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INTRODUCTION
Increasingly, the banking industry is now confronted with the difficulties of digital
transformation and hurdles in growing human capital and keeping talent. The labor
market is becoming more uncertain, competitive, challenging, and turbulent. The
following report will analyze the problems that Vietcombank company has been
facing, propose a motivational strategy for the company in the current situation of the
market as well as some recommendations for the company’s performance
management & continuous improvement.

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Task 1: A recommended motivational strategy for the company’s performance.

1. The company’s objectives

For a company, having objectives to follow is a pivotal part of the development. The
objectives inspire managers and employees to achieve a common objective, therefore
unifying and motivating the workforce (Superbusinessmanager.com, 2022). Regarding
Vietcombank company, the company’s objective is “to be the best bank for the
prosperity of Vietnam”. Besides, Mr.Dung also aimed at helping Vietcombank to
become a positive place to work within which these values influence the behavior of
individuals.

2. The theories of motivation

+ Definition
According to Mullins (2005), motivation is defined as the internal force that drives an
individual to pursue a goal to satisfy a need or expectation. Motivation is also the
extent to which a person desires particular behaviors. Motivation may be described as
the mechanisms responsible for three elements: persistence, direction, and intensity of
an individual's effort along with achieving an objective. In most circumstances,
motivation arises from a need that must be met, and this leads to a certain activity
(Lambrou, Kontodimopoulos, and Niakas, 2010).

+ Theories of motivation

According to Mullins (2005), there are two main approaches to motivation theories,
which are process and content:
What motivates people at work can be explained by Content theories. These theories
seek to discover people's needs, skills, and ambitions to meet those needs. Content
theories emphasize needs and motivations. Meanwhile, The purpose of process
theories is to establish the connection between the dynamic components of motivation.
The focus of these theories is on the maintenance of behavior, direction, and initiation.
Alderfer's modified need hierarchy model, McClelland's achievement motivation
theory, Maslow's hierarchy of needs model, and Herzberg's two-factor theory are
highlighted content theories of motivation.

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Process theories emphasize the real motivational process. In the process theories, key
approaches and leading writers include Equity theory – Adams; Goal theory – Locke;
Expectancy-based models – Vroom, Lawler, and Porter; Attribution theory – Heider,
and Kelley; and Goal theory – Locke (Mullins, 2005).

3. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

*Definition
According to Mullins (2005), intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have been described as
follows:
Extrinsic motivation is related to "material" incentives such as benefits and wages,
promotion, security, working environment, employment contract, and working
conditions. These physical advantages are often determined at the organizational level
and maybe largely beyond the control of individual managers.
Intrinsic motivation includes 'psychological' rewards, such as the opportunity to
employ one's strengths, a sense of challenge and success, praise, positive
acknowledgment, and being treated with care and regard. Psychological incentives are
often determined by the actions and behaviors of certain managers.

4. Vietcombank company’s current situation

+ Problems:
According to the given information, Vietcombank has now faced up with the
following problems:
(1) Vietcombank's salaries were competitive. Despite certain advantages, this is a
danger for the organization because workers are only focused on output to receive
rewards, hence the quality of the work may degrade. This also doesn't stimulate
growth while reducing employees' responsibility. This issue is related to extrinsic
incentives, as compensation provided physical advantages.
(2) According to Mr.Dung, the company needs to make changes, as there are
challenges in digital transformation in banking, and keeping talent is the problem. The
work market is also turbulent, competitive, difficult, and unstable. Thus, innovation
and imagination are crucial. Traditional monetary compensation for output might be
ineffective for motivating employees to make improvements. Both intrinsic and

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external motivation is involved in this problem.
(3) Mr. Dung wants Vietcombank to be a positive workplace where these ideals
impact individual behavior. Some remedies have been proposed, but they might not be
enough to help the company. This problem is related to extrinsic motivation.

+ Possible causes of problems:

(1) The first problem derived from competitive salaries may come from company
executives and staff. The company might overemphasize productivity, while its
employees may lack enthusiasm. Apart from that, Vietcombank's risk might be caused
by a lack of motivational techniques, as offering attractive salaries is not enough.
(2) The second problem of the company is concerned with the improvement of
creativity and imagination. The possible cause for this problem might be the change in
the current market and the development of technology. Customers will be attracted by
comfortable, modern, and innovative products.
(3) Vietcombank's third problem may be employee satisfaction and attitude.
According to Thebalancecareers (2019), anxiety about the future, especially job
stability and retirement, insufficient recognition for the level of contribution,
excessive workload, lack of challenge in their work, and stress can generate a negative
working environment.

