• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.417-427
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• 2010

Objectives: This study was conducted to develop a Korean version of the Participatory Action Oriented Training (PAOT) program and training materials for improvement of agricultural working environments. Methods: The PAOT manual and checklist were developed on the basis of the original English version of the training materials, a questionnaire survey of agricultural health and safety professionals, and a brainstorming conference. Good example pictures were collected through visits to agricultural workers' houses, and an easily understandable picture was drawn by an animation specialist. A PAOT action manual and five types of action checklists were developed for use in different agricultural environments. Each action checklist contained six categories and 38 items of agricultural health and safety principles; the six categories were material storage and handling, work stations and tools, machine safety, physical environment, working schedule and organization, and basic health and safety management. Incorporating these training materials, a one-day Korean PAOT program was developed. Results: Among 307 candidate agricultural workers from four rural Korean villages, 94 workers (59 males, 35 females) participated in a PAOT from July 2007 to Oct 2008. The PAOT program was successful and the mean self-estimated satisfaction score of the participants was greater than 90%. Conclusions: A Korean PAOT program and training materials were successfully developed and applied to Korean agricultural workers. Although more studies are needed, it is expected that PAOT will greatly contribute to the improvement of agricultural working conditions and health and safety through the use of agricultural workers' self initiatives.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.97-115
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• 2008

Introduction The e-government is concerned with using Internet and Web technologies to exchange information and services with citizens, businesses and other related organizations, and it centers on three functions, namely informational, interactive, and transactional [UN, 2001]. Many developed countries like the U.S. have been actively involved in e-government projects, since they enable both more effective public services for citizens and more efficient internal operations. Korea is among these leading countries that are planning to leverage computer and communication technologies to provide for integration of work processes and information as well as convenient access to information and services. For this reason, evaluating e-government projects is becoming a crucial issue for both researchers and policy-makers. However, most research to date has primarily focused on a model of success of an e-government system designed for citizens, overlooking internal systems specifically created for employees working in a public organization. This paper is intended to propose a model to measure the success of a Web-based information system designed for use by internal users at Chungwadae, the executive branch of Korea's central government. The paper is also aimed at applying the model to the assessment of the present system being used at Chungwadae in comparison with the preceding system. Evaluating an e-Government System The most widely cited model of information systems success today is that of DeLone and McLean[1992, 2003, 2004]. The original model states that the success of an information system can be measured using six dimensions, including system quality, information quality, use, user satisfaction, individual impact, and organizational impact. Although the ultimate success of an information system may be reflected in the impact that the system has upon individuals as well as an organization, aspects of using the system such as system use and user satisfaction can play an important role in determining the system success, because the system would be a sheer failure if users don't like and use the system. As a response to criticisms given by numerous researchers, the authors adapted their model to fit the emerging Web-based environment. The revised model[DeLone and McLean, 2003] they offered included an additional quality dimension, namely service quality, and combined individual and organizational impacts into net benefits which can also influence user satisfaction. The e-government system success model can be built around this updated model. Our model incorporates information quality, system quality, and service quality as in the DeLone and McLean model. However, the 'system use' dimension has been replaced by perceived usefulness, as suggested by Seddon[1998]. In addition, because the e-government systems that this paper focuses on are internal public systems used in government agencies, the 'net benefits' dimension has been replaced by perceived work efficiency. Based on the proposed model, a total of nine hypotheses have been formulated which we tested using an empirical analysis. Methods A questionnaire form has been created with items that are designed to examine the relationships among the variables in the model. The questionnaire has been handed over, in person, to 65 members of Chungwadae staff who are now actively using the E-Support System, the present information system created to support internal work at Chungwadae. We made arrangements to meet with each individual who agreed to participate in our survey, and helped to fill out the survey form with explanations. Of the 65 copies that were delivered, only 33 were returned, and 30 responses of these have been adopted for our analysis, since three were not valid. The extremely small sample size was due to the limited number of staff members who had adequate experience required of this study. Results We gathered data from the questionnaire survey and analyzed them using a regression analysis to test the hypotheses. As shown in the table below, the results indicated that all three dimensions of an information system’s quality are positively related to user satisfaction. However, information quality and system quality were found to be positively related to perceived usefulness, while service quality was not. In addition, perceived usefulness is not positively related to user satisfaction, implying that a user may find a system useful, but may not be satisfied with it. Finally, user satisfaction and perceived usefulness both are positively related to perceived work efficiency. This suggests that workers' positive experience with the system is important to guarantee favorable work efficiency. Conclusions We conclude that the proposed model proved useful in measuring the success of an internal information system used by a government agency. To demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of the model in the paper, we applied the model to the assessment of the present internal system used at Chungwadae in comparison with the preceding system. The results showed that the present system outperforms the preceding one in a statistically significant way. Future research will have to focus on applying the model to Korea's governmental agencies other than Chungwadae and examine whether it proves applicable in different types of governmental organizations.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-33
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• 1998

