A Study on Traditional Ideology and the 'Tradition' of the Theatre company Minye in 1970s (1970년대 전통 이념과 극단 민예극장의 '전통')
-
- Journal of Popular Narrative
- /
- v.26 no.3
- /
- pp.45-86
- /
- 2020
In this article, the "modernization of the tradition" constructed on the cultural politics and the way in which it appropriated in the korean theatre in the 1970s were analyzed. It is trying to reveal its implications. It is also a work to critically review the aspects of self-censorship in the korean theatre in the 70s. To that end, we looked at the theatre company Minye Theatre, which preoccupied the traditional discussions in the 1970s by creating national dramas. Until now, the evaluation of the theatre company Minye Theatre in the 1970s has focused on the achievement on the directing of Heo Gyu, who promoted the succession and transformation of tradition. However, the traditional ideology constructed in the state-led cultural politics in the 70s and the way in which it was operated cannot be evaluated only in terms of artistic achievement. The ideology of tradition is selected according to the selective criteria of the subject to appropriate tradition. What's important is that certain objects are excluded, discarded, re-elected, re-interpreted and re-recognized in the selection process of selected traditional ideology. This is the situation in the '70s, when tradition was constantly re-recognized amid differences between the decadent and the disorder that were then designated as non-cultural, and led to a new way of appropriate. The nation-led traditional discussion of the '70s legalized the tradition with stable values, one of the its way was the national literary and artistic support. Under the banner of modernization of tradition, theatre company Minye preoccupied the discussions on the tradition and presented folk drama as a new theatre. As an alternative to the crisis of korean theatre at the time, the Minye chose the method of inheriting and transforming tradition. It is noteworthy that Heo Gyu, the representative director of the theatre company Minye, recognized the succession and transformation of traditional performance as both a calling and an experiment. For Heo Gyu, tradition was accepted as an irresistible stable value and an unquestionable calling, and as a result, his performance, filled with excessive traditional practices, became overambitious, especially when it failed to reflect the present-here reality, the repeated use of traditional expression tools resulted in skilled craftsmanship, not artistic creation. The traditional ideology of the 70s unfolds in a new aspect of appropriation in the 80s. In 1986, Son Jin-Cheok, Kim Seong-nyeo, and Yoon Mun-sik, who were key members of the theatre company Minye Theatre, left the theatre to create the theatre company Michu, and secured popularity through Madangnori(popular folk yard theatre). Son Jin-Cheok's Madangnori is overbearing through satire and humor. It gained popularity by criticizing and mocking state power. On the other hand, not only the form of traditional performance, but also the university-centered Madanggeuk movement, which appropriated on the spirit of resistance from the people to its traditional values, has rapidly grown. In the field of traditional discussions of the 70s, Madanggeuk was self-born through appropriation in which the spirit of resistance of the people is used as a traditional value. Madanggeuk as well as Michu that achieved the popularization of Madangnori cannot be discussed solely by the artistic achievement of the modernization of tradition. Critics of korean theatre in response to state-led traditional discussions in the 70s was focused only on the qualitative achievement of performing arts based on artistry. I am very sorry for that. As a result, the popular resistance of the Madanggeuk and the Madangnori were established in the 'difference' with the traditions of the theatre company Minye Theatre. Theatre company Minye Theatre was an opportunity for the modernization of tradition, but the fact that it did not continuously produce significant differences. This is the meaning and limitation of the "tradition" of the theatre company Minye Theatre in the history of korean theatre in the 1970s.
