Position islands on the career sea: An evaluation of the open competitive position system in Korea

In the 1990s, the Korean civil service was more criticized for its lower levels of competitiveness and productivity than was the private sector due to excessive job security and seniority-based personnel management under the career civil service system. To overcome the prevailing problems, the Korean government introduced the Open Competitive Position System (OPS) in 1999. The goal of the OPS is to appoint the most qualified persons to certain positions through open recruitment from both the public and private sectors. Under the new system, about 20 percent of senior positions are open to outside candidates, whereas the others are under the career-based system. In 2005, there were 156 OPS positions in 43 government organizations. Analyzing the several survey results and statistics from 2000 to 2005, this study evaluates the implementation of the OPS by reviewing its appropriateness, overall trend, performance, spillover effects, and problems and limitations. The study concludes that the OPS positively performed for more than five years. The OPS has shown that the government must open more jobs to competition from the outside if it wants to be more competitive.