• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.174-186
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• 2022

The present study explores how the quality management rhetoric commonly used by Korean CEOs tends to be composed and perceived by the public. To this end, articles of the remarks of Lee Kun-hee, the second founder of Samsung, are analyzed. The results show a rhetorical structure of quality management where the CEO offers a persuasive theme (quality management for a super-class enterprise) and practical measures (innovation and performance-based promotion) while coping with a rhetorical situation (an economic crisis). A multiple regression analysis of the response of 308 Korean college students who watched a video of Lee's remarks indicates that the more conservative the viewers are and the more they perceive the CEO's charm and expertise, the more likely they are to support the CEO's quality management rhetoric. The conservative viewers favorably responded to the entrepreneurship in the quality management rhetoric, while the progressives recognized the rhetoric as part of Korean-style neoliberalism that alienates ordinary workers.