Horizontal Titles Previously Applied Only to Employees Now Extended to Executives and Directors
Prohibition of Position and Title Designations... Part of HR System Reform
[Asia Economy Reporter Han Ye-ju] Samsung Electronics has decided to expand the use of 'horizontal titles' that had been applied among employees to include executives and management. From now on, it will be prohibited to address each other by titles or positions such as Chairman, President, Team Leader, or Group Leader.
On the 1st, Samsung Electronics announced the 'Horizontal Title Guide for Executives and Management' through the company intranet and provided detailed guidelines.
All employees, including Samsung Electronics executives, must use horizontal titles by attaching 'nim' to English names, initials, or Korean names. The same principle applies to official events such as town hall meetings, briefings, and executive meetings attended by management.
Samsung Electronics has instructed employees to notify internally of their preferred initials or nicknames.
Previously, in 2016, Samsung Electronics announced a personnel system reform plan centered on horizontal titles among employees. Since then, common titles among employees have used 'nim,' but within departments, horizontal titles such as 'nim,' 'Pro,' or English names have been used autonomously depending on the nature of the work. However, team leaders, group leaders, and executives had been addressed by their positions, but under this new policy, addressing executives and management by their titles or ranks is prohibited.
Industry insiders interpret this as Chairman Lee Jae-yong's 'pragmatic' management philosophy spreading throughout the organizational culture. Chairman Lee has shown great interest in creating an 'organization where employees and the company grow together' and is known to have been involved in last year's new personnel system, which aims for a flexible and horizontal organization style inspired by Silicon Valley in the United States.
Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee also requested at an employee communication event in April last year, "Organizational culture is fundamentally based on a horizontal culture, and mutual respect is the foundation of a horizontal culture," adding, "Please do not call me Vice Chairman or CEO, but call me 'JH' (the English initials of 'Jong-hee')."
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