• Title/Summary/Keyword: Human Intervention

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Changes in Peer Acceptance and Play Interactions in Integrated Groups of Young Children With and Without Disabilities Through Story-Based Interactive Music Activities (장애-비장애 유아 통합 그룹에 적용된 이야기 기반 상호적 음악 활동에 따른 유아의 또래수용 및 놀이상호작용 변화)

  • Lee, Yeseul
    • Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.77-105
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    • 2024
  • This study explored whether story-based interactive music activities improve play interactions between children with developmental disabilities (DD) and typically developing (TD) children at an integrated daycare center, and whether these activities influence TD children's attitudes towards their DD peers. The participants included six children with DD, aged 3-5 years, and 21 TD peers. They attended 10 sessions, each 30 minutes, twice a week. Play interactions were observed during free play after each session, and TD children's attitudes towards peers with DD were assessed before and after the intervention. The results showed that children with TD and DD in the integrated group showed significantly reduced disengagement, with notable improvements in joint action for TD children and joint attention for DD children. However, there were no significant changes in peer acceptance among TD children in the integrated group while there was a significant decrease in the non-integrated group. This study highlights that story-based interactive music activities effectively enhance interactions between TD and DD children. However, the limited impact on peer acceptance suggests the need for more long-term and systematic interventions, considering the children's developmental levels. The study also emphasizes the importance of tailored approaches that address the individual needs of both TD and DD children, providing valuable insights into the direction of systematic interventions at a time when the importance of social integration is increasingly recognized.

The Relationship of Retention Intention to Job Stress of Nurses in Korean Red Cross Blood Center : The Mediating Effect of Positive Psychological Capital (혈액원 간호사의 재직의도와 직무스트레스의 관계연구 : 긍정심리자본의 매개효과)

  • Jisoon Kang;Min Ju Park;Hyunju Lee
    • Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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    • v.41 no.3
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    • pp.721-732
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    • 2024
  • This study is a descriptive research to determine the mediating effect of Positive Psychological Capital on the relationship between Job Stress and Retention Intention among nurses working at blood centers in the metropolitan area. Data were collected from 167 nurses using a structured questionnaire between May 2021 and April 2022, and analyzed by SPSS ver.25. General characteristics were analyzed through frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The relationship between Job Stress and Retention Intention was analyzed using independent samples t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression analysis and PROCESS macro model 4. The results substantiated the hypotheses: Hypothesis 1 proposed that higher Retention Intention and Positive Psychological Capital were associated with lower Job Stress. Hypothesis 2 suggested that Positive Psychological Capital significantly partially mediates the relationship between Retention Intention and Job Stress. To promote Retention Intention among blood center nurses, it is crucial to implement human resource management systems aimed at alleviating Job Stress and enhancing Positive Psychological Capital. Specifically, enhancing Positive Psychological Capital within blood centers is particularly significant. This study contributes empirical evidence necessary for efficient personnel management and competency enhancement programs to reduce Job Stress, thereby enhancing the quality of nursing care among blood center nurses. Furthermore, it is recommended to develop intervention programs for Positive Psychological Capital to enhance Retention Intention and reduce Job Stress among blood center nurses.

A Collaborative Filtering System Combined with Users' Review Mining : Application to the Recommendation of Smartphone Apps (사용자 리뷰 마이닝을 결합한 협업 필터링 시스템: 스마트폰 앱 추천에의 응용)