The purpose of this thesis is to study theoretical access to the methods that have been used for the research of occupational stress, thereby providing management methods of occupational stress of hospital workers. With a stress model of hospital workers set up from the viewpoint of organization management, 929 sets of questionnaires were collected from intern doctors, resident doctors, nurses, nursing aides, pharmacists, medical technicians, workers in patient affairs(reception and medical insurance workers), administrators and clerks from the 8 hospitals in Seoul with more than 500 beds. Upon variance analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis of the collected questionnaires, this work examined how differences in stress caused by specific occupations and formulated a method of stress management for the hospital workers. The results are as follows. 1) If some duties of the nurses suffering from role-overloaded stress are transferred to the nursing aides dissatisfied with insufficient role, the two grunting groups can be satisfied at the same time. It is also necessary to transfer some jobs of the overloaded workers in patient affairs to the administrators, or the other way around. To reduce stress of conflict and ambiguity of role caused by the obscure division of roles between the workers, the role of each occupation should be delineated and the clear division of roles should be translated into action strictly according to that delineated. 2) Stress of inefficiency of organization from which the student doctors suffer can be relieved by management of participation. If they have access to the process of decision-making in general hospital affairs and consequently their understanding and the autonomy of job performance are promoted, such stress will be reduced. 3) To cope with stress of career development from which nurses, medical technicians, administrators, workers in patient affairs suffer, it is necessary to establish whether they have a chance to revive their careers, whether there are any ways of remotivation for less contributive workers, and whether they encourage each other to develope their careers. If they are given a chance to develope their careers, such stress will be relieved. 4) Pharmacists, suffering from stresses of living and personal relations, have strong cohesive power among themselves and organize a well-integrated team; thereby reducing the stress of personal relations and increasing productivity. 5) For administrators and student doctors confined to lesser social supports and for nurses and workers in patient affairs whose recognition of stress and job satisfaction are affected by social supports, emotional and informational supports for job performance help alleviate an individual's mental, and physical stress. 6) In addition to the above-mentioned stress-management methods, if an organizational coping strategy is provided according to the types of stress from the general viewpoint of the whole group of hospital workers, it would be of great help to managing stress. For example, the redesign of jobs, the management of objective, the improvement of working environment, the formation of an autonomous working group and various working plans can be set up for those who suffer from stress related to inappropriate role, while career counseling and development of career process can be provided for those dissatisfied with career development. Participation in the process of decision-making and the restructuring of the organization are needed for those who suffer from stress of malfunctioning organization, whereas creation of a supportive organizational atmosphere is desired for those who feel stressed due to personal relations. As well, such organizational coping strategies. as the increase of welfare facilities, seminars and educational programs and provision of health-promotion facilities can be provided.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.405-413
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• 2012

This study of male workers of small manufacturing companies with 50 or less determine the level of job stress and Investigated the relevance of these demographic characteristics, health behaviors, and job-related characteristics. The study subjects were 856 male workers, health checkups and screening agencies are engaged in small manufacturing companies with 50 or less people. Data collection period from April 1, 2010 until June 30, during the self - administered questionnaire through a survey was done. The Study results, several demographic characteristics, health-related behavioral characteristics and job-related characteristics of the variables and job stress is surveyed, there was a significant association. Drinking status, occupation, hours of sleep, leisure activities, whether working position, duration, number of hours per week, for inpatient and outpatient experience, whether in the workplace satisfaction, especially those affecting the job stress factors, such as has been pointed out, Therefore, in order to reduce job stress, health-related behaviors and the work environment, and efforts to improve the content of the job.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.115-129
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to examine the actual dental hygiene status of workers in cement industry in an effort to serve as a basis for enhancing their dental hygiene. The subjects in this study were 420 laborers from the cities of Curi, Donghae and Samcheok who handled cement. As a result of conducting a survey, the following findings were given : l. The workers investigated found their working environment satisfactory, getting a mean score of 323. They also expressed a high job satisfaction with a mean score of 333. 2. They didn't have a big interest in oral health. By age group, those who were aged between 36 and 40, or who cared less about health management, showed a higher interest in oral health. Besides, the laborers who kept smoking for a longer period, or who drunk more, expressed greater interest. 3. The toothbrushing method was considered most important for periodontal health, by 45.0% of the workers, and the next most crucial one was regular dental examination, followed by refraining from smoking and staying away from sweet food in the order named. 4. Concerning daily mean toothbrushing frequency, 455% brushed their teeth three times a day on the average. More than half them didn't pay enough attention to toothbrushing. 5. Regarding scaling, the large number of the workers, 42.4%, had no experience to get their teeth scaled, 37.6%, the greatest percentage, didn't have their teeth scaled because it seemed to make their teeth painful or cold. 6. As fororal health education experience, 67.6%, the great number of them, had no experience to receive dental health education. The above-mentioned findings suggest that the cement-related workers generally neglected dental health management. They should be encouraged to correct their wrong oral health knowledge or habit to make their oral cavity more healthy. To make it happen, it's required to provide oral health education and promote organized dental health projects.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.42-55
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• 2006

