devices. Besides, in the future, the company should invest in a sewage
system. Although this is difficult for small and middle businesses, it should be set top
priority when the company enlarges its business scale.
Another hindrance of PD company is the amount of job. This has great impact on the
working time frame of the employees. Sometimes, the workers have to work extra time.
In other cases, the workers have nothing to do. Not only extra working shifts but also
frequent working interruption can cause dissatisfaction at employees, which can lead to
some negative effects such as absenteeism and turnover. To overcome the problem, the
manager has no way other than adjusting the amount of work and working time. The
manager can depend on the nature of the work and figure out when is busy and when is
not. From that point, the manager can adjust the working schedule most appropriately.

Company Visit Report – 2009 7

 Phuong Dong Clothes Printing Firm

However, the best strategy for the company is to expand its development. When the
company has a large, fixed amount of customers, the problem of working time will
certainly be solved.
According to the information we have learned from the manager of Phuong Dong
company, the relationships among the employees are good. However, he also admitted
that conflicts between senior workers and junior ones are unavoidable. Although this
problem is not as serious as the two problems above, it can still reduce the performance
of the company as a whole and cause some bad effects which are less visible. To solve
this problem, the conflicts must be neutralized. It seems difficult; in fact, it can easily
solved by the manager. The manager at first must be a fair person who is in favor of no
one. The conflicts should be made clear. And most important, if they are small problems
which are just misunderstanding among employees, there is no need to make them
seriously. The problems can be solved personally, without any threatening or punishment.

Some pieces of advice are suggested sincerely to the company and we hope that those
suggestions can help much not only for motivating employees but also for the company’s
development in the future.

CONCLUSION

Our report has covered a small part of employee motivation respect, which is always
important for managing jobs. We have introduced you to Phuong Dong company, which
works in the textile-printing field. We have also pointed out the strength, weakness,
opportunities, and theats of the company as well as tried to justify them by the Maslow’s
theory and reinforcement theory. We have also suggested some advice with hopes that
the company will apply it in the not too distant future, which leads to the improved
performance in general.

Company Visit Report – 2009 8

 Phuong Dong Clothes Printing Firm

Bui nhung

Company Visit Report – 2009 9