ABSTRACT

Sungjoo Choi in Chapter 16 gives a brief overview of South Korea’s civil service system from a life cycle perspective (from recruitment to retirement) and discusses the major civil service reforms undertaken in the last two decades. The recent reforms in the South Korean civil service have emphasized the competencies and performance of civil servants, reinforced the link between performance and reward, highlighted a result-oriented organizational culture, and promoted equity and integration for all social groups. Although the civil service reforms have brought remarkable changes, the South Korean civil service still faces a number of obstacles including bureaucratic resistance and political challenges. For sustainable improvement, civil service reform requires a long-term commitment to significant changes in institutional arrangement, organizational culture, and the attitudes of civil servants.