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Winner of the 2023 John K. Fairbank Prize and the 2023 James B. Palais Prize. Women in the Sky examines Korean women factory workers' century-long activism, from the 1920s to the present, with a focus on gender politics both in the labor movement and in the larger society. It highlights several key moments in colonial and postcolonial Korean history when factory women commanded the attention of the wider public, including the early-1930s rubber shoe workers' general strike in Pyongyang, the early-1950s textile workers' struggle in South Korea, the 1970s democratic union movement led by female factory workers, and women workers' activism against neoliberal restructuring in recent decades. Hwasook Nam asks why women workers in South Korea have been relegated to the periphery in activist and mainstream narratives despite a century of persistent militant struggle and indisputable contributions to the labor movement and successful democracy movement. Women in the Sky opens and closes with stories of high-altitude sit-ins—a phenomenon unique to South Korea—beginning with the rubber shoe worker Kang Churyong's sit-in in 1931 and ending with numerous others in today's South Korean labor movement, including that of Kim Jin-Sook. In Women in the Sky, Nam seeks to understand and rectify the vast gap between the crucial roles women industrial workers played in the process of Korea's modernization and their relative invisibility as key players in social and historical narratives. By using gender and class as analytical categories, Nam presents a comprehensive study and rethinking of the twentieth-century nation-building history of Korea through the lens of female industrial worker activism.

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and their relationship with organizational performance. More specifically, this research explores the effect of GSCM efforts and other organizational factors on firm performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that serve as suppliers to large customer firms in the electronics industry.Design methodology approach - This study developed a research model relating GSCM practice and business performance through three organizational variables (employee satisfaction, operational efficiency, and relational efficiency) as moderators. Statistical analyses were based on the data collected, through survey questionnaires, from 223 SMEs in the electronics industry in Korea. Reliability, validity, and goodness-of-fit of the research model were tested by the widely accepted statistical tools. To test the hypotheses relating GSCM practice implementation and business performance, structural equation modeling was used.Findings - The most anticipated finding of the study was a direct link between GSCM practice implementation and business performance. However, no statistical significance was found. Instead, significant indirect relationships were found between GSCM practice implementation and business performance through mediating variables of operational efficiency and relational efficiency. This result indicates that business performance will be improved when GSCM enhances operational efficiency and operational efficiency.Research limitations implications - Research on GSCM is still at the early stage. Further refinement of the questionnaire is needed. Generalizability of the findings is also limited because of data collected from electronics firms in Korean. This study shed several important insights. The findings of this study are generally consistent with prior studies in other parts of the world. SMEs in the Korean electronics industry believe that GSCM practices help generate new opportunities to attract clients in addition to complying with the buyer firms' demand. It was also found that implementation of GSCM practices help improve operational and relational efficiencies of supplier firms.Originality value - Few empirical studies have been done in GSCM based on the conceptual footing of resource dependence theory. Also, this study was conducted from the supplier's perspective in examining the weaknesses of SME suppliers. Thus, the authors emphasize the importance of support from large buying firms for improving SME suppliers' green management capabilities.

In a restaurant industry, dysfunctional customer behavior damages customer-contact service employees’ mental health which may lead to employee defection. This study examined the effects of dysfunctional customer behavior on service employees’ service sabotage which is a mechanisms for protecting themselves from outside pressures. Additionally, it determined if emotional exhaustion plays a mediating role in the relationship between dysfunctional customer behavior and employees’ service sabotage and verified the moderating role of social support. The proposed model was tested empirically using the data from 329 restaurant customer-contact service employees in South Korea. The results indicated that dysfunctional customer behavior increased the incidence of employees’ service sabotage. Moreover, emotional exhaustion was a significant mediator in the link from dysfunctional customer behavior to employees’ service sabotage. In addition, social support moderated the effects of dysfunctional customer behavior on service sabotage. This study provides insights into the effects of dysfunctional customer behavior and methods of supporting employees socially.

