Year-end Promotions, Restructuring, and New Assignments: Korea’s Corporate Culture 2021

Year-end organization-wide promotions, restructuring, and new assignments for teams are traditionally a part of Korean corporate culture. Top to bottom within Korean companies they occur sometime between early December and early January, with the changes to senior leadership announced first, and team level changes as a norm made known the week just before or between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

After the Holidays, teams then report back to work. Some assume new roles frequently in departments where they have little experience — requiring employees to acquire new skills — sink or swim.

In the days that follow those shuffled brief their replacements, as staff remaining in their jobs update new management teams on the status of projects and issues.

Meanwhile, others will be en route to assignments in overseas operations; a challenge for those working outside Korea for the first time.

This can also be a challenge for local overseas operations. In particular, it is common for those newly assigned to be unfamiliar or have very limited experience with the many nuances in the localized foreign business, as well as the new role and responsibilities. Not to mention, working outside Korea is in itself a learning curve that can take…