Assignment 4: HRM Culture
Crystal Smith
Dr. Craig Cleveland
Human Resource Management (HRM) 530
May 27, 2012

Women in the Workplace in South Korea Most people would believe that discrimination among women in the marketplace is non-existent, but reality dictates that there are some countries that will hire women, but there is a ‘glass ceiling’ when it comes to promoting them to higher management jobs. In some countries like South Korea, women are hired and given jobs outside the home, but there will always be this stigma that men are better leaders and so that prevents them from obtaining the higher executive positions. A survey of over 3,000 members of the Institute of Management and Leadership revealed that 73% of the females felt that there were barriers to being promoted to management and executive positions in the UK area, whereas only 38% of males thought there was a glass ceiling (www.guardian.co.uk, 2011, pg. 1, para. 3). It is not customary practice for businesses in South Korea to hire and promote women no matter how qualified they are and so discrimination is still a culture norm in this country. This gender gap is a culture norm due to a traditional belief that men are better leaders than women an idea that is based from Confucianism ideology (Nobel, Carmen, 2010, pg. 4, para. 1). Even today the legacy of the Confucianism is apparent in their moral values, legal system, relationship between young and old, and also between husband and wife. Confucianism was a way to hold the nation together at one time and the remains of these beliefs still hold a very strong effect on the people of South Korea. A new trend of multinational companies coming into South Korea and hiring these excluded women has become quite popular. As for InterAd.com, Inc. the choice to either massively hire this untapped market of talented women and reap the benefits later or conform to the cultural norm and exclude these women is the question at hand.

HRM Strategy in South Korea
Unquestionably, it would be crucial for the human resource practices at InterAd.com, Inc. to take an appropriate place in South Korea by hiring and promoting women to help meet the strategic objectives of the organization. Furthermore, this company must use their unique value of a strong woman workforce to offer the current marketplace in this culture. It is vital that their HRM shape every decision to better line up with the firm’s complete tactical blueprint to ensure long term success. HRM is the most effective when their bundles of practices work with the overall company culture (Stewart, 2012, pg. 534, para. 2). Proper strategic planning requires an approach of making changes whether external or internal and including a new way of thinking in order to achieve the blueprint of success set before them. It would be imperative for InterAd.com, Inc. to change their mindset toward women and visualize them as new talent and ideas that can transform their company into a new dimension of triumph. This step-by-step action plan would consist of hiring and promoting women to improve the company’s competitive advantage, especially when most organizations are excluding the females as a natural resource. It would be highly beneficial for InterAd.com, Inc. to do a massive recruitment of women, an extensive training, and implement ways to retain these women for the long-term. By doing this, this company puts themselves in a position to accomplish their mission and gain that competitive advantage over the other companies in that country.
Hiring Women to Obtain a Competitive Advantage
Multinational companies in South Korea have found it profitable to hire women who are traditionally underemployed and underpaid (Marron, David, 2010, pg. 1, para. 1). It would seem to make sense for a company to invest in hiring women as workers in order to spur their economic growth, however, in some cultures that logic is not so common. It is essential that the recruiting process help attract employees that fit the company culture (Stewart, 2012, pg. 535, para. 3). For a firm like InterAd.com, Inc. to choose not to discriminate by hiring women, especially when it is not the cultural norm, can only produce a high regard from other companies. As this organization prefers to take a chance and make a strategic move of treating all the ‘protected classes’ equally by hiring women merely success is on the horizon. The promotion of women will improve their profitability in the marketplace and give them that edge that all firms strive for in the business arena. In the United States and some other countries hiring women has become quite common resulting in drastic and profound results, yet countries like South Korea, it is still not plausible within their culture. In South Korea the women are educated and just as talented as the men; however the traditional stigma of women not being good leaders leaves these women creating a pool of talent that has been untapped or unutilized. It would be profitable for this company to value this talent by hiring the women and developing their gifts. It would be essential for this company to look beyond the discriminating polices that existed in past decades and adopt a strategic focus of getting women’s experiences, perspectives, and voice heard by hiring them and also advancing them into high leadership positions. Typically, an organization would get their competitive advantage through natural resources, but now it is up to the skills and abilities of the workers. It would give this company a competitive edge to seek out talents and skills of women enabling them to be able to scout all the talents opposed to only relying on half the talent of men similar to what their competitors are doing. The benefit of tapping into the unutilized talent of these women is an obvious benefit to this company and they will gain a modest upper hand over their slightly blinded opponents in the business sphere. Additionally, part of the traditional Confucianism ideology, women are encouraged to be educated and so by this company hiring the women to work in all positions opens the gate for some deep talent to pull from for more success. Subsequently, with Korean women being underemployed it would give this company an opportunity to hire great talent at a lower costs, enabling InterAd.com, Inc. to gain a competitive edge over their discriminating rivals. This situation of undervalued women grants an opportunity for this company to tap into the plentiful labor at a low costs and at the same time build loyal employees due to the fact that they gave them a position when no one else would. Likewise, research shows that by a company hiring 10% more female managers, there is a 1% return on investment, which shows a female workforce is a competitive weapon (Harrin, Elizabeth, 2010, pg. 2 para. 5).
