Tác động của văn hóa và bầu không khí tổ chức đến sự gắn bó của người lao động tại doanh nghiệp viễn thông Việt Nam: Trường hợp của FPT Telecom

INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CLIMATE 
ON EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN TELECOMMUNICATION
COMPANIES IN VIETNAM: THE CASE OF FPT TELECOM
TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA VĂN HÓA VÀ BẦU KHÔNG KHÍ TỔ CHỨC 
ĐẾN SỰ GẮN BÓ CỦA NGƯỜI LAO ĐỘNG TẠI DOANH NGHIỆP
VIỄN THÔNG VIỆT NAM: TRƯỜNG HỢP CỦA FPT TELECOM
MA, Le Thi Tu Anh; MA, Vu Tuan Duong
Thuongmai University
lethituanh@tmu.edu.vn
Abstract:
In the industrial revolution context, human capital is considered as invaluable resource of
enterprises in any industry. Researchers and managers make efforts to clarify the determinants
of employee engagement, thereby tighten the linkage between employees and the organization.
This paper aims to evaluate the impact of organizational culture and climate on employee en-
gagement. Data collected from 277 employees of FPT Telecom - a well-known telecommunication
company in Vietnam, was analyzed by using different quantitative methods, such as descriptive
statistics and structural equation model analysis. The findings indicated that both organizational
culture and climate positively influence employee engagement. Particularly, market cultures and
hierarchy cultures have the strongest effect on engagement. 
Keywords: employee engagement, organizational culture, organizational climate.
Tóm tắt:
Trong bối cảnh cách mạng công nghiệp, nguồn nhân lực được coi là nguồn lực vô giá của
các doanh nghiệp ở bất kỳ lĩnh vực nào. Các nhà nghiên cứu và quản lý đều nỗ lực để làm rõ các
yếu tố quyết định đến sự gắn bó của người lao động, từ đó thắt chặt mối liên kết giữa nhân viên
và tổ chức. Bài viết này nhằm mục đích đánh giá tác động của văn hóa tổ chức và môi trường
đối với sự gắn bó của người lao động. Dữ liệu thu thập từ 277 nhân viên của FPT Telecom - một
công ty viễn thông nổi tiếng tại Việt Nam, được phân tích bằng các phương pháp định lượng
khác nhau như thống kê mô tả và phân tích mô hình phương trình cấu trúc. Các kết quả chỉ ra
rằng cả văn hóa doanh nghiệp và bầu không khí tổ chức đều ảnh hưởng tích cực đến sự gắn bó
của người lao động. Đặc biệt, văn hóa thị trường và văn hóa thứ bậc có ảnh hưởng mạnh nhất
đến sự gắn bó.
Từ khóa: sự gắn bó của người lao động, văn hóa tổ chức, bầu không khí tổ chức.
1. Introduction
In the context of industrial revolution 4.0 involving powerful digital technologies, which
effectively supporting enterprises in improving operational efficiency, a new challenge for man-
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ager is the attraction and retention of high-quality human resources. Managers increasingly realize
that technical problems could be easily solved thanks to innovative technology in short term, but
problems related to human resources require longer-term changes. Engagement plays an important
role in maintaining stability of personnel as well as improving work efficiency of employees,
thereby, significantly contributing to the overall success of the enterprise. However, according
to the report “State of the global workplace”, based on the results of a survey of the workforce
and working conditions in 155 countries, only 15% of the world’s workers surveyed are truly en-
gaged with the organization (Gallup, 2017). This rate in Vietnam is only 9%, only half of the av-
erage rate of Southeast Asia (19%), much lower than other countries in the same region such as
Singapore (23%). Thailand (23%), Malaysia (17%) ... One of the reasons for this result is that
organizations around the world are not properly aware of the importance of engagement, so they
have not applied effective measures to improve their level of engagement of employees.
Among the crucial factors affecting employee engagement, organizational culture and cli-
mate are two frequently mentioned factors in both theory and practice. On the one hand, organi-
zational culture is also frequently on the top list of issues of concern by executives across the
world. The report of Gallup (2017) also highlighted that 87% of CEOs of surveyed companies
believe that organizational culture - a system of values, beliefs and behaviors that shape the way
in which this organization operates - is an important factor contributing to business successes
and has a strong impact on employee attitudes. On the other hand, the organizational climate
refers to the characteristics of the organization from the employee’s perspective, how they per-
ceive subjectively about the activities of the members of the organization (Gray, 2008). Therefore,
organizational climate guides and regulates the employee’s behavior by imparting to them which
behavior is desirable and appropriate within this enterprise.
Despite a large number of studies that have mentioned the link between corporate culture
and employee engagement, few studies have simultaneously analyzed the effects of culture and
climate on engagement. This paper focuses on answering the question “How organizational cul-
ture a ... gagement climate can explain 57% the variability of employee engage-
ment. The remaining changes come from other factors that have not been included in this model. 
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Constructs Mean SD EE CC MC HC AC OEC
Employee engagement (EE) 4.331 0.863 0,710
Clan cultures (CC) 4.286 0.691 0,447 0,712
Market cultures (MC) 4.157 0.689 0,509 0,342 0,727
Hierarchy cultures (HC) 3.933 0.574 0,439 0,092 0,259 0,722
Adhocracy cultures (AC) 3.984 0.689 0,506 0,416 0,212 0,205 0,727
Organizational engagement climate
(OEC)
4.277 0.600 0,523 0,456 0,299 0,221 0,405 0,709
(Source: Authors)
Figure 3. SEM linear modeling results
The results of structural equation analysis show that organizational culture and engagement
climate significantly affect employee engagement at 0.01 level. In particular, the results show
that market cultures and hierarchy cultures have the strongest impact on Employee Engagement
with b = 0.26. clan culture has the weakest influence on engagement, with the coefficient of 0.206
while the remaining factors have an almost equivalent effect on engagement.
