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A Study on Effects of Franchise Distribution Employees on Occupational Identity

  • KIM, Ki-Soo (Department of Hotel Management, Kimpo University) ;
  • CHO, Sung-Ho (Department of Culinary Arts, Kimpo University) ;
  • KIM, Sung-Hun (Department of Airline Service, Korea Tourism College)
  • Received : 2019.07.09
  • Accepted : 2019.08.05
  • Published : 2019.09.30

Abstract

Purpose - This research is to verify job fitness, empowerment, and recognition of career development support having the influence on formation of occupational identity in Korean food franchise distribution company. Research design, data, and methodology - Total 600 copies have been distributed and 394 copies have been collected, the covariance structure analysis has been implemented to verify the presented research hypothesis. Results - Demand fit and competency fit being the lower level of job fitness appeared not to have significant influence on occupational identity, and also these do not have the significant influence on the empowerment. Even though formal career development support being lower level of career development recognition appeared to have significant influence on empowerment, nonformal career development support appeared not to have significant influence on empowerment. Formal career development support and nonformal career development support appeared to have significant influence on occupational identity. Finally, empowerment appeared to have significant influence on occupational identity. Conclusions - It is implied that the psychological and subjective success felt in employee's career course may be improved by the job related job fitness, the initiative being individual characteristic and formal and formless career development support being organizational characteristic.

Keywords

1. Introduction

As a representative service industry with a focus on human resources, Korean food franchise distribution companies are very important in securing and managing human resources, in order to gain an edge over competitors (Jung, Han, & Yoon, 2009). Especially, employee motivation plays a very important role in building high service productivity (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew, 2009). Service employees of Korean food franchises can be said to be a vehicle that arises from direct interaction with customers and at the same time identifies their needs. This is managed by a key element in the service industry that is linked to the profit generation of a company and also to influence the emotions of customers.

Service refers to the attitude, ability, appearance, kindness, communication, etc. of the employees in the process of contact between the customer and the employee. It also includes various behaviors such as consideration and help for customer convenience (Lee, 1999). The customer's emotional perception on the employee behavior affects service satisfaction, so employee management is a very important factor (Liljander & Mattson, 2002). Especially, in the case of Korean food franchise distribution companies, there are more interaction and contact between employees and customers than other service companies. These services are highly intuitive and highly influential. This is because it maximizes profits by providing services through explanation, consideration, and expression to the customers who use them. In this way, the human service of a Korean food franchise distribution companies has a more detailed contact with customers than other service providers, and interaction with customers is more important because the customer process is concrete and structured (Chiang, 2014). Therefore, in order to improve the customer satisfaction which is important in the service company, it is required to research the efforts on the service encounter of employees and relationship with the customer and the constituent elements to be formed. Furthermore, there is a need for in-depth research on customer satisfaction in the deep ties that customers feel about the company (Park & Lee, 2013).

In this way, human resources development has traditionally been utilized to provide education to employees and achieve corporate strategic goals or to change individuals or organizations as a process to enhance their capabilities. Previous studies have identified causal relationships among variables that affect occupational identity. However, previous studies on franchise companies are almost insignificant. Therefore, research is needed to overcome this gap. Additionally to develop the human resources of Korean food franchise distribution companies, it is necessary to identify the level of the employees on job fitness and occupational identity, and based on this, what factors affect occupational identity through career development reflecting the empowerment. Research is needed to see if it is driving or how it can be promoted.

In the present study, we will try to find out the leading factors and their structural causality to influence in the process of forming their occupational identity, based on the Korean food franchise distribution companies. This study also will examine the influence relationship of job fitness, empowerment, and career development support which affect the formation of occupational identity of korean food franchise distribution company. This relationship can be understood as to what constituent factors should be focused in order to improve the occupational identity of the employees according to the job fitness that service employees of Korean food franchise distribution companies perceive about their duty and tasks. In addition, this research suggests useful implications for human resources development of Korean food franchise distribution companies by finding ways to improve employees’ professionalism through establishing their occupational identity.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Job Fitness

