The practice of management, and especially HRM, do not operate in a vacuum and are critically influenced by the political, economic and social context and background. Vietnam is a densely populated country of 84.4 million people in South East Asia with a comparatively small size of 329,560 square kilometres and an estimated average birth rate of 1.69 annually in 2005 (Indexmundi, 2006). The country has a heritage of long periods of colonialisation, protracted wars, loss of Soviet-bloc financial assistance, political isolation and economic embargos, a low production base and the rigidities of a centrally planned system.