Exploring the linkage between ministerial leadership and performance in Korea

The significance and the role of leadership in organizations and institutions have been widely discussed but not well understood. Much of the previous literature is limited to leadership practices and education as well as to the American context. Focusing on the Korean ministerial level, this study examines the ministerial leadership interplaying uniquely between the president (politics) and career civil servants (administration). Extending the typology of transformational and transactional leadership, this study presents five different leadership orientations and investigates their association with ministers' performances. Based on the 2002 Korean Minister Survey, this study shows that the strategic-transformational and external-transformational forms of leadership are the primary determinants of Korean ministers' performance. This study suggests that political appointees like Korean ministers should strike a balance between their political responsiveness as political appointees and their administrative responsibility as department heads.