KJC Korea
Journal Central

The purpose of this study is to identify determinants of performance perception and satisfaction with openness in the civil service. The analytical model consists of two dimensions of determinants based on previous studies. The first dimension is comprised of culture and policy as exogenous variables, while the second dimension includes individual characteristics as endogenous variables. The culture and policy dimension is composed of four variables: (1) performance oriented organizational culture and patronage or spoils system, (2) recruitment and appointment process, (3) reward and performance management, and (4) work environment. The individual dimension is composed of three variables: (1) competence, (2) motivation, and (3) responsibility. This study is based on a survey of 290 government employees, stratified by agency type. Responses were received from open position senior civil service appointees, contract based employees, and other related employees. The results of the analysis reveal a positive recruitment and appointment procedures to have the largest impact upon employees’ performance perception and satisfaction with openness, followed by individual performance, overcoming patronage, work environment, and competencies of open position appointees. This study contributes to the development of theory through identifying determinants of performance and satisfaction with openness in the civil service, and testing their relative influence using structural equation modeling.

This study examines the professionalism of committee staff directors in the standing committees of the Korean national assembly. Although committee staff directors, responsible for reporting the article-by-article discussion and analysis of proposed bills to their committee members, play a critical role in supporting legislative activities, few studies pay attention to their personnel management related roles and functions. To fill this gap in the literature, the present study analyzes survey data from the national assembly secretariat to examine legislative bureaucrats’ understanding of the professionalism of the committee staff directors. The analysis reveals that many Korean legislative bureaucrats regard professionalism as the most important consideration to be a committee staff director. In addition, staff working in administrative positions are likely to emphasize the ability to assist committee operation. Considering that satisfaction with the personnel system for chief committee staff directors is low, this study offers policy recommendations on personnel management for the national assembly.

This study analyzes the performance-related pay system of national universities according to Kingdon(2003)'s policy stream model. The system is so rare that it is difficult to find both nationwide and worldwide studies. The system of national universities is varied with that of public servants and of other universities in the world because the performance pay of the former is accumulated into the basic pay of the next year. But other universities' system is incentive not to be added in the next year pay. This study finds that the policy window of the performance-related pay system of national universities is partly opened when the problem stream, political stream, and policy stream are coupled. However, the results show that there is the limitation of Kingdon's policy stream model to explain the change of the system entirely. This study suggests the future study to apply time lag theory to the policy stream model for analyzing the performance-related pay system of the professors in national universities.

This study examines the factors influencing welfare policy ideas, using policy instrument taxonomies derived from political science theories. The first research hypothesis is related to the effects of the era of democratization, beginning in 1987. The democratization era includes the periods of both the Roh Taewoo and Kim Youngsam governments, i.e., the Sixth Government and the Civilian Government. The second hypothesis deals with the matter of welfare policy ideas according to different governmental periods. For this purpose, governments which publicly expressed progressive ideas in the field of healthcare policy, i.e., the Kim Daejung and Roh Moohyun governments, are considered to be part of the period of progressive ideas. Empirical analyses are carried out using a binary logit model, and the categories of Hood's taxonomy (NATO model) are used as endogenous variables. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, there are some differences in the pattern of policy tool choices before and after democratization; in the era of democratization, regulations decreased, while the types of deregulation, information and instruments increased. This pattern of policy tool choice continued to develop as the process of democratization played out and levels of citizen participation settled down. Secondly, in the era of progressive governments, the process of deregulation continued, while the use of information tools was expanded. This means that the degree of democratization, and settling down of citizen participation impact upon the process of policy tool choice. This study contributes to theory development on welfare policy ideas, and choice of policy tools through quantitatively analyzing the healthcare policy legislative process.

This study aims to review current trends in social service policies, and to interpret the meaning of changes and new policy directions. In recent years, the framework of social service polices in Korea has seen dramatic changes, and there have also been rapid increases in public spending in this area. To explicate the major issues and critical policy questions, this study reviews the historical evolution of social services, before examining the recent expansion of the concept. Historical review suggests that the direction of social service policy has changed in three major ways, as follows. First, the allocation criteria have changed from being means-tested to the amount of need, which has resulted in an increase in the number of service recipients. Second, the amount of finance provided to service users has increased, and the ways of providing public finance have diversified. Third, the number of for-profit organizations providing services has increased, meaning that the characteristics of social service providers are diverse. These trends have produced complicated and complex issues in the field of social services, because the changes have not been deliberately designed in the social service policy framework, and have occurred over a short period of time. Based on the findings, this study suggests that universalization in the selection of service recipients should be supplemented by considering the needs of vulnerable groups. Also, the current tendency to use the individual as the unit of social services should be complemented by including the community-based approach. Furthermore, the fragmented service provision lines should be redesigned to integrate the diverse range of social services now provided.

Social enterprise, a new type of social service agency in Korea, has rapidly emerged in recent years. A social enterprise ecosystem is defined as including both support structures that can develop social enterprises, and a cluster value network between various stakeholders. On this basis, a social enterprise ecosystem can be seen to have two main divisions; capital infrastructure, and the socio‐economic and cultural environment. The capital infrastructure provides the resources, including social, political, human, financial, and intellectual capital, that are essential to the success of social enterprise. The socio‐economic and cultural environment produces the conditions in which social enterprises and their capital providers operate. This environment includes, but is not limited to social enterprise policy, media relations, and economic and social conditions. The findings have the following implications. To promote the capital infrastructure, it is necessary to consider the issues of education and training, while building financial capital for social enterprises requires the establishment of both financial support and capital market systems. Policy support is required in order to create a positive perception about social enterprise among citizens, and to establish spaces in which to nurture social enterprise (including free rental space). In addition, a further policy challenge involves the creation of a platform for the active participation of social entrepreneurs, funders, researchers, and ethical consumers. Generally, the challenge for policies relating to social enterprise is to build governance structures and to activate government assistance polices. In order to do this, there is a need to build a consistent support system involving the central government, metropolitan councils, and primary local authorities. At the same time, social enterprise policies should be developed by promoting the social enterprise cooperation town and cluster, and by finding a public purchasing and social service market. Ultimately, finding a way to activate the social enterprise ecosystem has significant political implications for the development of social enterprise.

