Abstract
This article attempts to (a) identify leadership challenges and opportunities among Korean and Indian women, and (b) explore how women’s leadership differs by generation in India and Korea. We provide suggestions for Indian and Korean women’s leadership research based on cultural and generational differences. Compared with Korean women leaders, Indian women leaders are more likely to take advantage of informal support and seek professional development opportunities. Although both Indian and Korean women leaders may have equal access to work–life balance programs and policies, they are not being fully utilized due to deep-rooted patriarchal traditions that still relegate women to the task of child rearing and stereotypical domestic roles. However, the probability of younger women leaders seeking informal support, professional development opportunities, and a work–life balance may be higher compared with their older generation coworkers in India and Korea. The findings and implications are discussed.
Metaphors like glass ceiling, glass cliff, glass wall, glass escalator, and labyrinth (Bass & Avolio, 1994; Eagly & Carli, 2007; Ryan & Haslam, 2005) have often been used to remind women leaders that their access to coveted leadership roles is not as smooth as that of their male counterparts. Women are still underrepresented in organizations, but as more women enter the workforce, there is steady progress for women who want to obtain leadership roles (Twenge & Campbell, 2008). Feminization of leadership does not seem like a distant dream, but it requires successfully navigating through the entrenched mind-set of the think manager–think male notion as the stereotype is still persistent in many workplace domains (Ryan & Haslam, 2007). While we know much about leadership in organizations, women’s leadership is largely understudied compared with leadership in general, thus emphasizing the need for further research (Gardner, Lowe, Moss, Mahoney, & Cogliser, 2010).
Leadership scholars have especially called for more cross-cultural (Bullough, Kroeck, Newburry, Kundu, & Lowe, 2012) and cross-generational research (Roebuck, Smith, & El Haddaoui, 2013) as more organizations have a multigenerational workforce and an increasingly boundaryless world, both of which could largely transform the dynamic of women’s leadership. To date, research has focused on problems arising from different generations in the workplace (Tulgan, 2003), including different training and development needs, varied working styles and preferences, and shifting cultural expectations. In particular, researchers have suggested that organizational practices should be generation appropriate to cater to the needs and demands of diverse age groups (Egri & Ralston, 2004; McDonald & Hite, 2008). With the exodus of the baby boomer generation from the workplace, there is a particularly urgent need for continuous talent development and replacement.
Given the appetite for millennials or the younger generation to climb the organizational ladder (Deal, Altman, & Rogelberg, 2010), proper human resource development (HRD) efforts should be undertaken to cultivate leaders who can successfully take the reins of the organization. However, the climb to the summit is not easy and the challenges could be starkly different for women leaders from multiple generations. Along a similar vein, Nath (2000) also emphasized that more insights are needed to examine women’s leadership from a multigenerational perspective. Furthermore, the context of country-specific cultures cannot be ignored as culture provides the framework for how men and women leaders should behave socially (Cheung & Halpern, 2010). There is considerable cultural variation in organizations’ unspoken rules, and these rules have often stifled the growth of women in strategic leadership positions (Cheung & Halpern, 2010). In particular, the glass ceiling phenomenon is prominent in most Asian organizations (Cho, McLean, et al., 2015), perhaps because of the unique institutional and social culture in Asian countries.
Asian women’s leadership has gained considerable scholarly traction in the last few years (Cho, McLean, et al., 2015; Palrecha, Spangler, & Yammarino, 2012), particularly because Asian countries are becoming dominant global players (Cappelli, Singh, Singh, & Useem, 2010). Ansbacher (2008) further noted that different leadership dynamics are at work as employees attempt to move up to leadership roles from one culture to another. It becomes even more complicated and vague as women attempt to pursue leadership roles. Several other scholars have emphasized that cultural differences may create a glass ceiling that could stifle the growth of women leaders (Leong & Fischer, 2011; Pereira & Malik, 2013). In addition, Hogan and Kaiser (2005) stressed that there is an increasing need to learn about leadership processes in Asia. However, Asia is a huge continent representing widely diverse countries.
For the purpose of this article, we selected two countries, India and South Korea (Korea hereafter), as representatives of South and East Asian cultures. With the increasing interest in gender equality in both countries, there are numerous relevant studies available (Budhwar, Saini, & Bhatnagar, 2005; Patterson, Bae, & Lim, 2013; Society for Human Resource Management, 2009). This two-country framework will help us understand overall Asian contexts from both historical and social perspectives given that both countries are somewhat typical Asian countries, even though cultural variations exist within Asian contexts (Ismail & Bebenroth, 2016). Both countries were victims of colonialism, became independent around the same time, underwent extreme poverty and a long period of dictatorship, and have been revolutionizing their economies and politics (Roy, 2002; K. Y. Song & Muschert, 2013). Both countries are densely populated with young generations such as Xers and millennials (Inamdar & Nagendra, 2017; Park & Park, 2018), although the Korean birth rate has recently declined (“South Korea’s Fertility Rate,” 2018). Despite these similarities, there are differences between India and Korea. Of note, Korea is considered a developed economy and has surpassed India in many areas including education, technology, per capita wealth, and exports (Nanavati, 2015). In addition, although both countries are generally considered collectivistic and high-context cultures, there are differences in cultural value systems. For example, India is more masculine and Korea exhibits more power distance (Hofstede, 2010). This is also reflected in their respective gender development indexes (GDIs). Korean women have a higher GDI at 18 compared with the rather dismal GDI of Indian women at 131 (United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 2016). Despite such strong numbers, however, Korean women continue to remain in the lower ranks in Korean organizations compared with their male counterparts (Gress & Paek, 2014; C. Kim & Rowley, 2009). This provides a perfect backdrop at a macro level to compare how variations in male dominance, collectivism, and power distance dimensions for these two countries could affect women’s leadership at the individual and organizational levels.
This article is one of the first steps to understand the role of different generations and cultures in women’s leadership by studying two countries in Asia. In particular, it is an endeavor to further the work of Roebuck and colleagues (2013) who suggested that future research could take into consideration a cross-cultural perspective to compare results across countries and generations. They further reported that little information is available on how women’s leadership is affected by generational differences and women’s quest for work–life balance.
