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By Tom Coyner
Korea Times
May 23, 2006
In last week’s column, I reviewed pointers
offered by expatriate executives to newly arrived foreigners. One of the
consistent points to come out of those 20 interviews is that success comes
down to the personal touches. Expatriate executives may
be sent to Korea
due to their special expertise, but their overall success will largely be
premised on their general attitude towards getting along with their Korean
workers. Repeatedly I heard how important it is to go out early and have
one-on-one meetings with one’s staff to get individuals’ views
and concerns about themselves and the company -- and most important, to
build personal bonds.
Making this kind of extra effort is often not easy or second nature. But it
is important to get to know one’s colleagues on both a personal and a
professional level. One often has a choice of socializing with one’s
own nationals or with the Koreans. While sometimes choosing to spend
precious personal time with Koreans may not seem natural due to culture and
language, I frequently heard that one should make an effort to be part of
Korean society and not just dwell in the foreign ghetto. Even if the
foreigner doesn't speak Korean, there is no excuse. There
is usually a Korean who speaks some English and who is willing to try to be
one’s friend -- and that can be critical to one’s
overall success in Korea.
Yet, expats often exclude Koreans from their personal, social activities.
It is a very good idea to include even some of one’s employees in
one’s activities, including when hosting dinners at home. And some of
the interviewees recommended making it a point to introduce Korean friends
to foreign friends.
It is important to find an entrance into any society in which one lives. If
the expat brings along a family, he or she should introduce them to Koreans
whenever possible. Koreans love children and one should try to bring them
along at every opportunity, including to employees’ weddings.
At work, Koreans have a strong sense of community, and resent the person
who regularly retires early during a company dinner or frequently begs off
a night out on the town with co-workers. Actually, they, too, would like to
go home to their families but feel it is more important to the
group’s success to build strong, personal relations with each other.
In Korea,
personal relationship building comes first. As one European president put
it, ``If I were to do things over again, I would have done more
face-to-face personal relations building, such as over soju. For example, I worked a
great deal of the first year on a deal that was never
concluded. The customer would often come back to issues that I
thought were agreed upon or kept niggling on
agreed upon clauses. I suspect the reason why he did this was fear of
possibly being taken advantage by a foreigner.’’
In other words, this executive had not yet learned then the importance of
building a personal relationship before expecting to close the deal. What
applies inside of the company often applies outside the company.
Those foreigners who have lived and worked in other Northeast Asian
countries generally have a much easier time adapting compared to someone
who has never worked in Asia -- or even someone who
has worked in Southeast Asia. Westerners who have
never worked in the Orient, for example, often develop a negative attitude.
One German was so alienated by a Korean
worker’s loud slurping of noodles one evening that he had little to
do with that employee for the entire remainder of his tenure in Korea.
As obvious as the need may seem to go the extra mile as an expat, when it
comes to day-to-day choices over the long haul, it’s too often too
easy to duck out of opportunities to spend more time with one’s
Korean staff. Given family, civic and other social responsibilities, this
is entirely understandable. But there is a need for balance.
A law enforcement professional working in one of the embassies in Seoul
is known as ``the family man’’ since he reserves weekends to be
with his young family. But at the same time, he frequently spends weekday
evenings getting to know his Korean counterparts in various police
agencies. Though he does not speak Korean, he is highly effective in his
mission as these counterparts now grant him personal favors and provide
information not often shared with foreigners.
So there is a balance between personal time and time invested after hours
with Koreans. The best balance may not be one’s natural preference
upon arrival. Yet those who make the appropriate adjustments succeed; those
who are not so accommodating can look forward to shipping out much too soon.
Ultimately, it’s one of those choices that have to be
made - and the sooner it’s decided the better.
Tom Coyner is president of Soft Landing Korea, an
international sales consulting firm and coauthor of an upcoming book on a
practical guide to doing business in Korea.
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