The politicization of senior civil service in Korea: a human resource management perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the politicization of senior civil service (SCS) in Korea from a human resource perspective. To be specific, it is to explore how much the SCS has been politicized after its inception in 2006 and to discover what has strengthened it. Design/methodology/approach This paper employs the human resource management perspective with five stages, selection, rotation, education, promotion and compensation, which are related with different weights to four causes of politicization: political desire to control, leadership change, public demands and political interest. Findings This paper argues that politicization of SCS in Korea has gradually increased during the last 10 years. It also found that, while selection and promotion is strongly politicized, education and compensation is weakly politicized. Originality/value This paper mainly draws increasing politicization after it was introduced. Little prior literature has explored the politicization of SCS in human resource management processes and its causes for Korea.