Given that generational and cultural differences are both major leadership challenges, this article provides an intriguing framework to review the literature on Indian and Korean women’s leadership across generations. Although the research on women’s leadership is burgeoning, limited research has incorporated a comprehensive model for women’s leadership from both a generation and culture perspective. Thus, the purpose of this article is to identify the challenges and opportunities of women’s leadership in India and Korea according to the three categories (informal support, professional development opportunities, and work–life balance) proposed by Cho, Kim, et al. (2015) and Peus, Braun, and Knipfer (2015), and to explore how women’s leadership differs by generation. The research questions guiding this article are as follows:
Method
In this research, we used a narrative review approach to organize the findings from the literature to form knowledge on the current topic (Gall, Gall, & Borg, 2007). Narrative reviews could better describe the recent development of the topic if related studies are preliminary or limited (Cook, Mulrow, & Haynes, 1997). In addition, a narrative review approach would be useful for discussing literature in light of underlying theory and context (Bangert-Drowns, 1995; Cook et al., 1997). In our study, we focused on the context related to India and Korea. Popay and colleagues (2006) suggested that narrative reviews could be used to explore the effect of interventions, the factors influencing intervention implementation, and the needs and preferences of particular populations groups. Based on our initial review of articles as listed in the appendix, we shortlisted three themes (informal support, professional development opportunities, and work–life balance) as interventions for Indian and Korean women leaders. We also explored cultural and social backgrounds influencing the three interventions and identified Indian and Korean women leaders’ challenges and opportunities in light of generation. Based on the suggestions from Popay et al. (2006), our search focused on the three interventions, women leaders and generations in both countries, and their needs and demands.
To summarize the related literature, we reviewed peer- and non-peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and books. We searched for existing studies in multiple databases, including Google Scholar, Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete (for English literature), Korean Studies Information Service System (KISS), Research Information Sharing Service (RISS), and DBpia (for Korean literature). We searched using keywords and mixed terms, including Indian and Korean women leaders, culture, informal support, professional development opportunities, work–life balance/conflict/enrichment/interface, and generation within the title or keywords. The search was restricted to a few areas including HRD, human resource management, work and family literature, social sciences, business management, and psychology. Table 1 presented the 54 reviewed articles for this study. In addition, we summarized country, type, theory used, sample characteristics, findings, and theme in selected key studies (see the appendix).
Studies Related to India and Korea.
We begin this article with the introduction of women’s leadership status related to informal support, professional development opportunities, and work–life balance in India and Korea. Next, we discuss cultural and generational differences in women’s leadership in India and Korea and examine how these differences affect informal support, professional development opportunities, and work–life balance. We conclude the article with implications for research and practice.
Women’s Leadership in India and Korea
Stories of prejudice, discrimination, and gender bias are common in the research on the state of women’s leadership in the Asian context (Cheung & Halpern, 2010). However, despite the long history of subjugation and marginalization of women, people’s mind-sets have begun to change, and there are innumerable opportunities being offered to women leaders both inside and outside the workplace.
Before we compare women’s leadership in India and Korea, however, we must first review the GDI (UNDP, 2016) and Global Gender Gap Report (World Economic Forum, 2016) of each country. The GDI measures gender equality, focusing on the gender gap in human development by accounting for disparities between men and women in health, knowledge, and living standards. The Gender Gap Report quantifies gender disparities and the relative gaps between women and men in health, education, economics, and politics. The GDI rank of India and Korea are dramatically different with India being 131st and Korea being 18th among 188 countries (UNDP, 2016). The ranks of India and Korea in the Gender Gap Report are somewhat closer: 87th and 116th, respectively, among 144 countries (World Economic Forum, 2016). They both show that Korean women have far more opportunities than Indian women in education and life, but the gender gap between Korean women and men is much larger than in India in economic and political empowerment. In particular, India’s rank in political empowerment for women is 9th, while Korea is 92nd (World Economic Forum, 2016). In the following section, we review the extant literature on women’s leadership in India and Korea and the factors that have hindered or propelled the present leadership scenario in each of these countries.
Women’s Leadership in India
Despite a strong patriarchal culture, it is quite paradoxical that India has produced innumerable women leaders over the years both at the national and organization levels. Representative Indian women leaders who have served in key national, political, and corporate leadership positions include Indira Gandhi, the first female Prime Minister of India; Pratibha Patil, the first female President of India; Kiran Bedi, the first female Inspector General of police in India; Indira Nooyi, the first woman and first person of Indian descent to lead Pepsi Co.; and Chitra Ramakishna, the first woman CEO of the National Stock Exchange, India’s leading stock exchange. These women leaders continue to be role models for all aspiring young Indian women as they have scaled the top of their careers and left their imprint on the newer generation of women leaders (Hewlett & Rashid, 2011). A greater proportion of Indian women employees are in top leadership positions compared with their counterparts in other parts of the world (Hewlett & Rashid, 2011).
Informal support
Several factors have contributed to the prevalence of women leaders in top leadership positions in the Indian corporate and political sectors. Historically, Indian women have been bound by the ideals of conformity to being ideal daughters, housewives, daughters-in-law, and wives (Hewlett & Rashid, 2011). However, in the wake of the women’s empowerment movement and a changing mind-set of especially men’s mind-set (Mukherjee, 2016), women leaders have been successful in garnering social support from both inside and outside of organizations.
Professional development opportunities
With the economic liberalization in the 1990s followed by the advent of many multinational firms in India, Indian organizations have undergone drastic macro-level changes including openness to gender diversity. With many successful women leaders who are at the pinnacle of their organizations as role models in multinational firms, leadership positions in India are becoming more gender neutral (Ganesh & Ganesh, 2014). While women representation at the top in terms of sheer numbers is still dismal in many Indian organizations, the hope is that Indian organizations will continue to open up more opportunities for their women employees (Singh & Durga Prasad, 2014).
Despite the growing number of women leaders, there are few leadership development programs specifically geared toward women leaders in India. Historically, men have held key powerful positions in organizations, resulting in a significant deficit of women mentors. Only 37% of Indian headquartered organizations have a robust development strategy for their women employees compared with an impressive 84% of Indian subsidiaries of multinational firms (Kulkarni & Bakhare, 2011). However, with increasing awareness, the Indian government and organizations are slowly providing more advancement opportunities for their women leaders. For instance, the Indian government has taken explicit steps at the central and state levels to reserve one third of the seats for women leaders so that they can voice their concerns about women advancement issues (Pande & Ford, 2011). Likewise, in the corporate sector, formal mentoring programs are making inroads in many Indian organizations to groom women leaders for advanced roles.
