Advances in Developing Human

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Work Values and Business Ethics in Korea

Eunsang Cho
Advances in Developing Human Resources 2009; 11; 235
DOI: 10.1177/1523422309333761
The online version of this article can be found at:
http://adh.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/235

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Work Values and Business

Ethics in Korea
Eunsang Cho
The problem and the solution. To contribute to the discussion on
the meaning of work in Korea, this article starts by reporting findings
from a review of Korean literature. The article further presents findings from a survey of both managerial and union members on the
perceived importance of core values in the workplace. Among four
people-centered core values, human-centered management/human
resource development and knowledge sharing were the values preferred by the managerial group. Managers placed more importance on
accountability values, among which obedience to the law was significantly emphasized by the managers.With respect to the social responsibility values, the managerial group scored higher for the value of
social responsibility, faithful tax payment, and transparency of information disclosure with no significant difference. As to the leadership values, the managerial groups scores were higher for flexibility and
capacity for change management, vision formation, and implementation
capacity. The article closes with a discussion of the findings, limitations
of this research, recommendations for further research, and the practical implications.
Keywords: core values; business ethics; Korea
In the Korean context and Korean research literature, the topic of work values is
often discussed in connection to business ethics. This link is important and timely.
In recent years, numerous ethical scandals in business have occurred. Enron, a
giant energy firm in the United States went bankrupt because of lack of business
ethics. Daewoo Group, which was once the Koreas second largest conglomerate
group, suffered a similar fate because of serious violations of ethical standards. SK
Global, the trading arm of South Koreas third largest conglomerate SK Group,
was investigated because of its massive accounting fraud. In response to accusa
tions of corruption, corporations have established ethics codes both to publish their
ethical virtues and to portray a new moral image to the public (Becker & Fritzche,
Advances in Developing Human Resources Vol. 11, No. 2 April 2009 235-252
DOI: 10.1177/1523422309333761
Copyright 2009 Sage Publications

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1987; Stevens, 1997). Ethical codes, however, are successfully implemented only
if they become part of the organizational culture so that they are woven into the
organizational fabric. It is recognized that work values and norms, which shape the
behavior of members, should be reflected in ethical codes (Stevens, 1999).
Whether values and ethics can be taught in the workplace is a controversial issue.
Some believe that values are learned in childhood from family and religious train
ing rather than on the job (Stevens, 1997). At the same time, it was also affirmed
that the use of training and orientation as well as reading handbooks was instru
mental in promoting learning ethics (Stevens, 1999).
Despite differences in learning values, cultural variation does not rule out
common ethical agreement being reached among people of different societies. For
example, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
countries have adopted a treaty banning bribery of foreign officials in international
commerce. The former United nations Secretary General Kofi Annan announced
the United Nations Global Compact with leading corporations that have made
commitments to honoring basic ethical principles everywhere they do business
(Post, Lawrence, & Weber, 2002). In spite of these global trends, however, the
discussions on core values in the workplace are rare.
Researchers argue that business ethics and corporate social responsibility
are influenced by individuals values rather than corporate policies. Thus,
Hemingway and Maclagan (2004) emphasize managers personal values as
factors explaining the formation, adoption, and implementation of corporate
social responsibility policies in organizations.
Although the review of the literature on work values and business ethics (Cho,
2003; Morris, 1997; Pojman, 1995) offers basic insight and exploratory categories
of the core values in the workplace, these may not be relevant to managerial
employees and union members in the same way. Managers as agents for the own
ers are expected to represent the interests of the owners through appropriate gov
ernance mechanisms (Bohren, 1998; Ross, 1973; Shankman, 1999), whereas
union members are expected to act in their own interests or the interests of unions
(Freedman & Medoff, 1984). These differences are believed to lead to quite differ
ent perceptions on business ethics and work values. Thus, fundamental research
questions to be answered in this article are as follows:
How do core values in the workplace perceived by managers and
union members differ?
What are the implications for research and practice?
Based on the above rationale, this article is structured as follows. First, a
number of different literature sources are reviewed in order to understand the
core values in the workplace. Second, results of a survey involving about 300
managerial and union members are presented. The following sections sum
marize the review of the literature, present survey results, and develop conclu
sions and implications for research and practice.

