A Case Study on a Typology of the Job-Based Pay System of Public Organizations: A Resistance to the Organizational Change Perspective

Abstract

The wage system in public institutions has been cited as a target for government reform due to issues of excessive labor costs, debt growth, and low service quality. Those issues are partly due to seniority-based pay, which increases wages based on years of service. Although the government has emphasized the need for job-based pay for public organizations, very few public institutions have actually introduced this system. In order to promote the adoption of these policies, it is necessary to analyze how institutions introduced job-based pay system overcome resistance to change. This study aims to categorize job-based pay introduced by public institutions through case studies of seven public institutions that introduced job-based pay, and to clarify the reasons that these institutions can introduced job-based pay from the perspective of a resistance to organizational change. Our findings indicated that two out of seven public institutions are differentiating basic salaries according to job value, four are differentiating allowances, and one is differentiating incentives. First, from the perspective of organizational culture and characteristics, we found that organizational culture consistent with the purpose of the job-based pay system had a positive effect on overcoming resistance to the introduction of job-based pay. Next, it was found that minimizing negative expectations for the results after the introduction of the job-based pay helped overcome the resistance to the introduction of the job-based pay. Finally, we identified that the acceptance of job-level introduction was strengthened by utilizing external experts, holding employee briefings, and establishing a job-level introduction committee to overcome organizational change resistance. Based on these results, we discussed theoretical and practical implications of the study and future research directions.