Human Resource Management Reform in the Korean Civil Service

Technological innovation leads towards borderless economic activities thatforce public organizations to reform. In the case of Korea, the impetus for undertaking human resource management reforms stems from the economic crisis of the late 1990s. A logical response to an economic downturn is to implement civil service reform to increase the ability to compete. New times and trends need to be actively utilized in the Korean public sector. As part of such environmental changes, the Civil Service Commission was established on May 24,1999, in an effort to build a more competent government. Reform measures include introducing an open employment system (to enable the recruitment of private sector personnel), performance-related pay (to encourage competitiveness in the public sector) and many other flexible employment practices (to modernize Korean human resource management in government). The reforms are expected to have a significant impact on transforming a heretofore rigid and unresponsive Korean Civil Service.