Despite attempts in recent years to adopt shorter work hours and greater flexibility in the corporate world, a majority of Korean workers doubt that such efforts actually make a difference, a joint survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry and McKinsey showed Monday.

Around 2,000 Korean employees were surveyed to check whether there was any improvement from a previous survey in 2016. The earlier report had highlighted Korean employees’ habitual overtime work, inefficient meetings and a lack of communication.

When asked whether there were improvements in those factors in the past two years, 59.8 percent of the respondents said, “There were some changes but they cannot be seen as improvement,” and 28 percent of them said, “There was no effectiveness at all.” Only 12.2 percent of the respondents said, “There was fundamental improvement.”

The respondents’ evaluations of improvements in the corporate culture were full of negative words, such as “nominal innovation,” “all for show,” “not interested,” “inefficient” and “curmudgeons in jeans,” according to the recent report.

“Curmudgeons in jeans” refers to the idea that senior employees wear jeans to project a youthful image, but their domineering and faultfinding attitudes have not changed.

A manager of a midsized firm was quoted in the report as saying, “Despite the removal of a dress code and ranks to encourage better communication within companies, opinions are still not heard or reflected.”

Another senior manager of a large company was quoted as saying, “A campaign is launched to turn off lights at night or write a one-page report (to streamline the work process). In reality, we have to work with a desk lamp in the dark office at night while the one-page report comes with an attachment of 30-40 pages.”

The improvement efforts are conducted in a makeshift manner, causing fatigue and cynicism among employees, according to the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

The joint report also analyzed eight Korean companies, including three large companies, two midsized companies and two startups, by comparing them with global companies.

Seven out of the eight companies were found to be “weak-bodied” compared to their global counterparts.

By segment, Korean companies showed relative strength in clarifying responsibility and encouraging motivation. But they were found to be behind their global counterparts in most other factors, including leadership, an outward-looking approach, coordination, control, capacity and direction.

The three factors harming the soundness of organizations are an “unscientific work process,” “irrational performance management” and “a lack of capacity in leadership,” according to the chamber of commerce.

“Today, a company must be ambidextrous by having both stability in systems and dynamics in process and structure, fostering personal (growth) and leadership. Dynamics alone could push the company to falter in the end,” said Park Jae-keun, chief of the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s business environment research division.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)