As shown in table 1, Job fitness refers to the harmony between the tasks performed by the members of an organization, defined as the ability required by the function and also the ability held by the individual or the value provided by the task (Caldwell & O'Reilly, 1990). It is also defined as the balance required by an individual's ability and task, and the harmony with internal and external rewards provided by the task (Edwards, 1991). Thus, the individual's job fitness means the mutual organic harmony between the task and the task's performance, and the result of job fitness is manifested in the positive attitude and behavior towards job (Lee & Cho, 1994). In terms of capacity requirements, over-qualification and lack of qualification are negative for both organizations and individuals when an individual's job fitness is caused by an imbalance between competence, aptitude, and job qualifications (Cable & Judge, 1996; Lauver & Kristof-Brown, 2001). Job satisfaction in job clarity has a significant effect on job satisfaction and it is not significant in terms of turnover intention. In the case of the organization whose job clearance is not clearly defined, it shows high turnover intention (Lyons, 1971). Furthermore, personal mental adaptation and job performance have been discussed as outcome variables for job fitness, and significant correlation has been established between personal job fitness and self-respect (Meir, Melamed, & Abu-Freha, 1990; Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman, & Johnson, 2005). Job fitness is statistically related in occupational identity (Kim, 2017).

Table 1: Previous studies regarding job fitness

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2.2. Career development support

See table 2, Career development support is a process that enhances one's own job attitude, ability, and performance through a lifetime of experience gained by an individual (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Soa, 1986). In addition, career development support refers to organizational support for career development of organizational members, and organizational support refers to the recognition of the organization's interest in job training and care for employee welfare. These career development supports are emotional support for individuals to lead their own career development and are defined as activities that help members acquire information and specific skills about job. It is not merely an aid, but an emphasis on enhancing the ability of individuals to develop their own careers (Jung, 2014). In terms of the effectiveness of career development support, individuals can develop employees’ own capabilities to meet the expectations of the organization. From an organizational perspective, it is meaningful in terms of strengthening organizational capacity and securing future growth capacity (Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman, & Johnson, 2005). Lee (2013) defined support for career development as a system supported by a hotel organization to achieve individual and organizational career goals, and it is examined from two aspects of organization and supervisor researched by Heslin (2005). Seo (2010) looked at the concept of career development support as a systematic career management system of the organization divided into strategic system, operational system, organizational formal and informal support such as growth opportunity and supervisor support. Therefore, in this study, recognition of career development support of Korean food franchise means career development management and career development of organization members. These are the processes that can enhance their competence in the corporate organization.

Table 2: Previous studies regarding career development support

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2.3. Empowerment

As summarized in Table 3, Empowerment is recognized as a core concept that enhances organizational creativity, innovation, and initiative in a rapidly changing social environment and ultimately improves organizational effectiveness (Conger & Kanungo, 1988). Thomas and Velthouse (1990) extended from the motivational empowerment to more internalized job motivations, and also insisted that motivational empowerment is more intensified based on increasing internal motivation. Employees of organizations with empowerment were analyzed to be satisfied with their duties. It argued that it was a process to increase the self-efficiency of their members, and it should be understood as a motivational concept that highlights the psychological state of increased self-efficiency (Hocut & Stone, 1988). Fulford and Enz (1995) found that empowered organizational members had a significant effect on job satisfaction, loyalty, performance, and peer-to-peer relationship. The psychological empowerment of self-efficacy was significantly related to job performance and job satisfaction. Chan, Nadler, and Hargis (2015) argued that a strategic device is needed to increase individual empowerment for the voluntary innovation of corporate organizational members. Such authorized members of an organization can be emotionally or normatively immersed in their work and are satisfied with their organization. Thus, it is emphasized that the empowerment is not only delegating authority or inducing members to participate in the decision-making process, but also making the members feel themselves empowered and able to control their work effectively (Zhang & Bartol, 2010). Jung, Han, and Yoon (2009) showed that hotel cooks with empowerment reduce job stress, but they form organizational commitment and positive attitude. In addition, meaningfulness of the lower dimension had a significant effect on job stress and competency, but self-authority had no significant effect. Han and Kim (2011) analyzed that the empowerment of the hotel workers has a significant effect on organizational citizenship behavior. Kwon (2012) found that empowerment has a significant effect on the attitude of hotel employees. Furthermore, empowerment had different correlations with job satisfaction, commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior (Park & Park, 2012). An analysis of the mediated effects of psychological empowerment on the relationship between organizational fairness and innovative behavior among hotel workers had shown a positive effect on innovative behavior (Lee & Lee, 2013).

