A Comparative Study on the Founder’s Management Philosophy and Organizational Culture of Three Electronic Makers in Korea, China and Japan
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Lim Oeseuk 
Published: June 2018

The best global companies has in common strong organizational culture. The reason is because the company with strong organizational culture can centralize an ability of organizational members in one place for a strategic target. This strong organizational culture is generally based on the management philosophy of the founder who showed the powerful leadership. The management philosophy of the founder confined in a recognition dimension is conveyed the employees of organization through codification such as the company motto, vision, and corporate philosophy. Then the language and action of founder affect employees through usual management activities.
The management philosophy of the founder is taken and spread to members through the codification of such management philosophy and the sustained words and acts of founders. And the unique organizational culture only for the company is formed through the sharing process and penetration of founder’s management philosophy. When a corporate establish and proceed the strategic direction, the organizational culture will become the powerful infrastructure and driving force to gather the abilities of employees in that direction. If the abilities of employees is gathered in a strategic direction, the corporate’s business performance is increased, as a result, the corporate grow up.
This study started from the promise that the management philosophy of the founder will have a big influence on organizational culture of corporate, and analyzed the cases of Samsung Electronics, Haier, and Sony.
In the study method, the exploratory study was started through the original quotation and the reference of precedent study in a base with the various documents which associated with three companies and founders as follows.
At first, I looked for what the management philosophy of the founder was while researching corporate philosophy known by codification and a series of words and acts appeared through an administrative action of founders. As a result, the management philosophy of Ho-Am Byung-chull Lee who was the founder of the Samsung Electronics is contributism started from returning thanks for nation through business. The management philosopy of Ruimin Zhang who is the founder of the Haier is contributism started from returning thanks for nation through hard working. The management philosopy of Masaru Ibuka and Akira Morit who were the co-founders of the Sony is contributism started from nation reconstruction and cultural elevation. Their management philosophies are equally contributism.
It was understood that the management philosophies of contributism of founders were early returning thanks for nation or national reconstruction, but expended the range by contribution to human society now.
Next, I seek for their characteristics after analyzing the organizational culture of three companies which was influence by the management philosophy of the founder.
As a result, Samsung’s organizational culture is innovative culture, competitive culture, and performance-based culture. Haier’s organizational culture is creative culture, speedy culture, and familism culture. And Sony’s organizational culture is exploratory culture, ability-oriented culture, and familism culture.
By the comprehensive analysis of the last, It was briefly presented common and the similarities, differences, implications based on the management philosophy of three founders and organizational culture in three companies.
In addition, we could know that the relative strength of Samsung Electronics is the highest, followed by Haier and Sony when comparing the organizational culture of three companies within the framework of the tension on achievement of a task.
It was interesting points that the strength of this organizational culture matches the order of the current global competitiveness of three companies.