hankyoreh

Two video clips featuring scenes of Samsung Group's membership training sessions for new employees, including some highly regimented cheering, is gaining attention after they were uploaded on a video-sharing Internet site.

The video clips show a segment of the

company's "mass games," a company-wide series of sports and events designed to 'build company spirit.' In particular, the videos feature a group of of employees at Samsung Electronics Co.'s handset unit performing in the games in June of last year.

As of June 20, the two videos had

drawn some 400,000 and 600,000 viewers, respectively.The videos drew attention because the mass games were performed in a highly regimented manner, which some viewers have called "militaristic." By holding up colored cards at just the right time, the Samsung Electronics employees created images of a fight between dragons and scenes from animation films.

An official at an affiliate of Samsung Group, who joined the group's membership training sessions in 2003, said, "Employees from each [Samsung] affiliate train for the mass games with the help of experts. Ordinary employees spent about 15 days to prepare for mass games, while a team 'task force,' which plays a key role in the performance, spends two or three months on training," the official said. "Though there is no incentive or bonus for a winner, competition is tough because the Samsung Group's chief executives are gathered to watch," the official added.

Another official, who started work at Samsung in 2004, said he was part of the cheering group at one of the company's mass games. "I participated in the mass games where we made the image of the dragon. If you weren't smart, you couldn't have followed" the instructions and training needed to make such an image from colored cards, he said. "At one point, newcomers were divided into three or four groups and showcased their cheering. Samsung Electronics was leading the cheers."

Responses from Internet viewers of the clip were mixed. One viewer, who uses the handle tk8398, cynically said, "Have you heard about mass games at Microsoft?" In contrast, another viewer with the handle jks5521, said, "Because they can perform like that, it's natural for Samsung to have global competitiveness."

Samsung Group was embarrassed over the leak of the video clip. An executive of Samsung Group said, "The performance has been held annually for the past 21 years. Most employees feel pride and community spirit after the performance. It's not a thing that could be viewed as abnormal." Regarding some comments that the performance resembles militarism, the executive said, "Such regimented education is practiced by any large company in order to promote unity."

The two clips were as of 9:24 a.m. the next day removed from the Web site. An official of the site said that "the user who had posted the clips himself got them deleted."

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