“Public relations” seems to be the keyword for this year’s personnel reshuffles at major companies, with employees in the field being given promotions all around as the country faces a slow economy and an imminent presidential election.

“When the times are bad, PR is one of the most cost-effective activities that a company can undertake, as it has the biggest advertisement effect,” said Lee Baek-soo, chairman of the Korea Public Relations Consultancy Association.

Companies also are busy preparing for changes under a new government, as communication is one of the key areas firms try to reinforce when major political shifts are expected, industry watcher said.

On Wednesday, Samsung promoted Lim Dai-ki, executive vice president of Samsung’s corporate strategy office, and Rhee In-yong, the anchor-turned executive vice president of Samsung’s communication team who also belongs to the corporate strategy office.

Lim was named president and CEO of Cheil Worldwide, Samsung’s advertising arm, while Rhee was appointed to president and head of the communication team.

Industry watchers regard the pair as both the official and unofficial “mouthpieces” for Samsung.

Samsung was not alone in recognizing the value of its PR officers.

At LG, three corporate PR executives ― Ryoo Won of LG Group, Chun Myung-woo of LG Electronics and Cho Kap-ho of LG Chem ― were all promoted to senior vice presidents. The three are credited as having extensive PR experience, particularly Chun who has been working the field for two decades.

KT Corp. promoted Lee Guil-joo, who was head of the PR team at the company, to vice president at its synergy management office. Lee had been handling public relations for the company for three decades, and he was named the PR person of the year in 2012, an award given by the Korea PR Association.

Also at KT, executive vice president Kim Eun-hye ― formerly an anchor at MBC broadcast station ― who had been focusing on internal communications, moved up a notch to be promoted to head of communications.

GS Group, Hansol Group and Kolon Group also gave promotions to their PR officers.

Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party and Moon Jae-in of the opposition Democratic United Party both have proclaimed their willingness to offer bigger support for small and mid-sized companies that have more or less been disadvantaged by policies and laws in favor of bigger industrial groups.

Conglomerates and other big companies are actively lobbying not to lose their leverage, but critics believe it’s time the playing field was evened out.

They also are calling for stronger policies under a new government that will help raise more corporate taxes from the chaebol and redistribute their wealth. Park, however, has said that she will not forsake economic growth, stressing that policies must be two-tracked to focus on both growth and distribution.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)