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Do's & Don'ts for
Foreign Employees – Part I
(Get A Korean Mentor
to Succeed in Business)
By Tom Coyner
Korea Times (web
site)
Nov.
29, 2006
Some of the successful
foreign managers in Korean corporations have found survival tactics. One
American was able to find a Korean mentor. The senior Korean manager
counseled him that the first couple of years is like being in hibernation.
It is important to keep low profile, don't compare what one sees with the
US, keep opinions generally to oneself, and try to understand why some
things that appear to be ``wrong'' when there is often a good reason within
the Korean context.
A common breakdown in
relations can be traced to contrary expectations between the foreign
manager and the Korean employer. Many Korean companies do not expect
miracles from their foreign employees during the first months or even
longer. Rather, they expect the foreigners to learn about the companies and
to make an effort to become part of the team. In contrast, well-meaning
Western employees start feeling guilty after a couple of months of not
adequately earning their salaries. They then often try to advance their
unsolicited expertise into the organization. Compared to Koreans,
Westerners tend to show off and come off lacking a proper sense of humility
-- and Koreans can misinterpret that as not showing a proper sense of
loyalty.
From many Korean
managers' perspectives, it is most important not to be a jerk but try to
get along with folks as a nice person. During the first couple of years,
mediocre or even worse performance can be overlooked if the person is
genuinely trying to fit in with the rest of the team. On the other hand,
employment contracts are sometimes not renewed due to non-performance or
inadequate performance by the foreign employee. So there is a balance that
the foreign employee must learn or be advised. In short, a great attitude
will normally be one's best, but not only, attribute for success and survival.
Speaking of survival,
one should get to know how one's Korean company conducts its -- and one's
own-- performance appraisals. For example, supervising managers do not
largely do performance appraisals in some corporations. The overall
distribution of appraisal scores and grades can have a large-scale
influence on the final individual appraisal results. Often the number of
appraisals by grade is pre-ordained, such as by a pre-determined bell
curve. Often the best appraisals are reserved to senior and older managers
since for them not to get a high rating could quickly lead to early,
involuntary retirement. Also, married men supporting families tend to rate
better than single women. From an individual employee's perspective, this
may not seem to be fair, but from the group's concern for the overall
welfare of the employees, there is a rationale.
In many Korean
companies, it is important for foreigners to speak Korean as there are not
enough resources to be constantly translating and interpreting for the
English-only speaker. There may be a beginning of a sea change where
Koreans are beginning to expect foreigners to speak Korean if they plan to
be working for the long haul-- particularly in positions that deal directly
with Korean customers.
In any event, if a
foreigner is promoted to a senior sang-mu directorship or higher, it can be
important that he or she have good Korean language skills. The expat may
have some great ideas and strategies, but he has to rely on the local staff
to implement these ideas correctly _ and that normally requires monitoring
in the local language. In the lower management positions the
responsibilities are fewer and the span of control less, and so is the need
for monitoring in the Korean language.
If one works at a
globally positioned company, one's English skills will be better
appreciated. But for firms focused on the local market, Korean language
skills become more required and English skills less needed.
Regardless in which
language they may be conducted, meetings in Korea often do not result in
decisions. They are mainly for consensus building or gaining awareness of
what the most influential or powerful members are thinking. The real
decisions frequently take place in informal settings.
At times, it seems
critical information is never given directly but only indirectly -- often
over drinks and ``under the table.'' It's not unusual when drinking to
discover there is another or more parties with important influences or
concerns. One then must often schmooze that person to develop a
relationship for support of a project or an idea. Commonly, during the
evening, that person is non-committal, but often the next day he or she
comes back in full support.
Because of culture,
subordinates do not express their thoughts and opinions. Consequently,
foreigners can mistake their subordinates to be incompetent when they are
actually highly skilled.
It takes time for
Koreans to get used to Western consensus style management -- as opposed to
the special dynamics of Korean group decision-making. This apparent
contradiction can trip up foreigners when after hours of consensus
building, top-down orders are issued in an autocratic or military fashion.
