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Public Perception and Acceptance of the National Strategy for Well-Dying (웰다잉 국가 전략에 대한 일반 국민들의 인식 및 수용도)

  • Lee, Seo Hyun;Shin, Dong Eun;Sim, Jin Ah;Yun, Young Ho
    • Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.90-97
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    • 2013
  • Purpose: Ten years have passed since the Korean government announced its plan to institutionally support hospice and palliative care in 2002. In line with that, this study aims to suggest future directions for Korea's hospice and palliative care policy. Methods: We conducted a survey on people's perception and acceptance of well-dying. Data were collected from 1,000 participants aged 19~69 years between June 1 and June 11, 2012 via computer-assisted telephone interviews. Results: The most important factor for well-dying was placing no burden of care on others (36.7%) and the second most important factor was staying with their family and loved ones (19.1%). Among nine suggestions of policy support for well-dying, the most popular was the promotion of voluntary care sharing (88.3%), followed by the palliative care training support for healthcare providers (83.7%) and the support for palliative care facilities instead of funeral halls (81.7%). The idea of formulating a five-year national plan for end-of-life care drew strong support (91%). According to the survey, the plan should be implemented by the central government (47.5%), the National Assembly (20.2%) or civic groups (10%). Conclusion: This study demonstrated the public consensus and their consistent direction toward policy support for well-dying. Results of this study may serve as a foundation for the establishment of policy support for people's well-dying and palliative care at the national-level.

Studies about Acceptance of Songs or Sounds 'Sori(唱)' appeared in Musical Comedy performed in Korean Traditional Music and Changeable Aspects Thereof - Centering around Korean Musical Group, Taroo - (국악뮤지컬에 나타난 소리(창(唱))의 수용 및 변화양상 연구 - "'국악뮤지컬집단 타루'를 중심으로" -)

  • Jung, Hyewon
    • Journal of Korean Theatre Studies Association
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    • no.49
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    • pp.5-47
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    • 2013
  • Among the styles of performing arts, perhaps the genre that has attracted the largest audience would be musical. Popularity of musical has brought diverse changes in our performing arts market, and, upon emerging another musical genre, called 'Korean Traditional Musical Comedy,' it has been well-received by the audiences. 'Korean Traditional Musical Comedy' is a word that are formed by merging two other terms such as 'Korean Traditional Music' and 'Musical (Comedy).' In the meantime, however, it has yet some problems in order to be defined as the genre that has concrete concepts. It is because the term such as Korean Traditional Musical Comedy was created being closely associated with a marketing purpose rather than a term that defines the characteristics of a genre of performing arts. Although this new musical genre has drawn attentions of many audiences by adding 'Musical Comedy' to 'Korean Traditional Music' that was not quite popular to the public, it still does not have any established forms so that there is a fine line between "Korean Traditional Musical Comedy" and another genre like traditional style folk opera ("Changgeuk"). Looking at the characteristics of the musical work called 'Korean Traditional Musical Comedy, in general, first of all, it is a performance where music and drama are played. Here, the distinctive characteristic of this musical is that 'Korean Traditional Music' is sung. And the kinds of Korean traditional musics being sung are mainly Pansori (dramatic story-singing) and folk-songs, and, in most cases, Korean traditional musical instruments are being used as accompanying music. In this paper, the researcher investigated the aspects of experiment centering around Korean Musical Group, Taroo. These days, various experiments has been repeated not only for the works of Taroo but other musical work presently called 'Korean Traditional Musical Comedy' also. Having encompassed overall performance factors including use of musical instruments, dance, acting, materials for drama as well as music in drama, the researcher has gone through experiments repeatedly. Meanwhile, however, the subject matters that make 'Korean Traditional Musical Comedy' mostly attractive to the audiences are music and songs or sounds. ["Sori" also called "Chang" (唱)] Particularly, under the current situation of our musicals, the role of "Sori" is extremely important. The factor that plays absolutely most important role in acceptance and transformation of "Sori" is the created Pansori. Since the created Pansori is composed with new rhythmic patterns and new narrative poems, it tells the present story. Also it draws good responses from the audiences owing to easy conveyance of dialogues. And, its new style brings diversification to organization of musical instruments, so then this leads to the arrangements of music for Korean traditional music instruments, as well as instrumental music ensemble, orchestra, and jazz band, etc. Likewise, upon appearing creative musics in 'Korean Traditional Musical Comedy,' professional music and vocal compositions have begun to emerge naturally. And, the song specialist and writer, of course, staffs including direction, lighting, and sounds, etc are required. That is, professional composition method are forced to be introduced to all areas. Other than this, there are many music pieces which are based on our unique songs and sounds ("Sori") and such traditional factors as use of lead singer for ceremony or chorus, and the method that puts weight on Pansori. Accordingly many things accomplished. However, it is required that 'Korean Traditional Musical Comedy' go through numerous discussions and more experiments. Above all, the most important things are the role of actor and actress, and their changes, and training of actor and actress further. Good news is there are good audience responses. 'Korean Traditional Musical Comedy' is an open genre. As musicals are divided into several domains according to the characteristics thereof, 'Korean Traditional Musical Comedy' will be able to show its distinctive features in various styles according to embodiment.

