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General characteristics of South Korea.

South Korea is a country in East Asia which borders North Korea to the south. The country has a coastline of about 2413 kilometers where it borders three seas which are the Yellow sea, East China Sea and the Sea of Japan. The country sits on a land mass of 100,032 square kilometers with 290 square kilometers being covered by water. The country lies on the 37º north and 127º 30 east coordinates on the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. Some of the notable islands making up the country are the Jeju Island, which is the largest, and Ulleung Island. The country is located in the north temperature zone the mountain terrain is the most dominant terrain.

South Korea is a democratic country that is headed by a president. The current president is Moon Jae-in who was elected in 2017. He is assisted in his administration by the current prime minister known as Lee Nak-Yeon. The government is divided into three main branches which are the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The government of a centralized state in that it operates from the national level. The president heads the executive and he is elected by the people for a single term running for five years. He is the only elected member of the executive and can only run the country for one term. The government has ministers who run ministries and answers to the prime minister. The legislative arm of the government has a primary role of passing and amending the roles of the country. It also oversees the high ranking officials holding government offices and audit the budget before passing it. The judiciary is headed by the chief justice who is appointed by the president. The Supreme Court is the court in the land where final appeals can be made.

South Korea is a multiparty state where the president and members of the national assembly are elected after every five years in a general election. The President heads the state why the Prime Minister heads the government.

According to a census conducted in twenty 2016 the country has an estimated population of 50.8million people. The country is densely populated with 505 people per square km. Due to the rapid economic expansion many citizens have shifted to the urban areas. The capital city, Seoul, has a population of more than 10 million inhabitants in the larger metropolitan area being home to around 24.5 million. This is approximately half of the country’s total population. More than 60% of the land in South Korea is occupied by forest that making the area inhabitable by people. The ethnic Koreans make up of 96% of the total population with very few migrants in the region.

The majority of the people in South Korea can comfortably speak Korean. English lessons begin at grade 3 and more emphasis is put in grade 7. It is considered as a key subject at school and thus a necessity when acquiring a good job. Even at the industries level, some management access the levels of mastery of the English language among the workers annual, and use it as a basis to promote the workers. Some workers are forced to attend early morning or late night classes to improve their mastery of the language and their fluency (Sorensen, 1994). The Koreans find it difficult to master the language owing to the huge difference between the characters and the grammatical structure between the two languages.

Confucianism and Buddhism are the main ideologies and religions that have been practiced in the country since time in memorial. The beliefs have influenced everyone in the country, including the way of life of the countries. Majority Koreans practice this religion. Christianity being introduced in the country in 1884, has grown over time and around 25% of the total population have been transformed into Christians. The religion is spreading fast with Korea being home to some of the largest churches in the world and having missionaries who are energetic and enthusiastic in spreading the gospel.

The government of South Korea has taken every step to ensure that the illiteracy level is reduced to zero. This can be seen from the fact that 19.8% of the total budget of the country is allocated to the ministry of education which has proven to be a success as the country. The literacy levels can be traced back in 1922 where it stood at 22%. This was because of the oppression the country face from japan. The level shot exponentially up to 87.6% in 1970. The trend has progress where the country today is associated with a literacy level of 97.9%. The male gender is the most literate with 99.2% of the male being able to comfortably read and write. The Confucian cultural has greatly contributed to the high levels of literacy as it highly values education. The citizens also view education as a ticket to climb up the social-economic ladder and thus they emphasize on getting the best quality. The primary and secondary education in the country is free thus making it accessible to every citizen.

As per a statistic that was conducted in 2010, South Korea was ranked 12th in terms of the countries with the largest economy. It was estimated to have a GDP of US$1.459 trillion. The large economy can be simply associated with the development in the industrial and manufacturing industries. The industries, which mainly are electronics, automobiles, telecommunication and shipbuilding based, contribute to 39.4% of the country’s total GDP. South Korea is home to Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor who are the leading producers of semiconductor chips in the world. The automotive industry has grown over time to becoming the 5th producer of automobiles with brands like Hyundai, Kia and Renault coming originally from the country (Cumings, B. 2005). The country is also home to some of the largest shipbuilding companies like Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding.