Recruitment and Retention Plan for Women
Although there are many outdated stereotypical beliefs about men and women roles in the workplace, hiring women would be a clever strategic move for any business. It would be extremely advantageous for InterAd.com, Inc. to develop a strategy that would embrace women as employees and give them the equal chance at success. Since this particular business culture is comfortable to ‘play it safe’ and discriminate against women, it would be risky, but prove to be efficacious. This tactical move to comprise women in their workforce and allow them to utilize their skills and abilities will make a lasting impression on the other firms in this particular country as well. Choosing to fully integrate women into their workforce will only yield a substantial return. Subsequently, countries like South Korea choose not to hire or promote women even if they have the skills due to their cultural thinking of genders. It has become a growing trend for international companies to come in and employ these women that were excluded by their own country (Nobel, Carmen, 2010, pg. 1, para. 1). It would prove to be effective for this company to make sure they have a clear understanding of the tasks expectations, the ability to further educate these women, and the availability of a childcare facility for the children. When advertising for candidates it would be valuable to not mark the job the same way for these women they would in other countries so that they could get the highly qualified ones. Additionally, utilizing words like career opportunity opposed to a job, educational training, and life-long opportunities with our company would entice these Korean women. Mentioning that this is a career, there are many projects to work on instead of hiring for this job or that job. Also, it would be useful for them to reference the feeling of accomplishment and how it would be an honor to be a part of an organized training group. The recruitment message has to send the correct message to get the highly talented and educated women in South Korea. Since different cultures emphasize different attributes then a balance must occur between internal corporate and the local needs (Strategic Human Resource MGT International HRM Supplement, 2012, pg. 8, para. 5). As this company starts to hire women in South Korea, some impressive tools that they should integrate would be to reveal their intention of flexible hours for family, sick and vacation leave, and even a childcare facility in house or close by to accommodate the children. Once these Korean women are hired the company should implement a regiocentric staffing approach in which they select these women for the managerial positions and even possibly for regional jobs. By adopting this regiocentric method, these women that are selected may develop a common set of HR policies and practices that are congruent with their own country (Strategic Human Resource MGT International HRM Supplement, 2012, pg. 5, para. 5). The expense of replacing workers usually requires most companies to focus on employee retention in order to keep good employees long term (Stewart, 2011, pg. 250, para. 1). InterAd.com, Inc.‘s HR practices concerning these new women employees, their rewards, and culture are a commitment that has to be kept and executed in a precise fashion. Typically, women leave their jobs for reasons concerning their children whether sickness or appropriate daycare, for unknown work hours, and job dissatisfaction. Some favorable retention ideas stem from not only valuing the women and their talents, but also constantly educating them since they value higher learning, and promoting them to the next level to develop satisfaction and loyalty. Similarly, this company could be consistent with their on the job training, always utilize fair methods in the workplace, and relentlessly give praise and recognition. Employing a consistent performance evaluation on these new hires in order to praise and recognize their accomplishments would prove to be constructive. Furthermore, endlessly training and developing these women would keep them satisfied, but also prepare them for the executive positions. HRM utilizing strategic tools to hire, train, and retain these workers is imperative to not only high profitability and long-term success, but also gaining the competitive edge in the market.
