• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.65-88
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• 2004

In general, empowerment is defined as the motivational concept of autonomy and self-efficacy. Recently, the concept of empowerment is applied to improve organizational staff's job satisfaction and organizational commitment in many organizations. Empower-ment in service organizations, i.e., hospitals, has certainly generated more publicity than any other organizations. The objectives of this study are, first, to measure the degree of hospital employees' empowerment using Spreitzer(1995)'s empowerment theory, second, to analyze the causal relationship of organizational and job characteristics, a degree of empowerment, and organizational performance(job satisfaction and organizational commitment), and third, to offer the strategy for the improvement of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Spreitzer insists that the empowerment is composed of 4 dimensions(meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact). And he argues that various work-related characteristics is a direct cause of empowerment and the indirect cause of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, mediated by the empowerment latent variable. In order to perform this study, data were collected by self-administered questionnaires from hospital employees working in administrative department of 3 university hospitals in Inchon and Kyunggi-Do region. The number of cases is 181(response rate; 86%). The Collected data were analyzed with SPSS Ver. 10.0 and AMOSV Ver. 4.0. First, to test validity of variables, the factor analysis was used. Second, to test reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficients was calculated. Cronbach's alpha of empowerment variable is 0.8323 showing that there's no problem in regard to the internal consistency. Also the Cronbach's alpha of other variables are 0.8301 of the degree of perceived control, 0.6705 of job characteristics, O.8787 of compensation, 0.9254 of job satisfaction, and 0.8389 of organizational commitment, respectively. Among the questions of job characteristics, two survey questions are deleted due to lowering the reliability. Third, to test multicollinearity and correlation of variables, the correlation analysis was performed. There was no problem of multicollinearity. Finally structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis was conducted to find the causal relationship of organizational and job Characteristics, empowerment, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The 16 variables are included for the SEM analysis. The major results of this study are as follows: First, in the case of model fitness, the condition of x$^2$ statistic(92.187) is not fully satisfied, but the indices of GFI(0.912), AGFI(0.863), NFI(0.917) and CFI(0.928) are partially satisfied, which needs to upper 0.90. Second, in the result of hypotheses testing, all hypotheses are accepted and have a positive effect in 95% or 99% confidence interval(P<0.05 or P<0.001) except the effect of compensation variable on empowerment(P=0.082). Third, in regard to the direct, indirect, and total effect of variables, the direct effect of perceived control, task characteristics, and compensation on job satisfaction are 0.728, 2.264, 0.328 and on organizational commitment are 0.094, 1.411, 0.418, respectively. Also the indirect effect of perceived control, task characteristics, and compensation on job satisfaction are 0.311, 0.196, 0.028 and on organizational commitment are 0.210, 0.132, 0.019, respectively. Thus, these findings imply that various work-related factors are direct effect of empowerment and indirect effect of result variables, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Also These results showed that the workplace empowerment is significant mediating factor of employee's job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.273-275
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• 2017

It has been forty years since the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Korea. Following the 1977 legislature mandating medical insurance for employees and dependents in firms with more than 500 employees, South Korea expanded its health insurance to urban residents in 1989. Resultantly, total expenses of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) have greatly increased from 4.5 billion won in 1977 to 50.89 trillion won in 2016. With multiple insurers merging into the NHI system in 2000, a single-payer healthcare system emerged, along with separation policy of prescribing and dispensing. Following such reform, an emerging financial crisis required injections from the National Health Promotion Fund. Forty years following the introduction of the NHI system, both praise and criticism have been drawn. In just 12 years, the NHI achieved the fastest health population coverage in the world. Current medical expenditure is not high relative to the rest of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The quality of acute care in Korea is one of the best in the world. There is no sign of delayed diagnosis and/or treatment for most diseases. However, the NHI has been under-insured, requiring high-levels of out-of-pocket money from patients and often causing catastrophic medical expenses. Furthermore, the current environmental circumstances of the NHI are threatening its sustainability. Low birth rate decline, as well as slow economic growth, will make sustainment of the current healthcare system difficult in the near future. An aging population will increase the amount of medical expenditure required, especially with the baby-boomer generation of those born between 1955 and 1965. Meanwhile, there is always the problem of unification for the Korean Peninsula, and what role the health insurance system will have to play when it occurs. In the presidential election, health insurance is a main issue; however, there is greater focus on expansion and expenditure than revenue. Many aspects of Korea's NHI system (1977) were modeled after the German (1883) and Japanese (1922) systems. Such systems were created during an era where infections disease control was most urgent and thus, in the current non-communicable disease (NCD) era, must be redesigned. The Korean system, which is already forty years old, must be redesigned completely. Although health insurance benefit expansion is necessary, financial measures, as well as moral hazard control measures, must also be considered. Ultimately, there are three aspects that we must consider when attempting redesign of the system. First, the health security system must be reformed. NHI and Medical Aid must be amalgamated into one system for increased effectiveness and efficiency of the system. Within the single insurer system of the NHI must be an internal market for maximum efficiency. The NHIS must be separated into regions so that regional organizers have greater responsibility over their actions. Although insurance must continue to be imposed nationally, risk-adjustment must be distributed regionally and assessed by different regional systems. Second, as a solution for the decreasing flow of insurance revenue, low premium level must be increased to an appropriate level. Likewise, the national reserve fund (No. 36, National Health Insurance Act) must be enlarged for re-unification preparation. Third, there must be revolutionary reform of benefit package. The current system built a focus on communicable diseases which is inappropriate in this NCD era. Medical benefits must not be one-time events but provide chronic disease management. Chronic care models, accountable care organization, patient-centered medical homes, and other systems that introduce various benefit packages for beneficiaries must be implemented. The reimbursement system of medical costs should be introduced to various systems for different types of care, as is the case with part C (Medicare Advantage Program) of America's Medicare system that substitutes part A and part B. Pay for performance must be expanded so that there is not only improvement in quality of care but also medical costs. Moreover, beneficiaries of the NHI system must be aware of the amount of their expenditure through a deductible payment system so that spending can be profiled and monitored. The Moon Jae-in Government has announced its plans to expand the NHI system; however, it is important that a discussion forum is created so that more accurate analysis of the NHI, its environments, and current status of health care system, can take place for reforming NHI.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.278-287
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• 2003

