earticle

영어

The chaebol structure would be the unique form of organization created and developed in the business environment of Korea. This study seeks to probe the process of creating and developing Korea's chaebol structure from the perspective of macro-organizational theories. We try to explain the process of creating and developing Korea’s chaebol structure from the perspectives of environmental adaption as well as environmental determinism. While the adaptive perspective incorporates political, economic, and institutional approaches, the deterministic perspective stands for organizational ecology. Of the three adaptive approaches, the political approach represented by Marxist theory of organization and resource dependency theory posits that organization structure is the outcome of capitalists’ persistent endeavors to exploit labors. The economic approach represented by Oliver Williamson’s transaction cost economics notes that the very efficiency realized by such dwindling costs as agency costs and transaction costs enables the organization to choose the chaebol structure over other forms of organization. And the institutional approach maintains that such institutional pressures as mimetic isomorphism propel organizations to take the chaebol structure since those pressures provide legitimacy and recognition to them. Organizational ecology representing the deterministic perspective posits that the principle of survival of fitness would be applied to the arena of organizational theories and the chaebol structure is the valid form which has been selected by the relevant environment. After reviewing theories and cases relating to Korea’s chaebol structure, we discuss the validity of each theory mentioned earlier in this study. In particular, we note Williamson's transaction cost economics. The fundamental proposition of this theory is that transaction cost efficiency determines transactional governance structure. This theory is therefore strongly universalistic because it makes little provision for societal and cultural differences. The relative weakness of this theory may be inherent in its universal nature with regard to the peculiarity of Korean situations. In Korea transaction costs could be minimized because of the traditional family structure. Transaction costs in a corporate patriarchy headed by the founder or his immediate offspring can be minimized because managers from the founding family, constituting the dominant coalition in nearly all Korean business groups, may not have to behave opportunistically and to undertake a careful ‘cost-benefit’ analysis. If transaction costs are lower in the Korean economy, where family capitalism is still a sweeping mode of production and transaction, than in other advanced economies, one would claim that Korea's family-dominated organizations may not be an underdeveloped form of organization that should be replaced by the western type of ‘economic’ or ‘utility-maximizing’ organizations. As the Confucian way of interweaving ‘economic’ transactions with ‘noneconomic’ considerations of trust, obligation, and goodwill does not hinder efficient allocation of resources, the Korean method of economizing on transaction costs by way of family capitalism may not occur at the expense of economic efficiency. Finally, we discuss the controversy relating to the validity of the theories made and developed by western scholars. Besides theoretical discussions, we further mention how the fate of chaebol founder families would work and what the future of Korea's capitalism would look like.

한국어

이 연구는 재벌형 조직의 생성과 발전 과정을 거시조직이론적 입장에서 밝히고자 하였다. 거시조직이론에는 환경적응론적 관점과 환경결정론적 관점이 존재한다. 환경적응론적 관점은 다시 정치적⋅경제적⋅제도주의적 시각에서 조직의 생성과 발전과정을 접근할 수 있다. 조직의 생성과 발전과정에 영향을 미치는 요인으로 정치적 접근법은 권력을, 경제적 접근법은 효율을, 제도적 접근법은 제도화를 중요하게 본다는 점에서 서로 다르지만, 조직이 환경에 적응할 수 있다는 적응론적(adaptive) 관점이라는 공통점도 가지고 있다. Marxist 조직이론과 자원의존이론으로 대표되는 정치적 접근법에 따르면 거대기업조직은 노동자를 효과적으로 통제하기 위해서 그리고 창업자 가족은 조직내부 권력을 강화하기 위해서 재벌형 조직구조를 선택하며, 거래비용경제학으로 대표되는 경제적 접근법에 따르면 재벌형 조직구조는 거래비용을 대폭 절감할 수 있는 효율적인 구조이기 때문에 채택된다고 한다. 또한 제도주의적 접근법은 재벌형 조직구조가 오랜 시간 동안 제도화하여 정당성을 확보하고 있기 때문에 많은 거대기업집단이 재벌형 조직구조를 모방하고 선택한다고 본다. 환경적응론적 관점과 대비되는 환경결정론은 조직이 구조나 형태를 선택할 수 있다는 합리적 선택의 관점을 받아들이지 않는다. 환경결정론적 관점의 조직생태학에 따르면 사람이 만든 조직도 적자생존이라는 생태학의 기본원리를 따른다고 한다. 이 이론은 재벌형 조직구조가 지금까지 한국적 기업환경에서 생존하고 있는 이유는 한국의 기업환경이 이구조를 선택했기 때문이라고 보고 있다. 이런 이론적 논의 외에도 서구에서 개발된 거시조직이론을 한국 상황에 적용할 때 제기되는 문제점과 재벌형 조직구조의 미래에 대한 토론도 하였다.