Usefulness of Canonical Correlation Classification Technique in Hyper-spectral Image Classification (하이퍼스펙트럴영상 분류에서 정준상관분류기법의 유용성)

  • Park, Min-Ho
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.26 no.5D
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    • pp.885-894
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    • 2006
  • The purpose of this study is focused on the development of the effective classification technique using ultra multiband of hyperspectral image. This study suggests the classification technique using canonical correlation analysis, one of multivariate statistical analysis in hyperspectral image classification. High accuracy of classification result is expected for this classification technique as the number of bands increase. This technique is compared with Maximum Likelihood Classification(MLC). The hyperspectral image is the EO1-hyperion image acquired on September 2, 2001, and the number of bands for the experiment were chosen at 30, considering the band scope except the thermal band of Landsat TM. We chose the comparing base map as Ground Truth Data. We evaluate the accuracy by comparing this base map with the classification result image and performing overlay analysis visually. The result showed us that in MLC's case, it can't classify except water, and in case of water, it only classifies big lakes. But Canonical Correlation Classification (CCC) classifies the golf lawn exactly, and it classifies the highway line in the urban area well. In case of water, the ponds that are in golf ground area, the ponds in university, and pools are also classified well. As a result, although the training areas are selected without any trial and error, it was possible to get the exact classification result. Also, the ability to distinguish golf lawn from other vegetations in classification classes, and the ability to classify water was better than MLC technique. Conclusively, this CCC technique for hyperspectral image will be very useful for estimating harvest and detecting surface water. In advance, it will do an important role in the construction of GIS database using the spectral high resolution image, hyperspectral data.

A Study on the Influence of IT Education Service Quality on Educational Satisfaction, Work Application Intention, and Recommendation Intention: Focusing on the Moderating Effects of Learner Position and Participation Motivation (IT교육 서비스품질이 교육만족도, 현업적용의도 및 추천의도에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구: 학습자 직위 및 참여동기의 조절효과를 중심으로)