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Literature Review
Values can be classified into personal dimensions, organizational dimensions
and social dimensions (Carrol & Buchholtz, 2000; Post et al., 2002). The core
values at the personal level have been described by many authors in the
literature and by philosophers and educators, and feature similar attributes
irrespective of time period and environment. The Aristotelian approach to
work values begins with the idea that it is individual virtue that counts. Virtue
ethics, rooted in the thinking of Plato and Aristotle, focuses on the individual
becoming imbued with virtues, such as honesty, fairness, truthfulness,
benevolence, and nonmalfeasance (Pojman, 1995; Solomon, 1999).
Benjamin Franklin emphasized truth, honesty, human relations, family, and
belief in God as the virtues in life (Rogers, 1996). As admirable qualities in the
work place in the United States, fundamental values such as honesty, competence,
responsibility, creativity, caring, confidence, cheerfulness, logic/reason, indepen
dence, ambition, courage, and obedience have been proposed by Burke and Black
(1990) and Posner and Schmidt (1984). The Josephson Institute for Ethics (1989)
developed the list of principles that incorporate the characteristics and values most
people associate with ethical behavior. The critical values were honesty, integrity,
promise keeping and trustworthiness, loyalty, fairness, concern for others, respect
for others, law abiding, commitment to excellence, leadership, reputation and
morale, and accountability. Morris (1997) approached business ethics in terms of
an intellectual dimension (truth), an aesthetic dimension (beauty), a moral
dimension (goodness), and a mental dimension (unification), but failed to specify
values related to each dimension.
There is evidence that there is a significant between-country variation in
values in the workplace. Vogel (1992) argued that Americans are more
sensitive to and concerned with issues of business ethics than Europeans. In a
similar vein, Cho and J. S. Lee (2002) reviewed a variety of values that
have influenced Korean firms in the context of traditional period up to the
18th century, the modern period up to the 1950s, Western capitalistic period
from 1960s up to 1997, and the globalization period from 1998 to now.
Under traditional commercial values rooted in the sensibilities of the 18th
century, a sense of calling, integrity, trust, frugality, human-centered
management and human resource development, professionalism and patriotic
ways of working were emphasized (Jang, 1998). These core values are
somewhat reflected in the ideal human types, which are often suggested as a
selection criterion of Korean firms. Until 1990, the values of integrity, human
relations and cooperation were positioned as the core factors for the ideal
human type. Park and Nhos (2001) study showed integrity as a key characteristic
of an ideal employee in the Korean firms investigated.
The review of modern values has necessarily gone back to Ahn Chang Ho,
whose pseudonym is Dosan. He devoted himself to furthering education and the
Korean independent movement during the early 20th century. Dosan emphasized