South Korea has the 4th in Asia and it is ranked 11th globally. The country is well known for its spectacular rise from being one of the poorest country in the world to become a developed high income country in just one generation. The country’s GDP per capital has grown tremendously to $35277 from a half that amount in the 20th century. This growth can be attributed to adjustments in the purchasing power parity.

The majority of the Koreans enjoy a high standard of living with their currency being very stable. The cost of living in South Korea is reasonable, although in the large cities in the country like Seoul is quite expensive with the cost of commodities being higher and the cost of housing being a major item on which the residents spend their money on. Despite the fact that housing in Seoul is very high, the rest of the areas are less expensive and thus on average the country housing is considered to be cheaper than in the US. Most of the residents live in apartments.

The country has a modern and well developed public transport system why is relatively cheap and affordable, with the intercity buses being the most common type of transport used. Short domestic airline flights and passenger trains are also available for use by the residents and mostly used to connect major cities. The country has an excellent network of highways, but with the efficient, cheap and reliable public transport most of the people do not use person cars.

The country uses the won as their currency. The currency seems to be of low value as currently a dollar trades at 1137.3440 won. Before the Korean War a dollar had a fixed exchange rate of 15 won, but after the war the won has been devalued over time to the current exchange rate. With the developing and evolving economy, the country has plans to get rid of the coins as many people have turned to the use of electronic payments. Analyst argues that the fact that a dollar trades to more than 1000 won, this does not mean that the won has low value. They perceive as if the won has just more zeros added at the end and thus makes no difference since according to the Big Mac criteria one has to work more or less the same hours in the US to be able to buy a Big Mac. The US and South Korea are rated at 5.3 and 4.1 respectively by the Big Mac index.

South Korea ranks as the worst country in terms of income distribution more so in Asia. Around half of the total income generated in the country goes just to 10% of the residents. This leaves a very large gap between the high income classes of the society to the low income. The IMF has identified the gap and has called for a fiscal policy to be put in place to ensure that the distribution of wealth and income among the people is leveled owing to the rise of inequality from 29% back in 1995. This will ensure that more tax is collected from the high income earners and directed to benefit and improve the living standards of the low income earners. The classification of employment into regular and non-regular has been a key drive of the inequality.

The national government has set the minimum wage at 1229.9 € per month. This is around 1573770 won. This is quite a good policy for the workers. The country is ranked 12th in the world as among the countries having the highest minimum wage. Australia leads the list with $18.29 being the minimum wage per hour. The US has a lower minimum wage than South Korea. The US has a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The workers in South Korea are paid a gross salary of $57,122. In the country general managers are one of the best paid employees while teachers are paid much better than the engineers to motivate them in their duties. The US is ranked 4th in terms of best average gross salary with South Korea being ranked 11th. Switzerland leads the list.

Statistics have shown that South Korea is one of the countries with the lowest unemployment rate with the rate standing at 3.6% in 2018. About 60% of the women in South Korea are employed in good paying jobs (Cooke & Fang Lee, 2010). There still exists a huge gap with the average women labour income being 39% lower than that of men. This can be traced back to the family responsibilities the women are associated with back at home mainly during childbirths. Only 56% of the women are employed compared to the 76.3% of the men, due to the long working hours and cultural factors. But this trend is changing and the women are now getting better opportunities in the field and the notion that women should not hold positions of power in the job is fading away. The employment among the youth stands at 9.20%.

The rapid industrial and economic growth in South Korea has been made possible by effective wage determination by the wage setting institutions. Consequently the rapid economic growth has led to the improvement in wages and employment opportunities. This has been the case since the growing demands for more labourers and in that most of the products are exported. Due to the labour intensive character of the industries in the country, the competition for labourers among the employees has been stiff and thus the companies tend to raise the wages they pay their employees in order to lure them. This also makes the industries to shift away from unskilled labour intensive products

The wages in South Korea are mostly determined by the supply and demand. This is because the economic development in the country, mainly relies on low labour cost. Policy makers in the country realized that if they were to gain and maintain their trade position in the world market, the wages should not exceed the market wage level. This means that their products can be manufactured and produced at a low cost, thus would be sold at a relatively low price in the world trade.