  • Jeon, ByeoungKug;Ahn, Hyunchul
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.21 no.2
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    • pp.1-18
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    • 2015
  • Collaborative filtering(CF) algorithm has been popularly used for recommender systems in both academic and practical applications. A general CF system compares users based on how similar they are, and creates recommendation results with the items favored by other people with similar tastes. Thus, it is very important for CF to measure the similarities between users because the recommendation quality depends on it. In most cases, users' explicit numeric ratings of items(i.e. quantitative information) have only been used to calculate the similarities between users in CF. However, several studies indicated that qualitative information such as user's reviews on the items may contribute to measure these similarities more accurately. Considering that a lot of people are likely to share their honest opinion on the items they purchased recently due to the advent of the Web 2.0, user's reviews can be regarded as the informative source for identifying user's preference with accuracy. Under this background, this study proposes a new hybrid recommender system that combines with users' review mining. Our proposed system is based on conventional memory-based CF, but it is designed to use both user's numeric ratings and his/her text reviews on the items when calculating similarities between users. In specific, our system creates not only user-item rating matrix, but also user-item review term matrix. Then, it calculates rating similarity and review similarity from each matrix, and calculates the final user-to-user similarity based on these two similarities(i.e. rating and review similarities). As the methods for calculating review similarity between users, we proposed two alternatives - one is to use the frequency of the commonly used terms, and the other one is to use the sum of the importance weights of the commonly used terms in users' review. In the case of the importance weights of terms, we proposed the use of average TF-IDF(Term Frequency - Inverse Document Frequency) weights. To validate the applicability of the proposed system, we applied it to the implementation of a recommender system for smartphone applications (hereafter, app). At present, over a million apps are offered in each app stores operated by Google and Apple. Due to this information overload, users have difficulty in selecting proper apps that they really want. Furthermore, app store operators like Google and Apple have cumulated huge amount of users' reviews on apps until now. Thus, we chose smartphone app stores as the application domain of our system. In order to collect the experimental data set, we built and operated a Web-based data collection system for about two weeks. As a result, we could obtain 1,246 valid responses(ratings and reviews) from 78 users. The experimental system was implemented using Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications(VBA) and SAS Text Miner. And, to avoid distortion due to human intervention, we did not adopt any refining works by human during the user's review mining process. To examine the effectiveness of the proposed system, we compared its performance to the performance of conventional CF system. The performances of recommender systems were evaluated by using average MAE(mean absolute error). The experimental results showed that our proposed system(MAE = 0.7867 ~ 0.7881) slightly outperformed a conventional CF system(MAE = 0.7939). Also, they showed that the calculation of review similarity between users based on the TF-IDF weights(MAE = 0.7867) leaded to better recommendation accuracy than the calculation based on the frequency of the commonly used terms in reviews(MAE = 0.7881). The results from paired samples t-test presented that our proposed system with review similarity calculation using the frequency of the commonly used terms outperformed conventional CF system with 10% statistical significance level. Our study sheds a light on the application of users' review information for facilitating electronic commerce by recommending proper items to users.

Predictive Factors of Health promotion behaviors of Industrial Shift Workers (산업장 교대근무 근로자의 건강증진행위 예측요인)