Besides mentoring, many Indian organizations encourage women employees to attend specific skill-building training programs and to participate in more challenging assignments. Organizations are also initiating internal networking platforms so women employees have better access to information and greater visibility (Rath, Mohanty, & Pradhan, 2015).
Work–life balance
The term work–life balance was missing from the Indian lexicon a decade ago as Indians were still deeply rooted in traditional values that facilitated a patriarchal culture, joint-family institutions, full-time access to domestic helpers, and wives who lived to serve the needs of their family members (Chaudhuri, 2016). This domestic environment negated the need for work–life policies. However, things started transitioning as women increasingly participated in the labor force, especially from 1995 to 2000 with the information technology (IT) boom. This eventually resulted in more dual-earner couples, erosion of joint-family institutions, dominance of nuclear families with minimal support, and increased stress (Joseph, Gautam, & Bharathi, 2015). Therefore, work–life balance became a growing concern, especially for women employees.
Rajadhyaksha (2009) reported that Indian organizations “tended to imitate western work-life practices in form but not in spirit. Today their motivation behind offering work-life programs is a genuine desire to reduce stress and retain talented employees” (p. 6). In the present context, many leading organizations in India have taken numerous steps to facilitate work–life balance among Indian women leaders. Many Western concepts including flextime, telecommuting, work from home, and alternate work schedules that include a compressed 4-day work week have been integrated into the policies of many Indian organizations. Particularly, the public sector in India is at the forefront of introducing many progressive work–life policies aimed at their women employees (Rajadhyaksha, 2009).
Private sector organizations have followed this trend and have recently implemented notable work–life policies and practices. For instance, Johnson & Johnson India established the Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) in 2002 for their women employees so that they can navigate to the top by breaking through the so-called glass ceiling. Likewise, Cisco initiated a program called Women’s Action Network (WAN), which offers many activities including mentoring, community outreach, a role model leadership series, bring your child to work day, and networking. Wipro is also well known for its “Mitr” initiative, which means friends in Hindi, whereby a handful of volunteers have been trained to provide counseling to stressed employees and to offer a safety net to their employees so they feel secure enough to confide in selected counselors. Along similar lines, Infosys Technologies, one of the leading software giants in India, offers a hotline for stress-related issues so employees can talk directly with an expert in the field. These services are frequently used to support women workers.
Munn and Chaudhuri (2015) reiterated that women employees should adopt multiple coping strategies, including support from extended family members, domestic helpers, and friends to maintain work–life balance. However, women are still tasked with the responsibility of playing a dual role both at home and in the workplace as it is almost impossible for them to break through the patriarchal and familial social contexts (Srinivasan, Murty, & Nakra, 2013). This has resulted in many Indian women preferring to defer their marriage and motherhood plans until they feel settled in their careers. In the next section, we provide evidence from the literature, which speaks to Korean women’s leadership with respect to informal support, professional development opportunities, and work–life balance.
Women’s Leadership in Korea
Korean women have more difficulties achieving career success in organizations with a linear career stage model because of Korea’s male-dominant culture (Han et al., 2018; Rowley, Kang, & Lim, 2016). Korean society, in general, has traditionally thought that women lack the necessary leadership attributes and are less competent than men (Raymo, Park, Xie, & Yeung, 2015). Because of the typical stereotyped female characteristics of being social and service oriented rather than achievement oriented, women are not seen as having strong leadership qualities (Low, Roberts, & Whiting, 2015). As successful leaders in Korea tend to have masculine characteristics, women can usually only achieve success in their careers by denying their feminine attributes (Cho et al., 2015; Cho et al., 2016). Thus, it is challenging for Korean women to reach leadership positions as long as this male orientation persists.
Informal support
As the economic participation of women increases, Korean women in the workplace, specifically those in leadership positions, have suffered from a double burden: one in the workplace and the other in managing the household (Low et al., 2015). With heavy domestic responsibilities, Korean women leaders typically do not have enough time to develop or expand their social networks, thus creating limited professional networking opportunities with core male leaders (H. R. Kang & Rowley, 2005; Rowley et al., 2016). This results in restricted support from the existing networks in Korea’s male-dominant organizational culture.
The Korean government has established legislation and recently implemented more family-friendly policies to promote gender equity and to stop any discriminatory practices in employment (C. Kim & Park, 2009). However, these policies and legislation do not adequately benefit Korean women leaders because of the lack of organizational support for family values (Choi & Park, 2014). Thus, women turn to informal support from other family members or to their personal networks (Cho et al., 2015; O’Brien, Ganginis Del Pino, Yoo, Cinamon, & Han, 2014), typically from their mothers or mothers-in-law for child care and family matters to maintain high-quality performance at work (Cho et al., 2015; Han et al., 2018; E. S. Lee, Chang, & Kim, 2011).
Professional development opportunities
Although some Korean women leaders have been recognized as outstanding performers who have successfully managed their careers in Korea’s male-dominated organizational culture, they do not perceive that they are treated fairly in terms of opportunities for promotions and work assignments (Cho et al., 2016; Choi & Park, 2014; Gress & Paek, 2014). For instance, Korean women leaders have not had enough opportunities to improve their managerial skills in key positions, to participate in various training programs, or to build sponsorships, social networks, and mentoring relationships that encourage diverse work experiences (Rowley et al., 2016). In particular, Korean women tend to participate in job-specific training for their current jobs, but participate less in training for global competencies or strategic planning—training that is more relevant to critical manager roles and promotions over the long term (N. Kim, Park, & McLean, 2009). Because Korean women participate less than men do in training, they have more difficulty engaging with informal mentors compared with men, even though one of the major functions of mentoring is career development (Cho et al., 2016; N. Kim et al., 2009). Korean women also have difficulty establishing social networks with other women professionals and joining existing male-oriented networks (Gress & Paek, 2014). These limited opportunities to enhance internal and external relationships for Korean women leaders can cause them to lose out on more professional development opportunities, such as mentoring, promotions, and advanced work experience (Gress & Paek, 2014; Patterson et al., 2013).
Despite the limitations, professional development opportunities for Korean women leaders have increased. When Korean women are promoted (e.g., from a manager to a deputy general manager) in large private organizations and in the public sector, they attend mandatory leadership programs. In addition, as the number of Korean women leaders increase, more Korean women leaders are sharing their experience and career development paths with younger women by being role models and mentors (Cho et al., 2015). This mentoring provides Korean women leaders with opportunities to work in diverse units and more training and development opportunities to enhance satisfaction with their careers (Rowley et al., 2016).
