• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.91-96
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• 2016

Purpose - Although various studies have been conducted on the stress of service employees, there are still lack of studies regarding job stress and job satisfaction of call center workers. Especially there are quite few studies on the job stress according to employment type. This study focused on job stress and job satisfaction for call center employees and the correlation between the two factors and aimed to provide basic materials for seeking for the plans to reduce job stress and improve job satisfaction. Research design, data, and methodology - Frequency, percentage, and mean value were calculated through descriptive statistics in order to find out demographic characteristics, level of job stress, and job satisfaction. Differences in job stress according to employment type were calculated by using one-way ANOVA. Correlation between job stress and job satisfaction were identified through empirical analysis with Pearson's correlation coefficient. 150 materials were used for final analysis. The collected materials were analyzed to get statistics by using SPSS 20. Results - First, as for the job stress of call center workers, overall mean value was 2.54 in 4-point scales. Among the six sub-factors, job demands had the highest score, which was 2.67. Second, as for the job stress according to employment type, others showed higher score than mean value followed by contract job and full-time job in that order, in terms of job insecurity and organizational system. In terms of inappropriate remuneration, contract job showed higher score than mean value followed by others and full-time job. Third, as for the satisfaction with job, the mean value was 2.37 in 4-point scale and "very much satisfied" was only 3.3%. Lastly, in terms of job stress and job satisfaction, all sub-factors except for job demands showed significant correlation. The more job stress increased, the more job satisfaction decreased. Conclusions - First, as a result of analyzing job stress according to the employment type of call center workers, job stress increased more when the employment type was not full-time. Therefore, it was assumed that self-rescue efforts should be followed for effective employment management of call center business where contract employment takes most part as well as efforts to transfer them to full-time job. Second, decrease in job satisfaction of call center workers may affect the performance of an organization as well as service quality of the company providing the service. Therefore, various supports are required to decrease job stress and increase job satisfaction for call center workers through the expansion of rest area or break time. Third, I could recognize that there were lack of academic research on call center business in the whole service industry. Therefore, further research should be conducted more actively in the future. In particular, this study has special significance in the aspect that there were few studies on the job stress of call center workers according to employment type.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.935-943
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• 2015

The purposes of this study were to investigate consumption of home-delivered meals among children from low-income families and to assess their perception of the home-delivered meal service. A survey was conducted on 392 children who had received home-delivered meals, and 208 questionnaires (response rate: 53.1%) were analyzed using SPSS (ver 18.0). The respondents consisted of elementary school students (36.1%), middle school students (33.7%), and high school students (30.2%). Approximately half of children received home-delivered meals during their semester and vacation periods, and 52.2% of respondents shared the delivered meals with their brothers or sisters. Eighty-six point one percent of respondents consumed delivered meals within 4 hours after the meals were received at home, and approximately a fifth of respondents left the delivered meal boxes on a sink counter or table until eating. Leftover foods were kept in the refrigerator (52.2%) or on the sink counter/table (2.5%). The quality of the home-delivered meal service was assessed as 3.3 points based on a 5-point scale. 'Food safety is good' received the highest score (3.62) and 'Food taste is good' received the lowest score (3.07). The results showed that children receiving the home-delivered meal service should be provided information on proper handling and consumption of the delivered meals at home.

• The Korean Journal of Gastroenterology
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• v.72 no.6
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• pp.295-303
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• 2018

Background/Aims: The primary aims of this study were to evaluate the content quality of YouTube videos on exercises to help relieve constipation and to assess whether the video source, exercise types, and popularity affected their quality. Methods: Eight gastroenterologists independently evaluated the exercises presented in the constipation YouTube videos for seven items: image quality, usefulness in relieving constipation (quality 1), usefulness for general physical health (quality 2), difficulty in following, activity intensity, fun, and overall quality. Raters were asked open-ended questions to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the videos. Five-point ordinal scales were used to score each item aforementioned, with the exception of image quality and overall quality that used a six-point Likert scale. Results: The 20 videos had a mean length of 268 seconds and a mean viewership of 32,694. The most common video source was commercial (n=10), and the most common type of physical activity was yoga (n=11). The median values of image quality, quality 1, quality 2, difficulty in following, activity intensity, fun, and overall quality were 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, and 2, respectively. Yoga videos had significantly higher median quality 1 values (3) compared with massage videos (2, adjusted p=0.006) and 'others' videos (2, adjusted p<0.001). A lack of medical evidence was the most common answer to open-ended questions about the weaknesses of each video. Conclusions: Overall, YouTube exercise videos presented a low-quality content. This study highlights the need for evidence-based comprehensive educational videos addressing exercises for treating constipation.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.97-114
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• 1996

