A Study on Antecedents of Ethical Leadership of Power Retailers, : Focusing on the Relationship between Discount Stores and Their Suppliers

대형 유통업체 윤리적 리더십의 선행변수에 관한 연구 : 할인점과 공급업체 간 관계를 중심으로

With accumulated research evidence, there is little doubt that leadership behavior is related to a wide variety of positive individual and organizational outcomes. Indeed, leadership behavior has been empirically linked to increased employee satisfaction, organizational commitment, extra effort, turnover intention, organizational citizenship behavior, and overall employee performance. Although leadership behavior has been linked to a number of positive organizational outcomes, research regarding the antecedents of such behavior is limited. Especially there is little research dealing with the antecedents of inter-organizational leadership behavior. This study interests in inter-organizational ethical leadership among marketing channel members. In both the mass media and the academic association, there has been a surge in interest in the ethical and unethical behavior of leaders. Although the corporate scandals in recent years may explain much of the mass media and popular focus, academics' interest has been limited by evidence that ethical leadership behavior is associated with both positive and negative inter-organizational processes and performances. This study tried to contribute to this body of knowledge by examining antecedents of ethical leadership. Ethical leadership is defined "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making." Ethical leaders not only inform individuals of the behefits of ethical behavior and the cost of inappropriate behavior, such leaders also set clear standards and use rewards and fair and balanced punishment to hold followers accountable for their ethical conduct. Despite the assume importance and prominence of ethical leadership among organizations, there are still many questions relating to its antecedents and consequences. One is whether the likelihood of an leading organization being perceived as an ethical leader among other following organizations in marketing channels can be predicted using its characteristics and inter-organizational relationship maintenance skills. Identifying trait and skill antecedents will aid in the development of strategies for selecting and developing ethical leaders and determining the best means to reinforce ethical behaviors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of three categorized variables on ethical leadership of channel leader. To be concrete, this study develops a model of the antecedents of three conceptually distinct forms of channel leader characteristics, such as organizational traits, inter-organizational relationship maintenance strategies, and supplier management strategies, and tests the hypothesized differential effects on ethical leadership of marketing channel leaders. The reason why this study deals with discount store channel is that there is very strong inter-dependence between a discount store and its suppliers. Their strong inter-dependence makes their relationship as the relationship between a leader and suppliers and creates an atmosphere that leadership occur without difficulty. The research model is as follows. For the purpose of empirical testing, 295 respondents of suppliers of discount store channel in Korea were surveyed. The procedures included scale reliability, and discriminant and convergent validity were used to validate measures. Also, the reliability measurements traditionally employed, such as the Cronbach's alpha, were used. All the reliabilities were greater than .70. This study conducted confirmatory factor analyses to assess the validity of our measurements. All items loaded significantly on their respective constructs(with the lowest t-value being 15.2), providing support for convergent validity. We then examined composite reliability and average variance extracted(AVE). The composite reliability of each construct was greater than .70. The AVE of each construct was greater than .50. This study tested research model using Partial Least Square(PLS). The estimation of the structural equation model revealed an acceptable fit of the model to the data($r^2$=.851). Thus, This study concluded that the model fit was considered acceptable. The results of PLS are as follows. The results indicated that conscientiousness, openness, conflict management, social networks, training, fair reward had positive effects on ethical leadership of channel leaders. On the other hand, emotional insecure had negative effect and agreeableness, assurance, and inter-organizational communication had no significant effect on supply chain leadership.

본 연구는 최근 인사조직 분야에서 집중적인 조명을 받고 있는 윤리적 리더십을 유통경로 연구에 적용함으로써, 그 동안 그 중요성에 비해 덜 조명되었던 유통경로 내 조직 간 리더십에 대한 이해를 증진시키고자 한다. 특히, 본 연구는 비교적 최근 밝혀지기 시작한 윤리적 리더십의 선행변수에 초점을 맞춤으로 유통경로의 구성원 간 관계에서 윤리적 리더십이 형성되기 위해서는 어떻게 해야 하는 지를 규명하고자 한다. 이를 위해 본 연구는 조직의 성격특성과 관계유지전략이라는 두 가지 이론적 차원의 변수들과 실무자들과의 심층면접을 통해 중요하게 언급된 공급업체 관리활동 변수들을 실증하였다. 국내 6대 할인점에 상품을 공급하는 공급업체 295개 사의 납품 담당자를 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였고, PLS(Partial Least Square) 구조모형 분석을 통해 분석한 결과, 대형 할인점의 조직특성 중 양심이, 관계유지 전략 중 개방전략, 갈등관리전략, 사회망전략이, 공급업체 관리활동 중 교육훈련과 공정한 보상이 대형 할인점의 윤리적 리더십을 강화하는 것으로 나타났다. 반면, 대형 할인점의 정서적 불안정은 윤리적 리더십을 약화시켰고, 친절성과 보장전략, 조직간 커뮤니케이션은 윤리적 리더십에 유의적인 영향을 미치지 않았다.