Abstract

The Current Situation and Improvement Plan on Human Resource Development of Female Worker in Social Economy Area
Type Basic Period 2017
Manager Bok-Tae Kim Date 2018-01-10
Fiie 1152_The Current Situation and Improvement Plan on Human Resource Development of Female Worker in Social Economy Area.pdf ( 88.7 KB )

2017 KWDI Abstract 

The Current Situation and Improvement Plan on Human Resource Development of Female Worker in Social Economy Area

 

Bok-Tae Kim

Ji-Hyun Hong

Dae-Jin Kim

 

Despite of the importance of female human resource development in social economy area, it was pointed out that there are limited education programs and welfares to develop female capabilities. In this study, we regard women as potential human resources and explored ways to systematically develop female human resources. To begin with, by utilizing human resource development theory, we differentiated female human resource development in the field of social economy into component factors(recruitment, utilization and maintenance, development, compensation) and performance factors (individual performance, organizational performance, social performance), then conducted a survey of 652 female employees’ human resource management who were engaged in social economy area in order to analyze current status of female human resource development.

 

Our results showed that respondents’ satisfaction score on their tasks were high, and they positively evaluated their current workplace in terms of the business status, growth potential, and local contributions. This implies that work satisfaction of female workers in social economy may have enabled them to build ownership and fulfill public interests. Also, it turned out that respondents who are engaged in social economy organization had higher level of happiness, health status, and job satisfaction compared to their previous jobs, implying that their ‘quality of life’(including happiness, health and satisfaction) has been improved. While it is true that there were lack of education programs specialized for women, limited institutional supports, and low utilization rate of institutions related to work/family/leisure, female-friendly atmosphere of social economy may have worked as a crucial factor of a high level of ‘quality of life’. In order to investigate how job opportunities offered by social economy organization may had impact on employees’ welfare, our primary analysis included examining employment activity experiences, diverse job training for work performance, organizational effort for female-friendly environment, work sustainability and job satisfaction. Afterwards, we investigated the effects of job satisfaction and female-friendly organization on employees’ satisfaction and happiness at workplace.

 

As a result, previous employment activities significantly affected in reducing job seeking duration so that unemployed person or job seekers were able to easily get employed in social economy field. However, prior employment experiences did not have effect on job capability and job satisfaction, implying that they have only limited effect on job seeking behaviors. Moreover, diverse job training experience had significant effect on job capability development and job satisfaction, indicating that these organizational activities and supports contributed to employees’ job performance and job satisfaction. Meanwhile, education training and women-friendliness effort had positive impact on employees’ job satisfaction, and it ultimately improved social economy employees’ welfare.

 

This implies that government policy should not only focus on individual level of support such as employment and career break, but also on institutional level including education training supports and female-friendly resource management in order to activate social economy organization and create good quality jobs. As a qualitative study, we differentiated central and local government and conducted focus group interviews of managers in local social economy intermediate support organization, Women Reemployment Support Center, female human resource academy, and Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency in order to identify policy status and issues related to female workers’ human resource management in social economy field. As a result, we found that education services were created based on contents related to social economy organization startups, rather there were insufficient job trainings related to leadership skills or capability developments. It was also problematic that there were limited education programs specialized for women, although substantial amount of female workers were engaged in the field of social economy. Thus, in the future, there needs to be some alternatives to address the lack of education programs that are specifically targeted for women.

 

Meanwhile, looking at the current status of training services in social economy, educations related to value of social economy were provided for new employees, entrepreneurialism or job capability enhancement educations were provided for practitioners and middle-managers, and entrepreneurialism or organizational management educations were provided for CEOs. However, most of the respondents failed to perceive the difference between need for capacity enhancement and sufficiency of current services. Results based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative study showed that female workers in social economy had variety of job experiences before and they consistently had interests on social economy organization with taking related courses or achieving certifications. They were willing to work in social ••? 2017 KWDI Abstract - 4 - economy area in a long term without turnovers and also had high demand on professional educations to develop capabilities. However, they perceived that educations related to capability development were not sufficient enough compared to demand, suggesting that there needs to be a policy correspondence for education program development and support. Thus, we made following suggestions to develop female human resource systematically in the field of social economy. Our first step is to provide regulations and policies for female employees in social economy. Specifically, we suggest adding a gender perspective provision of human resource development on top of social economy fundamental law, establishing law to promote female social-economists, adding social economy area on the basis of gender equality fundamental plan. Secondly, in terms of establishing an infrastructure of career support for female social-economist, regional circulation internship and customized education program for care-integrated services should be conducted as we confirmed needs of a strategy to boost the effectiveness of career support service. Thirdly, as we confirmed that fostering competent middle managers is crucial considering the sustainability of social economy, we need to establish infrastructure for female social-economists and accumulate DB of female managers in social economy. Lastly, as we found that respondents’ awareness level of the term ‘social economy’ is still low, establishing regular curriculum of social economy job training education as well as making an effort to expand gender equality are required to enhance the awareness level.