South Korea: Culture and Traditions in East Asia - Essay Sample

Introduction

South Korea is a nation located in East Asia. It has nine states and six unique towns, with a population of roughly fifty-million (Lee, 184). Besides, South Korea has had a great link with Japan and China, which has strengthened its unique culture and tradition. South Korea's culture is distinct from Western culture, but its culture resembles that of the Chinese and Japanese, but not all elements (Lee 184). Fortunately, the nation's culture has played an essential role in strengthening its commercial sector. Besides, learning is analyzed using Hall's and Trompenaar's frameworks. These frameworks can be used to determine the high or low context of the culture (Lee 184).

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Hall's Cultural Dimensions

According to Hall's cultural dimension, context, space, and time are used to understand the high/low cultural context (Mitrovic 32). South Korea is experiencing high cultural context due to the nation's reliance on complicated coding, implicit and indirect communication approaches as well as messaging. Also, the government relies on Confucian standards to protect the face and promote face-to-face communication (Mitrovic 32). Also, South Korea shows a high cultural context due to time since the community is more committed to establishing long-lasting relationships (Mitrovic 32). Unfortunately, the nation's cultural background is low due to space. Small rooms are used to accommodate several employees, which in return affects the cultural and sociological norms of conducting business (Mitrovic 32 (Mitrovic)).

Trompenaar's Cultural Dimensions

According to Trompenaar's Cultural dimension, the high cultural context of the society is reflected in the following attributes (Mitrovic 29). South Korea practices individualism rather than universalism and collectivism rather than individualism. Also, a senior cultural context is reflected in its diffused and ascription culture (Mitrovic 30). Conversely, the low cultural background is indicated in South Korea society since it promotes the emotional dimension of conducting business rather than neutral (Mitrovic 30). Additionally, the organization has no control over its internal environment; therefore, making the cultural context low. Nonetheless, the national business forum operates in a synchronous approach; thus, society is often distracted from its commercial operations (Mitrovic 31).

Discuss Challenges and Opportunities for American Investors posed by Cultural Environment

South Korea believes in establishing a good working relationship and building trust among themselves. The U.S. Investors will face challenges to convince society to drop this culture and get into business with them (Mitrovic 29). Moreover, before investing in South Korea, investors must seek permission from the society's administration rather than using different means. Fortunately, since the U.S. focuses on the monochronous approach of operations, they will benefit since they will get time to know their counterparts professionally to enhance their work (Mitrovic 30). Another challenge for the investors will be on communication since society is not comfortable communicating in English; there will be norms of the language barrier since their culture influences their communication (Mitrovic 30).

Unfortunately, unlike the U.S., the South Korean culture relies on advanced booked meetings, and their hierarchy of power and organizational structure is maintained as well as preserved (Mitrovic 31). It will be a challenge for U.S. investors who do not believe in advance meetings. Also, the U.S. investors will have barriers in body languages since they are not emotionally attached to their meanings, but the South Korean society does (Mitrovic 30). Attire is also a norm that needs to be handled with caution. South Korean respect their work environment with their attire, and since such models are not practiced in the U.S., it would be difficult for them to meet the expectations (Mitrovic 31). Names and titles are not a significant approach in the U.S., but it is in South Korea, therefore creating a gap between the two cultures (Mitrovic 31).

Recommendations

The first recommendation to explore the South Korean culture is by developing business etiquette, expressly, by visiting the nation for a long time and getting acquainted with the disused culture. To build business etiquette, the investor needs to build a relationship. Since everything relies on personal relationships, it is essential to spend time and establish a good work relationship and well as build trust with the community. The best approach to strengthening business etiquette is by ensuring the investor gets involved in cultural activities such as sports. Moreover, investors need to learn how to lend and borrow as a means of measuring their commitment and responsibilities. Besides, before establishing a company and make a mistake, the investors need to ensure they have various methods of demonstrating how to put things right.

The second recommendation is partnering with local business partners and learns from them. When planning to navigate the South Korean environmental culture, investors need to understand how the market works. When one is from a nation such as U.S. joint ventures with local business partners will expose him/her to understand the domestic market values. Also, the local partners will assist in illustrating to the investor the cultural and logistic norms of the nation. Such a system is more influential in South Korea, where casual Western communities massively misunderstand the values and policies. Finding skilled and experienced translators to assist in every meeting with the investor reflects norms of trusting local cultures and staff. Nonetheless, the qualified translator will make the difference the investors make on the unforgivable faux pass as well as the successful navigation of the sophisticated South Korea culture.

Works Cited

Lee, Choong Y. "Korean culture and its influence on business practice in South Korea." The Journal of International Management Studies (2012): 184-191.

Mitrovic, Mladen. "Cultural dimensions of Japan & East-Asian cluster in tourism." International Journal of Computational Engineering Research (IJCER) (2017): 27-35.