Top Down Bullying Management Culture

About two months ago, a 33-year-old prosecutor hung himself at his home in southwestern Seoul. A suicide note next to his body indicated that he had suffered extreme stress at work. During the investigation into the death of Kim Hong-yeong, his father and colleagues highlighted the severe verbal abuse and mistreatment by his boss as the reasons why he took his own life. 

Text messages exchanged between Kim and his colleagues before his death were later made public, revealing that he had often complained about his boss’s unreasonable demands. For instance, Kim had said that when his work superior was heavily drunk, he would order him to come pick him up and take him home at night. Kim had also said that he wanted to commit suicide at least once a day whenever he heard his superior swearing at him. 

“He scolded me throughout the entire office dinner. I smiled while he swore at me, to help myself withstand it, but he then swore at me more, saying I was too confident. I just can’t stand it anymore. I want to die,” one of the messages read. 

The tragic incident sheds light on South Korea’s prosecution, which is known for its strict top-down system. It is often described as “militaristic,” resembling an army division, and often involves punishing working hours, demanding workloads and humiliation. 

But this is not necessarily confined to the prosecution, as many South Korean workers can identify with the challenges Kim faced: a militaristic corporate culture and rigid hierarchy at work, to which they are expected to be obedient.

While there have been efforts to change this culture, the top-down approach largely remains in many areas ranging from private corporations to academia.

According to a survey on 889 Koreans released by the job portal Incruit in April, 71 percent of respondents said that they had experienced a militaristic culture at school and work, with 21 percent of them describing it as “rampant.” 

As examples of a militaristic company culture, they cited the authoritative manner of superiors, patriarchic owner-focused structures, superiors’ exercise of absolute power and an oppressive atmosphere in which they cannot speak up. 

In another survey of 2,819 employees by the job search engine Saramin, 15.3 percent of Koreans said that they had suffered physical abuse at their workplaces. Among them, 72.9 percent said it was their superiors who had inflicted such abuse. 

When faced with the army-style corporate ladder, many young workers give up tolerating what they see as unreasonable treatment. As the cause, pundits have pointed to the growing gap between the baby boom generation born and raised under the military-backed governments and those younger, who are more educated and influenced by democratic and globalized values.

According to a recent survey of 306 firms by the Korea Employer’s Federation, 27.7 percent of newly hired employees quit within a year in 2016, up 2.5 percent from 2014. The poll showed that 49.1 percent of them quit due to a failure to adjust to organizations. Some 20 percent of them did so because they were discontented with the pay and welfare at the company, and another 15.9 percent had complaints about their work environment. 

The industries behind Korea’s economic development, such as manufacturing, steel, shipbuilding and construction, tend to have a more military-style leadership, he said, while the entertainment, tech and game industries usually have a more flexible work culture. 

He pointed out that Korean companies need to rethink their once-effective top-down management model in the face of growing global competition and the fast-changing business environment. 

“Korea is now in the position to become a first mover rather than follower. So companies should have more innovative, flexible and flatter company cultures to encourage freer communication,” he said. “It is a matter of survival for the country that has nothing but human capital.” 

To revamp the top-down working culture, companies’ wage and reward system as well as evaluation system should all be performance-based rather than based on time, he noted.

“Without leaders putting down their authority and setting an example, it is difficult to truly reform the corporate culture.”

He noted that the changing expectations among the younger workforce are challenging companies to reform their top-down model, citing how an increasing number of young Korean workers are attracted to foreign companies. 

“As long as conglomerates hold on to the old-fashioned company culture, talented young individuals will look away and find opportunities elsewhere,” he said.