Managing People in a Global Economy

The United States and South Korea have many cultural differences. Some of these differences may seem insignificant, while others are fundamental. It is critical for business managers to have multicultural understanding. Promoting a global perspective towards diversity and multiculturalism should begin with an understanding of cultural values, manners, social structure, and decision-making practices of different regions. This paper will discuss the major cultural differences between South Korea and the United States and the best practices that a business development manager from a US telecom firm building an ecosystem in South Korea can implement. The paper also discusses the how the business development manager leads a team of South Korean individuals, particularly in the areas of cultural values, manners, social structure, and decision-making practices, while building this ideal ecosystem.

To establish credibility with South Koreans and avoid culture shock, it is vital that the American manager understand the Korean culture dynamics, which is also necessary to successfully achieve his or her organization's business goals and objectives. Dr. S.J. Chang (2010), Associate Dean and MBA Director College of Business at Illinois State University laid out several cultural and behavioral contrasts between Americans and Koreans that can be easily observed in our daily lives. When it comes to names for example, Dr. Chang points out that "while Americans put their given name before their family name, Koreans reverse that order" (p. 3). Moreover, "Americans call people by their first name, whereas Koreans remain largely as "people with no given names." They address people by their family name with some ‘socially acceptable' title, like Dr. Zhang, Prof. Kim, etc." (p. 3).

Mannerisms are another area where discord exists between the two cultures. Common, normal, behavioral mannerisms in American society such as hand shaking, high fives and hand waving, are considered inappropriate and rude in Korean society. Furthermore, when it comes to affection and expressing thoughts, Korean society tends to keep this private. For example, Americans openly express their love and affection through kisses or hugs in public; however, Koreans avoid doing such actions in public. In addition, Americans express their thoughts by speaking out, take common gestures like hello, excuse me and thank you. In contrast, Koreans express their thoughts by just eye contacts or bodily gestures without saying such phrases (Chang, p. 4). These are some core societal culture differences that an American manager doing business in Korea has to learn in order to be a successful leader.

In regards to the organizational culture side, especially in the decision-making practices, Geert Hofstede, a German psychologist has developed five cultural dimension concepts that can assist in those who work in the international business arena. These concepts help ease the level of anxiety and frustration managers may face during the cultural adaptation process.

Dr. Hofstede defined his concept theories as following:

Power Distance Index (PDI) that is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This represents inequality (more versus less), but defined from below, not from above. It suggests that a society's level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders. Power and inequality, of course, are extremely fundamental facts of any society and anybody with some international experience will be aware that 'all societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others'.

Individualism (IDV) on the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are inte-grated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. The word 'collectivism' in this sense has no political meaning: it refers to the group, not to the state. Again, the issue addressed by this dimension is an extremely fundamental one, regarding all societies in the world.

Masculinity (MAS) versus its opposite, femininity, refers to the distribution of roles between the genders which is another fundamental issue for any society to which a range of solutions are found. The IBM studies revealed that (a) women's values differ less among societies than men's values; (b) men's