Table 3: Previous studies regarding empowerment

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2.4. Occupational identity

Occupational identity represents the degree of psychological unity that an individual has in one’s profession. Recently it is highlighted based on researches that the attitude to work influences job performance (Yoon No Reference, 2014). At the heart of previous research (Table 4), occupational identity approaches professional concepts and is used as professional occupation and professional identity. Professional identity means that an individual recognizes oneself at a certain point in time, and how to look at oneself based on the interaction between the elements that make up as a professional. Bruss and Kopala (1993) defined professional identity as an attitude toward responsibility, an ethical and moral will, and a sense of pride in the profession. However, professional identity has a limitation that focuses only on professional workers due to their professionalism. Therefore, occupational identity is a concept that can be applied not only to professional and non-professional workers but also to all members.

Table 4: Previous studies regarding occupational identity

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Professional identity can be said to belong to the sub-concept of occupational identity (Yoon et al., 2014). Looking at the classification of professional occupations, traditional professional professions are defined through social systems, but the new professional professions, which are similarly classified today, focus on personal attributes, such as the high level of skills and professional services in certain fields (Fincham, 2012). Weis and Schank (2009) distinguished the factors of professional identity, such as beliefs and ethics of public services, value relevance, and altruism. Moreover, it suggests factors such as organizational commitment and identification with concepts similar to emotional and normative commitment and also certainty with similar concepts to beliefs that can make decisions on their own. Hirschy, Wilson, Liddell, Boyle, and Pasquesi (2015) confirmed professional identity to validate students' socialization models. The study found that professional identity tools are developed through literature research, and the factors of immersion and value consistency are identified through exploratory factor analysis. By a lot of research, It was identified that professional identity has a significant impact on job satisfaction. Kang, Lee, and Lim (2015) found that organizational commitment has a significant effect, and Lee (2015) showed a statistically significant effect on organizational effectiveness. In the study of Jeon (2007), it was found that the higher the level of professional identity, the lower turnover intention. In the case of occupations that had not been institutionalized as professional occupations, Professional occupational identities had emerged in the form of identification with organizations (Chae & Yoon, 2013).

3. Research methods

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects on job fitness, career development support, empowerment, and occupational identity of franchised Korean restaurant‘s service employees. In addition, by examining the job challenge, the causal relationship between the mediating effects of the empowerment, job fitness, career development support, empowerment, and occupational identity is examined. In addition, the mediation effect of the empowerment is analyzed, and the causal relationship between each construct is verified by grasping the job challenge in the relation of job fitness, recognition of career development support, empowerment, and occupational identity. Therefore, to verify the relationship between each factor for Korean food franchise distribution companies, the research hypotheses are derived.

3.1. Research hypothesis

Based on this theoretical background of previous research, this study is to investigate the causal relationship between job fitness and recognition of career development support on the service employees of a Korean food franchise distribution company. To derive the causal relationship between job fitness and recognition of career development support on empowerment and the causal effect of empowerment on occupational identity, the research hypotheses are established as follows.

3.1.1. Relationship between job fitness and occupational identity

According to Jeon (2007), the occupational identity of HRD managers in large corporations is statistically significant in the relationship between individual and job fitness. In relation to job fitness and work value, recognizing that the tasks they perform are valuable tasks is perceived by individuals as professional occupations, and these results have characteristics similar to occupational identities that they perceive to be able to perform tasks using their own expertise (Kang, 2012). Cheon, Lee, and Park (2012) confirmed the effect of organizational and personal characteristics on career commitment and career satisfaction through job fitness. From the point of views, the hypothesis that the job fitness of service employees of franchised Korean restaurant is positively influenced on the occupational identity is as follows.

H1: Job fitness of service employees will have a statistically significant effect on occupational identity.

3.1.2. Relationship between job fitness and empowerment

In the relationship between empowerment and personal-organizational fitness and personal-job fitness, personal-job fitness showed a significant effect on empowerment, but the influence of personal-organizational fitness was not significant on that (Lim, Lee, & Han, 2012). In addition, empowerment was analyzed to be a mediator between the personal-job fitness and emotional commitment in the team. According to Jeong and Hong (2015), psychological empowerment and innovative work behavior had positive effects on person-environment fitness and innovative work behavior, and also psychological empowerment had positive effects on innovative work behavior. As a result of the mediating effects of psychological empowerment, psychological empathy partially mediated person-job fitness and innovative work behavior among the sub-variables of person-environment fitness. Therefore, job fitness will have a significant causal relationship to empowerment. The following research hypothesis is set.

