SECURITY AGENCY: Differences in Leaders' Followership in the Korean Security Police Organization according to the Educational Background and Employment Paths

Abstract

Purpose: In this study, police officers of the security police organization, which is the backbone of the security of the Republic of Korea, will be analyzed for their perception of the leaders' followership and will seek policy measures to improve the positive leadership of the security police organization, the subsequent followership, and even the positive self-leadership of the members of the organization. Method: In this study, 100 police officers in the security department of the Korean police organization were surveyed using self-administration method to analyze the perceived attitude toward leaders' followership. Educa-tional background and employment paths were used as the main variables for measurement. Among the various characteristics of the special security police, the focus was on how the leaders' followership differed according to the educational background and employment paths of the security police department. Results: According to the analysis, for most of the questions that showed statistical significance, security police officers with a relatively high level of education rated the leaders' followership higher. For employment paths, on most of the questions that showed statistical significance, security police officers who were police cadets were found to have a more positive assessment of the leaders' followership than those who became police officers through general recruitment or special recruitment. Conclusion: In order to ensure that security police officers with a relatively low level of education and who were general policemen/women are reborn as more voluntary and active model followers, the overall employment paths of the entire police organization, including the security police, need to improve. That police officers with a relatively low level of education and who were general policemen/women had a negative assessment of the lead-ers' followership may be a negative reaction to the problems that the security police organization has been con-stantly undergoing changes depending on the government's political orientation. Therefore, future government, political circles, and police leaders should not make drastic changes to the security police organization in line with the government's political orientation and the micro changes in the inter-Korean relations.