Overview

What are the "Isms" of Korean culture?

How do you negotiate price concessions with Koreans?

What is the main difference when dealing with Koreans vs Japanese?

The complexities of dealing with Koreans lie in their similarity to other Asian cultures and their assimilation of American business practices into their corporate cultures. Over the last several years, I have communicated and negotiated with, and trained managers from major Korean organizations. Based on these experiences, I have learned some valuable lessons about doing business with them. By examining the values that Koreans adhere to, I have learned how their cultural values influence their daily business communication. When Koreans work on projects intra-culturally or inter-culturally, their cultural values have a direct bearing on the way they conduct business.

Any executive working with a Korean organization can see the influence of cultural values on business, particularly when looking at everyday business encounters such as personal introductions, telephone calls, meetings, presentations, and negotiations. And Korean culture certainly isn't uniform across the entire nation. Cultural values and their manifestations vary from region to region and from organization to organization. These values play a very important role in Korean corporations, locally and globally: the values behind the actions will be the driving force for the Koreans, influencing the success or the failure of their global joint ventures.

In this chapter, you will test your skills for dealing with Koreans. It will provide you with insight into the Isms of Korean cultural values, including meeting the Koreans,...