Traditionally, local government chief executive officers in Korea have been presumably thought to be a powerful leader in local government public decision. However, a primary issue in the future of local government is that of involving community and providing leadership where citizens are participating partners in governmental decision making. This study first refers to the situation approach in leadership theory and then develops a model where citizens' evalution for local government chief executive officers depends on five factors; local political, public financial, traits of local government chief executive officers, public service delivery performance, and individual characteristics of citizens. This study finds that the most important factor affecting citizens evaluation is public service delivery performance in local government with some variation across individual characteristics of citizens though the other factors are also related with citizens evaluation. Therefore, local government chief executive officers in Korea should do their best to enhance public service delivery performance while they should deal with citizens with speicial needs.

Traditionally, local government chief executive officers in Korea have been presumably thought to be a powerful leader in local government public decision. However, a primary issue in the future of local government is that of involving community and providing leadership where citizens are participating partners in governmental decision making. This study first refers to the situation approach in leadership theory and then develops a model where citizens' evalution for local government chief executive officers depends on five factors; local political, public financial, traits of local government chief executive officers, public service delivery performance, and individual characteristics of citizens. This study finds that the most important factor affecting citizens evaluation is public service delivery performance in local government with some variation across individual characteristics of citizens though the other factors are also related with citizens evaluation. Therefore, local government chief executive officers in Korea should do their best to enhance public service delivery performance while they should deal with citizens with speicial needs.