Contents:

1/ Introduction 2/ Analysis of management functions within the business 2.2/ Overview of organizational structure 2.2/ Overview of four functions of construction management 3/ Analysis of the human resource management (HRM) within the business 3.1/ Attracting a high quality workforce 3.2/ Developing a high quality workforce 3.3/ Maintaining a high quality workforce 4/ Analysis of the businesss leadership 5/ Recommendations and conclusion 5.1/ Strategic recommendations on the businesss management and leadership 5.2/ Conclusion

1/ Introduction:
Cotec Construction Joint Stock Company, also called COTECCONS Company, was established in 2004. One year later, it was granted ISO 9001:2000 certificate by the Quality Management System- Australia (Coteccons website). Recently, on 19/6/2012, the corporation ranked the top 50 performing companies in the Vietnamese stock market (Nhip Cau Dau Tu Magazine). Within 8 years, it has impressively transformed from a fledgling company into a leading one in the construction field. What plays important roles in the success of COTECCONS Company are the effective management of high-qualified board managers and the leadership styles of the Chairman General Director. This report will present an analysis of the management functions in COTECCONS Company, including human resource management (HRM), followed by an overview of leadership role of the Chairman General Director- Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong. A conclusion will then be presented together with recommendations for further improvement of the company.

2/ Analysis of four functions of management within the business

2.1/ overview of organizational structure According to the structure follows strategy thesis (Alfred Chandler, 1966), the organizational structure must be developed to facilitate the implementation of business strategies, which are designed to cope with increasing pressures from the external and internal environments. The organizational structure indeed structuralizes the line of authority, communication and the pattern of management. Because of word limitations and main focus being human resource management, this report doesnt go into details of the companys organizational design. Instead, we just overview to get the core understanding of this structure. There are four different divisions in the company, three of which are organized functionally into different department, while the remaining one- the construction division, follows the matrix structure. Currently, there are six construction divisions in COTECCONS Company, each has its own director who is responsible for managing his members to accomplish the assigned project. Because of geographical dispersion of these construction divisions, there is a need for better communication and integration among construction divisions and other divisions. Matrix structure, through bringing necessary elements (i.e. specialists from different departments) of

a particular project together, ensure the integration and cross-functional communication required for completing the project..

(Source: coteccons.vn) 2.2/ Overview of four functions of management Regardless of an organizations size and type, managements activities within the organization essentially revolves around planning, organizing, leading and controlling the work of its members and the use of its resources to reached the stated organizational goals. In COTECCONS Company, the process of construction management begins when the managers receive a signed contract and an agreement on the starting date from project investors. The construction management begins with planning phase. Senior managers examine all possible 3

ways and sequences in which the project could be done. Large-scale projects usually take them longer time to find the best method in terms of cost minimization and optimum utilization of available resources. Based on the location of the future work, the senior managers will select one of the six construction division as main contractor of the project. Then, they begin to organize the total construction work into manageable sections for the construction division to conduct. A number of specialists from different departments will be called in to coordinate with the construction divisions members. Senior managers are also responsible for working with construction divisions director to create a work environment that suits the teams motivational needs. When the project is in progress, conferences among senior managers, the director of construction division and supervisors from different sections take place periodically, either in the office or on-construction site. The aim of these conferences is to check for any deviation from the work plan and rectify it, to check the completion of each work section and provide necessary assistance, ultimately ensuring that the construction project will be finished in time and within stipulated budget. Thanks to the effectiveness of construction management, COTECCONS Company can benefit itself, the clients and the society as a whole by avoiding escalation of costs, time over-run, wastage of resources and pollution of environment.

