Daewoo chairman Kim Woo Choong has made a career of improbable turnarounds. In 1978 the Korean government asked him to take over the nearly bankrupt Okpo shipyard. With no experience in the business, he transformed Okpo into one of the world's most efficient shipbuilders. Now Kim has dealt himself a formidable challenge by acquiring the Polish state automaker FSO, which produces the outdated but cheap and popular Polonez car in Warsaw facilities that would have driven Dickens to despair.

One of FSO's biggest problems is that among the 21,000 employees at the company's numerous subsidiaries, the 5,000 workers on the production line in Warsaw are only about a third as productive as Daewoo's workers in Korea. General Motors considered acquiring portions of FSO, but discussions foundered because GM was unwilling to take over the entire firm and guarantee jobs for everybody. "The need to restructure that company is a burden that did not appeal to us," says David Herman, chairman of GM's German subsidiary, Adam Opel AG. "There is no way you can create enough value there to employ so many people." Daewoo, by contrast, has made a commitment not to lay off any workers for at least three years. Finding enough for them to do will be difficult, but Daewoo plans to increase annual production at FSO and at a truck manufacturer it acquired in Poland from the current 165,000 vehicles to about 360,000 by the year 2000.

Since they took over a few months ago, Daewoo's managers have been engaged in a delicate tussle to persuade FSO employees to work as hard as Koreans do. Early on, when management demanded that some workers come in on Saturday and Sunday, the Poles refused. The Koreans have changed their tack, concentrating on getting better acquainted with the work force by organizing weekend outings and learning Polish. Says Jerzy Makuch, secretary of the Solidarity labor organization's branch at Daewoo-FSO: "If there is something extraordinarily urgent, the Koreans very politely ask us to come to work on Saturday, but it is not an order."

Polish custom places friends and family before job, so Daewoo-FSO president Suk Jin Chul argues that if employees worked harder, they would earn more and give their families a better living standard. Average wages have risen from $350 a month to $425, and especially productive workers can earn far more. Hundreds of employees have been flown to Korea for six-month training stints. At Daewoo's plant in Pupyung, outside Seoul, Dariusz Augustowski from the firm's Polish truck manufacturer said the responsibility Daewoo delegates to shop-floor workers makes long hours easier to take. Chairman Kim's turnaround in attitudes is under way; now he has to find buyers for all the vehicles he plans to build.

Reported by Tadeusz L. Kucharski/Warsaw