Shinhee Jeong, Gary N. McLean and Soyoun Park
This paper aims to explore informal learning experiences among employees working in South Korean small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with fewer than 100 employees. This…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore informal learning experiences among employees working in South Korean small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with fewer than 100 employees. This study specifically seeks to understand the characteristics of informal learning in Korean SMEs and culturally sensitive contextual factors that shape informal learning.
Design/methodology/approach
To understand the complex, holistic nature of the phenomenon, the current study used a phenomenological qualitative approach. Eighteen full-time employees working at South Korean SMEs in knowledge-intensive industries were interviewed. Data were analyzed using Moustakas’s phenomenological analysis.
Findings
The findings emerged from the field data revealed four characteristics of informal learning in South Korean SMEs: absolute reliance on informal learning; rapid/immediate learning and application; relationship/client needs-based learning; and extensive trial and error. The current study also identified South Korean SMEs’ unique organizational context (i.e. a family-like atmosphere, one employee-multiple tasks, passive investment in employees and the absence of systems) and Korean culture (i.e. Gab-Eul relations and chemyon) that drive the emergence of SMEs’ informal learning characteristics.
Originality/value
Very little empirical research has been conducted to explain how informal learning actually occurs and why such learning patterns have emerged in South Korean SMEs. The findings of this study have a profound impact on practice and academia, as it unveils characteristics of informal learning in SMEs, the unique cultural context in which Korean SMEs operate and how these characteristics impact the learning process.
Details
Keywords
Els-Marie Anbäcken, Anna-Lena Almqvist, Carl Johansson, Kazushige Kinugasa, Miho Obata, Jinhee Hyun, Jinsook Lee and Young Joon Park
Purpose: The aim is to explore how family relations are affected by societal changes in relation to informal and formal caregiving and self-determination of older adults…
Abstract
Purpose: The aim is to explore how family relations are affected by societal changes in relation to informal and formal caregiving and self-determination of older adults.
Design/methodology/approach: Care managers (CMs)/social workers (SWs) (N = 124) participated in a comparative vignette study including Japan, South Korea, and Sweden. Systems theory was used.
Findings: Japanese CMs/SWs clearly describe their efforts to create networks in a relational way between formal and informal actors in the community. South Korean CMs/SWs balance between suggesting interventions to support daily life at home or a move to a nursing home, often acknowledging the family as the main caregiver. In Sweden, CMs/SWs highlight the juridical element in meeting the older adult and the interventions offered, and families primarily give social support. Regarding self-determination, the Japanese priority is for CMs/SWs to harmonize within the family and the community. South Korean CMs/SWs express ambivalent attitudes to older adults’ capability for self-determination in the intersection between formal and family care. Swedish CMs/SWs adhere to the older adult’s self-determination, while acknowledging the role of the family in persuading the older adult to accept interventions. The results suggest emerging defamilialization in South Korea, while tendencies to refamilialization are noticed in Japan and Sweden, albeit in different ways.
Research limitations/implications: In translation, nuances may be lost. A focus on changing families shows that country-specific details in care services have been reduced. For future research, perspectives of “care” need to be studied on different levels.
Originality/value: Using one vignette in three countries with different welfare regimes, discussing changing views on families’, communities’ and societal caregiving is unique. This captures changes in policy, influencing re- and defamilialization.