INSTRODUCTION Service quality is, unlike goods quality, an abstract and elusive constuct. Service quality and its requirements are not easily understood by consumers, and also present some critical research problems. However, quality is very important to marketers and consumers in that it has many strategic benefits in contributing to profitability of marketing activities and consumers' problem-solving activities. Moreover, despite the phenomenal growth of medical service sector, few researchers have attempted to define and model medical service quality. Especially, little research has focused on the evaluation of medical service quality and patient satisfaction from the perspectives of both the provider and the patient. As competition intensifies and patients are demanding higher quality of medical service, medical service quality and patient satisfaction has emerged as a critical research topic. The major purpose of this article is to explore the concept of medical service quality and its evaluation from both nurse and patient perspectives. This article attempts to achieve its purpose by (1)classfying critical service attibutes into threecategories(satisfiers, hygiene factors, and performance factors). (2)measuring the relative importance of need criteria, (3)evaluating SERVPERF model and SERVQUAL model in medical service sector, and (4)identifying the relationship between perceived quality and overall patient satisfaction. METHOD Data were gathered from a sample of 217 patients and 179 nurses in Seoul-area general hospitals. From the review of previous literature, 50 survey items representing various facets of the medical service quality were developed to form a questionnaire. A five-point scale ranging from "Strongly Agree"(5) to "Strongly Disagree"(1) accompanied each statement(expectation statements, perception statements, and importance statements). To measure overall satisfaction, a seven-point scale was used, ranging from "Very Satisfied"(7) to "Very Dissatisfied"(1) with no verbal labels for scale points 2 through 6 RESULTS In explaining the relationship between perceived performance and overall satisfaction, only 31 variables out of original 50 survey items were proven to be statistically significant. Hence, a penalty-reward analysis was performed on theses 31 critical attributes to find out 17 satisfiers, 8 hygiene factors, and 4 performance factors in patient perspective. The role(category) of each service quality attribute in relation to patient satisfaction was com pared across two groups, that is, patients and nurses. They were little overlapped, suggesting that two groups had different sets of 'perceived quality' attributes. Principal components factor analyses of the patients' and nurses' responses were performed to identify the underlying dimensions for the set of performance(experience) statements. 28 variables were analyzed by using a varimax rotation after deleting three obscure variables. The number of factors to be extracted was determined by evaluating the eigenvalue scores. Six factors wereextracted, accounting for 57.1% of the total variance. Reliability analysis was performed to refine the factors further. Using coefficient alpha, scores of .84 to .65 were obtained. Individual-item analysis indicated that all statements in each of the factors should remain. On 26 attributes of 31 critical service quality attributes, there were gaps between actual patient's importance of need criteria and nurse perceptions of them. Those critical attributes could be classified into four categories based on the relative importance of need criteria and perceived performance from the perspective of patient. This analysis is useful in developing strategic plans for performance improvement. (1) top priorities(high importance and low performance) (in this study)- more health-related information -accuracy in billing - quality of food - appointments at my convenience - information about tests and treatments - prompt service of business office -adequacy of accommodations(elevators, etc) (2) current strengths(high importance and high performance) (3)unnecessary strengths(low importance and high performance) (4) low priorities(low importance and low performance) While 26 service quality attributes of SERPERF model were significantly related to patient satisfation, only 13 attributes of SERVQUAL model were significantly related. This result suggested that only experience-based norms(SERVPERF model) were more appropriate than expectations to serve as a benchmark against which service experiences were compared(SERVQUAL model). However, it must be noted that the degree of association to overall satisfaction was not consistent. There were some gaps between nurse percetions and patient perception of medical service performance. From the patient's viewpoint, "personal likability", "technical skill/trust", and "cares about me" were most significant positioning factors that contributed patient satisfaction. DISCUSSION This study shows that there are inconsistencies between nurse perceptions and patient perceptions of medical service attributes. Also, for service quality improvement, it is most important for nurses to understand what satisfiers, hygiene factors, and performance factors are through two-way communications. Patient satisfaction should be measured, and problems identified should be resolved for survival in intense competitive market conditions. Hence, patient satisfaction monitoring is now becoming a standard marketing tool for healthcare providers and its role is expected to increase.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2012