Work–life balance
In Korea, work–life balance has been shaped in a unique way based on the cultural influence and social shift, which has not only been a challenge but also provided opportunities for women employees. Like in many male-dominant countries, work–life balance is closely connected to gender issues in Korea (Chandra, 2012) because traditional Korean culture emphasizes a hierarchical relationship between men and women, which tends to result in unequal male and female family roles (E. S. Lee et al., 2011). For example, most married women workers are still expected to take a central role in family responsibilities. Cha and Eun (2014) found that in Korea, men were mainly stressed by their work roles while women were affected by both work and nonwork roles. Even single women without children reported a work–life imbalance due to pressure for survival or success in Korea’s patriarchal society (Chandra, 2012; Rowley et al., 2016). As a result, women may work longer hours and sacrifice their leisure time. Although Korea’s emphasis on education has achieved equal education and produced as many highly educated women as men, families and organizations do not yet seem to embrace gender equality (N. Kim & Rowley, 2009).
In the recent past, initiatives have been launched by the government and have been supported by organizations to address issues related to work–life conflict (e.g., low birth rate, stress, and career interruption) and to equally benefit the female workforce (N. Kim et al., 2009). These government-driven policies have somewhat helped to reduce role conflicts between work and life, but appropriate practices need to be better implemented within the social and cultural contexts in Korea (Chang, Kim, Kim, Choi, & Lee, 2007). For instance, telecommuting and flexible time may be more burdensome for women because the strict boundary between work and family in Korea may force them to take on both work and family roles.
Many organizations have begun to adopt work–life balance initiatives and support various employee-friendly practices although the practices are mostly observed in large and foreign corporations and in governmental agencies (Chang et al., 2007; N. Kim et al., 2009). Nevertheless, the gradual improvement in gender equality and women’s employment points to the future prospect of a positive Korean work–life balance for both genders. This social and cultural change can be a good opportunity for Korean women employees because an employee- and family-friendly culture is critical for work–life balance (The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, 2015; Rowley et al., 2016).
In this section, we reviewed the literature on Indian and Korean women’s leadership based on informal support, professional development opportunities, and the work–life balance policies that are available to them. In the next two sections, we review the impact of national culture and generation differences on women’s leadership.
National Culture and Women’s Leadership
There is a dearth of literature on cross-cultural comparisons of women leaders. However, Peus and colleagues (2015) stressed that there is a general consensus that entrenched cultural values can negatively or positively affect gender roles in an organization. We investigate the cultural values embedded in Indian and Korean culture that relate to women’s experiences of informal support, professional development opportunities, and work–life balance. Although patriarchy, which leads to women leaders’ challenges, is similar in both countries, how women struggle and what specifically relates to those challenges may be different by cultural context.
Male Dominance
Traditional Confucianism that emphasizes the dominance of men over women has greatly influenced the male orientation in Korea, although modern Korean culture is not as dominated by Confucianism as in the past (Sung, 2003). The representative cultural notions of gender inequality and male orientation are nam-jon-yeo-bie, which means holding men in high esteem and despising women, and yeo-pil-jong-bu, which means that a wife should be obedient to her husband (Suh, 2013). Traditionally, women were prohibited from working outside of the home or succeeding in their professional careers if they were asked to support their husbands and take care of their children and parents-in-law (O’Brien et al., 2014). Therefore, when women leaders pursue their profession working outside the home, they may experience resistance from their families, especially when they have children, and rarely receive active family support. Women, in general, are expected to be mainly responsible for domestic chores regardless of their employment and income status (Cho et al., 2015; Cho et al., 2017), so they struggle to juggle work and family and eventually end up sacrificing themselves or their careers for the family (Cho et al., 2016). Therefore, culturally, finding informal support and professional development opportunities while maintaining work–life balance is a substantial burden for any Korean women leader (N. Kim & Rowley, 2009; E. S. Lee et al., 2011).
The story is similar for Indian women leaders, but the cultural context could be different. According to Hinduism, “the great Hindu writer Manu in 200 BC said, ‘be a young girl, be a young woman, or even be an aged one, nothing must be done independently, even in her house” (Budhwar et al., 2005, p. 181). Therefore, it was a huge paradigm shift when women started to work outside the confined boundaries of their homes and consequently were looked down upon. This paradoxical status for Indian women often interfered with garnering informal support, professional development opportunities, and seeking work–life balance to excel as women leaders. In the subsequent paragraphs, we further discuss how some country-culture orientations could affect women’s leadership.
Collectivism
According to Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov (2010), Korea has a higher preference for a collectivistic society than India, while India has both collectivistic and individualist aspects. In Korea, important values are loyalty, relationships between leaders and followers and between members, and decisions that support group interests. Individuals are typically expected to exhibit emotional attachment to the group or the organization, similar to relationships between family members, and they must exhibit strong we-ness of self-identification with the group (u-ri; Chai, Jeong, Kim, Kim, & Hamlin, 2016; Yang, 2006). Due to the importance of peer relationships in society, a key element in leadership and career advancement in Korean organizations is relational capital, which refers to the quality and quantity of one’s network in family, educational, and regional ties (inmak; Chai et al., 2016; Mao, Peng, & Wong, 2012). Combined with traditional gender separation, the collectivistic culture of Korea is likely to exclude women from the mainstream of organizational politics or activities because men do not recognize women as their group but, instead, men usually care about or support their male colleagues (E. S. Lee et al., 2011). In addition, as there are few women leaders in Korean organizations, women’s same gender inmak is not as strong as men’s, which tends to hamper or reduce informal support for women (Han et al., 2018; Horak, 2014).
India reflects both individualistic and collectivist traits. The preference for individualism in India is related to Hinduism (Hofstede et al., 2010). As the dominant religion and philosophy, Hinduism emphasizes that people are individually responsible for the way they lead their lives and the impact it will have on their rebirth (Hofstede et al., 2010). Therefore, women leaders who are viewed as competent and have potential stand a better chance of moving up the organizational ladder. They are less confined despite the deeply entrenched gender stereotypes, and they can more successfully move into leadership roles compared with their counterparts in other parts of the world (Hewlett & Rashid, 2011). In addition, given the collectivistic nature of Indian society, many women Indian leaders have received strong extended family support, spousal support, and access to reliable domestic help which has boosted their leadership roles in their careers. In light of this discussion, we propose that Indian women leaders who successfully project themselves as talented individuals are more likely to have informal support than their Korean women counterparts.
