Yonsei University · Social Sciences
Professor Sounman Hong's research lab specializes in public administration and organizational behavior, with a focus on how diversity, performance management, and institutional feedback mechanisms influence bureaucratic integrity and public service performance. The lab investigates the impact of representative bureaucracy—particularly ethnic diversity in public institutions—on organizational outcomes such as crime reduction, misconduct, and racial profiling. It also explores how performance feedback and social media use affect managerial decision-making and public opinion, using rigorous empirical methods like regression discontinuity designs and longitudinal data analysis. The lab’s work bridges public policy, organizational theory, and behavioral economics to understand the dynamics of accountability and equity in public sector organizations.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Abstract In 1999, the U.K. government set force‐specific 10‐year targets for recruiting new police officers from ethnic minorities. Using these targets as instrumental variables, this study finds that this policy mandating an increase in the share of ethnic minority officers in a given force is associated with a decrease in the number of crimes in the area under the force's jurisdiction during the 10‐year period. It is argued that greater representativeness and diversity within a public organiza
In this study, we examine organizational responses to performance management in the public sector by studying Korean public agencies’ responses to their annual performance feedback. In doing so, we employed a regression discontinuity design that exploits the relationship between performance grades and the numeric inputs that determine the grades to uncover the impact of performance management on performance. Evidence suggests that the social and historical aspirations of public organizations sig
Abstract This article examines whether representative bureaucracy improves organizational integrity using evidence from English and Welsh police forces that implemented ambitious targets to increase the share of ethnic minority officers during 2000–2010. The evidence shows an association between an increase in police force ethnic minority representation and a subsequent reduction in police misconduct. An increase in representativeness is also shown to be associated with a decrease in the share o
This study examines the association between the degree to which a police force is ethnically representative of the population it serves and the force’s engagement in racial profiling as a policing tactic. Evidence for this study comes from English and Welsh police forces that implemented force-specific recruitment targets for officers from ethnic minority backgrounds between 2000 and 2010. Results suggest that an increase in the proportion of ethnic minorities on a police force is significantly
Social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook have been hailed as politically transformative communications technologies, on the level of previous politically significant technological innovations, such as radio and television. In this paper we estimate the impact of the use of the social media tool 'Twitter' by American politicians on changes in public opinion of those politicians over time, and we find little evidence that the political use of Twitter has eitther a positive or negative impac
We examine performance impact on management by investigating whether information on past organizational performance (‘performance feedback’) influences future managerial quality. We employ a regression discontinuity design to analyse the performance and managerial quality of Korean metropolitan governments’ utility services. We find that (1) providing performance feedback improves managerial quality, but this impact is observed only among low-performing organizations, and (2) the impact of perfo
This study investigates whether citizen participation in public budgeting resulted in increased redistributive outcomes when compared with bureaucratic decision‐making. We focused on a specific budget item (i.e., the installation of surveillance cameras for crime prevention) and examined whether participatory budgeting yielded larger budget allocations to low‐income neighbourhoods. Results indicate that such participatory budgeting results in larger budget allocations for low‐income neighbourhoo
Abstract Governments around the world have implemented reforms to reduce red tape, but little evidence exists about whether they have achieved their goals. Utilizing a quasi‐experimental regression discontinuity design, this research examines the impact of a policy implemented by the Korean central government to reduce local levels of regulatory red tape. The findings show, first, that the centrally designed reform significantly reduced local levels of red tape, but the reduction occurred only a
Why do some politicians actively use social media, while others lag behind? To answer this question, we propose that opposing party politicians, underdogs, and extremists are more likely to become active political tweeters. Research has shown that media attention is generally concentrated on politicians with power; that is, ruling parties and party leaders. We thus hypothesize that politicians marginalized from media attention, namely backbenchers and those from opposing parties, may perceive gr
Abstract This article explores how political principals weigh loyalty and competence in public personnel decisions. Exploiting the abrupt shift in political leadership following the impeachment of President Park Geun‐hye of Korea, the authors examine how the newly elected president made the decision to retain or dismiss 118 agency heads appointed by the previous administration. The evidence shows the importance of loyalty in managerial survival: those who had a political patronage relationship w
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