ABSTRACT
There have been controversies over the corporate culture of Korean companies. Western scholars such as Hofstede (1991) and Trompenaars (1994) describe Korea as one of the most collectivist countries in the world. They suggest that the corporate culture of Korea is even more collectivist than that of Japan. However, Japanese scholars such as Hasegawa, Watanabe, and Kusayanagi take a different approach (Chang and Chang, 1994) and indicate that Korean companies are more competitive, individualistic and dynamic than Japanese ones. Although most Korean scholars tacitly agree that Korean corporate culture has been built on traditional collectivism, they disagree on its specific nature. Expatriate managers of multinational companies in Korea often presume Korean managers' collective orientation; many are frustrated, therefore, by egoistic and instrumental forms of behaviour. Our goal is to clarify these confusions in Koreans' cultural orientation.