Purpose: The performance of nitroglycerin-challenged Tc-99m-MIBI quantitative gated SPECT for the detection of viable myocardium was compared with rest/24-hour redistribution Tl-201 SPECT Materials and Methods: In 22 patients with coronary artery disease, rest Tl-20l/ dipyridamole stress Tc-99m-MIBI gated/24-hour redistribution Tl-201 SPECT were peformed, and gated SPECT was repeated on-site after sublingual administration of nitroglycerin (0.6 mg). Follow-up gated SPECT was done 3 months after coronary artery bypass graft surgery. For 20 segments per patient, perfusion at rest and 24-hour redistribution, and wall motion and thickening at baseline and nitroglycerin-challenged state were quantified. Quantitative viability markers were evaluated and compared;(1) rest thallium uptake, (2) thallium uptake on 24-hour redistribution SPECT, (3) systolic wall thickening at baseline, and (4) systolic wall thickening with nitroglycerin-challenge. Results: Among 100 revascularized dysfunctional segments, wall motion improved in 66 segments (66%) on follow-up gated myocardial SPECT after bypass surgery. On receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the sensitivity and specificity of rest and 24-hour delayed redistribution Tl-201 SPECT were 79%, 44% and 82%, 44%, respectively, at the optimal cutoff value of 50% of Tl-201 uptake. The sensitivity and specificity of systolic wall thickening at baseline and nitroglycerin-challenge were 49%, 50% and 64%, 65% at the optimal cutoff value of 15% of systolic wall thickening. Area under the ROC curve of nitroglycerin-challenged systolic wall thickening was significantly larger than that of baseline systolic wall thickening (p=0.004). Conclusion: Nitroglycerin-challenged quantitative gated Tc-99m-MIBI SPECT was a useful method for predicting functional recovery of dysfunctional myocardium.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.135-168
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• 2008

The Korean semiconductor industry has made a great contribution to growth of Korean economy for the last decades by maintaining a top position in terms of Korean total annual export volume. However, the advanced semiconductor equipment and materials that are used for the production of semiconductor devices still depend on the suppliers from Europe, Japan, and America who have an influential position in the Korean semiconductor industry. The objective of this study is to empirically investigate the attributes determining the extent of autonomy in decision making for the Korean subsidiaries of multinational corporations in the semiconductor industry. This study found there were differences in the extent of autonomy in decision making in terms of the global strategies the multinational corporations pursue. This study surveyed employees at the Korean subsidiaries and joint venture companies of semiconductor multinational corporations and collected 726 survey questionnaires. Several statistical analyses including frequency analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis, multiple regression analysis and ANOVA were performed using the collected sample data. Based on the analyses, this study found as follow: Firstly, from the factor analysis, this study found Korean subsidiaries faced three sources of uncertainties stemmed from political conditions, competent conditions, demand and supply conditions. The internal resources were characterized by the independencies of production capability, financial capability, marketing capability and human resource management capability. The operational performance was determined by total revenue, net profit and market share growth. Secondly, it was found the uncertainties from political condition and competent condition and the independencies of financial capability and marketing capability partially influenced the extent of autonomy in decision making. The independencies of production capability and human resource management capability significantly influenced the autonomy of decision making in the most areas. It was also found an increase of total revenue, net profit and market share growth partially affected the extent of autonomy in decision making of the Korean subsidiaries. Finally, it was found that the polycentrism of global management by multinational corporations seemed to bring a higher extent of autonomy in decision making than ethnocentrism or geocentrism of global management. Based on the results, this study provided managerial implications regarding the extent of autonomy in decision making for Korean subsidiaries of multinational corporations in order to help management to enhance their business capabilities.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.382-386
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• 2011