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honesty and integrity as a core value for personal perfection and national
development (Young Korean Academy, 2004). Succeeding the ideals of Dosan, the
Canaan Agricultural Army School taught filial piety, ethics, frugality, and altruism
to approximately 600,000 people through experiential learning methods (Canaan
Bokmin Research Center, 1997). The Saemaeul Movement, which also succeeded
to the idea and practice of the Canaan Agricultural Army School on a national
level, was launched as a community development project at first, was expanded
later in scope and program to urban sector, and became a nation-wide movement
for nation building and economic prosperity (Choe, 2005). It put a high priority on
diligence, autonomy, cooperation, unity, practice, service, and rationality, and
aimed at human development. It has influenced millions of agricultural leaders and
corporate managers from the 1960s up to now, and its philosophy is now being
transmitted all over the world, particularly to countries in the developing world
(Saemaeul Movement Headquarter, 2001). Lee and Cho (2003) showed that the
work value at the individual level has often been emphasized as a part of regulations
in corporate settings at the beginning stage of economic development but has been
considered a core requirement for the successful implementation of business
ethics. In sum, the modern values of the Korean society can be summarized as
honesty/integrity, frugality/economy, altruism, being the best in the field, and
cooperation/unity (Canaan Bokmin Research Center, 1997; Jang, 1998; Young
Korean Academy Press, 2004).
The core values of business behavior at corporate levels have developed
along with the formation of capitalistic markets. The Protestant ethic provided
both the economic and the moral foundations for modern capitalism (Jackall,
2009; Swedberg, 1998). Under Western capitalistic values, the emphases on
material wealth, a sense of calling, frugality/economy, temperance/modernization,
perfectionism are categorized as individual work values, whereas obedience to
the law is counted as an organizational value.
The core values at both personal and organizational levels have been emphasized
in family, school, workplaces, and community settings formally and informally.
Furthermore, the values at social level have been emphasized particularly since the
rapid growth of the globalization trend. Scholars such as Valasquez (2000) have
presented ethical problems created by globalization, such as human rights abuses,
corruption issues, and labor and environmental violations. The phenomenon of
globalization has positive and negative sides, which sometimes are conflicting
with each other, with respect to the values in the workplace. On the positive side,
it has led to standardization in corporate ethical management and awareness of
social responsibility. The negative examples are summed up as uniformity of
global culture and environmental destruction (Donaldson & Werhane, 1999;
Inglehart, 2000; Valasquez, 2000). The core values of creativity, innovation, and
professional ability have been stressed more than cooperation and integrity
because of globalization and market developments in Korean corporate settings
since the 1990s (Park & Nho, 2001). This trend is observable in major Korean

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firms, such as Samsung and LB, where capacity for cultural diversity is considered
as a core value (Cho & S. W. Lee, 2002). Particularly, social responsibility, sharing
of profit with the society, and social service are embedded in the corporate setting
through education and training as well as social service activities (Nho, Kim, &
Kim, 2002). Thus, understanding of different cultures, global etiquettes,
environment/respect for life, open thinking/judgment, fair transaction/competition,
vision formation and implementation capacity, social responsibility, restoration of
profit to the society, social service, and faithful tax payment are considered as the
core values in the globalization age (Donaldson & Werhane, 1999; Hatcher, 2002;
Inglehart, 2000; Valasquez, 2000).

Empirical Study
A survey instrument developed by Cho (2003) was used in this research
(Appendix A).
Because of constraints on human and material resources, the survey was
limited to approximately 200 unionized firms known to have good unionmanagement relations as recognized by the Korean Ministry of Labor. From this
group, three firms were selected based on the recommendations from a variety of
sources, such as specialists in industrial relations, human resource development
(HRD) scholars, and managers in the Ministry of Labor. The survey questionnaire
was implemented to the nonrandom samples of managers and union members for
each firm. The number of union members and managers surveyed was about 400,
and a total of 282 valid responses were obtained.
Instrumentation
The questionnaire was checked for validity by a dozen people composed of
corporate ethics managers, value education experts, and scholars specializing in
work values and business ethics. Internal consistency of the survey was determined
by using Cronbachs coefficient alpha (Borg & Gall, 1989). Reliability data were
obtained for six factors: leadership values, social responsibility values, peoplecentered values, accountability value, etiquette value, and vocational calling
values. Of the six categories, leadership values (.872), social responsibility values
(.850), people-centered values (.821), accountability values (.794), and etiquette
values (.754) had acceptable Cronbach alpha values, whereas vocational calling
values (.672) were slightly below the accepted level of .7. Items, means and
standard deviations, are shown in Appendix B.
Demographics
Union members among the respondents accounted for 83% whereas managers
accounted for 17%. This proportion is consistent with the classification in terms of

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the position, with 15.2% of managers, and 84.8% of employees below the
managerial rank. High school graduates comprised 62.4%, junior college graduates
17.4%, and college graduates 9.5%. It is consistent with the picture that union
member respondents were most likely to be union leaders without college degrees
and do not belong to the managerial group. With respect to age, 47.2% were
employees in their 20s, followed by 29.8% in their 30s, and 18.4% in their 40s. In
terms of seniority, 43.3% of respondents were employees with less than 5-year
tenure, followed by 29.4% with more than 5-year tenure but less than 10-year
tenure, and 27.3% with more than 10-year tenure.

