The role of customer service manual on workplace emotional burden in nationwide cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: We aim to discuss the overall effect of customer service manual (CSM) on service industry workers using Korean Working Condition Survey. METHODS: Out of 50,007 total survey participants, 11,946 customer service workers were included in the current study (5613 men, 6333 women). Answers to survey questions were used to define the use of CSM, emotional burden, emotional dissonance, engaging angry customers and other covariates. Emotional burden included either depressive event or stress level. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of experiencing emotional burden was calculated by logistic regression model. Interaction effect between CSM and engaging angry customer on emotional burden was also estimated. RESULTS: Out of 11,946 subjects, total of 3279 (27.4%) have experienced emotional burden. OR (95% CI) of experiencing emotional burden was 1.40 (1.19–1.64) in men and 1.25 (1.09–1.44) in women. There was gender difference in interaction effect between the use of CSM and engaging angry customers. In men, OR (95% CI) was 3.16 (1.38–7.23) with additive effect when always engaging angry customers with CSM compared to rarely engaging without CSM, while in women OR (95% CI) was 8.85 (3.96–19.75) with synergistic effect. Moreover, the risk of depressive event increased only in women with OR (95% CI) 2.22 (1.42–3.48). CONCLUSIONS: Our current study highlighted association between emotional burden and CSM in both men and women service workers. Furthermore, women were affected more severely by CSM. The results from current study suggest that CSM should be changed appropriately to benefit workers.

Analysis on main features and regulatory strategies of the new health service industry / 中国卫生政策研究

Compared with the traditional health service industry, the new health service industry tends to be more comprehensive and integrated, and the various factors are in a dynamic change process, which is characterized by larger scale,intensive,agglomerative and special business methods. Compared with the traditional medical and health industry supervision, its regulatory content has greatly changed in the new system. Under the new market relationship,the supply and demand sides have put forward higher requirements for supervision,and the emerging business forms are networked, fragmented and flexible. The service boundary has broken through the traditional supervision mode,and it simultaneously faces the challenge of defining the supervision responsibilities,complexity,the current tax system management,the current supervision mechanism hindrances,and the balance between the new health service industry and health quality access regulation which are undergoing an exponential trend of development. Therefore,this paper puts forward some suggestions such as the establishment of a new health service industry supervision mechanism with information supervision as the core,the realization of the transition from direct control to bottom-line supervision, the establishment of multi-sectoral organic coordination, and a coordinated supervision mechanism which involves the participation of all social subjects.

Characteristics of occupational musculoskeletal disorders of five sectors in service industry between 2004 and 2013

BACKGROUND: ‘Work related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs)' have been mostly reported in the manufacturing industry but recently the occurrence of industrial injuries has been constantly increasing in the service industry. This research is going to analyze the data about workers' compensation for WRMSDs in five different service sectors and identify characteristics of occupations with the highest approved occupations. METHODS: According to the data released from the Korea Worker's Compensation & Welfare Service, the overview of 12,730 cases of workers' compensation for WRMSDs in five service sectors from 2004 to 2013 is going to be analyzed and the source data is going to be classified by the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations to select the top five occupations that have the highest number of approval. RESULTS: After selecting each five occupations from the service sector that have work related musculoskeletal disorders, the result showed that the occupation with the highest number of approval in the health and social care sector were the early childhood educators, cooks in the school canteens in education services sector, garbage collectors in the sanitation and similar services sector, deliverymen in wholesale and retail, consumer goods repair and building cleaners in general management businesses such as those in building maintenance. The major event observed in the top five occupations was the overexertion and reaction as a cause of WRMSDs. The day when the WRMSDs mostly occurred was on Monday and the most likely time was 10 am. The median days away from work and lost working days are 29–90 days and 0–50 days respectively. The difference in each occupation was observed in year of service, age, and gender. CONCLUSIONS: 83.21% of the approved cases of workers' compensation for WRMSDs occurred in the top 25 occupations in all of the five service sectors, which meant that the approval of workers' compensation is concentrated in specific occupations. This research is going to suggest preventive measures for work related musculoskeletal disorders in the service industry and to help prioritize the preventive measures. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not applicable.

