...Comfort women are defined as young women and girls who were forced to work at comfort stations during World War II. These young ladies are mostly kidnapped from their homes, forced to be in sexual slavery in Japan, and have to serve Japan. Japanese army at that time established those prostitution for preventing the rape crimes and give their soldiers easily opportunities to solve their sexual needs. Most of comfort women come from neighbor countries, such as Korea or China, they are the majority of the number. Besides, other women come from the further countries as well, for example Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan; and more than that, they can be Japanese too. After the war has ended, those comfort women can finally find...
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...Trending Worldwide: Korean Wave Rosanna Danica B. Maguad University of the Philippines Visayas TRENDING WORLDWIDE: KOREAN WAVE Unlike in the past, Philippine Media is now a combination of various Asian entertainments. It imports TV series and movies from neighboring Asian countries. Imported movies are then dubbed in Filipino and streamed in our country. ABS-CBN, one of the top TV stations in the country, started to explore foreign TV series last 2003. This was “Meteor Garden,” a Taiwanese drama series. Because of the boom of the said series, GMA 7, a rival of ABS-CBN, made the same move. They also brought in various teleseryes from other Asian countries. They were the first one to air Korean dramas. Although, both stations tried Japanese, Thailand, and Taiwanese series, Korean dramas are most preferred by audiences. Because of the consecutive success of Korean dramas, until now both stations air the latter. Because of this phenomenon, media analysts concluded that Philippines is captivated with the so-called “Korean Wave.” Korean Wave is also known as Hallyu. It refers to the spread of the South Korean culture. This was coined by a Beijing journalist during the mid-1999 when he was surprised by growth of popularity of the South Korean Entertainment (“Korean Wave,” n.d.). It is said to be a phenomenon strategized by the culture industry of the South Korean state. As observed by the culture industry of the country, exported Korean entertainment affects not only the...
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...Gender Equality in South Korea Women and men share many physical characteristics and mental abilities, but why are men more valued than women even today in many cultures around the world? It has only been a few decades since women started gaining gender equality and power in selected parts of the world. South Korea, which is a very small country with a population of 49.78 million used to be one of the most gender-conservative country, preferring men over women for centuries. Despite this long history of male dominance, the biggest irony that shocked the world and the media recently was that the first female president was elected in South Korea on December 19th, 2012. Park Geun Hye, becoming the first female president, proved how much South Korea has changed over the past decades and one of the biggest reasons why this change and transformation was possible was due to the fast growing economy in South Korea. South Korea became one of the world’s fastest-growing economies from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. For a small country that was invaded and followed by a three decade long occupation by Japan, and then the Korean War (Korean civil war between North with USSR and China and South with NATO), South Korea was war-torn and impoverished for the first half of 20th century. However within a decade, South Koreans worked harder than ever before to create a successful country. South Korea and is now ranked 15th in the world by nominal GDP and ranked 12th by the purchasing...
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...underlying causes to the problem at hand There are many problems that are halting the progress of the project. The team is clearly suffering from lack of communication, disorganized team structure, unclear leadership and constant disagreement over the decision-making process. Business: The Korean structure appears to be hierarchical which seems to impact the understanding of relationships between consultants and clients of both the Americans and Koreans. Management: In Korea, respect for position and status influences how a project is executed. It is evident that power authority is undefined. Jack and Ellen don’t have a specific role, so there is an overlapping of power. As a result, subordinates are often confused and find it a bit hard to follow the lead of their superiors. There seems to be a lack of trust between Ellen and Jack ever since she interrupted him during the market research report meeting. Culture: The cultural aspect also plays a major part of the problem. Women in Korea are often excluded from team bonding events - mainly dinners. Jack and the subordinates sometimes ignore Ellen’s views. The reason behind this is that women in Korea are considered inferior to men. Also at the beginning the...
