• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.131-146
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• 2011

It is becoming more essential than ever for office professionals to become competent in information collection/gathering and problem solving in today's global business society. In particular, office professionals do not only assist simple chores but are also forced to make decisions as quickly and efficiently as possible in problematic situations that can end in either profit or loss to their company. Since office professionals rely heavily on their tacit knowledge to solve problems that arise in everyday business situations, it is truly helpful and efficient to refer to similar business cases from the past and share or reuse such previous business knowledge for better performance results. Case-based reasoning(CBR) is a problem-solving method which utilizes previous similar cases to solve problems. Through CBR, the closest case to the current business situation can be searched and retrieved from the case or knowledge base and can be referred to for a new solution. This reduces the time and resources needed and increase success probability. The main purpose of this study is to design a system called COKRS(Case-based reasoning Office Knowledge Recommender System) and develop a prototype for it. COKRS manages cases and their meta data, accepts key words from the user and searches the casebase for the most similar past case to the input keyword, and communicates with users to collect information about the quality of the case provided and continuously apply the information to update values on the similarity table. Core concepts like system architecture, definition of a case, meta database, similarity table have been introduced, and also an algorithm to retrieve all similar cases from past work history has also been proposed. In this research, a case is best defined as a work experience in office administration. However, defining a case in office administration was not an easy task in reality. We surveyed 10 office professionals in order to get an idea of how to define a case in office administration and found out that in most cases any type of office work is to be recorded digitally and/or non-digitally. Therefore, we have defined a record or document case as for COKRS. Similarity table was composed of items of the result of job analysis for office professionals conducted in a previous research. Values between items of the similarity table were initially set to those from researchers' experiences and literature review. The results of this study could also be utilized in other areas of business for knowledge sharing wherever it is necessary and beneficial to share and learn from past experiences. We expect this research to be a reference for researchers and developers who are in this area or interested in office knowledge recommendation system based on CBR. Focus group interview(FGI) was conducted with ten administrative assistants carefully selected from various areas of business. They were given a chance to try out COKRS in an actual work setting and make some suggestions for future improvement. FGI has identified the user-interface for saving and searching cases for keywords as the most positive aspect of COKRS, and has identified the most urgently needed improvement as transforming tacit knowledge and knowhow into recorded documents more efficiently. Also, the focus group has mentioned that it is essential to secure enough support, encouragement, and reward from the company and promote positive attitude and atmosphere for knowledge sharing for everybody's benefit in the company.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.49-81
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• 2016

This study agrees with the idea that a situation centered perspective provides a useful contribution in understanding women's attitude on organizations. Women's occupational experiences are less related to their "femaleness" than to the structural constraints inherent in the occupational positions women fill. So characteristics of the organizational situation including gender composition and hierarchical status may "shape and define" women's experience on the job. The present study examined the managerial level's gender gap and "glass ceiling" of the corporation. According to Kanter, if the ratio of women to men in organizations begins to shift, as affirmative action and new hiring and promotion policies promised, forms of relationships and corporate culture should also change. However, the mere presence of women on workplace may not, in itself, result in women-friendly work condition. This study analyzes "Korean Women Manger Panel survey(2010 3rd. wave)" to examine how much gender gap of the managerial level persists and when the glass ceiling effect emerges. Using t-test and ANOVA, various aspects of the gender gap within managerial level were verified. The most significant finding is the glass ceiling effect starts from very low level of management. Policy implications from the statistical analysis of the Panel survey are: 1) We need to increase the absolute number of the women managers for securing middle level women leadership pipe line. 2) We need to confront the fact that the glass ceiling starts from the very low managerial level, and to explore more realistic way to break up the vicious circle for the tokenism. and 3) We need to looking beyond numbers in approaching women's matter at work. At the cultural and institutional level, work-family programs and policies, women's ratings of their competence, and family-friendly organization's climate should be considered.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.119-135
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• 1991