Policy Research on Development of Health-care Service Industry of Traditional Chinese / 中国中医药信息杂志

TCM health-care service industry is in a rapid growth phase. It is important to stimulate consumption and boost domestic demand in health-care industry. Although TCM has unique advantages in health-care industry, lack of technical standards, industry standards and related policy have led to market chaos. Limited by inherent concept of TCM health-care services and the existing enterprise scale and level, health-care services cannot get sufficient play. This article analyzed current situation and main problems of TCM health-care service industry, and provided measures and suggestions for management system, industry access, and personnel quality.

Deepen Reform of TCM Education and Train Talents for TCM Health Services / 中国中医药信息杂志

Increasing demand for health services brings an opportunity for the development of health service industry, and the development is based on qualified talent support from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) education. This article expounded that developing health service is the realistic demand for deepening TCM education reform from the direction, number and quality of talent cultivation, and proposed the measures of deepening TCM education to train TCM health services: establish mechanism for co-ordination of supply and demand of TCM talents under the direction of market and guidance of government; form and optimize multilevel, multi-standard and multi-grade talent cultivation system; build talent evaluation mechanism and cultivation goals focusing on post competency.

The Effects of the Economic Characteristics of Single-person Households on the Food Service Industry / 대한지역사회영양학회지

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the economic characteristics of single-person households and explain the effects of them on the food service industry. METHODS: For this paper, I analysed the data related with single-person households and the food service industry in two surveys, Household Income and Expenditure Survey and Wholesale and Retail Trade Survey published by Statistics Korea from 2006 to 2015, with an empirical test performed utilizing these data. The indicators of the age of householders, disposable income per capita, and the rate of household of worker were compared between single and multi-person households. Furthermore, sales and the number of establishments in the food service industry were used as industry-variables, and disposable income, eating-out expenses and the rate of single-person households as the household-variables were used in a panel analysis. RESULTS: The results showed that household incomes were lower, age of householder was higher, and the percentage of household of worker was lower in single-person households in contrast to multi-person households. According to the empirical analysis, eating-out expenses of single-person households, in comparison to multi-person households, has significantly positive effects on the growth of the food service industry. This means that the recent trend of increasing numbers of single-person households may help the growth of the food service industry. CONCLUSIONS: The growth in the rate of single-person households has been one of the most striking demographic shifts in recent decades. Their economic characteristics and the effects were analyzed to give the managers in the food service industry and the policy-makers useful information in dealing with this new trend. Moreover, in considering the fact that single-person households eat out more frequently than multi-person households, the food service business should develop the managerial strategies focused on acclimatizing to single-person households.

Fast food addiction – The junk enslavement.

Research question: What extent do we crave for fast foods Background: Fast foods are consumed in larger quantities intended with persistent desire or futile efforts to minimise or to cease the intake of these items; hence it is called as “FAST FOOD ADDICTION”. Nowadays, there is an uncontrollable craving for excess of quick foods that has lead to significant life style modifications in the society regardless of the age group. In spite of quantum of this problem, there are very few studies from India investigating the addiction towards fast foods. Material and methods: This study was done as a community based cross sectional study at the outskirts of Chennai, India during November 2013 to January 2014 with the objectives of assessing the prevalence and its risk factors of the quick food addiction among adults. Individuals of adult age group were randomly selected and the data’s were collected using direct questionnaire method with proper informed consent. The data was entered in MS excel sheet and analysis was done using SPSS software. Results: Total 541 study participants were interviewed of which 58.8% were males with the mean age of 26 years. Among the study population 82.8% belonged to nuclear family and 65.1% were from class I socioeconomic status. The prevalence of quick food addiction was 30% (160). About 49.2% of people liked KFC as their favourite quick food place. Fast food addiction was significantly associated with male gender (p=0.02), professionals (p=0.000), unmarried (p=0.000), who enjoys quick food (p=0.014), KFC (p=0.003). Conclusion: The prevalence of fast food addiction among adult population in our study was moderately high and hence interventions should be made to create cognizance among the general population about the risk factors and consequences in consuming large amount of fast foods.