The government has a role in ensuring the employees are paid a substantial amount to sustain their daily needs, thus it has a stipulated minimum wage, which currently stands at $1300 and all the organizations and companies are required to abide by the law. In South Korea government policies requires workers to work for about 40 to 44 hours per week. This on average is 8 hours a week for 5 days in a week. The rest of the hour a worker may work are regarded as overtime and thus more salaries have to be added on to the normal salary. The government also states the normal age of retirement is being 60, although one may retire willingly before attaining the age if the work contract permits. Away from the minimum wage the government has a massive influence in the determination of the wages people receive.

The government has a pay policy that ensures that the government workers receive payment a notch higher than the workers in the private sector. The government also ensures that the multinational companies pay high wages to the locals, failure to which there are consequences involved, which could be expelling the company out of the country.

Labour unions play an active role in ensuring that the members of the unions receive the best pay and they are offered the best working conditions and benefits by the employer. The unions use their strength to reach out to a collective bargain where they can secure above market wages for their members. Although the trade unions play a part in determining the wages, the trade unions are quite weak as less than 15% of the workers are members of the unions. The government has severely limited the power of the unions. The workers have the freedom of forming or joining the unions, but the firms are not obligated to conduct collective bargaining with the workers. Only the local unions are given a chance to get into a bargaining agreement with the employees, but the national trade unions cannot intervene in the bargaining.

This has been the case since back in 1972 when the right to strike was revoked and the workers took to the streets for demonstration with a belief that the leaders they had chosen in the unions had selfish interest and thus colluded with the government agencies for personal gains rather than for the benefit of the workers.

The determination of wages by the policy makers has helped the country to avoid economic inefficiencies and misallocation of labour which in many cases it arises because of wages distortion. The wage determination has also led to the employers utilizing the available labour force to maximizing the production of the companies. In addition, it has eliminated the occurrence of cases where the capital is substituted with labour in the production process which would lead to fewer employment opportunities in the companies. To add on, reasonable wages makes the country attractive to external investors who are willing to invest in labour intensive businesses. Finally, the market wage determination by the policy makers prevents the production companies from incurring unnecessary cost which would in turn hamper the country’s ability to its products at a profit in the world market.

The Korean law has some mandatory benefits that the employer must provide to the employee. They are stated in the Labour Standards Act, which has laws that govern the employer-employee relationship. One of the benefits is the provision of a maternity leave for three months for the female employees. Their male counterparts also receive a parental leave of a minimum of three paid days and two unpaid days during the period of conception of the wife.

The employer in South Korea is required to abide by the employment laws that are kept in place to protect the interest of the workers. The laws protect the workers from unfair treatment and protect the contract between the workers and employer. Some of the benefits that the employer is mandated to provide to the workers are; sick days, vacation days, social security, severance pay, termination notice, pension fund and income taxes.

Employees are required to provide leave days to their workers when they are injured or sick and if the illness is work related the normal pay should still be provided to the worker even in absence from work. The employees are entitled to give a minimum of 15 paid days annually, to the workers who had an attendance of 80% in the previous year and one day paid leave for each month for the employees who had not met the 80%. The laws make it mandatory for the employers to issue the social security payments. This payment is the national pension, national health insurance, long-term care insurance, industrial accident compensation insurance and employment insurance.

The Employee Retirement Benefit Security act requires that the employer should pay the workers a severance pay at the time of retirement. The severance pay is required to be an equivalent of 30 days average wages for a person who has worked for at least one year for each year the worker has been in the company. The average wages are calculated using the wages for the last three months preceding the retirement. The employer is also entitled to issue a 30 day advance notice before the termination of an employee or instead the employer can choose to pay the worker a 30 days salary after the termination. The pension fund is also compulsory but it is divided equally between the employer and employee. The fund currently stands at 9% of the gross wage.

The government of South Korea considers safety as a key issue more so to the workers. Thus,it launched the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) cooperation project in which companies which use any of the 134 substances that are considered hazardous should abide by to ensure safety in the workplaces. The project is fast tracked by the Ministry of Employment and Labour and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health agency to ensure that accidents and fatalities in the workplace are reduced. The project encourages the companies to identify the safety gaps which are considered as hazards to the staff and take action to remedy and close the gaps. Constitutional amendments have also taken place where action is taken against the people who take part in covering industrial accidents as it was the case in the past years. The contractors and subcontractors have been given a responsibility of ensuring health and safety are maintained at the worksites.

