Korea Institute of Public Administration

ABSTRACT While existing research has primarily examined whether individuals accept or reject basic income schemes in Europe and North America, this study explores a broader range of attitudes among young adults towards basic income schemes in Korea. This study utilises the five features of basic income defined by the Basic Income Earth Network and identifies favoured and disfavoured conditions of basic income. The vignette‐based survey targets the respondents who had firsthand experience of receiving Youth Basic Income in Gyeonggi Province, as well as those without such experience. A conjoint analysis reveals mixed attitudes among young adults for the basic income attributes and their alternatives. Specifically, unconditionality consistently receive less favourable evaluations, even among respondents with prior experience. Also, direct exposure to the programme does not produce a generalised increase in support for basic income, but selectively shapes evaluations of design features. These findings may contribute to the ongoing discussion on basic income programme design and the influences of institutions.

ABSTRACTAmid the COVID‐19 Pandemic, many countries worldwide have resorted to social distancing to maintain a certain physical distance to avoid direct contact between people. Despite the abundant literature on social distancing, how this mode of direct state intervention, which inevitably requires a lot of regulatory resources, was implemented has been a rare source of scientific inquiry. This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting a case study that explores how regulatory resource deficits faced by regulators implementing social distancing were addressed in the regulator‐intermediary‐target (RIT) network. This paper highlights the role of local facilities as regulatory intermediaries in implementing social distancing in South Korea. Although social distancing was purported to keep physical distance among individuals, authorities' enforcement activities were primarily, though not entirely, targeted at local facilities. Analyzing in‐depth interviews with 30 local frontline inspectors conducted in September 2021, this paper finds that local facilities played a key intermediary role in deterring the spread of COVID‐19 as a private regulator. We argue that this role, constructed in the RIT network, was one reason South Korea could successfully deter the spread of the virus without a lockdown in the early stage of the Pandemic.

IMPACT This article looks at public sector training from a human resource development (HRD) perspective. The authors discuss training to improve performance but also coaching trainees to transfer their expertise and training to others. Employees who transfer training were shown to be better performers. An HRD training programme that does not consider a trainee’s personal characteristics (for example capacity, motivation, interest, self-efficacy, and psychological state) cannot promote learning or transfer motivation. Practitioners who design HRD programmes for the public sector must consider individual differences and customized HRD programmes to facilitate knowledge transfer in the workplace.

Abstract This study examines the performance measurement of four different values (efficiency, service quality, customer service satisfaction, and social equity). This study also distinguishes between the values emphasized at the three stages of the policy process model: process, output, and outcome. The prevalence of each value is compared across time and at various stages of the policy process at the agency level. By tracking trends of values in performance measures across years based on different stages of the policy process, this study found that value congruence exists across years at the agency level. This study finally provides practical implications.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has triggered not only a health crisis but also a serious economic recession in the world. More than 200 million people are expected to lose their jobs in the economic cris...

We propose a decision-making framework on infrastructure policy conflictmanagement based on a scientific approach. We developed a decision-makingframework that consists of the systematic conflict structure diagnosis,decision-making accordingly, and feedback to be used consistently in the policylife cycle and applied it to new airport projects in South Korea. We suggested amodel structure of conflict factors leading to the generation of conflictsituations and damages in the process and developed the conflict level diagnosistable and the conflict level matrix formed of the possibility of conflictgeneration and the severity based on the table. We then implemented adecision-making framework that includes decision-making based on it. The caseanalysis results confirmed the need for a structural diagnosis of conflict anddecision-making based on the framework. The developed framework is expected tohave scalability for science progress on infrastructure policy conflictmanagement.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments swiftly decided to order nationwide lockdowns based on limited evidence that such extreme measures were effective in containing the epidemic. A growing concern is that governments were given little time to adopt effective and proportional interventions protecting citizens’ lives while observing their freedom and rights. This paper examines the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in containing COVID-19, by conducting a linear regression over 108 countries, and the implication for human rights. The regression results are supported by evidence that shows the change in 10 selected countries’ responding strategies and their effects as the confirmed cases increase. We found that school closures are effective in containing COVID-19 only when they are implemented along with complete contact tracing. Our findings imply that to contain COVID-19 effectively and minimize the risk of human rights abuses, governments should consider implementing prudently designed full contact tracing and school closure policies, among others. Minimizing the risk of human rights abuses should be a principle even when full contact tracing is implemented.

ABSTRACT This study aims to analyze how the Korean government has been effective in taming COVID-19 without forced interruptions (i.e. lockdowns) of citizens’ daily lives. Extending the theory of organizational learning, we propose the quadruple-loop learning model, through which we examine how a government can find solutions to a wicked policy problem like COVID-19. The quadruple-loop learning model is applied to explain how the Korean government could effectively tame COVID-19 in the initial stage through its agile as well as adaptive approach based on effective interactions of backstage (time, target, and context) and frontstage of policy processes mainly focusing on the initial stage until the highest alert level was announced. Based on the Korean case, this study also examines critical factors to effective learning organizations such as leadership, information and transparency, as well as citizen participation and governance.

ABSTRACTStarting in 2012, the South Korean government has implemented a large-scale relocation of its central government agencies, which are now split between the existing capital city (Seoul) and a new administrative-capital city (Sejong). One of the most controversial aspects of the relocation has been the bureaucratic inefficiency caused by its split nature. ICT-enabled solutions, dubbed “Smart Work”, were adopted to deal with this challenge, but have not been effective in avoiding inefficiency. In this article, we argue that different forms of organisational inertia created resistance to switching from traditional work routines to Smart Work’s ICT-assisted equivalents. Various forms of inertia – psychological (anxiety around learning new technologies), cognitive (culture/norms in face-to-face work routines), technological (stickiness of pre-existing IT system), political (continued influence from elected officials), and resource allocation (success bias from previous digital government projects) – significantly influenced public managers’ work practices in Sejong. These types of inertia, we argue, have reinforced face-to-face communication rather than digital communication, on-site visits rather than video-conferencing, and fixed-time work rather than flex-work. Our findings challenge dominant views from functionalist models of digital transformation and emphasise the importance of cultural congruency between workplace norms and technophilic business processes.

This study investigated the main effects of a subordinate’s (ratee) political skill dimensions (social astuteness, apparent sincerity, interpersonal influence, and networking ability) on supervisor (rater) performance rating and further analyzed the interactive effects of social similarity in the subordinate–supervisor dyad on the relationship between political skill dimension and performance rating. To test these relationships, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used on a matched sample of 337 subordinate–supervisor dyads who worked in South Korea’s central government. Findings showed that subordinates with higher social astuteness, interpersonal influence, and networking abilities (but not apparent sincerity) will likely achieve more positive supervisor ratings. More importantly, the relationship between these political skill dimensions and performance ratings is stronger when there is greater social similarity between a subordinate (ratee) and his or her supervisor (rater). The findings’ practical and academic implications and future research directions are discussed.