Shaping Public Corporation Leadership in a Turbulent Environment

Abstract

This article explores how public corporation leadership copes with a turbulent environment using political, managerial, and individual leadership elements. It is an in-depth case study of Lee Ji-Song, who effectively managed the politically and managerially challenging environment that resulted from the merger of two large public corporations into the Korea Land and Housing Corporation. Lee, an engineer, manager, and chief executive of a major construction company, took advantage of his political, managerial, and individual leadership capital to cope with political challenges from lawmakers and with managerial challenges such as postmerger integration management, organizational stabilization, and financial improvement. The authors suggest that an effective public corporation leader must be a skillful politician and businessperson, as public corporations often operate in an environment in which public and private values interact.