  • Kang, Ryeo-Eun;Yang, Sung-Byung
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.169-196
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    • 2017
  • The fourth industrial revolution represents a revolutionary change in the business environment and its ecosystem, which is a fusion of Information Technology (IT) and other industries. In line with these recent changes, the Ministry of Employment and Labor of South Korea announced 'the Fourth Industrial Revolution Leader Training Program,' which includes five key support areas such as (1) smart manufacturing, (2) Internet of Things (IoT), (3) big data including Artificial Intelligence (AI), (4) information security, and (5) bio innovation. Based on this program, we can get a glimpse of the South Korean government's efforts and willingness to emit leading human resource with advanced IT knowledge in various fusion technology-related and newly emerging industries. On the other hand, in order to nurture excellent IT manpower in preparation for the fourth industrial revolution, the role of educational institutions capable of providing high quality IT education services is most of importance. However, these days, most IT educational institutions have had difficulties in providing customized IT education services that meet the needs of consumers (i.e., learners), without breaking away from the traditional framework of providing supplier-oriented education services. From previous studies, it has been found that the provision of customized education services centered on learners leads to high satisfaction of learners, and that higher satisfaction increases not only task performance and the possibility of business application but also learners' recommendation intention. However, since research has not yet been conducted in a comprehensive way that consider both antecedent and consequent factors of the learner's satisfaction, more empirical research on this is highly desirable. With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, a rising interest in various convergence technologies utilizing information technology (IT) has brought with the growing realization of the important role played by IT-related education services. However, research on the role of IT education service quality in the context of IT education is relatively scarce in spite of the fact that research on general education service quality and satisfaction has been actively conducted in various contexts. In this study, therefore, the five dimensions of IT education service quality (i.e., tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) are derived from the context of IT education, based on the SERVPERF model and related previous studies. In addition, the effects of these detailed IT education service quality factors on learners' educational satisfaction and their work application/recommendation intentions are examined. Furthermore, the moderating roles of learner position (i.e., practitioner group vs. manager group) and participation motivation (i.e., voluntary participation vs. involuntary participation) in relationships between IT education service quality factors and learners' educational satisfaction, work application intention, and recommendation intention are also investigated. In an analysis using the structural equation model (SEM) technique based on a questionnaire given to 203 participants of IT education programs in an 'M' IT educational institution in Seoul, South Korea, tangibles, reliability, and assurance were found to have a significant effect on educational satisfaction. This educational satisfaction was found to have a significant effect on both work application intention and recommendation intention. Moreover, it was discovered that learner position and participation motivation have a partial moderating impact on the relationship between IT education service quality factors and educational satisfaction. This study holds academic implications in that it is one of the first studies to apply the SERVPERF model (rather than the SERVQUAL model, which has been widely adopted by prior studies) is to demonstrate the influence of IT education service quality on learners' educational satisfaction, work application intention, and recommendation intention in an IT education environment. The results of this study are expected to provide practical guidance for IT education service providers who wish to enhance learners' educational satisfaction and service management efficiency.

A New Approach to Automatic Keyword Generation Using Inverse Vector Space Model (키워드 자동 생성에 대한 새로운 접근법: 역 벡터공간모델을 이용한 키워드 할당 방법)

  • Cho, Won-Chin;Rho, Sang-Kyu;Yun, Ji-Young Agnes;Park, Jin-Soo
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.103-122
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    • 2011
  • Recently, numerous documents have been made available electronically. Internet search engines and digital libraries commonly return query results containing hundreds or even thousands of documents. In this situation, it is virtually impossible for users to examine complete documents to determine whether they might be useful for them. For this reason, some on-line documents are accompanied by a list of keywords specified by the authors in an effort to guide the users by facilitating the filtering process. In this way, a set of keywords is often considered a condensed version of the whole document and therefore plays an important role for document retrieval, Web page retrieval, document clustering, summarization, text mining, and so on. Since many academic journals ask the authors to provide a list of five or six keywords on the first page of an article, keywords are most familiar in the context of journal articles. However, many other types of documents could not benefit from the use of keywords, including Web pages, email messages, news reports, magazine articles, and business papers. Although the potential benefit is large, the implementation itself is the obstacle; manually assigning keywords to all documents is a daunting task, or even impractical in that it is extremely tedious and time-consuming requiring a certain level of domain knowledge. Therefore, it is highly desirable to automate the keyword generation process. There are mainly two approaches to achieving this aim: keyword assignment approach and keyword extraction approach. Both approaches use machine learning methods and require, for training purposes, a set of documents with keywords already attached. In the former approach, there is a given set of vocabulary, and the aim is to match them to the texts. In other words, the keywords assignment approach seeks to select the words from a controlled vocabulary that best describes a document. Although this approach is domain dependent and is not easy to transfer and expand, it can generate implicit keywords that do not appear in a document. On the other hand, in the latter approach, the aim is to extract keywords with respect to their relevance in the text without prior vocabulary. In this approach, automatic keyword generation is treated as a classification task, and keywords are commonly extracted based on supervised learning techniques. Thus, keyword extraction algorithms classify candidate keywords in a document into positive or negative examples. Several systems such as Extractor and Kea were developed using keyword extraction approach. Most indicative words in a document are selected as keywords for that document and as a result, keywords extraction is limited to terms that appear in the document. Therefore, keywords extraction cannot generate implicit keywords that are not included in a document. According to the experiment results of Turney, about 64% to 90% of keywords assigned by the authors can be found in the full text of an article. Inversely, it also means that 10% to 36% of the keywords assigned by the authors do not appear in the article, which cannot be generated through keyword extraction algorithms. Our preliminary experiment result also shows that 37% of keywords assigned by the authors are not included in the full text. This is the reason why we have decided to adopt the keyword assignment approach. In this paper, we propose a new approach for automatic keyword assignment namely IVSM(Inverse Vector Space Model). The model is based on a vector space model. which is a conventional information retrieval model that represents documents and queries by vectors in a multidimensional space. IVSM generates an appropriate keyword set for a specific document by measuring the distance between the document and the keyword sets. The keyword assignment process of IVSM is as follows: (1) calculating the vector length of each keyword set based on each keyword weight; (2) preprocessing and parsing a target document that does not have keywords; (3) calculating the vector length of the target document based on the term frequency; (4) measuring the cosine similarity between each keyword set and the target document; and (5) generating keywords that have high similarity scores. Two keyword generation systems were implemented applying IVSM: IVSM system for Web-based community service and stand-alone IVSM system. Firstly, the IVSM system is implemented in a community service for sharing knowledge and opinions on current trends such as fashion, movies, social problems, and health information. The stand-alone IVSM system is dedicated to generating keywords for academic papers, and, indeed, it has been tested through a number of academic papers including those published by the Korean Association of Shipping and Logistics, the Korea Research Academy of Distribution Information, the Korea Logistics Society, the Korea Logistics Research Association, and the Korea Port Economic Association. We measured the performance of IVSM by the number of matches between the IVSM-generated keywords and the author-assigned keywords. According to our experiment, the precisions of IVSM applied to Web-based community service and academic journals were 0.75 and 0.71, respectively. The performance of both systems is much better than that of baseline systems that generate keywords based on simple probability. Also, IVSM shows comparable performance to Extractor that is a representative system of keyword extraction approach developed by Turney. As electronic documents increase, we expect that IVSM proposed in this paper can be applied to many electronic documents in Web-based community and digital library.

