Through my experience with a handful of Vietnamese organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, I have discovered that we Vietnamese really are not fond of the idea of delegation, particularly of powers. From the everyday yes-man to the all-powerful CEO, the delegation of powers seems foreign and counter-intuitive, and implementation of it, if any, quickly devolves into either abdication or micromanagement. In this article, I will attempt to identify plausible reasons for this anomaly and, from there, try to find effective measures against it. Please keep in mind, however, that my limited experience allows me to speculate on the Vietnamese predicament only – foreign-run organizations need not apply.

AVERSION OF RESPONSIBILITIES

Vietnamese culture has, for better or worse, imprinted into people’s minds that seniors are to be respected and obeyed, and that their opinions are inherently more proper and more valuable than the younger’s. As such, when one first arrives at one’s new job, one is expected not to question their seniors in the organization, but rather to imitate them and assimilate as quickly as possible. Normally, this process has useful and desirable effects – namely, the ensurance against disruption of workflow and overturn of order in the organization. However, when this line of thinking became ingrained into the organization’s culture, its employees would start to shy away from responsibilities and instead rely on their superior for everything, from orders, instructions to verification of results. They would lose any sense of autonomy they may have had when they first joined, and would become the ubiquitous “yes-man” they used to dread. The net result: Any attempt to delegate powers would quickly be met with resistance, stagnation, and ultimate failure.

FEAR OF LOSING CONTROL

On the other hand, sometimes an organization will witness a refreshing change: Someone who is able and willing to tackle difficult tasks and to solve headache-inducing problems. They talk the talk and walk the walk, and they assume full responsibilities for their actions – seemingly the perfect employee any manager could dream of. However, this type of people would not fare well in a Vietnamese organization – they would be perceived as a threat to upper management and be deftly dealt with. In my opinions, this has less to do with power-hogging and more with cultural differences. Vietnamese in particular and East Asians in general dislike directness and assertiveness, instead opting for tact and subtlety; therefore, such traits would give its owner the impression of being arrogant and power hungry. Moreover, as older managers are people who came from a technical background and slowly climbed their way up the corporate ladder, they take pride in the fact that they are able to understand and perform works better than any of their inferior. When a newcomer proves otherwise, they will feel as if their position in the organization is challenged, and as such will take actions against said newcomer. This fear of losing power, control and position will also result in a reluctance to delegate, coming from the upper management itself.

PRECEDENTS NOT SET

Some other times, the conditions seem just about right to start delegating tasks: The organization has just got a new, committed management team, and the workforce is young, energetic and ready to prove themselves. However, as soon as management actually implement it, things go haywire: employees start to procrastinate, responsibilities become a game of blaming and claiming victim, and projects get delayed times and again. After a while, management becomes impatient and starts ‘hovering’ over their inferior, constantly nagging them about the looming deadline, overseeing and correcting the smallest of details, thus defeating the purpose of tasks delegation. This is most probably due to both management not having experience in delegating tasks and dealing with problems arisen therefrom, and to employees not familiar with working according to their own pace yet. When the management finally gives up delegation of power and return to the old comfort zone, the organization turns into one of the worst nanny states since 1945.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS?

Only after painstakingly laying out possible causes of a problem can we safely deduce possible solutions for it and hope for actual improvements. In this case, the solutions could theoretically be:

• Creating an overall active, engaging and involving work environment. If people are to assume responsibilities and work wholeheartedly for the project, they need to feel motivated and personally intrigued by it. This cannot be a one-time movement, it needs to be incorporated wholly into the organization’s culture for it to have any meaning at all.
• Making the upper management understand the concept, implementation and benefits of power delegation. Power can only be shared if those who hold it are willing to. It certainly will take some convincing, but the resounding success will speak for itself in the end. Organizing short courses instructed by successful CEOs on the topic is a good way of doing this.
• Starting by one small step at a time. If employees in the organization never really work on their own pace before, start by breaking down a large problem into small steps and assigning these steps to various people. Make sure to show them how it is done, and let them manage their small ‘projects’ on their own. Gradually shift the workload onto them and the organization will have an autonomous workforce in no time.

CONCLUSION

I acknowledge that this article may sound obvious and unnecessary, especially to experienced managers. ----I believe, however, that no matter how obvious an idea may seem in one’s head, one needs to articulate it in written form for it to be fully appreciated and appropriately propagated. This, I hope, will become a useful addition to the ongoing conversation regarding delegation of power.

Although my limited experience allows me to speak for Vietnamese companies only, I believe that this small article could be somewhat useful for organizations of different background which are facing the same problem, as these obstacles are of human nature and should not change much even in the context of culture.

Finally, I admit that delegation of powers are not universally useful, effective or even desirable. There are contexts in which the upper management would want to limit their henchman’s power as much as possible – line assemblies being a prime example.