Occupational hygiene is regarded as the science and art employed in the recognition and control of the environmental factors and the stresses in the work areas which at the end will result to sickness, impaired health or general discomfort of the employees. The occupation hygiene includes noise, air quality, illumination, ventilation and hazardous chemicals. The companies are advised to take measures to control the above hazards which is much cheaper compared to the cost incurred when catering to a mishap.

To be among the leading economic powers in the world a country must possess high level skills that are able to invent and manufacture products which will gain international embracement and demand. Having the right skills will lead the country into economic prosperity. Korea has seen a remarkable economic growth, which has been achieved because of the intensive labour resource utilization. The country is likely to face major challenges as the labour resource is likely to go down as the working age group is projected to reduce. The government has identified a gap in the skills sector as the rising generation has emphasized more in the academic studies rather than in the acquiring of skills. The youths find it difficult to transition from academics to the real life world application and thus they get fewer opportunities in the job market ending work in temporary positions.

The South Korea economy has been faced by a skill mismatch as there are no enough jobs for the high-skilled job seekers leaving them with no option other than participating in the low labour market. The journalism industry is of the most affected areas where it is difficult to secure a position. A recent research by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training shows that employees cannot improve their chances of being hired by developing their skills.

The republic of South Korea lacks nationalism and this fact makes it more crucial in the analytic sense since it can be argued that both ideological elements are basically functional requisites. The politics of South Korea take place in the form of presidential representative republic. The government has the executive powers while the national assembly exercises the legislative powers. The republic of South Korea was established in 1948, this was after having been involved in a long term conflict with the North Korea. South Korea joined the ranks of the Asian tigers and became a member of the state of the organization for economic co-operation and development. The completely unregulated expression of views in South Korea can be seen as a proof of active civil society in a democratic country.

Koreans share one language which its structure, grammar and vocabulary are similar to Japanese. Due to its phonetic nature of the written language the South has the highest literacy rates. It supports religious freedom, that is, both Buddhism and Christianity. Majority of South Koreans believe in the ancestral spirits and observe Confucian rituals. Confucianism is a political and social philosophy that pervades their culture.

Organizations such as the prestigious groups encourages companies and policy makers to support initiatives to increase the number of productive and motivated workers. Employees are motivated to come to work. Those that emphasize employee engagement through awareness efforts and targeted interventions are able to raise engagement levels far above the country average. The South Korea has launched a number of initiatives to create the innovative economy of the future in order to foster job growth. The findings of this organization have demonstrated that cultural influences alone do not determine the way South Korean businesses are managed. The employees are well paid and this is one of the factors that really boost their morale to work. The organizations in this nation have also played a major role to ensure that the employees are working in a conducive environment. Both the skillful and unskillful employees do work in the own will hence the work is done appropriately due to the willingness of the workers so as to build the economy of their country.

The worker studies were non managers so as to examine the effects of organizational strategic variables such as human resource management. The driving force behind this concern is the impact of globalization on the efficiency of the low-cost, mass production oriented business strategies. It seems reasonable to build a model based on the established human resource framework and empirically test it within South Korean organizations. The top leadership should ensure that the employees’ values are upheld and respected, they are treated with dignity and they are supported in their duties in order to produce the best. This in turn gives the employees the satisfaction they require increasing their productivity and owning and taking responsibilities of the work they do. In the enhancement of customer orientation, job satisfaction is considered as a key factor. Emphasis is made in the on the values in the services provided and support on each other to foster growth.

The majority of the males in the country have been incorporated in the army to make the military service strong. Only a few individuals who physically unfit for the task are left out. The country has a military agency responsible for recruiting and analyzing the body fitness of the recruits. Recruits have the privilege of choosing the areas where they feel they can perform better, although much on the assigning of duties is done on academic, skills and physical conditions grounds. The system allowed for the young men has a strong base where they could mould their careers. Those found excellence in the field was provided with specialized fields where they were employed by the military and employed in the specialist compact departments. The rest was encouraged to enrol for classes where they would use the knowledge learnt or skills gained once they got out of the force.

