Mr. Samson Sung-Hsien Lee

Vice Chairperson, Civil Service Protection and Training Commission, ROC
President, ARTDO International
President Emeritus, Chinese Society for Training and Development

Education

MBA, Northrop University, USA
MPA, National Cheng-Chi University, ROC

Work Experiences in Government

Director General, National Civil Service Institute
Chief Secretary, Civil Service Protection and Training Commission
Director General, Ministry of Examination
Deputy Director General, Ministry of Civil Service
Personnel Director, Ministry of Examination
Section chief, Specialist, and Executive Officer of Central Personnel Administration

Publications

Training and Development of Human Resource, 2001. (in Chinese)
Human Resource Development: T&D Theories and Applications, 2007. (in Chinese)
Meet the BOSS from Heaven, 2008. (in Chinese)

Mr. Samson S.H. Lee is currently the Vice Chairperson of the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission (CSPTC) of the Republic of China, and serves as both the President of Chinese Society for Training and Development and the Vice President of ARTDO International.

After graduating from the Department of Public Administration, National Cheng Chi University, Mr. Lee began his distinguished career of public service in the Personnel Division of the Taiwan Power Company. From there, he was transferred to the Central Personnel Administration of the Republic of China, where he served as a section chief. Mr. Lee was subsequently admitted to Northrop University in the U.S., and received government sponsorship for advanced study. At Northrop, he earned an MBA with a concentration in Human Resources Management and Development. After returning to Taiwan, he was made Deputy Director General of the Department of Civil Service Laws in the Ministry of Civil Service, a position which put him in charge of formulating and explaining personnel regulations. He then was transferred to the Ministry of Examination and promoted to Director General of General Affairs. The wide range of his cross-departmental administrative experience allowed him to establish personal networks among the different fields of organizations or institutions, and cultivated his abilities and insights into organizational management.

In 1996, the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission was established from the idea that the government should enhance the protection and training of civil servants. With his relevant knowledge and experience, Mr. Lee was made the commission’s first Chief Secretary, and he immediately undertook the formal systematizing of training for Taiwan’s civil service. During the time, he was awarded by central government as a model of civil servants. In 2002, he became the Director General of the National Civil Service Institute, where he continued to upgrade the training of civil servants by initiating the promotion of TQM initiatives. He first focused on raising the quality of service of civil servants by inculcating in NCSI trainees the collective identity of a corps of disciplined professionals. Mr. Lee also strove to design new courses, to update existing course materials, to introduce the innovative training approaches of experiential and scenario learning, and also to form a fair and effective assessment system for all aspects of training.

Due to the inspiration from varied sources that informed Mr. Lee’s efforts and that he was able to impart to trainees, the NCSI quickly became associated with the highest quality of service. Its roots lie in a high-quality image, and in highly specialized, spontaneous, enthusiastic, and touching service. These characteristics require empathy, the ability to put oneself in the customers’ position experience whether the service is positive or negative, and then adjusting the service to match the customer’s needs. To provide touching service beyond even the customer’s expectations, just with an SOP is not enough; it can encourage a basic level of service, but cannot really satisfy customers or touch them through service. Therefore, what is needed is customer-oriented service, which means an SOP plus an extra emphasis gained through employees’ smiles, devotion and empathy.

In Mr. Lee’s view, a good organizational culture can be formed, a behavior model of high contribution can be constructed, and the framework of bureaucracy can be broken with in order to achieve long-term objectives. Along the way, learning from mistakes is more important than condemning or punishing personnel. Hence, he always keeps in mind the concept of giving people one more chance, and uses a progressive system of positive and negative reinforcement to manage order and discipline.

Mr. Lee successfully brought academic, business, and governmental senior officials together into NSCI as faculty and established a public-private partnership. This cooperation provided a fruitful background for the NCSI’s e-learning system, and elevated the learning climate among civil servants to form a pattern of organizational learning. During his six-year term as Director, Mr. Lee made the NCSI the first brand among training organizations in Taiwan. NCSI led by him was awarded the ARTDO HRD Award in 2008.

With the great achievements mentioned above, Mr. Lee is also famous with his publications in human resource domain area, such these books as following, Training and Development of Human Resource (2001), Human Resource Development-T&D Theory and Practice (2007), Meet the Boss from Heaven (2008), which is also one of the best 10 selected books of the year 2009 for civil servants. Besides, Mr. Lee also has a lot of professional papers published by many kinds of journals.

Finally, Mr. Lee actively participates in other activities training and organizational development. In 2000, he served as Secretary General of the Chinese Society for Training and Development, and organized the 29th ARTDO meeting in Taipei. In 2005, Mr. Lee also served as President of the Chinese Society for Training and Development, where he was able to continue to integrate the training organizations and resources of public and private sectors in Taiwan. Mr. Lee has been a long-term partner of ARTDO since the 1980s, when he started to participate in ARTDO activities, serving as the organization’s Director until 2005, and now as a Vice President.