By Jason Lim
Ok, I did it. I joined a Korean online dating site. But it was purely for the articles, I swear. Wait, no, they don't have articles. Ok then, it was purely for my research for this column. Yeah, that's the ticket: research.
Actually, the first time I came across the banner ad for an online dating site for those interested in dating Korean's, I scoffed at it without even a second look, even though I had to admit the model on the ad looked ridiculously pretty. But I knew that if she represented the caliber of actual members on the site, I also had a bridge in Brooklyn that I could sell. It was all a ruse.
Then this same ad kept popping up seemingly every time I used my Google email account. As everyone knows, Google has a weird ad-matching algorithm that psychoanalyzes your email traffic and shows ads matching possible interests that you didn't even know you had. Therefore, the omnipresence of the same Korean online dating ad was admittedly disconcerting. Was I sending out subconscious messages that were somehow triggering this? How could I escape from this id purgatory?
Even worse, the model on the ad seemed to have those Mona Lisa eyes, following my mouse pointer out of the corner of her eyes. I could have sworn that she sneered at me in disgust when I resolutely refused to click on the banner. It was then that I succumbed. My will power broke. In any case, I told myself I was only doing research. The research turned out to be more involved and time-consuming than I thought, but then, it never hurts to be meticulous when it comes to research.
In all seriousness, I was shocked when I was done with that first session. As I read through the personal descriptions of member posts, I was shocked by the diversity of people on the site. I had expected that there would be American GI's looking for Korean women, and Korean women looking for English-speaking friends to help them. And they were there.
But then I was hit in the face by how narrow-minded and judgmental I was about who used these sites. There were Nepalese women looking for Korean-Chinese men. There were 3rd-generation Koryo-Russians in Kyrgyzstan looking for Korean friends. There were tons of Korean Americans trying to touch base with Korean-Australians. There were people from France, Netherlands, Denmark, U.K., Serbia and Poland looking to exchange emails with Korean friends. Perhaps weirdest of all, there was an African-American woman from Birmingham, Alabama who wanted to chat about the latest Korean soap operas with other Korean drama fans.
As I sat stunned in my ignorance, my first question was, ``Is Korea ready to deal with this tsunami of diversity coming its way?"
The answer to this question is crucial to Korea's future because it was immediately obvious that the next generations of Koreans will be more and more removed from the singular homogeneity that Korean tradition holds so dear, both physically and psychologically. It will force Korea to fundamentally rethink what being a Korean means.
As it becomes obvious when living in America, diversity is a key component of how business gets done because it has a real and immediate bearing on performance of all types. Diversity is not just about gender or color. It's about bringing in that diversity of views, richness of varied experiences, and overabundance of skills that exist in a society so that decisions are informed and executions are as smooth as possible. Therefore, diversity is about making the right decisions at the right time for the right situations.
Korea faces a constantly evolving competitive environment. So, how do you guard against this multitude of competitive threats? By employing a diversity of proactive solutions against these threats. And diversity of solutions cannot be arrived at without a diversity of opinions, perspectives and ideas.
Better decisions drive better performance. Better performance means you are more competitive. And diversity is a key component of this competitive equation for Korea as it struggles forward, caught between China and Japan. In short, lack of diversity compromises a nation's future. On the other hand, abundance of diversity will enhance Korea's readiness. Therefore, part of Korea's charge is to develop an inclusive culture that engages its increasing diversity so that every opinion is valued, heard, considered, and acted upon.
But that's not enough. Korea needs to achieve more diversity at the top levels in order to truly make diversity a key component of its competitiveness equation. This is because political leaders, CEOs, and even frontline supervisors must become aware of the importance of diversity and incorporate it into their decision-making processes and work-unit activities.
Therefore, the key question becomes, ``Do Korea's leaders have innovative and integrated ways to recruit, develop, train, and other methods to establish this culture of inclusiveness and diversity?"
I certainly don't know, but the answer to this question will have a bigger impact on Korea's future than we think. In the meantime, let me do some more research.
Jason Lim is a 2007-2008 fellow at Harvard Korea Institute. He can be reached at jasonlim@post.harvard.edu.