Tobin Im (born Jan 7, 1961) is a scholar of

public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

and a professor at the Graduate School of

Public Administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

at Seoul National University. He specializes in public management,

organization theory Organizational theory refers to a series of interrelated concepts that involve the sociological study of the structures and operations of formal social organizations. Organizational theory also seeks to explain how interrelated units of organiza ...

, and comparative administration.

Career

Im received his B.A. and M.P.A. from

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

in 1983 and 1985. He completed his Ph.D. at the l'Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po), earning his sociology doctorate in 1993. He joined the Seoul National Univ. faculty in 1999. He was a visiting professor at the

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

(2000), Chinese Young Men's College (2001),

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

(2002), l'Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (2005), Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (2006). and

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

(2012). In 2015, he served as president of Korean Association of Public Administration, for which now he is a chief editor since 2019. He is also an editor of Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory and Public Performance & Management Review. The American Review of Public Administration conferred its annual Best ARPA Article award to Alfred Tat-Kei Ho and Tobin Im for "Challenges in Building Effective and Competitive Government in Developing Countries: An Institutional Logics Perspective." in 2016. He received the Best Researcher Award in Seoul National University in 2017 Tobin Im has become Dean of Graduate School of Public Administration (GSPA) at Seoul National University in 2018. The Ministry of Education awarded him Outstanding Performance Award for Academic Support Project for "The Two Sides of Korean Administrative Culture: Competitiveness or Collectivism?" GSPA ranks 11th in QS World University Rankings Social Policy & Administration in 2021.

Research interest

Im is currently studying

government competitiveness Government competitiveness is a state capacity State capacity is the ability of a government to accomplish policy goals, either generally or in reference to specific aims. More narrowly, state capacity often refers to the ability of a state to coll ...

, winning research grant by

Korea Research Foundation The National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF; ) is a research institute for Korean studies. It was established in 2009 through a merger between the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF; ), Korea Research Foundation (KRF; ; establ ...

. He creates a new concept, government competitiveness, which has been interchangeably used with a host of similar concepts, such as national competitiveness, government efficiency, and government effectiveness. Im serves as director of Center for Government Competitiveness developing a GC indicator which makes cross-national analyses available.

Publications

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References

External links

Tobin Im’s faculty profile at Seoul National University2015 International Conference of KAPA (Korean Association of Public Administration)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Im, Tobin 1961 births Seoul National University alumni Academics from Seoul Living people