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...Measuring and comparing business cultures South Korea Vs Spain Ivan Kuzevanov - Panagiotis Sarantidis – Jaime Carvajal Treschov Alexey – Maria Safarovic World Business Cultures [pic] Business culture in South Korea The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is a constitutional democracy, has a population of roughly 51 million people, occupies a land of 99,720 square kilometers, and its currency is called Won ($USD=1073,43KRW, 3/3/2014). About 50% of the population practices religion (10,7 mil. Buddhists, 8,6 mil. Protestants and 5,1 mil. Catholics). The country of Korea was occupied by Japan since 1910 and it was split up after the Japanese loss in 1945, under the agreement that the north part would be administered by the Soviet Union, while the southern part by the U.S.A., and is divided to North and South Korea to this day. Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Power distance At an intermediate score of 60, South Korea is a slightly hierarchical society. This means that people accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. Hierarchy in an organization is seen as reflecting inherent inequalities, centralization is popular, subordinates expect to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat. Individualism South Korea, with a score of 18 is considered a...
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...Korean Trade Union and Organization of Korean women Workers The Korean Women’s Trade Union, commonly referred to as KWTU, is a union formed to protect the rights of women workers to work and safeguard their rights to equal working conditions and benefits. The Korean Women’s Trade Union was created on August 29, 1999 by members of the Korean Women Workers’ Association United (Broadbent & Ford, 2008). Many working women have been mistreated by their companies, the government and the male-dominated trade unions, due to the extensively imposed practices of "firing women first" during mass lay-offs and the conversion of their status from full-time to part-time. Consequently the KWTU was formed to shed light on and abolish the prejudiced policies and actions endorsed against women workers. Currently, the KWTU has 1,500 union members who are involved in the activities of local units of nine major cities including, Seoul, Inchon, Pusan, Kwanju, Buchon, Ansan-Shuheung, Masan-Cangwon, Iksan-Chonju and Taegu. Protecting the rights of many women workers who are often denied membership in other trade union, the KWTU offers membership to all women workers working in any workplace or region. In fact, 71.8 percent of KWTU's membership consists of irregular women workers (Choi, 2000, Song, 2001). This essay has numerous objectives. First, the fundamental incentives for the configuration of the KWTU will be presented. Principally, the discussion will depict the rising number of women...
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...Writ 1301 The Tears of Korean Comfort Women After Chosun (the former name of Korea) was invaded by Japan in 1910, Korean women were forcibly sent to Japan as comfort women: sex slaves of the Japanese military. ‘Comfort woman’ is a euphemism for a female sexual slave to the Japanese Imperial Army before and during World War II. The Japanese military recruited young and unmarried Asian women to join the military, then sent them to brothels in China and other Asian and Pacific countries in order to “comfort” Japanese soldiers. One of the few surviving Korean comfort women, Soon-duk Kim, gave the following testimony to Sangmie Choi Schellstede, the editor of the book, Comfort Women Speak: Testimony by Sex Slaves of the Japanese Military: “I was promised a job as a military nurse…[however, the Japan military took us to] a ruined village of Shanghai. Rooms were divided into tiny cubicles. Each of our fifty girls was divided to one of these cubicles. Now this house became a brothel, and we were sex slaves in it” (38). Kim was wounded due to numerous rape. She explained about the horrible remedy she received: “One day our manager gave me packets of black powder to take once a day…[But] after I used it several times, he then told me the powder was made from a leg of a Chinese soldier’s corpse” (38). This experience is not limited to Kim. Approximately 200,000 Korean women suffered as sex slaves of Japan’s military system before and during the World War II. Today, however, not many...
