• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.127-156
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• 2012

A lot of interest in the baby-boomer generation, those who were born after World War II, has emerged since their retirement has been accelerated. The retirement of baby-boomers has caused many health, public welfare, social policy and family relationship problems. However, their increased purchasing power has made them more attractive consumers than any other generation, and they have become a fascinating niche market in the depressed economy. This research selected middle-class women of the baby-boomer generation who have had powerful effects on society and have emerged as an attractive niche market, and attempted to understand their lives intensively. Based on research activities, the purpose of this research is to identify baby-boomer generation middle-aged women's life values. Qualitative research methodology was used to achieve research objectives, and this research aimed to suggest marketing implications to connected industries based on the research results. The research objectives are as follows. 1. understanding the lives of baby-boomer middle-class women who have powerful effects on socio-economic phenomena 2. identifying the life values of baby-boomer middle-class women 3. generating marketing implications based on an understanding of baby-boomer middle-class women's lives and life values This research conducted FGIs(focus group interviews), one of the qualitative research methodologies, to figure out baby-boomer middle-class women's life values intensively and selected 10 women living in Seoul for data collection. The qualitative data of collected FGIs were analyzed with spiral data analysis methodology proposed by Creswell(2007). The most effective factors to influence these middle-class women's lives powerfully were 'time' and 'independence'. Their consciousness of the importance of using time affects their life pattern generally, and their independence also impacts greatly on the way they exploit time and on their diverse relationships. They maximized their self-realization and showed long-term partnership with their surrounding circumstances because of those effective factors. Baby-boomer middle-class women's self-realization was divided into two areas. One was their outside activities and another was perfect management of their physical appearance and home interior. Like the results of this research, their need for social entrance will be reinforced more strongly since their internal and external activities aim for the achievement of self-realization. In addition, this research suggests that baby-boomer middle-class women's activities are connected with their management of their physical appearance and home interior decorations, and that such management is caused not only by a simple interest in fashion and beauty but also a profound desire for self-realization. On account of their consciousness, which is different from other generations, Korean baby-boomer middle-class women are able to maintain positive partnerships with their surrounding circumstances; however, they also show ambivalent emotions to retain effective partnerships. To overcome those stressful situations, they make greater efforts to keep up their health and youth, and also engage in diverse activities to maintain their mental health. Finally, they generate positive attitudes toward their economic situation and extra time to develop self-realization and pursue happy, youthful and healthy lives. Based on those results, this study suggests the following implications. First, industries targeting the baby-boomer generation should develop innovative products and services which help the baby-boomer generation maximize their efficiency of time since time is one of the most important factors powerfully impacting the baby-boomer generation. They will engage in various activities to fill up their extra time and consume helpful products and services. Second, such industries should supply the baby-boomer generation with opportunities which propose new ways of self-realization since this generation shows a great desire for self-realization because of their self-efficacy. With customized strategies of satisfying their needs, the baby-boomer generation would discover opportunities to utilize their abilities, relationships and aesthetic senses, and industries would develop a niche market. Third, market segmentations which target the baby-boomer generation's desire to maintain their physical appearance and home interior should be executed since such activities are the main strategies to develop this generation's self-realization. The baby-boomer generation's desire to study those areas would be expanded, and those education systems should produce innovative products and services targeting the baby-boomer generation. This implication also offers to government officials new policies related with the baby-boomer generation. This exploratory study utilized qualitative research methodology to understand baby-boomer middle-class women's lives, and proposed propositions and limitations for further researches. As for the limitations, first, it is hard to generalize the research results so that they may apply to all areas and economic classes of the baby-boomer generation since this research selected only 10 women living in Seoul for the data collection process. To overcome this limitation, extended data collections of subjects from diverse regions and economic classes should be designed. Second, quantitative research should be conducted to supplement the findings with validities. Third, this research focused on only general ideas of the baby-boomer generation's lives since the range of this study was focused on their overall lives. Therefore, intensive research related to specific areas of their lives should be conducted.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.309-328
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to develop a perceived elderly stigma scale for intergenerational research and practice. Although negative stereotypes on elderly population have worsened physical and psychological health of older people, there has been a lack of systematic efforts to measure and monitor stigmatic perception and behavior of younger generation on elderly people. We initially constructed a 34-item perceived elderly stigma scale, by integrating the processes of literature review and exploratory item generation. After confirming the face validity of the scale, a 31-item perceived elderly stigma scale was tested with 252 adults recruited from an online research panel. The result of an exploratory factor analysis suggests a 5-factor solution with 28 items: ability, personality, appearance, authoritarian dependancy, and family-obsession. The convergent/discriminant validity was confirmed by examining its relationships with ageism, elderly discrimination, attitude toward elderly, and respect for elderly. After a series of refinement and empirical tests, the perceived elderly stigma scale would contribute to understanding the current state of elderly discrimination in our society and to develop necessary policies and promotion strategies to eliminate intergenerational conflicts.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.43
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• pp.9-32
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• 2014

