Why are Korean Women Not Able to Utilize Work-life Balance Policies: Focus on Male-Centered Organizational Culture and Gender Discrimination
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Despite the recent increase in social participation of women with high levels of education, Korean society is still receiving criticism for having many problems in utilizing women’s human resources. In fact, Korea has long been considered to be one of the countries with the lowest glass ceiling index, and is mentioned as one of countries with the greatest wage disparity between men and women. In particular, 30% of married women experience career breaks, and it is a country in which women experience extreme difficulty at work, resulting from traditional gender roles and gender stereotypes. Due to such problems, the Korean government is providing various institutional support so that women employees can break away from their traditional gender roles, maintain work and family balance, and demonstrate their abilities at work. However, despite such institutional support, it is difficult to freely exploit these policies. In reality, Korea displays a strong collectivist and hierarchical culture based on Confucianism, and there is a tacit agreement that makes it difficult to leave work before senior employees. Additionally, because group benefits take precedence over individual benefits, there is criticism that organizational culture does not provide sufficient support, enough for employees to make use of such policies. Moreover, these policies are not utilized because employees worry that the use of such policies would be reflected in their performance evaluation including promotions and that they would be considered as employees who do not contribute to the organization. Besides, women employees are already exposed to much gender discrimination within the organization, and avoid utilization caused by the fear of receiving more discrimination. Thus, in this study, we observed that a stronger male-centered organizational culture would lead to greater discriminatory perception towards women and more difficulty in making use of WLB policies. In fact, we confirmed that male-centered organizational culture intensifies gender discrimination and mediates gender discrimination to lower accessibility towards WLB policies through the results of our analysis. We also determined that such culture itself renders WLB policy use difficult. Accordingly, this study proposes the importance of an organizational culture towards gender equality based on these results.
Abstract
Despite the recent increase in social participation of women with high levels of education, Korean society is still receiving criticism for having many problems in utilizing women’s human resources. In fact, Korea has long been considered to be one of the countries with the lowest glass ceiling index, and is mentioned as one of countries with the greatest wage disparity between men and women. In particular, 30% of married women experience career breaks, and it is a country in which women experience extreme difficulty at work, resulting from traditional gender roles and gender stereotypes. Due to such problems, the Korean government is providing various institutional support so that women employees can break away from their traditional gender roles, maintain work and family balance, and demonstrate their abilities at work. However, despite such institutional support, it is difficult to freely exploit these policies. In reality, Korea displays a strong collectivist and hierarchical culture based on Confucianism, and there is a tacit agreement that makes it difficult to leave work before senior employees. Additionally, because group benefits take precedence over individual benefits, there is criticism that organizational culture does not provide sufficient support, enough for employees to make use of such policies. Moreover, these policies are not utilized because employees worry that the use of such policies would be reflected in their performance evaluation including promotions and that they would be considered as employees who do not contribute to the organization. Besides, women employees are already exposed to much gender discrimination within the organization, and avoid utilization caused by the fear of receiving more discrimination. Thus, in this study, we observed that a stronger male-centered organizational culture would lead to greater discriminatory perception towards women and more difficulty in making use of WLB policies. In fact, we confirmed that male-centered organizational culture intensifies gender discrimination and mediates gender discrimination to lower accessibility towards WLB policies through the results of our analysis. We also determined that such culture itself renders WLB policy use difficult. Accordingly, this study proposes the importance of an organizational culture towards gender equality based on these results.
참고문헌 (19)
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