Workers of Hyundai Securities are experiencing job stress from labor intensity, lack of organizational justice, etc. The labor union needs to listen to union members, and intervene in the company policy to lower the job stress of workers.

 

A. Increased labor intensity is caused by pressure for performance

 

Labor intensity in Hyundai Securities is higher than that of production workers in car factories. Workers responded that they would not feel as tired if labor intensity was reduced by 40%. About half of the respondents (47%) said they were always mentally exhausted after work.

The reasons pointed out for this strenuous labor intensity were forced sales performance and excessive campaign promotions. In particular, excessive campaigns and promotions were pointed out not only by the sales force, but also by all union members as causes of increased labor intensity. In this way, the company is passing current difficulties caused by macroeconomic problems and the stock market recession to its workers. The pressures on performance that sales workers have to endure affects investment advice and professional satisfaction. It is necessary to raise a voice about this problem and to help resolve it.

 

B. Lack of compensatory and procedural justice

In terms of organizational justice, there was high dissatisfaction with compensatory and procedural justice. This shows that the decision-making process, including opinion gathering and feedback, is insufficient. Although there were not many direct complaints about salary, this study found that workers did not believe they were properly compensated for their responsibilities, experience, efforts, successes, and especially endurance of job stress.

Hyundai Securities workers pointed out the opaqueness of the evaluation system including the lack of fair evaluation criteria and a one-person-centered evaluation system within the department. This resulted in an opaque organizational system that is intensifying problems in distribution of performance output which affects compensation, the setting of business goals and major decisions, and communication between departments. Therefore, the vertical, hierarchical work culture is widespread and workers believe it is important for preserving their employment. In the end, this repressed organizational culture harms business and leads to avoidance of responsible decisions, making the static and repressed organizational culture and system more intact.

 

C. Effects of employment anxiety

 

For both men and women, job instability was the biggest factor contributing to job stress. The experience of restructuring in 2014 confirmed that employment anxiety due to performance and evaluation can happen to any individual worker at any time, and the merger with KB Investment & Securities further exacerbated this anxiety. After the merger, there was a lot of fear about changes at work and the opaque organizational system and the unilateral top-down communication structure increased these fears and anxieties. Workers of Hyundai Securities might have endured job stress because there was better economic compensation or welfare than other securities companies. However, the company is about to be merged with KB Financial Group, and workers think that it is fortunate just to maintain their current compensation level because they are not sure if the compensation will be enough after the merger. If the members of Hyundai Securities have endured job stress for better economic compensation or welfare than other securities companies, there is an idea that Hyundai Securities, with a merger with KB Financial ahead, would be fortunate just to maintain its previous level. Therefore, fear and anxiety about a situation that can change rapidly at any time exacerbates the job stress that Hyundai Securities workers have to endure.

D. Emotional labor without organizational support

Emotional labor also had a large number of high-risk workers. A lot of workers are at a high-risk emotional labor level. In terms of ‘diversity of emotional control’ or ‘organizational support and protection system,’ almost half of the workers were classified in the high-risk group for ‘emotional labor.’ Even in customer service, which requires a lot of emotional labor, there is a lack of company-level countermeasures to protect workers. Therefore, this study indicates that there is an urgent need for company-level countermeasures to alleviate this problem.

E. Poor health-related quality of life

Workers had severe fatigue and high depression. The depression levels among these workers were higher than that of the general population, and urgent measures need to be taken. In particular, women are generally at a higher risk of depression compared to men, but in this survey, men showed a higher rate of depression than women, showing that the level of mental health among male union members, particularly male workers in branch offices, is of concern. As a result, the health-related quality of life was found to be very low. Especially, the quality of life related to mental health appeared to be even lower than that of families of stroke patients, showing that the quality of life related to mental health is significantly threatened. The prevalence of chronic diseases was lower than that of the general population, but the treatment rate is also lower than that of the general population, indicating that education and management are needed for health problems overall.

