Today the Japanese management system has attracted a lot of attention from the business circles in the world so far. This study in this regard is an effort to find out the characteristics of Korean management by comparing the Korean organizational cul...
Today the Japanese management system has attracted a lot of attention from the business circles in the world so far. This study in this regard is an effort to find out the characteristics of Korean management by comparing the Korean organizational culture and Japanese organizational culture derived from.
Of course, there are many varieties of organizational cultures in one nation not only by the scale and type of business but by the top managers managerial attitude and philosophy. But on the whole these differences in organizational cultures in one nation become converged one centripetal point which is called one national organization culture.
The methodology of this study is of a 1iterature research through the collection and analysis of various books, journals and statistical materials that been published in Korea, Japan, U.S.A. and other countries. It is pointed out that the characteristics of Korean management are drawn from the background of society and the culture.
The characteristics of Korean management is summarized as follows;
1) An unequal inheritance in extreme favot to the first born son
2) Closed system to outsiders who are not related by blood
3) Age seniority in the distribution of dear items
4) Paternal execution of authority and "wha" (harmony and benevolence)
5) The obedience and loyalty of family members.
These traits are respectively reflected in Korean business management in 1) business succession 2)power structure in the company 3)personnal policy 4)superior's leadership and 5)fellow's subordination.
But Korean business in its management style and employees attitude is slowly deviating from the central traits of traditional culture. The western management style with high emphasis on rationality was the initial direction. Straight forward immitation of western management style, unfortunately, brought about many side effects.
Next, the characteristics of Japanese business management is summarized as follows;
1) Collective management (group harmony)
2) Life-time employment and seniority system
3) Family member-oriented management and management of bottom-up communication
4) Regular recruiting and unique educational training
5) Grouping of small-size enterprises and the contracting business Japanese management system enjoys a high value comparing to those of foreign countries because of its lifetime employment system, strong orientation to the collective values and the harmonious relationship between labor and capital.
But there are many groblems with which the Japanese enterprise are how facihg. For example, it is necessary to extend the retirement age limit, to set the evaluation and promotion system not by the years but by the ability, and to train the many more specialists focusing on a single specialty.
Some difference between the two organizational cultures are mainly derived from Korean traditional family system and Japanese traditional co1lective system.
In Korea they cherish the family related blood most but in Japan they cherish the collective value most. Therefore comparing the differences and similarities between the two different organizational cultures we find that there are similarities in micro levels of employee's viewpoint but the higher the micro levels the greater the difference are.
The Japanese management style caused lots of debate about its origin such as cu1ture-free theory, culture-bound theory, and convergence theory. But management technique of convergence theory, based on the Japanese society and culture, is usually recongnized widely. Accordingly it is not necessary for Korea to hurry UP in following and imitating japanese management and European style but to establish Korean management system suitable to Korea's tradtion and business climates.