Often the foreigner has been unwittingly party to the lengthy behind-the-scenes
consensus building, but only sees the orders being issued. Some Koreans
never seem to make the transition to a Western open-to-discussion
management style _ and some Westerners never really understand how Korean
management decisions are being made.
Similarly, Koreans
approach project development differently than Westerners. Westerners act
and interact directly and logically -- thrashing out competing ideas and
opinions and then coming to a resolution. Koreans work out things more
indirectly and socially in a prolonged consensus process. Consequently,
something that may be resolved in an hour in the West can take a week or
longer in Korea.
Regardless if one is
working in a foreign or domestic company in Korea, drinking can be a big
issue -- and often a health hazard -- for many managers, foreign and Korean
alike. Depending on one's boss, alibis along health and religious lines may
or may not be respected. A less tolerant boss may not say anything but he
may convey that he is making sacrifices by regular drinking to build a
stronger team and one is failing as a team member in not making similar
sacrifices.
As a foreigner, one can
superficially ``get away with it,'' but if one is planning to work in a
Korean company for the long haul, this issue can be an obstacle. Yet there
are successful Korean tee totaling managers who have mastered the art of
nursing a single shot of soju all evening after modestly explaining their
religious beliefs or health restrictions.
It is all about working
the web of personal relations. That is why it is so difficult to take
business from another company even if one has a better business
proposition. Often the customer has long-time, in-depth personal relations
with the other vendor's personnel, including receiving many personal favors
to the employees and their families from that vendor.
The real power in Korea
is in-mek or ``personal network.'' As a foreigner, one is not
expected to have good in-mek but
one can develop a relationship with a Korean mentor or partner within one's
business who does -- and who can teach one the cultural subtleties of being
successful in Korea.
In the end, it may be critical to find such a mentor or partner. And with
enough time and exposure, one may join the other foreigners who have been
able to develop their own respectable in-mek.
Korean Returnees (Kyopo)
During the past two
decades, Korea
has largely benefited from a reverse brain drain. Young Koreans raised and
educated abroad have returned to Korea
to pursue their careers in both foreign and domestic companies in Korea.
Often these returnees, as well as their families who continue to reside
abroad, are called ``kyopo'' -- a term referring to overseas or
long-term expatriate (in the original sense of the word) nationals.
Korean-speaking kyopo
are treated as 100% Koreans so that when they stumble by not knowing the
exact, appropriate Korean language term, and/or substitutes with an English
word, they are thought of being less educated or worse. But when a white
foreigner uses English terms, then the white employees are often given
special consideration and their English terms are held in higher regard.
Korean staff members
tend to more lenient to Westerners than to kyopo and sometimes their image
of them is not as positive as of Westerners. The counterbalancing news is kyopo
managers are normally able to close the cultural gap faster than their
Western counterparts. For example, kyopo can often pick up faster
than other Westerners on staff attitudes and opinions on working conditions,
work load, etc., but even they can make mistakes in this area.
On the down side, Korean
staff members have higher expectations of kyopo to be able to adapt
to the local culture. This can be unfair if the manager has been born and raised
in some place like Kansas
where there are few Koreans. Initially, such a kyopo really does not
have a genuine advantage over other Westerners, but faces a higher standard
for acceptance.
If a kyopo has
less than fluent Korean language skills, the local staff members have high
expectations that he will strive hard to upgrade his Korean language
ability unlike as would be the case with other Westerners.
Some kyopo
managers would not consider holding meetings in English, but often while
foreigners can do so -- even if there are other inefficiencies in so doing.
Even when dealing with bureaucrats, a wrong choice of words by a kyopo
can be disastrous, while with a white foreigner, in spite of the lack of gap-eul
(the order or power of position), the foreigner may be given special,
positive consideration.
So, the kyopo often have some inherent
advantages over other foreign managers, but there can be several, hidden
cultural traps that the kyopo and
their managers need be aware. Even the so-called bilingual kyopo, at
least in the beginning, often lack educated, current Korean language
skills, since the informal Korean at home in Australia can be vastly
different than what is spoken formally in the Seoul conference room.
Nonetheless, those kyopo employees with the right attitude and
commitment often end up being exceptional employees even though the initial
cultural and linguistic adjustment can be surprisingly difficult.
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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