The Korea Local Administration Review

The policy support officer system was newly introduced to strengthen the expertise, autonomy, and independence of local councils. Policy support officers perform a variety of duties, including collecting legislative data, investigating, and researching. However, during the operation of the system, various problems such as communication problems with local council members, manpower shortage, and mismatched expectations arising from job scope and treatment are occurring. Several studies have shown that the higher organizational commitment of organizational members leads to improved organizational performance. Accordingly, this study examines the influence of job satisfaction, expectation discrepancy, organizational trust, and trust in superiors on organizational commitment in order to improve the organizational commitment of policy support officers.
As a result of the analysis, job satisfaction and trust in the organization were found to have a positive (+) effect on organizational commitment, and discrepancy in expectations about organizational life and treatment was found to have a negative (-) effect on organizational commitment. Accordingly, as a way to improve the job satisfaction of policy support officers, it was suggested to seek alternatives for forming trust relationships, sharing values, and communicating with public officials belonging to local councils. Additionally, in order to increase trust in the organization, there is a need to raise awareness that the council's policy decisions are being implemented procedurally and fairly. It was also revealed that there is a need to implement efficient distribution of work for policy support officers and a fair personnel system. Lastly, in order to resolve the discrepancy in expectations of policy support officers, appropriate treatment is needed according to the expertise and rank of policy support officers, and in relation to this, it was suggested that training for not only public officials but also local council members is necessary.