The Korea Local Administration Review

This study targeted public officials and local residents of 20 districts in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul and explored the mutual understanding and cooperative relationship between the two groups. For the research, this study systematically analyzed the state of co-orientation on the relationship between the two groups to examine the resident autonomy’s conditions through effective private-public relationship management and discovery of public relations strategy. The results were as follows. In the co-orientation between two groups, while agreement for all elements were low, the thoughts toward public were predicted relatively accurately showing dissensus. On the other hand, public officers showed low agreement and accuracy indicating false consensus state. Thus, it is necessary to largely expand the local residents’ influence on resident autonomy activities. To expand influence, there should be active communication strategy which asks for understanding to local residents by discussing difficulties of bold empowerment and district administration. Regardless of such political implications, this study targeted the partial region of Seoul as the research subject while the resident autonomy’s institutional environment differs by each region. As a result, this study result is limited in generalization and it needs to suggest specific alternatives by supplementing qualitative methods such as in-depth interview.