The South Korean government proposed a human rights law which includes human rights education in schools. The implementation of peace education has not been carried out even though moral education is included. Thus, the conflict resolution can be taught and trained for the students to understand the value of peace and strategies to get resolution of the conflict. An organization called Korea consumer agency was established in 1987 in accordance with the consumer protection act in order to effectively implement Korean consumer protection policies. It conducts research on policies and systems related to consumer rights. This agency also investigates consumer related matters and collect information on consumer protection. It provides education and information on consumer protection that resolves matters related to consumer safety and damages. The agency strives to resolve international consumer trade between countries and to improve consumer trust.

The South Korean employees do not participate either in financially or in decision making to the extent they could under the law. Evidence that tax incentives have very large effects on purchases is presented. Improvement in decision making participation is desirable and that changes in repayment methods could make it more attractive for employees to purchase shares.

The ministry of employment and labour in South Korea is the body entrusted with the concerns of the employees. The central government provides employment security offices. The government has unemployment benefits where it pays the unemployed with a target of stabilizing their livelihood. The funds also help the citizens in their quest for jobs. To meet the increase in demand for skills in the labour market and thus equip people with the skills needed to avoid unemployment cases in the country, the government has established a vocational training centre where the programs offered are in line with the changing market. The unemployment benefits allow the workers to find ample resources in their bid to find jobs. To receive the funds, a person must meet certain requirements and academic qualifications. A job promotion allowance in some instances is offered to eliminate the over dependence in job seeking payment.

An amendment on the 1997 Labour standard acts was passed on March this year, which permits a maximum of 52 working hours for employees. The rest of working hours are regarded as employees and the wages paid are subject to the agreement between the employer and employee. The amendments also require the employee to be paid during public holidays. Before the amendment was passed the laws were only enforced in few companies, but afterwards more industries have been included in the circle where the law is enforced.

Policies have for long suppressed the activities of the unions in South Korea. Since the industrial revolution began in 1961, unions have been regarded as a threat to social stability and economic growth, by the people and also by the state. Unions that seek to address social injustices have found themselves on the wrong side as neither the citizens, nor the government supports them as they view them as dragging the industries behind with the industrial disputes (Yee, J. & Kwon, H. 1995) The countries labour laws have prohibited the unions from intervening in labour disputes or even engaging in collective bargains at the enterprise level. In the past some of the labour leaders who have called a strike have been charged with violating the countries rules and regulations, and some of them have served imprisonment terms.

This was a major concern in the 1970s until international intervention was made for the rights and freedom of the people were being disregarded. This was a wakeup call to the people who began holding massive strikes in the 1990s. The workers demanded for better working conditions and wanted the brutal and inhuman treatment to stop. At this point the government gave in to the workers demand and the massive oppression was now relieved. The labour unions began organizing themselves, but still they were not strong enough to negotiate with the government or the companies in regards to the employees wish (Yee, J. & Kwon, H. 1995). Over time the inter-union alliance and cooperation has generally been weakened by the market competition.

Unions are mainly entrusted with the role of bargaining over the interest of the worker. Over a long time the South Korean government had banned unions from engaging in collective bargain. The working conditions and grievances of the employees were addressed by the Labour-Management Coorperative Council while the unions dealt with safety and welfare issues. The LMCC was under the ministry of labour and had to conduct monthly meetings and report the items addressed to the ministry. Before 1987, collective bargaining was not illegal, but it was politically banned but that changed afterwards. The unions are able to address job security, workers participation and welfare issues through collective bargaining.

Some of the industries have given the section heads and supervisors more power in that they create a conflict of interest and thus making the union heads powerless. The union heads have reacted to this strategy by publishing newsletters which discuss the unfair labour practices. Political repression has been the leading cause of labour militancy in the country. Economic inequality is also another cause of labour militancy. The relative poverty among the people have left them expressing their anger to the government because of the existing traces of corruption between politics and business. The workers have a feeling that they are continuous oppressed by the employers as the government colludes with them.