A Study on Implementation of Primary Health Care Delivery System meet to Rural Area in Korea -Village Health Voluntary Worker Development- (우리 나라 농촌지역(農村地域)에 부합하는 1차(次) 보건의료전달체계(保健醫療傳達體系) 정착구현(定着具現)에 관한 연구(硏究) -마을 보건임원(保健任員) 개발(開發)-)

  • Koo, Y.C.;Wie, J.H.;Hwang, S.J.;Choi, S.S.
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.13-23
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    • 1979
  • A study was carried out from October 1977 to September 1978 in order to develope health care delively system which will meet to rural area in Korea. For the study objective a model of health care delivery system of Myun (township) area was developed which is adopted the net-work of village health voluntary worker who will play the role of bridge for communication related with health and illness between families or village people and health subcenter, and :he model health care delivery system net-work was set in the area of Soodong Myun, Yangju Gun. which is the rural health demonstration area of Ewha Womans University since 1972. The activities and attitude of 22 village health voluntary workers were observed and analized. during the study period. The results are as follows; 1. For the field activities of village health voluntary workers. a guide line which is described with specific behavioral objectives was developed and used for not only training of the workers but also evaluation of their field activities. 2. During the study period, the number of 971 village people were served primary health care service by village health voluntary worker and the service was classified largely into symptomatic medications (92%) and preventive measures (8%). 3. Comparative percentage of the number of 894 symptomatic cases cared by village health voluntary workers to 5,695 cases of patient treated by Soodong Health Subcenter during the same period was 15.7%. 4. Annual utility rate of village health voluntary worker by Myun total people was 16.1% but utility rate by Rie was varied from 38.2% to 2.8% which shown there were considerable differences in each Rie. In order to settle the village health care service, the obstructive factors of utility should be detected and their counter measure must be taken. 5. As the health need of village people increases, it is expected that the supplement of drug excluding present sit basic drugs is inevitable, but considering the ability of village health voluntary worker, the selection of additional drugs and education, plan should be carefully studied. 6. It is desirable that a financial resource for supplementary purchase of first aid kit, drugs and materials whould be alloted from village public fund like Saemaeul Women's Club fund, which has already practiced in a few villages in the study area. 7. As pointed out by village health voluntary workers, in order to improve the village health, village leaders should be in the center of it and the cooperation of whole village people is a core of healthful village development, and it is reasonable that the health subcenter backs up these voluntary health activities by village people in techniques. 8. It seems effective that a supplementary education for village health voluntary worker be accomplished by a planned education through regular meetings like worker's monthly meeting and irregular post guide when Myun Health Workers can handle the problems found during the round trip of villages. 9. It is desirable that village health voluntary workers, who are recommended by a civil voluntary organization like Saemael Woman's Club, are charged by natural villagc unit, are given a function of village health care service and used through basic education at health subcenter. 10. It is advisable that the village health voluntary worker's service is compensated not by a form of money, but by other way such as an exemption of medical fee of worker herself or her families in health subcenter can be one method. 11. Daily health activities of each village health voluntary worker should be reported to health subcenter by biweekly or monthly in order to get not only for basic data of the program but also for evaluation the program. It is recomandable that the report form should be simple and clear enough for village health voluntary worker to fill it effectively. 12. Village health care service should be developed into a Saemaeul Movement in which village people actively participate. For this, the appointed function of village health voluntary worker should be absorbed into those of living Environment Betterment Section or Family Planning Section of Saemaeul Women's Club or it is desirable that establish a new section, Village Health Promoting Section and make it involve the appointed functions of those sections mentioned above.

