미국 주정부의 임의고용제도 연구: 조지아, 플로리다, 텍사스 주 사례를 중심으로

Employment at will (or at-will employment) is a doctrine of American law that defines an employment relationship in which either party (the employer or the employee) can break the employment relationship with no liability. The at-will rule has its genesis in a rule in Horace Gray Wood’s 1877 treatise on master-servant relations. Under this legal doctrine, any hiring is presumed to be "at will." Accordingly, the employer is free to discharge individuals "for good cause, or bad cause, or no cause at all," and the employee is equally free to quit, strike, or otherwise cease work. However, several exceptions to the doctrine exist. In other words, there are legal limitations upon the employer's ability to terminate without reason. Proponents of this doctrine argue that employment at-will could increase public employees’ responsiveness to managerial and political executives and might provide motivation for better performance. However, employment at-will might also encourage undesirable behaviors such as poor layoff decision-making and insensitivity to procedural fairness. Employment at-will may be negatively perceived in many Asian countries including Korea because job security of government employees is quite well assured in many Asian countries. This article reviewed experiences of three American state governments including Georgia, Florida, and Texas. This paper could be informative to understand employment at will practices in American states and might provide useful lessons for the development of civil service systems in the future.