  • Kim, Young-Mi
    • Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.13-30
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    • 2002
  • Industrial shift workers feels suffer mental stresses which are caused by unfamiliar day sleep, noisy environment, sleeping disorder by bright light, unusual contacts with family, difficulty in meeting with friends or having formal social meetings and other social limitations such as the use of transportation. Such stresses influence health of the workers negatively. Thus the health promotion policy for shift workers should be made considering the workers' ways of living and shift work specially. This study attempted to provide basic information for development of the health promotion program for industrial shift workers by examining predictive factors influencing health promotion behaviors of those workers. In designing the study, three power generation plants located in Pusan and south Kyungsang province were randomly selected and therefrom 280 workers at central control, boiler and turbine rooms and environmental chemistry parts whose processes require shift works were sampled as subjects of the study. Data were collected two times from September 17 to October 8, 1999 using questionnaires with helps of safety and health managers of the plants. The questionnaires were distributed through mails or direct visits. Means for the study included the measurement tool of health promotion behavior provided by Park(1995), the tool of self-efficacy measurement by Suh(1995), the tool of internal locus of control measurement by Oh(1987), the measurement tool of perceived health state by Park(1995) and the tool of social support measurement by Paek(1995). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS program. Controlling factors of the subjects were evaluated in terms of frequency and percentage ratio Perceived factors and health promotion behaviors of the subjects were done so in terms of mean and standard deviation, and average mark and standard deviation, respectively. Relations between controlling and perceived factors were analyzed using t-test and ANOVA and those between perceived factors and the performance of health promotion behaviors, using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. The performance of health promotion behaviors was tested using t-test, ANOVA and post multi-comparison (Scheffe test). Predictive factors of health promotion behavior were examined through the Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis. Results of the study are summarized as follows. 1. The performance of health promotion behaviors by the subjects was evaluated as having the value of mean, $161.27{\pm}26.73$ points(min.:60, max.:240) and average mark, $2.68{\pm}0.44$ points(min.:1, max.:4). When the performance was analyzed according to related aspects, it showed the highest level in harmonious relation with average mark, $3.15{\pm}.56$ points, followed by hygienic life($3.03{\pm}.55$), self-realization ($2.84{\pm}.55$), emotional support($2.73{\pm}.61$), regular meals($2.71{\pm}.76$), self-control($2.62{\pm}.63$), health diet($2.62{\pm}.56$), rest and sleep($2.60{\pm}.59$), exercise and activity($2.53{\pm}.57$), diet control($2.52{\pm}.56$) and special health management($2.06{\pm}.65$). 2. In relations between perceived factors of the subjects(self-efficacy, internal locus of control, perceived health state) and the performance of health promotion behaviors, the performance was found having significantly pure relations with self-efficacy (r=.524, P=.000), internal locus of control (r=.225, P=.000) and perceived health state(r=.244, P=.000). The higher each evaluated point of the three factors was, the higher the performance was in level. 3. When relations between the controlling factors(demography-based social, health-related, job-related and human relations characteristics) and the performance of health promotion behaviors were analyzed, the performance showed significant differences according to marital status (t=2.09, P= .03), religion(F=3.93, P= .00) and participation in religious activities (F=8.10, P= .00) out of demography-based characteristics, medical examination results (F=7.20, P= .00) and methods of the collection of health knowledge and information(F=3.41, P= .01) and methods of desired health education(F=3.41, P= .01) out of health-related characteristics, detrimental factors perception(F=4.49, P= .01) and job satisfaction(F=8.41, P= .00) out of job-related characteristics and social support(F=14.69, P= .00) out of human relations characteristics. 4. The factor which is a variable predicting best the performance of health promotion behaviors by the subjects was the self-efficacy accounting for 27.4% of the prediction, followed by participation in religious activities, social support, job satisfaction, received health state and internal locus of control in order all of which totally account for 41.0%. In conclusion, the predictive factor which most influence the performance of health promotion behaviors by shift workers was self-efficacy. To promote the sense, therefore, it is necessary to develop the nursing intervention program considering predictive factors as variables identified in this study. Further industrial nurses should play their roles actively to help shift workers increase their capability of self-management of health.

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An Ethnography of Child-Rearing Experiences of Korean Mothers Living on Koje Island (우리나라 어머니의 자녀 양육의 의미 - 거제지역을 대상으로 -)

