Hyundai Motor Forms External Expert Committee... Begins Improving Research Institute Organizational Culture

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Hyundai Motor Company is launching an initiative to improve its organizational culture by establishing a committee composed of external experts.

According to industry sources on the 9th, Hyundai Motor established the 'Namyang Research Center Organizational Culture Improvement Committee' (hereafter referred to as the Improvement Committee) last month. The committee sent an email to the research center employees the day before, introducing its formation, the members, and future activity plans.

Professor Yoo Sung-jae from Chung-Ang University Law School serves as the chairperson of the Improvement Committee. The committee consists of three members in total, including former Secretary-General of the Korea Labor Foundation Lee Jeong-sik and Park Hyung-wook, a preventive medicine specialist and Ph.D. in public health from Dankook University College of Medicine.

Through the email, the Improvement Committee explained, "We will perform our duties objectively and fairly from a neutral standpoint to accurately understand the facts and prepare improvement recommendations for the development of the Namyang Research Center by around February 24, 2022."

Hyundai Motor’s formation of an external expert committee was triggered by the 2020 incident where a senior researcher at the research center’s Design Center expressed distress over work-related issues and took an extreme step.

The Improvement Committee first expressed "deep condolences above all else regarding the senior researcher’s extreme decision and extends sympathies to the bereaved family." It further explained, "We will conduct activities such as interviews with related parties, anonymous surveys, in-depth interviews, and a fact-finding investigation related to the senior researcher’s death at the Design Center."

Going forward, the Improvement Committee plans to commission a professional survey company to conduct the anonymous survey. The survey will be conducted by collecting mobile phone numbers while excluding personal information of Namyang Research Center employees. The committee will randomly select 50 individuals for in-depth interviews, with strict confidentiality maintained.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.