Cultural Values and Work Attitudes of Korean Industrial Workers in Comparison with those of the United States and Japan

Abstract

The uniqueness of Korean work attitudes is described with a survey of 1,288 blue-collar and white-collar workers in the 10 largest Korean conglomerate business firms. Compared to the Lincoln-Kalleberg survey results for Japanese and U.S. workers, the Korean survey results indicate that Korean workers harbor a discrepancy between their expectations toward work and their evaluations of their actual situations. Korean workers tend to be more committed to and satisfied with their work but less proud of their jobs and companies than Japanese and U.S. workers. The findings suggest that several factors, including culture, industrialization, labor market conditions, and labor policies, influence work attitude formation.

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