'Icon of Change' Lee Chang-yong, Governor of the Bank of Korea... One Month of Communication Since Inauguration

Interest in Whether the Closed Organizational Culture Will Change

[Asia Economy reporters Seo So-jeong and Moon Je-won] Lee Chang-yong, Governor of the Bank of Korea, has emerged as an 'icon of change' within a month of taking office by engaging in informal communication. The Bank of Korea, which had been criticized as a closed organization so quiet and inconspicuous that it earned the nickname 'Han-eun-sa (韓銀寺, Bank of Korea Temple),' is now drawing attention both inside and outside as to whether it can transform in response to the new governor's call for reform.

According to the Bank of Korea on the 18th, Governor Lee, who will mark one month in office on the 21st, is focusing on transplanting a horizontal culture by leveraging his past experience working at international organizations, rapidly changing the previously vertical and hierarchical organizational atmosphere. The first thing the governor did after taking office was to eliminate ceremonial formalities related to protocol, such as the exclusive elevator for the governor. He said, "The protocol is excessive," and after removing the exclusive elevator, he has been taking the same elevator as employees when coming to work and exchanging greetings, continuing his informal approach.

One of the major changes is the direction of the meeting table in the governor's office. Previous governors used to sit at the short side of the long table to receive work reports from employees, but Governor Lee changed to sitting at the long side. This created a structure where the employees reporting work face him directly for Q&A. This reflects the governor's strong preference against sitting alone at one end, which evokes a monarch-style decision-making structure.

On the 16th, the 'Weekly Current Issues Forum' was launched for the first time. This meeting is benchmarked after the 'Surveillance Meeting' that Governor Lee attended during his time at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Every two weeks, organization members share their understanding of global economic and financial market trends and status, and conduct interim reviews of upcoming issue reports. An employee who attended the first forum said, "It was a place where people actively shared thoughts and raised questions without national boundaries," adding, "The discussion was more active and candid than expected, which surprised even those inside."

The Bank of Korea plans to complete its 'digital innovation' work, aimed at speeding up internal decision-making and strengthening communication among employees, by September. A Bank of Korea official said, "We plan to complete infrastructure reinforcement by September to expand the digital workspace system, currently being piloted in some departments, across the entire organization," adding, "Compared to the existing system, collaboration, data sharing, and communication between departments will be greatly improved."

Earlier, the Bank of Korea announced plans to transition to a 'digital bank' on its 70th anniversary in 2020 and has been promoting the introduction of an innovation platform. The newly established digital workspace at nationwide headquarters is characterized by systematically classifying, storing, sharing, and utilizing work-produced materials on a central server, similar to Google Drive. While the existing payment system only allowed viewing the final 'conclusion,' going forward, it will be easy to check which department had what discussions to reach that conclusion.

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