Nowadays, many of the characteristics of both the Korean and Japanese cultures are traced back to Chinese influences. China was seen as a model society by growing nations because of large size and historic success in all sectors of the country. China played a crucial role in the maturity of Japan and Korea since they were able to advance both culturally and politically. In most cases, the cultural interworking’s of the three countries are
Individualistic societies prefer a social framework that is loosely-knit, where individuals are expected to care for and support themselves. Collectivist societies, on the other hand, have a more tightly-knit framework in the society where the groups of citizens care for them in return for loyalty. Although many people believe that individualism is good for societies through promoting economic development directly, collectivism is better because it balances societies
The sudden growth in economy induced a nationalistic pride in Korean identity. In the first argument, it was concluded that there was a vague sense of Korean identity within every Korean. This sense of identity, although not to be mixed with Confucianism, also spurred consumerism in Korea. The nationalistic pride, which before the 1960 had little structure to based off, now had new justification after the Miracle of the Han River. The Han River Miracle refers to the period of time between 1961 to 1996 when the economic growth rate was at a steady 10%.
They are able to be empathic, negotiate and cope within multiple roles and cultural contexts. Multicultural personality dimensions are a narrow cluster of personality traits that have been conceptualized based on the broad personality model of Big Five (Mc Crae & Costa, 1999). Multicultural personality includes components of cultural empathy, openmindedness, emotional stability, social initiative and flexibility (Van der Zee & Van Oudenhoven, 2000). Cultural empathy refers to the ability to empathize with feelings, thoughts, behaviours of in-dividuals from different cultural backgrounds. Open-mindedness refers to holding open and unprejudiced attitude toward different groups, their cultural norms and values.
A major international economic power, South Korea holds the 13th largest economy in the world and the 4th largest in Asia. It now stands as the largest of the Four Asian Tigers. Its rapid economic growth is a result of exports of manufactured goods and major industries also include automobiles, semiconductor, electronics, shipbuilding and steel. Although its after-crisis recovery steps elicited antipathy among critics, believing that there was no way that the country will be able to get back on its feet again, South Korea regained a foothold and emerged victorious. Today, South Korean economy is exemplified by moderate inflation, low unemployment, and export surplus, and fairly equal distribution of income.
As mentioned by (Dimant, 2015), the pioneers of laboratory research focusing on peer effects and social identification are (Hoffman, McCabe & Smith (1996) and Bohnet & Frey (1999). These studies have shown the relevance of social identification in giving decision. Since then peer effects have found to influence individual behaviors in many different contexts such as: Falk & Ichino (2006), Mas & Moretti (2009) and (Georganas, et al., 2013) on productivity, Gächter et al. (2012) on reciprocal behavior under observability of other peer's
Yes, Japanese are always conscious of their hierarchical position in any social setting. However, it is not as hierarchical as most of the other Asian cultures. in Japanese society there is no one top guy who can take decision like in more hierarchical societies. Japan scores 46 on the Individualism dimension. Certainly Japanese society shows many of the characteristics of a collectivistic society: such as putting harmony of group above the expression of individual opinions and people have a strong sense of shame for losing face.
However, I understand the competitive nature of Korean companies, and I am open to other opportunities. Whether I work for a Korean company in the United States or work in Korea afterwards, I would like to experience Korean work culture. Korean companies are known to be very community oriented, hierarchical and based on seniority. This type of work ethic has propelled Korea’s development and chaebol conglomerates. Due to Korea’s success and charm, many foreigners are looking for employment in South Korea.
Personally, based on the above example, I think collectivism exists more within individualistic cultures than individualism in collectivistic cultures. Though different, collectivism and individualism both have value within their contexts and show the values of their people. Collectivism values the individual’s membership and participation in the group as a whole. Contrarily, individualism esteems the individual’s ability to separate himself from the group and think for himself. Though often not recognized, both of these dimensions can exist within a society and add depth to its
Individualist cultures, such as those of the United States and Western Europe, emphasize personal needs, rights and goals, regardless of the expense of group goals. Collectivist cultures exist mainly in Asian countries such as China, Korea, and Japan and emphasize family and the goals of the collective above those of individual needs or desires (Triandis, 1995). According to the research of Gürhan-Canli and Maheswaran (2000a), COO effects vary across cultures on the basis of the diverse cultural patterns present in different countries. Individualists evaluated the home country product more favorably only in the case that it was superior to the competition. When a homemade product’s quality is worse than the foreign-made products, they choose foreign products unhesitatingly.