KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

2017 KWDI Abstract

 

Research on Developing Corporate culture Assessment Index to promote Work-Family Balance

 

Minjung KANG

Seohyun LEE

Heejung LIM

 

A variety of policies have been carried out to facilitate work-family balance, thereby increasing female employment rates by almost 3%p. over the past three years. Such policies have focused on maternity protection and child care support via financial assistance. In the process, work-family balance promotion systems have diversified, expanding financial support quantitatively. However, there remains corporate culture that hampers work-family balance, which has been raised as a big issue. Inefficient business systems, long working hours, hierarchical and vertical communication structures, and so forth have been pointed out as the main problems of Korean business culture. Such business characteristics have led to the ineffective use of the work-family balance system well established in Korea.

 

Key hindrances to work-family balance should be found and eliminated to enable government-sponsored work-family balance systems and programs to be effectively established and disseminated at the workplace. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to develop assessment index that can identify the problems of Korean corporate culture and the causes thereof from the perspectives of work-family balance and thereby contribute to coming up with specific measures to substantially institutionalize and spread work-family balance. The establishment of corporate culture for work-family balance is projected to enhance labor productivity, increase employees’ degree of dedication to their organizations, and thereby bring about higher business competitiveness.

 

The corporate culture assessment index was developed through phased and thorough procedures such as literature review, expert consultation meetings, FGI, expert Delphi surveys, and validation. The index consists of four main areas (leadership, infrastructure, a way of working, and communication), eight sub-areas (CEO’s willingness, seniors’ support, organization management systems, HR management systems, business characteristics, working hours, colleagues’ help, and corporate support and atmosphere), and a total of 44 questions. In this vein, they are deemed to have been organized, considering more fundamental ways to set up and foster work-family balance at the workplace. The level of work-family balance in a business environment has been usually measured, focusing on the adoption and utilization of work-family balance systems. However, this assessment index is designed to identify obstacles to the promotion of work-family balance and seeks ways to improve the system. This is expected to play an active role in facilitating political support and presenting ways to solidify win-win partnerships between employees and employers.