In more detail, adhocracy cultures and organizational engagement climate impacts engage-
ment with b of 0.220 and 0.210 respectively. 
Table 4. Results of the structural model
(Source: Authors)
In summary, all of five hypotheses were supported suggesting that organizational culture
and engagement climate both have positive impact on employee engagement (Table 4). 
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Hypothesized path Standardizedcoefficients t P Decision
Adhocracy cultures g Employee engagement 0.220 3.179 0.001 Supported
Clan cultures g Employee engagement 0.206 3.013 0.003 Supported
Market cultures g Employee engagement 0.263 4.117 0.000 Supported
Hierarchy cultures g Employee engagement 0.260 4.275 0.000 Supported
Organizational en-
gagement climate
g Employee engagement 0.210 3.164 0.002 Supported
6. Discussions and implications 
Our findings support the significant impact of organizational culture and engagement cli-
mate on employee engagement. This paper has contributed to literature as compared to previous
studies that only examined separately culture and climate on employee engagement. Discussions
of key findings and several implications for managers are summarized below.
First of all, regression analysis result highlights the important role of four culture types
and organizational engagement climate in engagement improvement. This study provides prac-
titioners validated and reliable measurement scales for identifying organizational culture, evalu-
ating perceived climate and determining engagement levels of employee. From there, managers
can apply the OCAI model for culture shift in the desired direction. The application of these
scales and OCAI model not only support human resource management activities, improve lead-
ership effectiveness, but also create significant changes in the organization through adjusting the
way the organization operates (organizational culture) and enhancing employee clarity about or-
ganization’s goals, strategies (organizational climate). 
Secondly, the influence of organizational culture on employee engagement varies by types
of culture. This result is consistent with majority of previous studies (Naidoo, 2014; Martin &
Cullen, 2006). Perceived positive cultures are related to higher level of engagement. Interestingly,
clan culture has weakest impact on employee engagement. Higher level of engagement is still
linked with a cultural context that is people oriented and supportive, but effect of this culture
style is the least important in comparison with market or hierarchy culture. This result is different
with the analysis results of Hartnell et al. (2011), whereby, clan culture plays the most significant
role in promoting work engagement. This can be explained based on the difference in the business
sector surveyed. Hartnell et al. (2011) examined engagement in health organizations, within which
cooperation is highly valued, a prerequisite for effective and long-term work. 
It’s also noticeable that hierarchy culture positively impacted employee engagement. In
contrast to study of Lee et al. (2017), Chatman et al. (2014) and Richard et al. (2009) which in-
sisted the negative linkage between hierarchy culture and work engagement, our study highlights
that standardization, enforcement of rules and procedures will not restrict employee’s creativity
and could increase employee engagement. Managers are coordinators and maintain the organi-
zation’s regular functioning towards efficiency and stability. 
This result suggests to businesses, especially those in the information technology sector,
to change their culture in purpose of promoting employee engagement, ultimately enhancing their
work performance. Cultural transformation is inevitable but can still be managed to align with
the organization’s goals and strategies. For telecommunication companies, developing market
culture can both strengthen the linkage between employees and the organization, and create a
healthy competitive environment for individuals to strive to achieve their goals and show their
superiority.
Thirdly, organizational engagement climate had positive relationship with employee en-
gagement. Similar to theoretical researches, organizational climate is a potential driver of em-
ployee’s motivation and positive attitude and behavior at work. This paper provides further
evidence on the necessary to expand climate approaches. Previous studies have only focused on
the importance of the climate of innovation, service or safety in organization effectiveness and
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employee performance (Kang & Busser, 2018; Kuenzi and Schmink, 2008). Both researchers
and practitioners should pay more attention to climate of engagement to encourage employees to
truly engage in work and organization. This result suggests the importance of creating an open
and friendly climate in the workplace to influence employee perceptions and to make them more
willing to devote to their work and organization. 
In spite of providing additional evidence of the relationship between organizational culture,
climate and employee engagement, this paper exists certain limitations. The sample survey scope
is still relatively narrow and only focuses on telecommunication field. Therefore, future studies
could address this limitation by expanding the scope of the research with different sectors. 
7. Conclusions
In the context of technological explosion and increasing competition in the market, orga-
nizational culture helps each company to create its own identity and become an undeniable com-
petitive advantage. In addition, the organizational climate also created positive changes in
employee’s attitudes and behaviors. With the aim of clarifying the impact of organizational culture
and climate on employee engagement, the authors conducted a survey through questionnaires for
the employees of a telecommunications company in Vietnam. The analysis results showed that
both organizational culture and climate are important in promoting employee engagement. This
paper not only provided additional empirical evidence for literature on drivers of engagement, it
also offered significant suggestions for managers to actively change the culture and climate to
retain employees. Like others studies, this paper still has limitations related to sample represents
since we have focused on employees working within the same Vietnamese telecommunication
company. Future studies should enlarge the sample or conduct cross-field research for validity
enhancement. 
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