Using Western-style names

By Mark Peterson

Now I've seen everything! Korean Bigtech company Kakao has decided to implement a policy of using first names in office communications ― but not their real first names. They have all been directed to take on Western-style first names.

If you haven't seen the news report, you might have to read my first paragraph again. Yes, it actually says a Korean company is adopting a first name policy, and the first names are not Korean first names, but adopted Western-style first names.

I am not sure what underlies this policy, but it appears to be the old desire to break down traditional hierarchies and rigidities in Korea's office structure ― in the search for horizontality.

We have seen previous attempts to break down structures such as the power of seniority, wherein the senior employees have ultimate say in decision-making even if a younger employee has better ideas. We've seen the adoption of "team" terminology and the use of the English word "team" in Korean. The leader of the team is the "team-jang." And this includes the abandonment of terms of hierarchy like section head, division head, ― "gyejang," "gwajang" "bujang" and such that show hierarchical structure. In the team, there is a team-jang, but everyone else, irrespective of senior or junior status is on equal footing in regard to tasks at hand.

I don't know if the team approach has been successful or not. I can see where senior people look for other markers of senior status such as pay grade. I was surprised some years ago to learn that everyone in a company knew exactly how much everyone else was getting paid! In American companies, pay is considered private information, very, very private.

Is the adoption of Western names another attempt to break down traditional structures? Is this a confession that the team structure and other attempts at modern competitive businesses have not worked well enough?

I've seen egalitarian use of names, sometimes Western names, in one other context ― the Rotary Club. I suppose the Rotary Club ― which has been highly successful in Korea ― is a form of egalitarianism in Korea's hierarchical landscape.

When I lived in Seoul and was active in the Seoul Rotary Club, everyone was "Rotarian Bill" and "Rotarian Fred" and "Rotarian Young" and "Rotarian Jubin". Indeed, some took Western names, and others used Korean names, or variations of their Korean names, "Duck." Looking back on it, it was highly egalitarian. Korean status markers of age, social position, wealth and such were ignored ― everyone was on an equal footing. It took me a while to figure out that some members of the club held very high social positions, presidents of companies, prestigious physicians, powerful clergymen and former cabinet members.

The use of only a first name has currency in other contexts in other countries. I think of people who might be called "hippies" and their shared community view of the world ― they only use first names. In contrast with some "Boston Brahmans" that I've known who only use last names, or who emphasize last names and the social status of the family associated with the last names ― "He's an Everett. Everett Hall at Harvard is named after his great grandfather." "She is a Widener, like Widener Library" (the main library at Harvard named after the family member who died on the Titanic).

Similarly, there are many prestigious Korean surnames. Not just Kim, but which Kim family one may be a part of. And, there are prestigious and generic branches of all the major surnames groups, Yi, Park, Jeong, Choe and the rest. To divert from an emphasis on surnames, to given names, and not just real given names, but acquired given names, really moves one several steps away from traditional hierarchical structures.

Will it be successful? How will "success" be measured?

Regardless of the reasons and the objectives in making the announcement at Kakao, from the perspective of a student of Korean, it's a fascinating move. And what does this portend for other companies? Do companies other than internet companies see the need for such artificially constructed egalitarian models?

I was talking to an American friend just a few days ago about Korean dramas. My friend and his wife quite enjoy Korean dramas on TV. He asked me, in all earnestness, "Do Koreans really have all that social hierarchy that we keep seeing in all the dramas?" I had to answer yes, that there are really all sorts of markers of hierarchy. He promptly called over to his wife, "Hey, Mark says all that hierarchy in the Korean shows is for real." They found it quite unbelievable. At that point, I didn't know about the "foreign first name policy" at Kakao, but I think it's all of the same cloth.

The question now is, will other companies follow Kakao? Will we soon see the Americanization of names all across Korea? Never a dull moment in looking at Korean cultural behavior.

Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is a professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.