Civil Service in England, Japan, and South Korea - Research Paper Example

Management Research Paper: of Civil service in England, Japan and South Korea Management Research Paper: State of Civil service in England, Japan and South Korea Responsibility for Creating Civil Service Jobs South Korea In South Korea, prospective civil servants must undergo a rigorous examination process that would see them get accepted into the lower echelons of the civil service. Once they are accepted into these levels, their promotion will depend on seniority, knowledge and performance. The central government employs approximately 40 percent of all civil servants while the local governments employ approximately 60 percent of the civil servants. Civil servants are given employment on the basis of two contracts, career civil servants and contracted civil servants. The career civil servants are employed in a step-wise system that has the lowest (entry) level civil servant at grade 9 and highest level civil servants at grade 1. The contract civil servants are employed on specialized jobs that see their employment terminated once the terms of the contract have been met (Choi & Park 2013, pp. 12-13). Japan In Japan, the national civil service is responsible for all civil servant employments. Once employed in a ministry, an employee will remain with the same ministry until their employment is terminated. Transfers between ministries is very uncommon. A civil servant is advanced selectively but in the confines of rank such that the senior personnel have priority in terms of promotion. In reality, the actual retirement age for civil servants is 55 years of age but an ‘amakudari’ style of re-employment system has been adopted by Japan’s civil service in which retired workers are re-absorbed back into the workforce as part of the lifetime employment system employed in the country. The implication is that amakudari is an essential provision of the lifetime employment system where workers are obligated to resign from place of employment before they reach of the formal retirement age. The system provides low salaries for civil servants, when matched to salaries of the same age cohort in the private sector. Amakudari is an issue of great significance and one that has become very contentious. Each ministry runs independent of the others and central government such that; each minister is expected to bear the responsibility and that even the prime minister cannot direct other ministers’ business; and some of the core government ministries were created before the current constitution was promulgated. The local governments employ 75 percent of all civil servants while the central government employs the remaining 25 percent (Hood & Guy 2003, pp. 38-42; Institute of Administrative Management 2001, pp. 21-26). England The British civil service comprises of the central government employees, who are managed by the Minister of the civil service in addition to also being the Prime Minister while the head of the civil service is the cabinet secretary for the Home Ministry. All British nationals are allowed to apply for any civil service position that they are qualified to hold. In addition, approximately 75% of all Civil Service employment opportunities are open to Commonwealth countries citizens and the European Economic Area (EEA) citizens. The remaining civil service positions, approximately 25 percent, are sensitive positions that require a singular commitment to the country, are reserved for British nationals whose loyalty is above reproach or uncompromised. The local government, public sector and police personnel are not considered part of the civil service (British Council, 2005). Civil Service Laws on Job Termination South Korea The South Korean civil service has in the last 8 years been modified from seniority-based to outcome-based, f from generalist to specialist, from class-based to job-based and from a closed form to an open format system (Park 2011, p. 10). First, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security and the Civil Service Commission were combined into one entity, the Civil Service Commission. This commission is in charge of all human resource-related policies and their execution in the civil service, including all job employments and terminations. Other autonomous systems were also set up to manage senior civil Service Management and contract type employments, and their employment and termination aspects (Kim 2007, pp. 63-64). Second, discrimination based on gender, birthplace and educational background were also banned through circulars and directives. The management also stressed the representative nature of public offices by employing more females, disabled, and local personnel. Third, the Career Development Plan system was formed, and job rotation was put into practice in order to enhance professionalism and performance in the civil service. Fourth, the employment procedure for civil service was abridged as open type employment was extended (Lee, 2008, pp. 3-4). Fifth, the Senior Execution Service was introduced in July 2006 to raise the competence of senior civil servants who were in charge of management and decision making in terms of policies development. Sixth, result administration was strengthened through salary reviews and performance evaluation. Finally, employment terms were enhanced as licit labour bodies were formed and family-friendly working system and welfare system were introduced and expanded (Oh, 2007, pp. 32-34). Japan The royal civil commission is tasked with managing all civil service employment recruitment, management and termination. As part of supervising performance in ministries, the royal civil commission has protocols in place for evaluating and handling underperformance. Their duties would include informing a worker of the reasons why their performance is not up to standard and why they have been evaluated in a specific way and given a specific score, setting clear prospects about the areas where advances need to be made and the provision of ongoing feedback, counselling and/or exercise. In some settings, it may be apt to transfer an underperforming worker to a different work area within the agency that may be better suited to match the worker’s interests and skills. Eventually, where output has not improved, an agency head may terminate the employment of a civil servant on performance grounds. Section 29 of the Public Service Act provides the grounds for public service employment termination as being unsatisfactory and non-performance of the set duties. Any civil servant who is proven to have either not performed their duties or unsatisfactorily performed their duties is subject to a work performance review and possible termination of employment (Tatsuo 2012, pp. 202-203). England Section 8, Article 63 of the Civil Servants Act sets the rule for termination. It states that all civil service employment termination resolutions shall be made by the chief executive officer of the agency or the person so authorised in writing by the chief executive officer for that particular agency. Final resolutions on cessation of civil service shall then be presented to the central State authority responsible for civil service affairs. Any appeal against termination should be made to the Civil Service Board who will settle the appeals pursuant to Article 65 of the Civil Servants Act (British Council 2005, pp. 17-19). Scholarships for Civil Service Jobs South Korea All civil service scholarships are