Basic Report

Realizing great advancement of local autonomy and decentralization as well as resident participation has been a key national agenda of Moon Administration. To accomplish the agenda it has declared to secure such four rights of local autonomy as legislation, administration, organization and finance of local governments. To improve the degree of local autonomy in organizational structure and management several measures has been worked out, which are long-lasting issues in Korean governmental relations.
   The Ministry of the Interior and Safety(MOIS) has revised a law to allow a little more autonomous operation of the number of regular personnel of local governments, which is still recognized as insufficient by stakeholders in localities. Korean local authorities have suggested and figured out what and how to reform the local autonomy issues in a centralized system in Korea. A perceptual gap between them is based on different perspectives on the responsibility and accountability of organization and personnel management by local governments, but it has been narrowed because the more decentralization and autonomy has figured out better quality of public service and managerial effectiveness.
   This study seeks to recommend three approaches to develop an improved organizational management system in Korean local governments. First, it is necessary to devise a more refined model of the standardized staff expenditure to allow a more elastic personnel operation, i.e. operating the number of regular civil servants. In performing this retaining stable and adjustable volume of the standardized staff expenditure reflecting new demands and types of local governments is important. Second, to enhance the managerial capability of the local governments this study proposes to establish a standing system of the organizational diagnosis, which helps reinforce the organizational responsibility of local governments. Third, this study also recommends to consolidate a system of organizational management system which embraces widening information open and installing a center of organizational diagnosis.