• Title/Summary/Keyword: Guidance point

Search Result 302, Processing Time 0.03 seconds

Evaluation of Ovary Dose for woman of Childbearing age Woman with Breast cancer in tomotherapy (가임기 여성의 유방암 토모치료 시 난소선량 평가비교)

  • Lee, Soo Hyeung;Park, Soo Yeun;Choi, Ji Min;Park, Ju Young;Kim, Jong Suk
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
    • /
    • v.26 no.2
    • /
    • pp.337-343
    • /
    • 2014
  • Purpose : The aim of this study is to evaluate unwanted scattered dose to ovary by scattering and leakage generated from treatment fields of Tomotherapy for childbearing woman with breast cancer. Materials and Methods : The radiation treatments plans for left breast cancer were established using Tomotherapy planning system (Tomotherapy, Inc, USA). They were generated by using helical and direct Tomotherapy methods for comparison. The CT images for the planning were scanned with 2.5 mm slice thickness using anthropomorphic phantom (Alderson-Rando phantom, The Phantom Laboratory, USA). The measurement points for the ovary dose were determined at the points laterally 30 cm apart from mid-point of treatment field of the pelvis. The measurements were repeated five times and averaged using glass dosimeters (1.5 mm diameter and 12 mm of length) equipped with low-energy correction filter. The measures dose values were also converted to Organ Equivalent Dose (OED) by the linear exponential dose-response model. Results : Scattered doses of ovary which were measured based on two methods of Tomo helical and Tomo direct showed average of $64.94{\pm}0.84mGy$ and $37.64{\pm}1.20mGy$ in left ovary part and average of $64.38{\pm}1.85mGy$ and $32.96{\pm}1.11mGy$ in right ovary part. This showed when executing Tomotherapy, measured scattered dose of Tomo Helical method which has relatively greater monitor units (MUs) and longer irradiation time are approximately 1.8 times higher than Tomo direct method. Conclusion : Scattered dose of left and right ovary of childbearing women is lower than ICRP recommended does which is not seriously worried level against the infertility and secondary cancer occurrence. However, as breast cancer occurrence ages become younger in the future and radiation therapy using high-precision image guidance equipment like Tomotherapy is developed, clinical follow-up studies about the ovary dose of childbearing women patients would be more required.

A Study on Health Aspects of Daily Life of Elementary School Children in an Urban Area (일부도시국민학교취학아동의 보건생활에 관한 실태조사연구)

  • 구외행
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
    • /
    • v.3 no.3
    • /
    • pp.36-49
    • /
    • 1973
  • This study was carried out for the objectives to collect the basic informations on the health behaviors of the elementary school children in an urban area in Korea. Seven hundred students were drawn to fill in the designed questionnaire which carries variety of Questions on health re-lated behaviors in general, eating habits, disease history, mental health, and sex education. Questionnaire were filled in by their parents. Major findings are as follows: ① 55.7% had habits of washing the hands before eating whereas 59.8% trashing their hands after toilet. The others had no idea of washing hands before eating and after toilet. ② 26,5% had habits of brushing the teeth twice a day 54.7% only once in the morning, and 2.6% once only in the evening. Thus, the idea of prevention from decayed teeth seems to be lacking among the school children. ③ Bathing habits were also inquired to get 40.3% of bathing more than once a week, 43.1% once every two weeks, and the rest of 16.6% once every one to three months. ④ 41.7% keep the regular bedding time whereas 58.3% irregular. Physical exercises were con-ducted by 76.6% on the ground while 23.5% did not practice any physical exercises at all. Of those physical exercises, rope skipping occupied 37.5%, and the other 66.9% consisted of 14 different kinds of individual type physical exercises such as gymnastic exercise. The main reasons for not enjoying exercises were different by sex; boys largely complained the inadequacy and lack of gymnastic facilities and girls felt in short of friends who could join the exercises. ⑤ 31.9% of the school children had been taking not much of food while 28.3% had unbalanced diets. Of these unbalanced diets, meat occupied 33.2% to be the priority to have an order of the following items such as vegetables, bread or noodle, and fishes as next to each. For eating habits, 88.5% take simple snack such as bread (38.4%, cookies, fruits, and candies in order. 25.8% of the children were provided such snacks or their parents regularly. Breakfast was sufficiently taken by 45.0% whereas 8.4% had never sufficiently. As to the lunch, 63.6% had sufficiently while 16.8% insufficiently. 70.6% take breakfast with all family members together and 30.4% separately. Correlation of sufficient taking of breakfast and eating together of tile family member's seems to be significant when we compare 72.5% of sufficient takers who enjoy breakfast together with the family members with 55.6% of insufficient takers who enjoy it with the family. This finding allows the investigator to point out the importance of table circumstances for children's eating. ⑥ The most common disease was catching a cold (38.8%), and the second was stomach trouble to be followed by the frequency of car sickness, headache, and skin infection. Doctors are consulted only by 23.9% when they are sick whereas 59.7% resorted to the drug stores. The lower the educational attainment of the parents, the lower the rate of visiting clinics. ⑦ 36.7% of their parents pointed out the problems of personality guidance as the most difficult thing at home 71.3% of their parents worried about and unsatisfied with their children's personality traits. Of these complains of the parents, impatience stood at the top to be tabulated at 24.1%, and 21.1% indicated narrow-mindedness. In line with this primary socialization at home, the most crucial problem seems to be related with the lack or recognition of the parents'own role when we find only 43.1% of the parents understood the importance of their own role for the home education of children; the latter group attributed tile responsibility of personality formation to the children themselves. ⑧ As to the sex educational aspects, 30.9% of children have ever asked about the physiology of reproduction or sexual matters to their parents, of those parents only 17.0% could give the constructive responses to the inquiries of the children. In companies on with these data, 25.6% recognized their own role in sex education for their own children while the large segments of the parents (51.1%) attributed the responsibility of sex education to tile low level of 38.3% who recognized the importance of sex education in the school curriculum and 25.1% of the parents insisted to wait until they get to know naturally about sex. 38.1% of the parents said they had some knowledge on sex from books while 16.9% through mass media. The next groups had common senses of sex from their own parents, school friends and other sources.