H2: Job fitness of service employees will have a statistically significant effect on empowerment.

3.1.3. Relationship between recognition on career development support and empowerment

In the relationship between welfare and career development, empowerment, individual recognition, and turnover intention, Xia and Yoo (2015) found that compensation for job performance, welfare system, and personal career development were important. Among the sub-variables of career development support, it found that strategic systemicity, operational systemicity, superiors' support, excluding growth opportunities had affected career commitment, and also career commitment had a significant effect on innovation behavior (Chun & Lee, 2015). Among these, only the strategic systemicity and growth opportunities had a significant effect on innovation behavior. Therefore, it is considered that there is a significant influence on the empowerment with regard to the construct for career development support.

H3: The recognition of career development support will have a statistically significant effect on empowerment.

3.1.4. Relationship between recognition of career development support and occupational identity

Kerr, Von Glinow, and Schriesheim (1977) argued that it can strive to motivate individuals more effectively by meeting the career development needs of professional organization members. Kang, Lee, and Lim (2015) confirmed that organizational perception of professional workers influences organizational commitment through occupational identity. In addition, they showed that the mediating effects of the relationship between career development support and organizational commitment through occupational identity is not statistically significant. Joen (2007) found that career development support of large corporations had significant influence on occupational identity. Therefore, according to the above research results, the following hypothesis is set because it was judged that the recognition of career development support would have a significant effect on occupational identity.

H4: The recognition of career development support of service employees will have a statistically significant effect on occupational identity.

3.1.5. Relationship between empowerment and occupational identity

In the study of Park and Park (2012), identity had a significant effect on organizational effectiveness, whereas both role ambiguity and role conflict had no significant effect on job satisfaction. And also, the relationship between organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior was analyzed as forming a meaningless relationship. Moreover, empowerment had different correlations with job satisfaction, commitment, and organizational citizenship behavior. Therefore, empowerment will have a significant effect on occupational identity. The following hypothesis is set.

H5: Empowerment of service employees support will have a statistically significant effect on occupational identity.

3.2. Measurement variables

3.2.1. Job fitness

Job fitness refers to the level of coherence of what can be provided as an individual-job or job-individual (Caldwell & O'Reilly, 1990). Therefore, this study seeks to examine the overall fitness of the individual job fitness to the individual's ability and job, and whether they are acquiring what they want through their job. In this study, we used the personal-job fit measure in order to judge the construct of person-job fitness (Choi, Jang, & Kwun, 2011). Based on the measurement tools of Cable and Derue (2002), it consists of questions from five requirements and five competencies and is measured on a five-point Likert scale.

3.2.2. Recognition of career development support

In this study, we used the measurement tools of Sturges, Guest, Conway, and Davey (2002), which thoroughly analyzed the relationship between organizational career management support and organization. These measurement tools are comprised of sub-dimensions of support for formal and informal career development. It is composed of 8 items with a 5-point Likert scale taking into consideration the scale of constructs. Four items for formal career development support and four for unformed career development support were measured.

3.2.3. Occupational identity

In order to analyze the occupational identity in this study, measurement tools related to professional occupation, professional identity, professional self concept, role clarity and characteristic, and construct of occupational identity were collected (Bettencount & Brown, 1997; Hirchy, 2015). The measurement tools for each concept were selected and the items for measuring the measurement tools were assigned. According to a study by Walsh, Taber, and Beehr (1980), the final test generally recommends three to fifteen items per sub-area. In consideration of this, four items were selected for each sub-region. For the developed items, Likert 5-point scale was constructed considering the scale of construct. The scale was set to 'not at all (1),' 'not (2),' 'normal (3),' 'yes (4),' 'very highly (5)'.

3.3. Research design

In order to verify the research hypotheses based on the previous studies, we tried to clarify the effect of job fitness, recognition of career development support, empowerment, and dependent variables on occupational identity of Korean food franchise distribution companies’ service employees. Data collection was conducted from February 5, 2018 to February 28, 2018. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed and 394 copies were collected. Using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, discriminant validity and reliability were conducted, and also the covariance structure analysis was conducted to verify the proposed hypotheses.