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Occupational Demands and Educational Needs in Korean Librarianship (한국적 도서관학교육과정 연구)

  • Choi Sung Jin;Yoon Byong Tae;Koo Bon Young
    • Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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    • v.12
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    • pp.269-327
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    • 1985
  • This study was undertaken to meet more fully the demands for improved training of library personnel, occasioned by the rapidly changing roles and functions of libraries as they try to adapt to the vast social, economic and technological changes currently in progress in the Korean society. The specific purpose of this research is to develop a standard curriculum at the batchelor's level that will properly equip the professional personnel in Korean libraries for the changes confronting them. This study started with the premise that to establish a sound base for curriculum development, it was necessary first to determine what concepts, knowledge, and techniques are required for professional library personnel to perform it at an optimal level of efficiency. Explicitly, it was felt that for the development of useful curricula and courses at the batchelor's level, a prime source of knowledge should be functional behaviours that are necessary in the job situation. To determine specifically what these terminal performance behaviours should be so that learning experience provided could be rooted in reality, the decision was reached to use a systems approach to curriculum development, which is an attempt to break the mold of traditional concepts and to approach interaction from an open, innovative, and product-oriented perspective. This study was designed to: (1) identify what knowledge and techniques are required for professional library personnel to perform the job activities in which they are actually engaged, (2) to evaluate the educational needs of the knowledge and techniques that the professional librarian respondents indicate, and (3) to categorise the knowledge and techniques into teaching subjects to present the teaching subjects by their educational importance. The main data-gathering instrument for the study, a questionnaire containing 254 items, was sent to a randomly selected sample of library school graduates working in libraries and related institutions in Korea. Eighty-three librarians completed and returned the questionnaire. After analysing the returned questionnaire, the following conclusions have been reached: (A) To develop a rational curriculum rooted in the real situation of the Korean libraries, compulsory subjects should be properly chosen from those which were ranked highest in importance by the respondents. Characters and educational policies of, and other teaching subjects offered by, the individual educational institution to which a given library school belongs should also be taken into account in determining compulsory subjects. (B) It is traditionally assumed that education in librarianship should be more concerned with theoretical foundations on which any solution can be developed than with professional needs with particulars and techniques as they are used in existing library environments. However, the respondents gave the former a surprisingly lower rating. The traditional assumption must be reviewed. (C) It is universally accepted in developing library school curricula that compulsory subjects are concerned with the area of knowledge students generally need to learn and optional subjects are concerned with the area to be needed to only those who need it. Now that there is no such clear demarcation line provided in librarianship, it may be a realistic approach to designate subjects in the area rated high by the respondents as compulsory and to designate those in the area rated low as optional. (D) Optional subjects that were ranked considerably higher in importance by the respondents should be given more credits than others, and those ranked lower might be given less credits or offered infrequently or combined. (E) A standard list of compulsory and optional subjects with weekly teaching hours for a Korean library school is presented in the fourth chapter of this report.

