• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.113-145
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• 2009

Recently, due to the globalization of the IT(Information Technology) market, devices and systems designed in one country are used in other countries as well. This phenomenon is becoming the key factor for increased interest on cross-cultural, or cross-national, research within the IT area. However, as the IT market is becoming bigger and more globalized, a great number of IT practitioners are having difficulty in designing and developing devices or systems which can provide optimal experience. This is because not only tangible factors such as language and a country's economic or industrial power affect the user experience of a certain device or system but also invisible and intangible factors as well. Among such invisible and intangible factors, the cultural characteristics of users from different countries may affect the user experience of certain devices or systems because cultural characteristics affect how they understand and interpret the devices or systems. In other words, when users evaluate the quality of overall user experience, the cultural characteristics of each user act as a perceptual lens that leads the user to focus on a certain elements of experience. Therefore, there is a need within the IT field to consider cultural characteristics when designing or developing certain devices or systems and plan a strategy for localization. In such an environment, existing IS studies identify the culture with the country, emphasize the importance of culture in a national level perspective, and hypothesize that users within the same country have same cultural characteristics. Under such assumptions, these studies focus on the moderating effects of cultural characteristics on a national level within a certain theoretical framework. This has already been suggested by cross-cultural studies conducted by scholars such as Hofstede(1980) in providing numerical research results and measurement items for cultural characteristics and using such results or items as they increase the efficiency of studies. However, such national level culture has its limitations in forecasting and explaining individual-level behaviors such as voluntary device or system usage. This is because individual cultural characteristics are the outcome of not only the national culture but also the culture of a race, company, local area, family, and other groups that are formulated through interaction within the group. Therefore, national or nationally dominant cultural characteristics may have its limitations in forecasting and explaining the cultural characteristics of an individual. Moreover, past studies in psychology suggest a possibility that there exist different cultural characteristics within a single individual depending on the subject being measured or its context. For example, in relation to individual vs. collective characteristics, which is one of the major cultural characteristics, an individual may show collectivistic characteristics when he or she is with family or friends but show individualistic characteristics in his or her workplace. Therefore, this study acknowledged such limitations of past studies and conducted a research within the framework of 'theoretically integrated model of user satisfaction and emotional attachment', which was developed through a former study, on how the effects of different experience elements on emotional attachment or user satisfaction are differentiated depending on the individual cultural characteristics related to a system or device usage. In order to do this, this study hypothesized the moderating effects of four cultural dimensions (uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs, collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, and power distance) as suggested by Hofstede(1980) within the theoretically integrated model of emotional attachment and user satisfaction. Statistical tests were then implemented on these moderating effects through conducting surveys with users of four digital devices (mobile phone, MP3 player, LCD TV, and refrigerator) in three countries (US, Germany, and Russia). In order to explain and forecast the behavior of personal device or system users, individual cultural characteristics must be measured, and depending on the target device or system, measurements must be measured independently. Through this suggestion, this study hopes to provide new and useful perspectives for future IS research.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.44-53
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• 2006

This study purposed to investigate air pollution in car shipping yards and, for this purpose, we selected an outdoor open-air yard and an indoor ramp into the ship and measured the concentrations of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, PM10, PM2.5 and heavy metals in the air. The results of this study are as follows. No significant difference was observed in temperature and humidity between the outdoor and indoor workshop, and the average air flow was 0.52 m/s in the indoor workshop, which is higher than 0.19 m/s in the outdoor workshop(p<0.01). The average concentrations of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, PM10 and PM2.5 according to workplace were 0.03 ppm(${\pm}0.01$), 0.03 ppm(${\pm}0.01$), 0.46 ppm(${\pm}0.22$), $39.44{\mu}g/m^3$(${\pm}2.45$) and $5.45{\mu}g/m^3$(${\pm}1.15$) respectively in the outdoor workshop, and 0.15 ppm(${\pm}0.05$), 0.22 ppm(${\pm}0.06$), 8.85 ppm(${\pm}3.35$), $236.39{\mu}g/m^3$(${\pm}58.21$) and $152.43{\mu}g/m^3$(${\pm}35.42$) respectively in the indoor workshop. Thus, the concentrations of gaseous substances in the indoor workshop were 4.9-19.2 times higher than those in the outdoor workshop, and the concentrations of fine dusts were 5.9-27.9 times higher(p<0.01). In addition, according to the result of investigating pollutant concentrations according to displacement and the number of car loaded when shipping gasoline cars into the ship, no significant relation between the number of cars loaded and pollutants was observed in shipping passenger cars, but the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide got somewhat higher with the increase of the number of cars loaded(p<0.05). In addition, the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, PM10 and PM2.5 in the air were significantly higher when shipping recreational vehicles, the displacement of which is larger than passenger cars, than when shipping passenger cars(p<0.01). On the other hand, the average heavy metal concentrations of the air in indoor workshop were: lead $-0.05{\mu}g/m^3$(${\pm}0.10$); chromium $-0.90{\mu}g/m^3$(${\pm}0.18$); zinc $-0.38{\mu}g/m^3$(${\pm}0.24$); copper $-0.18{\mu}g/m^3$(${\pm}0.22$); and manganese and cadmium not detected. In addition, the complaining rates of 'asthma,' a major symptom of chronic respiratory diseases, were 18.5% and 22.5% respectively in indoor workers and outdoor workers. Thus the rate was somewhat higher in indoor workers but the difference was not statistically significant. The complaining rates of 'chronic cough' and 'chronic phlegm' were very low and little different between indoor and outdoor workers. The results of this study show that the reason for the higher air pollution in indoor than in outdoor workshop is incomplete combustion of fuel due to sudden start and over-speed when cars are driven inside the ship. In order to prevent high air pollution, efficient management measures should be taken including the observance of the optimal speed, the improvement of old ships and the installation of efficient ventilation system.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.23-43
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• 1997