Women in the Sky examines Korean women factory workers' century-long activism, from the 1920s to the present, with a focus on gender politics both in the labor movement and in the larger society. It highlights several key moments in colonial and postcolonial Korean history when factory women commanded the attention of the wider public, including the early-1930s rubber shoe workers' general strike in Pyongyang, the early-1950s textile workers' struggle in South Korea, the 1970s democratic union movement led by female factory workers, and women workers' activism against neoliberal restructuring in recent decades. Hwasook Nam asks why women workers in South Korea have been relegated to the periphery in activist and mainstream narratives despite a century of persistent militant struggle and indisputable contributions to the labor movement and successful democracy movement. Women in the Sky opens and closes with stories of high-altitude sit-ins-a phenomenon unique to South Korea-beginning with the rubber shoe worker Kang Churyong's sit-in in 1931 and ending with numerous others in today's South Korean labor movement, including that of Kim Jin-Sook. In Women in the Sky , Nam seeks to understand and rectify the vast gap between the crucial roles women industrial workers played in the process of Korea's modernization and their relative invisibility as key players in social and historical narratives. By using gender and class as analytical categories, Nam presents a comprehensive study and rethinking of the twentieth-century nation-building history of Korea through the lens of female industrial worker activism.

Background: Occupational studies on N-N-dimethylformamide (DMF) exposure among migrant workers in Korea are scarce. We determined the urine concentration of N-methylformamide (NMF) among migrant workers with DMF exposure and compared the data with those of native workers. Methods: Data were collected from Workers’ Special Health Examination and Work Environment Monitoring databases during 2014–2019. Workers aged ≥20 years were eligible to participate in the special health examination for DMF exposure. Urine concentrations of NMF were determined and compared between migrant and native workers. We also evaluated the factors affecting the difference in the urine concentration of NMF between the migrant and native workers. Multiple logistic regression was performed by adding confounders step by step. Results: Among 9259 subjects, 504 (5.2%) were migrant workers. The mean urinary concentration of NMF was 6.73 mg/L in migrant workers, which was significantly higher than that in native workers (2.06 mg/L, p < 0.001). The odds of a urine concentration of NMF > 30 mg/L were significantly higher in migrant workers than in native workers after adjusting for sex and age (odds ratio [OR] = 7.31, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.66–11.45). However, the odds between the native and migrant workers were not significantly different when fully adjusted for confounders (OR = 1.12, 95% CI = 0.65–1.94). Conclusions: The excessive exposure to DMF among migrant workers was attributed not to differences in biological characteristics but to their work environment. Workers must have awareness of the use of protective equipment and knowledge of hazardous chemicals that they may be exposed to, especially at the workplace.

In this study, the Value Added Intellectual Capital (VAICTM) and Modified Value Added Intellectual Capital (MVAICTM) models are utilized to analyze intellectual capital (IC) performance of the textile industry in China and South Korea during 2012–2017, and measure the contribution of IC sub-components to companies’ performance. The results show that the aggregate IC positively affects earnings, profitability, and productivity of textile companies in China and South Korea. At the sub-components level, the contribution of capital employed efficiency (CEE) is the largest, followed by structural capital efficiency (SCE), and relational capital efficiency (RCE) in China’s textile industry. In addition, Korea’s textile industry relies heavily on CEE and human capital efficiency (HCE), while the contribution of RCE is relatively small. Finally, relevant policies are put forward to promote the sustainable development of the textile industry in these two emerging markets.

