Managing Korean Business: Organization, Culture, Human Resources and Change

Managing Korean Business: Organization, Culture, Human Resources and Change. Edited by Chris Rowley, Tae-Won Sohn, and Johngseok Bae. London: Frank Cass, 2002. Pp. 212. Before 1997, Korea's business model has been considered by many to be a mechanism of the Korean economic miracle. The Asian financial crisis in 1997 destroyed such an image, and since then, positive and negative views on the Korean model have come out. This book avoids such extreme views and develops more sophisticated views on the Korean model. According to the book, the cause of the crisis in Korea is attributable to both external and internal factors. The book asserts that the recent problems faced by Korean businesses may not be due to the Asian business model, but a general crisis of models that include Fordism, Keynesianism, and Welfare statism. Its approach is fresh and has profound implication upon the studies of Asian business organizations. Managing Korean Business provides an evolutionary view on the Korean model and analyses the capabilities of this model at firm level rather than at national level. Its analysis is quite different from past simplistic business literature that tends to be plagued by universalism and searching for the best "practice". The evolutionary approach of this book allows readers to better understand the substantial change of Korean business environment since the 1997 Asian crisis. The contributors to the book provide quite diverse foci and perspectives to the topic. Shim and Steers (Chapter 2) analyse the past accomplishments and liabilities of entrepreneurial Korean firms. Instead of crony capitalism, they argue that the principal cause of the crisis was a failure of the management to adjust to the rapidly changing business environment. According to them, there is an urgent need for a "managerial revolution" to streamline and modernize approaches to both organization and management because the entrepreneurship of Korean owner-- management, which once worked as a source of competitive advantage, has turned into a liability as it has become bureaucratic and non-responsive in nature. Oh and Park (Chapter 3) analyse the success and failure of the two biggest Korean conglomerates - Samsung and Hyundai. They argue that the chaebol (Korean business conglomerate) structure is stable but it would be difficult for chaebols to change. They highlight the fact that the chaebol structure defies existing theoretical frameworks (for example, AngloAmerican-type orthodox) and better theoretical perspectives should be developed. Cho and Yoon (Chapter 4) analyse the origins, functions, and influences of dynamic collectivism embedded in Korean corporate culture, which is formed by three driving forces: cultural legacy, social climate, and corporate leadership. They argue that these three factors, once considered capabilities for Korean firms, have now become liabilities. Park (Chapter 5) evaluates the effectiveness of campaigning approaches to cultural change and the reasons for their success and failure. He argued that Korean firms' organizational "culture change campaigns" since the mid-1980s were not successful due to lack of professional competencies and short-sighted views. …