  • Lee, Soo-Yeon
    • Women's Health Nursing
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    • v.7 no.4
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    • pp.518-535
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    • 2001
  • Nursing practices should be based on the understanding of human beings. In order to understand human beings, it is important to study the lifestyles and thoughts of people in their natural environment. In this sense, the cultural aspects of a society need to be studied for a culture-bound nursing service. Child care, which is an important element of nursing, is also strongly influenced by the culture of a society. Therefore, a cultural study is necessary to understand the child-rearing practices of any society. The major purpose of this dissertation is to provide basic foundations for developing a culture-based theory for nursing intervention through studying traditional cultural elements of child care in Korean society. The study examined child-rearing practices in a small village on Koje Island in the southern part of Korea. It utilized ethnographic methodologies including participatory observations and in-depth interviews. The study participants were 9 Korean mothers living on Koje Island. The average age was 52. The data were collected between July in 1998 and December in 1999. The average number of interviews per person was 7-8, and the duration of each interview was approximately 2 hours. The data were analyzed using the Spradley Analytical Method. The following 9 major child-rearing aspects of mothers on Koje Island were discovered as a result of the study: 1. Firstly, mothers on Koje Island were mostly concerned about the "Old Birth Goddess' Curse", especially during their child's early years. This concern was evidenced by their careful behavior when their child was very young and by their praying to the Old Birth Goddess not to be jealous of their babies. 2. Secondly, they wished their children to live a different and better life than themselves. It was represented by their strong motivation toward their children's education as well as their expectation for their children's success. In traditional Korean culture, Korean people think that the rise and fall of the household depend on their offsprings. Therefore, Korean mothers wish their children attain to a higher level of social status through education. 3. Third, mothers are concerned about their children's righteousness. Mothers on Koje island expect their children to live with discretion, justice, strength, respect, harmony, and to do their best in life. 4. Next was an 'anticipation of their children's happy marriage'. The attributes of this category were an 'anxiety about their children's married life', and 'an expectation of a good spouse for their children'. Because Korean people believe that only a son can continue the bloodline of a family, especially Korean mothers have a great concern of the possibility of their daughters not having a son after marriage. Also they have different expectations toward their daughter-in-laws than son-in-laws. 5. Korean mothers also derived their satisfaction from their son. It was characterized by 'excessive affection toward their son', 'dependency on their son', and 'being afraid of their married daughter having a girl like themselves'. Korean society has been a patriarchy. Therefore, a son is beloved as someone who will take care of his old parents, be in charge of ancestral rites, and provide a daughter-in-law who can conceive a son. 6. The sixth category concerned 'the differences in their expectations for their children'. The attributes in this category were 'different expectations depending on their children's gender', 'different expectations depending on their children's ability', and a 'great sympathy toward children with low abilities'. Korean mothers expect their son to become better than their daughter. 7. The seventh category was related to their 'roles in child-caring practices'. Traditionally a child was raised in an extended family system in Korea So it was not the sole duty of a mother to bring up the child. Korean mothers used to receive much help rasing children from their in-laws, and family members. On the other hand, many children grew up by themselves, because their mothers were very busy taking care of housework. Furthermore, many children also grew up in poverty. 8. Mothers also had issues related to 'conflicts in child rearing'. They were characterized by 'lack of understanding', 'rudeness of children', and 'giving vent to one's anger'. 9. Finally, mothers regretted not doing their best in child-rearing practices. It was characterized by a 'bitter feeling of repentance', 'feeling irritated', and 'feeling of unsatisfaction'.

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A Comparative Study of Juvenile Black-faced Spoonbills Platalea Minor Home Range in Gujido and Chilsando Islets, South Korea (구지도, 칠산도 저어새 유조의 행동권 비교 연구)

  • Son, Seok-Jun;Kang, Jung-Hoon;Kwon, In-Ki;Kim, Dal-Ho;Lee, Ki-Sup;Yoo, Jeong-Chil
    • Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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    • v.34 no.2
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    • pp.99-105
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    • 2020
  • Migratory birds use a variety of breeding and wintering sites, and it is particularly important to understand more information on breeding and feeding sites for the conservation and management of endangered species. Black-faced spoonbills (Platalea minor) are an international endangered species distributed in East Asia. The majority of black-faced spoonbills breed on uninhabited islets off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula during the breeding season, and they are distributed in East Asia such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, southern China, Japan, and Jeju island during the winter season. In this study, we used a wild animal location tracking system to analyze and compare home ranges of three black-faced spoonbills spending the post-fledging stage in Gujido islet in Incheon and Chilsando islet in Yeonggwang each in 2015. The tree black-faced spoonbills in Guji islet showed a home range in coastal areas in Hwanghaenam-do and Gangneung-gun. The home range size (mean±SD) was estimated to be 425.49±116.95 ㎢ using 100% MCP, 43.61±18.51 ㎢ using KDE 95%, and 7.46±3.68 ㎢using KDE 50%. The tree black-faced spoonbills in Chilsando islet showed a home range in the Baeksu tidal flat and the Buan Saemangeum area with a size of 99.38±55.29 ㎢ using 100% MCP, 19.87±6.05 ㎢ using KDE 95%, and 1.16±0.53 ㎢ using KDE 50%. The figured indicated that the tree black-faced spoonbills breeding in Gujido islet had a wider home range than those breeding in Chilsando islet. During the post-fledging stage, the home ranges of black-faced spoonbills were mostly breeding in mudflats. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize human intervention, such as the construction of roads and structures and the human access, to protect the habitats during the period.

