Interview with Cho Taejun, the New Professor of Program in the Vocational Education and Workforce Development

Q. Could you briefly introduce yourself?

A. My name is Cho Taejun, and I will be joining the faculty of Seoul National University in the first semester of 2024 as a professor majoring in Human Resource Development. After graduating from Hanyang University with a bachelor's degree in educational engineering, I earned a master's degree in educational engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). During his doctoral studies, he became interested in the field of human resource development, which led him to major in human resource development (HRD) in the department of human resource education, and he wrote his doctoral dissertation on knowledge management, believing that knowledge sharing and creation are the core of human resource development. After graduating, he returned to Korea and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the BK Research Center in the Department of Education at Seoul National University. In 2012, he was appointed as a professor in the Department of Management at another university for three years, and then switched to the Department of Creative and Human Resource Development (HRD) for nine years. Through my teaching experience in the Department of Business Administration and the Department of Creative Human Resources Development, I was able to experience and learn a lot about interdisciplinary research. I believe that I can incorporate these experiences into my lectures and convey a lot to my students.

Q. Please introduce your major, Human Resource Development and Performance Engineering.

A. To connect and understand 'Human Resource Development and Performance Engineering', it is important to see the big picture. If you look at the meaning of each word in human resource development, you can easily understand what kind of study it is. 'Human' means a person who can be a resource. We can think of 'resource' in two ways: the immediate aspect of what they can do when put to work in the present, and the potential aspect of what they can do in the future. Finally, 'development' is composed of the concept of training, which can be performed through short-term training, and the concept of education, which can develop the potential of human resources in the long term. Therefore, to sum up 'human resource development', it can be said that it is a discipline that makes people useful so that they can be used as resources in the organization or field, and also develops the potential of people.

So you may be wondering what is performance engineering? The goal of any organization is performance. Performance can be further divided into effectiveness, which is related to the rate at which stakeholders achieve their goals, and efficiency, which is about getting the most out of the least amount of input. Performance engineering is the study of balancing effectiveness and efficiency to achieve performance that is appropriate to the characteristics of the organization. Performance engineering in relation to human resources is to manage and develop the overall performance of the organization by developing people, thinking about the development of the team, and further reorganizing the organizational culture. To summarize, it can be said that it is a discipline that deals with performance related to people.

Q. You've changed your major several times over the years, was there a particular reason that led you to change your major or field of study?

A. I was originally an educational engineer. Educational engineering is an organizational discipline for the rational planning and execution of all elements necessary for educational activities in light of their purpose, and as the word suggests, it focuses on education. While it may seem ideal to solve problems with education, it can also be an inefficient and unnecessary endeavor. I came to study human resource development to have a more comprehensive view of education.

Perceptions have constantly changed over time, and organizational cultures and business models have changed accordingly. I believe that HRD is an applied discipline, not a pure discipline, and should constantly change to keep up with the times. As a scholar studying HRD, I am trying to pursue new things and keep changing.

Q. What was the most interesting or rewarding research you have done, and what was the most disappointing?

A. I don't think I have a favorite research, but rather a regrettable one. Many graduate students in Korea tend to rely on overseas scholars in their research, and I often see them trying to find linkages in their research through variables already developed by overseas scholars, but I would like to be a scholar who designs and establishes research concepts that allow overseas scholars to use variables and concepts developed in Korea.

An example of this is the work I did on designing the concept of the word 'linkership'; there are scholars who have defined the concept of 'linkership', but it is different from what I think it is, so I worked on creating a new concept. If you think about the organizations that we are a part of, it's not always the person in a leadership role that is in charge, and it's not always one person who creates knowledge and teaches it to other members of the organization, but there are people in the organization who connect the people who need the knowledge to the people who have the source knowledge, and there are people who connect them through relationships. We have experience refining and designing these concepts by breaking them down into three separate concepts: strategic linkages, informational linkages, and relational linkages. I think it is possible to refine and redesign these concepts without relying on overseas scholars, and with the capabilities of domestic researchers. We will continue to strive to make the aforementioned ambitions possible.

Q.What is the most important thing you take into account when teaching?

A. When I was studying abroad in the United States, I took a course from a Nobel Prize-winning professor. What impressed me about his lectures was that he didn't let his Nobel Prize status give him a sense of authority or neglect his lectures, but always kept them fact-based and incorporated his philosophy into his lectures. The fact-based content of a class can be learned anywhere and from anyone, but the philosophy and life view of a professor is something that can only be learned from that person. My goal is to create a class that not only conveys factual content to students, but also conveys philosophical thought, just like the professor's class that impressed me so deeply. I guess you could say that creating my own classes that incorporate my life experiences and philosophy is what I am ultimately striving for.

Q. What would you like to say to the students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Program in the Vocational Education and Workforce Development?

A. Through my experiences as a pre- and postdoctoral researcher at Seoul National University and as a professor at other universities, I was able to gain a lot of experiences and philosophical thoughts that I would like to pass on to my students, and I hope to incorporate them into my lectures so that they can benefit from them. I came to Seoul National University, which is considered one of the best universities in Korea, and I hope that students in the Industrial Workforce Development major will be proud of themselves and actively participate in classes and learn a lot from the excellent professors.