Building corporate culture at Toan Cau Building Material Co., Ltd. (TCBM): A three-level approach based on Edgar Schein’s model

Tóm tắt

This study examines corporate culture at Toan Cau Building Material Co., Ltd. (TCBM), a small and medium-sized enterprise specializing in the import and distribution of premium building materials in Vietnam, through the lens of Edgar Schein’s Three-Level Model of Organizational Culture (1983). Using a mixed-methods approach that combines focus group interviews (n = 6) and a Likert-scale survey (n = 30; response rate = 85.7%), the study identifies both cultural strengths and structural gaps across three levels: artifacts (Level 1, mean = 3.85/5.0), espoused values (Level 2, mean = 3.84/5.0), and basic underlying assumptions (Level 3, mean = 3.83/5.0), resulting in an overall cultural assessment score of 3.84/5.0, categorized as “Good.” The findings show that TCBM possesses several valuable cultural assets, including strong team cohesion, supported by 83% employee consensus, a climate of psychological safety, and consistent leadership behavior, with a mean score of 4.03/5.0. However, three major cultural gaps remain: the lack of a formalized brand identity system and internal communication channels, a 0.64-point discrepancy between employees’ awareness of core values and their behavioral enactment, and underlying assumptions such as “harmony first” and “flexibility over process,” which may become organizational constraints as the company expands. Based on these findings, the study develops a three-phase culture development roadmap for the 2025–2030 period, including specific key performance indicators and responsibility assignments, thereby offering a replicable framework for SMEs in Vietnam’s premium building materials sector.

Từ khóa
corporate culture Schein three-level model building materials SME Vietnam organizational change

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