Purpose - This study seeks to investigate the multidimensionality person-group (PG) fit. It first aims to examine values-based, personality-based, and KSA-based fit as distinct PG fit dimensions. It then also aims to examine fit as an aggregate construct (each dimension combines to form a latent PG fit construct), and as a superordinate construct (an overarching assessment of compatibility drives the individual fit dimensions). It also aims to propose that the distinct dimensions or the overall perception predict commitment to team, employee voice, and knowledge sharing, resulting in a final outcome of employee task performance.Design methodology approach - Data were collected using longitudinal survey methodology from three different sources (793 employees, their supervisors and the Human Resources department) in a manufacturing firm in Korea. The various models were evaluated using structural equation modeling.Findings - The distinct dimensions model, in which values-based fit predicted commitment to the team, personality-based fit predicted voice behaviors, and KSA-based fit predicted knowledge sharing, was mostly supported. Each of these intermediary factors predicted supervisors' ratings of individual task performance. Although each dimension had unique impact on the outcomes, results suggested that a superordinate PG construct might be driving the more specific fit assessments. The aggregate model was not supported.Originality value - This study is the first to show how different dimensions of PG fit may differentially influence affect and behavior, to predict task performance. It also shows the first evidence for PG fit as a superordinate multidimensional construct. Results provide a basis for new knowledge regarding the multi-faceted relationship between fit perceptions and outcomes.

This paper revisits the concept of agglomeration economies by estimating the effects of localisation, urbanisation and local competition on labour productivity using establishment-level data in Korean manufacturing industries. It is found that, when an establishment locates in a more localised/specialised, more urbanised/diversified and more competitive area, its workers become more productive due to external benefits from agglomeration. Issues of self-selection bias and omitted variable bias are addressed by instrumenting the variables measuring localisation economies and controlling for the fixed effects of establishments/location and industries/year. However, the external effects from the spatial proximity of other establishments vary across the categories of industry type, age, size and legal form of organisation of establishments. Establishments in traditional heavy manufacturing industries receive more external benefits in a less diversified area, while those in transport equipment manufacturing industries enjoy the largest benefits from localisation. Externalities exist for establishments aged between 2 and 7 years, having at least 10 workers, being corporate and having multiplants (or not being headquarters). Establishments in relatively young industries rely more on diversified environments, while establishments in relatively old industries receive greater external benefits in the same industry cluster. This result supports the product life-cycle location theory of Duranton and Puga.

To investigate incidence and distribution of major adverse reproductive health problems related to various kinds of industries in Korea and to compare risks for major reproductive outcomes to assess maternal health in working and non-working women. We requested claim data from the Korean National Health Insurance. We defined reference groups as (1) non-working women and (2) workers in the education field. Women working in each industry were compared with reference groups regarding rates of miscarriage, threatened abortion, preterm labor, and intrauterine growth restriction. Logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis, and age and income adjustment was performed. The percentages of all adverse obstetric outcomes were higher in working women than in non-working women. Working women had higher and statistically significant adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for miscarriage in 18 of the 21 industries. The age and income-adjusted OR for miscarriage for all working women was 1.26 (95% confidence interval, 1.23-1.28). Business facilities management and business support services, manufacturing, human health and social work activities, wholesale and retail trade, and professional, scientific, and technical activities were major industries with higher adjusted ORs for adverse obstetric outcomes. We confirmed that compared to non-working women, working women have a higher risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Thus, adverse pregnancy outcomes such as threatened abortion, preterm labor, and intrauterine growth restriction may be associated with working status. This exploratory study identified several industries where in-depth studies are required in future to improve occupational safety in women of reproductive age.

Corporate environment, society, and governance (ESG) management activities have recently been consolidated in the business ecosystem, and many firms are considering their employees' recognition and job changes according to organizational ESG strategy. This study aims to verify the effects of ESG activity recognition of corporate employees on job performance by mediating change support behavior, innovative organization culture, and job crafting. This study designs a structural equation model with a hypotheses based on previous studies. A questionnaire survey was carried out targeting large Korean manufacturing companies, and an analysis of 329 response copies was performed. As a result, ESG activity recognition did not directly affect job crafting, but it affected job crafting with the mediation of innovative organizational culture and change support behavior. ESG activity recognition also positively affected job crafting and job performance by mediating change support behavior and an innovative organization culture. Hence, the research shows that an innovative culture and change support behavior within an organization should be considered to improve ESG management performance.