Study Of The Impact On Korean Conglomerate By Confucian Culture

Korea is a country which has inherited the most Confucian culture traditions in the world. The influence of Confucian culture on contemporary Korea covers many aspects including politics, economy and its society. This thesis makes a selection of perspective of Korean corporate culture from many aspects and carries on a case study of Samsung Group. It studies the impact on the Korean conglomerate by Confucian culture and tries to explore the current status and future trends of Confucian culture in Korean corporate culture. The innovation significance of this thesis lies in the microscopic focus on Samsung Group in Korea as a case study and in-depth research on the practice of the specific corporate culture to study the heritage and influence of Confucian culture. By this method, it can provide a more concrete and deeper understanding of the role of Confucian culture which plays in Korean modernization. Samsung Group is the largest and most representative corporate in Korea, so the study of its corporate culture can contribute to the overall grasp to the heritage and future trends of Confucian Culture in Korean corporate culture.Korean modernization is also the process of conflict and integration between traditional culture and Western economic ideas. There are some disputes in academic circles at home and abroad concerning the function of Confucian culture whether it promotes or hinders Korean modernization. However, Confucian culture has been disseminated and developed in Korea for more than2000years. The long history and corporate practice has proved that Confucian culture plays a significant role in the process of Korean modernization and now still a foundational role in modern Korea, which acts as a spiritual pillar. Confucian cultural characteristics in Korean corporate culture can be summarized in the following four points: firstly, the highly-centralized system structure and powerful management with the senior leadership; secondly, the strong sense of community within the enterprise family and highly allegiance of employees; thirdly, serious and indefatigable work ethic of the workers; lastly, emphasis on cooperate education and training to the personnel.Samsung Group is the largest conglomerate in Korea, which is also an enterprise with the most obvious characteristics of Korean Confucian culture. Specifically speaking, the first point is that Confucian culture had made an important impact on management ideas of Samsung leaders. The founder of Samsung Gruop, Lee Byung-chul, was born in a family with Confucianism background and influenced by this spirit from his childhood. He also regards the book Analects of Confucius as his credo, which has a profound impact on his entrepreneurial ideas. His entrepreneurship and operation on Samsung Group can reflect the cultural spirit and thought in Confucian classics. For example, compared with the personnel ability and talent, Lee Byung-chul pays more attention to the moral quality of the staffs. He carried out some activities such as "Moral Culture Campaign" in Samsung Group with a full scale and specially set up Samsung "Filial Piety Prize" in the whole society. After Lee Byung-chul’s death, his third son Lee Kun-Hee succeeded Samsung Group and proposed the famous new management in Frankfurt Declaration of1993. He demanded Samsung staffs to restore the beauty of humanity and morality, and comply with the norms of etiquette and behavior, which is inextricably related to the concepts of "benevolence","harmony","ceremony" in Confucian culture and righteousness in Confucian outlook. Secondly, Samsung Group has also had a relentless learning and imitation to Japanese corporate culture. Japanese corporate culture produces an unusual influence on corporate culture in Korea. It is known that Confucian culture has had a profound impact on Japan so Confucian culture is respected in a high status by the well-known Japanese companies such as Panasonic. In this process, Samsung Group is also indirectly influenced by Confucian culture, especially by the culture of loyalty.The criteria of personnel selection in one enterprise can truly reflect outlook of its talent philosophy. The corporate culture and implementation of the leaders’ management idea are both inseparable from corporate education to employees. Samsung Group examines Chinese characters and four-character idioms in Global Samsung Aptitude Test, which reflects its highly attention to Confucian culture conveyed by these characters. Confucian culture can also be shadowed in the strict corporate training in Samsung Group. It has a distinctive characteristic of Confucian culture from the basic norms to moral education. For example, it makes a direct citation from Confucian classic works in the corporate education and by use of "Nine Thinking""Nine Tolerances" it has strict training requirements to the staffs in the aspects of life, career and ethic.It can be found, through the research on corporate culture of Samsung Group, that contemporary Korean companies are not simply to introduce the Western advanced management experience in the cultural construction. Samsung Group, as the largest conglomerate in Korea, also has a strong tradition of Confucianism culture as a basis behind its modern enterprise system. Confucian culture plays an active and important role in the establishment of its corporate culture, the personnel selection and even the enterprise management. At present, China is in a period of social transition and it has become an urgent issue about how to effectively use our traditional culture—Confucian culture. Chinese enterprises, especially the conglomerates should learn the management experience in neighboring countries to actively absorb the Confucian culture and improve the awareness of cultural heritage on our excellent traditional Confucian culture.