South Korea’s Samsung Electronics announced its decision to reform its corporate culture, rejecting the traditional authoritarian management style and implementing methods peculiar to the startups, reports the Associated Press citing a company statement.
The company said that on Thursday at its headquarters in Suwon ceremony was held at the Startup Samsung, which staff undertook to abandon the rigid hierarchy and to create a working environment that will facilitate open dialogue.
The specific changes that are planned as part of the reorganization, will be announced in June. While Samsung is planning to reduce the number of levels in the managerial hierarchy, the more frequent an online discussion between managers and ordinary employees, get rid of unnecessary meetings and bureaucratic red tape, simplify the reporting procedure, to introduce flexible working hours, to soften requirements to the dress code and to organize the training of staff to strengthen their leadership of the spirit, reports Reuters.
Samsung also intends to relieve employees from undue pressure in regard to their joint participation in traditional feasts outside of normal working hours to reduce overtime hours and encourage employees to spend more time with families or take advantage of educational opportunities.
“Having started to reform corporate culture, we will act quickly, and we should strive to open communication and to continue to innovate, like any startup company,” said Samsung.
Update corporate culture at Samsung comes amid expectations of a change of the head of the company. As expected, the 48-year-old Lee Jae Yong will take the post of President of Samsung, who now occupies his father Lee kun-Hee, who survived a heart attack in 2014. Lee kun-Hee headed Samsung in 1987 after the death of his father, founder Lee Byung Chul. Currently Lee kun-Hee is the richest billionaire in South Korea (the state of according to Forbes — $9.6 billion). His only son takes the third place in the list of the country’s richest men, his fortune Forbes estimates at $6 billion.
