The typical view of Korean women is not as managers. The stereotype is of Korean women serving and pleasing men, or more recently as aggressive shopkeepers and bar-owners. Very little has been written to challenge this misconception. This fascinating book reveals there have always been managers amongst Korean women, particularly in occupations like money lending, retail and fashion, and women continue to serve after the economic crash at the beginning of a new century. Korean Women Managers and Corporate Culture illuminates the many roles of women - from management, leadership and policy making, to the more traditional positions as homemaker and wife – and describes the distinctive Korean corporate culture and economy in order to evaluate the future of women as well as that of Korea itself.
The book focuses on the historical, political, economic, and cultural elements of Korea and the strong influence these have on women leaders in the nation. It examines challenges and opportunities for women leaders as they try to balance their professional and personal lives. A team of leading experts familiar with the aspirations and frustrations of Korean women offer insight into the coexistence of traditional and modern values. It is an eye-opening look at the convergence and divergence across Korean sectors that international leadership researchers, students, and managers need to know in order to realize and appreciate the potential of Korean women leaders.
Throughout the last several decades, Korean companies have entered the world markets in a wide range of manufacturing industries with great success. How did they achieve this exceptional performance? This book uncovers the secret of their performance through a comprehensive analysis of the Korean management system. It explains to an international audience how it has developed, why it works so well, and what non-Koreans can learn from it. The book analyzes the management of Korean firms from three different perspectives. First, a historical perspective is applied by showing how Tiger Management has emerged and how it has been continuously advanced over the last 50 years. The breathtaking stories of how Korean companies, seemingly coming from nowhere, have challenged their Western and Japanese competitors on the world markets are told. Second, the cornerstones of Tiger Management are analyzed from a functional viewpoint, showing that the success of Korean companies rests on a smart combination of business strategy, leadership, and human resource management practices. Finally, the present and future of Tiger Management is discussed by showing how Korean companies have adapted to changes in their business environment at home and abroad, and what non-Korean companies can learn from their Korean rivals. The book gives an up-to-date analysis of Korean management practices from a global perspective. It identifies the success factors of Korean companies: long term, aggressive and persisting business planning, speed, flexibility, strong leadership, strong teamwork, and high investment into human skills and capabilities. It illustrates how these management practices complement each other and provides non-Korean companies with signposts how they can adopt them.
According to a recent study by the ILO (2001), women’s share of the labour force is increasing worldwide. Today, women’s participation rate in the labour force is over 40 per cent of the global workforce. Higher educational levels and falling fertility rates have contributed to this increased participation. There is also some evidence that women in some Asian countries may be less marginalised in their advancement into top managerial positions than their counterparts elsewhere. As women become more educated and qualified for managerial positions, the number of Asian women managers and executives is predicted to rise over the next decade. This book examines the opportunities and barriers for women managers in Asia and presents an update on their progress in management. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Asian Pacific Business Review.
This edited collection examines the changing contours of Korean management and business, presenting recent scholarly research into this important Asian economic player. As one of the original ‘Little Dragon’ or ‘Tiger’ economies, South Korea has grown and prospered since the early years of the 1960s, and is now home to several major word-class multinational companies, such as Hyundai and LG, Samsung. In turn, it has developed a distinctive style of management, which derives from a shared Asian heritage but is nonetheless unique to South Korea. The collection covers a variety of themes, topics and issues from a range of perspectives and fields in management and business studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.
