Abstract
A study was conducted to identify the components of competency in general that are considered important in improving the work efficiency of team of specialists under the organization and personnel department at public universities in Vietnam. Data have been collected through a management questionnaire to team of specialists under the organization and personnel department (n = 106) managerial staff (n = 50), and lecturers and other specialists (n = 245). Analysis of deductive content and statistics of technical description are used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of data, respectively. The results show that there are five important components of competency of specialists under the organization and personnel department that need to be formed, including professional quality, professional competence, consulting competence, competence of planning and implementation organization, competence of self-improvement, and professional development. In addition, there are three groups of complementary competencies, including communication competence, foreign language competence, and information technology competence. The main objective of the article is to identify the components of competency in general that are considered important in improving the work efficiency of team of specialists under the organization and personnel department at public universities in Vietnam. The findings can be used by administrators at public universities as a basis for them to have specific strategies and solutions in the university’s team development to meet the requirements of higher educational renovation today.
1. Introduction
Higher education is currently being fundamentally and comprehensively renovationed, from point of view, command ideology to objectives, contents, methodology, mechanisms, policies and conditions to ensure implementation, renovation from the leadership of the party, and the management of the state to the administration activities of universities in Vietnam [1]. To implement renovation in higher education effectively, it is necessary to have synchronous solutions. In which, developing team of lecturers, specialists, and higher education administrators must be sufficient in quantity, with ethical qualities and professional conscience, with high professional qualifications, advanced teaching style, working, and management must be considered as key solutions. In the context of higher education renovation and international integration, universities have great development needs, not only in training scale and major but also in activities of testing, quality assurance, quality control, and university autonomy [2]. The autonomy of universities in staff management is reflected in the freedom to select and arrange lecturers and staff in necessary positions and determine convenient working conditions for staff and lecturers. When the autonomy of universities is approved and implemented, tasks such as payroll determination, recruitment, appointment, management and use of staff, renaming, merger, dissolution of subunits, dossiers management, personnel resumes, settlement of salary, insurance, and nominating for study will be done at the unit. This also makes requirements for departments/boards/divisions in charge of organization and personnel to build a management system and work process (standardized) on organization and personnel works to apply throughout the agency [3]. On the other hand, the specialists on organization and personnel of universities in general and public universities in particular need to be supplemented with the necessary competencies to keep up with the requirements of the new management reality related to the nature of organization and personnel work and roles of human resource managerial staff. In order to do this, universities need to have specific plans, programs, and solutions to improve the competence of the team of specialists in organization and personnel work; create potential for this team to develop long-term and firmly and consider it as one of the prerequisites to ensure the development of the industry in the coming time [4].
In that context, in Vietnam, there are two types of university models: private schools and public schools. Public schools are schools in the state that invests in funding and facilities to maintain operations. Public schools operate under the direction of the Ministry of Education and Training. So all issues related to the curriculum, salary and bonus regime for teachers, rewarding, disciplining learners, etc., must all comply with general and unified national regulations issued by the Ministry of Education and Training. Private schools (also known as people-founded or nonpublic schools) are schools established and operated by domestic individuals and organizations that have been allowed to establish and invest themselves by competent authorities. Private schools operate independently without depending on the management of state agencies. The school’s activities are mainly based on contributions from learners or investors. Although operating independently, private schools are also an educational institution in the country’s general education system. Therefore, issues related to the school’s curriculum and enrollment must still be based on the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training. The advantage of public schools is that tuition is moderate and stable, suitable for the majority of learners. Learners in difficult circumstances are eligible for tuition exemption and reduction policies. Therefore, in Vietnam, public schools account for a large number of schools compared to private schools. In this study, we choose the public university model to conduct our research.
The construction and development of team of specialists under the organization and personnel department at public universities meeting the requirements of higher education renovation and international integration is both a goal and a motivation and is considered one of the most important factor to develop and innovate higher education. Therefore, the objective of this study is to fully assess the competence of team of specialists under the organization and personnel department of public universities in Vietnam. At the same time, it is to determine which professional development activities are considered important in improving team of specialists under the organization and personnel department at public universities in Vietnam [1].
