분야
docRecent changes in the legal environment
HR system of PwC Samil
Traditional HR system of Samil and an attempt to change
- bureaucracy to star model
HR environments: The external fit
HR practices: The internal fit
Development policy
Performance appraisal and promotion policy
Compensation policy
Internal fit of Samil’s HR practices
Action mode of Samil’s HRM and its future tasks
Founded in 1971, Samil has become number one accounting firm in Korea in terms of the sales, market share and the number of employees (*see the exhibit 1). As being the undisputed leader in the accounting industry, analyzing the HR systems of Samil will give us deep understandings of how accounting firms manage their employees.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is the globally reputed accounting/consulting firm that has more than 155,000 experts from 153 countries throughout the world. Samil is the (only) firm that has the membership with PwC global in Korea. This report shall focus only on PwC Samil, although some significant influences of the global network will be mentioned.
In the functional aspect, Samil is mainly composed of 4 divisions (LoS: Lines of Services): assurance, tax, PI (performance improvement), and TS/FAS (transactions and financial advisory services). Since the 4 divisions have different characteristics, their HR system may also differ. Instead of analyzing 4 divisions’ HR systems respectively, this report shall focus mainly on the assurance LoS, which is considered to be the essential part of the accounting firm (It takes about 35% percent of the total sales of Samil PwC).
Within these two boundaries, we shall be able to examine the general HRM contexts of PwC Samil as a ‘Korean accounting’ firm. In cases, this examination may also be expanded to the general context of the Korean accounting industry.
Legal context of the accounting industry
To understand HRM contexts of PwC Samil, it is essential to go through the legal environment of the accounting industry. The legal environment is the most influential factor affecting accounting firms shaping their HR systems and practices.
Samil’s assurance LoS traditionally focuses on auditing, which is still the primary source of revenue to the firm. Since auditing is a social mechanism to supervise and support the capital market, strict legal provisions were legislated to regulate the job. There are Standards such as IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standard) and ISA (International Standard of Auditing) which all auditing firms should follow (In Korea the K-GAAP and the K-GAAS were doing that role). These could be considered as ‘job descriptions’ written in a general level. Deviating from these Standards caused great social cost, making legislations such as the Act of External Auditing on Corporations to punish those deviations, which were named as audit failures. According to these legislations, the Financial Supervisory Service annually verifies the work of every accounting firm. This legal environment made quality control the first priority of accounting firms.