Microbial fuel cells (MFC), devices that use bacteria as a catalyst to generate electricity, can utilize a variety of organic wastes as electron donors. The current generated may differ depending on the organic matter concentrations used, when other conditions, such as oxidant supply, proton transfer, internal resistance and so on, are not limiting factors. In these studies, a single-cathode type MFC (SCMFC) and dual-cathode type MFC (DCMFC) were used to ascertain the current's improvement through an increase in the contact area between the anode and the cathode compartments, because the cathode reaction is one of the most serious limiting factors in an MFC. Also an MFC was conducted to explore whether an improvement in electricity generation resulted from oxidizing the carbon sources and nitrates. About 250 mg $L^{-1}$ sodium acetate was fed to an anode compartment with a flow rate of 0.326 mL $min^{-1}$ by continuous mode. The current generated from the DCMFC was higher than the value produced from MFC with a single cathode. COD removal of dual-cathode MFC was also higher than that of single-cathode MFC. The nitrate didn't affect current generation at 2 mM, but when 4 and 8 mM nitrate was supplied, the current in the single-cathode and dual-cathode MFC was decreased by 98% from $5.97{\pm}0.13$ to $0.23{\pm}0.03$ mA and $8.40{\pm}0.23$ to $0.20{\pm}0.01$ mA, respectively. These results demonstrate that increasing of contact area of the anode and cathode can raise current generation by an improvement in the cathode reaction.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.144-159
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• 2014

Techniques for making a single panoramic image using multiple pictures are widely studied in many areas such as computer vision, computer graphics, etc. The panorama image can be applied to various fields like virtual reality, robot vision areas which require wide-angled shots as an useful way to overcome the limitations such as picture-angle, resolutions, and internal informations of an image taken from a single camera. It is so much meaningful in a point that a panoramic image usually provides better immersion feeling than a plain image. Although there are many ways to build a panoramic image, most of them are using the way of extracting feature points and matching points of each images for making a single panoramic image. In addition, those methods use the RANSAC(RANdom SAmple Consensus) algorithm with matching points and the Homography matrix to transform the image. The SURF(Speeded Up Robust Features) algorithm which is used in this paper to extract featuring points uses an image's black and white informations and local spatial informations. The SURF is widely being used since it is very much robust at detecting image's size, view-point changes, and additionally, faster than the SIFT(Scale Invariant Features Transform) algorithm. The SURF has a shortcoming of making an error which results in decreasing the RANSAC algorithm's performance speed when extracting image's feature points. As a result, this may increase the CPU usage occupation rate. The error of detecting matching points may role as a critical reason for disqualifying panoramic image's accuracy and lucidity. In this paper, in order to minimize errors of extracting matching points, we used $3{\times}3$ region's RGB pixel values around the matching points' coordinates to perform intermediate filtering process for removing wrong matching points. We have also presented analysis and evaluation results relating to enhanced working speed for producing a panorama image, CPU usage rate, extracted matching points' decreasing rate and accuracy.

• The Journal of Small Business Innovation
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.1-17
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• 2017