  • PDF

The Actual State of the Creation and Management of Public Open Spaces of Major Buildings - Focused on Daegu-City - (대형건축물 공개공지의 조성 및 관리실태 분석 - 대구시를 대상으로 -)

  • Eom, Boong-Hoon
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
    • /
    • v.39 no.6
    • /
    • pp.36-45
    • /
    • 2011
  • Public open space(Gong-Gae-Gong-Ji) is an important part of the open-space system in an urban environment. Though part of the private sector, it has a significant public function as there are as always open to the free use of every citizen for rest and amenities. A field survey of the public open space of 71 major buildings was carried out to investigate the actual state of public open spaces in the city of Daegu. As a result of this investigation, several point of issues were discussed. In distribution by 'Gu', newly-emerging sub-centers of Daegu-City, such as Bug-Gu and Dalseo-Gu as well as downtown area have many public open spaces. By the use type of buildings, retail buildings such as shopping centers and SSM account for36.6%, business buildings21.1%, and residential and commercial complexes 15.5%, respectively. Location wise, the front areas accounted for the greatest amount(42.9%) with 1 in side area(20%), and 2 in the front/side area(20%), respectively. Degree of division was 1 spot type(45.7%), 2 division type(35.7%). The misuse of public open space for private use, such as shopping and parking lots, was26.6%. On the basis and analysis of the actual status, 6 improvement devices for public open spaces were suggested: 1) The improvement of the legal regulative system, 2) the establishment of design guidelines and strengthening of deliberation, 3) administrative and financial support, 4) periodic supervision and guidance, 5) installment of signs that shows the space is open for use to every citizen, and 6) the participation of citizens in management of public open space.

Performance Evaluation of Advance Warning System for Transporting Hazardous Materials (위험물 운송을 위한 조기경보시스뎀 성능평가)

  • Oh Sei-Chang;Cho Yong-Sung
    • The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
    • /
    • v.4 no.1 s.6
    • /
    • pp.15-29
    • /
    • 2005
  • Truck Shipment Safety Information, which is a part of the development of NERIS is divided into Optimal Route Guidance System and Emergency Response System. This research is for establishing an advance warning system, which aims for preventing damages(fire, explosion, gas-escape etc.) and detecting incidents that are able to happen during transporting hazardous materials in advance through monitoring the position of moving vehicles and the state of hazardous materials in real-time. This research is peformed to confirm the practical possibility of application of the advance warning system that monitors whether the hazardous materials transport vehicles move the allowed routes, finds the time and the location of incidents of the vehicles promptly and develops the emergency system that is able to respond to the incidents as well by using the technologies of CPS, CDMA and CIS with testing the ability of performance. As the results of the test, communication accuracies are 99$\%$ in freeway, 96$\%$ in arterial, 97$\%$ in hilly sections, 99$\%$ in normal sections, 96$\%$ in local sections, 99$\%$ in urban sections and 98$\%$ in tunnels. According to those results, the system has been recorded a high success rate of communication that enough to apply to the real site. However, the weak point appeared through the testing is that the system has a limitation of communication that is caused in the rural areas and certain areas where are fewer antennas that make communication possible between on-board unit and management server. Consequently, for the practical use of this system, it is essential to develop the exclusive en-board unit for the vehicles and find the method that supplements the receiving limitation of the GPS coordinates inside tunnels. Additionally, this system can be used to regulate illegal acts automatically such as illegal negligence of hazardous materials. And the system can be applied to the study about an application scheme as a guideline for transporting hazardous materials because there is no certain management system and act of toxic substances in Korea.