Power Distance
Both India and Korea are hierarchical societies with a higher level of power distance (Hofstede et al., 2010). Employees in both countries tend to obey people who have more power and accept unequal rights and opportunities in the social and organizational structure (Hofstede et al., 2010). The high power distance in both countries may be salient for women due to the gendered inequality that pervades in both countries (A. Ghosh, 2011; Stedham & Yamamura, 2004). Thus, women easily take unequal treatment, policies, and systems for granted and are forced to agree with the inequality. Specifically in Korea, the highest power distance culture in the world (Hofstede, 2018), clear unequal relationships between people who have different power are common throughout society (Chai et al., 2016). The cultural behavior of power inequality is typically called sang-myung-ha-bok, which describes unconditional obedience to superiors (Rowley & Bae, 2004), or gab-eul, which clearly distinguishes and underlines the power difference between people in which gab (people with strong power) rule over eul (people with weaker power; Jeong, McLean, & Park, 2018). Gender, in Korea, is a major factor associated with power in the workplace and is linked to position and authority. As women are regarded as inferior to men, very few women employees are expected to reach a high rank or to take on key roles in organizations. As such, women tend to receive little opportunity or support for career advancement and development (Cho et al., 2016).
In contrast to Korea, Indian organizations are witnessing a “new Indian middle class” (Srinivasan et al., 2013, p. 222) in spite of a significantly higher power distance culture. This trend includes women software professionals who are successfully constructing and shaping a respectable image of women leaders. Many scholars (Raghunath, 2007; Shankar, 2008) have conceded that women professionals in India have increased their status because of the opportunities in the IT industry including higher salaries, higher social status, and international migration and travel options. Indian women employees are increasingly seeking professional development opportunities in their workplaces, so a lack of professional development opportunities in a particular organization could lead to increased employee turnover according to the extant literature on workplace practices (Arscott, 2016). Therefore, we propose that Indian women leaders are more likely to seek professional developmental opportunities than Korean women leaders.
Despite these differences, both Korea and India are deeply embedded in their patriarchal cultures, social customs, and traditional pulls, so they have failed to completely embrace the coexistence of women leaders at the same level as men (E. S. Lee et al., 2011; Srinivasan et al., 2013). Recognizing the power and importance of their women workforce, a number of programs, policies, and organizational practices focusing on work–life balance have been adopted from Western practices and initiated by Indian and Korean governments and organizations. In addition, many work–life balance programs have been offered without cultural or societal customization for Indians and Koreans, so the effect of those programs are not yet salient (Chandra, 2012; C. Kim & Park, 2009). Moreover, due to the gendered power inequality, husbands are likely to have priority in taking time for work over wives (O’Brien et al., 2014). Thus, women leaders often need to juggle work and family responsibilities and are torn physically and emotionally as they attempt to fulfill their commitments at both ends. This leads us to conclude that both Korean and Indian women leaders struggle with work–life balance even though many work–life balance policies have been adopted from the West.
Generation and Women’s Leadership
Before we embark on a discussion about women’s leadership differences from a generational perspective, we must clearly define generation. Academically, generation can be defined in three broad categories: age-based, cohort-based, and incumbency-based (Joshi, Dencker, Franz, & Martocchio, 2010). However, it is difficult to have a globally homogeneous definition of each generation as the life events, influencing factors, and culture of each country are starkly heterogeneous. We also acknowledge that there is a serious shortage of established literature from a non-Western perspective. To date, non-Western studies have largely replicated the widely accepted notion of generational cohorts although most studies have recognized that generational differences are country-specific rather than globally valid (Srinivasan, John, & Christine, 2014). Under such an ambiguous scenario and given the cross-cultural nature of our article, we used the age-based definition of generation as it would be difficult to do it otherwise.
Many scholars from India and Korea have recently attempted to categorize generations based on the widely accepted global framework in the West (R. Ghosh & Chaudhuri, 2009; Hole, Zhong, & Schwartz, 2010; S. J. Kang & Rudolf, 2015; Kupperschmidt, 2000; Park & Park, 2018; Park & Yang, 2011; Roongrerngsuke, 2010; K. Y. Song & Muschert, 2013; Srinivasan, 2012). Interestingly, although major life events are somewhat different from the Western context, many characteristics such as birth years, work characteristics, and work values are closely aligned with the widely accepted generation cohorts of baby boomers, Generation Xers, and millennials. Therefore, for a lack of any established generational cohorts in India and Korea, we based our article on the existing generation cohorts in the Western hemisphere. To avoid any confusion, we decided to focus on baby boomers as the aging generation born between 1946 and 1964 and millennials as the younger generation born between 1984 and 2002 (Chaudhuri & Ghosh, 2012; Kupperschmidt, 2000). We decided to focus specifically on these two generations because an increasing number of retiring baby boomers are leaving a huge gap in leadership positions in many organizations (Chaudhuri & Ghosh, 2012). Too few Generation Xers can fill this gap, resulting in many high potential millennials taking over the reins of organizations. The situation is quite similar globally across many organizations. As a result of this trend and pressure, it is fairly common to see generational diversity not only in the workplace but also at the leadership level. Therefore, in the subsequent paragraphs, we explore how older and younger generations affect women’s leadership in India and Korea with regard to informal support, professional development opportunities, and work–life balance.
Informal Support
The mind-set in each country has gradually been changing. Both Indian and Korean societies were extremely rigid two decades ago and both informal and formal support for older women leaders was rare. The support available to younger women leaders is far greater compared with their older counterparts because of the changing mind-set, globalization, and a new economic environment where the concept of women in the workplace is being accepted, resulting in increasing leadership opportunities (Budhwar et al., 2005). An Indian Express (2017) news article reported that women millennials in India have started to receive equal opportunities, rewards, and resources at work irrespective of their gender. The women in their article further reported that being married or having a family did not interfere with their career progression, which was quite different from their older counterparts. Based on the same report, younger women in India are in a rush to climb the career ladder, and they are not reluctant to seek informal support (“90 Per Cent Indian millennial Women,” 2017). Based on these reports, it appears that younger women leaders might seek more informal support than their older women counterparts in India.
