The patterns and dynamics of the civil service pay reform in Korea

In the years following the economic crisis of 1997, Korean policymakers have focused on reforming the civil service by introducing New Public Management (NPM) ideas and practices. By the involvement of top decision-makers to individual central government departments, attempts were made to enhance the materialistic incentive, to reinforce performance management, and to improve flexibility and efficiency of government organisations. Despite these endeavours, the public management reforms in Korea seems to have not yet reached the expected goals. In the search of the cause of such discrepancy, this study investigated the developmental process of four representative civil service pay reform cases, namely, (1) public-private pay balance, (2) performance-related pay, (3) total payroll cost management, and (4) senior civil service pay. In order to do this, the data was collected from relevant documents and archives, such as government publications and newspapers, as well as interviews with 39 policymakers and experts.