2. Literature Review
2.1. Team of Specialists under the Organization and Personnel Department at Public Universities
Team of specialists under the organization and personnel department at public universities is a collection of people with the same functions and tasks in managing the organization and personnel, and at the same time consulting leaders in organization and personnel work to build the team of university’s staffs with sufficient quantity, synchronous structure, and quality assurance to meet the requirements of comprehensive educational renovationing in the current period [5]. They are the people who perform the duties and responsibilities of an officer in a public nonbusiness unit, associated with the professional title of “specialist” and the employment position of “organization, personnel.” In public universities, the organization and personnel specialist holds an intermediary position, connecting the university’s cadres, and officials with the university’s leaders (Party Committee, Board of trustee, and School Board). They are the ones who directly manage the team of cadres, officials based on the ideology of the university’s leader [6]. Through professional activities, specialists under the Department of Organization and Personnel consult and propose to leaders and managerial staff at all levels of the university to ensure the good performance of the state management function on organization–personnel work according to law and regulations which is suitable to the actual conditions of each university.
At the same time, they are the ones who directly implement the regimes, policies, and guide, supervise, urge, and inspect all organizational and organization and personnel works of the units and subunits to deploy all guidelines, policies—ideas of the leadership of the university to each individual and unit in the whole university [7].
In addition, specialists in the organization–personnel department must grasp the thoughts, aspirations, competence needs, and task performance results of each individual, unit, and transmit that information to the leadership university [8]. Help the university to grasp information to create adjustments, supplements, or changes to guidelines and policies on staff work suitably.
With their assigned responsibilities and tasks, the personnel organization specialist makes a great contribution to build the team of cadres and officials in sufficient quantity, synchronous structure, and good quality to meet the requirements of the work assigned [9].
Organization and personnel specialists of public universities are under the unified direction and management of the rector, under the direct management of the Heads/Deputy Heads of departments/boards/divisions in charge of organization and personnel work. In addition, it is also under the direct management of the rector, focusing on a number of major tasks with the unexpected and urgent requirements of the university.
2.2. Development of Team of Organization and Personnel Specialists of Public Universities
Development of team of organization and personnel specialists is a part of human resource development in general and higher education human resources in particular [10]. Human resource development is also understood as one of the basic functions of human resource management (the two remaining basic functions and tasks are using human resources and nurturing the environment for human resources).
In terms of macromanagement, national and international management, human resources are the human resources of a country, even countries, regions, and the world. In terms of micromanagement, human resource development is the good implementation of management functions and tools to have a team of cadres, officials, and employees of the organization that are suitable in quantity with high quality, through their activities and continuously improve the effectiveness of the organization, to make as the basis and basic motivation for the sustainable development of that organization.
Thus, development of team of organization and personnel specialists is a management activity to ensure that this team is sufficient in quantity, synchronous in structure, and improved in quality. In the context of comprehensive renovation of education and international integration today, development of team of organization and personnel specialists is very important to ensure and improve the quality of teachers and educational managerial staff—a key factor in ensuring and improving the educational quality of public universities in Vietnam [2].
2.3. The Context of Higher Education Renovation in Vietnam
Vietnam country’s higher education is fundamentally and comprehensively renovating: renovating the training structure and perfecting the network of higher education institutions; renovating training content, methodology, and processes; renovating the work of planning, training, fostering, and employing lecturers, specialists, and managerial staff; renovating the organization and implementation of science and technology activities; renovating the mobilization of resources and financial mechanism; renovating the management mechanism and international integration; etc. [1].
Fundamental and comprehensive renovation of higher education, first of all, it is necessary to renovate the management mechanism of higher education: to clearly distinguish between state management and university governance in order to ensure both systematics and state policy implementation for higher education, both promoting the proactiveness and creativity of higher education institutions to participate in strategic planning, making plan, and international cooperation; facilitate on mechanisms; and policies to develop higher education.
Renovating the management mechanism along with decentralizing and assigning autonomy to universities and the strengthening of inspection, inspection and supervision by state management agencies; gradually transfer the state management of higher education focusing on administrative aspect to quality management through a mechanism to monitor all activities of higher education institutions.