In contrast to Indian women, younger women leaders in Korea are more aware of the “shame culture” that is particularly prevalent in Korea, which often leads them to believe that they have to solve their own problems rather than seek informal support (D. S. Lee & Padilla, 2016). In addition, there are few good women role models in Korean organizations, resulting in limited hand-holding and behavior modeling, which stifles the growth and development of young women leaders. (Cho et al., 2015). Therefore, we propose that younger Indian women leaders are, perhaps, more likely to seek informal support than younger Korean women leaders.
Professional Development Opportunities
Women leaders across the globe are cognizant of their own personal development and they realize that the climb to the top is not easy without supportive organizational practices (Hershatter & Epstein, 2010). This realization occurs much earlier for younger women leaders as they look for mentors within their organizations because they realize that to skillfully navigate through the corporate labyrinth, a mentor will be an immense help (Solnet, Kralj, & Kandampully, 2012; Thompson & Gregory, 2012). Their quest to be psychologically involved and engaged at work pushes them to work for organizations that are open to change and continually innovating, so the women can optimize their social collaboration both inside and outside work for their own personal and professional benefit. Unlike their predecessors, younger women leaders do not feel engaged and committed at work if they lack growth opportunities. They value enriching work, challenging responsibilities, and taking on and leading initiatives on new and upcoming projects as these projects provide them with additional exposure and recognition (Hole et al., 2010; McDonald & Hite, 2008). Therefore, the possibility that younger women leaders will seek professional development opportunities may be higher than the older generation in both countries.
Arscott (2016) reported that 62% of younger Indian leaders leave an organization because of a lack of learning and development opportunities. Rai (2012) argued that much like their counterparts in other parts of the world, younger Indian women leaders strongly demand learning and growth opportunities, are highly optimistic and ambitious, and are not shy about chasing their dreams. PriceWaterCoopers (PwC Press Room, 2015) recently conducted a survey of 8,756 female millennials from 75 countries and reported that Indian females were the most confident (76%) compared with the global average (49%) about their upward mobility and growth opportunities in their respective careers. This trend is further evident from the number of women CEOs of public listed companies in India (4%) compared with Korea (0.73%) and the percentage of women on company boards in India (6%) compared with Korea (2%; International Labor Organization, 2015). Clearly, India outshines Korea in both areas.
One of the major concerns is that Korean organizations have limited programs aimed at professional development for their women leaders. In a recent qualitative study, Cho and colleagues (2015) reported that there are very few mentoring programs for younger women leaders and limited career support available to them. Korean organizations should try to imitate the gender diversity programs practiced by organizations in neighboring countries and should tailor these programs to specifically address women’s leadership in positive ways (Heidrick & Struggles, 2013). Korea could also pass laws that are similar to Indian organizations where every listed company is mandated to have at least one female director on its board (International Labor Organization, 2015). Therefore, it seems that younger Indian women leaders are more likely to avail professional development opportunities than younger Korean women leaders.
Work–Life Balance
Work–life balance is of utmost importance to the younger generation as they are increasingly interested in managing their own career trajectory and balancing their personal and professional commitments (Festing & Schafer, 2014; Solnet et al., 2012; Thompson & Gregory, 2012). The younger generation, irrespective of their gender, believes in work–life integration in that they are continuously trying to integrate their work with the rest of their personal commitments. Thus, they do not want to be bound by a rigid 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. work routine. They also dislike being micromanaged as they are quite committed to their work expectations. In addition, they are tech savvy and love being wired and connected 24 hr/7 days a week. Although the notion of work–life balance was conceptualized by the older women leaders, they never advocated for it in the same way as younger women. Both older men and women leaders are often stereotyped as workaholics (Sonier, 2012) and they are driven by extrinsic measures in their careers to obtain rewards (Sullivan, Forret, Carraher, & Mainiero, 2009). In contrast, the younger generations may think twice before accepting a promotion as they are likely to carefully scrutinize the impact of the promotion on their existing work–life balance, which is quite contrary to the older generation who would accept the promotion first and think about the situation later (Chao, 2005). Therefore, it seems that the number of younger women leaders seeking work–life balance might be higher than the older women leaders in both countries. For example, unlike their predecessors, younger Indian women leaders refrain from making any compromises in their careers. Instead of focusing only on their personal commitments (e.g., families), they have successfully juggled their work and personal lives after garnering some of the top leadership roles in the corporate sector (Inamdar, 2015). Younger Indian women leaders are also typically upfront about asking for support from their colleagues, team members, and family members, indicating that they are seeking cooperation at every level instead of leading alone.
Paradoxically, Korea is home to the heavy work investors as Koreans are known worldwide for the longest working hours (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2018). Younger Korean women leaders aspire to have a work–life balance but fare far worse than other millennials across the world (J. Song, 2015; World Economic Forum, 2016). Compared with any other Asian country, Korean women leaders often succumb to societal pressure once they have a family as they are traditionally expected to leave their jobs (Rowley et al., 2016). Among all other Asian countries, Korean women rank highest (47%) in quitting their careers for family responsibilities, closely followed by Indian women (44%; Heidrick & Struggles, 2013). Therefore, despite the relative success of Indian women, the probability of younger Indian women leaders seeking work–life balance might be only slightly higher than their Korean counterparts.
Discussion
Women’s leadership has gained increasing attention from research and practice as organizations and societies have begun to recognize the importance of development and gender equality for women. In this article, we outlined key concepts of women’s leadership that reflect the cultural and generational impacts in India and Korea. In this section, we discuss the major contributions of this article and implications for future research and practices.
Our article makes several important contributions to leadership and HRD theories, pointing out the limitations of using Western and single-generation notions while suggesting indigenous and multifaceted approaches. First, our findings support that culture is closely related to the second-generation gender bias, which refers to practices that may look nondiscriminatory but actually discriminate against women because of the values of male dominance (Ely, Ibarra, & Kolb, 2011; Ely & Meyerson, 2000). Although gender discriminations and women’s inferior status are universal phenomena, the societal system that shapes contextual hindrances uniquely suppress women in a culture (Peus et al., 2015). Therefore, reviewing cultural contexts help us to understand women leaders’ experiences even among Asian countries. The second contribution is to theorizing leader identity that gained attention as a critical element of leadership development (Day & Harrison, 2007; DeRue & Ashford, 2010). As women leaders in Asian countries including India and Korea are likely to face serious stereotypes that underestimate or neglect their abilities and authority in the workplace, organizational support and interventions are particularly important to establish women leader’s identity. Another theoretical contribution of this study is to further the leadership development process in women’s career advancement. Although Cheung and Halpern’s (2010) step-by-step model proposes how organizational and social roles develop women’s leadership from the entry to executive positions, the model requires guidelines that reflect contextual characteristics for practical applications. Our study highlighted the importance of cultural and generational difference and diversity in women’s leadership development. This point may help raise what to consider in action for developing women leadership, specifically in the Asian context.