The study was designed to gain necessary basic data order to grasp health knowledge, attitude, practice level of middle and high school students and to analyse th problem and to point out the method of improvement in the field of school health education. The survery was carried out through this reporter's interview for 2,400 students who attend to ten schools in Young Nam area during the period of a month from 25 the June to 25th July 1989. The result of this study can be summaried as follows. 1. The total number of answers on the question was 2,346. As for general characteristics the percent of female middle school students was 60.6% and the percent of male students was 77.7%, 45.9% of high school students was evening school students. 52.9% of middle school students and 42.3% of high school students were borne in rural area. 2. The percentage of unknown and misunderstanding for Epidemic Hepatitis infection was 46.3% of middle school students and 29.6% of high school students. 3. The percentage of unknown and misunderstanding for Epidemic Hemorrhage fever infection was 85.6% of middle school students and 66.9% of high school students. 4. The percentage of right knowledge for AIDS infection was 66.0% of middle school students and 90.4% of high school students. 5. The percentage of right knowledge for Typhoid infection was 47.8% of middle school students and 69.4% of high school students. 6. The percentage of unknown and misunderstanding for Tuberculosis infection was 71.6% of middle school students and 62.2% of high school students. 7. As for personal hygiene, the percentage of toothbrushing after every meal was high level : 44.2% of middle school students and 42.0% of high school students. 8. 60.9% of middle school students take a bath twice a week, 49.2% oh high school students take a bath a week. Times of bath of middle school students was higher than that of high school students. 9.The percentage of washing hand after using toilet was 42.1% of middle school students and 35.1% of high school students. 49.0% of middle school students and 55.1% of high school students wash hand sometimes after using toilet. 10. The percentage of change of underwear twice a week was 57.6% of middle school students and 49.8% of high school students. 11. The percentage of habit of unbalanced diet was 30.% of middle school students and 27.6% of high school students. 50.8% of middle school students and 51.7% of high school students have balanced diet. 12. Index of health practice of personal hygiene can be summarized as follows. A. A case of middle school students. 1) The percentage of health practice index in male and female was 49.6% and 48.1% respectively. Index of female students was higher than that of male students. 2) As for parent's occupation, public servants and company emplyee was upper level. Farming was low level. 3) As for income level, middle, level with 56.5% was highest in high income level and low level with 27.4% was highest in low income level. B. A case of high school students. 1) Middle level of health practice index was 46.0% of male students, upper and low level was 32.4% and 28.0% of female students respectively. 2) Middle level of health practice index was high in farming and company employee and upper level was high in commerce and service, low level with 60.0% was high in unemployed. 3) Upper practice index 35.7% appears in the rich and low practice index 38.3% appears in the poor. 13. Average points of Health practice about personal hygiene were as follows. (Full marks at 4). A. A case of middle school. Female (1.87 point) was higher than male (1.26 point). Night time (2.03 point) was higher than day time (1.66 point) and middle or small cities (2.17 point) are high than any other places. As for parent's occupation, students whose parents are company clerk get high marks (2.32) and ten students whose parent's job are service get next high marks (2.20). B. A case of high school. Female (1.53 point) was higher than male (1.22 point), as parents educational level were higher the point were higher, and as income level was higher, the points of health practice (1.78) were higher, and as for parents occupation, service get highest point (1.93) and commerce get next high point (1.86) public servant get low point (1.66). 14. The percentage of experience in smoking was 11.9% of middle school students and 60.9% of high school students. 15. The percentage of experience in inhalation of bond and administrating LSD was 4.3% of male middle school students, 8.4% of female middle school students, 6.9% of male high school students and 4.2% of female high school students. The knowledge level of communicable disease infection are very low in middle and high school students and practice level of personal hygiene are also very low. As a whole we can evaluate that middle and high school students are low level of health knowledge and practice. In conclusion, we must consider preparation for school health education program through establishing of health subjects in the carriculum, and securing of health education teachers and using materials and media program of health education. It is very important to establish macroscopic policy and strategy for public health education and to get people have right knowledge and practice for health.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.13-20
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• 2012

The "flextime" system, which was initially designed to maintain a balance between work and personal life, has recently received much attention as an alternative form of work, enabling employees to fully exert their creativity. Most studies show that the effects of flextime on performance, productivity, attitude toward the organization, absenteeism, and turnover differ between managerial and non-managerial workers. This suggests that workers' personal characteristics affect their preference for flextime by directly or indirectly influencing its result variables. As most Korean companies have not adopted the flextime system, little research has been conducted on it in Korea. Recently, Korean companies have been discussing flextime as one of several measures for enhancing international competitiveness. Therefore, this study aims to offer a theoretical framework for the introduction of the system by analyzing the effects of the precedent factors on the preference for flextime. Though not statistically significant, a higher preference for flextime is noted among workers over the age of 36. Older workers usually are more conservative and less adaptable to change but here the older Korean workers may be anxious and resistant. Additional research on workers in different types of businesses using improved research methods will lead to more meaningful results. Married workers display a lower preference to flextime than single workers. In Korea, the current atmosphere focused on a happy home encourages married workers to prefer regular work hours, enabling them to go to and from work on a regular schedule. This means that normal working hours, from morning to evening, are preferred as it is the most suitable system for families. However, this is not so in the case of single workers. Unmarried singles tend to prefer flextime for investing in self-development toward