Introducing a New Talent Management System for Korea’s Public Officials

Abstract

This article criticizes that the personnel management system for Korean public officials is seriously lacking competition among public employees and fails to nurture their competence and confidence due to too much reliance on rank, seniority, closed recruitment, and excessive rotation of positions as well as due to the consequent problems of deep-seated ministry selfishness and rising political influence over public officials. To redress such a state of crisis, we suggest that the new talent management system for Korean public officials should be introduced through 3C (competition, competence, and confidence) strategies and three major reforms that include abolishment of the elite recruitment system at the fifth-level, abolishment of the career path in which most public employees serve for a single ministry for entire duration of their careers, and introduction of the matrix personnel management system that combines the vertical management with the horizontal one.