• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.56-83
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to provide basic materials needed to enhance quality of organizational life by identifying the improvements of labor union management in the perspective of general hospital organization management. The subject of this study were 686 employees in 12 General Hospitals in Metro Capital including Seoul. Materials were collected from administrators, nurses and medical technicians in target hospitals from March 20 to May 10, 2005 through survey questionnaires. The main results of this study were as follows: 1. the commitment level of the subjects according to their characteristics was higher in older employees than the younger ones, large family to support than small family to support and those who had higher positions in labor union. 2. The commitment level of the subjects according to the job and role related variables were higher those who had higher satisfaction level to their job and manager, role conflict in all hospitals. 3. The commitment level of the subjects according to union related variables, variables jointly controlled by union and employer was satistically significant positive correlation. In other words, the commitment level of the subjects according to the subjects' labor union involvement was higher in those who had higher satisfaction in labor union and perceived their colleagues' attitudes more positively in all hospitals. Regarding the atmosphere of the relationship between union and employer and the level of commitment in labor union, the better the atmosphere of the relationship between union and employer was, the higher the level of commitment in labor union was in all hospitals. 4. The results of multiple regression analysis shows that formal and informal socialization, union participation to the union management cooperation program, job satisfaction, satisfaction with the labor union's were all found as important antecedents of labor union commitment. 5. Job and role-related variables, union-related variables, variables jointly controlled by union and employer, and labor union commitment level were all found significantly different in accordance with the characteristics of unions concerned. To summarize study results, the level of commitment in labor union depends on job satisfaction, manager's attitudes, satisfaction to their jobs, union satisfaction, their colleagues attitudes toward union and the atmosphere of employer-employee relationship. Therefore hospital managers should have democratic and flexible attitudes toward labor union. Additionally, as formal and informal socialization, union participation to the union-management cooperation program is important determinant in union commitment, hospital managers should have countermeasures to enhance the colleague attitude and job satisfaction level of hospital employees. Since this study deals with psychological nature of workers not a few drawbacks and shortcomings may be detected in the finding. Nevertheless, the finding of this study, to become a momentum that will stimulate further research to detect all the cues of labor union commitment and to provide valuable reference in forming logical union commitment and labor union-management cooperation.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.59-92
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• 2012

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.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.369-383
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of intent to leave among IT industry employees, based on the Price's structural model of employee turnover. The sample used in this study were composed of 370 employees from 10 IT firms located in Seoul and Gyeonggi-Do. Data were collected with self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using structural equation modelling technique. This study found that four task reward variables(job variety, job autonomy, job challenge, and role ambiguity), two social reward variables (supervisory support and coworker support), three organizational reward variables(promotional chances, job security, and distributive justice) and one environmental variable(job opportunity), had significant effects on IT industry employees' intent to leave in terms of total effects and his directions of those significant effects were consistent with theoretical predictions; and that two mediating variables, job satisfaction and organizational commitment had the most important effects on IT industry employees' intent to leave in terms of total effects. The theoretical and practical implications of the research findings were discussed and the directions for future research were suggested.

• 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.