3/ Analysis of the human resource management (HRM) within the business

There is no separate HRM department in the COTECCONS Company. Instead, all HRM practices are carried out by HRM managers in the administration department and the board of management. HRM practices range from attracting new employees, developing them into organizational members to retaining competent and professional employees for the company. 3.1/ Attracting a high quality workforce What the COTECCONS managers do in the planning or pre-hire phase of HRM is assessing both current capabilities and future needs of each division in terms of manpower to contemplate which one will be overstaffed and which one will be understaffed. For companies operating in construction field, the demand for increasing workforce (mainly on-site workers) usually comes along with company receiving new projects. At the peak time, the number of employees could increase to 10,000 people (General Director- Nguyen Ba Duong). To get such a huge number of workers in time for operating the projects, COTECCONS Company has outsourced part of its recruitment activities to sub-contractors and other intermediaries. As

soon as the projects are completed, the sub-contractors will take back those seasonal workers. However, to fill the vacancies that require a strong educational background, the HR managers of the company do recruitment themselves. They use the information collected from directly observing the subordinates doing their jobs and from the database of HR planning Information System to create the two documents used during recruitment process: job description and personal specification. The main recruitment sources that COTECCONS Company uses to find potential job candidates are: company website, college recruiting and employee referrals. Annually, the company spends part of its capital in COTECCONS scholarships program which applies for students of HCMC Architectural and HCMC University of Technique. This is not just a charitable program but also the companys HR policy, aiming at building intimate relationships with the domestic universities, where the company can find potential excellent candidates for filling its vacant positions. Criteria for selecting candidates include high-educational qualifications, physical fitness, dynamic personality, and good command of English. While the administration department and board of management are delegated to make final decision on whom to be hired, decisions related to decruitment must be handled by the Chairman General Director, case by case. 3.2/ Developing a high quality workforce Having the best employees, in part, comes from hiring the right people. It also comes from providing a regular, high-quality professional education. The COTECCCONS Company is committed to training employees at all levels to help them carry out assigned tasks successfully. For the new-coming engineers and architects who have just graduated, the company provide on-construction site mentoring to help them mature from handling real works. For professional employees who have worked in the company for years, the HR managers will consider holding short-term classes for further improvement of their professional skills and soft skills. The purpose of training activities is to increase the employees competencies to make good decisions on their own, so that the company can foster employee empowerment, saving costs and shortening time for communication between the lower and higher authorities. Onconstruction site workers are also subjected to construction safety course. 3.3/ Maintaining a high quality workforce

There is no published data on the precise methods of appraisal that HR managers are following. However, according to the company website, its employees are appraised once a year and the appraisal, beside providing credible data for salary and training-related decisions, should be a developmental tool which would analyse whether an employee is contributing towards the his or her departmental goals. Job satisfaction must be high for an employee to stay with his/her current job. To maximize the employees job satisfaction, the managers provide motivations in both financial and psychological forms. Remuneration policy is performance-based in which employees who prove their competencies to the HR managers will be proned to salary assessment after every three months (Van Hoa. 2008). To pay for employees loyalties, 2% extra payment will be counted in salary of workers who have permanent contract with the company. Bonuses (i.e. incentive payments) are also offered to encourage work effectiveness. In addition to compensations and retiring pension, the companys employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) ensures that those employees who are terminated, become disabled or die and those who leave on retirement will continue to receive financial support from the company. The HR managers also concern about health and safety conditions, workplace satisfactions and employees welfare. Social insurance, allowance for annual health check, free vacations on special occasions, etc are all included in HR policy publicized on companys website.

4/ Analysis of the businesss leadership

The Chairman General Director of COTECCONS Company, who holds highest shares of the corporation individually, is Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong. He is also the founder of the company, the man that has led COTECCONS through difficulties and sucesses over the past 8 years. Mr Duong graduated as Bachelor of Architecture from a foreign university (Ukraine, 1984). He used to work as project manager and director in state-owned construction corporations before founding his own company in 2004. Realizing that the main obstacle to the way of becoming the main contractor of large-scale projects of Vietnamese construction companies is out-ofdate management systems which lighten the role of people, especially managers and directors, he believes the only way to change something else in a corporation is to change the leader himself. 8 year long holding the General Director position is the 8 years time he has continued to learn and implement the new, progressive methods of operations and management. He continuously updates the innovations in governance and business strategies

