Foreign executives in South Korean companies declining

The fall in the number of foreign executives in South Korea has affected diversity of corporate culture, as companies struggle to hire talented people.
By: | November 1, 2018
Topics: Asia-Pacific | News | Recruitment | South Korea

 

The latest data shows that foreigners make up just 1.4% of executives working for South Korea’s top 100 companies. This represents a gradual decline from three years ago.

One of the nation’s biggest employers, Samsung, reportedly decided to cut back on the hiring of executives from abroad. It reduced its number of foreign executives to 45 in 2018, down from 57 in 2015.

An analysis by market researcher Korea CXO Institute found that out of some 6,843 executives, only 94 were foreigners. This is a decrease from 101 in 2015, or a drop of 1.5%.

The director of the Korea CXO Institute, Oh Il-sun, said that the declining trend reflected on the difficulty of hiring talents, regardless of their nationality, which affects diversity and global corporate culture in companies.