Results
Factor analysis was conducted on the 34 core values in Korean workplaces
for data reduction purposes. Finegan (2000) and Schwartz and Bilsky (1987)
argued that a comprehensive categorization is preferable to analyzing each of
the items separately. Principal component analysis with varimax rotation and
Kaiser normalization was selected. The results of the factor analysis are
presented in Table 1. The results indicated the presence of six distinct factors.
The Cronbach alphas for the six factors produced ranged from .672 to .872.
Analysis of the factor loadings indicated that Factor 1 deals with leadership
values, which consisted of open thinking/judgment, no gender discrimina
tion, flexibility and capacity to change management, vision formation and
implementation capacity, compensation for performance, fair transaction and
competition, positive and optimistic thinking, pleasure of work, time management,
and customer satisfaction. The second factor addresses social responsibility values.
It consists of restoration of profit to the society, social responsibility, faithful tax
payment, transparency of information disclosure, respect for life and environment,
and global etiquette. The third factor, people-centered values, looks at humancentered HRD, knowledge sharing, trust, cooperation, and teamwork. A fourth
factor examines accountability values, which consist of accountability for the
organization, perfectionism, obedience to the law, information maintenance and
control, and professionalism. Etiquette values look at temperance and moderation,
altruism, and service spirit. The final factor, vocational calling values, includes
being the best in the field, material wealth, and a sense of calling.
The factor analysis procedure resulted in a relatively good factor structure. However,
it did not answer the question of whether or not the core values in the workplace are
perceived the same by managers and union members alike. Therefore, analysis of
variance (ANOVA) was conducted to see the perceived differences of the core values
between managers and union members. Table 2 presents the means and p values for
each core value for the union and manager groups.
Among the leadership core values, some items such as flexibility and
capacity to change management, vision formation and implementation capacity
and pleasure of work were slighter higher for the managerial group than for

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241

Factor 1

Factor 2

Factor 3

Factor 4

Factor 5

Factor 6

1. Leadership values
1-1 Open thinking/judgment
.596
.184
.027
.040
.367
.324
1-2 No gender discrimination
.641
.075
.166
.009
.260
.130
1-3 Flexibility and capacity to change
.551
.168
.141
.349
.128
management
1-4 Vision formation and implementation
.556
.201
.048
.364
.131
.221
capacity
1-5 Compensation for performance
.639
.181
.316
.188
.152
.202
1-6 Fair transaction/competition
.463
.356
.093
.391
.044
.058
1-7 Positive/optimistic thinking
.644
.262
.043
.083
.133
.024
1-8 Pleasure of work
.659
.067
.348
.061
.054
.032
1-9 Time management
.659
.046
.305
.067
.081
.006
1-10 Customer satisfaction
.474
.148
.387
.278
.086
.051
2. Social responsibility values
2-1 Restoration of profit to the society
.019
.684
.217
.223
.187
.016
2-2 Social responsibility
.104
.748
.211
.192
.193
.023
2-3 Faithful tax payment
.046
.800
.125
.078
.077
.099
2-4 Transparency of information disclosure
.249
.706
.002
.132
.024
.061
2-5 Respect for life/environment
.338
.549
.149
.183
.143
.150
2-6 Global etiquette
.415
.488
.102
.244
.199
.287
3. People-centered values
3-1 Human-centered/HRD
.184
.122
.760
.234
.128
.040
3-2 Knowledge sharing
.150
.067
.688
.159
.294
.182
3-3 Trust
.190
.243
.654
.001
.119
.083
3-4 Cooperation/teamwork
.315
.003
.673
.224
.081
.112

TABLE 1:Varimax Rotated Factor Matrix

.821

.850

.140

.872

(continued)

Internal Consistency

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Factor 1

Factor 2

Factor 3

Factor 4

Factor 5

Factor 6

Note: Extraction method: principal component analysis. Rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalization.