Public administration (PA) scientists have shown little interest in the process by which administrative phenomena move into the realm of PA, because they tend to view the discipline as an applied science. This view is called administrative behavioralism (AB), and this is an approach which overlooks the importance of refraction when phenomena enter the lexicon of PA. While PA scientists have criticized AB, they have nevertheless accepted these implicit assumptions. The process by which a particular fact or phenomenon enters the field of to PA has been regarded as 'approaches or methods' in the Korean PA academic circle, and this approach appears to limit what is discussed. This study criticizes this academic trend and emphasizes projection as the first scientific activity in PA, which can be distinguished from approaches or methods, and considers the role of refraction in this process. Projection is recognized as expressing a phenomenon through language (i.e., lexicons), which lead to it entering the logic of the real world. Accordingly, in the process of projection, the language used is important. As in the demarcation between science and pseudo-science by Karl Popper, the demarcation between PA and other sciences relies on the lexicons employed. This study emphasizes that lexicons are the essence of PA, not in the sense of how to find words in a text, but in the sense of what demarcates PA from other sciences.

This study examines the relationship among organizational reputation, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior in public institutes. Four dimensions of organizational reputation are introduced: performative reputation, moral reputation, procedural reputation, and technical reputation. The results suggest that internal reputation (i.e., public institute members’ perceptions of their organization) does affect behavior and performance. The empirical findings also reveal that internal reputation directly or indirectly affects organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior in public institutes. As such, internal reputation has a substantive and widespread impact on the behavior of public institute members, and a positive internal reputation in an organization is highly associated with job satisfaction and desired organizational citizenship behaviors. More specifically, this study suggests that positive procedural reputation has the strongest direct impact on members’ behavior. High levels of autonomy, consistency, and rationality in procedures increase the likelihood that the public institutes will perform well. Organizational reputation and organizational commitment also have a statistically robust direct impact on organizational performance. Path analysis verifies that the other four reputation variables account for changes in organizational behavior. The results may be used to contribute to the effective management of public institutes, and also to the consolidation and expansion of reputation theory. These findings will help stakeholders including managers, directors, and staffs to better understand the complex and uncertain environment that an organization faces in terms of reputation management.

Due to the government’s relocation plans, it has been reported that employees in public agencies are suffering from the psychological effects of anxiety and financial worries. This means that they may be unable to concentrate on their work, and if the relocation plans negatively impact on their attitude towards their job, then they could try to quit or change their job. On the other hand, the public service motivation (PSM) of public employees may lead to positive job attitudes and improvements in organizational performance. Through focusing on these issues, this study contributes to the literature on person-organization fit(P-O fit) and PSM. The main aim of this study is to understand the effects of psychological state and PSM on the organizational commitment of employees in relocating public agencies and to confirm whether PSM acts as a mediator. The results of the path analysis are as follows. First, the psychological state of members in a relocating public agency partially affects organization commitment. Second, PSM among public sector employees helps to improve organizational commitment. Third, PSM acts as a mediator between psychological states and organizational commitment. In particular, PSM was found to mediate between positive psychological states and both affective and normative organizational commitment. This study has both theoretical and political implications. In terms of theory, the findings can contribute to the understanding of mediator effects of PSM, and of the application of PSM and P-O fit in the relocation of government agencies. The political implications are that job redesign, after the relocation and reorganization of public agencies, should consider PSM from a long-term and strategic perspective.

This study started in critical mind that must examine a effect of the legislative supporting institutions. Also, this study to explain relation between the legislative institution and the increasing legislations is entering institutional isomorphism. Analysis result is as following. First, the legislative supporting institutions was influential. It will be also continuing for a long time. This is mean that a acceptance of the legislative organization is well processing. Especially, interviews to isomorphism of processes is supplements results of statistical analysis. Nevertheless, the legislative supporting organizations limits role of themselves to provide a collected data. Therefore, it considers to policy alternatives for playing a active law-making.

A community business (CB) is a business initiated by local residents, which utilizes the potential resources of a region to respond to regional problems. Currently, various projects across the country utilize this approach, but there has been insufficient discussion of policies which attempt to utilize community businesses as a regional development strategy, although some research has referred to confusion and areas of overlap with other policies. The present study suggests a local development policy plan based upon a clearer understanding of both the concept and characteristics of CBs. Through a review of the literature, this study makes policy recommendations for local development projects using CBs. A practical implementation strategy is suggested, based on the roles of CBs, such as voluntary participation by residents, resolving local problems, utilization of local resource and business activities. The case analysis focuses on a regional development project in Jeju Special Self‐Governing Province. Despite using the term community business, the project’s goals relating to CBs are vague, and there are few institutional measures relating to the usefulness of CBs. This study therefore redesigned the regional development project based on the policy design suggested in the first part of the study, in order to more effectively achieve the policy goals.