Ongoing Challenges on Managerial Innovation at the Korean High-Tech Firms (Part VI): Limited Managerial Restructuring after the 1997 Crisis

As mentioned in the previous posts, the 1997 Asian financial crisis has forced leading Korean electronics firms to rethink their strategic direction and managerial practices. Although restricting efforts were limited due to various factors (e.g., government-led restructuring effort), the crisis appeared to force open the closed management structure and disrupt conventional organizational forms to some extent…

Rigid hierarchies, promotion based on seniority rather than merit, authoritarian management styles, and centralized decision making have been deeply rooted problems. Moreover, stable but immobile workforce, scarce debates, and the Korean culture that emphasizes relationships (the so-called inmak) have hindered innovation. These old structures and strategies succeeded in producing mass standard products for predictable markets. These old practices still persist to a large degree and hamper the creative inputs from young designers and engineers…

Note: A detailed analysis on this topic won’t be shared due to the proprietary nature of the content.