Ellen Moore: Living and Working in Korea

She does not have any relational management skills as she could not properly handle the conflict between the different project stakeholders in the meeting. She rather stopped the meeting and arranged another meeting. Karen could not get the project stakeholders to work together as she asked them in the meeting to get their relationships with each other back to a win/win environment. No actions have been put in place to rectify the poor relationship from Karen’s side as the project manager.

“I am Korean. South Korean to be exact.” These were the words I would always use to describe myself during new encounters. My race seemed to be what people noticed about me first. Whether I was at a leadership conference, church, or cross country event, there was always someone asking where I was from. For this reason, being an immigrant from Korea has been a big part of my identity as an individual and student.

consulting on one end and systems implementation on the other. The Consulting Group viewed its

They had controversial issues "during the first few weeks because they were clearly stepping upon each other's territory". Ellen understood that she was the co-project manager with Jack, but Jack believed that he was the sole project manager for SI. In fact, the Korean team members always followed Jack's instructions which are different from Ellen's. Even, Jack got angry when, upon coming back from business trip, he saw that the team members just followed Ellen's

Previous research reveals that Korean-Americans are considered the most separated from the rest of the society, both culturally and ethnically. Study used Berry (1997)’s strategies of assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization and three main dimensions of cultural orientations; language, identity and behaviors (Choi et al. 2014). Study included youth who are highly integrated in society; born in the US or immigrated at a young age; proficient in both English and mainstream behavior practices whereas their parents known to be culturally separated and the family socialization processes largely Korean (combination of high acculturation and high enculturation, characterizing integration). Researchers used years of residence and nativity

This paper shows cultural differences between Iranians, Chinese and Indians in business negotiations based on interviews with three businessmen: an American citizen who set up a general trading company in China, an Iranian Canadian citizen who has a trading company in Iran, and an Indian America who set up a business in India. The interview questions focused on cultural elements based on Hofstede’s research: power distance, low-high context, and general business behavior in these countries.

When I was my 15 years, I watched my first Korean dorama. Then I did not know how it would exert an impact on my fate and view of life. This was the world-famous “Boys over flowers”, which became an occasion of my acquaintance with the country of morning freshness. I strongly believe that my life transformed for better and blossomed after watching this Korean dorama was watched by everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. It drew me in this world – the world of Korean drama, Korean pop and Korean cinema. Knowledge about Korea was increasing more and more gradually and new sides of Korea were opened. I found out the country is famous not only of the Korean wave, Hallyu, but also of kimchi, various traditional food, colorful nature and combination of tradition and modernity. And some pieces of the Korean culture and language are quite similar

South Korea loves sport, sport is not only a popular physical activity but is a significant social practice. Sport operates as an important cultural resource and produces and disseminates nationalism. Indeed, in recent years, south korea has shown competence in hosting, playing, and managing sport. South Korean athletes have created notable results at major international sport events. For example, since 1984, the national Summer Olympic team has unfailingly been ranked in the top 10 nations on the medal table, with the only exception being the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The country has also produced a number of major world sporting events, including hosting

Comfort women, or ianfu as they are called in Korean, are females who were forced sex slaves for the Japanese Imperial Army (Chunghee). Some of the women were dragged off with physical force as their families wept, while others were actually sold to the army by their destitute families (Watanabe). Still other were officially drafted by the Japanese Imperial Army and believed they would be factory workers or nurses (Hwang in Schellstede 4). Some Korean village leaders were ordered to send young women to participate in "important business for the Imperial Army" (Watanabe). Many Japanese soldiers referred to comfort women as teishintai, which means “volunteer corps,” so those women who thought they would be working in a factory would not

Besides, regarding to the clients, the JVI had never build up a connection with the client until the surprisingly got the contract, the existence of hierarchy and non-trust between client and project team lead to the inefficiency of obtaining client information, later resulted in Jack’s misleading proposal for market research. Also, because in the concept of high power distance, decision making process is limited one-way participation and communication (In the Eye of the Beholder, cross cultural lessons in leadership from project GLOBE, Mansour Javidan, Peter W. Dorfma, etc), Jack’s own lack of experience on project management made it is possible for the project to diverge from previous direction under one person’s leadership.

South Korea is one of the most homogeneous countries in the world, in which it has its own culture, language, and customs that are different from other Asian countries. In South Korea, the citizens greatly value hard work, filial piety, and humility in their daily lives. South Koreans are very proud people in which they pride themselves in their traditional culture and their financial success.

Manners represent an individual by the way they dress, behave, communicate, and their etiquette, while customs refer to the traditional way that a culture is practice individually, or by a group of people. Workers are expected to bow to their seniors when they greet them, and to use only formal language to their seniors, as it is rude to speak informally to someone of higher rank. In Korean businesses, meetings are often held in evenings at a restaurant or bar. Drinking is part of the Korean culture, as Koreans believe that drinking helps to bond colleagues in the company, and an offered drink must never be refused as it is considered to be rude. Along with drinking, Karaoke is a popular activity after meetings. People who attend the meeting are usually expected to sing a solo song.

I was the “funny guy” in my clique of high school friends. Ever since I learned to read English, I enjoyed reading and collecting joke books. I exhausted every single joke book from the small community library in town. Riddles, jokes about animals and wildlife, reasons why I didn’t do my homework, lawyer jokes, and later on, ethnic jokes. I knew they were funny, but I wanted more. Perhaps it was my lack of physical achievements that made me obsess with a need to entertain my peers.

South Korean love their country very much that they tend to buy national made products than foreign products. For example, a Germany brand called MCM able to regain their status after been taken over by South Korean company after it went bankrupt in 2005. They prefer Samsung over iPhone, LG over Philips, Hyundai over imported cars.

In researching our options in the Asian Pacific region we looked at various cross-cultural components to ensure the success of our endeavor. Communication, whether it be with our internal employees or our customers was a key focus. We felt we needed a communication strategy to help us be successful. Thailand is less mature in the knowledge of English than some other countries in the