Obstacles of Hiring Women in this Culture
As a company hires women and places them in executive roles in this country, (1). the issue of upsetting male employees, (2) turning away customers, (3) partners who do not agree with this logic become obstacles (Nobel, Carmen, 2010, pg. 1, para. 2). Upsetting other male employees could result in these men leaving the company, harassing the women that are hired, and causing InterAd.com, Inc. financial costs and lower productivity. In addition, ethnocentric reactions to differing views may result in anger, shock or amusement (Helliriegel & Slocum, 2011, pg. 272. para. 1). Furthermore, male customers that are of the same thought pattern that men are better leaders than women may not have confidence in the women leaders and the decisions they make and therefore find another company to do business with. What’s more, other male partners, with the same discriminating beliefs toward women that have added to the success of this company may find it necessary to find other firms to partner with leaving this company in a financial crunch. When other male driven firms refuse to do business with this company, due to the fact that they have gone outside the cultural norm to hire the women that have been excluded, financial loss could be destructive enough to shut down. Additionally, it would be problematic for this company to hire and promote women in a culture partly because these discriminating beliefs stem from their religious beliefs and that could become highly offensive. The religious beliefs of Korean Confucianism has always infiltrated the South Korean culture and affected not only the home life but the business world as well. Typically, in this ideology men are viewed as strong leaders, whereas women are viewed as tending to the home and should only be educated but not put in any leadership position. Additionally, the men in this culture are viewed as the “outside” while the woman is the “inside person” so breaking out of this normal way of living in itself is a huge undertaking for the women as well as the business who chooses to hire them. The pressure of overcoming the local male driven businesses and internal male employees who are reluctant to work with these women would be an obstacle that would seem impossible to oppress. Although it may seem discouraging for InterAd.com, Inc. to hire women in South Korea, the benefits far outweigh the obstacles. The current international market is becoming more equal and free of discrimination which is a haven for South Korean women. However, HBS researchers have concluded that it will take more than a few women hires to see any cultural change and even with that, South Korea is slow to change, regardless of what multinational companies do (Harrin, Elizabeth, 2011, pg. 2 para. 7). Despite the obstacles, effectively recruiting women will ensure success, particularly since women do make better expatriate managers where relationship-oriented managers are needed.

HRM Strategies to Enforce the Visibility of Women The way that other countries like South Korea do business is just so very different and it creates hurdles and obstacles along the way, yet as companies like InterAd.com, Inc. hires these excluded women it opens a gate of visibility for them. It would be advantageous to create awareness in the professional groups within that particular country and create new thinking of men and women as business leaders. Some valuable strategies for InterAd.com, to adopt concerning women would be for them to continue to educate them, strengthen their networks, and encourage self-improvement so their goals, dreams, and aspirations will come true. This company would be setting the pace of tapping into the unutilized talent that sets before all the businesses in South Korea. Those invisible barriers that exist in the workforce and the corporate culture in South Korea will slowly be shattered so that these extremely capable women can lead like they were meant to do. Other companies will follow suit, maybe not as quickly as other countries, but they will eventually hire and promote them into higher positions that they are qualified to do. Continually training and educating these Korean women would be clever tactic for this company to execute in order to bring more visibility to the women. As they are educated and promoted within the company it becomes more visible to the corporate culture within this country as the male leaders observe at leadership meetings and functions. Also, InterAd.com, Inc. should implement a strategy of strengthening their networks by joining professional groups, awareness organizations, and community help groups as well. As these women are active within their local area it becomes apparent to the community that women are good leaders and totally capable of leading similar to men. It is possible to break through this ‘glass ceiling’ of discrimination in the South Korea business culture so it starts with a company like InterAd.com, Inc. making the first move by hiring these highly talented women who have been excluded.
References
Harrin, Elizabeth. “The Gender Advantage for Multinational Firms”. www.glasshammer.com
Retrieved from http://www.theglasshammer.com/news/2011/01/27/the-gender-advantage-for-multinational-firms/
Hellriegel, Louis E. and Slocum, Don. (2011). Organizational Behavior. USA: Walsworth Publishing Company.
Marron, David. (2010). “Foreigners Cash in on Undervalued Natural Resource: Korean
Women”. Retrieved from http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Donald-Marron/2010/1027/Foreigners-cash-in-on-undervalued-natural-resource-Korean-women

Nobel, Carmen. 2010. “It Pays to Hire Women When Other Countries Won’t” www.Hbs.edu. Retrieved from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6498.html
Stewart, Greg L. and Brown, Kenneth G. (2012). Human Resource Management. USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc..
Strategic Human Resource MGT International HRM Supplement. (2012). McGraw-Hill Companies.
-------------------------------------------------
“Women Still Face a Glass Ceiling”. (2011). www.guardian.com.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------
Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/21/women-glass-ceiling-still-exists-top-jobs