Commitment to Gender Policy, Commitment to Organization and Innovative Behavior: Some Unexpected Linkages in Korea

Abstract

This study focuses on employee commitment among public employees working in five ministries in the Korean central government where the office of women was established to secure balanced perspectives in gender equality issues. While arguing employee commitment has multiple constructs, this study seeks to identify commitment to gender policy, which is distinct from commitment to organization. Using a total of 186 surveys, this study explores how commitment to gender policy can increase the levels of commitment to organization and innovative behavior among public employees. This study introduces direct experience of coping with gender-related issues as a control variable and finds some unexpected results that are contrary to our common understanding.

Keywords:

• employee commitment to gender policy
• representative bureaucracy in Korea

Notes

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15. Balfour, D. L., & Wechsler, B. 1996, op. cit.

16. To solve the vertical and unequal gender relationship problems associated with Confucian tradition, the Korean central government has recently showed a strong willingness to put a balanced perspective in every gender-related policy with the launch of the Ministry of Gender Equality in 2001. To secure this balanced perspective in every policy area, the Office of Women's Policy was also established in five ministries in the central government in 1998. The goal of this office is to provide strategic policy advices to each ministry on issues of concern to women as well as to facilitate cooperation among related agencies for effective, efficient implementations of women-related policies. Ministry of Gender Equality (2003). Job analysis and evaluation of the offices of women's policy. Seoul: Ministry of Gender Equality

17. Balfour, D. L., & Wechsler, B. 1991, op. cit.

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29. Lee, S. H., & Olshfski, D. 2002b, op. cit.

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31. Reichers, A. E. 1985, op. cit.

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38. Porter, L. W., Steers, R. M., Mowday, R. T., & Boulian, P. V., op. cit.

39. Mowday, R. T., Porter, L. W., & Steers, R. M., op. cit.

40. Balfour, D. L., & Wechsler, B. 1991, op. cit.

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47. Lee, S. H., & Olshfski, D. 2002a, op. cit.

48. Lee, S. H., & Olshfski, D. 2002b, op. cit.

49. Becker, T. E., Randall, D. M., & Riegel C. D., op. cit.

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54. Balfour, D. L., & Wechsler, B. 1991, op. cit.

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59. IBID

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61. Lee, S. H., & Olshfski, D. 2002b, op. cit.

62. Becker, T. E., op. cit.

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67. Reichers, A. E. 1986, op. cit.

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71. Lee, S-H & Olshfski, D. 2002b, op. cit.

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88. Lee, S. H., (2000). A multidimensional view of public sector employee commitment and willingness to support productivity improvement strategies: A comparative study of public employees at managerial level between the United States and South Korea. (Ph.D. Unpublished dissertation, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey).

89. Lee, S. H., op. cit.

90. Lee, S. H., & Olshfski, D. 2002a, op. cit.

91. Lee, S. H., & Olshfski, D. 2002b, op. cit.

95. Lee, S-H. (2005). Understanding employee trust, commitment, and innovative behavior in the public sector: An empirical study, unpublished manuscript.

96. Lee, S-H & Olshfski, D. 2002a, op. cit.

97. Balfour, D. L., & Wechsler, B. 1996, op. cit.

98. We also expect that gender variable would be expected to differentially influence the relationship between commitment to gender policy and commitment to organization. However, we were unable to use gender variable as a control variable as the number of female respondents who had direct experiencewas too small to run regression analyses by gender. This case also applies to Hypothesis 2 that will be discussed later.

99. Balfour, D. L., & Wechsler, B. 1996, op. cit.

100. In Confucian-oriented Korean society, individuals found identity in the relationships and mutual obligations within the extended families and above all, in the relationships with parents. Therefore, order and harmony, rather than competition and adversarial relations, have been supreme values, to be upheld by the conduct and example of superior men. Macdonald, D. S. (1988). The Koreans: Contemporary politics and society. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.