The Role of the Endometrium and Embryo in Human Implantation (인간 착상 과정에 자궁내막과 배아의 역할)

  • Jee, Byung-Chul
    • Development and Reproduction
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.1-11
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    • 2009
  • Implantation itself is governed by an array of endocrine, paracrine and autocrine modulators, of embryonic and maternal origin. Window of implantation is the unique temporal and spatial expression of factors allows the embryo to implant via signaling, appositioning, attachment, and invasion in a specific time frame of $2{\sim}4$ days. When the embryo has arrived in the uterine cavity, a preprogrammed sequence of events occurs, which involves the production and secretion of a multitude of biochemical factors such as cytokines, growth factors, and adhesion molecules by the endometrium and the embryo, thus leading to the formation of a receptive endometrium. Cytokines such as LIF, CSF-1, and IL-1 have all been shown to play important roles in the cascade of events that leads to implantation. Integrin, L-selectin ligands, glycodelin, mucin-1, HB-EGF and pinopodes are involved in appositioning and attachment. The embryo also produces cytokines and growth factors (ILs, VEGF) and receptors for endometrial signals such as LIF, CSF-1, IGF and HB-EGF. The immune system and angiogenesis play an important role. The usefulness of these factors to assess endometrial receptivity and to estimate the prognosis for pregnancy in natural and artificial cycles remains to be proven. Integrins, pinopodes, glycodelin and LIF (from biopsies) are promising candidates; from uterine flushings, glycodelin and LIF are also candidates. The ideal serum marker is not available, but VEGF, glycodelin and CSF have some clinical implications. Further evaluation that includes larger groups of infertile women and fertile controls are needed to elucidate whether their presence in plasma, flushing fluid, or endometrial samples can be used as some kind of a screening tool to assess endometrial function and prognosis for pregnancy before and after artificial reproductive therapy. A better understanding of their function in human implantation may lead to therapeutic intervention, thereby improving the success rate in reproduction treatment. New molecular techniques are becoming available for measuring both embryonic and endometrial changes prior to and during implantation. The use of predictive sets of markers may prove to be more reliable than a single marker. Ultimately, the aim is to use these tools to increase implantation in artificial cycles and consequently improve live-birth rates.

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Topographic Factors Computation in Island: A Comparison of Different Open Source GIS Programs (오픈소스 GIS 프로그램의 지형인자 계산 비교: 도서지역 경사도와 지형습윤지수 중심으로)

  • Lee, Bora;Lee, Ho-Sang;Lee, Gwang-Soo
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.37 no.5_1
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    • pp.903-916
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    • 2021
  • An area's topography refers to the shape of the earth's surface, described by its elevation, slope, and aspect, among other features. The topographical conditions determine energy flowsthat move water and energy from higher to lower elevations, such as how much solar energy will be received and how much wind or rain will affect it. Another common factor, the topographic wetness index (TWI), is a calculation in digital elevation models of the tendency to accumulate water per slope and unit area, and is one of the most widely referenced hydrologic topographic factors, which helps explain the location of forest vegetation. Analyses of topographical factors can be calculated using a geographic information system (GIS) program based on digital elevation model (DEM) data. Recently, a large number of free open source software (FOSS) GIS programs are available and developed for researchers, industries, and governments. FOSS GIS programs provide opportunitiesfor flexible algorithms customized forspecific user needs. The majority of biodiversity in island areas exists at about 20% higher elevations than in land ecosystems, playing an important role in ecological processes and therefore of high ecological value. However, island areas are vulnerable to disturbances and damage, such as through climate change, environmental pollution, development, and human intervention, and lacks systematic investigation due to geographical limitations (e.g. remoteness; difficulty to access). More than 4,000 of Korea's islands are within a few hours of its coast, and 88% are uninhabited, with 52% of them forested. The forest ecosystems of islands have fewer encounters with human interaction than on land, and therefore most of the topographical conditions are formed naturally and affected more directly by weather conditions or the environment. Therefore, the analysis of forest topography in island areas can be done more precisely than on its land counterparts, and therefore has become a major focus of attention in Korea. This study is focused on calculating the performance of different topographical factors using FOSS GIS programs. The test area is the island forests in Korea's south and the DEM of the target area was processed with GRASS GIS and SAGA GIS. The final slopes and TWI maps were produced as comparisons of the differences between topographic factor calculations of each respective FOSS GIS program. Finally, the merits of each FOSS GIS program used to calculate the topographic factors is discussed.