4. Results

4.1. General Properties of the Sample

For this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted for employees of Korean food franchise distribution companies. The demographic characteristics of 368 people except for the unfaithful responses were summarized as follows. The respondents were 159 men (43.2%) and 209 women (56.8%). The age of the respondents was 101 (27.4%) in the 20s~29s, 56 (15.2%) in the 30s~39s, 94 (25.5%) in the 40s~49s, and 70 (19.0%) in the 50s~59s. There were 87 high school graduates (23.6%), 73 college graduates (19.8%), 159 university graduates (43.2%) and 49 graduate students (13.3%). In the occupation, 125 (34.0%) were employed, 46 (12.5%) public officials, 58 professionals (15.8%), 42 self-employed persons (11.4%), 77 students (20.9%), and 20 workers in the service sector (5.4%). About monthly income, 123 people earned less than 2 million won (33.4%), 62 between 201 and 3 million won (16.8%), 82 between 301 and 4 million won (22.8%), 58 between 401 and 5 million won (5.7%), and 43 more than 5.01 million won (11.7%).

4.2. Reliability and Validity Measurements

In this study, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to measure the quality of job fitness and recognition of career development regarding demand fit, competency fit, formal career development, and nonformal career development. It also was conducted to measure the relationship between recognition of career development and job fitness of service employees on empowerment and occupational identity. At this time, constructs with an eigenvalue of 1.0 or higher were derived, and it was considered to be significant when the factor loading of 0.5 or higher was derived. As a result of exploratory factor analysis, factor loadings were all over 0.5. It is judged that the convergence validity and the discriminant validity are secured between the respective constructs, and it is considered to be suitable for the analysis, as summarized in Table 5.

Table 5: Reliability analysis results for the contents​​​​​​​

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A confirmatory factor analysis was also conducted in order to verify the quality of job fitness and recognition of career development for demand fit, competency fit, formal career development, nonformal career development on empowerment and occupational identity.

As a result of the analysis, the values of GFI (0.919), NFI (0.919), IFI (0.964), TLI (0.952) and CFI (0.964) were higher than 0.90. The value of RMR (0.045) and RMSEA (0.044) was set at less than 0.05, which suggests that this model is a suitable model. Composite reliability(CR) and average variance extracted(AVE) were used. The value is 0.7 or more and AVE is 0.5 or more, it is judged that the reliability of the measured variables is secured. CR of the constructs considered in the analysis result are all 0.8 or more, and the AVE value is 0.5 or more for all latent factors. Therefore, it can be confirmed that the reliability of the constructs used in this study is secured.

4.3. Hypothesis Verification

The research model and research hypothesis were verified by using the covariance structure analysis through the results of confirmatory factor analysis of empowerment and occupational identity on the job fitness and recognition of career development for demand fit, competency fit, formal career development, nonformal career development.

As shown in Table 6, a result of the covariance structure analysis for the study model was showed that X² = 455.622, DF = 265, p= 0.000, RMR (0.045), GFI (0.919), AGFI (0.844), NFI (0.919), IFI (0.964), TLI (0.952), and CFI (0.964) exceeded the recommendation index of covariance structure model. In summary, the results of the verification of the total nine hypotheses are as follows. Four of the nine research hypotheses presented in this study were selected except for five hypotheses, in which the absolute t-value was less than 1.645.

Table 6: Parameter estimation result of Research Motel​​​​​​​

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Note: X²=455.622, DF=265, p=0.000, RMR(0.045), GFI(0.919), AGFI(0.844), NFI(0.919), IFI(0.964), TLI(0.952), CFI(0.964)

R2 : Empowerment=0.590, Occupational identity=0.588

First, it showed that demand fit (t=0.389, p<0.10) and competency fit (t= 1.111, p<0.10), which are sub dimensions of job fitness, did not significantly affect occupational identity. Therefore, hypothesis 1 was rejected. Second, demand fit (t=1.089, p<0.10) and competency fit (t=0.023, p<0.10), which are sub dimensions of job fitness, did not significantly affect empowerment. Thus, hypothesis 2 was also rejected. Third, support for formal career development (t=4.998, p<0.001), which is a sub-dimension of recognition of career development, was found to have a significant positive effect on empowerment. However, support for informal career development (t=1.174, p<0.10) did not have a significant effect on empowerment. Accordingly, hypothesis 3 was partially adopted. Fourth, support for formal career development (t=2.609, p<0.05) and informal career development support (t=7.161, p<0.001) showed significant effect on occupational identity. Thus, hypothesis 4 was adopted. Fifth, empowerment (t=4.056, p<0.001) had a significant effect on occupational identity. For this reason, hypothesis 5 was adopted.