  • PDF

An Analysis of Nursing education Research in China : 1990-1998 (중국 간호교육관련 연구실태 분석)

  • Ko Il-Sun;Li Chun-Yu;Kim Jing-Ai
    • The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
    • /
    • v.5 no.2
    • /
    • pp.177-190
    • /
    • 1999
  • This study has been conducted on the basis of the literature review of Nursing Education Research in China from 1990 through August 1998. Its purpose was to support the basic data of nursing education which is risen as major revolutionary of nursing in China and those for exchange of information between Korea-China nursing education. It is retrospective and descriptive research analyzing one hundred eighty articles published in The Journal of China Nursing. The results of the study were as follows. 1. Only 33.3% of the professors of Technical Nursing School who have played of major role of nursing education in China have carried out the study related to nursing education. Baccalaureate program professors have marked 22.2% of all studies, and diploma program professors have done 12.2% of all. Therefore, the professors of above the diploma program have done total 44.4%. It explains that the professors of baccalaureate and diploma programs have done more studies related to nursing education than those of Technical Nursing School. 2. In terms of the study design, most of the studies(38.8%) were case studies introducing the curriculum contents that were done at education institutions. And then, 28.5% were reviewing the articles, and 15.6% were descriptive studies. 3. In terms of the content of the study, 38.3% were relevant to education of Technical Nursing School, 15.0% were about baccalaureate education, and 10.4% is about diploma. 4. To analyze the specific contents of the studies ; a. In baccalaureate program, human resources (professor or teaching), course extension, lab, classes, teaching method, education philosophy, goal of education, evaluation method, and human resource development were included. b. In diploma program, teaching contents evaluation method, teaching method, and educational system were included c. In the technical school, there were qualification of professors , teaching method, evaluation method, opening the courses, teaching contents, goal of education and so on. d. Beyond these, there were practice guidance and appraisement, teaching method, and opening new courses which were not specially indicated as educational curriculum and score management as continuing education. What is above tell us that the study regarding development of university system has been progressed actively and widely. It has been for the effort of revolution which based on the China government force to reform of nursing education process during last 10 years. On the base of the result, we suggest the following questions and the alternatives. 1) Since most articles are case studies related to teaching methods and the others doesn't propose the research method. the study which is applied more exact research method is needed. 2) No study is regarding social change and health policy. Because University program, founded in 1983 is on the beginning point, the research about curriculum have to be taken as a top priority as well as to reflect social needs which are based on social changes and national health policy 3) Only one review article study tells nursing Human resource. To appear in large numbers in nursing manpower, avoid the present hospital nurses training system. Then, the study for manpower development which is able to accomplish in many fields has to be advanced. 4) Most studies did not have literature review processes, so it was impossible for researcher to know the past study tendency and there is no relation among studies as to same subject, the education about research method is needed.

  • PDF

Surgical Clues of Distal Anterior Cerebral Artery(DACA) Aneurysms (원위부 전대뇌 동맥류 수술의 실마리)

