Hofstede's Dimension in Korea - Essay Example

? Hofstede's dimension in Korea Table of Contents Korea’s Hofstede 3 Power Distance 4 Individualism 4 Uncertainty Avoidance 5 Masculinity vs. Femininity 6 Long Term Orientation 8 References 10 Korea’s Hofstede Korea is one of the developed countries in the Northern Eastern Asia. The country bordered by the yellow sea and Sea of Japan. The capital of the country is Seoul. It is considered as the largest city of the country. Korea is a presidential republic. In addition to this, Korea has a mixed economic system. In this system the economy of Korea has combined centralized economic planning, government regulations and variety of private freedom. Korean is the main and highly used language of the country. The language is used together with Korean and Hangul alphabet. Korea is an export driven country, focusing on the export of electronics and automobile goods and services. Figure 1: Hofstede's Five dimension in Korea There are five dimensions of Korea’s Hofstede, such as Power Distance, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Individualism, Long Term Orientation and Uncertainty Avoidance. If the essay explores the culture of Korea through the Hofstede’s Five Dimension Model lenses, then an effective overview of the deep drive of the country’s culture can be attained relative to the world’s culture. Power Distance This particular dimension deals with the fact that each and every individual in society cannot be equal. Especially, it expresses the cultural attitude of people towards the inequalities among the people in a society. Power distance can be defined as the extent to which limited powerful individuals of an organization or an institution within a society accept and expect that power is not equally distributed. The power distance score of Korea is 60. The people within the societies and communities of Korea always maintain and give value to the people who are in the top of hierarchy. Therefore, regulations and norms take huge account as the people of Korea accept a hierarchical order. Each and every individual within the society has a place that does not need further justification. Hierarchy in an institution or an organization is seen as reflecting intrinsic inequalities. In addition to this, people within the organization follow centralized structure or order. Boss or top management in an organization decides what to do. The subordinates always expected to do what their top management wants in the organization. The employees or subordinates do not raise their voice against the opinion of the boss or the top management. In a single word, people in Korean organizations give high respect to the authority and the decision making process in business management organization is totally centralized. Individualism The basic issue addressed by this particular dimension is the degree of interdependence that is maintained by a society among its each and every member. This dimension has to deal with whether the self image of people within a society is defined in terms of “WE” or “I”. There are two types of dimensions of the society, such as individualist society and collectivist society. According to the concept of individualistic society, people only can look after their direct family and themselves. On the other hand, people of collectivist society can look after or take care of the people who are belonging to the group and exchange loyalty. In terms of individualism, Korea has a score of 18. It means that the people of Korea follow collectivistic social structure and values. People of Korea have close long-term commitment to each and every member of the group (Greet-Hofstede, 2012, p.1). Loyalty in the collectivist culture over-rides several societal rules and regulations. In addition to this, this collectivist culture is considered as paramount. A particular society fosters strong relationship where each and every member within a group takes significant responsibility for fellow group members. Koreans always like to follow the collective decision of family (Lee and Boster, 1992, pp. 11-13). The preference of an individual within a family or an organization can be neglected due to this collectivist social structure concept. For example, a marketing manager of a production house cannot take individual decision until and unless top management of the organization approves the proposal. In some cases, it can be denied and can be accepted by the managers within that organization. People of Korea are highly committed to others society or community (Park and Johnson, 1984, p.8). The people of Korea always prefer working in groups. In addition to this, promotion, hiring and recruitment of employees within the organization are not assessed by the basis on individual work or decision making process. These collective process helped several organizations in Korea to achieve market demand as well as business objectives. Uncertainty Avoidance The Uncertainty Avoidance dimension deals with the way that a community or a society deals with several unpredictable and possible future facts. Strong uncertainty avoidance dimension helps a society or a community or an entire country to control the unpredictable and possible future occurrence. Uncertainty avoidance can be treated as the degree to which the individuals or the members of a social or cultural group consider threatened by unknown situations that have developed several institutions and beliefs that try to avoid this. This aspect can be reflected in the score of uncertainty avoidance. Korea is considered as the most uncertain country around the globe as the uncertainty score of the country is 85. It is true that Korea is considered and recognized as highly structured country. The people of Korea in the business organizations understand and realize the significance of the hard work (Okazaki, 2012, p.25). In addition to this, they always maintain punctuality and follow the norms, policies and rules of the institutions and organizations. It is very difficult to make strong business relationship for a new client with an existing leading business organization. For example, the top management or high official or executive of an organization give priority to time, behavior, punctuality and attitude