Implementing university autonomy means that higher education institutions are more empowered “Reserve the right to decide and be responsible for training, study, organization, personnel and finance” associated with explanation responsibility, promoting the role of the board of trustee—a highest competent organization in a University—representing university’s owners and relevant interest groups. For public universities, it is the community owner.
Renovation in higher education aims to build a quality culture in universities. Focus on quality management of higher education in the direction of standardizing outputs and quality assurance conditions. The quality culture ensures quality management from being motivated by external factors into the self-management process of each member of the university.
Renovation in higher education is to renovate the form of the organization, management, thinking, intelligence, and competence of the lecturers group and educational managerial staff (the main human resource of higher education) meeting the needs of higher education renovation.
Therefore, the renovation of higher education management has a great influence on the entire higher education system, especially affecting the organization and personnel specialists of public universities. When the management of higher education has made fundamental renovations, the autonomy of “organization and personnel” of universities is approved and implemented. The organization and personnel work is no longer an administrative work but also study to advise the rector to build a decentralized management system in university, to give autonomy to the units, work process (standardized) in terms of organization, and staff work to apply throughout the university. Organization and personnel specialists who are assigned more power must have higher responsibilities and competence requirements.
Therefore, university organization and personnel specialists need to be supplemented with the necessary competencies necessary to keep up with the requirements of the new management reality: renovationing the way of organization, thinking, and recognition. Awareness to action in all activities of the organization, public university staff, have new professional and management competence.
Therefore, organization and personnel specialists of universities need to be supplemented with the necessary competencies to keep up with the requirements of the new management reality: renovationing from the methodology of organization, thinking, and from awareness to action in all activities of the organization–personnel work of public universities with new professional and management competence.
2.4. General Overview of Public Universities in Vietnam
A public university is a higher education institution owned by the state, invested, and built by the state. Public universities are now being managed at different levels. The government directly manages the two national universities, the remaining universities are under the management and direction of the Ministry of Education and Training, the governing ministry, and different localities.
According to higher education statistics of the Ministry of Education and Training, as of the academic year 2019–2020, Vietnam has 172 public universities out of a total of 237 universities. The number of full-time students at public universities is 350,186, accounting for 78.3% of universities all over the country. The number of managerial staff of the public university is 630. The number of staff and lecturers with labor contracts of 3 years or more is 8,328 and 56,990, respectively. The training scale of public universities is stable and diversified, covering all important occupations, associated with the labor needs of enterprises and employers.
Among the public universities, there are five multimember universities, seven regional universities, 86 specialized and multidisciplinary universities under the Ministry of Education, 28 academies, and 23 local universities, the rest are universities and academies of the police and army block. It was the first time that Vietnam had two universities in the top 1,000 world-renowned university groups in 2018. By 2022, there are three representatives of Vietnamese public universities in the top of universities according to the ranking, including Ton Duc Thang University (401–500), Vietnam National University, Hanoi (1,001–1,200), Hanoi University of Science and Technology (1,201+) and Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City (1,201+).
In addition, the Asian ranking also has the presence of a number of other public universities such as Hue University (group 401–450 Asia), Can Tho University, Danang University (501–550 Asia), Hanoi National University of Education, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (group 551–600 Asia), and Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (691–650 Asia).
Besides, education quality accreditation activities are also promoted at current public universities. As of February 28, 2022, according to the Ministry of Education and Training, there are 236 higher education institutions (universities, academies) that have completed the self-assessment report cycle 1; 10 higher education institutions completed the self-assessment report cycle 2. Regarding the number of schools that were externally assessed and recognized as meeting quality standards (cycle 1), there were 176 times (171 higher education institutions) and 11 education colleges were externally assessed and recognized as meeting quality standards (cycle 2), there were five times (five higher education institutions).
The number of schools recognized to meet quality standards (according to domestic standards) is 164 higher education institutions. There are seven higher education institutions that are recognized to meet quality standards according to foreign standards, of which all seven are public universities, including Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, The University of Danang—University of Science and Technology, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, National University of Civil Engineering, Vietnam National University Hanoi–University of Science, and International University (IU)—Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City. Accreditation activities help schools improve internal quality, continuously improve, and bring real benefits to learners.