Many firms in South Korea have found human resource management as a key ingredient for success. Thus, they go for a team that is competent and have learning skills that can help them adapt to the modern technology to keep up with the changing economy. The firms have often had a challenge to find an efficient team as the technological shifts have created a shortage of workers and managers with the skills needed in the modern age. The government has established a strong education system where they re-evaluate the curriculum to ensure that the students being developed acquire the relevant skills to meet the workforce requirement in the country.

An efficient human resource management increases the companies and firms strength and profits. To add on, the system as a whole ensures that the government provides high levels of education so that the students can be fit for the industry. This as well increases the level of literacy among the citizens and ensures that the citizens have a high chance of getting jobs as they have acquired adequate skills. In the corporate world identifying the intellectual properties of a company is just part of the job, but the most crucial part is ensuring that a strategy to manage them is developed and a plan on how to capitalize on them is arrived at. This requires a human resource management team to achieve the targets.

In the country, most firms’ management ensures that the highly skilled personnel are paid better than the low skilled. This challenges the low skilled and makes them undergo further training so that they can improve salaries. If both the low skilled and high skilled personnel wages are the same there will be no motivation for the workers to acquire more training. Other than cheap labour, another factor that attracts external investors is efficient labour that can produce enough. Efficient labours are achieved when an investor has to spend less and skilled workers work hard enough to produce the best. This can only be achieved by when a company has a talented resource management team that is able of selecting the right people with the right execution skills for the task to be performed.

After the Korean War the management focused on rebuilding the country, hence they created a labour intensive industry. The citizens were really hard working in a bid to change the status of the country. The strong performance of labour and skill intensive export industry ensured the growth of employment and the emphasis on education. Over time the tradition is gradually changing as people are focusing more on personal gains other than the companies or country’s interest. Thus the human resource management has a challenge of adapting to the new generation, and finding the best workers for the job.

The culture, organizational structure, the recruiting of employees and staff all are factors that contribute to the difference between the Korean management styles from the western management. According to a study conducted by Lee and Yoo, it shows that most of the executive management position is held by family members except the Samsung Company where family members from less than 5%. This was the style of the founder to bring about competitiveness and enhance results. All in all the chairman position is reserved for a family member as the son took over after the founder Chul Lee died. Most Koreans value blood relationships and they have an extended clan system that protects the family.

The IMF crisis occurred in 1997 and as a result, it led to several changes being made in the practices around human resource management. This led to the firms to concentrate on strategies of enhancing profits as the witnessed an undesirable scenario where banks went bankrupt. The changes done within the organizations were more focused on the cost of running the operations. The firms adopted a system of compensating employees based on performance other the traditional system that’s based on the position of job level in the hierarchy. The firms began downsizing their workforce by laying off some of the employees. This trend has not turned out well as the workers have lost trust on their employers and thus are searching for employment in the external labour market. To rebuild the broken trust the companies are trying to introduce incentives and increase the autonomous thus creating a suitable working environment for the employees.

The major companies like Samsung, LG, and SK, having seen the benefits of talent management, have introduced referral bonuses, signing bonuses and retention bonuses to the employees. After the crisis, the “hobong” tradition where the senior staff received higher compensation was abolished and a new system was introduced where the employees received their bonuses and group incentives based on their performance. This ensures that the incentives are given to the performing staff and those who bring impact on the company. Currently over 60% of the firms have embraced this trend, while 35% still hold to the old tradition to avoid sudden change with a goal of transforming over time. This system receives critics from some experts who says that it brings about competition among the workers and it would lead to low quality products production. The profit and gain sharing system has been embraced by several companies with a goal of increasing the efficiency and coorperation of the employees.

The concentration of authority at the top management is changing over time to a system where the authority structure is flattened. The goal of the transition is to reduce the heavy burden of administration work and thus shortening the decision making procedure which in turn eliminates the decision procedures. The country HRM system has also changed from the autocratic system where concrete guidance and direction were provided to a democratic system where active utilization of human resources is advocating for. The Korea Labour Institute survey shows that the HRM traditional practices in the country are no longer effective and thus the firms should focus on a system that emphasizes on the better performance of the employees and accommodates flexibility.