Critical thinking is a essential competency for dental hygiene education and practice. The purpose of this study was to examine critical thinking disposition between groups classified by GPA score in two dental hygiene educational program. A total 252 dental hygiene students responded. The study extracted six dimensions(intellectual eagerness/curiosity, prudence, healthy skepticism, intellectual integrity, objectivity, self-confidence) derived from 27 items with the exception of systematicity using factor analysis. The mean score for critical thinking disposition was 3.47 on a 5 point scale. The result showed a statistically significant correlation critical thinking disposition and age. Multivariate analysis of covariance(MANCOVA) was used to compare six subscales between the three groups. MANCOVA results revealed that intellectual eagerness/curiosity for three groups were significantly different(Wilks's lamda=0.914, F(6, 24)=1.869), p=0.01, partial eta square=0.044). Multiple comparison for intellectual eagerness/curiosity by Scheffe's method showed differences between high score group and mid score group(p=0.027), high score group and low score group(p=0.002). In this study, academic achievement and critical thinking tends to show significant correlations is known. Critical thinking skills by examining the actual grade compares the difference in propensity scores according to a case study in intellectual curiosity, passion, and could tell the difference to appear.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.224-233
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• 2005

Purpose: This study was conducted to provide basic data for developing an effective strategy for cancer pain management by comparing the levels of barriers to pain management of metastatic or advanced cancer patient and their nurses. Methods: The subject of this study were 155 patients who were treated for metastatic or advanced cancer at one of three hospitals in Seoul from January 2004 to January 2005, and 153 nurses who take care of those patients. The levels of barriers to pain management were measured using a tool developed by Gunnarsdottir et al. (2002), 27 questions on a six point scale. The levels of stresses were measured using a tool modified from a stress response measurement reported by Goh Gyung-bong et al. (2000), 27 questions on a five point scale. The levels of barriers in cancer patients were analyzed using t-test and ANOVA, while the data obtained from patients and nurses were compared by t-test. Results: Higher levels of barriers to pain management were found in three groups: 'less than middle school,' 'not treated with anti-cancer chemotherapy,' and 'ECOG of 2.' The level (2.55) of barriers to pain management in the patient group was higher than that (1.76) of the nurse group. Both of the two groups had high levels of barriers in two variables: 'There is a danger of becoming addicted to pain medicine.' and 'Using pain medicine blocks your ability to know if you have any new pain.' There was not a significant difference in the levels of stresses between the two groups. Conclusion: It was found that, for effective cancer pain management practices, it would be necessary to provide cancer patients and their nurses with education and training about pain management and related barriers.

• Journal of the Korean Arthroscopy Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.34-38
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• 2009

Purpose: To evaluate the association of subacromial bursa inflammation with acromial shape and shoulder pain in subacromial impingement syndrome. Materials and Methods: 24 cases with subacromial impingement syndrome were reviewed. Eighteen patines were males and six females(mean age: 58.3 yrs). During arthroscopic operation, the specimens were taken from subacromial bursa with arthroscopic knife($1{\times}1$ cm size). The shape of acromion were classified according to Bigliani grading system. The shoulder pain of patients was graded with visual analog scale (VAS). The grade of inflammation was classified to the pathological three grade system (mild, moderate, severe) by pathohistological 8 factors. Results: Of total 24 cases, 9 cases were the pathological grade I and 15 cases were grade II. None was grade III. In the 9 cases of pathological grade I, 6 cases were the radiologic grade II of acromial shape and 3 cases were grade III. In the 15 cases of pathological grade II, 5 cases were the radiologic grade II and 10 cases were grade III. The VAS was 7 point at pathological grade I and 8 point at grade II. As the statistical analysis, the pathological grade of subacromial bursa was associated with acromial shape (p<0.05), but not associated with pain of patient (p>0.05). Conclusion: Our study suggests that pathological grade of subacromial bursa inflammation was associated with acromial shape. But pathological grade of subacromial bursa inflammation was not associated with shoulder pain of patients.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.255-279
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• 2014