4. Accountability values
4-1 Accountability for the organization
.190
.235
.351
.482
.307
.135
4-2 Perfectionism
.025
.048
.011
.648
.294
.282
4-3 Obedience to the law
.194
.255
.067
.615
.449
.018
4-4 Information maintenance/control
.320
.242
.197
.611
.026
.092
4-5 Professionalism
.176
.315
.304
.561
.108
.021
5. Etiquette values
5-1 Netiquette
.051
.379
.092
.323
.543
.142
5-2 Temperance/moderation
.217
.300
.230
.141
.615
.093
5-3 Altruistic/service spirit
.247
.260
.273
.302
.586
.132
6. Vocational calling values
6-1 Being best in the world
.151
.114
.381
.347
.076
.453
6-2 Material wealth
.192
.079
.121
.059
.098
.794
6-3 A sense of calling
.070
.322
.325
.236
.295
.530

TABLE 1: (continued)

0.672

0.754

.794

Internal Consistency

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243

Leadership









Social responsibility





People-centered values

Open thinking/judgment
No gender discrimination
Flexibility and capacity to change management
Vision formation and implementation capacity
Compensation for performance
Fair transaction/competition
Positive/optimistic thinking
Pleasure of work
Time management
Customer satisfaction
Restoration of profit to the society
Social responsibility
Faithful tax payment
Transparency of information disclosure
Respect for life/environment
Global etiquette
Human-centered/HRD
Knowledge sharing
Trust
Cooperation/teamwork

Factor
Items

3.91
4.17
3.92
3.91
4.16
4.03
4.06
4.21
4.22
4.36
3.94
3.95
4.17
3.89
4.22
3.85
4.21
3.88
4.53
4.20

Union
Group
(n = 198)

3.93
4.21
4.16
4.07
4.12
4.07
4.02
4.33
4.16
4.37
3.93
4.16
4.21
3.98
4.16
3.79
4.53
4.23
4.60
4.33

Managerial
Group
(n = 43)

Average

0.76
0.83
0.75
0.76
0.77
0.75
0.77
0.85
0.75
0.77
0.88
0.83
0.87
0.83
0.78
0.78
0.86
0.82
0.75
0.85

Union
Group
(n = 198)

0.70
0.77
0.81
0.67
0.91
0.77
0.83
0.81
0.69
0.87
0.67
0.78
0.80
0.77
0.78
0.74
0.74
0.72
0.79
0.87

Managerial
Group
(n = 43)

Standard Deviation

TABLE 2: Importance of the Core Values Perceived by Union and Managerial Employees

(continued)

.867
.786
.063
.215
.765
.755
.806
.404
.661
.919
.949
.135
.478
.550
.679
.657
.021
.009
.561
.392

P Value

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Accountability




Etiquette


Vocational calling

Accountability for the organization

Perfectionism
Obedience to the law
Information maintenance/control
Professionalism
Netiquette
Temperance/moderation
Altruistic/service spirit
Being best in the world
Material wealth
A sense of calling

Factor
Items

TABLE 2: (continued)

4.17
3.51
3.85
3.96
3.97
3.66
3.78
3.87
4.06
3.59
3.79

Union
Group
(n = 198)

4.42
3.65
4.12
4.02
4.05
3.77
3.72
3.95
4.26
3.40
3.91

Managerial
Group
(n = 43)

Average

0.80
0.84
0.77
0.76
0.82
0.86
0.75
0.81
0.83
0.87
0.80

Union
Group
(n = 198)

0.73
0.97
0.70
0.71
0.87
0.72
0.70
0.72
0.79
0.95
0.72

Managerial
Group
(n = 43)