from the companys partners. This not only helps improve the companys own work environment but also increases the compatibility between the company and its partners. To Mr. Duong, what brings about the effectiveness and efficiency of the operation process is having a clear set of objectives and communicating them well to workers. He has set up the four objectives for the company to follow, in order of priority: safety is number one, followed by investors pleasure, companys profits and finally the training of next generation of knowledge workers (Nhan, L. 2010). Moreover, Mr. Duong always believes in competencies of his subordinates and confidently delegates authority and responsibility to them. To make the employees voluntarily obey the workplace disciplines, Mr. Duong is aware that he and other directors must be the first ones to do that. They always come to the office on time to encourage the employees to acquire habits of being on-time at work. The leaders attitude towards leavers is also worth mentioning. Mr. Duong always puts his ego aside to adjust his subordinates resignation decisions. He said: Instead of thinking that they are unloyal, we should sympathize with them about their concerns during the time working with COTECCONS Company and appreciate their will to move up in the society (Van Hoa, 2008).

5/ Recommendations and conclusion

5.1/ Recommendations Although the company has done pretty well on Human Resource Management, there is still room for further improvement. Currently, there is no separate HRM department, which makes the practicing of HRM functions harder in the long run, especially when the company is operating in such a dynamic and constantly shifting environment. As the company is restructuring itself to prepare for future expansion, the authorities should also consider separating HRM department from administration department so that HR managers can easily handle their work. Moreover, recruitment activities should be paid more attention to. Instead of outsourcing the recruitment of on-site laborers to sub-contractors and other intermediaries, the companys managers should do it themselves. Having a staff of skilled engineers, architects and officers is not enough. Who actually carries out the on-site physical demanding jobs, loading and uploading building materials, building and taking apart bracing? Doing recruitment of those on-site laborers, the company can more ensure about their quality and competencies. The managers are also more flexible in mobilize the workers needed for new project,

especially during the peak time, when many construction companies simultaneously conduct their projects hence they will compete for the limited number of on-site laborers. 5.2/ Conclusion The report is about current managerial practices of the COTECCONS Company, including those practices related to human resource management. It also includes the analysis of leadership characteristics of the companys General Director- Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong. Although the general management functions of the company are not much different from those of organizations of other type, the HRM practices are quite unique for the company itself. From attracting, developing to maintaining the professional workforce, HR managers apply tactics that work best in the context that COTECCONS Company is operating. It would be an unforgiving mistake if we not take into account contributions of the General Director- Mr. Nguyen Ba Duong to the success of the company. His inspirational leadership style results from the combination of his self- developed system of beliefs and learning from others. The report ends with suggestions that the company should have a separate HRM department to adapt with emerging challenges from environment and pay more attention to the recruitment of on-site laborer.

REFERENCES:
A.Marisa and NorAini, Y. (2012). Motivation among the Managers in Construction Companies. Journal of World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, vol.62, 2012. Arashpour, M (2011). Gaining the Best Value from HR in Construction Companies. Working Paper, available at http://www.iieom.org/ieom2011/pdfs/IEOM128.pdf . COTECCONS. (2011). COTECCONS Annual Report 2011. Retrieved November, 7, 2012 from http://coteccons.com.vn/codong_list.php?id=2&cclang=en . COTECCONS. (2010). COTECCONS Profile. Retrieved December, 7, 2012 from http://www.coteccons.vn/document.php . COTECCONS. (2010). Human Resource Policy. Retrieved December, 7, 2012 from http://www.coteccons.vn/about_detail.php?id=19 . Nhip Cau Dau Tu. (2012). 50 Cng Ty Kinh Doanh Hiu Qu Nht Vit Nam. Retrieved December, 7, 2012 from http://www.nhipcaudautu.vn/article.aspx?id=12738-50-cong-tykinh-doanh-hieu-qua-nhat-viet-nam . Nhan,L. (2010). ng Nguyn B Dng: Mong t Nc C Nhiu Doanh Nghip C Nhiu Doanh Nghip Tm Vc Ln. Retrieved December, 7, 2012 from http://www.coteccons.vn/news_detail.php?id=188 Van Hoa (2008). Nh lnh o c nhn tm. Retrieved December, 7, 2012 from http://www.thesaigontimes.vn/Home/thegioi/hoso/10218/

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