CULTURAL-VALUES AND WORK ATTITUDES OF KOREAN INDUSTRIAL-WORKERS IN COMPARISON WITH THOSE OF THE UNITED-STATES AND JAPAN

The uniqueness of Korean work attitudes Is described with a survey of 1,288 blue-collar and white-collar workers in the 10 largest Korean co nglomerate business firms. Compared to the Lincoln-Kalleberg sun ey re sults for Japanese and U.S. workers, the Korean survey results indicat e that Korean workers harbor a discrepancy between their expectations toward work and their evaluations of their actual situations. Korean w orkers tend to be more committed to and satisfied with their work but less proud of their jobs and companies than Japanese and U.S. workers. The findings suggest that several factors, including culture, industr ialization, labor market conditions, and labor policies, influence wor k attitude formation.