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...about the future of U.S.–Korea cooperation. Of course, our bilateral relationship does not take place in a vacuum. We are members of the rising Asia-Pacific community. Economically, Asia itself already accounts for more than one-quarter of global GDP. Over the next five years, nearly half of all growth outside the United States is expected to come from Asia. This growth is fueling powerful geopolitical forces: China’s ascent, Japan’s resilience, an eastward-looking India, Southeast Asian nations more interconnected and prosperous than ever before, and of course the rise of a “Global Korea.” President Obama has made U.S. engagement in the Asia-Pacific region a priority. We have already begun a strategic rebalance of diplomatic, economic, and security investments in Asia. And America’s 60-year alliance with Korea is a lynchpin of that strategic rebalance. 60 years. 60 years of peace and stability. 60 years of hard work and economic growth. 60 years of partnership and shared prosperity. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the U.S. – Korea Mutual Defense Treaty, the armistice, and the formation of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea. As we celebrate 60 years of partnership and shared prosperity, we are also upgrading important aspects of our partnership – what I call the four pillars. Security The first pillar of our partnership is clearly our shared commitment to security on the peninsula, as evidenced by the more than 28,500 men and women of the...
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...Strategic Human Resource Management December 1, 2013 HRM and Culture Women have been trying to shatter the glass ceiling for many years. The European Union has been touting equality between women and men for decades (Reding, 2012). In spite of their progress men still dominant company boards. 86.3% of board members are men while there are only 13.7% women. 96.8% of men are boardroom chairs while 3.2% are women (Reding, 2012). Corporate culture in Korea has come a long way but it still has a long way to go. Korean women continue to get paid 38% less than Korean men (Harden, B., 2010). South Korean women are seeking other careers besides teaching in today’s society. Even though times are changing South Korean men still do not want to acknowledge the changes (Phatak, Bhagat, & Kashlak, 2012). SK Telecom is Korea’s largest mobile phone carrier (Mu-hyun, 2012). It was established in 1984 and remains a major contender in the mobile industry. They are dedicated to building a better future for customers and information communications and staying on the cutting edge of technology (SK telecom, n.d.). SK Telecom has pioneered several historic breakthroughs such as the world’s first CDMA commercialization, world’s first CDMA 2000 1x, 1xEV-Do and HSDPA services (SK telecom, n.d.). With these types of innovating minds it is hard to believe that one of its’ senior managers is unwilling to hire women because he feels they lack tenacity (Phatak et al., 2012). SK Telecom...
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...carefully and ask some question about it. Also she had to be aware that asking question while someone explains you something is really inappropriate in Korea and means that your teacher is not relevant. To conclude, Ellen is a good manager for all the skills mentioned above and also because she was performing while she had the occasion to manage the consultants and find out that they were less experimented than expected. * What would you advise Ellen to do and why? Ellen Moore is a really good manager but she had some troubles with it. Indeed, her partner Jack seems really uncomfortable of working with her, for three reasons, she is a woman and historically Confucian values (Exhibit 1) have dictated a clear difference between men and women in Korea, she has higher skills than him and she comes from another country. So, obviously even if there is a difference between both cultures he didn’t accept her in his internal system (Exhibit 2). Basically, these are the...
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...align with the company’s business strategy. Traditional the South Korean’s culture concerning women’s role in the workplace as a professional careerist was unheard of. Their role mainly consisted of household chores, taking care of the children, and the elderly. Today we are operating in a global society and for South Korea to be competitive in an economic market they must re-align their business strategies as a country. According to (McGraw-Hill 2011) women in the workforce in Korea occurred after the 1998 Asian financial crises, when thousands of men lost their jobs or took salary cuts, and their wives entered the workforce. Years later the government banned gender discrimination in the workplace and required businesses with more than 500 employees to set up child-care facilities and the Government established a Gender Equality Ministry retrieved from (www.pacificbridge.com). In January 2000 the National Assembly gave the Presidential Commission on Women the authority to investigate work-related discrimination against Women according to (www.pacificbridge.com). Today the government has set the tone for Human Resource Management and businesses are expected to follow with the exception of the country top 400 companies, which are family run conglomerates that make it difficult for females to rise to the upper ranks. Cho Jin Woo, who is the director of the Gender Equality Ministry, stated “the country has a long way to go in equal employment rights for women’s” retrieved from...