of a client during the business interaction process. The business organizations in Korea always follow formal and discipline communication structure. However, being secured is one of the important and significant parts of motivation according to the views of the people of Korea. Generally Koreans are afraid of change. In addition to this, they do not feel comfortable with risks. Therefore, they give value to effective future planning and decision making process. Therefore, the people of Korea follow strict policies, rules, regulations, and laws in business process. In addition to this, the organization implements the developed rules and policies in order to reduce the risk of future uncertainty in business. Masculinity vs. Femininity The masculinity vs. femininity is an important cultural dimension of a country. The score of this particular dimension indicates that the country is either male driven or female driven country. High masculine score on this dimension can indicate that the society of a country is driven by achievement, competition and success. Generally success is being defined by the winner. On the other hand, low score on this dimension mean that the country is feminine oriented. It means that the dominant values in the society of a country are quality of life and caring of other individuals within the society. Korea scores 39 on this dimension. It means that the country’s society is considered as the feminine society (Asante, Miike and Yin, 2013, p.281). This score and societal status indicates that the society of the country believes in cooperation and encouragement where the relationship among the individuals is highly valued. The organizations always try to follow effective workplace environment. In addition to this, the organizations always try to avoid several types of workplace conflicts. Compromise and negotiations are considered as the keys to settle several types of workplace conflicts. The organizations in Korea effectively implemented workplace diversity. Moreover, the organization always gives respect to the employees of all genders to reduce the possibility of several conflicts. It is important to maintain cultural aspects in the organizations to motivate the employees and meet business objectives. In workplaces several forms of incentives, such as flexibility and free time are appreciated. People of Korea put importance on values of solidarity, quality and equality. The Koreans always give respect to the people of several cultural backgrounds. They always believe in collaborative work and group performance. In addition to this, they always give importance to the result of entire group effort as they believe that team’s or group’s performance can help the individuals to grow their personal and professional life (Peterson, Smith and Akande, 1995, p.8). The organizations in Korea always believe in well being. According to the Korean cultural value and beliefs, competition and self-achievement motivation always hamper the workplace environment. An effective manager should be supportive to entire team and the decision making can be achieved through involvement. Long Term Orientation Long term orientation dimension can be defined as the extent to which a society of a country a realistic future oriented perspective rather than a conservative historical short-term point of view. This particular dimension is closely related to the Confucius’ teachings. In addition to this, the long term orientation dimension can be understood as the dealing with the search of that particular society for virtue. Korea scored 75 regarding this dimension. This high dimension clearly indicates that Korea is one of the long term oriented societies. The notion of the almighty god is not quite familiar with the people of Korea. People always follow practical things (Sondergaard, 1994, p.9). The people of Korea always live their lives guided by several inspirational practical examples and several valuable virtues. This long term orientation concept can be seen in several developed policies and business practices. The long term orientation concept can be seen in higher own capital rate. In addition to this, it can be stated that priority to steady market share growth rate rather than priority to the quarterly profit is an effective example of long term orientation plan in Korean business concepts (Kim and Kim, 2010, p.16). The business owners always try to serve the durability of the organizations. Moreover, the employees of the organization abide by the rules and regulations that are developed by the organization. It ensures quality business performance and long term sustainable career growth of the individuals. In addition to this, the organizations or the policy developers attain huge reputation. The organizations do not believe in only making money and profit. They focus on sustainable business practices and output. They always give value to their each and every shareholder and stakeholder. The companies always take the responsibility of good and bad business outputs and try to solve the issue trough long-term plan development process. The organizations strongly avoid the concept of continuous change of strategies and policies. References Asante, M., Miike, Y., and Yin, J., 2013. The Global Intercultural Communication Reader. London: Routledge. Greet-Hofstede., 2012. South Korea. [Online]. Available from: . [Accessed on October 4, 2013]. Kim, Y., and Kim, S., 1998. Cultural constraints on transfer of technology across nations: Implications for research in international and comparative management. Academy of Management Review, 15(2), p.16. Lee, H., and Boster, F., 1992. Collectivism-Individualism in Perceptions of Speech Rate A Cross-Cultural Comparison. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 31(1), pp. 11-13. Okazaki, S., 2012. Handbook of Research on International Advertising. London: Edward Elgar. Park, J., and Johnson, R., 1984. Moral Development in Rural and Urban Korea. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 12(3), p.8. Peterson, M., Smith, P., Akande, A., 1995. Role, Conflict, Ambiguity and Overload. International management of Journal, 17(3), p.8. Sondergaard, M., 1994. Research Note: Hofstede’s Consequences. Organization Studies, 42(3), p.9. Read More