A Study on Ethical Management of South Korean Companies : Focusing on the introduced Ethical Management model of the Germany Companies
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Lee Ju-Eun 
Published: June 2018

In the current corporate world, the ethical management is not just an option but a way of corporate survival. This kind of change is not just a temporary phenomena but a clear permanent demand in the current times. Up to now, the companies have focused on the profit making only. However, the current trend asks the companies to undertake their economic, social and environmental obligations in proportion to the profit making. So, in the global market, the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ethical Round (ER) and other organization were established and ISO 26000, corporate sustain ability index and other code of corporate ethical conduct were defined to enhance the ethical management.
Korean companies have tried to introduce the ethical management system to participate in the world trend. But the effect is just superficial, and it is far away to realize the world class ethical management system. So, it is urgently needed to get the method for realizing the world class systematic ethical management. So, this study is designed to find out any problems in the ethical management in Korean companies and find the practical method of realizing it. For this objective, the research will be done on the principles of ethical management in German companies, such as social partnership, cooperative and cultural relation or the humanitarian ethical management which enables to coexist the public benefit and private benefits through the prevention of moral hazard. It also is designed to apply them to the current Korean companies.
The problems in the ethical management in Korean companies are as follows. First, in the economic field, the large companies keep the unfair corporate governance and practice the unfair transactions under the protection by government, courts and educational institutes, thus dominating the market unfairly and breaking the market order and balance and finally leading to the lowered national prestige and competitiveness. Second, in the social field, the large companies have the strong connection with political, legal and educational circles and get various benefits from them, exact the unfair profits from small and medium sized companies through the unfair transactions, thus making the small and medium companies bankrupt and leading to severe gap in wealth between upper class and lower class, increases in the crime and lowered consumer’s sentiment. Third, in the environmental fields, companies pour out a lot of industrial wastes generated during their operation to the environment, thus causing severe water contamination and air pollution and, leading to the severe damages to people and environment. As a way to improve the corporate unethical management in Korea, the government’s actions are required to prevent the unfair profit and transaction by large companies and correct their unfair corporate governance in the large companies. To solve these problems, it would be good to get German ethical management system and keep the large companies from exercising their economic exploitation, unilateral profit making and predatory abuse of power. In addition, the government and the companies shall make the partnership relation to control the asymmetrical power and the profit of the large companies. The corporate governance shall be made in a way that all related parties keep the social partnership, recognize each other and make the balanced power allocation. In addition, the joint decision making in consultation with the corporate interested parties can facilitate them to participate in the joint and participatory community. These practical items shall be used to the corporate management environment in Korea as they prevent the large companies from exercising the unfair monopoly but help to realize the fair profit distribution and transparent management, thus preventing the social polarization through the balance and order and making possible the mutual growth and sustainable management.