Korean Journal of Policy Studies
Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University
Article
Prior Success, Asset or Poison?: Leadership Failure of Korea’s CEO President, Lee Myung-bak
Chang Soo Choe1
1Chang Soo Choe is an associate professor of public administration at Korea University’s Sejong Campus. His academic interests include leadership in the public sector, government reform, and local government. He received a Fulbright Mid-career Research Award in 2009, and his papers have appeared in journals including the Korean Public Administration Review, International Area Review, and Journal of Korean Local Government Studies. E-mail:
cschoe@korea.ac.kr.
© Copyright 2013 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: Jan 02, 2013; Revised: Feb 01, 2013; Revised: Feb 15, 2013; Accepted: Feb 20, 2013
Published Online: Apr 30, 2013
Abstract
Lee Myung-Bak’s CEO-style leadership made him an unpopular president. This article explores how his leadership style developed and was reinforced throughout his professional career. It examines his professional experiences, identifies key traits of his leadership, and analyzes how they were projected in his policy initiatives. Lee’s leadership traits, developed in the private sector, made his term as mayor of Seoul successful and helped him win the presidency. But these same successes undermined his presidency. Because they led him to cling to his leadership style without modification, he failed to cope with the different environment surrounding the presidency.
Keywords: presidential leadership; Lee Myung-bak; psychological approach