Basic Law on Service Industry Development and medical privatization

The Korean government is preparing the Basic Law on Service Industry Development(BLID). The final aim of the BLID is to improve competition and productivity in service industries. Industrialization and privatization generally result in the pursuit of profit. Health services are one of the services covered by the BLID. There are arguments that health services areone of the service industries that pursue profit on a preferential basis. Health services first pursue equity and then efficiency. There is an existing law for health services called the Basic Law on Health Care(BLHC). The BLHC contains the main contents of the BLID, but the aims of these two laws are different. Therefore, health services should be regulated by the BLHC, not the BLID, because health services are means of ensuring citizen's health, not profit.

Basic Law on Service Industry Development and medical privatization

The Korean government is preparing the Basic Law on Service Industry Development(BLID). The final aim of the BLID is to improve competition and productivity in service industries. Industrialization and privatization generally result in the pursuit of profit. Health services are one of the services covered by the BLID. There are arguments that health services areone of the service industries that pursue profit on a preferential basis. Health services first pursue equity and then efficiency. There is an existing law for health services called the Basic Law on Health Care(BLHC). The BLHC contains the main contents of the BLID, but the aims of these two laws are different. Therefore, health services should be regulated by the BLHC, not the BLID, because health services are means of ensuring citizen's health, not profit.

Concept, connotation and priorities of premium healthcare:A case study of Shanghai / 中国卫生政策研究

Premium healthcare is one of the major components of private healthcare, a key part of the health service industry, and one of the significant areas of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan of health. However, there is no clear definition of premium healthcare that is widely accepted based on a Chinese literature review, and to define the concept of premium healthcare is the basis and premise for research. This paper adopted the methods of systematic re-view, field investigation and key person interviews to clarify the definition of premium healthcare and the results sug-gested that areas of health management, medical care for the elderly, mobile medical care, and so on should be the priorities of premium healthcare development.

Pros and Cons of For-profit Hospitals and Policy Alternatives

Currently, the Korean government is actively advocating the need to allow for-profit medical institutions. According to the government, the establishment of for-profit medical institutions would further improve the quality of medical services and create new employment. However, the issue has triggered a social controversy between the two major parties of interest; some claim that for-profit hospitals would only cause negative effects while the others emphasize the advantages of such institutions. Proponents of for-profit hospitals argue that this new type of medical institution would enable patients to receive more diverse and advanced medical services. In addition, they also believe that hospitals would experience more efficient and transparent management, raise capital with greater ease, and in turn, use the additional funds for more sophisticated medical research. On the other hand, opponents claim that they would only increase medical expenses while decreasing access to medical care. The goals that the government seeks to achieve with for-profit medical institutions can be accomplished by eliminating or easing regulations on existing hospitals and clinics. The introduction of for-profit medical institution is expected to deliver the projected benefits not solely because the current medical institutions are non-profit but because they are banned from pursuing commercial activities by law and regulation. Before considering plans to establish for-profit medical institutions, priority should be on easing or eliminating regulations that interfere with market principles such as compulsory participation of medical institutions in national medical insurance should be eliminated or eased

The Effect of the Food Service Industry up on the National Economy of Korea / 대한지역사회영양학회지

The food-service industry in Korea has experienced remarkable growth during the past few decades. The objectives of this study were to analyze the influence of the food-service industry upon the national economy by using an inputoutput analysis and to find the industrial position of the food service industry. This paper analysed the economic effect of the food-service industry using 168 items arranged in a transaction table based on producer's prices in the 1995 input-output tables. The results of this study showed that the food-service industry had a major influence on the national economy of Korea. Based on the calculation of the following five coefficients; Korea's production inducement coefficient ranked as 50, its import inducement coefficient ranked as 28, its value added inducement coefficient ranked as 32, its worker inducement coefficient ranked as 2 and its employee inducement coefficient per final demand ranked as 5 in a total of 168 industries.