Organizational Change at Seoul National University Business School
This paper examines the organizational transformation of Seoul National University (SNU) Business School's Graduate School of Business (GSB) as it pursued a vision to become a top-10 global business institution within ten years. Using Lewin's three-stage change model, the analysis traces the implementation of new MBA programs—including the Global MBA (G-MBA), SNU MBA (S-MBA), and Executive MBA (E-MBA)—and the challenges encountered in adapting North American business practices within a Korean academic culture. The paper identifies key barriers including faculty resistance to performance-based evaluation systems, increased salary costs for international faculty recruitment, and curriculum standardization requirements. It concludes by proposing solutions for tuition cost management, specialized course structures, and faculty globalization initiatives to strengthen SNU's competitive position in international business education rankings.
- Overview of Seoul National University Business School: SNU's structure, vision, and initial cultural context
- Theories of Planned Organizational Change: Lewin's change model applied to MBA program launch
- Strategic Analysis: MBA Program Development and Implementation: Three MBA programs, competitive strategy, and organizational restructuring
- Barriers and Challenges in Transformation: Faculty resistance, costs, cultural friction, and internal competition
- Proposed Solutions and Future Directions: Tuition reform, course restructuring, faculty globalization, government engagement
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What makes this paper effective
- Strong use of Lewin's three-stage change model (unfreeze-transition-refreeze) to structure analysis of real institutional transformation, making the theoretical framework directly applicable to a concrete case.
- Systematic identification of specific barriers—salary inflation for international faculty, cultural resistance to performance evaluation, naming confusion—grounded in actual organizational practices rather than generalities.
- Clear comparative context (G-MBA vs. S-MBA vs. E-MBA) that illustrates how different program designs serve distinct market segments and strategic objectives.
- Explicit attention to cultural friction: the paper recognizes how North American management practices clash with Confucian academic traditions, a crucial insight for change management in non-Western contexts.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates case study analysis applied to organizational behavior theory. Rather than presenting Lewin's model abstractly, the author maps real events at SNU onto each stage, creating a lived example of planned change. The paper also models analytical questioning (What should SNU's strategy be? What problems were encountered?) as a framework for evaluating organizational decisions, which develops evaluative and critical thinking beyond description.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a progression from context (institution overview) through theory application (Lewin's model), to detailed analysis (strategic decisions and barriers), and concludes with solution-oriented recommendations. This mirrors a consulting report structure: understand the organization, apply frameworks, diagnose problems, propose remedies. The analytical section uses questions to guide the reader through strategic decisions, barriers, and organizational changes, creating a multi-dimensional view of the transformation.
Overview of Seoul National University Business School
Seoul National University (SNU) Business School consists of two sub-organizations: the College of Business Administration (CBA) and the Graduate School of Business (GSB). The Business School's primary goal, as stated in its vision statement, was to enter the global top 10 within ten years. This ambitious objective required significant organizational transformation and strategic realignment.
SNU, a national research university located in Seoul, South Korea, was founded in 1946 as the country's first national university. It served as a role model for many public universities throughout South Korea. The College of Business Administration, the main body of SNU Business School, was one of sixteen colleges at the university and primarily focused on undergraduate, master's, and doctorate programs across seven majors: Finance, Marketing, Management Information Systems, Operations Management, Organizational Behavior, Accounting, and International Business.
In 2006, the Graduate School of Business (GSB) was formed and separated from the College of Business Administration. The GSB's purpose was twofold: to pioneer a new program called the Global MBA (G-MBA) and to launch two other professional training programs. The school also aimed at achieving global recognition in worldwide business school rankings, which required fundamental changes in how the institution operated.
As a government-administered institution, SNU faculty and staff were accustomed to traditional norms, including automatic tenure granted after a few years of service. The introduction of North American management practices—such as student-based faculty evaluation—was considered unusual and even offensive within Korean academic culture. In the Confucian tradition, where scholars are highly revered, professors were believed to deserve respect based on their position alone, not on performance metrics. However, most staff members attempted to remain positive and understand the rationale behind the new strategy. Once they grasped the objectives, many became supportive of the program.
By 2009, the dean outlined three remaining critical goals. First, the Faculty and Research initiative aimed to improve research output and support by hiring and retaining more qualified professors. Second, the Korean Case Study focus emphasized developing more Korean company cases as teaching resources and financing sources. Third, the proposed merger of G-MBA and S-MBA programs would address confusion caused by different application deadlines (G-MBA in August, S-MBA in January) and reduce administrative overlap.
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