The purpose of this research is to explore differences between small and medium-sized companies and large-sized companies in the impact of human resource innovativeness(HRI), learning orientation(LO), and HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance. Although learning orientation has long been considered as a key factor influencing good performance of a business, little research was devoted to exploring the effect of HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance. In this study, it is investigated whether there is a synergy effect between innovative human workforce and learning orientation corporate culture, in addition to each by itself, to generate good business performance as well as a success of new innovations in the market. Research hypotheses were as follows, including H1) human resource innovativeness(HRI), learning orientation(LO), and interactions of HRI and LO(HRI-LO interaction) positively affect innovation effect, H2) there is a difference of the effect of HRI, LO, and HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect between large-sized and small-sized companies, H3) HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, innovation effect positively affect business performance, and H4) there is a difference of the effect of HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, and innovation effect on business performance between large-sized and small-sized companies. Data were obtained from 479 practitioners through a web survey since the web survey is an efficient method to collect a national data at a variety of fields. A single respondent from a company was allowed to participate in the study after checking whether they have more than 5-year work experiences in the company. To check whether a common source bias is existed in the sample, additional data from a convenient sample of 97 companies were gathered through the traditional survey method, and were used to confirm correlations between research variables of the original sample and the additional sample. Data were divided into two groups according to company size, such as 352 small and medium-sized companies with less than 300 employees and 127 large-sized companies with 300 or more employees. Data were analyzed through t-test and regression analyses. HRI which is the innovativeness of human resources in the company was measured with 9 items assessing the innovativenss of practitioners in staff, manager, and executive-level positions. LO is the company's effort to encourage employees' development, sharing, and utilizing of knowledge through consistent learning. LO was measured by 18 items assessing commitment to learning, vision sharing, and open-mindedness. Innovation effect which assesses a success of new products/services in the market, was measured with 3 items. Business performance was measured by respondents' evaluations on profitability, sales increase, market share, and general business performance, compared to other companies in the same field. All items were measured by using 6-point Likert scales. Means of multiple items measuring a construct were used as variables based on acceptable reliability and validity. To reduce multi-collinearity problems generated on the regression analysis of interaction terms, centered data were used for HRI, LO, and Innovation effect on regression analyses. In group comparison, large-sized companies were superior on annual sales, annual net profit, the number of new products/services in the last 3 years, the number of new processes advanced in the last 3 years, and the number of R&D personnel, compared to small and medium-sized companies. Also, large-sized companies indicated a higher level of HRI, LO, HRI-LO interaction, innovation effect and business performance than did small and medium-sized companies. The results indicate that large-sized companies tend to have more innovative human resources and invest more on learning orientation than did small-sized companies, therefore, large-sized companies tend to have more success of a new product/service in the market, generating better business performance. In order to test research hypotheses, a series of multiple-regression analysis was conducted. In the regression analysis examining the impact on innovation effect, important results were generated as : 1) HRI, LO, and HRI-LO affected innovation effect, and 2) company size indicated a moderating effect. Based on the result, the impact of HRI on innovation effect would be greater in small and medium-sized companies than in large-sized companies whereas the impact of LO on innovation effect would be greater in large-sized companies than in small and medium-sized companies. In other words, innovative workforce would be more important in making new products/services that would be successful in the market for small and medium-sized companies than for large-sized companies. Otherwise, learning orientation culture would be more effective in making successful products/services for large-sized companies than for small and medium-sized companies. Based on these results, research hypotheses 1 and 2 were supported. In the analysis of a regression examining the impact on business performance, important results were generated as : 1) innovation effect, LO, and HRI-LO affected business performance, 2) HRI by itself did not have a direct effect on business performance regardless of company size, and 3) company size indicated a moderating effect. Specifically, an effect of the HRI-LO interaction on business performance was stronger in large-sized companies than in small and medium-sized companies. It means that the synergy effect of innovative human resources and learning orientation culture tends to be stronger as company is larger. Referring to these result, research hypothesis 3 was partially supported whereas hypothesis 4 was supported. Based on research results, implications for companies were generated. Regardless of company size, companies need to develop the learning orientation corporate culture as well as human resources' innovativeness together in order to achieve successful development of innovative products and services as well as to improve sales and profits. However, the effectiveness of the HRI-LO interaction would be varied by company size. Specifically, the synergy effect of HRI-LO was stronger to make a success of new products/services in small and medium-sized companies than in large-sized companies. However, the synergy effect of HRI-LO was more effective to increase business performance of large-sized companies than that of small and medium-sized companies. In the case of small and medium-sized companies, business performance was achieved more through the success of new products/services than much directly affected by HRI-LO. The most meaningful result of this study is that the effect of HRI-LO interaction on innovation effect and business performance was confirmed. It was often ignored in the previous research. Also, it was found that the innovativeness of human workforce would not directly influence in generating good business performance, however, innovative human resources would indirectly affect making good business performance by contributing to achieving the development of new products/services that would be successful in the market. These findings would provide valuable managerial implications specifically in regard to the development of corporate culture and education program of small and medium-sized as well as large-sized companies in a variety of fields.