The work-related diseases due to continuous overwork are mainly cerebro- and cardio-vascular ones, which is commonly called 'Karoshi', death from overwork. Many factors are capable for Karoshi : occupational stress in relation to technological renovation and industrial rationalization, competitive social structure, and accumulated fatigue accured to long time or irregular working. And its occurence is on the rise. The World Labor Report 1993 released by ILO, pointed out the diseases related to overwork and stress as one of the most important occupational health problem. In Korea, social awareness of Karoshi is at an infant stage, and reliable statistics for its occurence are not compiled in a convenient manner. Despite the rising Karoshi, there are no reliable clauses in workmen's compensation enough to settle down the disputes. Therefore, it is not uncommon that the Labour Ministry and Civil Court find difficulties in reaching an agreement. This study was intended to provide proper compensation and prevention program for workers by suggesting reasonable compensation clauses for the death from overwork. This study consists of two comparative reviews on the compensaton clauses for the death from overwork. One is to review legal standards of Karoshi among three countries, such as Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The other is to investigate the cases of Karoshi in Korea, 121 cases identified at the Labor Welfare Corperation and the Labour Ministrial process of examination and reexamination, and 73 leading cases at the High Court of Justice. The main findings of the study are as follows : 1. Comparisons of comperative review on compensation clauses for the death from overwork among three countries. 1) All of three countries have the same kinds of disease for compensation, which were cerebro-and cardiao-vascular diseases, while for cardiac disease group, Korea has the smaller number of diseases for compensation than Japan. 2) As for the definition of overwork, the three countries share equally that overload for one week prior to collapse is considered as an important factor, but accumulated chronic fatigue is disregarded. 3) As the basis of overwork, in Japan, there is a tendency to move from the conditions of an ordinary healthy adult to those of the individual concerned in Japan, whereas there is no such concern yet in Korea. 4) All the three countries use a common standard of medical judgement in demonstrating causal relationship between a job and a disease. However, Korea is progressive in the sense that in the case of CVA at worksite, the worker himself has no obligation to prove the cause. 2. The results of a comparative review on excutive decisions by Labor Ministry and judicial decisions by the Court in Korea : A judicial decision is based on the legalistic probability, but a excutive decision is not. Therefore, excutive decisions have such restrictions that : 1) TIA (transitory ischemic cerebral attack) and myocarditis are excluded from compensation, and there is little consistency of decision in the case of cause-unknown death. 2) There is a tendency not to compensate for the death from overwork since the work terms such as repeated long-time working, shift work or night-shift work are not considered as overloading. 3) There is a tendency to regard the conditions of a ordinary healthy adult rather than those of the individual concerned(age, existing diseases, health state, etc.) as the comparative basis of overload. 4) There remains a tendency not to compensate for the death from overwork in the case of collapse occuring out of workplace, on the ground of 'on the course of working' and 'in the cause of accident'. Through the study, the fact manifests itself that Korea's compensation clauses for work-related diseases due to overwork are very restrictive. So, it is necessary to extend the Labor Ministry's clauses of compensation for the death from overwork following to the recent changes of other countries and internal judicial decisions. This is very important in the perspective of occupational health that aims at health promotion of workers including prevention of the Karoshi.