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Korean Journal of Policy Studies
Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University

Korean J. Policy Stud. 2011; 26(3):53-67

pISSN: 1225-5017, eISSN: 2765-2807

DOI: https://doi.org/10.52372/kjps26304

Article

Strengthening Network Ties through Mentoring of Alienated Personnel*

Sangyub Ryu1, Soo-Young Lee2
1Sangyub Ryu is a PhD candidate in the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University of Georgia. E-mail: sangyubr@uga.edu.
2Soo-Young Lee is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University. E-mail: soo3121@snu.ac.kr.

© Copyright 2011 Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Oct 10, 2011; Revised: Oct 14, 2011; Revised: Oct 31, 2011; Accepted: Nov 17, 2011

Published Online: Dec 31, 2011

Abstract

This study examines the social network aspects of mentoring in order to suggest ways to manage alienated public employees. It also explores the impact of mentoring that requires closer relationships between mentors and mentees to develop network ties. Networks of trust, respect, and friendship among soldiers in four barracks of the Republic of Korea Army (two experimental groups and two control groups) were measured using a social network survey. Alienated soldiers in the experimental groups were mentored by fellow soldiers with stronger ties, while no such mentoring was conducted in the control groups. After three months of mentoring, changes in network strengths were found among alienated soldiers in the experimental groups, while no significant changes were found among alienated soldiers in the control groups. This study is expected to contribute to human resource management by suggesting ways to strengthen the network ties of alienated personnel through mentoring.

Keywords: mentoring; social network; experiment; Korean Army