There is a serious information asymmetry between internal managers and outside investors in the process during IPOs. One mechanism that mitigates this information asymmetry is a high quality auditor. Since prior research document auditors' effect on newly listed firms at the IPO year, what has not yet been revealed in previous studies is the behavior of firms and auditors after listing. In this study, we investigate (i) the firms tendency of contracting with Big N auditors, and (ii) the effect of Big N auditors on accounting quality after the years of IPOs. Using a sample of 7,678 (1,892 firm-years of after IPOs, and 5,786 control firm-years) KOSDAQ observations between 2002 and 2012, we find that the likelihood of contracting with Big N auditor lasts only for two years after IPO compare to that of non-IPO control years. Secondly, we find that the effect of Big N auditors on clients' earnings management lasts for a very short period after IPO. These findings suggest that although prior literature argue that Big N auditors reduce earnings management of their clients, at least the period right after IPO, it is not consistent. Our study contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, we provide new evidences of firms' auditor selection decisions by investigating years after the listing. In second, as an evidence of accruals reversal, we document decrease in discretionary accruals after IPOs. Third, we find that there is not always a positive relation between Big N auditor and accounting quality by showing the insignificant Big N auditor effect after IPOs. Our results also suggest several implications to IPO related stakeholders. First, to IPO firms, we provide evidences that decisions of hiring auditors affect firms earnings. Also, lead IPO underwriters may consider how these decisions influence future performance. Second, investors may want to use information not only in the preofferings but also after public offerings. Our study insists that auditor hiring decisions affects their own welfare. Finally, accounting standard setters may find these results useful for evaluating how much discretion they should allow corporate managers to hire auditors. In addition, our result casts doubt on auditor designation.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.47-65
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• 2020

With the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in sight, innovative business models utilizing new technologies are emerging, and startups are enjoying an abundance of opportunities based on the agility to respond to disruptive innovations and the opening to new technologies. However, what is most important in creating a sustainable start-up ecosystem is not the start-up itself, but the process of research-start-investment-investment-the leap to listing and big business-in order to build a virtuous circle of startups that leads to re-investment. To this end, the environment created in the hub area where start-ups were conducted is important, and these material and non-material environmental factors are described as being inclusive by the word "entrepreneurial ecosystem." This study aims to provide implications for Korea's entrepreneurial ecosystem through the study of the interaction of the elements that make up the start-up ecosystem and the relationship of ecosystem participants in Singapore. Singapore has been consistently mentioned as the top two Asian countries in assessing the start-up environment and business environment. In this process, six elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem presented by Isenberg(2010)-policies, finance, culture, support, human resources, and market-are the best frameworks for analyzing entrepreneurial ecosystems in terms of well encompassing prior studies related to entrepreneurial ecosystem elements, and a model of regional transformation is formed focusing on some elements to suit Singapore, the target area of study. By considering that Singapore's political nature would inevitably have a huge impact on finance, Smart Nation policy was having an impact on university education related to entrepreneurship, and that the entrepreneurial networks and global connectivity formed within Singapore's start-up infrastructure had a significant impact on Singapore's start-up's performance, researches needed to look more at the factors of policy, culture and market. In addition, qualitative research of participants in the entrepreneurial ecosystem was essential to understand the internal interaction of the elements of the start-up ecosystem, so the semi-structured survey was conducted by visiting the site. As such, this study examined the status of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem based on qualitative research focused on policies, culture and market elements of Singapore's start-up ecosystem, and intended to provide implications for regulations related to start-ups, the role of universities and start-up infrastructure through comparison with Korea. This could contribute not only to the future research of the start-up ecosystem, but also to the creation of a start-up infrastructure, boosting the start-up ecosystem, and the establishment of the orientation of the start-up education in universities.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.58-74
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• 2002

