Using mobile communication and implications for constructive and open dialogue in enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City

ABSTRACT

Addressing the challenges of workplace communications, this empirical study asks if mobile communication devices—especially mobile phones—offer an effective means for employees to both improve the effectiveness of dialogue and overcome barriers in engaging with employers. Dialogue between employees and employers is defined as social action within the social structure of the enterprise. The concepts of status, role and institution are used to analyse the experience of employees participating in mobile communications at the workplace and their daily life. The article presents the results of research within enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where mobile communications play an increasing role in resolving contradictions between employers and employees.

KEYWORDS:

• Mobile phone use
• mobile communication
• enterprise settings
• employee-employer dialogue

Additional information

Funding

The experimental data used in this article are from the survey results of the project “Improving the effectiveness of dialogue and collective bargaining in private enterprise and foreign directed investment enterprises in HCMC” granted by Ho Chi Minh City Science and Technology Development Fund, 2020–22 – HCMFOSTED.

Notes on contributors

Thi Mai LE

Le Thi Mai (PhD in Sociology) is a researcher in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ton Duc Thang University (Vietnam). Since 2007, she has been the head of the Sociology Department. In 2014, she was an invited fellow scholar in Sociology at Temple University, School of Liberal Arts to complete a project on the social integration of Vietnamese residing abroad (Vietnamese Americans in Philadelphia, USA). She also participated in the project “Migration, Logistics and Unequal Citizens in Contemporary Global Context” (2019–2021), with CHCI-Mellon Foundation & the International Center for Cultural Studies, Global Humanities Institute, The National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. Recently, she has completed the project “Improving the effectiveness of dialogue and collective bargaining in private enterprises and foreign direct investment enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City” sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology HCMC (https://dost.hochiminhcity.gov.vn).