future prosperity, over the benefits of regular working-hours. Flextime is designed to meet their needs to some extent as it is helpful in maintaining a balance between work life and self-development. If flextime is selected, workers can spend mornings on self-development and work in the afternoons. Therefore, when flextime is introduced in Korea, it would be desirable to start with unmarried workers, to increase corporate creativity and productivity and develop individual potential. In particular, when the five-day workweek, the main concern for companies and labor unions, is adopted, synergy with flextime could be expected and a gradual implementation of flextime will be effective. Gender difference shows similar results to marital status with male workers displaying a higher preference for flextime. It is inferred that male workers' attitudes toward flextime are more favorable than female workers' because flextime enables self-development and work life to coexist. A relatively weak, though statistically significant, correlation exists between control position and flextime preference with inner-control-oriented workers displaying favorable attitudes toward flextime. Generally, inner-control-oriented workers tend to attribute the consequences caused by any person or partner relationship to themselves. Thus, when a new system is introduced they are likely to have less reluctance and fear than outer-control-oriented workers, because they think it is important to deal with the new system. A weak but slight correlation exists between the desire for achievement and flextime preference. People who have a higher desire for achievement are willing to consider the new system, especially if significant success is reasonably expected. This result is derived from a reasonable judgment that flextime offers an individual the time for self-development while the organization benefits from the resulting creativity and performance enhancements. Although not the primary analysis, a high correlation is found between control position and the desire for achievement, which is consistent with the results of previous research. The regression analysis not only supports the preceding ANOVA and correlation analysis but also shows the existence of a causal relationship. Married workers have a weak preference for flextime, which is consistent with the results of the preceding ANOVA. Relative to men, women have a weak preference for flextime. No statistically significant correlation was noticed for age. Inner-control-oriented workers prefer flextime more than outer-control-oriented workers as the former view the consequences of change to be their own responsibility. However, the preference for flextime seems to be weak. As expected, people with a higher desire for achievement have a stronger preference for flextime, presumably because the greater the desire for achievement, the stronger the spirit of challenging an uncertain future. No significant correlation exists between job satisfaction and flextime preference.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.49-71
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• 2010

Franchise businesses in South Korea have contributed to economic growth and job creation, and its growth potential remains very high. However, despite such virtues, domestic franchise businesses face many problems such as the instability of franchisor's business structure and weak financial conditions. To solve these problems, the government enacted legislation and strengthened franchise related laws. However, the strengthening of laws regulating franchisors had many side effects that interrupted the development of the franchise business. For example, legal regulations regarding franchisors have had the effect of suppressing the franchisor's leadership activities (e.g. activities such as the ability to advocate the franchisor's policies and strategies to the franchisees, in order to facilitate change and innovation). One of the main goals of the franchise business is to build cooperation between the franchisor and the franchisee for their combined success. However, franchisees can refuse to follow the franchisor's strategies because of the current state of franchise-related law and government policy. The purpose of this study to explore the effects of franchisor's leadership style on franchisee's commitment in a franchise system. We classified leadership styles according to the path-goal theory (House & Mitchell, 1974), and it was hypothesized and tested that the four leadership styles proposed by the path-goal theory (i.e. directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented leadership) have different effects on franchisee's commitment. Another purpose of this study to explore the how the level of franchisee's self-efficacy influences both the franchisor's leadership style and franchisee's commitment in a franchise system. Results of the present study are expected to provide important theoretical and practical implications as to the role of franchisor's leadership style, as restricted by government regulations and the franchisee's self-efficacy, which could be needed to improve the quality of the long-term relationship between the franchisor and franchisee. Quoted by Northouse(2007), one problem regarding the investigation of leadership is that there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it. But despite the multitude of ways in which leadership has been conceptualized, the following components can be identified as central to the phenomenon: (a) leadership is a process, (b) leadership involves influence, (c) leadership occurs in a group context, and (d) leadership involves goal attainment. Based on these components, in this study leadership is defined as a process whereby franchisor's influences a group of franchisee' to achieve a common goal. Focusing on this definition, the path-goal theory is about how leaders motivate subordinates to accomplish designated goals. Drawing heavily from research on what motivates employees, path-goal theory first appeared in the leadership literature in the early 1970s in the works of Evans (1970), House (1971), House and Dessler (1974), and House and Mitchell (1974). The stated goal of this leadership theory is to enhance employee performance and employee satisfaction by focusing on employee motivation. In brief, path-goal theory is designed to explain how leaders can help subordinates along the path to their goals by selecting specific behaviors that are best suited to subordinates' needs