It is not too much to say that smartphones have become an essential part of our lives due to their versatility. Nevertheless, they still have less overall capabilities than their desktop counterparts. Specifically, they have small screens and low resolutions, which make their applications difficult to have a usable interface. To account for these limitations, the interface of smartphone applications should be designed carefully and properly. Good interface design to any application is critical. However, a comprehensive information systems (IS) literature review found that there has been little research on the user interface design of smartphone applications. More specifically, there has been little empirical evidence and understanding about how metaphors, an imaginative way of describing objects and concepts, in the user interface of smartphone applications affect users' intention to use the applications. Thereby, the research goals of this study are to examine 1) the effects of the metaphors in the user interface of smartphone applications on the interaction between users and applications and 2) the effects of mediating variables including the interaction between users and applications, users' beliefs and attitudes, on users' intention to use the applications. A survey was conducted to collect data. University students and practitioners participated in the survey. A 24-item questionnaire was developed on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The measurement items were mostly adapted from the previous studies in the IS literature and modified to fit the context of this study. First, a principal component factor analysis was performed to explore the inter-relationships among a set of variables. The analysis showed that most of the items loaded quite strongly on the six components. The analysis also revealed the six components with eigenvalues exceeding 1, explaining a total of 70.7 per cent of the variance. The reliabilities of the items were also checked. Most Cronbach alpha values were above 0.8, so the scales were considered reliable. In sum, the results of the analysis support the decision to retain the six factors for further investigation. Next, the structural model was analyzed with AMOS structural equation modeling. The values of GFI, AGFI, NFI, TLI, CFI, and RMSEA were checked. The values showed that the research model considerably have a good fit in general. Next, the convergent and discriminant validities of all constructs were examined. The values for the standardized regression weights and critical ration (CR) indicated sufficient convergent validity for all constructs. In addition, the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE) of each construct was compared with its correlations with all other constructs. The results supported discriminant validity for all constructs. In sum, the results of analysis demonstrated adequate convergent and discriminant validities for all constructs. Finally, path coefficients between the variables were examined. Methphor was found to have an impact on interaction (${\beta}$ = .457, p = .000). There were also significant effects of the interaction on perceived usefulness (${\beta}$ = .273, p = .000) and ease of use (${\beta}$ = .405, p = .000). User attitude was significantly influenced by these two beliefs, perceived usefulness (${\beta}$ = .386, p = .000) and ease of use (${\beta}$ = .347, p = .000) respectively. Further, the results of analysis found that users' intention to use smartphone applications was significantly influenced by user attitude (${\beta}$ = .567, p = .000). Based upon the analyses, all hypotheses were supported. This study found that the metaphors used in the interface of smartphone applications affect not only the interaction between users and applications, but also users' intention to use the applications through the mediating variables, perceived usefulness and ease of use. These findings imply that if the metaphors used in the user interface of application are easy enough to understand for smartphone users, then the application can be perceived useful and easy to use, which in turn make users to have an intention to use the application. In conclusion, this study contributed not only to validate and extend Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) partially, but also to develop the construct of metaphor in smartphone settings. However, since a single empirical study cannot be enough to validate the findings, some limitations should be considered.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.33-58
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• 2008

