Discussion:

The primary issue faced by POSCO in their endeavours to create greater trust between
employees and management is POSCO’s organisational culture, organisational goals vs
individual goals and cultural ques.

Currently employees believe POSCO’s management style operates in an “army” like culture
where communication occurs through only formal communication channels, which conveys
“official, approved information. Through the four formal communication channels” (Judith
Dwyer, 2019) and this communication is accomplished downward. This means information is
passed down from higher up staff to lower management then employees. The issue with this
style is the initial instruction will be altered via either the removal or addition of information
therefore in some cases not achieving the intended purpose of upper management. As well
the employees become more frustrated with upper management when they are reprimanded
for doing the wrong task or action. This single strand network “consists of a long chain of
people who each pass the message to the next person” (Judith Dwyer, 2019) works at the
detriment of POSCO as now employee’s feel that they have little to no say in what they are
being asked to accomplish, which continues to degreed trust in the company causing less
efficiency.

Secondly, it is clear prior to 2010 POSCO’s organisational goals and individual goals
clashed. It was clear from employees stating that the implementation “four-team two-shift
work system” was clearly a “ploy to lay off more people later.” () This displays POSCO’s
organisational goals are primarily focused on profit and production of quality goods and
services, vs the individual goals are focused on job security, especially during the global
finical crises which had been in affect around the time of report. POSCO must understand its
employees’ goals in order to see future success and solve their growing financial struggle.

Finally, POSCO must take on cultural ques in order see success in trust communication
initiative. South Korea commonly has a very hierarchal management system which is “an
organisation system that moves through a number of levels” (Judith Dwyer, 2019). Therefore,
culturally communication between a lower-level employee and higher management personal
is either uncommon or extremely frowned upon. Furthermore, this will become a challenge
for the trust communication initiative as employees will feel uncomfortable adopting this
system. Which has been seen prior in “open communication with the ceo” sessions which
proved relatively un-popular and not advertised widely to the employees. Therefore, POSCO
now needs to address their own culture in order to see future growth and trust between
employee’s, management and between departments.