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Figure 1: results of research model​​​​​​​

5. Conclusions

5.1. Summary of results and implications

Previous studies on occupational identity were mainly dealt with in sociology, psychology, and business administration. This study extends the existing research scope to the food service sector and verifies the influence relationship of job fitness, empowerment, and career development support affecting formation of occupational identity of Korean food franchise distribution company’ service employees. This study also identified how service employees perceive their job and how different results are obtained according to job fitness. Through this, it was confirmed what points should be emphasized in order to improve the occupational identity of service employees.

In summary, first, it is found that the subordinate dimensions of job fitness, which are demand fit and competency fit, do not significantly affect occupational identity. In other words, job fitness, empowerment, and career development support of Korean food franchise company' service employees had a statistically significant effect on occupational identity. It means that the higher job fitness, empowerment, and career development support, the higher the degree of occupational identity. The results of this analysis indicate that the employment relationship based on the recognition of career development support is more important to the subjective career success that emphasizes on the internal value of the individual such as career satisfaction, employment prospect, work and life balance. Especially, view point is that career stagnation can have a negative effect on job motivation and stress due to promotion acceleration, on the other hand, it suggests that a new understanding of service employees are needed in that the attitude of the individual can be changed to have a positive effect of maintaining psychological stability. Second, the subscales(demand fit and competency fit) of job fitness were not significantly influenced on the empowerment. That is, as their job fitness increases, the degree of empowerment decreases. This analysis implies that it is important to recognize that the level of material compensation provided to service employees, or that they are receiving sufficient psychological and physical compensation. In addition, there is a need to recognize that the appropriate knowledge, skills, and functions required for job performance are highly relevant to the job at hand. Third, formal support for career development, which is a sub-dimension of recognition of career development, was found to have a significant effect on empowerment, but support for informal career development did not significantly affect empowerment. Namely, recognition of career development support by service employees has a statistically significant effect on occupational identity, and it can be seen that the occupational identity is strengthened as the recognition of career development support increases.

Fourth, recognition of formal and informal career development support had a significant effect on occupational identity. It was found that recognition of career development support of service employees had a statistically significant effect on the occupational identity. Thus, the occupational identity is strengthened with the increase of recognition of career development support.

These results provide practical implications. In order for Korean franchise distribution companies to continue to grow, career development support for the service employees can be increased by supporting formal career development associated with satisfaction including long and short term performance, the professional knowledge, the working-level experience, the business performance capacity, the human network, and the ethical factor. It also means that the completion of professional education and the continuous education are important to achieve business goal. Continuing education on job fitness as part of career development support indicates that it can increase the level of satisfaction by job relevance, personal initiative, formal and informal career development support. It also implies that occupational identity can be influenced not only by social awareness and external factors but also by corporate support. Therefore, in order to increase the level of occupational identity of service employees, it is necessary to consider that service employees should meet the material compensation levels expected from their duties. Fifth, empowerment had a significant effect on occupational identity. In other words, as empowerment increases, job identity increases. The results of this analysis show that there is a difference between the empowerment and the career support satisfaction when there is the job circulation system in the company. Therefore, regardless of the size of the company, it is necessary to harmonize job fitness and empowerment to establish job circulation system and also increase career satisfaction.

5.2. Limitations and future studies

For further study, the following suggestions are to be made. First, in this study, it is judged that there is a limit to secure the objectivity because the contents of the self-report measurement tool responds to subjective feelings and conditions felt by the side of the company. In future research, it is necessary to secure the objectivity of the respondents through supplementary insights such as in-depth interviews. Second, the collected Korean food franchise distribution company' service employees were concerned with customer service, cooking, reception, and cashier. In the future, it is necessary to expand the research into various occupational groups according to the size of companies. Third, the level of empowerment was analyzed only at the individual level. As empowerment can be divided into individual, group, and organization levels, subsequent research should focus on empowerment studies in terms of the level of the company or organization members. The results of this study can contribute to the recognition of career development support of service employees regarding educational program or manpower management in order to improve the satisfaction of career development support.​​​​​​​

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