2007, Vol.18, No.3

Korean Society and Public Administration 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.89

pISSN : 1225-8652
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kspa

The purpose of this article is to suggest the need for integrated and holistic approach to bureaucracy. Integrated and holistic approach includes analyses of three dimensions reflecting bureaucratic phenomena; structural dimension, institutional dimension, attitudinal dimension. Most studies on Korean bureaucracy focus on one or two dimensions, thereby those could not provide whole picture of bureaupathology in Korea. Author's empirical study in 1994 shows that integrated and holistic approach can be applied to analysis of modern bureaucracy although it needs some modification. In order to clearly understand and to develop policy proposals to pathological issues in Korean bureaucracy, it is necessary to sophisticate the integrated and holistic approach.

Learning Organization is a relatively new subject in the study of public sector, while it has been famous in private sector since 1990s. Except a few previous studies, little is known about the degree of learning organization in the Korean public sector. This study is to measure the degree of learning organization for the Korean government ministries and agencies by making use of DLOQ(Dimensions of Learning Organization Questionnaire). DLOQ is developed and applied to about 400 organizations worldwide by Marsick and Watkins. Total of 677 public employees out of 17 ministries and agencies were asked in 2006 to collect the information about DLOQ. Results are striking. Mean DLOQ scores of 17 institutions are fall short of those found in international studies for all seven dimensions. However, the DLOQ scores for Korean government measured in 2006 get larger than those measured in previous year, 2005. This study collects data about budget savings for each institutions from Korean Program Assessment Rating Tools, so called K-PART. A structural equation is constructed to assess the correlation between DLOQ scores and the rate of budget savings compared to budget size. Degree of Learning Organization for Korean government has no or little direct effect on budget savings, but it has significantly positive indirect effect on budget savings, via an intermediate variable like activities of employee's suggestions.

Based on the Competing Value Model, the study investigates the type of organizational culture, using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument developed by Cameron and Quinn and analyzed the gap between current and desirable organizational culture empirically. The analytic results show that while the organizational members prefer the hierarchical organizational culture as a dominant organizational culture on the current level, they prefer the relational organizational culture as a desirable organizational culture on the future level. In addition, the diagnosis of organizational culture by the type of task reveals that while the planning section recognized the hierarchical organizational culture as a strong culture, the implementing section identified the market culture as a dominant culture. Those findings suggest the following implications. First, the sustainable management of organizational culture requires the suitable strategic tool relevant to the reinforcement of organizational culture. Second, despite the fact that the balance among four types of organizational culture is needed theoretically, PPS should adopt the strategy to reinforce the dominant culture, considering the characteristic of the task of each section. Nevertheless, based on the vision of PPS, the study suggests that PPS should try to not only incorporate the market culture as a dominant culture but also maintain the balance among four types of culture.