Rapid Rural-Urban Migration and the Rural Economy in Korea (한국(韓國)의 급격(急激)한 이촌향도형(離村向都型) 인구이동(人口移動)과 농촌경제(農村經濟))

  • Lee, Bun-song
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.12 no.3
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    • pp.27-45
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    • 1990
  • Two opposing views prevail regarding the economic impact of rural out-migration on the rural areas of origin. The optimistic neoclassical view argues that rapid rural out-migration is not detrimental to the income and welfare of the rural areas of origin, whereas Lipton (1980) argues the opposite. We developed our own alternative model for rural to urban migration, appropriate for rapidly developing economies such as Korea's. This model, which adopts international trade theories of nontraded goods and Dutch Disease to rural to urban migration issues, argues that rural to urban migration is caused mainly by two factors: first, the unprofitability of farming, and second, the decrease in demand for rural nontraded goods and the increase in demand for urban nontraded goods. The unprofitability of farming is caused by the increase in rural wages, which is induced by increasing urban wages in booming urban manufacturing sectors, and by the fact that the cost increases in farming cannot be shifted to consumers, because farm prices are fixed worldwide and because the income demand elasticity for farm products is very low. The demand for nontraded goods decreases in rural and increases in urban areas because population density and income in urban areas increase sharply, while those in rural areas decrease sharply, due to rapid rural to urban migration. Given that the market structure for nontraded goods-namely, service sectors including educational and health facilities-is mostly in monopolistically competitive, and that the demand for nontraded goods comes only from local sources, the urban service sector enjoys economies of scale, and can thus offer services at cheaper prices and in greater variety, whereas the rural service sector cannot enjoy the advantages offered by scale economies. Our view concerning the economic impact of rural to urban migration on rural areas of origin agrees with Lipton's pessimistic view that rural out-migration is detrimental to the income and welfare of rural areas. However, our reasons for the reduction of rural income are different from those in Lipton's model. Lipton argued that rural income and welfare deteriorate mainly because of a shortage of human capital, younger workers and talent resulting from selective rural out-migration. Instead, we believe that rural income declines, first, because a rapid rural-urban migration creates a further shortage of farm labor supplies and increases rural wages, and thus reduces further the profitability of farming and, second, because a rapid rural-urban migration causes a further decline of the rural service sectors. Empirical tests of our major hypotheses using Korean census data from 1966, 1970, 1975, 1980 and 1985 support our own model much more than the neoclassical or Lipton's models. A kun (county) with a large out-migration had a smaller proportion of younger working aged people in the population, and a smaller proportion of highly educated workers. But the productivity of farm workers, measured in terms of fall crops (rice) purchased by the government per farmer or per hectare of irrigated land, did not decline despite the loss of these youths and of human capital. The kun having had a large out-migration had a larger proportion of the population in the farm sector and a smaller proportion in the service sector. The kun having had a large out-migration also had a lower income measured in terms of the proportion of households receiving welfare payments or the amount of provincial taxes paid per household. The lower incomes of these kuns might explain why the kuns that experienced a large out-migration had difficulty in mechanizing farming. Our policy suggestions based on the tests of the currently prevailing hypotheses are as follows: 1) The main cause of farming difficulties is not a lack of human capital, but the in­crease in production costs due to rural wage increases combined with depressed farm output prices. Therefore, a more effective way of helping farm economies is by increasing farm output prices. However, we are not sure whether an increase in farm output prices is desirable in terms of efficiency. 2) It might be worthwhile to attempt to increase the size of farmland holdings per farm household so that the mechanization of farming can be achieved more easily. 3) A kun with large out-migration suffers a deterioration in income and welfare. Therefore, the government should provide a form of subsidization similar to the adjustment assistance provided for international trade. This assistance should not be related to the level of farm output. Otherwise, there is a possibility that we might encourage farm production which would not be profitable in the absence of subsidies. 4) Government intervention in agricultural research and its dissemination, and large-scale social overhead projects in rural areas, carried out by the Korean government, might be desirable from both efficiency and equity points of view. Government interventions in research are justified because of the problems associated with the appropriation of knowledge, and government actions on large-scale projects are justified because they required collective action.

