The constitution of the Republic of Korea stipulates human worth and dignity and the right to pursue happiness, the right and duty to work, and the right to lead a life worthy of human. The right and duty to work and the right to lead a life worthy of...
The constitution of the Republic of Korea stipulates human worth and dignity and the right to pursue happiness, the right and duty to work, and the right to lead a life worthy of human. The right and duty to work and the right to lead a life worthy of human beings require economical activities as their necessary condition.
For human beings, occupationmeans the resource of life for oneself and one’s family. Besides, occupation is something to be duly assessed and recognized in society as well as a means to realize one’s self-confidence and sense of achievement through the satisfaction of various human desires. Disabled people also have the right to choose an occupation according to each ability, to be engaged in productive economic activities, and to be paid appropriately. In reality, however, their work ability is underestimated, and many social restrictions are imposed on them just because of their physical handicap. Moreover, due to the complexity of modern society and as a result of advanced material civilization, physical disabilities by post-natal causes are becoming more and more than those by prenatal causes. Each year, more than 150,000 people become disabled, and surprisingly 88% of them are disabled by prenatal causes. As to the physical disability, more than 90% are caused by postnatal. The major causes are diseases like stroke, traffic accidents, industrial disaster, and other unfortunate accidents. All those victims of diseases and unlucky accidents can be called disabled people. Therefore, the study is of importance on the work satisfaction of disabled people, who have not received due attention though they are important constituents of economic activities in our society. However, not much study has been conducted on that subject so far. This study, based on the findings by former researchers, has performed practicalanalysis of the disabled workers in Korean industry, using Korean-type. The objective of this study is to promote the productivity of industry and to help the establishment of an employment policy for disabled people. The findings of this study can be summed up as follows.
First, as to the study, by means of moderating variables, on the level of work satisfaction, noticeable differences were shown depending on the marital status, educational level, occupation type, disabled degree, etc. However, not meaningful differences werefound depending on the gender, age, disability type, work period, etc.
Second, the statistical analysis of general situation of disabled people has shown the following facts.
In the analysis of industrial types surveyed in this study, manufacturing facilities take up 64%, service industry 25.08%, and transportation, educational institutions, public offices and others in order of percentage. So, it is urgent to develop occupations for disabled people and to administer professional education for them.
In the analysis of educational level, high school graduates are 53.02%, and in the annual salary, salaries between ₩8,000,000 and ₩12,000,000 were 34.56% and salaries under minimum wage are 17.11%, which indicates there are still many disabled people working under minimum wages.
Third, the analysis of work satisfaction based on the demographic variables has shown the following facts.
Male disabled workers show higher work satisfaction than female disabled workers.
Older disabled workers show a little higher work satisfaction than younger disabled workers.
Married disabled workers show a little higher work satisfaction than unmarried disabled people.
Higher-educated disabled workers show higher work satisfaction than lower-educated disabled workers.
Disabled workers in managerial positions show higher work satisfaction (3.508) than those in productive positions (3.191).
Seen from the disability type and disability degree, developmental disability types show higher work satisfaction than other disability types, and slightly disabled workers show higher satisfaction than those seriously disabled. Therefore, it is urgently needed to develop jobs for seriously disabled people and to conduct studies for the promotion of their work satisfaction.
This study will surely serve as an important guideline to manage disabled workers and will contribute a lot to the productivity promotion in Korean industry. And the findings of this study will have tobe reflected on the establishment of our national labor policy.