Korean Job Discussion Forums

[HardyandTiny]

this should be part of the oxymoron thread.

[Ilsanman]

[jajdude]

Depends on the boss. If employees are foreigners and the Korean uses the Korean Confucian sysytem, the foreigners will probably dislike it. If the korean has no foreign language skills and little awareness or understanding of other cultures.... that's a problem. I think that person should not manage foreigners. If it's all Korean, well, I don't know!

[Butterfly]

Well I'd say that the Korean management style works for Koreans, but fails to work in most other cultures. Someone mentioned South East Asian countries and how they prefer not to work with Korean firms however, that is only in comparison to Western firms among the foreign firms that set up there. I think many Asian firms use the same practices.

It is changing however, since foreign companies have moved into Korea new concepts of productivity are being banded around. Middle managers don't like younger guys who are too smart (or smarter than them) and are insecure about their middle aged lack of crativity, but international competitiveness demands that creativity and innovation will determine a country's future. A lot of middle-aged middle managers will need to go in for early retirement I think, if Korean companies are going to get anywhere. Sad though that is, its not their fault.

[rapier]

I spoke to a couple of American personnel/training managers in Itaewon.They were over here to revamp the management systems of the Korean branches of an American owned company. What they told me was pretty interesting...
They had a programme to send Koreans to work in the U.S for a year at a time to, gain management experience and learn skills, and they were putting these newly trained people in managerial positions here, replacing the old guard. They were having a strenuous time retiring off the senior people here.
Basically they said that the Korean heirarchical system differs from the U.S in a number of ways: In Korea
1) Promotion is based on seniority rather than merit
2) Qualifications are secondary to "who you know".
3) The best talent in Korea cannot rise to the top, be noticed or allowed to achieve- because a junior worker cannot possibly be seen to be better t his job than an older person.
4) The workplace is beset by outdated rigid social structures and a lack of clear/ easy communication.
5) senior workers were utterly amazed by the concept of being made redundant or given redundancy payments. They felt a right to "a job for life" no matter what.

[sadsac]

Korean management has one intrinsic flaw, communication. Information only goes one way and when something goes wrong, they have to have someone to blame. The buck never stops anywhere here.

[drcrazy]

[Shadow]

Dear Juan,

I couldn't agree with you more. They are terrible managers and they micro-manage everything. As a result, the things that are important and have priority get overlooked and left completely out of the equation. They have no concept of time or how to deal with people as human beings. Hey, I'm a person first and a worker second. In Korea, you do what Wan-jang-nim says or else. People say we can't change the culture and they're right. However, that doesn't mean we should cow-down to Wang-jang-nim no matter how stupid his or her logic is concerned. As far as I'm concerned, we're in there to give'em a belly-whopper every time out. For working in Korea, I recommend reading "The Art of War." It can be read online at http://www.mailsbroadcast.com/the.artofwar.1.htm