Standard Deviation

.064
.314
.040
.644
.606
.433
.621
.526
.162
.203
.370

P Value

Cho / WORK VALUES IN KOREA

the union group with no significant differences. Regarding some of the social
responsibility values, the managerial group put more weight on social
responsibility and transparency of information disclosure than the union group
but with no significant differences at p < .05. For other values such as respect
for life and environment and global etiquette, the union group scored higher
than the manager group, but again without significance at p < .05.
As to people-centered values, all items were higher for the managerial
group than for the union group, with significant difference of human-centered
management/HRD (p < .05), and knowledge sharing (p < .01). As demographics
showed, the members of the managerial group were college graduates whereas
most union members were not. This tendency might explain some of the
different weight placed on HRD.
As to accountability values, the managerial group put more weight on all
items than the union group, with the only significant differences of obedience
to the law (p < .05). Regarding etiquette values, the items such as altruistic/
service spirit were slightly higher for the managerial group than for the union
group with the exception of temperance and moderation, but the difference
was not significant at p < .05. Similar trends existed with respect to the
vocational calling values. For the items of being the best in the world and a
sense of calling, the managerial group placed more importance on them than
the union group, but with no significant differences at p < .05.

Discussion
Robertson (1993) has proposed promising directions for future empirical
research in work values and business ethics, one of which was to base
empirical research on normative foundations. In this study, it was implicitly
assumed that the managerial group put more weight on the core values at
organizational levels. These values include restoration of profit to the society,
social responsibility, faithful tax payment, environment/respect for life, fair
transaction/competition, transparency of information disclosure, compensation
for performance, and customer satisfaction. This assumption was based on
research suggesting that business executives view themselves as having higher
ethical standards and more concerned about the ethical practices than lower
level employees (Callan, 1992; Lee & Yoshihara, 1997).
However, the results reported in the present article did not show significant
differences between managers and union members in the perceived importance of
the majority of core values. This may be due to the fact that good labor management
relations in the selected firms have already been embedded and infrastructure and
culture reflecting or conductive to the features of organizational value and ethics
had been implemented. Exceptions were human-centered management/HRD,
knowledge sharing, and obedience to the law. The research result that union
members put a significantly less weight on human centered/HRD than the
managerial groups could be suggesting that union members were more concerned

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with issues of wages and working conditions rather than training and development.
In fact, the case study on labormanagement cooperative HRD programs (Cho &
Nho, 2003) showed a low level of involvement by union or employee representatives
in the areas of HRD.
Research by Cho and J. S. Lee (2002) had shown that managers in charge of
education at both private and public firms in Korea emphasized knowledge
sharing, cooperation and teamwork, accountability for the organization, obedience
to the law, professionalism, flexibility and capacity to change management, vision
formation and implementation capacity, and customer satisfaction. Employees, on
the other hand, emphasized human-centered management, knowledge sharing,
cooperation and teamwork, being the best in the field, professionalism, flexibility
and capacity to change management, vision formation and implementation
capacity, and pleasure of work. It is worthwhile to note that accountability for the
organization, obedience to the law and customer satisfaction were rated higher by
managers, whereas human-centered management, being the best in the field, and
pleasure of work were the value items more emphasized by employees.
Similar trends existed with respect to the other core values. For the items of
accountability for the organization and flexibility/ capacity for change management,
the managerial group placed more importance on them than the union group with
no significant difference. This is somewhat consistent with previous research (Cho
& J. S. Lee, 2002) in that the item of accountability for the organization was also
emphasized by the managerial group. In fact, organizational accountability was
considered as a managerial responsibility, although some organizations tried to
accomplish it through partnership between union and management (Carroll &
Buchholtz, 2000; Cho & Nho, 2003). In the case of flexibility and capacity for
change management, union members proved to be slow or resistant to change in
the environment (Freedman & Medoff, 1984), which has been, with a few
exceptions, a union tradition.
As indicated earlier, the managerial group put more weight on human-centered
management/HRD than the union group (p < .01). This result is in contrast to the
previous result that human-centered management/HRD is the value item more
emphasized by employees (Cho & J. S. Lee, 2002; Cho & S. W. Lee, 2002). In the
previous study, employees were in nonunion settings where personnel and human
resource practices were designed to focus on the human side and training
conducted to avoid unionization efforts. This is a part of the reasons why
employees tended to emphasize human-centered management/HRD. In current
conditions, the union members in Korea are more interested in the struggles for
wage increase and improved working conditions, than in training and development
of employees (Cho & Lee, 2003; Kim, 2001).
It is worthwhile to note that obedience to the law was rated significantly lower
by union members than by managers with significant difference at p < .05.
Reflecting Korean labor union history until 1987 where unions were oppressed
and therefore employees have struggled to fight for legal rights to organize unions

