POSCO’s journey: Building employee trust through communication

• Main Author: CHONG, Mark
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2012
• Subjects: Trust Communication; Corporate Communications; Company Values; Organizational Culture; South Korea; POSCO; Business and Corporate Communications; Organizational Behavior and Theory; Organizational Communication
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cases_coll_all/24; https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/case/2661
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This case focuses on POSCO, the world's most profitable steelmaker and the third-largest steelmaker by the volume of crude steel production. When Mr. Jung Jun-Yang became POSCO Chief Executive in 2009, he envisioned trust to be the foundation of POSCO’s success in achieving sustainable co-prosperity with its stakeholders. Believing that “trust is POSCO’s identity” and “trust is based on communication,” he launched the ‘trust communication’ initiative in 2010. This initiative coincided with the start of POSCO’s third phase of growth (2010-2020), during which the company aims to become a truly sustainable corporation. The case describes the trust-related challenges facing POSCO when Jung became CEO and the thinking behind the ‘trust communication’ initiative launched in 2010. In addition, it shows some preliminary results coming out of the company’s nascent ‘trust communication’ initiative and the problem/s that continued to confront POSCO’s management, as it strove to achieve long-term sustainability through a system based on trust and communication (“Great Harmony”).