Korean Cultural Heritage and Its Influence on Implementing Empowerment and Self-Directed Teams

Abstract

Despite its unprecedented economic growth rate in the past and its present global economic

status, South Koreas blue-collar workers job satisfaction level and productivity are ranked as the

lowest among OECD countries. This phenomenon became a critical obstacle for the mid- and

logn-term development of Korean manufacturing companies. Empowerment and the used of

self-directed teams are critical necessities for the increase of employee satisfaction and

productivity as well as for the corporate development. this paper, based on the case comparison

of real-life experience of the author both in American and in Korean companies, describes why

the empowerment and self-directed teams are difficult to be implemented in South Korea.

Furthermore, this paper also describes how one can overcome the obstacles in South Korean

firms.