South Korea Sociocultural Report Essays

South Korea Sociocultural Report Essays South Korea Sociocultural Report Essay South Korea Sociocultural Report Essay This paper is a comprehensive socio-cultural report focused on South Korea. In this paper, several key socio-cultural and economic elements of South Korea are presented in order to provide a comprehensive overview of South Korea to the business development group of the organization. By providing a comprehensive overview of South Korea, the organization can base their expansion plan in exporting the products of the company and align the company’s insertion to South Korea effectively and efficiently as possible. The first part of the paper presents a brief geographic profile of South Korea and the current economy of the country. South Korea, officially known as the Republic of Korea (ROK) is an East Asian state on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. ROK is bordered by North Korea (otherwise known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). ROK is a country that is in between two economic giants, Japan – which lies across the Korea Strait and China – which lies across the Yellow Sea. Both of which have bustling economies and are currently part of the G8 nations (Breen, 2004). One half of the country’s population are within or within close proximity to the capital Seoul, the country’s largest city and is considered on the world’s mega cities – one of the most populous metropolitan cities in the world (Korea Overseas Information Service, 2003). The government of ROK utilizes one of the most traditional forms of government attached to democratic principles – the legislative, executive and judicial three arm government (Yang, 1999). Similar to other governments that utilize this kind of organization, the executive and legislative branches of government operate at the national level with the judicial branch operates both in the national and the local level (Korea Overseas Information Service, 2003). According to Transparency International, a Berlin-based international organization that gathers information from twelve poll surveys from nine non-aligned institutions that gathered the views of today’s leading business leaders and country analysts, out of the 163 countries that was surveyed, ROK scored a rating of 5.1. 5.0 is the rating considered to be the line that identifies countries that do not have a considerable threat to corruption. This is relatively better as compared to Malaysia that garnered a rating of 5 .0 and China and India that both garnered a rating of 3.3 (â€Å"The 2006 Transparency International,† 2006). ROK is considered by many in the business sector to be a major international economic power, not only in the region but also in the world. ROK has the 12th largest economy in the world setting and has the 3rd largest economy in Asia (behind Japan and China). Currently, ROK holds very strong industry leaders such as in the car industry – Hyundai and its subsidiary Kia joined together are the 7th largest car group in the world. South Korea’s shipbuilding industry is its crown jewel as it is considered the largest shipbuilding industry in the world overtaking Japan a few years back (Korea Economy and Business, 2007). South Korea’s biggest trading and export partner is China. With the aid of a booming trade and large scale industries, Korea is considered as one of the four Asian tigers. This can be attributed to the South Korean business model of being able to provide venues for the development of large, internationally competitive organizations by the means of easy financing and tax incentives that had given way to the dominance of companies that are owned and led by families. One notable milestone in ROK’s rise to economic power is its introduction to the trillion dollar club of world economies last 2004 (Yonhap News Agency, 2004). This level of growth, aside from the easy financing programs initiated by the government implemented labor reform policies and a pension program targeting corporations that aided in making the market more flexible. Currently, the South Korean economy is a little over 5.1% and is still expected to grow (Korea Economy and Business, 2007). The ROK economy is often identified with moderate inflation, a very low rating of unemployment, being able to boast of an export surplus, and fairly equitable income distribution spread throughout the country (Yonhap News Agency, 2004). In addition to this business savvy, ROk continues to still sharpen their sword and aspire for global competitiveness. ROK has been made available to a series of employment opportunities in other potentially beneficial companies and industries and provides the opportunity for growth as they try to become globally competitive. Lastly, the paper takes a look into the current culture thriving South Korea. Currently, it can be seen that western and particularly the US influences have been strongest. Particularly in the current pop culture and even can be seen in existing business practices (Nahm, 1996). On one note, Japanese culture has been banned all together because of the Japanese occupation. This went on until 1999. Although the culture of Japan has seeped into the Korean setting, it is unlikely that there will be considerable change of culture as compared to the level of cultural influence the west has over ROK. The contemporary culture of ROK is significantly influenced and is highly integrated to technology (Breen, 2004).