F. Distrust of the company and the challenges against the union

This study found that the perception of labor-management relations was very negative. Union members reported that the company was not performing well on the matters agreed to with the union, and in many cases, labor-management relations were found to be confrontational. The perception of the union was more positive than that of the company, but the relationship between the union and its members is also undergoing changes, so it is necessary to devise a plan to increase the interest and participation of members. Efforts such as strengthening daily communication, expanding the labor union’s structure, and supporting various communities are essential.

 

2. Recommendations

A. There is a desire that cannot be solved by salary and welfare 

The most notable thing in the job stress research study was the finding that among workers there was a desire for better working conditions despite relatively high salaries and a slightly better level of welfare and working conditions than other occupations. In fact, Hyundai Securities workers displayed only small differences in job satisfaction compared to poorer workers in the same industry or in Korean society as a whole. There were many interviewers who started out by saying, “I know it’s talking high and mighty but…” and “I’m satisfied with my pay, but…” while talking about their hardships related to work. The job stress due to insecurity surrounding the sell-off and merger was significant. As a result, union members complained about the same labor intensity as workers in automobile production, and showed very high levels of fatigue and depression.

The starting point of all improvement measures is to reveal this reality, these desires, and dissatisfactions. From the results of this survey, follow-up measures are needed, such as sharing through training of all members and actively organizing discussions about alternative. It is necessary to use the Occupational Safety and Health Committee established since 2016, or actively utilize member surveys (such as this study) to reveal complaints and issues that have been hidden beneath a veil of relatively high wages.

B. Ways to strengthen organizational justice 

According to this study, an opaque organizational system is one cause of serious job stress. Structural problems such as opacity of the evaluation system, lack of a specific evaluation criteria, and evaluation by only one-person were pointed out. This makes the organization stiffen so that that workers who are evaluated would not feel free to raise their voice or try to change their company. As a result, this spawns an organizational culture in which workers follow someone who has political power within the company, and act according to company politics. It is essential to improve the evaluation process, personnel system, and performance principles in order to address one of the most important causes of stress and reduce factors that hinder vitality across the organization. 

This approach to strengthening organizational justice is also closely linked to the process of alleviating performance pressure. One of the reasons that performance pressure has been excessively affecting unemployed workers over the past few years is the current evaluation system, in which the method of evaluation is unknown. 

Hyundai Securities workers had another job stress factor from the company merger as KB Financial Group took over Hyundai Securities As KB Financial Group recently emphasized and promoted high performance among its workers more severely than other financial companies, the organizational justice issue is likely to remain a problem. Moreover, since the process of integrating workers from Hyundai Securities and KB Securities will continue for some time, complaints and suspicions about evaluation and personnel practices may continue. It is difficult for the union to directly intervene in the personnel system, and the fact that the management persists in expanding and reinforcing the annual salary system makes this issue difficult to resolve. It is time for labor and management to fully review various measures, such as strengthening multi-faceted evaluation, evaluating, and disclosing work performance evaluation and multi-faceted evaluation ratio, and organizing and operating a promotion recommendation committee. 

Intervention is also required to change the organizational culture but the culture cannot be completely changed at once. However, workplace culture cannot change in a year or two. Starting a change by securing a transparent and fair evaluation system will be effective in that it provides a foundation for changing the organizational culture.

C. Results, evaluation, and diagnosis of employment anxiety

The study was conducted before the sale of Hyundai Securities to KB was confirmed and the merger proceeded. It was no wonder that the stress of employment anxiety was the most serious among the eight sub-categories of job stress. The merger was in progress and the anxiety and concern over a future that seemed distant suddenly became close. It has become important for the union to make an effort to listen to members’ opinions fully and their various perspectives about how members’ concerns were evaluated after the change, what the current problems are, how the individual responds, and what role the union should play. 

Although efforts have already been made, it is likely necessary to interview union members from various job groups, genders, positions, regions, and former companies. This will provide an opportunity to create and collect basic information by analyzing personnel movement data, and to check and assemble members’ responses, evaluations, and demands in a variety of ways, such as surveys and interviews, and meetings with the trade unions. In the process, problem recognition and improvement measures that are close to the site will be drawn up.

