Work Values and Business Ethics in Korea

The problem and the solution. To contribute to the discussion on the meaning of work in Korea, this article starts by reporting findings from a review of Korean literature. The article further presents find-ings from a survey of both managerial and union members on the perceived importance of core values in the workplace. Among four people-centered core values, human-centered management/human resource development and knowledge sharing were the values pre-ferred by the managerial group. Managers placed more importance on accountability values, among which obedience to the law was signifi-cantly emphasized by the managers. With respect to the social respon-sibility values, the managerial group scored higher for the value of social responsibility, faithful tax payment, and transparency of informa-tion disclosure with no significant difference. As to the leadership val-ues, the managerial group’s scores were higher for flexibility and capacity for change management, vision formation, and implementation capacity. The article closes with a discussion of the findings, limitations of this research, recommendations for further research, and the prac-tical implications