5. Suggested motivational strategy.

*Definition
Motivational strategies are methods, approaches, or techniques that motivate learners
to join in the process of learning and teaching (Igi-global.com, 2022).

*Application
The objective of Vietcombank is to become the best bank in Vietnam. To reach the
aim, the company must meet all of the 6 given criteria, including salary and benefits,
possibilities for growth, culture and values, leadership, work quality and quality of
life, and reputation, and also propose an effective motivational strategy.
Representatives of each type of motivational theory (content and process theories),
which are Vroom’s expectancy theory and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory,
will be used to analyze Vietcombank’s situation.

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The application of Maslow’s theory within a company can be described as follow,
according to McGraw-Hill (1991):

Regarding the company with Maslow’s hierarchy, the most basic need of
physiological has been met by the company, as Vietcombank provides its
employees with competitive salaries, childcare vouchers, and discounted life
assurance schemes in the benefits program. This is associated with monetary
rewards. The 3 next stages, which are “safety”, “social” and “esteem” have been
also met by the company, since the employees are provided with a commitment to a
safe and healthy work environment to prevent accidents (safe working conditions),
a range of working patterns (job benefits), weekly operation of group ‘huddles’
(connected workgroup) and encouraged to speak positively about each other when
apart, focusing on their strengths (recognition). Vietcombank has applied both types
of rewards, including monetary and non-monetary. However, the company has not
achieved “self-actualization” in the hierarchy, as the traditional way of monetary
reward does not allow the development of people and limits their ability to take
ownership of what they do.

In terms of Vroom’s expectancy theory concerning Vietcombank, the model

includes 3 main variables: expectancy, valence, and instrumentality (Mullins,

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 2019). Valence is a person's attractiveness to and expectation of a specific result.
Instrumentality determines result valence. This differentiates first- and second-level
outcomes. Expectancy occurs when a person chooses between various behaviors
with unknown results. The decision is determined by the desire for a certain
outcome and the chance that it will be attained (Mullins, 2019). At Vietcombank, 3
variables are met relatively fully. However, too much emphasis on the company's
monetary reward may not meet employee expectations

To conclude, the recommended remedy for Vietcombank is that the company

should focus on the highest part of Maslow’s, by creating challenging jobs and
opportunities for creativity, thus motivating the employees. Additionally, the
company can consider more about these factors in expectancy theory: Establishing
explicit methods for evaluating individual performance and effort–performance–
reward linkages; Intervening variables, such as talents and characteristics, job
views, organizational processes, and support facilities, which may impact
performance but are not direct motivators; Minimizing unwanted results from high
performance, such as industrial accidents or coworker punishments, or despite the
high performance, such as layoffs or short-time working (Mullins, 2019)

Task 2:

This section of the article will concentrate on performance management and suggest a
performance appraisal system to ensure the company's continuous improvement.

1. Definitions

This task is related to 3 important concepts, which are Continuous improvement,

Performance management, and Performance appraisal.
Continuous improvement is a culture that encourages all employees to seek out ways
to enhance the business's operations. This includes offering proposals to improve
efficiency, evaluating current processes, and finding opportunities to remove needless
labor (Productplan.com, 2021).

Regarding Vietcombank, the company’s continuous improvement is included in

Vietcombank’s core values: they always aim for modern and civilized business

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practices. It is suggested for the company stick to its core values to thrive in
continuous improvement.

Performance management is a comprehensive technique to ensure the contributions

and support of an employee's performance to the strategic objectives of the company.
(G G L Mitrea-Curpanaru, 2021), while performance appraisal aids in establishing
work standards, evaluating employee performance, and offering feedback to inspire,
rectify, and continue employee performance (Hassan, 2020).

