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1 INTRODUCTION
ItiswellknownthatKorea(Republicof)hasachieved
dramatic economic development since the Korean
War. It also achieved political democracy through
numerousandpainfulcivilmovementsin1970sand
1980s. In fact, the world now expects Korea to
contribute in various fields regarding global issues
and
itisanticipatedthatKoreawouldwillinglytake
part in with an active and efficient manner. Present
‘peacetalks’withNorthKoreais,forinstance,oneof
the main movements of Korea for the international
welfareandpeace.
Nevertheless,asfarastheissueofsafetyinKorea
is concerned,
there is room for much improvement.
The author suspects that few Koreans recognize the
importanceofsafetyofthecommunityand/orsociety.
Foracoupleofdecades,atleast,Koreangovernment
has been trying to establish safe environments,
remediesandenforcements,butfailed.Thisisdueto,
theauthorbelieves,the
missingpremisethat‘safetyis
amatterofculturebeforeoftechnology(Kwon2012)’.
Simple remedy of asking individual responsibility
with at most temporary extra budget, for example,
cannothelp,butrecurringtheaccidents.
Reason(1997)arguesthatorganizationalaccidents,
whichoftenleadstocatastrophicconsequences,isthe
mainconcern
ofthesafetyissue.Heincludestalkson
organizational culture as well as safety culture, but
not on the national culture. It is apprehended that
Koreadoesnotrecognize theReason’sargument,let
alonethenationalculture.
1.1 Cultureswithinsafety
Culture could be defined as the aggregation of
peoples’ thought
and behavior in a given
community/society/country. Naturally, it yields
individual, organizational and national cultures. In
fact,cultureisanaggregateofhumanfactors(Kwon
2012). In the context, it may be argued that most
moderncivilization,suchastechnologies,institutions,
skills relevant to safety issues and so on, is western
products, which are, then, imported by the rest of
countries. Such know‐hows are developed based on
A Review on the National Culture and Its Effects on the
Transportation Safety Perspectives
Y.Kwon
ChosunUniversity,Gwangju,SouthKorea
ABSTRACT:Safety,alongwiththeissueofsecurity,isthemostsubstantialandcriticalissuetoanysocietyand
nationofthemankind.Thefactthathumanelementscontributedominantly,inparticular,tothetransportation
– marine, air and road traffic – accidents requires not only
the technical approaches, but also cultural
configuration inherent to the accidents. This paper tries to incorporate Hofstede’s dimensions of national
culturetoidentifypossibleinteractionwithaccidents.Itwillbeofhelptofigureouttheneedtoconsiderthe
aspectofnationalculturetobeefficientindealingwith
policiesforsafercommunitiesandnations.
http://www.transnav.eu
the International Journal
on Marine Navigation
and Safety of Sea Transportation
Volume 13
Number 2
June 2019
DOI:10.12716/1001.13.02.02
276
western culture and if, once established, it does not
workproperlyorevendoesnotattractactiveinterest
inanothersocietyorcountry,wemayspeculateupon
the differences of culture between the
societies/countries. It is noted that Hofstede &
Hofstede (2005) and Merritt (2000) ask the same
questions.
In
short,oneofthechallengestotacklethecurrent
safety level of Korean society is to change the
‘practices’consulting thecore‘values’ofthesociety.
This paper tries to contribute for the task reviewing
andcomparingnationalcultures betweenvulnerable
and advanced countries with respect to road traffic
safety
records.It mayalsobenoted that road traffic
activity is the mostcommon daily life of the people
and,therefore,raisingitssafetypracticesisthemost
efficient way to achieve safer environment/society,
consideringitsrippleeffectonthewholecommunity,
includingseaand/orairtransportationsafetycircles.
2 NATIONAL
CULTUREANDITSDIMENSIONS
2.1 NationalCulture
Geert Hofstede carried out pioneering works on
nationalcultureduringlate1960’sthrough1970s.His
research has been updated by himself, his son Gert
JanandMichaelMinkov(Hofstedeetal.2014).Figure
1 depicts the manifestations of culture at different
levels of
depth (Hofstede & Hofstede 2005). In
practice, we may focus on ‘Values’ (which is the
deepest one) and‘Practices’ in a community/society.
Practices, being comprised of rituals, heroes and
symbols, are visible to an outside observer; their
cultural meaning, however, is invisible and lies
precisely and only in the way these
practices are
interpretedbytheinsiders.Culturechangecanbefast
forthepractices,whereasitisslowforvalues.Values
arebroadtendenciestoprefercertainstatesofaffairs
overothers.Valuesarefeelingswithanarrowtoit:a
plusandminussidedealingwith,forinstance,evil
vs
good, dangerous vs safe, forbidden vs permitted,
moral vs immoral, and so on (Hofstede & Hofstede
2005).