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Structural Adjustment of Domestic Firms in the Era of Market Liberalization (시장개방(市場開放)과 국내기업(國內企業)의 구조조정(構造調整))

  • Seong, So-mi
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.91-116
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    • 1991
  • Market liberalization progressing simultaneously with high and rapidly rising domestic wages has created an adverse business environment for domestic firms. Korean firms are losing their international competitiveness in comparison to firms from LDC(Less Developed Countries) in low-tech industries. In high-tech industries, domestic firms without government protection (which is impossible due to the liberalization policy and the current international status of the Korean economy) are in a disadvantaged position relative to firms from advanced countries. This paper examines the division of roles between the private sector and the government in order to achieve a successful structural adjustment, which has become the impending industrial policy issue caused by high domestic wages, on the one hand, and the opening of domestic markets, on the other. The micro foundation of the economy-wide structural adjustment is actually the restructuring of business portfolios at the firm level. The firm-level business restructuring means that firms in low-value-added businesses or with declining market niches establish new major businesses in higher value-added segments or growing market niches. The adjustment of the business structure at the firm level can only be accomplished by accumulating firm-specific managerial assets necessary to establish a new business structure. This can be done through learning-by-doing in the whole system of management, including research and development, manufacturing, and marketing. Therefore, the voluntary cooperation among the people in the company is essential for making the cost of the learning process lower than that at the competing companies. Hence, firms that attempt to restructure their major businesses need to induce corporate-wide participation through innovations in organization and management, encourage innovative corporate culture, and maintain cooperative labor unions. Policy discussions on structural adjustments usually regard firms as a black box behind a few macro variables. But in reality, firm activities are not flows of materials but relationships among human resources. The growth potential of companies are embodied in the human resources of the firm; the balance of interest among stockholders, managers, and workers of the company' brings the accumulation of the company's core competencies. Therefore, policymakers and economists shoud change their old concept of the firm as a technological black box which produces a marketable commodities. Firms should be regarded as coalitions of interest groups such as stockholders, managers, and workers. Consequently the discussion on the structural adjustment both at the macroeconomic level and the firm level should be based on this new paradigm of understanding firms. The government's role in reducing the cost of structural adjustment and supporting should the creation of new industries emphasize the following: First, government must promote the competition in domestic markets by revising laws related to antitrust policy, bankruptcy, and the promotion of small and medium-sized companies. General consensus on the limitations of government intervention and the merit of deregulation should be sought among policymakers and people in the business world. In the age of internationalization, nation-specific competitive advantages cannot be exclusively in favor of domestic firms. The international competitiveness of a domestic firm derives from the firm-specific core competencies which can be accumulated by internal investment and organization of the firm. Second, government must build up a solid infrastructure of production factors including capital, technology, manpower, and information. Structural adjustment often entails bankruptcies and partial waste of resources. However, it is desirable for the government not to try to sustain marginal businesses, but to support the diversification or restructuring of businesses by assisting in factor creation. Institutional support for venture businesses needs to be improved, especially in the financing system since many investment projects in venture businesses are highly risky, even though they are very promising. The proportion of low-value added production processes and declining industries should be reduced by promoting foreign direct investment and factory automation. Moreover, one cannot over-emphasize the importance of future-oriented labor policies to be based on the new paradigm of understanding firm activities. The old laws and instititutions related to labor unions need to be reformed. Third, government must improve the regimes related to money, banking, and the tax system to change business practices dependent on government protection or undesirable in view of the evolution of the Korean economy as a whole. To prevent rational business decisions from contradicting to the interest of the economy as a whole, government should influence the business environment, not the business itself.

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