The present study is designed to develop surveying tools to measure stressors of and social supports for Radiological Technologists which may play a role to alleviate their stresses caused from their job environments. For this purpose, an analysis of reliability by factors of personal stressors was conducted on 890 radiologists who are working at 44 general hospitals in 16 cities and provinces across the country. The results of the analysis may be summed up as follows: Six factors in 2 concerned fields turned out to be major tools for use as items of questionnaires to measure social supports for and organizational culture of Radiological Technologists. The factors determined to be applicable for survey with reliability coefficient of more than 0.7 measured by factors for internal coherence included social supports on the job(0.90), off-the-job social supports(0.81), job satisfaction(0.80), devotion for job by length of service(0.81) and emotional devotion for job(0.80), all deemed to be appropriate as survey items. In the verifying process of the results, it was found that normative devotion for job(0.61) showed lower reliability as its statistical coefficient was analyzed to be less than 0.7. It seemed, therefore, necessary to reconstruct items or re-select such ones only that can maintain internal coherence in order to analyze appropriateness of related measuring tools, or to develop new measuring tools. Although the outcomes of this study can be used to verify reliability and appropriateness of concerned concepts to assess stresses caused during the job performance of Radiological Technologists, it may be improper to adopt them to measure all types of social supports and stresses that occur generally under the job environment. It is desired, however, to compare and analyze the findings of the present study with others and to utilize them as basic data for further development of tools that can maintain internal coherence in terms of reliability and appropriateness in spite of changing social environments.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.19-30
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• 2016

This study provides a framework to assess network design under the regime of QoE (Quality of Experience). Our approach is expected to reveal the necessity of developing the QoE measures and applying this notion to network design, particularly in the mobile environment. Furthermore, our model shows the ample potential that both users and network providers are able to attain a win-win case by shifting the focus on network design and service operations from QoS (Quality of Service) to QoE. Since the former considers only relevant technological specifications, it may fail in capturing critical factors surrounding users, such as a context where the corresponding user is working on. For example, according to one study [13], the bit-rate, a widely employed QoS measure, shows inferior performance in provisioning network resources to the MOS (Mean Opinion Score), a representative QoE measure. Our framework develops the idea and construct a prototype to systematically assess network design and operations in terms of QoE. The proposed prototype aims at achieving a higher level of efficiency without severely deteriorating users' satisfaction level. We also provide some simulation results which support our idea. That is, reducing the chance of over-provisioning on the basis of the QoE paradigm results in a great flexibility. It may give price cut for users or postponement of network investment for providers or both. Our simulation results also seem robust irrespective of the forms of the QoS-QoE relationship.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.6 no.1_2
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• pp.150-160
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• 1999

Background : Because hospitals had to faced with financial hardship, we have to have more effective hospital management. In this study, we tried to improve job performance and to reduce cost maintaining safety in fields of patients care. Methods : Central Supply Room(CSR) staffs taught strategy of material cost reduction to middle level managers and staffs 14 times. All staffs and voluntary service workers, working in 33 nursing units, participated in this activity. We developed questionnaire to check the degree of participate in cost reduction activity and job performance in CSR, and quality improvement in the wards. Two hundred questionnaires were distributed and 197 returned. Results : Because CSR staffs developed new items and every item was managed at each department, stocks of each department were reduced. Overall, by comparing before and after cost reduction activity, almost 1.2 billion won reduced for one year. Staffs' loyalty and spirits of cost reduction were improved by changing clothes and duty environment. Furthermore, these activity improved patients' satisfaction. Conclusion : We suggest that CSR activity in a university hospital contributes to improve job performance and to reduce cost without any problem in patient care.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.375-388
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of work factor/home factor on health status in women office workers. This study investigated the relationship of various influencing factors between health status using claims data of the The Fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey sample from 2017. To this end, we employed logistic regression analysis using sample data from 3,115 female office workers. Logistic regression results indicate that influential factors were ages, employment status, satisfaction with the work environment, sex ratios at workplace, economic burden, childcare burden, housework burden. We discussed several policy and academic implications. As women become more active in society, the number of female workers is increasing. If employers improve the health status of female workers, they will benefit from improved productivity in their business. Therefore, improving the work conditions of the those female workers is very important. Also, practical policy considerations should be needed for female workers to strengthen their social capital in order to enhance their status of health.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.277-289
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• 2016

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the cross-sectional association of company size and self-rated health using representative data on Korean workers. Methods: We used the data from 2,884 wage workers collected by Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (17th). The association between company size and self-rated health was analyzed using logistic regression with covariates including demographic characteristics, work environment, job satisfaction, and health-related behaviors. Resulst: Odds ratio (OR) for better health status among workers in large-sized company was 1.351 (CI. 1.054~1.731), compared to workers in small-sized company. We performed three separate models stratified by firm size (small, medium, and large companies). Occupation variables showed different effect on health depending on firm sizes. OR for better health of white-color job (referred to blue-color job) was 1.693 in medium-sized company model but it was 0.615 in large company model. OR for better health of the workers working shift work showed 0.606 in large company model but it was not significant in small and medium company models. Conclusion: We found that small-sized company workers have significantly poor self-rated health compared to large-sized firm workers. This study revealed that there exist differences among health related factors depending on firm sizes.