overseen by state run institutions that award them to civil servants based on application and recommendation. The civil service is expected to provide training opportunities for all its employees. They set up rudimentary policies and rules to develop, support, and evaluate their education process. They are also responsible for commissioning employee education both within and outside of the country. Each ministry or arm of the civil service is responsible for educating its own personnel about its policies and other relevant departments and ensuring that their knowledge is at par with the most current trends. Public office education institutes are responsible for providing basic education of prospective officials and professional education for current workers. There are thirty related central institutes, fifteen local training institutes, and six fire service academies located across the country. Education and training take place both domestically and abroad. Domestic education has several components: long-term training for section chiefs and bureau executives, commissioned education in universities and graduate schools, commissioned foreign language learning, and privately commissioned professional education. Long and short-term education abroad may take place in either non-English speaking countries, or English speaking countries. Long-term education is applied to senior civil servants, while short-term education is applied to junior civil servants, teams, and associations. In addition, the Government established a program to provide work incentives and to meet the long-range training needs of its staff. This program, called the Government Fellowship Program for Overseas Study, sends promising young officials to universities and research institutes in foreign countries for post-graduate study as well as on-the-job training. Every year, approximately 200 officials are sent to universities in the USA and other developed countries as the recipients of long-term fellowship, while another 1,000 are sent to training institutes and research facilities as short-term trainees. After completing training, these award recipients are expected to be appointed to positions previously designated or which are closely linked to their field of training (Choi & Park 2013, pp. 16-17). Japan The royal civil service commission manages all scholarships for civil servants provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). MEXT is the ministry mandated to manage all scholarships provided by the Japanese government. All prospective recipients must apply for the scholarships and ensure that they meet the minimum requirements before they are awarded the scholarship. The scholarships are for training opportunities either within or out of the country (MEXT, 2013). England England employs a civil servants scholarship program that is similar to that employed by the Japanese government. In addition to the education ministry managing scholarship programs, the home ministry also organises training opportunities for its personnel and ensure that they undergo refresher training on a regular basis. Institutions of higher education in England have also set up scholarship programs that target civil servants and offer training programs in fields that are relevant to their performance. Civil Service Paid Vacations South Korea South Korea civil service does not have vocation pay, but it has paid vacations for all employees. Civil servants acts mandate that the civil servants who have been employed for a minimum of 10 years in the civil service are entitled to 19 minimum statutory holidays, and 15 public holidays in addition to their annual vacations as stipulated in their contracts (Lee 2008, p. 2). Japan Japan civil service has specific regulations on vacation time in the civil service. After working as a civil servant for six months, a freshly employed personnel, regardless of their being full-time or part-time, must be permitted to have ten days of paid vacation if they have worked at least 80 percent of all the working days in that time. Then, for every single succeeding year the employee remains at their place of work, they add an additional paid off day. The labour ministry reported that the average civil servant takes approximately 8.6 days of paid vacation annually. Rengo, the Japan Trade Union Federation, added to this statistics by pointing out that 23 percent of Japanese employees did not take any leave, while 24 percent of them only took 2 annual vacation days (Brasor & Tsubuku 2014). Paid vacation are illegalised by the constitution. There have been increased pressure on the civil service to raise wages in line with the economic rescue strategy as presented by the Liberal Democratic Party. In line with this, some of the authorities have proposed paid leave as a way of ensuring that the objectives met, by remunerating the workers for the vacation time that they miss. In 1955, employers buying vocation time was illegalized because Japan was getting into its speedy economic development era, there were labour shortages and consumer demand was high, so the civil service found it financially feasible to buy civil servants’ vacations. The government and legislatures realised that employees could very effortlessly be abused and forced to give up their vacation time in exchange for payments on the time given up. Even though the practice of buying vocation time has been illegalised by the constitution, it is being practiced informally based on the civil servants willingness to sell some of their vocation period if they are paid for the lost vocation time. The government can now formally and legally compensate civil servants for pending leave when a worker retires or resigns, so amending the law to acknowledge this is a moot point (Brasor & Tsubuku 2014). England Civil servants in England are subject to a generous leave allowance, which is based on their contract agreements. The vacation time increase from 22 days to 25 after a year service and 30 days after ten years serving in the civil service. Civil servants can be paid for their vacation time (Home Ministry 2014). References Brasor, P., & Tsubuku, M. 2014, Use it or lose it: Workers want companies to pay for paid vacations, viewed 19 May 2014, British Council. 2005, Civil Servants Act. British Council, London. Choi, O., & Park, M. 2013, 2011 to 2012 Modularization of Korea’s Development Experience: The Establishment of Career Civil Service System in the Korean Government, Ministry of Strategy and Finance Republic of Korea, Seoul. Hood, C., & Guy, P. 2003, Rewards for High Public Office. Routledge, New York. Institute of Administrative Management 2001, Japan’s Government and Administration at a Glance. Institute of Administrative Management, Tokyo. Kim, S. 2002, ‘Discourse in the age of transformation-Directions for the development of the Korean Public Personnel Administration,’ The Korean Public Administration Journal, vol. 11. No. 1. pp. 62-71. Lee, H. 2008, ‘Public Personnel Policy Evaluation of the Roh Administration’, Local Administration, vol. 57. No. 655. pp. 2-15. MEXT. 2013, MEXT: Introduction, viewed 19 May 2014, Oh, H. 2009, Public Personnel Administration, 6th ed, Pakyoungsa, Seoul. Park, O. 2011, Modern Public Personnel Administration, 2nd ed, Bobmunsa, Seoul. Tatsuo, H. 2012, Development of Internationally Viable Human Resources: Open Recruitment of Graduates for National Civil Service. JKIIA, Tokyo. Home Ministry. 2014, Pay and Benefits, viewed 19 May 2014, Read More