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Cho / WORK VALUES IN KOREA

and bargain collectively with employers and government (Kim, 2001), it is

understandable that union members tend to distrust the law than managers.
Lee and Yoshihara (1997) reported that business executives in general
believe in social responsibility of business and social justice. Regarding the
social responsibility and accountability values, the managerial group was
slightly higher than the union group on the value of social responsibility and
accountability for the organization. As to the item of obedience to the law, the
managers put more weight on it than the union members (p < .05), a finding
consistent with Cho and J. S. Lees (2002) previous research.
Despite some interesting findings of the research, the limitations of this
research should be pointed out. First, the firms selected were not representative
because only those firms with good unionmanagement relations were selected.
More samples of firms are needed that include firms with good unionmanagement
relations, average unionmanagement relations, and poor unionmanagement
relations. Second, this study is based on a nonrandom sampling of managers and
union members from only three firms. Therefore, the results may not be
generalizable to the whole population of Korean firms. Further studies should
strive to obtain representative samples of union members and managers. Third, the
core values of business ethics are not only dependent on personal values but also
on the organizations structure, rules, and culture (Argandona, 2003). Furthermore,
the values might be different across national cultures (Bigoness & Blakely, 1996).
Therefore, it would be meaningful to investigate the perception of core work and
business ethics values among Far East Asian countries, such as Korea, Japan, and
China, as well as European countries and North America from a comparative
perspective. As ethical management is considered to be an essential part of
business survival and success, the task of measuring the core work and business
ethics values in different countries is critical to ensure that ethical management is
in place through a sequence of training for both employees and managers as well
as establishment of an integrated ethical management system (Baron, 2000). The
findings of the study indicate that the core values of business ethics need to be part
of training and education for the employees as well as managers.
A number of additional specific practical implications could be suggested. The
finding that management puts more priority on almost all items than union
members (in case of the firms characterized by excellent labor-management
cooperation) may imply that the core value items may differ for the firms with
poor labormanagement cooperation. In other words, according to the three stages
of development of labormanagement cooperation (Cho, 2003), which are
composed of laying the foundation, developing programs, and establishing the
system, the emphasized core values of corporate business ethics can differ. At the
stage of laying the foundation, the main emphasis should be on the task of creating
the relationship between corporate strategy and ethical management. In this
process, priorities should be given to establishing the ideal human type emphasized
by both labor and management and identifying core values through the needs