Previous research has presupposed that the evaluation of consumer who received any recovery after experiencing product failure should be better than the evaluation of consumer who did not receive any recovery. The major purposes of this article are to examine impacts of product defect failures rather than service failures, and to explore effects of recovery on postrecovery product attitudes. First, this article deals with the occurrence of severe and unsevere failure and corresponding service recovery toward tangible products rather than intangible services. Contrary to intangible services, purchase and usage are separable for tangible products. This difference makes it clear that executing an recovery strategy toward tangible products is not plausible right after consumers find out product failures. The consumers may think about backgrounds and causes for the unpleasant events during the time gap between product failure and recovery. The deliberation may dilutes positive effects of recovery efforts. The recovery strategies which are provided to consumers experiencing product failures can be classified into three types. A recovery strategy can be implemented to provide consumers with a new product replacing the old defective product, a complimentary product for free, a discount at the time of the failure incident, or a coupon that can be used on the next visit. This strategy is defined as "a rewarding effort." Meanwhile a product failure may arise in exchange for its benefit. Then the product provider can suggest a detail explanation that the defect is hard to escape since it relates highly to the specific advantage to the product. The strategy may be called as "a strengthening effort." Another possible strategy is to recover negative attitude toward own brand by giving prominence to the disadvantages of a competing brand rather than the advantages of its own brand. The strategy is reflected as "a weakening effort." This paper emphasizes that, in order to confirm its effectiveness, a recovery strategy should be compared to being nothing done in response to the product failure. So the three types of recovery efforts is discussed in comparison to the situation involving no recovery effort. The strengthening strategy is to claim high relatedness of the product failure with another advantage, and expects the two-sidedness to ease consumers' complaints. The weakening strategy is to emphasize non-aversiveness of product failure, even if consumers choose another competitive brand. The two strategies can be effective in restoring to the original state, by providing plausible motives to accept the condition of product failure or by informing consumers of non-responsibility in the failure case. However the two may be less effective strategies than the rewarding strategy, since it tries to take care of the rehabilitation needs of consumers. Especially, the relative effect between the strengthening effort and the weakening effort may differ in terms of the severity of the product failure. A consumer who realizes a highly severe failure is likely to attach importance to the property which caused the failure. This implies that the strengthening effort would be less effective under the condition of high product severity. Meanwhile, the failing property is not diagnostic information in the condition of low failure severity. Consumers would not pay attention to non-diagnostic information, and with which they are not likely to change their attitudes. This implies that the strengthening effort would be more effective under the condition of low product severity. A 2 (product failure severity: high or low) X 4 (recovery strategies: rewarding, strengthening, weakening, or doing nothing) between-subjects design was employed. The particular levels of product failure severity and the types of recovery strategies were determined after a series of expert interviews. The dependent variable was product attitude after the recovery effort was provided. Subjects were 284 consumers who had an experience of cosmetics. Subjects were first given a product failure scenario and were asked to rate the comprehensibility of the failure scenario, the probability of raising complaints against the failure, and the subjective severity of the failure. After a recovery scenario was presented, its comprehensibility and overall evaluation were measured. The subjects assigned to the condition of no recovery effort were exposed to a short news article on the cosmetic industry. Next, subjects answered filler questions: 42 items of the need for cognitive closure and 16 items of need-to-evaluate. In the succeeding page a subject's product attitude was measured on an five-item, six-point scale, and a subject's repurchase intention on an three-item, six-point scale. After demographic variables of age and sex were asked, ten items of the subject's objective knowledge was checked. The results showed that the subjects formed more favorable evaluations after receiving rewarding efforts than after receiving either strengthening or weakening efforts. This is consistent with Hoffman, Kelley, and Rotalsky (1995) in that a tangible service recovery could be more effective that intangible efforts. Strengthening and weakening efforts also were effective compared to no recovery effort. So we found that generally any recovery increased products attitudes. The results hint us that a recovery strategy such as strengthening or weakening efforts, although it does not contain a specific reward, may have an effect on consumers experiencing severe unsatisfaction and strong complaint. Meanwhile, strengthening and weakening efforts were not expected to increase product attitudes under the condition of low severity of product failure. We can conclude that only a physical recovery effort may be recognized favorably as a firm's willingness to recover its fault by consumers experiencing low involvements. Results of the present experiment are explained in terms of the attribution theory. This article has a limitation that it utilized fictitious scenarios. Future research deserves to test a realistic effect of recovery for actual consumers. Recovery involves a direct, firsthand experience of ex-users. Recovery does not apply to non-users. The experience of receiving recovery efforts can be relatively more salient and accessible for the ex-users than for non-users. A recovery effort might be more likely to improve product attitude for the ex-users than for non-users. Also the present experiment did not include consumers who did not have an experience of the products and who did not perceive the occurrence of product failure. For the non-users and the ignorant consumers, the recovery efforts might lead to decreased product attitude and purchase intention. This is because the recovery trials may give an opportunity for them to notice the product failure.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.596-603
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• 2006

Purpose. This study examined Korean clinical nurses' intentions to care for SARS patients and identify determinants of the intentions. Theory of planned behavior was the framework to explain the intentions of Korean nurses for SARS patients care. Methods. A convenient sample of six hundreds and seventy nine clinical nurses from four university-affiliated hospitals located in Seoul and in Kyung-gi province was used. Self-administered (83-items) questionnaire was used to collect data. Intentions, attitude, subjective norm, perceive behavioral control, behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs were the study variables. All items were measured using 7point Likert scale (-3 to +3). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation method, and stepwise multiple regression methods. Results. Intentions and attitudes toward SARS patient care among Korean clinical nurses were moderate, but their subjective norm and perceive behavioral control of SARS patients care were negative. Stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that attitude toward SARS patient care, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm were the determinants of the intentions for SARS patients care as theory proposed. Among the behavioral beliefs, 'SARS-patient caring would be a new experience', 'during SARS-patient caring, I should be apart from my family', 'after completing SARS-patient caring, I would be proud of myself being able to cope with a stressful event' and 'with my SARS-patient caring, patients could recover from SARS' were the significant determinants. Among the normative beliefs, colleague approval, spouse approval, and physician approval were significant determinants of the intentions. Among the control beliefs, 'SARS-patient caring would be a challenge' 'SARS-patient caring is a professional responsibility', 'tension during the care of SARS patients' and 'support from team members' were the significant determinants of the intentions. Conclusions. Korean clinical nurses in this study were not willing to care for SARS patients and showed negative attitude toward the care. They believed their friends and family were not approved their care for SARS patients. Nurses were in conflicts between professional responsibilities to care for SARS patients and personal safety. This study was the first to understand stress and burden of Korean clinical nurses who are in front line to care for newly developed communicable disease such as SARS. Under the circumstance where several fatal communicable diseases are predictable, conflicts between professional responsibility and their personal risks should be taken into considerations by nurses themselves and by nursing administrators in order to improve quality of care.