Samsung pioneers opportunities for women managers

○ Samsung chairman opens opportunities for women section chiefs

Samsung Group says 74 of 211 women section chiefs (35 percent) were hired through the conglomerate`s open recruiting process. An estimated 1,300 women managers will likely be promoted to Samsung section chiefs in a few years, including 574 or 44 percent hired through the open recruiting process.

Though the 211 women section chiefs account for just 0.1 percent of the conglomerate`s 193,000 employees, the trend is significant in gender equality. Samsung openly recruited few professionals such as secretaries and designers in 1992 and introduced an open recruitment process for female college graduates in 1993. It was considered unusual for the group to hire hundreds of female college graduates per year. In 1994, Samsung unveiled a reform plan that eliminated academic and gender discrimination in personnel management.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was then head of the group, declared in 1993 a sweeping “new management” intended to change everything except for "wives and children" to executives of major affiliates in Frankfurt, Germany. Fostering a female workforce was one of the concepts of the new management paradigm.

Lee personally proposed and ordered the open recruitment of women professionals and college graduates. As a result, women employees accounted for 26 percent of Samsung Group`s payroll as of last year.

A Samsung Group source said, “If women managers who started working in the early 1990s are promoted to executives in a few years, the number of women executives in Samsung will increase dramatically.”

○ Women managers changing Samsung’s corporate culture

Samsung Group has 34 executives including Lee’s two daughters, Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin and Cheil Industries Senior Vice President Lee Seo-hyun. Cheil Worldwide Vice President Choi In-ah, the highest-ranking woman executive in Samsung except those in the owner’s family, was the lone woman manager recruited through the open process.

Until Samsung started open recruitment for women college graduates in 1993, Samsung affiliates rarely hired women. Other women executives were hired if they had a track record at other companies.

Today’s women section chiefs at Samsung entered college in the 1990s and started working for the group in 1993. Compared to their predecessors who devoted themselves to college student activism, they have abundant overseas experience.

Unlike women in the previous generation who either quit after marriage or did not marry, they are “super moms” who balance both work and family. Samsung childcare facilities are at 17 workplaces starting with Samsung Medical Center in 1995 and have greatly contributed to women employees at Samsung.

The facilities offer 12-hour service for five days per week and the fees range from 177,000 won (156.54 U.S. dollars) to 350,000 won (322.28 dollars) depending on children’s age.

The conglomerate conducted a leadership program for 50 women section chiefs and their deputies at the end of last year. The purpose was to foster a group of potential women executives.

Cheil Worldwide Vice President Choi said, “The time has come when society wants to use the strength of women who are strong in communication,” adding, “Women leaders need to control their emotions when things get tough and have a spirit of sacrifice for the sake of the whole organization, not for self-benefit.”

The influx of women managers is also changing Samsung’s organizational culture. “With more women section chiefs, we expect that the uniform corporate culture will change into a diverse and creative one,” Samsung Electronics Managing Director Kim Jun-shik said. “We operate each organization with careful consideration of maternity leave for women workers.”

kimsunmi@donga.com