The aim of this study is to examine the characteristics of North Koreas workplace culture, which can be distinguished from official culture. Specifically, this study closely examined the diversity of workplace culture and labor identity, focusing on c...
The aim of this study is to examine the characteristics of North Koreas workplace culture, which can be distinguished from official culture. Specifically, this study closely examined the diversity of workplace culture and labor identity, focusing on compliance and resistance toward labor discipline and organizational order within the factory. From the results of the study, I drew the following conclusion. First, the central concepts of workplace culture in North Korea are maintenance of the status quo and security. Also, human nature characteristics like heteronomy and variation of collectivism can be found. Human relations within the workplace can be distinguished as reciprocity and negotiation. Second, North Korean workers form dual or multiple identities which exert influence on the degree of consent and form of resistance in the workplace. But the resistance is not always successful or subversive. Third, social economic changes have induced an identity crisis for North Korean workers, and individual workers have equipped themselves with new countermeasures to maintain their own security.