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Do's & Don'ts for
Foreign Employees – Part I
By Tom Coyner
Korea Times
Nov.
15, 2006
This
is part one of a two-part series, based on my interviews of foreigners who
have been or are working for Korean companies. These interviews were done
as background material for my book that will be available from January
2007. While many interviewees were enthusiastic to share their frustrations
with me, others were equally eager to offer advice on how to survive and
even thrive in Korean corporations.
While
for decades foreigners have worked in Korean companies in Korea, most
job responsibilities have been limited to English-language related roles
ranging from teaching business English skills to proofreading English
translations, etc. In the past decade, some of the bigger Korean
corporations have recognized the need to bring in foreign specialists as a
way to help move the pendulum from the current 80/20 mix of
generalists/specialists to more specialists. For that reason, besides
internal development towards greater specialization, some Korean firms are
hiring foreign specialists.
Often
Korean managers have a good understanding of the rest of the world on an
individual basis, but their organizations often are not well prepared to
accommodate foreigners. Furthermore, while Korean firms expect foreigners
to learn and adapt to Korea
while in Korea,
Korean managers are notorious in insisting that everyone in their offices
abroad act like Koreans. Again, this is not so much of a reflection on
individual Korean employees but rather Korean corporations are at this
stage struggling through a maturation process necessary to take them into
the international arena.
Koreans
can view recruited foreign executives as providers of ``free'' knowledge,
but there is a price for that knowledge. One cannot expect to learn
anything without changing one's behavior, one's perspective and possibly
one's status. It is hard to accept change anywhere, and that is a price
that many do not wish to pay. So, one may need to temper one's expectations
_ even if one finds an enthusiastic initial reception on one's arrival.
Often
Korean staff members are uninterested in getting assistance from foreign
managers unless such aid will clearly assist them in obtaining their next
promotion. This is particularly true if that help is being offered from
outside of the local manager's department.
In
fact, sometimes a foreigner's expertise can be viewed as a threat in
revealing inadequacies to a Korean manager's knowledge, particularly if
that expertise is coming from another department.
New
foreign employees are frequently given impressive job titles. The titles
have often little to do with the actual responsibilities but only with the
pay. The Human Resources departments can be very bureaucratic and rigid in assigning
job titles according to pay grades. Since foreigners generally need higher
salaries to entice them to work for Korean companies, they are often given
job titles above their actual job responsibilities. This can be
particularly awkward if the expatriate is a young person and works with
Korean staff of greater seniority but with similar or even lower job
titles.
In
addition, the common case is for the foreign manager to arrive with a good
salary and title but discover there are no reporting staff members. Those
foreign managers who are viewed as being ``lucky'' by other foreign
managers at Korean companies are those who are recruited to accomplish a
specific mission as opposed to upgrade the knowledge of the Korean staff;
and who are assigned with reporting staff from the beginning to assist them
in accomplishing their mission.
It
is very important that if one considers working in a Korean firm in Korea that
one gets a detailed job description with specific duties and description of
where one will be in the organization. Getting such a job description is no
panacea from being given a somewhat different job upon arrival, but it will
minimize friction and misunderstanding from the Korean perspective.
Also,
one should be aware of motivations by one's non-Korean recruiter or
reference people. Often Korean corporate performance appraisals consist of
``evaluation points'' and some of the points can be based on the ability of
the expatriate employee to recruit other foreigners. So, if a foreigner
approaches one to work in his company, there is a good chance that the
recruiter is at least being motivated to get a better performance
evaluation.
For
example, a 30-year-old American working in a Korean corporation was shocked
by this reality when he arrived in Korea. Given the recruiter's
explanations and descriptions of the job, he was not prepared mentally to
deal with how the Korean culture operates on different age layers and how
Koreans routinely interact differently as determined by one's age.
Often
the age barrier in Korean companies is the reason why younger, brighter
employees are not promoted faster. Often one has to reach a certain age to
be eligible for higher responsibilities and compensation. It is often a
shock for Americans who have strong, personal reputations of professional
expertise and achievement elsewhere to find that they are not as well
regarded in Korea
for their professional skills.
All
of this can lead to alienation and frustration of foreign managers in
Korean firms. The largest causes of frustration are:
* Routine exclusion from ongoing business
activities: sometimes this is due to the language barrier and sometimes it
is done intentionally for political reasons since foreigners can be too
eager to offer their expertise. Also, since foreigners are often given high
status job titles, the Korean natural deference to senior managers can make
communication even more difficult.
* Korean managers are often awkward in accepting
foreigners parachuted into their midst by the international human resources
department. They sometimes are not sure how or where they fit in to the
day-to-day operations.
* The firm's recruiters further complicate
matters by intentionally or unintentionally misrepresenting to prospective
foreign managers what the nature of their work responsibilities will be.
Most foreigners are recruited as subject matter experts, but find them
largely ignored by the rest of the company, partially for the above-stated
reasons.
* Often foreigners get irritated by what seem,
at times, almost daily requests to give monetary donations due to someone's
wedding, child's birth, relative's funeral, etc. The fortunate expat
managers can claim these as company expenses, but many find these to be
constant drains on their personal finances. Koreans expect those managers
with significant titles to contribute to all such requests. Among Korean
managers this form of personal charity comes along with the territory and
it is a form of noblesse oblige that comes with personal success. For the
parachuted foreigner, who may be wondering if he or she has any real
authority, these obligatory donations can be viewed as insults upon injury.
Next
week, we will continue this review with a special focus on the gyopo or ``hyphenated Korean''
(e.g., Korean-American, Korean-Australian) managers in both Korean and
multinational environments.
Tom Coyner, a long-term
resident in Korea, runs consulting firm, Soft Landing Korea.
Coyner can be reached on softlandingkorea.com.
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