South Korea is likely to face a challenge in its attempt to utilize the human resource pool through this transition. Despite the fact that most of the children receive education, there is still a shortage of talented individuals who are creative and self-motivated who can provide flexible manpower. The human resource policy attempts to address the challenge of ensuring that a mass educated manpower that is equipped with technical skills is produced from the schools. But still this challenge is not fully addressed as with higher enrollment increasing in the schools, most schools are overcrowded and understaffed. The teaching unfortunately focuses more on grades than in acquiring of skills, leaving the students to be more about memorizing.

The past low cost education policy is not likely to play well in the society as with the advancement of technology more complex and sophisticated specialized skills are required as opposed to the system where relatively simple and standardized task were assigned. This demands for a new set of skills, thus the need to change the system. The rapid economic growth may have been contributed mainly by capital and labour mobilization, but to stay at the top the Korean have to find a way of improving their human resource management.

From the study is clear that South Korea is a democratic country that enjoys stable political conditions. Since the Korean War the country has been thriving in peace. South Korea is a multiparty state where the president and members of the national assembly are elected after every five years in a general election. The President heads the state why the Prime Minister heads the government. South Korea has the 4th in Asia and it is ranked 11th globally. The country is well known for its spectacular rise from being one of the poorest country in the world to become a developed high income country in just one generation. The country’s GDP per capital has grown tremendously to $35277 from a half that amount in the 20th century. This growth can be attributed to adjustments in the purchasing power parity and emphasis on the blue collar jobs rather than the white collar jobs. The country has a literacy level of 97%, which has been achieved by dedication by the government and citizens with an aim of eradicating illiteracy. Gender inequality is still a challenge. This is seen by comparing the number of men in permanent employment to the women. The youths also find it challenging to secure a spot in employment.

Confucianism and Buddhism are the main ideologies and religions that have been practiced in the country since time in memorial. The beliefs have influenced everyone in the country, including the way of life of the countries. Christianity being introduced in the country in 1884, has grown over time and around 25% of the total population have been transformed into Christians. The religion is spreading fast with Korea being home to some of the largest churches in the world and having missionaries who are energetic and enthusiastic in spreading the gospel.

The majority of the Koreans enjoy a high standard of living with their currency being very stable. The cost of living in South Korea is reasonable, although in the large cities in the country like Seoul is quite expensive with the cost of commodities being higher and the cost of housing being a major item on which the residents spend their money on. The country uses the won as their currency. The currency seems to be of low value as currently a dollar trades at 1137.3440 won.15 Won to the dollar was the exchange rates before the Korean War but after the Won has continuously lost its value. The wages in South Korea are mostly determined by the supply and demand. This is because the economic development in the country, mainly rely on low labour cost.

The country needs to review the education system as currently there is a more focus on memorizing and getting good grades than acquiring skills that will help in the industry. There is also a gap in the employment opportunities as the high skills opportunities cannot satisfy the demand bearing in mind the high level of academic qualifications the citizens are targeting to achieve. Wealth in the country is mainly concentrated among a few people who make up less than 10% of the country’s population, thus leaving a large gap between the income classes. Unions in the country have limited roles and they hardly perform their task efficiently as the government has put in place several barriers.

One of the challenge firms in the country is currently facing is to find the important factors for success as the workers are more than willing to move to other jobs where wages are better off given the stiff competition among the firms. The companies also need to find a talented team to run the resource management department and thus give room for the hardworking and self-motivated workers to produce the best. The management should create an environment where the employees feel appreciated and thus they value their jobs to ensure that cooperation to achieve the best out of the company and increase the profits.

South Korea is definitely the place where we as the XYZ Corporation should invest in the government regulations are very friendly to us as external investors and they are ready to support us in this journey. We can build and assemble the Medical-Surgical devices in the country as we have plenty of cheap and hard-working labour. The workers are also self-motivated and can work for up to 14 hours a day. We also do not have to be worried about the go slow within the company as strikes organized by the unions are a thing of the past. The country has experienced political stability over time and with the peace within the country is best for our business to thrive. The citizens of the country happen to be very hardworking as influenced by their religion. The country has not invested much in the medical-surgical field, thus we have a chance of exploiting and exploring the neglected field. The country is connected to a good transport system making the transportation of products easy.

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