Korean Women in Leadership: Challenges and Opportunities

Cho, Yonjoo; Kang, Hyounju; Park, Ji Won

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-54996-5_6

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Women have become an important workforce in Korea to increase the nation's productivity. However, women entrepreneurs still face gender inequality (Lee and Oh, 2010) and major challenges: cultural constraints and the gender divide in family roles and the workplace (Cho et al, 2017).…”

Section: Cultural Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women entrepreneurs in South Korea: motivations, challenges and career success

Cho¹,

Park

Han

et al. 2020

EJTD

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Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate South Korean women entrepreneurs’ motivations to start a business, the challenges they faced in business development and key factors that contributed to their career success. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 women entrepreneurs to gather qualitative details on their experiences and performed a survey with 125 women Chief Executive Officers who are affiliated with the Korean Venture Business Women’s Association. Findings The authors found necessity-driven push (e.g. economic necessity for family) and opportunity-based pull (e.g. a strong sense of self) motivational factors, challenges (e.g. gender stereotypes) and opportunities (e.g. creating a family-like organizational culture) and key success factors (e.g. personality and loyal employees) for their career success. Research limitations/implications There is a strong need to emphasize the import of culture at the national level that would impact women entrepreneurs’ careers and business success. A majority of the studies on HRD in small- and medium-sized enterprises shed light on individual owners’ perspectives only. Researchers need to take multiple-level (i.e. national, organizational and individual) factors into consideration in research on women’s entrepreneurship. Quantitative analysis in this study did not have any statistical significance and there were a few inconsistent findings (e.g. disadvantage as woman Chief Executive Officers) between quantitative and qualitative analysis. Future research is called for to investigate where and why different results occurred by using a mixed-methods research design and inferential statistical analysis for significance. Practical implications The increased support at the national level for entrepreneurship education before and after school that has not received sufficient attention in Korea will allow aspiring women to embark on entrepreneurial career paths from early on. At the organizational level, women entrepreneurs’ efforts to create a family-like organizational culture can be used as references for aspiring women who want to start and develop a business. At the individual level, HRD practitioners can develop leadership programs to share internal and external success factors so that aspiring women entrepreneurs can develop required individual (e.g. personality attributes) and social competencies (e.g. networking) in business development. Originality/value The two unique study findings that reflect the importance of cultural context include: our study showed how women entrepreneurs in Korea transformed the challenges they faced in business development into opportunities that can be used for entrepreneurship education for aspiring women entrepreneurs; and women entrepreneurs in Korea were humble enough to ascribe their career and business success to their loyal employees who have stayed in their companies with commitment, which has not been captured in research on women’s entrepreneurship in western contexts.

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Section: Cultural Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women entrepreneurs in South Korea: motivations, challenges and career success

Cho¹,

Park

Han

et al. 2020

EJTD

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…However, women entrepreneurs in South Korea still face gender inequality (Lee & Oh, 2010). and major challenges such as cultural constraints, gender divide in family roles and workplace (Cho, Kang & Park, 2017).. As needs for business startups grew with the nation's economic development, the government enacted the act on supporting women enterprises in 1999 to support women's enterprises and entrepreneurship after the non-governmental Korea Venture Business Women's Association was established the year before (Cho & Park, Han, Crystal, Sung & Park, 2020). Women entrepreneurs have benefitted from the government's priority purchase and assistance in entering new markets and acquiring corporate funds.…”

Section: South Koreamentioning

confidence: 99%

Empowering Women Entrepreneurs: A Comprehensive Analysis of their Impact in G20 Economies

Kumar

2024

AJBM

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The evolution of women in entrepreneurship over the past five decades has been marked by significant progress and challenges. Despite historical discrimination and gender inequalities, women have increasingly ventured into entrepreneurship, showcasing their strength as innovators and business leaders. This transformation is particularly evident in developing nations, where women entrepreneurs have not only fueled market growth but also enhanced employment opportunities. However, achieving gender equality in entrepreneurship remains a global issue, with only a few countries attaining parity in this domain. Women-owned businesses predominantly operate in small to medium enterprises, focusing on sectors like fashion retail, beauty cosmetics, and food services, especially in Africa and Asia. While progress has been made, challenges persist for women entrepreneurs globally. The journey of women in entrepreneurship highlights their resilience and innovation but also emphasizes the need to address remaining barriers to foster gender equality on a global scale. The research is the first collective study on role of women entrepreneurs in all 21 member nations of the G20 economic forum Keywords: Women entrepreneur, G20 countries, Barriers in women entrepreneurship

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“…Because women are burdened by both work and family demands and responsibilities, they feel the need to put extra effort toward standing out in the workplace via their work performance (Kim et al, 2020) while resolving the conflict between the roles of breadwinners and homemakers/caregivers (Cho et al, 2019). In addition, many women in South Korea have limited networking and leadership development opportunities, which make them struggle in rising to management positions (Cho et al, 2017; Rowley et al, 2016).…”

Section: Theoretical Foundations and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender diversity advantage at middle management: Implications for high performance work system improvement and organizational performance

Joo

Lee

Kong

et al. 2022

Human Resource Management

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Research on women in leadership positions has largely focused on the board or top management team (TMT) leadership level, showing that increased female representation at these levels can benefit organizational performance. However, the strategic implications of female representation at middle management have been largely neglected. The current study addresses this issue in relation to High Performance Work System (HPWS) improvement and organizational performance (profitability). By analyzing the multi‐wave (2009, 2011, and 2013) Workplace Panel Survey (WPS) data collected from 1101 organizations in South Korea, we found a gender diversity advantage at middle management; that is, a higher level of gender diversity of middle management translated into a higher level of organizational performance due to HPWS improvement. However, this advantage appeared only in the presence of a high level of subordinates' gender diversity. Our findings have important implications for gender diversity and strategic human resource management.

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Korean Women in Leadership: Challenges and Opportunities

Cited by 10 publications

References 16 publications

Women entrepreneurs in South Korea: motivations, challenges and career success

Women entrepreneurs in South Korea: motivations, challenges and career success

Empowering Women Entrepreneurs: A Comprehensive Analysis of their Impact in G20 Economies

Gender diversity advantage at middle management: Implications for high performance work system improvement and organizational performance

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