I prefer to scream and yell… if everybody breaks out in tears… I consider it a good day. Seriously though… I just don’t know how to make people communicate better.

I can only handle so much information at a time and everyone else has their limits too…

I think the best co-workers are the ones you can trust, who will not hold things against you in the long run, who will work with you, not for you, not against you, but rather a mutual beneficial working arrangement.

Co-operation… Let’s have more of it… the only time we really need to scream and yell and pull out contracts is when somebodies ego get away from them, in which case reducing them to tears or sabotaging their work always gets immediate results… joking…

Bear in mind also that there are good companies and there are bad companies, especially at the hagwon level where new players pop up (and sometimes disappear) overnight. A bad company might be one where no logic or cultural understanding applies, even to the native Koreans who work there.

My other two bits of advice would be to shed (if you have it) a Korean-versus-foreigner perspective. I think people who call the sole “foreigners” in a company “tokens” are often doing a disservice or missing the point entirely. You are hired for a skill set and that skill set is needed for a reason. You need to figure out what that skill set is (and, yes, it might be just the ability to speak English like a native in some cases) see if that’s what you want to be your primary focus for the duration and, if possible, if you will be able to expand that skill set or the skill set that is needed so you can grow with the job. Anyway, it’s not good (and it’s probably usually wrong) to think that every bad thing happening to you that comes down from above is “because I’m a foreigner.” If that’s your perspective, you either won’t last or, if you do, you’ll be miserable.

Finally, anytime one is ready to make a stand about something in their company (and this applies outside of Korea as well), make sure first that you really are right about what you think you’re right about. It’s surprising how often that step is missed. If it turns out you’re wrong about something (especially something big), you won’t be trusted as much in the future, until you rebuild your rep again.

I myself have been working in a Korean company (though it is technically an American company, 99% of the workforce is Korean) for about 2 1/2 years now. Though I’ve found some of the points mentioned above pretty spot on in a lot of ways, I think its important to note that they can and normally do vary differently according to industry. Since I focus mostly in Client Services, negotiation is pretty much reduced to trying to convince the clients what is and isn’t possible within a given timeframe. In these cases, drawing a line usually results in the clients jockeying to see who can jump over it first.

Without getting too long winded, allow me to humbly offer a principle of my own:

Don’t allow to yourself to be cut out of the loop on projects or details that pertain to you. It will happen sometimes where the person heading up a project knows you will be involved at some level but doesn’t think its important to explain the details to you because of the time it could take to explain. Make sure you are always asking questions and staying on top of things that could possibly affect you and it will go a long way to making sure you avoid the “I know this is last minute but…” situations.

A newcomer named Matt Strum, with the blog, “On My Way To Korea” has numerous posts about doing business in Korea that are also worth reading.

http://www.mstrum.com/onmywaytokorea/2009/02/04/korean-impressions-of-foreign-business-mbik-9/

http://www.mstrum.com/onmywaytokorea/2009/02/01/managing-and-being-managed-by-koreans-mbik-8/