Sung Deuk Hahm

Do Age, Gender, and Sector Affect Job Satisfaction? Results From the Korean Labor and Income Panel Data

Although job satisfaction is a primary human resource management concern, there is little empirical research considering job satisfaction in non-Western countries. In Korea, reforms aim to make the public service more competitive and diverse and have led to the recruitment of more women and young people. This study uses data from the Korean Income and Labor Panel Study to explore the relationship of age, gender, and service sector with job satisfaction. No substantial difference was found in the perceived job satisfaction of public employees of different ages, but an unexpected negative association was found in a subsample of private employees. Korean public and nonprofit employees are more satisfied with their jobs than private employees are but are less satisfied with their wages than with job security and job content. The study supports the expectation hypothesis and suggests there is a gender effect on job satisfaction, particularly for wages and work environment.

Emergence of east asian TFT‐LCD clusters: A comparative analysis of the samsung cluster in South Korea and the Chimei cluster in Taiwan

Summary This paper investigates cluster formation and the development processes of new thin file transistor liquid crystal display (TFT‐LCD) clusters in East Asia. Despite the pivotal role of clusters in regional development and national competitiveness, there are only a few studies on how new East Asian high‐tech clusters have emerged and evolved and how these clusters are similar to and different from other clusters. Based on a comparative analysis of new TFT‐LCD clusters between Samsung in Asan‐Tangjung, South Korea, and Chimei in Tainan, Taiwan, we examine dynamic development processes and investigate how these rural areas have changed into high‐tech clusters in only a decades time. Specifically, this paper explores the preconditions and initiation characteristics of TFT‐LCD clusters. It also compares some similarities and differences between two East Asian TFT‐LCD clusters and investigates the uniqueness of other global clusters. Therefore, this paper enhances our understanding of the dynamics of industrial clusters, adds a comparative perspective on cluster analysis, and suggests policy implications from the case study of cluster formation in South Korea and Taiwan.

Dual Faces of Ministerial Leadership in South Korea Does Political Responsiveness or Administrative Responsibility Enhance Perceived Ministerial Performance

This study is designed to examine dual faces of ministerial leadership that functions in the gray area of politics and administration when a minister performs his or her role as a political appointee and as a department head. The dual faces of ministerial leadership require somehow both political responsiveness and administrative responsibility for effective ministerial performance. Using the perceptual data of middle- and high-ranked South Korean government officials collected from the 2002 and 2007 Korean Minister Surveys, this study attempts to understand the relationship between types of ministerial leadership and performance in agenda setting, policy implementation, and internal management. The results of this study show that president-centered ministerial leadership (political responsiveness) is positively associated with agenda-setting performance and policy implementation performance whereas department-centered leadership (administrative responsibility) is positively associated with all performance areas, including agenda setting, implementation, and internal management.This study is designed to examine dual faces of ministerial leadership that functions in the gray area of politics and administration when a minister performs his or her role as a political appoint...

Public Administrative Theory, Performance, and Accountability: Problems and Prospects in Diverse Political Environments

Any set of “big questions” in public administration would include “What can public administrative theory tell us about how to promote optimal levels of performance and accountability?” This Special Issue of Administration & Society addresses that question using comparative perspectives. The articles focus on the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the United States, and the Republic of Korea. They also look at performance and accountability at different levels of government and with different theoretical lenses. The rationale for the comparative framework and country studies is straightforward. China, the United States, and perhaps to a lesser extent, South Korea are experimenting with many of the same administrative approaches, partly informed by new public management ideas and practices. The United States is an old democracy, and South Korea is a much newer one; China is not democratic. The economies and economic development levels also vary substantially across and within the three countries. It is becoming commonplace that although public administrative problems are often similar, their solutions are contingent on context. The field of comparative administration has moved well beyond the idea that administrative techniques and processes are readily transferrable among jurisdictions with different political structures, cultures, and economic conditions. International organizations such as the World Bank

Institutional Reforms and Democratization in Korea: the Case of the Kim Young Sam Administration, 1993–1998