Alena Ledeneva invites you on a voyage of discovery, to explore society’s open secrets, unwritten rules and know-how practices. Broadly defined as ‘ways of getting things done’, these invisible yet powerful informal practices tend to escape articulation in official discourse. They include emotion-driven exchanges of gifts or favours and tributes for services, interest-driven know-how (from informal welfare to informal employment and entrepreneurship), identity-driven practices of solidarity, and power-driven forms of co-optation and control. The paradox, or not, of the invisibility of these informal practices is their ubiquity. Expertly practised by insiders but often hidden from outsiders, informal practices are, as this book shows, deeply rooted all over the world, yet underestimated in policy. Entries from the five continents presented in this volume are samples of the truly global and ever-growing collection, made possible by a remarkable collaboration of over 200 scholars across disciplines and area studies. By mapping the grey zones, blurred boundaries, types of ambivalence and contexts of complexity, this book creates the first Global Map of Informality. The accompanying database is searchable by region, keyword or type of practice, so do explore what works, how, where and why! Praise for The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality ‘The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality represents the beginning of a new era in informality studies. With its wealth of information, diversity, scope, theoretical innovation and artistic skill, this collection touches on all the aspects of social and cultural complexity that need to be integrated into policy thinking.’ Predrag Cveti?anin, Centre for Empirical Cultural Studies of South-East Europe, Belgrade, Serbia ‘This is a monumental achievement – an indispensable reference for anyone in the social sciences interested in informality.’ Martin Holbraad, Professor of Social Anthropology, UCL, and editor-in-chief of Social Analysis ‘This impressive work helps us understand our complex times by showing how power develops through informal practices, mobilizing emotional, cognitive and relational mechanisms in strategies of survival, but also of camouflage and governance.’ Donatella della Porta, Director of Centre of Social Movements Studies, Scuola normale superiore, Firenze, Italy ‘An impressive, informative, and intriguing collection. With evident passion and patience, the team of 250 researchers insightfully portrays the multiplicity of informal and often invisible expressions of human interdependence.’ Subi Rangan, Professor of Strategy and Management, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France ‘This compendium of terms used in different cultures to express aspects of informal economy provides a unique supplement to studies of a major (yet understated by academic economics) social issue. It will be of key significance for in-depth teaching of sociology, economics and history.’ Teodor Shanin, OBE Professor and President of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences ‘Modern states have sought to curb, control and subdue informality. The entries in the Global Encyclopaedia demonstrate the endurance of informality over such efforts. More recently, the rise and political success of anti-establishment movements in so many parts of the world is a wide-ranging challenge and delegitimisation of national and transnational formal institutions of governance. Understanding the perceived shortcomings of formal institutions and the appeal of anti-establishment movements must at least in part be informed by a study of informality and its networks. This Encyclopaedia is essential reading if we wish to understand and engage with these challenges of our age.’ Fredrik Galtung, Chairman, Integrity Action
This book, based on a conference, examines both quantitative and qualitative evidence regarding the low employment of women scientists and engineers in the industrial work force of the United States, as well as corporate responses to this underparticipation. It addresses the statistics underlying the question "Why so few?" and assesses issues related to the working environment and attrition of women professionals.
This book explores the unique socioeconomic challenges encountered by female leaders in China, India, Japan, Korea, and other Asian countries where traditional cultural expectations and modernized values coexist. It provides insight into gender inequality and underutilization of female talent as well as ways to develop highly qualified women in organizations. Chapters from expert contributors analyze the similarities and differences between each Asian country, the organizational and institutional challenges for women in the workplace, and how they balance work-family relationships. It will appeal to researchers and students in human resource development, management, leadership, Asia studies, women’s studies, and political science, among others.
The influence of Asian cultures and religious traditions has often been used to explain Asian women’s under-utilisation and under-representation in management. This book examines the influence of culture and tradition on organisational and management practices, and how these affect the progress of women in management in Asian economies. This book, written by prominent scholars of the Asian region, explores which organizational and management practices are universal, and which other aspects (such as human resource practices) are culture specific, and how these in turn affect the advancement / representation of women in the Asian region. Higher educational levels, falling fertility rates and sectoral changes have contributed to women’s increasing participation in the labour force. As women become more educated and qualified for managerial positions, the number of Asian women managers and executives is predicted to rise over the next decade. The Asian economies covered by this up-to-date collection have undergone rapid economic transformation. Until now, most research on contemporary women managers has been drawn from studies conducted in developed countries. Covering case studies in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, this book uses different perspectives to examine the constraints, opportunities and challenges for women managers in the Asian context and presents an update on their progress in management.
South Korea has been recognised as a pivotal economic force within its region. This book explores the key areas of management, exploring the opportunities and challenges that managers face. Incorporating expert contributions, this book provides a complete overview of the current state of management in South Korea.
