[KS] Lifetime employment

[Ruediger Frank]

Lieber Mr. Sohn,

just one more idea related to lifetime employment in Korea: What about the
corporate culture in Korean enterprises? I am thinking of those 'informal
groups', the linkage based on long-term relations, t'obagi, s=F2nbae and
hubae etc. According to more knowledgeable persons, one could hardly afford
voluntarily leaving a company (the 'second family') and all those relations
built up by long and hard work and starting from point zero at another
workplace. So, even if there never was something like lifetime employment,
it seems to have been a kind of an 'Ideal' - and everybody has tried to
turn it into reality. The same thing is behind the difficulties of being a
'Quereinsteiger', an outsider entering a higher position without having
served a 'due time' in the lower ranks.

By the way, being or at least feeling as an outsider is one of the major
complaints made by foreign executives at Korean companies (even according
to the KOTRA).=20

And last but not least: How shall we define a 'system of lifetime
employment'? What about the 'Beamte'? Or just workers who by chance work
lifelong for only one company? That's very common in a lot of countries,
but nevertheless nobody is talking of lifetime employment in, say, Germany.
So, there must be kind of a definition, maybe based on percentage, and/or
excluding some professions, focissing on the labor contract (if there is
one) etc. It would be really interesting to know, whether you have found
such a definition.

Vielen Dank und beste Gruesse,

R. Frank

***********************************************************
Ruediger F r a n k, M.A.

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e-mail: ruediger.frank at rz.hu-berlin.de



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