Busan Office of Education Leads Organizational Culture Innovation to Eradicate 'Gapjil' Abuse

Busan Metropolitan Office of Education is taking the lead in innovating organizational culture to eradicate power harassment among employees.

On the 25th, Busan Office of Education announced that it is making efforts to prevent power harassment in order to break away from authoritarianism and establish a culture of mutual respect within the organization.

The city education office has set the eradication of power harassment as its top integrity priority and is implementing various policies to create a horizontal organizational culture.

A survey conducted earlier this year among MZ generation employees working at the headquarters of Busan Office of Education revealed that many employees regretted working in the rigid culture of the headquarters. Additionally, last year's comprehensive integrity evaluation by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission showed that the power harassment score was the lowest.

To devise fundamental measures to address this, the city education office engaged in communication with employees. To gather opinions from lower-ranking public officials, four anonymous surveys were conducted in the first half of this year alone.

Based on the survey results, Superintendent Ha Yun-su met twice with public officials born in the 1990s in March and July. Reflecting their opinions, starting in September, the headquarters decided to pay a monthly “Important Duty Allowance” of 100,000 KRW to all grade 8-9 employees, and promised to expand flexible working hours and implement a weekly “Casual Day” every Friday. Through this, a foundation was established for young public officials to take responsibility and lead the public service culture themselves.

Busan Office of Education.

Not only at the headquarters but also at affiliated institutions and departments, monthly meetings involving all employees are held. This is a follow-up measure after expanding the city education office’s representative integrity policy, the “One Institution/Department, One Practice Project,” from once a year to once a month starting this year.

The city education office is strengthening communication through creative methods that combine integrity with a break from the usual meeting format. Representative examples include young employees creating “Power Harassment Prevention Action Pledges” to propose to their superiors, or encouraging each other with a cup of coffee on the way to work at the “Superintendent’s Integrity Morning Cafe.”

Busan Office of Education has also established a strict audit and control system to root out power harassment. This year, a full survey on power harassment was conducted targeting institutions subject to comprehensive audits to raise awareness among all public officials.

Along with this, various policies have been implemented such as the establishment of a Power Harassment Reporting Center in March, the installation and operation of a Power Harassment Eradication Task Force, and the designation of dedicated audit officers for power harassment. The disciplinary standards for detected power harassment cases have also been raised from a minimum caution to a warning.

Superintendent Ha Yun-su stated, “Eradicating power harassment is the foundation of a healthy public service culture where public officials can carry out fair administration with conviction,” and added, “Our education office will continue to take the lead in improving organizational culture and do its best to enhance integrity and strengthen organizational competitiveness.”

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