This paper constitutes a descriptive investigation and used a structured questionnaire to investigate nurses' and doctors' recognition of cancer patients. The subjects were extracted from the medical personnel working at the internal medicine, the surgery ward, the obstetrics and gynecology department, the pediatrics department, the cancer ward, and the emergency room of five general hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The research lasted from August, 2001 to September 2001. Total 137 nurses and 65 doctors were included and made out the questionnaires directly distributed by the investigator. The study tool was also developed by the investigator and consisted of such items as the demographic and social characteristics, the medical personnel's recognition degree of cancer and cancer patients, their recognition of the management of cancer patients, and their participation in a hospice. The results were analyzed using the SPSS Window program in terms of technological statistics, ranks, t-test, and ANOVA. The reliability was represented in Cronbach' α=.75. The nurses' and doctors' recognition degree of cancer and cancer patients had an overall average of 3.86 at the 5 point-scale. The items that received an average of 4.0 or more included 'Medical personnel should explain about the cancer cure plans to the cancer patient and his or her family', 'A patient whose case has been diagnosed as a terminal cancer should be notified of it, 'If I were a cancer patient, I would want to get informed of it,' and 'Cancer shall be conquered whenever it is'. In the meantime, the items that received an average of 3.0 or less was 'My relationship with the cancer patient's family has gotten worse since I announced his or her impending death.' And according to the general characteristics and the difference test, the recognition degree of cancer and cancer patient was high among the subgroups of nurses, females, married persons, who were in their 30s, who had a family member that was a cancer patient, and who received a hospice education. The biggest number of the nurses and doctors saw 'a gradual approach over several days'(68.8%) as a method to tell a cancer patient about his or her cancer diagnosis or impending death. Those who usually tell tragic news were the physician in charge(62.8%), the family members or relatives(32.1%) and the clergymen(3.8%) in the order. The greatest number of them recommended a cancer patient's home as the place where he or she should face death because they thought 'it would stabilize his or her mentality'(91.9%) while a number of them recommended the hospital because they 'should give the psychological satisfaction to the patient'(40%) or 'should try their best until the last moment of the patient's death'(30%). A majority of the medical personnel regarded 'smoking or drinking' and 'diet' as the causes of cancer. The biggest symptom of a cancer patient was 'pain' and the pain management of a cancer patient was mostly impeded by the 'excessive fear of drug addiction, tolerance to drugs and side effects of drugs' by medical personnel, the patient, and his or her family. The most frequently adopted treatment plan of a terminal cancer patient was 'to do whatever the patient or his or her family wants' to resort to a hospice' and 'to continue active treatment efforts' in the order. The biggest reasons why a terminal cancer patient went to see a doctor were 'pain alleviation' 'control of symptoms other than pain(intravenous supply)' and 'incapability of the patient's family' in the order. Terminal cancer patients placed their major concern in 'spiritual(religious) matter' 'emotional matters' their family' 'existence' and 'physical matters' in the order. 113(58.5%) of the whole medical personnel answered they 'would recommend' an alternative treatment to a terminal cancer patient mostly because they assumed it would 'stabilize the patient's mentality.' Meanwhile, 80(41.5%) of them chose 'not to recommend it mostly due to the unverified effects and high cost of it(78.7%). A majority of them, I. e. 190(94.1%) subjects said they 'would recommend' a hospice to a terminal cancer patient mostly because they thought it would help the patient to 'mentally prepare'(66.6%) Only 17.3% of them, however, had received a hospice education, most of which was done through the hospital duty education(41.4%) and volunteer training(34.5%). The follows are results of this study: 1. The nurses and the doctors turned out to be still passive and experience confusion in dealing with a cancer patient despite their great sense of responsibility for him or her. 2.Nurses and Doctors realize the need of a hospice, but an extremely small number of them participate in a hospice education or performance. Thus, a whole recognition of a hospice should be changed, for which purpose a hospice education for nurses and doctors should be provided. 3.Terminal cancer patients preferred their home to a hospital as the place to face their impending death because they felt it would bring 'mental stability.' And most of nurses and doctors think it would be unnecessary for them to be hospitalized just for control of their symptoms. Accordingly a terminal cancer patient can be cared at home, and a home hospice care needs to be activated.

• Proceedings of the KOR-BRONCHOESO Conference
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• 1982.05a
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• pp.10.1-10
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• 1982

The use of phonosurgery in the recent development of laryngomicrosurgery has enabled the restoration of a normal voice in respect to functional laryngeal surgery which in Korea in the past limited to simple removal of benign laryngeal tumor such as laryngeal polyp or nodules and cordal injection of $Teflon^{{\circledR}}$ for the treatment of recurrent nerve paralysis under the vision of suspension laryngoscopy. Performance of phonosurgery for the treatment of cord paralysis, mutational dysphonia, vocal cord atrophy, hyperkinetic dysphonia and sulcus vocalis is a happy event in the view point of development of phonosurgery in Korea. In this aspect thyroplasty to change the position and physical characteristics of the cord outside the glottis instead of the direct handling of the vocal cord through direct endoscopy is popular. Among the 4 types of thyroplasty, classified by Insshiki(1974), type I thyroplasty(1ateral compression of vocal cord) and type IV thyroplasty(lengthening of vocal cord) were effective in the treatment of unilateral vocal cord paralysis. Advantages of this operation are the fine adjustment of the degree of lateral compression under local anesthesia according to the phonation of the patient during operation and avoidance of dyspnea and intralaryngeal hemorrhage due to the manipulation outside the internal perichondrium of the thyroid cartilage. We did 7 cases of thyroplasty for the treatment of unilateral vocal cord paralysis in the 7 months from September 1981 to March 1982. Before the operation aerodynamic study, psychoacoustical evaluation, stroboscopy and sound spectrographic analysis were done. Two months after the operation the above procedures were performed again. Results of preoperative and postoperative examination were compared and the following results were obtained. 1) In the aerodynamic study, maximum phonation time increased to 158% of the preoperative value and the phonation quotient and the mean flow rate decreased to 58% and 54% of preoperative values. 2) The degree of hoarseness improved in the psychoacoustical evaluation and the glottic chink during phonation was decreased in the stroboscopic examiantion. 3) In the sound spectrographic analysis, periodicity was much restored and noise distribution decreased especially in the high frequency area.