By Park Jin-hai
Christopher Paul Keville, operations manager at Dongwha New Zealand, says communication has been an issue at his work place too.
"It wasn't serious, but it was more a misunderstanding. From our point of view, the Korean culture is still foreign to us, and it's not something we see day to day," he said during the interview with The Korea Times.
The ways of thinking and the decision-making processes are really quite different, he said.
"Your schooling is very different from our schooling. It is quite normal for one of my staff to bypass me and talk to my manager in New Zealand. In Korean culture, that is disrespectful. There are things like that where we've had to learn to adapt and change, make sure we're not building a fence and blocking what we're trying to do every day."
Keville, who is visiting Korea with four other New Zealanders, says he is still on a steep learning curve. "At the end of the day, I'm in the middle. I will respect the Korean way when I'm dealing with my Korean managers, but when I'm talking with my staff, I've got to realize that this is NZ culture," he said.
"It's as if I walk into one room, and I'm doing something my way, and I walk into another room, and I have to do something differently. It has been something I have had to learn, and is still one of the hardest things for me to learn."
He said these trips to Korea as part of One Dongwha Camp are worthwhile, because he takes back one or two ideas for improvement to his home office. What struck him most this time at the company's Asan plant, he said, was the cleanliness of the floor.
"That's the beauty of coming over here and having a look at what is being done, and you say, ‘This can be done,' and you take that back to NZ, talking to staff, and you say, ‘This is the standard in Korea, and it's being done in Asan, in Incheon, so why can't we do that here?'"
Keville said that in the end, we all want the same thing. "When you get all the misunderstandings out of the way, we still want the same thing. We want the company to succeed; we want the people to succeed," he said.
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| Christopher Paul Keville |
"It wasn't serious, but it was more a misunderstanding. From our point of view, the Korean culture is still foreign to us, and it's not something we see day to day," he said during the interview with The Korea Times.
The ways of thinking and the decision-making processes are really quite different, he said.
"Your schooling is very different from our schooling. It is quite normal for one of my staff to bypass me and talk to my manager in New Zealand. In Korean culture, that is disrespectful. There are things like that where we've had to learn to adapt and change, make sure we're not building a fence and blocking what we're trying to do every day."
Keville, who is visiting Korea with four other New Zealanders, says he is still on a steep learning curve. "At the end of the day, I'm in the middle. I will respect the Korean way when I'm dealing with my Korean managers, but when I'm talking with my staff, I've got to realize that this is NZ culture," he said.
"It's as if I walk into one room, and I'm doing something my way, and I walk into another room, and I have to do something differently. It has been something I have had to learn, and is still one of the hardest things for me to learn."
He said these trips to Korea as part of One Dongwha Camp are worthwhile, because he takes back one or two ideas for improvement to his home office. What struck him most this time at the company's Asan plant, he said, was the cleanliness of the floor.
"That's the beauty of coming over here and having a look at what is being done, and you say, ‘This can be done,' and you take that back to NZ, talking to staff, and you say, ‘This is the standard in Korea, and it's being done in Asan, in Incheon, so why can't we do that here?'"
Keville said that in the end, we all want the same thing. "When you get all the misunderstandings out of the way, we still want the same thing. We want the company to succeed; we want the people to succeed," he said.
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