Building Communication Competence: A Step Toward Transparency and Accountability in the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections
At the end of 2025, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections once again succeeded in maintaining the status of an Informative Public Body for the fourth consecutive time. This achievement is a key indicator of the Ministry’s commitment to realizing transparent communication services and public information disclosure, ensuring that the public can access accurate, timely, and easily available information.
However, behind this achievement, there are still constructive criticisms from the public regarding response patterns that tend to be reactive to sensitive issues, slow feedback loops, and a lack of proactive, data-based approaches that often trigger the spread of misinformation in the digital space. This indicates that there is still room for structural communication improvement to enhance the quality of public communication services.
If we refer to the “Dunning-Kruger Effect” competency curve, then communication performance systems in many public organizations are still in the so-called “Hazard Zone”—a peak of illusory competence that is dangerous for both individuals and institutions. In this stage, perception rises far above reality, where individuals who have mastered basic vocabulary, a few core concepts, and some successful cases may feel they already “understand enough,” while in fact they are still operating at a surface-level understanding.
In this phase, individuals or organizations tend to become overly confident and fail to recognize their own limitations. They may believe they already possess sufficient knowledge and skills, and therefore no longer need further learning or improvement. In reality, however, there is still much to learn in order to reach a higher level of competence.
This zone is often referred to as “Mount Stupid” or the “Peak of Mount Ignorance,” a term widely used in engineering and startup culture. Its main characteristics include extremely high overconfidence, a tendency to judge others as “not understanding,” resistance to critical feedback, and excessive generalization from very limited experience.
At the societal level, this phase becomes a major source of informational “noise,” such as hot takes on social media, controversial content aimed at engagement, populist policies based on shallow understanding, and the spread of information that sounds logical but is inaccurate. This can lead to misinformation, opinion polarization, and poor decision-making. Therefore, strengthening critical awareness and evaluation skills is essential.
Empirical studies, including the original Dunning & Kruger research (1999) and later cross-cultural replications up to the 2020s, show that the phenomenon is universal. However, its amplitude is greater in fields with slow feedback loops and where emotional intelligence, leadership, and communication strategy are difficult to measure objectively.
Thus, building communication competence based on the Dunning-Kruger curve—from beginner to expert level—should become a key foundation for improving public communication quality. By understanding and managing this phenomenon, institutions can develop more effective communication strategies, increase public awareness, and strengthen public trust.