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An Exploration of the Influencing Factors and Development of Effective Models of Science Teacher Efficiency (과학 교사의 효능감 관련 요인 탐색을 통한 과학 교사 효능감 형성 모형 개발)

  • Choi, Sung-Youn;Kim, Sung-Won
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.30 no.6
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    • pp.693-718
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    • 2010
  • This study investigated secondary school science teachers' experiences to explore the influencing factors in science teachers efficiency (STE). The participants, thirty three secondary school science teachers who have more than four years of teaching experience, were interviewed about describing each teacher's experience throughout one's years of teaching. The grounded theory introduced by Strauss and Corbin (1998) was used to analyze the data in this study. The results of paradigm analysis revealed that STE is influenced by 125 concepts, 38 sub-categories, and 16 categories. In a paradigm model, the central phenomenon was 'constructing STE', and the causal condition was 'want to be a teacher' as career choice motivation. The contextual conditions that have an affect on the central phenomenon were 'self awareness of the teacher' and 'social awareness of the teacher.' The mediate conditions, which facilitated or restrained the action/interaction strategies, were 'societal tendency', 'school climate', and 'personal context.' The action/interaction strategies to control the phenomenon were 'following the line,' 'identifying effective teaching strategies,' 'taking teacher education programs,' and 'contributing to school improvement.' The consequences were 'teacher's self awareness', 'challenge,' and 'stagnating in teaching.' The overall conclusion drawn from this research is that, the definition of STE is beliefs in science teachers' capabilities to set up objects in some school teaching context and, organize and execute the course of action required to attain these. Additionally, STE has three dimensions of teacher's behaviors: science instructional efficiency, efficiency in engaging students, and efficiency in managing school conditions. This study offers insight into the nature of STE and theoretical framework. These findings may give science teachers and teacher educators the practical knowledge necessary to build effective training programs and interventions that would help increase STE and facilitate effective teaching.

A Study of Cause of Employee Turnover and Countermeasures against Turnover in Shipping and Port Logistics Firms (중소항만물류기업의 이직원인 분석과 대책에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Jae-Hun;Shin, Yong-John
    • Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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    • v.39 no.6
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    • pp.545-552
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    • 2015
  • This study One of the key elements of corporate competitiveness in the modern world of unlimited competition is human resource management. The reason that the world's leading companies are devoting a lot of investment and effort for good human resource development and management is that human resource can impact firm survival. In particular, there is little research on the internal and external environmental stimuli and job stress in the employee of small business which are often led to turnover, while they have suffered from chronic shortage of manpower. The purpose of this study is to determine the turnover factors in the small logistics companies and contribute to stable maintenance of workforce, facilitating human resource management and minimizing turnover. This study empirically analyzed the factors of the turnover in the organization of logistics companies from Busan Port, South Korea, which became one of the national infrastructure and the fifth world largest harbor. The conclusion proposed the development and direction of the human resource management which could promote the job environment improving the turnover factors and creating sustainable work condition through conducting preventive measures. The results indicated that the highest turnover rates was found in the category of field work, and the highest turnover group was from the 'less than one year', which implies that high turnover rates after and during job training might be greater cost to the companies than early turnover. The most common reasons for the high employee turnover were 'excessive workload' and 'dissatisfaction with wages'. Followed reasons including 'troubles with managers' and 'failure in organizational adaptation' can be understood in line with worse working conditions of the small logistic companies. It turned out that the preventive programs of the logistic enterprises had little effect through 'incentives system' and 'improving wage system' which are mainly conducted. The human resource managers appreciated the importance of 'wage raise' and 'benefits improvement'. This study is aimed at contributing to efficient human resource management through understanding of the turnover causes and human resource managers applying preventive measures. In particular, this can benefit small port logistics companies securing competitiveness and promoting persistent growth and development.

Categorizing Quality Features of Franchisees: In the case of Korean Food Service Industry (프랜차이즈 매장 품질요인의 속성분류: 국내 외식업을 중심으로)