Figure1.The“Onion”:manifestationsofcultureatdifferent
levelofdepth(Hofstede&Hofstede2005)
Figure2showsthelearningprocessofvaluesand
practices. Values are acquired early in our lives. As
wegrowupatsome10to12years,wecan quickly,
largely and unconsciously absorb necessary
informationfrom ourenvironment. Then, at the end
of this period, we gradually switch to a
different,
consciouswayoflearning,focusingprimarilyonnew
practices.Itisnotedthatbasicvalues,beingacquired
at early ages, become considerably stable in spite of
sweepingchangesinpractices (Hofstede&Hofstede
2005).
Figure2.Thelearning of values andpractices(Hofstede &
Hofstede2005)
2.2 DimensionsofNationalCulture
A dimension is an aspect of a culture that can be
measured relative to other cultures. Having studied
survey data about the values of people working at
IBMinmorethanfifty countriesandconsultedwith
findingsofsocialscientists,suchasAlexInkelesand
Daniel
Levinson,Hofstedefoundfourbasicproblem
areasrepresentdimensionsofcultures.Lateron,with
the help of colleagues, two dimensions are
supplemented,resultinginasfollows(Hofstedeetal.
2014);
1 Powerdistanceindex(PDI)
2 Individualismindex(IDV)
3 Masculinityindex(MAS)
4 Uncertaintyavoidanceindex(UAI)
5 Long‐
termorientation(LTO)
6 Indulgenceversusrestraint(IVR)
PDIscoresareabout‘dependence’relationshipsin
acountry,andcanbedefinedas‘theextenttowhich
the less powerful members of institutions and
organizationswithinacountryexpectandacceptthat
powerisdistributedunequally’.Itisnotedthatlarge‐
power
‐distance countries show a pattern of
polarization between dependence and
counterdependence and the emotional distance
betweensubordinateandtheirbossesislarge.
Asto theIDV,individualismpertainstosocieties
in which the ties between individuals are loose.
Collectivism as its opposite pertains to societies in
which people from birth
onward are integrated into
strong, collective in‐groups, which throughout
people’s lifetimes continue to protect them in
exchangeforunquestioningloyalty.
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The terms masculine and feminine are used for
social,culturallydeterminedroles.Asocietyiscalled
masculine/femininewhenemotionalgenderrolesare
clearlydistinct/overlapped.Itmayalsobeinterpreted
as the desirability of assertive behavior against the
desirabilityofmodestbehavior,respectively.
Uncertaintyavoidancecanbedefinedastheextent
towhichthemembersofaculturefeelthreatenedby
ambiguous or unknown situations. Hofstede &
Hofstede (2005) state that stronger uncertainty
avoidance means faster driving, that is more fatal
accidents.
LTO stands for the fostering of virtues oriented
toward future rewards – in particular, perseverance
and thrift. Short‐term
orientation stands for the
fosteringofvirtuesrelatedtothepastandpresent–in
particular,respectfortradition,preservationof‘face’
andfulfillingsocialobligations.
Indulgence represents the tendency toward
allowingrelativefreedomoffulfillingsubstantialand
naturalambitionofhumanbeingrelatedwithhaving
fun and enjoying life. Restraint
shows against such
freedombyregulationandcontrol.
Hofstedeetal.(2014)alsoprovidekeydifferences
betweensmall‐and large distances societieson each
dimension with categorizing such as ‘general norm
and family’, ‘language, personality, and behavior’,
‘school and the workplace’ etc., which are quite
informative on the main practices
in a given
dimension and country. Selections of these key
differences, which are relevant to safety issues
directly and indirectly, are recounted and
incorporated, respectively, for the assessing the
resultstobeofhelpindrawinglong‐termresolutions.
It is noted that even in a country, distances can be
quite
differentwithsocialclass,educationlevel, and
occupationaswellaswithgenderandgeneration.
3 NATIONALCULTURESOFCOUNTRIESON
ROADTRAFFICSAFETYRECORDS
3.1 Relationbetweenroadtrafficsafetyandnational
culturedimensions
Effects of the car, being the most popular mode of
transport worldwide, is tremendous on
a society
(Kang2011a).Sucheffectswouldreflectthevaluesof
a community and again through the practices give
effects to the values of national culture. Poor traffic
safety culture is comprised of not only
irresponsible/inconsiderable behavior, lack of
attention, aggressive behavior but also poor design
andconstructiononeitherroads
orsignalfacilitiesas
well as impracticable plan to deal with relevant
issues. These typical characteristics of a poor traffic
culture are only due to selfishness (and not due to
individualism).Selfishnesscomesmainlyfromlackof
communication, which is