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analysis for organizational members. Taking into account that educational needs
for work and ethics values differ between private firms and public organizations
(Cho, 2003), developing and implementing the differentiated ethical management
system and training program based on corporate culture and industry features
would lead to the successful implementation of ethical management.
In the stage of program development, the curriculum designed to share the
core values across the firms are developed, implemented, and evaluated. As
corporate training is basically adult education, dilemma discussion, role play,
sensitivity and empathy training, using a variety of experiences and careers of
learners, rather than rote memory education, would help heighten value and
ethics consciousness by influencing separately, or altogether the components
of ethical characters, such as thinking, emotion, behavior, and value. It is
worthwhile to note that management has different moral dilemmas than
employees because of different interests and experiences. As accountability
and obedience to the law are emphasized for management whereas selfactualization is more important for employees, it would be more effective to
develop the curriculum with the differentiated foci.
At the stage of establishing the system, every effort needs to be made to
establish the system within and out of the firm so that the core values are embedded
in the system. First, implementing online and offline learning organization and
communities of practice to share the best practices of ethical management would
be the first priority task to establish an ethical management system. In addition,
corporate incentive and compensation systems based on ethical management
performance and establishment of ethics guardianship for new employees are
suggested. Second, provision of institutional incentives to the firms adopting ethics
program is essential for the expansion of ethical management. In case of the
United States, the creation of ethics programs and designation of ethics officers
have been in response to the 1991 U.S. Federal sentencing guidelines, which
would reduce penalties to the organizations with integrated management systems
composed of leadership, risk assessment, structured oversight, training and
communication, internal reporting system, performance evaluation, audit and
evaluation, and transparency, if they were found guilt of ethics violations (Carroll
& Buchholtz, 2000). Third, nongovernmental organizations such as civic
organizations and religious organizations need to establish an ongoing monitoring
system on unethical corporate activities and provide the best-practice ethical
management firms with social support, such as awarding the best ethical prize.

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Cho / WORK VALUES IN KOREA

Appendix A
How do you evaluate the following items of core values?
1. Least important
2. Less important
3. Neutral
4. Moderately important
5. Very important
1. Human-centered/HRD
2. Knowledge sharing
3. Trust
4. Frugality/economy
5. Understanding of the different culture
6. Cooperation/ teamwork
7. Being best in the world
8. Material wealth
9. A sense of calling
10. Honesty/integrity
11. Etiquette
12. Temperance/moderation
13. Altruistic/service spirit
14. Accountability for the organization
15. Perfectionism
16. Obedience to the law
17. Information maintenance/control
18. Professionalism
19. Restoration of profit to the society
20. Social responsibility
21. Faithful tax payment
22. Transparency of information disclosure
23. Respect for life/environment
24. Global etiquette
25. Open thinking/judgment
26. No gender discrimination
27. Flexibility and capacity to change management
28. Vision formation and implementation capacity
29. Compensation for performance
30. Fair transaction/competition
31. Positive/optimistic thinking
32. Pleasure of work
33. Time management
34. Customer satisfaction
35. Others__________________________

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3

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4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4

5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5

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Appendix B
Mean (M) and Standard Deviation (SD) of Each Item
No.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.

Item

Human-centered/HRD
Knowledge sharing
Trust
Frugality/economy
Understanding of the different culture
Cooperation/ teamwork
Being best in the world
Material wealth
A sense of calling
Honesty/integrity
Netiquette
Temperance/moderation
Altruistic/service spirit
Accountability for the organization
Perfectionism
Obedience to the law
Information maintenance/control
Professionalism
Restoration of profit to the society
Social responsibility
Faithful tax payment
Transparency of information disclosure
Respect for life/environment
Global etiquette
Open thinking/judgment
No gender discrimination
Flexibility and capacity to change management
Vision formation and implementation capacity
Compensation for performance
Fair transaction/competition
Positive/optimistic thinking
Pleasure of work
Time management
Customer satisfaction

SD

4.30
4.01
4.56
4.02
3.58
4.27
4.10
3.57
5.83
4.26
3.71
3.76
3.90
4.21
3.55
3.90
4.02
4.01
3.94
4.00
4.12
3.92
4.23
3.87
3.93
4.18
3.99
3.98
4.20
4.05
4.06
4.23
4.23
4.38

0.842
0.818
0.749
0.798
0.811
0.844
0.844
0.891
0.800
0.819
0.857
0.763
0.800
0.808
0.884
0.774
0.766
0.822
0.850
0.824
0.883
0.869
0.787
0.774
0.768
0.836
0.759
0.757
0.792
0.760
0.780
0.749
0.769
0.778

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This refereed journal article is part of an entire issue on The Meanings of Work and
Working in International Contexts. For more information or to read other articles in the
issue, see Kuchinke, K. P., & Ardichvili, A. (2009). The Meanings of Work and
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Resources, 11 (2).
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