KJC Korea
Journal Central

The central government plays an important role and function in disaster management in order to mitigate personal and property damages from disasters. This study analyzed the process of organizational change undergone by the disaster management units of the Korean government since 1948 right after liberation. Temporal categorization of organizational changes was based on the hierarchical change of the organization in charge of disaster management tasks. We collected the data on the changes in disaster management organization in Korea from published reports, laws, and organizational records. We analyzed all kinds of organizational units related to disaster management to deduct the characteristics of organizational changes in each period and compared them based on the principles of division and coordination. Based on the results of analysis, we derived implications for the organizational structure and reform of disaster management organizations in Korea.

The purpose of this paper is to strengthen natural disaster resilience by providing strategic measures for NGOs to participate in disaster management in China. For the research purpose, this paper used the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis method to qualitatively analyze the internal and external environmental factors that NGOs face in the disaster management process, in combination with AHP to quantitatively analyze each factor. We suggested strategic measures for NGOs in the disaster management field at the public sector and NGO levels as follows; ① to supplement laws and policies; ② to strengthen supervision and auditing; ③ to emphasize participation enthusiasm; ④ to strengthen promotion; ⑤ to reinforce communication; ⑥ to train professional manpower through various channels; ⑦ to establish cooperative relationships with other actors, and ⑧ to pay attention to the vulnerable.

This study aims to develop performance evaluation criteria for safety shoes to secure safety and improve work efficiency of forest firefighting crews. Currently there are no standards for safety shoes of forest firefighting crews in South Korea, this research was based on the criteria for safety shoes of firefighters operated by the Korea Fire Equipment Inspection Corporation (KFI). Ten items were selected and tested out of 20 test items through the collection of relevant opinions and review of foreign standards. The test results show that safety shoes and hiking boots had excellent thermal protection performance on the soles. Some of the included polyurethane and shambles fiber materials were found to be not heat resistant. By comparing the judging criteria of ISO 16073, NFPA 1977, NFPA 1971, and BS EN ISO 20345, ten test items and criteria were found suitable for the work environment of firefighting workers in South Korea. This research is expected to contribute to the prevention of human casualties and the improvement of work efficiency of forest firefighters by preparing standards for personal protective equipment.

This study analyzed how a performance-based annual salary system influences employees’ organizational trust and job satisfaction by applying the organizational equity theory to the salary system of fire officials in South Korea. The study method involves survey for the subjects as well as interviews to draw implications. The results of this study showed that wage equity, including distribution equity, process equity and interactive equity, affects both organizational trust and job satisfaction. This suggested that managerial effort is required to improve organizational trust and job satisfaction by developing the performance-based salary system rather than the seniority-based salary system. In addition, it is found that firefighting organizations should focus on fostering environments where the payment range of performance-based salary system can be annually enlarged and the discretionary authority of implementing agency can be gradually expanded, which is vital to achieve the eventual goal of a performance-based annual salary system.

Thinning is known as an important method not only for promoting healthy forest but for preventing crown fire transition and spread. However, if you do not collect thinning slash, it may serve as a factor in the spread of forest fires. In this study, we attempted to observe the effects of thinning slash on fire behavior. The results of this study showed that total surface-fuel loads including thinning slash were estimated approximately 38.92 ton/ha in the study area, which was about 2.7 times more than that of Ⅳ Pinus densiflora stand in South Korea. Surface fire intensity (SFI) was measured at 8,956.33 kW/m with thinning slash, but 4,454.95 kW/m without thinning slash, which indicates a significant effect of thinning slash on SFI. The estimation of passive crown fire intensity showed that the fire spread rate was calculated as 0.4 km/h in Gunwi but calculated as 0.06 km/h in the study area. The results from this study could serve as a good example to explain the effects of thinning slash on wildfire fuel type.

With the advances of rapid industrialization and urbanization all over the world, the issue of urban crime has been considered as one of the major problems facing modern society. Most crime research focused on explaining the causes of crime based on a number of theories and assessing the negative effects of crime on society, but had limitations in describing the causal relationship among a cluster of indicators related to crime. Typically, a cross-sectional analysis fails to incorporate time-varying dynamic patterns of urban environments and urban life. This study identified the causes and consequences of urban crime in South Korea by focusing on several major determinants of urban crime suggested by the existing literature. Using system dynamics modeling, we constructed a causal loop map of urban crime which illustrates dynamic urban characteristics and causal mechanisms including various physical (e.g. CCTV), demographic (population density), socioeconomic (poverty) and policy (police resources) factors, along with their joint impacts on crime.

This study focuses on describing the phenomena in which policies varying over time appear as gentle changes when viewed from a long-term perspective through a new institutional lens using text analysis. This research analyzes the economic policy direction announced by the South Korean government over the past 25 years. Based on infrequently-used discretionary words in the policy documents, temporary and partial changes were found in economic policy direction every year, which indicated that the economic policy direction in South Korea has been adapted flexibly to political situations and policy environment established by each presidency. On the other hand, high-frequency words in policy documents played a role in forming and maintaining the fundamental trajectory and framework of the economic policy directions under institutional constraints, and such changes were found to be stable. With respect to changes in policy documents, the duality of the Zipf distribution expressed both variability and stability at the same time. The main contribution of this study is to explore the possibility of comprehensively explaining both institutional constraints and policy changes using text analysis.

The purpose of this study is to find out various variables that affect the recovery of alcoholic addicts participating in A.A. meetings and compare the effects of these variables. In this study, a purposive sampling method was applied to recruit the sample A.A. participants in South Korea and the data for 554 participants were analyzed. The results of the analysis revealed that their general characteristics including family support, occupation, and educational background had positive effects on the recovery as a holistic change in the alcoholics’ life and its sub-factors such as physical, social and mental recovery. In addition, A.A. commitment had a great influence on recovery, along with the sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem. Based on the results of this study, theoretical and practical implications were discussed for improving the recovery of alcoholics, as well as specific practical measures such as recurrence prevention programs, stress management and psychological support, family support and vocational rehabilitation.

Parental burnout occurs as a result of a long-term accumulation of parental stress. This study was conducted to validate the Parental Burnout Assessment (PBA) developed by Roskam et. al. in South Korea. PBA is composed of 23 questions in four sub-factors such as ‘exhaustion: exhaustion in one’s parental role’, ‘contrast: contrast in parental self’, ‘saturation: feelings of being fed up’, and ‘emotional distancing: emotional distancing from one’s children.’ To validate the scale, the data from 226 mothers parenting at least one child under age 5 were used to identify the distribution of items, reliability, and validity. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted for the 4-factor PBA model and convergent validity were examined by correlation analysis of Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Parental Burnout Inventory (PBI), and Parenting Stress Index (PSI). This study established a validated scale that can be used to measure parental burnout among South Korean parents.