ANALYSIS OF SOUTH KOREA, UNDER A CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW.

1) CONCEPT:

ANALYSIS:"Detailed examination of the elements or structure of something, typically as a basis for discussion or interpretation"*

ANALOGY:"A comparison between two things , typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification"**

CULTURE: "Culture is the relatively stable set of inner values and beliefs generally held by groups of people in countries or regions and the noticeable impact those values an beliefs have on the peoples' outward behaviors and environment"***

POINT OF VIEW:" A position or perspective from which something is considered or evaluated"****

 2) QUESTION:Which are the main cultural and economic characteristics of South Korea?
ANSWER: South Korea is located in the Eastern Asia, southern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the East Sea and the Yellow Sea.

To bring a good answer for this question, I am going to make the analysis based in  the things which the  anthropologist and writer dutch  Geert Hofstede said about cultural factors of South Korea, and in information offered by South Korean web pages.

I'm going to start quoting the Geert Hofstede graph of Cultural Dimensions and his analysis, about South  Korea:

We can see that "South Korea's Index values are: PDI=60, IDV=18, MAS=39, UAI=85 and LTO=70. South Korea's highest Hofstede Dimension is Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) at 85, indicating the society’s low level of tolerance for uncertainty. In an effort to minimize or reduce this level of uncertainty, strict rules, laws, policies, and regulations are adopted and implemented. The ultimate goal of this population is to control everything in order to eliminate or avoid the unexpected. As a result of this high Uncertainty Avoidance characteristic, the society does not readily accept change and is very risk adverse.

South Korea has a low Individualism (IDV) rank of 18. The score on this Dimension indicates the society is Collectivist as compared to Individualist. This is manifest in a close long-term commitment to the member 'group', be that a family, extended family, or extended relationships. Loyalty in a collectivist culture is paramount, and over-rides most other societal rules and regulations. The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group."*****

As we observed the South Korean people are very careful in all aspects of their lives, they do everything the best possible in order to avoid the risks.

With a PDI score = 60, I can say that in this country there is expectation that some individuals have much more power than others. In general, countries with a high power distance are typically more violent. Latin American and Asian nations are ranked the highest in this category while the Scandinavian and Germanic are in the lowest.

Just as most Asian countries, Koreans work collectively, in this point is where I dare to say that one of the factors that has made that these countries have been so successful in recent decades is the teamwork.

With a MAS score = 39, I can say that competitiveness, assertiveness, ambition and the accumulation of wealth and material possessions, is almost equally between men and women of this country, with this I mean that both men and women must worry about the lucrative careers and women can work and study.

Turning to the economy of South Africa is important to note that " Korea, once known to be one of the world's poorest agrarian societies, has undertaken economic development in earnest since 1962. In less than four decades, it achieved what has become known as the (Miracle on the Hangang River)―an incredible process that dramatically transformed the Korean economy while marking a turning point in Korea's history.

Korea developed rapidly from the 1960s, fueled by high savings and investment rates, and a strong emphasis on education. With a history as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Korea is working to become the focal point of a powerful Asian economic bloc during the 21st century"******

To conclude this point it is important to note and recognize that in just five decades, this country has developed considerably, and one of the factors that under my point of view is very important is education, I believe that if a country invests good percentage of its GDP on education will have the opportunity to be much more competitive internationally, such as South Korea and other Asian countries.

3) POINT OF VIEW: To develop this point I think that is very important to quote a new  from the newspaper "El Espectador", which was showed the last Saturday 02 October and said "Colombia and South Korea are going to take in Cali the fourth round of negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA )"*******
In this round, which took place on Monday 04 October, Colombia and South Korea, evaluated issues such as market access for agricultural and industrial products, trade protection, investment, temporary entry of persons, sanitary measures and intellectual property. For this round the car assemblers have asked to the government that this sector will be excluded from the negotiations because they believe that it negotiation will affect them badly.
Trade Minister Sergio Díaz Granados said "that negotiations with South Korea is part of the trade agenda that the Government of Juan Manuel Santos will drive"********

In my opinion this is a very important new to Colombia because this  Free Trade Agreement will increase significantly national competitiveness.
At this point I think that is very important to make clear that all companies every day are obliged to implement export systems or systems for doing international business with other countries, because if a company does not do this kind of activity it will die sooner or later.
Another important point is that the possible negotiation with South Korea will help to Colombia to diversify its markets and not have to depend commercially of a few countries, for this reason the  most important thing to achieve this advance is to work together with domestic exporters in order to improve their offer and make it interesting for the  foreign countries.

Recalling the great experience that we had in international business class on Monday October 4th, with the Korean man Soo Jin Lee, who is a business men, and he works for Samsung in a special line of product: cellular.

This is a photo of the great academic and cultural experience with Su Yin, who is the Korean businessman. 
People from left to right are: Viviana Ochoa, Viviana Rojas, Soo Jin Lee, Marcela Noreña, Diana Tamayo (teacher) and Victor Hugo Martinez B.

I remember that Soo Jin Lee said that his company (Samsumg) and in general his country (Korea) are thinking seriously about establishing business with Latin American countries and especially with Colombia, an issue that was confirmed with this great news of the newspaper "El Espectador".
Personally I think that we as managers, have a great opportunity of job because globalization and international cooperation allow it, for this reason I believe that this International Business course provides the right tools, which  in some way or another will help me to perform successfully in a foreign negotiation process.

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*Oxford Dictionaries.(2010).Analysis.[Online]: http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1221618#m_en_us1221618

**Oxford Dictionaries.(2010).Analogy.[Online]: http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_us1221613#m_en_us1221613

***Brooks, Peterson.(2004).Cultural intelligence.Defining Culture.p 177.

****Merrian Webster Dictionary.(2010).Point of view.[Online]:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/point%20of%20view

*****Hofstede Geert.(2010).South Korea [Online]:

http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_south_korea.shtml

******Korean Cultural Service.(2010).Economy.[Online]:

http://www.koreanculture.org/06about_korea/economy.htm

*******El Espectador.(2010).Colombia y Corea del Sur continúan negociación de TLC.[Online]:

http://www.elespectador.com/articulo-227507-colombia-y-corea-del-sur-continuan-negociacion-de-tlc 

********El Espectador.(2010).Colombia y Corea del Sur continúan negociación de TLC.[Online]:http://www.elespectador.com/articulo-227507-colombia-y-corea-del-sur-continuan-negociacion-de-tlc

-Image 1: Getty Images.Man using mobile phone, head shot.(2010).Available at: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/74400885/amana-images

-Image 2: South Korea:language, culture, Customs and etiquette.Skorea-map.(2010).Available at: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/south-korea-country-profile.html

-Image 3:Geert Hofstede.Hofstede South Korea.(2010).Available at:http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_south_korea.shtml