Current Public Sector Reform in Korea: New Public Management in Practice

New public management (NPM) has affected public sector reform (PSR) in many countries, although its scope and emphasis vary from country to country. Korea is not an exceptional case in the mounting managerial reform wave. Korea has partially adopted the NPM philosophy and has taken various reform initiatives for PSR. In particular, the Kim Dae Jung administration has addressed PSR as one of the four major sectors (financial, corporate, labor, public) where the administration decided to introduce aggressive reforms to cope with the financial crisis that occurred in 1997. This study examines Korean PSR efforts conducted during the first half of the Kim Dae Jung administration from the NPM perspective. It will first explore basic NPM literature and critically review its distinctive reform philosophies, reform tools, as well as outcomes and limitations, and then investigate recent Korean administrative reform experiences from the NPM perspective and assesses its accomplishments, limitations, and future directions.