In addition to training activities, public universities also continuously show their strengths in scientific study and publication activities, especially focusing on international publications with suitable reward and investment activities. In 2019, seven public universities after Ton Duc Thang University, Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam National University, Hanoi; Hanoi University of Science and Technology, The University of Danang, Can Tho University, and Thai Nguyen University are in the top of public universities with the highest number of publications in the country, in which Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City have more than 1,000 publications.
Regarding the organizational structure of staff, for multimember universities, the organizational structure of staff is headed by the organization board—staff of the whole university and the Department of Organization–Personnel at the member universities. For other universities, the organization personnel work and may be carried out by departments with different names, for example, Department of Organization and Personnel (most schools), Department of Organization and Personnel (Kien Giang University, Foreign Trade University, etc.), Department of Human Resource Management (University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City), and Department of Organization–Administration (Northwest University, National University of Arts Educations). In general, in some small-scale schools, the organization–personnel activities are often combined with the administrative department.
3. Study Methodology
3.1. Design of the Study
The study employed an exploratory study design, which is considered useful in directing subsequent research approaches as well as gaining greater understanding of a situation where little or nothing is known [11]. Thus, the exploratory study design was considered appropriate for this study, because, currently, little is known about the status competence of specialists under the organization and personnel department at universities in Vietnam.
3.2. Context and Participants
The study conducted a survey of subjects including specialists from the organization–personnel department, lecturers and other specialists, and managerial staff of 38 public universities in Vietnam. In which, there are 18 universities in the North, 15 universities in the South, and five universities in the Central region. In which, there are two national universities, Hue University, Thai Nguyen University, the University of Danang, five regional universities, five local universities, and the rest, specialized, and multidisciplinary universities under Ministry of Education and Training. The study did not consider specific subjects such as the Public Security and the Army.
The survey methodology is mainly used to collect information on the current situation related to the competence and competence development activities of the team of organizational and personnel specialists.
The study used convenient random methodology to select the sample. Study and survey organization at the conference “Training on Staff Organization” organized by the Ministry of Education and Training in Cua Lo, Nghe An, the study continued to each public university with prior permission, explained the meaning of the survey form and distributed the survey form. Due to being explained carefully and given the form directly, the response rate is high, the rate of used forms is up to nearly 90% in all three groups of subjects.
The data on the survey form are entered into the worksheet, and data are cleaned. Forms that lacked a lot of information and showed signs of haphazardly answer were removed to ensure the relicompetence of the data. After cleaning, the data were standardized and calculated by SPSS software. Analysis of descriptive statistics, relicompetence analysis, and EFA structure were used.
3.3. Instrument
Managerial staff, lecturers, specialists from the organization–personnel department and other specialists answered a closed questionnaire consisting of seven sectors of component competence according to the four-point Likert scale (failed = 1; very good = 4.) The questionnaire is designed to find out the extent to which the team of staffs of organization–personnel department under the university possess the skills considered important to effectively carry out the tasks of the current and future universities in Vietnam. Out of 401 questionnaires sent, 377 questionnaires were answered, and after data screening 373 questionnaires were considered as usable. This represents 94% of the response rate, in which social science study is accepted since the good study results can be generalized to the sample population [11].
3.3.1. Standardization of the Survey Form
(1) Standardization by Expert Methodology. After being created, the survey form was sent to two experts, including one doctor who is working as the head of the organization–personnel department and one doctor in education management, to ask for opinions on the valuable level of the questionnaire’s content. In addition, the survey form is also sent to five specialists from the organization–personnel department to test and give ideas to adjust the surface valuable level of the form.
(2) Standardization by Statistical Methodology. The professional competence of the personnel organization specialist has seven component competencies. Therefore, the study conducted to calculate the relicompetence and standardization about the structure of this competence.
The Cronbach’s alpha value for each competency group is calculated to ensure the relicompetence of the questionnaire. Relicompetence of group with indicator more than 0.7 is acceptable, and more than 0.8 is very good [12]. However, the relicompetence needs to be less than 0.95, so that the variables in the scale have differences [13].