This article examines the nature of political and institutional reform initiatives that have been carried out under former president Kim Young Sam. How effective have they been in consolidating democracy in Korea? Specifically, we examine why the Kim Young Sam governments political reform campaigns have been limited, and explore the impact of this limitation on his institutional reform initiatives and the process of consolidation of democracy in Korea. We argue that Kim Young Sams initial political reform campaigns have contributed to creating a favorable environment for his institutional reform efforts. However, limitations of these initial political reform campaigns such as political funding and bribery scandals have hampered institutional reforms. We also argue that these difficulties were intensified by public dissatisfaction with Koreas poor economic performance and International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial assistance. As a result, Kim Young Sams moral legitimacy as a civilian and reform-oriented leader toward the public has totally evaporated. Therefore, experiences under the Kim Young Sam administration are just trials and errors of democratization that show another failure in presidential leadership in Korea. These experiences will negatively affect the consolidation process of democracy in Korea by increasing the publics distrust of government as a whole. As a result, democratic consolidation in Korea is being delayed.

The Political Economy of U.S. Direct Investment in East Asian NICs, 1966–2000

This paper examines the role of FDI from the United States in the economic performance of East Asian NICs for 1966–2000. To this end, we draw our argument of the role of FDI from the modernization–dependency debate. Then, we test the economic effects of U.S. direct investment on economic growth in East Asian NICs using a neoclassical production function model that captures the economic impacts of both foreign and domestic investment on economic growth. Our empirical results show that U.S. direct investment has a positive and significant effect on economic growth in East Asian NICs.

The influence of the gramm-rudman-hollings act on federal budgetary outcomes, 1986-1989

This article analyzes the impact of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings (GRH) Act on federal budgetary and fiscal outcomes. Rather than portraying it as a two-on federal budgetary and fiscal outcomes. Rather than portraying it as a two-party game between Congress and the president, each with monolithic policy preferences, we view GRH as a multiparty negotiation game among advocates of different programs and agencies. In this game, agencies subject to sequestration and their congressional advocates have an incentive to reach a budget accord, while those exempt from sequestration do not. Consistent with this argument, we find that GRH has restrained outlays for nonexempt programs and that exempt programs have, if anything, experienced more rapid growth. Overall, GRH is estimated to have restrained outlays by

An Empirical Analysis on the Determinants of the Length of Ministerial Tenure in Korea, 1980–2008

59 billion by fiscal 1989, and to have restrained outlays more effectively after the 1987 modifications in the Act. The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act signals another phase in the decade-long struggle between the White House and Congress over public spending priorities. Our final counterfactual analysis suggests that GRH partially returned federal fiscal and budgetary relationships and priorities to those that prevailed before Reagan.

Politics, Economics, and Defense Spending in South Korea

ABSTRACT The study of the length of ministerial tenure has received some attention by scholars of public management in Western countries. Responding to the lack of empirical research on ministerial duration in non-Western countries, this article empirically examines the determinants of ministerial duration based on the Korean Ministerial Database from 1980 to 2008. The empirical findings are as follows. First, being a female minister decreases the probability of stepping down by 1.78 times compared to a male minister. Second, political democratization after 1987 drastically increases the probability of ministerial stepping down by 3.46 times. Third, confirmation hearings after 2005 decrease the probability of ministerial stepping down by 0.53 times. Based on these empirical findings of the analysis, we can identify distinctive characteristics of ministerial duration in Korea. We argue that as the Korean political system shifts from military or authoritarian rule to democratic rule after 1987, a single five-year presidential term may set a political environment for frequent changes of ministers to allocate political spoils.

Harnessing the value of open innovation: change in the moderating role of absorptive capability

With the recent North Korean nuclear crisis, along with President Roh Moo Hyun’s emphasis on a self-reliance defense policy, the level of defense spending in South Korea has increased in recent years. Due to the sluggish economy, these increases in defense spending have been a cause for public concern. By developing a multilink defense-growth model based on macroeconomic theories while still accounting for political factors (such as transition from authoritarian rule to democratic government), the authors test the direct and indirect effects of defense spending on economic growth in South Korea via investment and unemployment from 1963 to 2001. The authors find that the overall impact of defense spending on economic performance is not harmful. One reason for this finding might be that high interest rates help maintain high rates of domestic savings, which prevents private investment decline. This experience may provide an important lesson to other countries