Managing Continuous Improvement in Vietnam: Unique Challenges and Recommendations to Overcome Them

SMC Author

Anh Nguyen

Status

Faculty

School

School of Economics and Business Administration

Department

Organizations and Responsible Business

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Publication / Conference / Sponsorship

Quality Management Journal

Description/Abstract

As Vietnam emerges into world markets, Vietnamese organizations are facing the predicament of how to avoid the low-cost labor trap and move up the production value-chain by improving quality and productivity. Continuous improvement (CI) practices have proved fundamental to building and sustaining competitive advantage in other Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia. If Vietnamese organizations are to pursue higher value-added activities, CI will be critical for them, too. Despite the tremendous interest in Vietnam from the international business community, little research on Vietnamese management practices has been done, particularly on the use of CI techniques. The language barrier, lack of reliable business data, and the culture of government and corporate secrecy in Vietnam make it extremely difficult to do management research in that country.

This paper is a report on an ongoing multiyear research project to study the state of CI in Vietnam. It surveys the current management literature relevant to Vietnam. Then, based on fieldwork in five companies and extensive interviews with business leaders and managers, directors of professional and business associations, and other individuals who have extensive knowledge of Vietnam, the authors identify a number of unique challenges to managing CI in that country, and offer approaches to overcome them.

Keywords

continuous improvement, productivity improvement, quality improvement, Vietnam, Vietnamese management

Scholarly

yes

Peer Reviewed

1

DOI

10.1080/10686967.2010.11918268

Volume

17

Issue

2

First Page

27

Last Page

41

Disciplines

Business | Economics

Original Citation

Nguyen, A. (2010). Managing Continuous Improvement in Vietnam: Unique Challenges and Recommendations to Overcome Them. Quality Management Journal 17(2), 27-41. doi:10.1080/10686967.2010.11918268

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