그는 ”대만에도 선후배 문화는 있었지만 한국만큼 강하지는 않더라"고 말하면서도 “처음에는 낯설었지만 지내다 보니까 한국인들이 정을 나누는 방식이라는 걸 알게 됐다”고 덧붙였다.
이렇게 긍정적으로 받아들여 적응하는 경우도 있지만, 사실 권위적인 선후배 문화는 한국 사회에서 소통을 저해하는 요소로 종종 지적되기도 한다.
서울대 스포츠 사회학과 권순용 교수는 “질서를 확립하기 위해서 어느 정도의 위계는 필요하지만 과도한 권위주의는 결국 왜곡된 리더십의 발로”라고 말했다.
또한 한국 사회 내에서도 선후배 문화의 관행에 문제의식이 있음이 드러났다.
대한상공회의소가 지난해 100명의 성인을 대상으로 진행한 설문조사에 의하면 61.8%의 응답자가 자신이 속한 기업의 문화가 구글이나 페이스북 등에 뒤쳐지는 이유로 “상하질서를 중시하는 경직된 커뮤니케이션 방식"을 꼽았다.
<관련 영문 기사>
“Seonbae,” an aspect of class-conscious Korea
A number of foreigners in Korea, including celebrities such as Australian comedian Sam Hammington, U.S. baseball player Mike Loree, French model and actor Fabien Yoon, have confessed that the most peculiar factor about Korea was its senior-junior culture.
In word-to-word translation, the terms “senior” and “junior” could be put as “seonbae” and “hoobae” but the Korean version actually has a unique connotation which creates a strict hierarchy as can be seen in no other culture.
Under the seonbae-hoobae system, people’s “ranks” are decided on whether a person joined the corresponding organization before another. The hierarchy thus established is quite irreversible, as expressed in the often-spoken sentence “once a seonbae, forever a seonbae.”
“We do not have such idea of order of rank in Australia,” said Hammington several times in past interviews, when asked to describe the feature of the Korean culture.
“People may express respect for those who have much experience in a specific sector but that would be out of courtesy, not obedience.”
Mike Loree, a pitcher for KT’s baseball team, also admitted that it was not easy getting accustomed to the concept of seonbae when he joined the team in January.
“Taiwan, too, has this Asian senior-junior culture but the hierarchy is not as strong as in Korea,” said the U.S. sportsman who was previously in the Taiwanese professional baseball league.
“But I have now come to understand that this is a unique way for Koreans to respect and care for each other.”
Loree may be a lucky one, seeing the positive aspect of the Korean way but in fact, the high-handed rule of the senior upon the junior is often pointed out as an obstacle to free communication and creativity.
“The hierarchic order based on seniority is considered important in establishing discipline, especially in object-driven sectors such as sports,” said Kwon Soon-yong, a professor of sports sociology at Seoul National University.
But an excessive abuse of authority, based on seniority, is a distorted form of leadership, he explained.
The authoritarian “seonbae” culture may also block communication and deter an organization from potential growth, a survey showed.
According to a survey conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry last year, 61.8 percent of the 100 respondents said that the stiff communication system based on seniority was the top reason that their company culture fell behind that of global leaders such as Google or Facebook.
Also, 87.5 percent said that such conservative and authoritarian culture should be changed in order for the company to achieve sustainable growth.
By Bae Hyun-jung (
tellme@heraldcorp.com)
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