  • Kim, Sung Bum;Yi, Hyeong Joong;Kim, Jae Min;Bak, Koang Hum;Kim, Choong Hyun;Oh, Suck Jun
    • Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
    • /
    • v.29 no.12
    • /
    • pp.1555-1562
    • /
    • 2000
  • Objects : Surgical management of the distal anterior cerebral artery(DACA) aneurysms presents several unique problems to surgeons, such as difficulty in early identification of parent arteries, high incidence of rebleeding and premature rupture, and requirement of unfamiliar approach other than conventional frontotemporal craniotomy. Therefore, preoperative anatomical knowledge of anterior interhemispheric fissure and entry point of dissection is prerequisite. Authors utilized a frontobasal approach for DACA aneurysms by using consistent external landmark for guidance to the deep structure. Materials and Methods : From Nov. 1995 to Jun. 1999, a surgical clipping of DACA aneurysms was carried out in 9 patients among a total 131 patients with intracranial aneurysms. In each case, the clinical and aneurysmal features were carefully reviewed through the angiograms, medical records, and intraoperative findings. Results : The incidence of DACA aneurysms was 6.9% from our series. All cases were arisen from juxtacallosal por-tion ; 6 cases from pericallosal-callosomarginal(PC-CM) junction and 3 from pericallosal-frontopolar(PC-FP) junction. Associated vascular anomalies were noted in 3 cases and multiple aneurysms in 3 cases, respectively. The preoperative clinical grades were generally poor. An early surgery was performed in 7 cases and frontobasal interhemispheric approaches in 7 cases. Postoperatively, two patients died of complications ; one delayed ischemic vasospasm and one aspiration pneumonia but remaining patients recovered well. Conclusion : The frontobasal interhemispheric approach was useful for DACA aneurysms in early surgery. Division of superior sagittal sinus(SSS) enabled a minimal retraction of brain on both sides, and prevention of intraoperative rupture was possible. Authors suggest the frontopolar(first frontal bridging) vein as a constant external landmark for approaching the genu of the corpus callosum and juxtacallosal DACA aneurysms.

  • PDF

Knowledge and Attitude toward Restaurant-Related Sanitation of New Restaurateurs (일반음식점 신규영업주의 위생관리지식 및 위생행정에 대한 태도)

  • Kim, Seun-Taek;Park, Jae-Yong;Kam, Sin;Han, Chang-Hyun
    • Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
    • /
    • v.15 no.1
    • /
    • pp.79-95
    • /
    • 1998
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the sanitation affairs of general restaurants. The questionnaire survey on the attitude and knowledge toward sanitation, the attitude for sanitary administration and the sanitary education was conducted against new 600 restaurateurs who were educated from June 20 to July 11, 1996, at the administration hall's division of Kyungsangbook-do in charge of food industry that offered regular sanitary education to new restaurateurs annually. And the visit survey on sanitary practice was also conducted over 93 restaurateurs who obtained the commercial license for food service business. The findings from the survey were as follows; In regard to food sanitation, some 87.1 to 88.3% got the right knowledge about the reason and precaution of food poisoning, food's frozen or cold-storage, and the disposal of products after expiration of validity term. But it was about 20.8% to 50.0% who knew right about major precaution, storage temperature in refrigerator, fermented milk product's storage temperature and validity term. There was therefore a necessity for education in food sanitation. 38.2% of the subjects placed an emphasis on sanitary storage of foodstuffs as the most important thing in sanitary management. 33.8% emphasized cooking sanitation. The environmental sanitation was counted as the most important thing by 19.2%, and personal sanitation of worker was counted by 8.8%. There was differences in what they thought the most important thing was, according to the respondent's educational level and cooker. 86.6% replied it necessary to improve the sanitary level. The respondents who were younger or had better educational level emphasized more the need for it. Concerning health examination, 90.2% replied it necessary. 81.4% answered the reason was because there was a potentiality Quests might be infected with contagious disease. 78.5% pointed the need for sanitary education, but respondents with higher educational level less emphasized its needs. As the reason for poor sanitation, restaurateur's poor awareness about it was most frequently pointed out, by 46.9%. Cooking sanitation was most frequently counted, by 38.5%, as the first thing to be improved. As the most critical point in sanitary education, 34.5% indicated food's sanitary Quality control 30.9% mentioned sanitary treatment of kitchen facilities and peripheral environment, and 27.1% emphasized the summary of the general food sanitation. 77.7% answered to correct immediately in case of violating the Food Hygiene Law, and 12.0% replied to correct in the same case if they would get the order from public official or administrative action would be taken. Respondents with higher educational level answered more to correct immediately. What they wanted the government office to do toward sanitary improvement was a fund aid an facilities and management which was pointed out by 38.9%, a periodical sanitary education by 26.3% and a on-the-spot guidance of sanitary officials by 22.3%. In view of the food service business's sanitary practice, the rate of wearing a sanitary clothes was 32.9% in city and 35.0% in county. The rate of hand-washing without soap or non-washing at cooking was 73.9%, 85%, respectively. The rate of personnel sanitation was 34.2% in city and 50.0% in county. These things indicated the sanitation was not well practiced. To improve the poor sanitary conditions of the food service businesses, it is recommended to offer institutional backing and financial aid from administrative office, and encourage restaurateurs to take pride in their job. and conduct the sanitary education effectively by sanitary education institution.

