Dongdaemun-gu Promotes Practicable Policies Inside and Outside Organization for Fundamental Change in Integrity Policy... Establishes Communication Platform Between Executives and Young Employees to Find New Path of Integrity Through Intergenerational Dialogue
From May to June, at Dongdaemun-gu Office, during the communication sessions held every Tuesday between executives and employees below grade 8, Choi Hong-yeon, Deputy Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu (fourth from the left), is seen talking with the staff.
[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Dongdaemun-gu (Mayor Yu Deok-yeol) is fundamentally changing its integrity policies in 2021 to become 'The Honest Dongdaemun-gu' and is preparing and implementing integrity policies that are practical and actionable.
This integrity policy was developed based on communication to create a Dongdaemun-gu that employees and residents can empathize with and trust, and the infrastructure that forms the foundation of the policy was prioritized for reorganization.
In particular, to spread a culture of integrity within the organization, a more open approach is being taken by creating communication and discussion spaces where executives and employees, as well as employees among themselves, can communicate, instead of burdensome events and meetings.
This is to share Mayor Yu Deok-yeol’s commitment to practicing integrity and to strengthen field-oriented integrity communication.
As part of the communication platform, from May to June, every Tuesday, an informal discussion session titled “Seeing Each Other, Seeing Communication, Seeing Integrity” (hereafter BomBomBom) has been held on the rooftop of the district office with a garden.
At this session, young employees below grade 8 and Deputy Mayor Choi Hong-yeon gather to have honest conversations about improving organizational culture and explore ways to create a lively and positive organizational culture together.
Employees share their dreams before entering public service and their expectations of public service life to ease the burden of communication, freely discuss difficulties in workplace life, organizational cultures to discard, and how the younger generation can bring change. The Deputy Mayor offers sincere advice tailored to the younger generation’s perspective based on his long experience in public service, breaking down generational barriers and fostering mutual understanding of culture and values.
An employee who participated in BomBomBom said, “I rarely had the chance to meet executives closely, so it felt difficult, but seeing them communicate with employees made my workplace feel more familiar, and it was a good opportunity to strengthen my motivation to work harder in the future.”
Deputy Mayor Choi Hong-yeon, who participated as a mentor in public service life, said, “With the large influx of Generation Z born in the 1990s entering public service, the public sector is rapidly changing. To keep up with this trend, active communication between leaders and members internally is necessary,” and added, “We will continue to create opportunities for communication with employees to build a lively organizational culture.”
The district plans to create various communication opportunities to listen to employees’ difficulties and suggestions, such as holding communication sessions by rank and job series led by department heads, to foster a lively workplace culture based on trust and consideration among members.
The district currently operates the Integrity Love Club, composed of employees interested in sharing an integrity culture, with 66 members actively participating.
Members propose ideas for improving unreasonable practices and integrity innovation, conduct in-house integrity broadcasts, and publish a monthly integrity newsletter. In the future, they plan to conduct integrity campaigns with the local community and visit cultural venues such as movie theaters and art galleries to find integrity in daily life through cultural content.
Along with this, the district has established the 2021 Anti-Corruption Integrity Policy Implementation Plan to leap to the top integrity grade, and operates the Integrity Innovation Committee substantively under the leadership of Deputy Mayor Choi Hong-yeon.
This organization serves as the control tower for integrity policies by reviewing and deciding on policies, improving policy directions, and evaluating implementation. It is composed of section chiefs, team leaders, and administrative officers, and has formed three TF teams to improve integrity by sharing insufficient cases in corruption-vulnerable areas and deriving improvement measures.
Following infrastructure reorganization, special management for corruption and misconduct vulnerable areas is being strengthened through preemptive corruption risk prevention activities.
Monthly Integrity Happy Call customer satisfaction surveys are conducted targeting civil petitioners with experience in handling public works contracts, subsidy support, finance and taxation, and permits and approvals to correct and improve received complaints and difficulties, while raising awareness that giving or receiving money or entertainment is also problematic.
Using the Cheongbaek-e system for continuous monitoring, administrative corruption and errors are prevented. Reporting channels are operated through the district website and internal network to activate corruption reporting, and follow-up investigations are strengthened to reduce organizational risks. Additionally, thematic code of conduct compliance checks are conducted regularly to realize integrity administration.
Yu Deok-yeol, Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu, said, “The concept of integrity is expanding and expectations are rising,” and added, “With the determination of ‘It’s a new beginning,’ we will broaden communication with employees and do our best to improve organizational culture.”
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