and to the situation in which subordinates are working (Northouse, 2007). House & Mitchell(1974) predicted that although many different leadership behaviors could have been selected to be a part of path-goal theory, this approach has so far examined directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership behaviors. And they suggested that leaders may exhibit any or all of these four styles with various subordinates and in different situations. However, due to restrictive government regulations, franchisors are not in a position to change their leadership style to suit their circumstances. In addition, quoted by Northouse(2007), ssubordinate characteristics determine how a leader's behavior is interpreted by subordinates in a given work context. Many researchers have focused on subordinates' needs for affiliation, preferences for structure, desires for control, and self-perceived level of task ability. In this study, we have focused on the self-perceived level of task ability, namely, the franchisee's self-efficacy. According to Bandura (1977), self-efficacy is chiefly defined as the personal attitude of one's ability to accomplish concrete tasks. Therefore, it is not an indicator of one's actual abilities, but an opinion of the extent of how one can use that ability. Thus, the judgment of maintain franchisee's commitment depends on the situation (e.g., government regulation and policy and leadership style of franchisor) and how it affects one's ability to mobilize resources to deal with the task, so even if people possess the same ability, there may be differences in self-efficacy. Figure 1 illustrates the model investigated in this study. In this model, it was hypothesized that leadership styles would affect the franchisee's commitment, and self-efficacy would moderate the relationship between leadership style and franchisee's commitment. Theoretically, quoted by Northouse(2007), the path-goal approach suggests that leaders need to choose a leadership style that best fits the needs of subordinates and the work they are doing. According to House & Mitchell (1974), the theory predicts that a directive style of leadership is best in situations in which subordinates are dogmatic and authoritarian, the task demands are ambiguous, and the organizational rule and procedures are unclear. In these situations, franchisor's directive leadership complements the work by providing guidance and psychological structure for franchisees. For work that is structured, unsatisfying, or frustrating, path-goal theory suggests that leaders should use a supportive style. Franchisor's Supportive leadership offers a sense of human touch for franchisees engaged in mundane, mechanized activity. Franchisor's participative leadership is considered best when a task is ambiguous because participation gives greater clarity to how certain paths lead to certain goals; it helps subordinates learn what actions leads to what outcome. Furthermore, House & Mitchell(1974) predicts that achievement-oriented leadership is most effective in settings in which subordinates are required to perform ambiguous tasks. Marsh and O'Neill (1984) tested the idea that organizational members' anger and decline in performance is caused by deficiencies in their level of effort and found that self-efficacy promotes accomplishment, decreases stress and negative consequences like depression and emotional instability. Based on the extant empirical findings and theoretical reasoning, we posit positive and strong relationships between the franchisor's leadership styles and the franchisee's commitment. Furthermore, the level of franchisee's self-efficacy was thought to maintain their commitment. The questionnaires sent to participants consisted of the following measures; leadership style was assessed using a 20 item 7-point likert scale developed by Indvik (1985), self-efficacy was assessed using a 24 item 6-point likert scale developed by Bandura (1977), and commitment was assessed using a 6 item 5-point likert scale developed by Morgan & Hunt (1994). Questionnaires were distributed to Korean optical franchisees in Seoul. It took about 20 days to complete the data collection. A total number of 140 questionnaires were returned and complete data were available from 137 respondents. Results of multiple regression analyses testing the relationships between the each of the four styles of leadership shown by the franchisor as independent variables and franchisee's commitment as the dependent variable showed that the relationship between supportive leadership style and commitment ($\beta$=.13, p<.001),and the relationship between participative leadership style and commitment ($\beta$=.07, p<.001)were significant. However, when participants divided into high and low self-efficacy groups, results of multiple regression analyses showed that only the relationship between achievement-oriented leadership style and commitment ($\beta$=.14, p<.001) was significant in the high self-efficacy group. In the low self-efficacy group, the relationship between supportive leadership style and commitment ($\beta$=.17, p<.001),and the relationship between participative leadership style and commitment ($\beta$=.10, p<.001) were significant. The study focused on the franchisee's self-efficacy in order to explore the possibility that regulation, originally intended to protect the franchisee, may not be the most effective method to maintain the relationships in a franchise business. The key results of the data analysis regarding the moderating role of self-efficacy between leadership behavior style as proposed by path-goal and commitment theory were as follows. First, this study proposed that franchisor should apply the appropriate type of leadership behavior to strengthen the franchisees commitment because the results demonstrated that supportive and participative leadership styles by the franchisors have a positive influence on the franchisee's level of commitment. Second, it is desirable for franchisor to validate the franchisee's efforts, since the franchisee's characteristics such as self-efficacy had a substantial, positive effect on the franchisee's commitment as well as being a meaningful moderator between leadership and commitment. Third, the results as a whole imply that the government should provide institutional support, namely to put the franchisor in a position to clearly identify the characteristics of their franchisees and provide reasonable means to administer the franchisees to achieve the company's goal.