Regarding contributions to research on women’s leadership, first, we introduced diverse contexts that affect women’s employment, status, power, and well-being in organizations by including national culture and generation differences in the conversation. It is imperative to develop a practical and effective model for women’s leadership that supports and fosters women in various occupational and social contexts around the world. Second, our comparison between two Asian countries highlights the similarities and differences in regional women’s leadership and identifies the need for more indigenous research. Third, this article incorporated a critical emerging topic in HRD, generation differences (Park & Park, 2018), and particularly explored the influence of generational differences in women’s leadership. Fourth, we presented how cultural and generational uniqueness affects women’s leadership in India and Korea. To the best of our knowledge, no study has dealt with both generational and national cultural differences to examine women’s leadership. Continued work needs to be considered in regional as well as cross-cultural organizational research. Finally, this article provides areas of exploration based on our findings regarding generational and cultural impacts in India and Korea. These areas of exploration are expected to provide direction and insights for further research in women’s leadership, including, but not limited to, theory building, theoretical modeling, and empirical and indigenous conceptual studies.
Despite the contributions and significance of our article, it has several limitations. We focused on the negative side of work–life balance that restricts women’s leadership. Although we recognize that work–life/family enrichment can enhance career opportunities and work-related resources, our literature search found no study on how nonwork domains positively affect women’s leadership. In addition, we classified generations by the same age frame, assuming that the generational categories are similar between India and Korea. This approach was necessary to compare the two countries. However, as each country’s unique history and culture may differ in the age range of the various generations as well as their national characteristics, caution is needed to use our proposed suggestions in indigenous or cross-cultural research. Another limitation is that our article could not provide ample evidence to support our cross-cultural comparisons in generational differences due to a lack of generation studies on gender issues or women’s leadership. We believe that our article and the proposed recommendations will contribute to generating more studies on this topic.
Implications for Research- and Practice
This article is an important first step in understanding different generations at work from a cultural standpoint with respect to women’s leadership. Christie, Kwon, Stoeberl, and Baumhart (2003) posited that most cross-cultural studies are grounded on the assumption that the scrutinized countries are significantly different, an assumption that does not always hold true. In fact, the countries may appear different but one can still find many similarities in various cultural dimensions. This article attempts to understand the similarities and differences of women’s leadership across cultures and generations in two different, yet similar, Asian countries. India and Korea are the third and fourth largest economies in Asia, next to China and Japan. The last few decades have witnessed many bilateral economic relations between the two countries resulting in numerous business exchanges (Sahoo, Rai, & Kumar, 2009). Given the ever-changing nature of work with increased overseas telecommuting and shrinking global boundaries, having an understanding of women’s leadership across different generations is important knowledge for managers in India and Korea as they continue their business relations.
Our article has specifically shed light on generational and cultural differences in women’s leadership, focusing on informal support, professional development opportunities, and work–life balance. The findings of this article imply several scholarly directions for women’s leadership and HRD. Researchers may consider the impact of individual contexts that differ by generation and culture. Although increased attention has been given to women’s leadership in non-Western cultures and generational impacts, most research has dealt with these topics separately. Our findings suggest that generational and cultural uniqueness coexists, revealing distinctive characteristics for each group of individuals. A framework that encompasses gender, cultural, and generational attributes may help us better understand the complicated issues related to women’s leadership. Follow-up empirical studies that examine the suggestions we present here will help elucidate how individuals differ based on individual, organizational, and cultural contexts. A comparison study may be necessary to clarify the differences in women’s leadership between generations and cultures, and their interactions.
As practical suggestions for HRD practitioners, for India, formalized leadership programs should be encouraged so women employees can use organizational resources equally without hesitation. Organization-driven social events that involve family members may also help extend family support for women employees and their leadership. In Korea, HRD practitioners may provide interventions to relieve women employees’ burden from their child care responsibilities as child care is the top concern among Korean women leaders with children. Policies that support formal leadership programs and mandate equal application for all employees may also prevent organizations from neglecting development opportunities for women. For both countries, generational differences in women’s leadership should be taken into consideration. As the younger generation tends to more actively seek informal support, professional development opportunities, and work–life balance compared with their older counterparts, organizations may take the younger generations’ needs seriously and provide culturally customized practices to attract and retain young talent. Moreover, HRD practitioners should scrutinize leadership development programs and women support policies that have been adopted from the West before practicing them.
Recommendations for Future Research: Areas of Future Exploration
For future research, we suggest exploring the dynamics between cultural dimensions and women’s leadership in both Asian countries. Possible research topics could include how cultural preferences in India and Korea affect women leaders’ behavior, decisions, or professional and personal lives. For instance, researchers could explore how collectivism in India and Korea can foster or hinder women leaders and the differences and similarities of collectivism in both countries. The traditional male dominance norm can be used to examine leadership styles of women in the two countries. In Korea, women leaders have received inconsistent feedback and encouragement on their leadership styles because of gender stereotypes and tokenism (Cho et al., 2017). By comparing the experiences of Indian and Korean women leaders, researchers could examine how male dominance features and preferences can affect leadership development and leadership styles of women. The work value of women leaders in both countries could also be investigated in terms of male dominance.
In addition, power distance could be discussed further to understand how mentoring and coaching can build relationships between women employees and leaders from Indian and Korean perspectives. To see how women leaders can enhance creativity and lead innovation at the team and organizational levels, uncertainty avoidance can be examined in both countries. Considering that India and Korea have opposite preferences for uncertainty avoidance, different dynamics of uncertainty avoidance could be compared in light of the contexts, processes, and outcomes. Finally, given that the overall workforce will be younger and more diverse in a few years with the older generation retiring and international boundaries diminishing, future research could more specifically examine different styles of leadership and determine if one generation and country culture has a preference for a certain style over another.
