Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Felix the Cat]

Why does it seem like many Koreans (esp. hagweon owners) view every business transaction as a zero-sum equation in which someone must lose?

[weatherman]

I really don't think Koreans understand win-win agreements. They are kind of blood thirsty.

[Dr. Buck]

Good question.
Here's an answer I can offer. It comes from Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

When I came across this passage, I nearly dropped the book because it so accurately described many Koreans that I have encountered.

"Some people have the scarcity mentality. They see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else. People with the scarcity mentality have a very difficult time-sharing recognition and credit, power or profit�even with those wh help in the production. They also have a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people�even, and sometimes especially, member's of their own family or close friends and associates. It�s almost as if something is being taken from them when someone else receives special recognition or windfall gain or has remarkable success or achievement.
Although they might verbally express happiness for other�s success, inwardly they are eating their hearts out. Their sense of worth comes from being compared and someone else�s success, to some degree, means their failure.
Often, people with a scarcity mentality harbor secret hopes that others might suffer misfortune that would keep them in their place. They�re always comparing, always competing. They give their energies to possessing things or other people in order to increase their sense of worth.
They want other people to be the way they want to be. They often want to clone them, and they surround themselves with �yes� people-people who won�t challenge them, people who are weaker than they are. It�s difficult for people with a scarcity mentality to be members of a complementary team. They look on differences as signs of insubordination and disloyalty.
The abundance mentality is that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing of prestige, recognition, profits and decision-making. It embodies habits 1,2,3 and turns it outward, appreciating the uniqueness, inner direction, and the proactivity of others."

So there it is. I think that a people's psyche is reflected by the environment, and here in Korea you are on a peninsula, or actually an "island" when you consider the DMZ. There are limited natural resources and the population is one of densest in the world. The social hierarchy is extremely stiff and vertical and you have to know your place. Work in a Confucious ethics system of high acheivement and especially the concepts of "saving face" and what you get is what is mentioned up above.

[Dan]

i heard an interesting phrase at a management seminar once that made me think. Win-win or no deal.

meaning any business relationship you enter into, should be beneficial for both parties involved, else it is a deal not worth making. made me change my perspective on the work experience.

wish every korean manager woulda taken that seminar :/

[weatherman]

[FierceInvalid]

It starts early, doesn't it? Hand back a test or quiz in class, and two minutes later the students have worked out the best-to-worst score hierarchy. Students also seem to always know exactly where they "rank" in their classes at regular school.

[rapier]

Its such a competitive society. Makes me wonder how southerners would treat their poverty stricken Northern cousins, if the two territories were actually reunited. I reckon the exploitation of a cheap labor source would start almost immediately. They'd have no need to import Bangladeshi's to do the DDD jobs all of a sudden.

[superacidjax]

[tomato]

I sometimes wonder if it is possible to start an English 학교 in each city.
That may require too much capital for any one 학원,
but it might be possible if all the 학원 directors cooperated.

[SuperFly]

What you describe from 7 Habits and Korean mentality might be true in the Hagwon world, but it certainly doesn't hold water in the corporate world. I work for a huge Korean company that regularly practices a win-win philosophy with overseas business partners in addition to six sigma.