Until now, the studies researching the Taoism theories of Joseon Dynasty have mainly dealt around the latter half of Joseon Dynasty. The reason for that was because the 5 cribs of a book Lao Tzu and the 2 crib of a book Changzi were produced after the Imjin-Year Korean-Japanese War(壬辰倭亂,Imjin Waeran). Therefore this thesis extracted the mentions about Taoism from about 200-year history records from Jeong Do-Jeon's Theory, which was the theoretical foundation for early days of Joseon's foundation and the history book King Taejong's Annals(太宗實錄) contained in The Annals of Joseon Dynasty(朝鮮王朝實 錄) and analyzed the extracted historic data as the first work contemplating how the Taoism theories were developed during the first half of Joseon Dynasty. From the analysis, this study drew out the findings as follows. Jeong Do-Jeon and Gwon Geun sharply criticized the Taoism for that it pursued for the techniques of longevity for oneself without moral. They tried to establish the identity of neo-Confucianism on the foundation criticizing the Taoism and the Buddhism. Since then, the Taoism was transformed through the 3 stages in The Annals of Joseon Dynasty. The first stage was the stage transformed 'Lao Tzu' as the witchcraft master of long-live, the technique of the taoist hermit and the super god in Taoism, and regarded the Taoism as heresy and excluded the Taoism. Second stage was the stage trying to see the book Lao Tzu as the core of Taoism theory separately from the 'Hermit Witchcraft' and the 'Taoist gods' the target of fortune-pursue religion beyond from the primary discussion of exclusion. Third stage was revealed as the respects on the art of politics and the art of living described in the book Lao Tzu. That is, the Taoism theories in the first half of Joseon Dynasty was developed with various spectrums from the early days of Joseon's foundation to 15~16 centuries beyond Joseon's strong suppression against the Taoism and the Buddhism in early days. That is the point that the Taoism in the first half of Joseon Dynasty can't be simply interpreted in the neo-Confucianism. During the firs half of Joseon Dynasty, the warm attitude toward the Taoism was created differently from the attitude against suppressing it as a cult, which had been created in the early days of Josen's foundation, and there appeared the changes accepting the art of living and the art of politics theoretically integrating with the Confucianism theories. That is, the book 'Lao Tus' became accepted as the Confucian country's arts of living and politics from a cult book pursuing for immoral log and immortal life. Such acception is revealed as the appearance actively interpreting the books about Laoism in the latter half o Joseon Dynasty.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.04a
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• pp.167-201
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• 2006

Korean corporations are transforming their vertical operational structure to a team-based structure to compete in the rapidly changing environment and for improved performance. However, a high percentage of the respondents in KBS said that despite the appearance of the present team structure, the organization operates much like a vertically-structured organization. This result can be attributed to the lack of study and implementation toward the goal of empowerment, the key variable for the success of the team-based structure. This study aims to provide policy suggestions on how to implement the process of empowerment, by investigating the conditions that hinder the process and the attitude of the KBS employees. For the cross-sectional study, this thesis examined the domestic and international references, conducted a survey of KBS employees, personal interviews and made direct observations. Approximately 1,200 copies of the Questionnaire were distributed and 474 were completed and returned. The analysis used SPSS 12.0 software to process the data collected from 460 respondents. For the longitudinal-study, six categories that were common to this study and "The Report of the Findings of KBS Employees' View of the Team Structure" were selected. The comparative study analyzed the changes in a ten-month period. The survey findings showed a decrease of 24.2%p in the number of responses expressing negative views of the team structure and a decrease of 1.29%p in the number of positive responses. The findings indicated a positive transformation illustrating employees' improved understanding and approval of the team structure. However, KBS must address the issue on an ongoing basis. It has been proven that the employee empowerment increases the productivity of the individual and the group. In order to boost the level of empowerment, the management must exercise new, innovative leadership and build trust between the managers and the employees first. Additional workload as a result of shirking at work places was prevalent throughout all divisions and ranks, according to the survey data. This outcome leads to the conclusion that the workload is not evenly distributed or shared. And the data also showed the employees do not trust the assessment and rewards system. More attention and consideration must be paid to the team size and job allocation in order to address this matter; the present assessment and rewards system need to be complemented. The type of leadership varies depending on the characteristics of the organization's structure and employees' disposition. KBS must develop and reform its own management, leadership style to suit the characteristics of individual teams. Finally, for a soft-landing of KBS team structure, in-house training and education are necessary.