The relicompetence of the seven groups of component competence is shown in Table 1.
Next, exploratory factor EFA analysis is used to eliminate variables that are not suitable for the structure of professional competence of specialists in the organization–personnel department. The results of the structure of professional competence of organizational and personnel specialists include five parts: professional quality, professional competence on organization–personnel, advisory competence, planning–organization competence, and competence of self-improvement and professional development. In addition, the study considers communication, foreign language, and information technology competencies as complementary competencies which are necessary for organization–personnel specialists to complete their work effectively.
4. Results and Discussion
With a team of specialists in the organization–personnel department: There are 106 votes of organization–personnel specialists, after cleaning the forms, 102 votes are collected to be used for analysis. One hundred two survey staffs were aged from 28 to 56 years old, the average age was 37 years old with a standard deviation of 6.3. In which, the working time of these officials is at least 2 years and the maximum is 32 years. Mainly, the cadres have the same working time as the number of years working in the education sector. The working time in the field of organization and personnel of the surveyed subjects ranges from 2 months to 26 years. The average time of survey staffs was 8 years. Regarding professional qualifications, 67% of staff have university degrees, 25% have master’s degrees, and 8% have doctorate degrees with diverse training majors, such as educational management, public policy, and political and administrative education. With a team of lecturers and other specialists, there are 245 votes of lecturers and other specialists obtained, after cleaning the data, 221 values are used to analyze the evaluation results. With a team of managerial staff, the number of managerial staff participating in the survey was 50 officials, and all 50 questionnaires were used for analysis.
4.1. Comparision about the Results by Each Component Competence
Although the scale here uses a rating scale; however, the study assumes that the ranges of fail (1)—pass (2)—good (3)—very good (4) are equally spaced to calculate the average index, for the purpose of comparing evaluation results.
The competence of the staff under the organization–personnel department according to the evaluation of the managerial staff, other staff, and the teaching staff as well as their self-assessment at universities in Vietnam is shown below in detail.
4.1.1. Professional Qualities
In general, the results of the self-assessment of the organization–personnel staff are higher than the results of assessment of lecturers and other specialists. The results of the assessment of managerial staff are the lowest. However, the difference between the three assessment results is not much, ranging from 0.38 to 0.47 (Figure 1).
4.1.2. Professional Competence in Organization–Personnel
Similar to the results of the assessment of professional quality, the criteria related to the organization–personnel profession also have higher self-assessment results than the other two assessment results. The evaluation results of managerial staff are the lowest in most of the criteria, except for two criteria PC.6, carry out promotion, change professional titles for officials under the authority of the University, and PC.7. Appointment, reappointment, dismissal, rotation, secondment, termination, and retirement of public employees whose evaluation results of teachers and other specialists are lower than those of managerial staff. However, the difference is not significant, 0.01 and 0.04, respectively (Figure 2).
4.1.3. Advisory Competence
The advisory competence group tends to evaluate differently from other competencies, where lecturers and other specialists assess the organization and personnel specialists in these indicators lower than the results of the staff’s self-assessment and assessment of managerial staffs. The average score of the assessment results by the lecturers and other specialists only ranges from 2.81 to 2.9, while the results of the self-assessment of the personnel and organization specialists are all higher than 3. The assessment results of managerial staffs is from 2.98 to 3.14 (Figure 3).
4.1.4. Competence for Planning and Organization
In the standard of competence for planning and organization, there is a difference between the assessment results in the criteria. In general, the self-assessment results are higher than the other two assessment results in all criteria. But in the remaining two results, there is a difference. 04/06 criteria have the results that lecturers and other specialists rated for the organizational and personnel specialists which is lower than the results of managerial staff. As for the criteria, CP.4 develops and organizes the implementation of a plan to recruit, arrange, and use public employees, the average result of the assessment of lecturers and other specialists is 3.06, while that of managerial staff is 3. Similar to competence CP.5 for developing and organizing the implementation of training, fostering and developing officials team, the evaluation results of lecturers, other specialists, and managerial staff are 3.1 and 3.02, respectively (Figure 4).