  • PDF

The effects of out of hospital ACLS simulation training on the paramedic's duty ability (구급대원의 전문심장소생술 시뮬레이션훈련이 직무수행융합능력에 미치는 영향)

  • Park, Yoo-Na;Cho, Byung-Jun;Kim, Gyoung-Young
    • Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
    • /
    • v.10 no.4
    • /
    • pp.99-106
    • /
    • 2019
  • The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the simulation-based professional cardiac resuscitation training on the performance of professional cardiac resuscitation performed by paramedics in the pre-hospital stage and to provide basic data for effective cardiac resuscitation. This study is an experimental study of the design before and after the control of non-equality. The subjects of this study were 16 newly recruited paramedics from K firefighting school. The simulation training program and evaluation papers used as the evaluation tool were reviewed and commented by 6 ACLS simulation experts (2 emergency medical doctor, 2 emergency medical professors, 2 KALS instructors)Respectively. The training consisted of 30 minutes of theory and 150 minutes of practical training. The lecturer first demonstrated for 5 minutes, and after training by individual debriefing after individual training, individual and team education was conducted The evaluation scale was given a 5 - point Likert scale. The SPSS 22.0 program for Windows was used. The general characteristics of the subjects were analyzed for frequency, the examination of homogeneity between the experimental group and the control group wasfulfilled by t test, and the difference test between the groups of the two groups was performed using the paired t-test. The homogeneity test was able to confirm the homogeneity between experimental group and control group. In the evaluation of six ACLS techniques, it was proven that the experimental group that received the simulation training had better performance in all aspects than the non - training control group. The following are the technical items to be performed. 1. Electrocardiogram 2. Specialized instrument 3. Treatment of fluid 4. Leadership and teamwork 5. Medical guidance 6. Evaluation during transfer. It was proved that paramedics who received simulation training were improved on their job performance ability than general lecture and training group. Therefore, if simulation training and education are applied to a student in the synthetic course or an emergency resident who is engaged in clinical practice, he / she will be able to perform his / her duties more proficiently. It is expected that emergency services provided to patients with cardiac arrest will be improved.

Development of a smart cane concept for guiding the visually impaired - focused on design thinking learning practices for students - (시각장애인을 위한 길 안내용 스마트 지팡이 콘셉트 개발)

  • Park, Hae Rim;Lee, Min Sun;Yang, Ho Jung
    • Journal of Service Research and Studies
    • /
    • v.13 no.1
    • /
    • pp.186-200
    • /
    • 2023
  • This study aims to improve the usability of the white cane, which is walking equipment that most local visually impaired people use and carry when going out, and to contribute to the prevention of safety accidents and the walking rights of visually impaired people by providing improvement and resolution measures for the problems identified. Also, this study is a study on the visually impaired, primarily targeting the 1st to 2nd degree visually impaired people, who cannot go out on their own without walking equipment such as a white cane, corresponding to 20% among approximately 250,000 blind and low vision people in the Korean population. In the study process, the concept has been developed from the user's point of view in order that the white cane becomes a real help in the walking step of the visually impaired and the improvement of usability of the white cane, the main walking equipment for the visually impaired, are done by problem identification through the Double Diamond Model of Design Thinking (Empathize → Define → Ideate → Prototype → Test (verify)). As a result of the investigation in the process of Empathy, a total of five issues was synthesized, including an increase in the proportion of the visually impaired people, an insufficient workforce situation to help all the visually impaired, an improvement and advancement of assistive devices essential for the visually impaired, problems of damage, illegal occupation, demolition, maintenance about braille blocks, making braille block paradigms for the visually impaired and for everyone. In Ideate and Prototype steps, situations derived from brainstorming were grouped and the relationship were made through the KJ method, and specific situations and major causes were organized to establish the direction of the concept. The derived solutions and major functions are defined in four categories, and representative situations requiring solutions and major functions are organized into two user scenarios. Ideas were visualized by arranging the virtual Persona and Customer Journey Map according to the situation and producing a prototype through 3D modeling. Finally, in the evaluation, the final concept derived is a device such a smart cane for guidance for the visually impaired as ① a smart cane emphasizing portability + ② compatibility with other electronic devices + ③ a product with safety and convenience.

An Empirical Study in Relationship between Franchisor's Leadership Behavior Style and Commitment by Focusing Moderating Effect of Franchisee's Self-efficacy (가맹본부의 리더십 행동유형과 가맹사업자의 관계결속에 관한 실증적 연구 - 가맹사업자의 자기효능감의 조절효과를 중심으로 -)

  • Yang, Hoe-Chang;Lee, Young-Chul
    • Journal of Distribution Research
    • /
    • v.15 no.1
    • /
    • pp.49-71
    • /
    • 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.

  • PDF