FleishmanHillard Thought Leadership

Korean communicators face radical changes

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Public communications strategies in Korea are being influenced more and more by transparency and openness, finds Fleishman-Hillard’s Yvonne Park and Byoung-Joo Kim

How should we communicate effectively with public affairs decision makers in Korea? One may have a ready answer to this question, particularly when it comes to stable and mature democracies. But in regions of the world where fast growing economic prosperity is bringing in wholesale change to socio-political norms, answering the question is a more challenging task indeed.

Based on Korea’s recent experience, we believe a clear focus on three levels of interest can make a significant difference to results, particularly for those societies that are moving away from relationship-based communication as the dominant means.

CHALLENGE

‘Paradigm shift’ is an expression commonly used in most areas of Korean life today. And, communicating with public affairs decision makers is no exception. For this reason, those without a clear idea of what this paradigm shift means in the area of public communication often fail gravely, particularly those relying on traditional relationships, such as regional and school ties.

In Korea today, relationships still matter very much – particularly ‘trust building’ ones that help reduce initial ‘transaction costs’. However, the trend of increasing transparency and openness result in growing need for evidence and results to justify one’s public affairs decisions both in the short and long term. One may still say “we know them”, but s/he cannot guarantee results by these words alone.

STRATEGY

The difference that defines the paradigm shift is this. In the past, one’s primary interest was to maintain a relationship that would allow issues to be resolved one by one. Now, increasingly, one’s interest lies in resolving issues in transparent and open ways. For each issue, communications professionals should be able to identify and highlight different sets of intertwined interests. And, it works best when these interests are identified and highlighted at three different levels.

First, interests must be highlighted at a community level. If communication professionals are talking with national government decision makers, national interest should be the focus of the initial discussion. Likewise, if the discussion in question is with local government officials, the top talking points should be about how to best serve local community interests.

When a clear line of argument is established in this way, it can free decision makers from audit concerns and outside criticism and speed up the advancement of the agenda through the decision making ladder. To do this effectively, communication professionals should develop and maintain an expert-level of understanding of national and local policy agendas and priorities, often looking into issues by placing themselves in the shoes of national and local leaders. Strategic media outreach can also be highly influential.

Second, interests must be highlighted at an organizational level. Public affairs decisions are often made within a single organization and implemented within the organization or in cooperation with other organizations. For a particular decision to be made quickly, communication professionals should be able to identify how the decision-making organization may benefit as result.

Decisions makers will see greater interest in making decisions that will secure greater public recognition, additional budgetary and/or personnel resources, and/or expanded jurisdiction and authority. Such decisions will enjoy backing from all organizational levels throughout the process from decision making to implementation. To be effective, communication professionals will of course need an in-depth understanding of intra-governmental and inter-organizational politics.

Third, interest must be highlighted at a personal level. Public affairs decisions are made most efficiently and implemented fastest when they effectively serve the decision makers’ career interests. Communications professionals should be able to package issues in ways to unambiguously—but often implicitly—highlight how the decision maker will secure greater organizational recognition, promotion and rewards for the decision makers involved. This will obviously require an in-depth understanding of the complicated internal dynamics and delicately intertwined personal interests within the organization in question.

EXPERIENCE

At a first glance, it may seem a tall order to identify three levels of interest simultaneously. However, our recent experiences offer us much optimism for this strategy.  We have learned there is often considerable overlap within the three interest levels. For instance, when promoting the concerns of foreign investors and foreign businesses in Korea, we could often identify broader national interests that were aligned with those of foreign investors and businesses. We could work with the organization to use the cases as a way to promote their mission and strengthen their identities.  And, within the organizations themselves, we promoted the cases to professionals as an opportunity for their potential and achievement to be recognized.

INVESTMENT

To summarise, communication professionals should continuously and carefully watch individuals, organizations and community—as well as national—agendas to understand how different interests motivate different individuals, organizations and communities. Such efforts should be viewed as a critical investment in dealing with the ‘paradigm shifts’ in societies facing  the trend of ever growing transparency and openness.

Yvonne Park (pictured above) is vice president of Fleishman-Hillard Korea and Dr.Byoung-Joo Kim is Fleishman-Hillard Korea’s public affairs advisor

FleishmanHillard Government investment Korea politics Public affairs

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