Introduction

The term insamansa (‘personnel matters are everything’) has been widely used by people for generations in South Korea (hereafter Korea as shorthand). It means that personnel or human resources are considered the single most critical factor ensuring organizational success. Many Koreans ascribe the nation’s successful economic development from the early 1960s to the 1980s to the efficient mobilization of human resources. However, the full story of economic development reveals both positive and negative aspects to the deployment of labour and human resources. This introductory chapter establishes the conceptual frameworks that will be used in this book. Employment relations/human resource management (ER/HRM) systems are so complex that they defy a simple analysis. In an attempt to provide an overview of such systems, we will first explain the roles of labour and human resources during the period of economic growth, before introducing a general model of ER/HRM systems. This will consist of outlining their general and organizational environments, organizational architecture, the nature of ER/HRM systems and the outcomes (ER, HRM, organizational, financial and national), during three key periods of the previous century (i.e., pre-1987, 1987-1997 and post-1997). Finally, some crucial elements of both ER and HRM systems will be explained.