4.1.5. Professional Self-Development
In the group of professional self-development capabilities, the self-assessment results of the organizational and personnel specialists were higher than the other two assessment groups. Particularly for criteria CC.1 regularly cultivates professional qualities and skills, the assessment results of lecturers and other specialists (2.61) are higher than those of managerial staff (3.18), the rest are other criteria. The assessment results of the managerial staff are 0.01–0.09 units (Figure 5).
4.1.6. Other Supplementary Competencies
In communication competence, the assessment results of lecturers and other experts are lower than the evaluation results of managerial staff in all criteria. For the competence to use foreign languages and information technology, lecturers and other experts evaluate the results better than managerial staff. The self-assessment results of the organizational and personnel specialist are higher than the rest in all criteria (Figure 6).
4.2. Comparision about the Overall Assessment Results
The self-assessment and assessment scores of lecturers and managerial staff are averaged and compared in Figure 7. In general, the scores assessed by the organization and personnel specialists are higher than those assessed in all fields. Scores assessed by managerial staff are higher than lecturer’s scores in consulting, planning, communication, and professional development skills. From the ranking results in Table 2, it can be seen that all subjects rated the specialists in the organization–personnel department as having the best professional qualities and the lowest competence to use foreign languages. While the lecturer assessed the professional competence, the staff of specialists in the organization–personnel department is good at level 2, managerial staff think that the communication competence of specialists in the organization–personnel department is better evaluated.
5. Conclusion
Developing a team of specialists, which are sufficient in quantity, synchronous in structure, and improved in quality, is an urgent requirement for universities in general and public universities in particular in the context of higher education renovation and international integration.
In order to do this well, universities need to realistically look at their current team of university and from there, it is necessary to apply specific solutions. We also recommend a number of solutions to develop the capacity of this team such as: first, a set of competency standards for organizational specialists and public university officials must be created. These standards, criteria, and content descriptions of the qualities and competencies of organizational specialists and officers should reflect the fundamental standards of competence necessary for this team’s positions. Six standards are among the standards of concern: political integrity and professional ethics; professional capacity, organizational and staff work skills; advisory capacity; ability to develop plans and organize work implementation; ability for self-improvement and career development; and complementary capabilities. Second, it is necessary to improve the planning and development of the team of organizational experts and officials according to the capacity approach in order to develop this team according to a determined roadmap with a scientific sequence, suitable to their abilities, each individual’s strengths, ensuring a team of organizational experts and officials with good qualities and capabilities, and meeting all assigned tasks and responsibilities. Implement this measure with six specific steps: determine the goals of team planning, survey and analyze the current situation of the team, forecasting team needs, make development planning, inspect and examine the implementation of planning, and improve team development planning. Third, the capacity approach requires that the system for selecting and using a team of organizational experts and officials be improved. The following seven steps must be taken into consideration when choosing organizational specialists and officials: role determination; creation of job descriptions and recommended competency standards for each organizational and staff role as a basis for recruiting efforts that are scientific and objective; recruitment announcement; receipt of records; creation of a recruitment council, organization for recruiting, determine successful candidates, and announce the outcomes of the public employment recruiting; and make a functioning agreement. Fourth, based on the identified set of competency standards, develop criteria for evaluating the capacity of organizational experts and public university officials to ensure clarity, comprehensiveness, detail, and reality, has high reliability to accurately assess the capacity of organizational experts and officials. Clarify the assessment levels of qualities, knowledge, and skills that organizational experts and officials need to achieve to complete their work well. Fifth, training must be set up to increase the team’s capacity to satisfy organizational and staff job requirements, which includes public university officials and organizational experts. This is a crucial remedy because it immediately ensures capacity growth and raises the standard of organizational specialists and officials. Sixth, in order to advance and strengthen the capabilities of the group of organizational specialists and public university officials, a motivating work environment must be created. The productivity and caliber of work produced by specialists are both significantly impacted by their workplace environment, which is regarded as a key component. A workplace that is conducive to motivation is first and foremost one that has the necessary tools, machinery, and infrastructure in place. Additionally, this is a location brimming with good vibes that consistently attracts and keeps personnel motivated and excited to work hard for the school.
Data Availability
The pdf data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.