D. A gender-sensitive approach to all policies is required 

This study revealed large gender differences in dissatisfaction with the personnel evaluation and promotion system. Interviews confirmed that experiences such as maternity leave adversely affected the promotion process resulting in discrimination against women. Organizational cultures with irregular work hours also have different effects on men and women. This organizational culture is an important stressor for women workers, undermines their morale, and does not match the trend of emphasizing work-family compatibility. 

Overall, there should be a plan to strengthen organizational justice that takes gender impacts into account. For example, the impact of personnel systems and organizational cultures on gender should be evaluated, and when evaluating various changes that have occurred during the merger process or that will be introduced in the future, it is important to keep potential differences in impacts on men and women in mind. 

In order to improve the organizational culture, mandatory training for all employees should include not only anti-sexual violence education but also gender equality and gender-related human rights education. In trade union activities, a gender-sensitive approach is necessary for all policies, from corporate policies to trade union activities, such as expanding the women’s committee activities and making conscious efforts to upgrade roles and status.

E. Emergency protection system for workers in crisis 

Many workers experienced emotional labor and were at high-risk for depression. Screening showed depression in 18% of the workers. In addition, almost half of the workers in the high-risk group were emotionally oriented in terms of “variation of emotional control” or “organizational support and protection system.” Considering the age group, education and economic level, the union members’ mental health is very concerning. In order to promote good mental health among these workers, it is time to develop measures to resolve underlying issues that undermine mental health. At the same time, it is necessary to have an emergency system to actively protect workers who are already in danger of impaired health or in need of intervention. 

For example, there can be a designation support by a labor organization in the region or an employee assistance program (EAP) are needed to ensure that workers with severe psychological or psychological distress, such as depression, receive psychological counseling or treatment before it is too late, and to be protected from further exacerbation of work-related problems. In this case, the communication between the agency and the organization operating the program and the trade union should be close so that the EAP or consultation support can be effective. The information of workers who use such a program must be kept strictly confidential by both the company and the union.

However, unions must be able to participate in the selection and evaluation of the counseling institutions. During operation, it is necessary to periodically require regular statistics and analysis of work factors such as user statistics, sharing of key counseling cases, job stress and emotional labor. This should be done quarterly or semiannually and include active training for union members.

F. Recommendations for establishing mid- to long-term policies and strategies of unions 

Major factors contributing to job stress can be seen in the working environment, including wages, working hours, and personnel. The union should clarify the factors that determine the working environment when approaching the serious depression of union members as a  matter of the working environment. There is a strong tendency on the part of the company to pass damages arising from the provision of labor on to individual workers (e.g., diseases such as job stress) and solve them through social insurance (the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act) as a last resort.

The results of the institutional analysis and job stress surveys of the working environment of Hyundai Securities can be summarized as follows:

➀ improvement of individual working conditions;

➁ improvement of personnel policies that deteriorate workers’ right to health;

➂ the union’s active involvement to stop proliferation of financial capital with only short-term profits, and

➃ presenting and practicing policy alternatives through the union’s labor safety activities.

In the end, these efforts should lead to a struggle for workers’ interests and rights, which are the essential attributes of trade unions. 

In other words, the union establishes mid-to long-term policy tasks re-establishing the operational structure in which union members’ opinions can participate in this process, and it results in the question of how much the established policies can be achieved in negotiations and struggles with the company. (Exercising the bargaining power based on organizational power and signing an agreement). At this point, we must not forget that the collective bargaining right of the trade union by legally challenging the company’s management is a basic constitutional right to improve working conditions.

If there is not enough individual active participation of the trade union members, they cannot drive any policy properly, or even can be led to be fragmented. The union needs to consider the suggestions resulting from this research and set goals for improvement step by step. Labor safety is both a right to survival and a basic human right, and in the process of asking employers for their responsibilities, health and safety is protected and realized in organized power. In the end, for safe work, it is not a post-compensation measure, but a process of improving working conditions, and the result of this research project can be the basis of the fact that the process is a struggle through organized power.