  • Byun, Sook-Eun;Cho, Eun-Seong
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.95-115
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    • 2011
  • Food service is the major part of franchise business in Korea, accounting for 69.9% of the brands in the market. As the food service industry becomes mature, many franchisees have struggled to survive in the market. In general, consumers have higher levels of expectation toward service quality of franchised outlets compared that of (non-franchised) independent ones. They also tend to believe that franchisees deliver standardized service at the uniform food price, regardless of their locations. Such beliefs seem to be important reasons that consumers prefer franchised outlets to independent ones. Nevertheless, few studies examined the impact of qualify features of franchisees on customer satisfaction so far. To this end, this study examined the characteristics of various quality features of franchisees in the food service industry, regarding their relationship with customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The quality perception of heavy-users was also compared with that of light-users in order to find insights for developing differentiated marketing strategy for the two segments. Customer satisfaction has been understood as a one-dimensional construct while there are recent studies that insist two-dimensional nature of the construct. In this regard, Kano et al. (1984) suggested to categorize quality features of a product or service into five types, based on their relation to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction: Must-be quality, Attractive quality, One-dimensional quality, Indifferent quality, and Reverse quality. According to the Kano model, customers are more dissatisfied when Must-be quality(M) are not fulfilled, but their satisfaction does not arise above neutral no matter how fully the quality fulfilled. In comparison, customers are more satisfied with a full provision of Attactive quality(A) but manage to accept its dysfunction. One-dimensional quality(O) results in satisfaction when fulfilled and dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. For Indifferent quality(I), its presence or absence influences neither customer satisfaction nor dissatisfaction. Lastly, Reverse quality(R) refers to the features whose high degree of achievement results in customer dissatisfaction rather than satisfaction. Meanwhile, the basic guidelines of the Kano model have a limitation in that the quality type of each feature is simply determined by calculating the mode statistics. In order to overcome such limitation, the relative importance of each feature on customer satisfaction (Better value; b) and dissatisfaction (Worse value; w) were calculated following the formulas below (Timko, 1993). The Better value indicates how much customer satisfaction is increased by providing the quality feature in question. In contrast, the Worse value indicates how much customer dissatisfaction is decreased by providing the quality feature. Better = (A + O)/(A+O+M+I) Worse = (O+M)/(A+O+M+I)(-1) An on-line survey was performed in order to understand the nature of quality features of franchisees in the food service industry by applying the Kano Model. A total of twenty quality features (refer to the Table 2) were identified as the result of literature review in franchise business and a pre-test with fifty college students in Seoul. The potential respondents of our main survey was limited to the customers who have visited more than two restaurants/stores of the same franchise brand. Survey invitation e-mails were sent out to the panels of a market research company and a total of 257 responses were used for analysis. Following the guidelines of Kano model, each of the twenty quality features was classified into one of the five types based on customers' responses to a set of questions: "(1) how do you feel if the following quality feature is fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit," and "(2) how do you feel if the following quality feature is not fulfilled in the franchise restaurant that you visit." The analyses revealed that customers' dissatisfaction with franchisees is commonly associated with the poor level of cleanliness of the store (w=-0.872), kindness of the staffs(w=-0.890), conveniences such as parking lot and restroom(w=-0.669), and expertise of the staffs(w=-0.492). Such quality features were categorized as Must-be quality in this study. While standardization or uniformity across franchisees has been emphasized in franchise business, this study found that consumers are interested only in uniformity of price across franchisees(w=-0.608), but not interested in standardizations of menu items, interior designs, customer service procedures, and food tastes. Customers appeared to be more satisfied when the franchise brand has promotional events such as giveaways(b=0.767), good accessibility(b=0.699), customer loyalty programs(b=0.659), award winning history(b=0.641), and outlets in the overseas market(b=0.506). The results are summarized in a matrix form in Table 1. Better(b) and Worse(w) index indicate relative importance of each quality feature on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, respectively. Meanwhile, there were differences in perceiving the quality features between light users and heavy users of any specific franchise brand in the food service industry. Expertise of the staffs was labeled as Must-be quality for heavy users but Indifferent quality for light users. Light users seemed indifferent to overseas expansion of the brand and offering new menu items on a regular basis, while heavy users appeared to perceive them as Attractive quality. Such difference may come from their different levels of involvement when they eat out. The results are shown in Table 2. The findings of this study help practitioners understand the quality features they need to focus on to strengthen the competitive power in the food service market. Above all, removing the factors that cause customer dissatisfaction seems to be the most critical for franchisees. To retain loyal customers of the franchise brand, it is also recommended for franchisor to invest resources in the development of new menu items as well as training programs for the staffs. Lastly, if resources allow, promotional events, loyalty programs, overseas expansion, award-winning history can be considered as tools for attracting more customers to the business.

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