To successfully manage the company’s performance, as well as reach continuous

improvement, it is recommended for Vietcombank to create a proper performance
appraisal. According to Graw-Hill (1996), the critical elements for a performance
appraisal system are described as follows:

2. Steps in performance appraisal

Performance appraisals assist both the organization and the employees. They promote
relations between management and workers, boost job happiness, and strengthen
employees' business loyalty (Small Business - Chron.com, 2021). There are 3 steps
included in the performance appraisal:
(1) Identifying and outlining performance criteria and the job

(2) Evaluating the employees’ performance, based on the outlined criteria

(3) Providing employees with feedback to help them in removing performance

deficiencies or to support the maintenance of high-quality performance

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3. Recommendations for the improvement of performance management and to
ensure the continuous improvement of Vietcombank

Management involves evaluating employee behavior and performance continuously.

A performance appraisal system is one technique to assess personnel performance and
potential (Mullins, 2005). The appraisal system should be examined in connection to
the organization's corporate objectives, needs, and culture. The system must be
periodically checked to guarantee correct appraisals and management feedback
(Mullins, 2019). Appraisal systems examine behavior, attitudes, and performance.
Measurement may be a combination of ‘quantitative’, which measures using a rating
scale, such as “exceeds expectations or job requirements”, “unsatisfactory
performance”, “meets expectations or requirements”, “excellent”... and ‘qualitative’,
which measures containing a narrative an unstructured report on specific factors or
(and) behavior and work performance’s overall level
Based on the company’s current situation, there are some methods of evaluation that
can be taken into consideration within Vietcombank’s performance management plan
as follows:
+ Behaviourally anchored rating scales (BARS): Behaviorally anchored rating
scales (BARS) are used to offer job-related assessment scales and overcome problems
with traditional rating scales. Appraisers may utilize BARS to measure each person's
predicted behavior. The grading system has between 5 and 9 categories, depending on
the job (Mullins, 2005)
+ Achieving objectives: ‘Achieving objectives' is another assessment method. The
manager and employees create goals at the beginning of the appraisal period. The
assessment considers how well these goals were met. This strategy enables staff
engagement and self-evaluation (Mullins, 2005)

+ Performance ‘agreement’ or ‘contract’: Staff members develop a short paper that

outlines their planned contribution to the organization's business strategy. This paper
includes an agenda that may be changed throughout the appraisal period and this
agenda governs the evaluation (Mullins, 2005)

+ Employee self-assessment: This system is employee-driven. Staff evaluates their

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performance using evidence to support their findings. While this approach has its
shortcomings, it may also be a great tool for employees to take ownership of their
performance achievements and development chances (Kissflow, 2022).
+ Upward feedback and 360-degree evaluation: 360° feedback involves appraisals
from colleagues, subordinates, superiors, and internal and external customers. It's
intended to address healthy working relationships, collaboration, leadership, decision-
making, and service quality. Subordinates evaluate supervisors in an upward feedback
system. This may assist measure managers' capacity to take criticism (Mullins, 2019).

In terms of ensuring the continuous improvement, Vietcombank can apply the

following ways, according to The Lean Way (2017) to sustain its continuous
improvement:
+ Gathering ideas from the people doing the work: Employees should be the source
of quality improvement in a continuous improvement organization since they are the
most valuable asset. Nobody knows a job better than its typical practitioner.
+ Empower employees for improvement: It is the responsibility of management to
educate their employees on Lean tools and practices and to assist them to get over any
psychological or personal barriers that restrict them from exploring new ideas.
+ Create new habits: Identifying and reinforcing desirable behaviors is part of
maintaining continuous improvement. This includes training personnel, helping
individuals realize when their actions are misaligned, and delivering positive feedback
to those who exhibit the desired behaviors.
+ Celebrate success: Sharing success stories and recognizing participants helps in
sustaining continuous improvement. Many individuals take pride in their jobs and are
motivated to improve them. They want recognition for their efforts.

The above-given solutions for the company might reach the aim of Mr.Dung: helping
the company to become a positive-environment workplace. Besides, they should also
stick to the core value of the company: “always aim to the modern and civilized
business practices”.

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 CONCLUSION

From the above information, Vietcombanks’ current problems and their causes have
been pointed out, while some remedies for the company’s development have also been
provided. This report has covered the case study of Vietcombank about motivational
strategy and performance management, as well as performance appraisal and
continuous improvement. This might help the company to thrive and sustainably
develop in the future.

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