Article The Paradox of Samsung's Rise Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Paradox of Samsung's Rise - Article Example Samsung as well as most of the other Japanese companies have a habit of looking at outsiders with a lot of suspicion. There is a concept of life-long association with the company and a sort of emotional bond forms within the employees. This national as well as Samsung culture provided a lot of difficulties when Samsung tried to hire S-level executives from outside. The company managers closed ranks to the outsiders and even withheld information from them; making it very difficult for them to continue working at Samsung. Koreans and Japanese are very proud of their culture. They used to see the outsiders reluctance to follow their culture and language as an insult-executives like Choi-Chi-Hun who were outsiders but made special efforts to incorporate themselves in the Korean culture were more easily assimilated into the organisation than those who preferred to separate work life from their social life. The Japanese culture recognises promotion only on the basis of seniority and the number of years that have been dedicated by a particular employee to the organisation. Thus it was very difficult for them to accept younger people being recruited to senior positions-this provided lot of difficulties to the top management. Japanese and Koreans in general have high uncertainty avoidance. (Hofstede, 1991) They are threatened by ambiguity and change. They rely on rules and require a stable and predictable workplace. Variable compensation was a concept which striked at the heart of this core value. It was due to the hindrance provided by this national culture which resulted in piecemeal implementation of the variable pay structure. If the uncertainty due to a new policy increases too much –it was immediately dropped by the management before it caused major unrest. The Korean society is a high power distance society unlike the west. These types of societies are very hierarchal. (Roehl & Bird, 2004) The authority is usually