Footnotes
Appendix
Selected Studies Related to India and Korea.
| Author(s) | Year | Country | Type of study | Theory | Sample characteristics | Findings | Theme of the study |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budhwar, Saini, and Bhatnagar | 2005 | India | Qualitative | NA | 12 female managerial employees from multisectors | Indian women employees often found that the work environment is hostile as they try to move up the career path. | Professional development |
| Cha and Eun | 2014 | Korea | Quantitative | NA | 16,958 employees (from the secondary data) | Men’s sleep was more likely to be disturbed by their work role, while women’s sleep was affected by their work and family role. | Work–life balance |
| Chai, Jeong, Kim, Kim, and Hamlin | 2016 | Korea | Qualitative | Implicit leadership | 45 employees (25 male/20 female) | Effective and ineffective managerial behaviors embedded in a Korean cultural context. | Cultural behaviors and social support |
| Cho et al. | 2016 | Korea | Qualitative | NA | 50 female leaders (28 team leaders, 22 executives) | Women leaders experience difficulties in work–life balance and leadership development due to a gendered workplace. | Professional development and work–life balance |
| Choi and Park | 2014 | Korea | Qualitative | NA | 27 female employees | Confucian tradition and collectivism in Korean society may be more challenging to female public employees in Korea. | Professional development |
| Ganesh and Ganesh | 2014 | India | Quantitative | NA | 307 bank employees (208 males/99 females) | Employees with both feminine and masculine qualities are needed at the managerial and leadership level. | Professional development and support |
| R. Ghosh and Chaudhuri | 2009 | India and United States | Literature review | Conceptualization of nationality; Igenerational subculture theory | NA | One of the first articles to define three distinct Indian generations. | Generation definitions |
| Gress and Paek | 2014 | Korea | Quantitative | Feminist geography | 360 female managers in multiple sectors | An overall discriminatory atmosphere leads to decreased equality in opportunities to participate in training and business trips, which in turn leads to fewer promotions for female managers. | Professional development and support |
| Horak | 2014 | Korea, Germany | Qualitative | Network theory | 21 professionals (10 Korean/11 German) | Informal relation-based networking behaviors in Korea (Yongo, Yonjul, and Inmaek) and their impact on group dynamics | Cultural behaviors and social support |
| H. R. Kang and Rowley | 2005 | Korea | Literature review | Human capital theory; discrimination perspectives | NA | It should be explored for possible ways to confront female managerial discrimination and to increase women’s roles in management. | Professional development and support |
| E. S. Lee, Chang, and Kim | 2011 | Korea | Quantitative | Work–family interface | 363 Korean civil servants | Korean work–family experiences may differ from those in a Western culture. Family resources may function as an additional work stressor rather than enrich the work role. | Work–life balance and gender roles |
| D. S. Lee and Padilla | 2016 | Korea | Quantitative | NA | 198 university students | Korean students’ perceptions of social support significantly predicted their closer social circles. | Social support for young generation |
| Low et al. | 2015 | Hong Kong (HK), Korea (KR), Malaysia (MY), and Singapore (SG) | Quantitative | Agency theory, resource-dependence perspective, stewardship theory | HK (308), KR (2,941), MY (1,241), and SG (1,013) in multiple sectors | Forcing female director appointment or mandating gender quotas could reduce firm performance in countries with strong cultural resistance. | Professional development and support |
| Munn and Chaudhuri | 2016 | India and United States | Literature review | NA | NA | Work–life issues of dual-earner couples and organizational practices in an effort to help organizations effectively manage work–life policies affecting the gender role dynamics. | Work–life balance |
| O’Brien, Ganginis Del Pino, Yoo, Cinamon, and Han | 2014 | Israel, Korea, and United States | Quantitative | Conservation of resources | 708 employed mothers (105 Israeli, 298 Korean, 305 U.S.) | Korean women had the lowest levels of work–family enrichment and depression compared with the Israeli and American mothers. | Work–life balance and gender roles |
| Park and Park | 2018 | Korea | Literature review | NA | NA | Korea has wider gaps between older and younger generations. The roles of Generation 386 and Generation Y should be considered in organizations. | Generation gap in the workplace |
| Park and Yang | 2011 | Korea | Quantitative | NA | 223 employees in civil service | There is no generational difference on job-related motivational factors among Korean government officials, except leadership opportunities. | Generational differences in motivation |
| Patterson, Bae, and Lim | 2013 | Korea | Quantitative | Neoliberalism | 209 HR practitioners | The underrepresentation of women in Korean firms is still based upon cultural norms and practices that may have a negative economic effect on firms. | Support and professional development for women in HR practices |
| Peus, Braun, and Knipfer | 2015 | China, India, Singapore, United States | Qualitative—In-depth interviews | NA | 76 mid- to upper level female managers from multiple sectors. | Family is a huge support system for Indian women managers. They also aspire to develop and mentor their subordinates so that the managers become successful leaders. | Informal support for women leaders |
| Rath, Mohanty, and Pradhan | 2015 | India | Quantitative | NA | 450 senior women managers in bank | Increasing domestic support, attending skill development programs, seeking a variety of challenging assignments, mentoring, and a network of supportive colleagues were the crucial enablers for women’s higher positions. | Informal support and professional development |
| Raymo, Park, Xie, and Yeung (2015) | 2015 | China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan | Literature review | Gender equity theory of fertility change | NA | Trends in marriage and fertility reflect tension between rapid social and economic changes and limited change in family expectations and obligations. | Work–life balance and social changes |
| Rowley, Kang, and Lim | 2016 | Korea | Mixed | Homophily principle, similarity-attraction theory, relational demography theory | 260 female mangers from multiple sectors; 10 female executives | Male-dominated business cultures stemming from the spatial context have a crucial impact on female careers. | Professional development |
| K. Y. Song and Muschert | 2013 | Korea and United States | Quantitative | NA | 216 Koreans living in Korea and the United States | There are generational differences on collective memories in South Korea and the United States. | Generational effects |
| Srinivasan | 2012 | India | Literature review followed by roundtable discussions | NA | Round table discussions with expert groups | Managing multigenerational workforce and understanding of their characteristics | Generational issue and work–life balance |
| Sung | 2003 | Korea | Literature review | NA | NA | Historical changes of gendered traditions and related policies that influenced Korean women’s roles | Work–life balance and generational transition |
Note. HR = human resources.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