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...In-Depth Analysis of Korean Americans 11/19/2007 Table of Contents Introduction 3 History of Korean Immigration to the United States 4 Values and Customs 10 Demographical Profile 16 The ‘Bamboo Ceiling’: Barriers in the Workplace 22 A Personal Interview: A Different Side to the Story 26 Conclusion 27 References 28 Introduction The term “Asian American” has a rich history in the United States. It refers to a person of Asian ancestry who also obtains American citizenship. The term was originally used by the Census Bureau to clarify and distinguish the government’s equal opportunity programs and measurements. Also, the term “Asian American” was used by anti-war activists during the 1960s instead of using the “Oriental” which was perceived as more derogatory and demeaning. This phrase was finally popularized into mainstream academic usage in the 1970s, and is now the accepted term for government and academic research (Dacin and Hitt, 1997). Although this term allows for economists, sociologists, and statisticians to breakdown the different cultural groups found within the United States, one can delve much further into the evolution of the people we categorize as “Asian American.” In the following pages, we will attempt to explain our research findings on the evolution of one innergroup of Asian Americans within the United States, the Korean Americans. The issues raised will include: 1. An extensive overview of the history of the Korean immigration wave...
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...venture (Koo, n.d.). Education and demographics are important to a global business venture, though I believe the economy is most important. I present information about South Korea’s economy, and how it has transformed from an aid recipient to a donor country (Globalization, n.d.). Here is where I mention the chaebol’s success, which accounted for 55.7% of South Koreas GDP in 2010 (Globalization, n.d.) Not only will I show the success of the economy, I will also describe the failing housing market (Seoul Reflects South Korea Housing Trouble, 2013). To take Western Plaza Inc. into South Korea, I had to first research the weather patterns. I saw potential problems only in the spring, when hazardous yellow sand/dust blows into Korea from China (Korean Weather, n.d.)....
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...Ellen Moore: Living And Working In Korea A female American consultant Ellen Moore has to face different problems working in Korea as a project manager. The Korean project Ellen is managing is month behind schedule. The tensions have arisen between her and her Korean co-manager, and the Korean project director Mr.Song is blaming Ellen for the problems. There obviously are differences between American and Korean culture. Some of the differences in relation to the Hofstede’s Framework: The Index of Power Distance is much higher in Korea (60; hierarchical society) than in America (40). Korea is considered as collectivistic society (Index of individualism = 18) contrary to very individualistic society – USA (91). The Masculinity Index of Korea is 39 which indicates that the culture is feminine; In USA the Masculinity Index is 62. 1. Why has the project run into problems? There are several causes that have led the project to problems. And these are not only cultural differences. Firstly, I would like to mention the management aspect. There were some contradictions of the information given to both co-leaders regarding who is leading the team. It seems that the power of authority is not clearly defined which led to misunderstanding which role each person should play. It resulted in overlapping power. Jack had more commanding power over subordinates than Ellen, but it anyway inevitably created confusion between the subordinates. As it was mentioned, there are great cultural...
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...Assignment 4: HRM and Culture Angina A. Blakney Dr. Geri Puleo Strategic Human Resource Management, HRM 530 September 4, 2012 Introduction The minicase “Cracks in a Particularly Thick Glass Ceiling,” discusses how women in South Korea are conflicted when it comes to their careers. Although, the women of South Korea are slowly changing the corporate culture there are some men who are resistance to change. They’re use to the educated women of South Korea choosing the traditional career path, careers in the fields of education. But due to the Asian financial crisis in 1998 where thousands of men lost their jobs or took pay cuts, and their wives had to assist financially. Due to this situation women started small businesses and worked part-time job, and a couple of years later the Korean government banned gender discrimination in the workplace, requiring businesses with 500 employees to provide child-care facilities, creating additional opportunities for women. This minicase shares a story about a Korean women name Choi Dong Hee who worked for SK research arm she was the only woman who’d worked for the company. Choi believed that the company didn’t recognize nor did they utilize her talent. So, Choi demonstrated her talent by creating and conducting a yearlong study recommending the company to modify their policy permitting subscribers to use any wireless portal. Choi proposal was denied, but she didn’t give up she was consistent, dedicated to her vision, and convincing...
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