The Effects of Service Orientation on the Organizational Commitment and Management Performance of Public Health Center Workers / 한국직업건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of service orientation on the organizational commitment and management performance of public health center workers. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey design was used. A convenience sample of 280 workers was recruited from six public health centers in J province, South Korea. Data were collected by self-report questionnaires, including general characteristics, service orientation, organizational commitment, and management performance. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and hierarchical regression using the SPSS 22.0 program. RESULTS: The service orientations explained 34.1%of the variance in organizational commitment and explained 31.4% of the variance in management performance. The service orientation was a significant predictor of organizational commitment and management performance. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that better strategies for service orientations will be helpful to enhance organizational commitment and management performance in the public health center.

Validity and Reliability of a Service Orientation Scale for Health Care Organization / 간호행정학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to develop and test the validity and reliability of the Service Orientation Scale for Health Care Organization. METHODS: The Service Orientation Scale for Health Care Organization, SERV*OR, was developed through forward-backward translation methods. Internal consistency and reliability, construct and criterion validity were calculated using SPSS Statistics WIN 17.0. Survey data were collected from 283 clinical nurses in a general hospital in J province. RESULTS: The Service Orientation Scale for Health Care Organization showed reliable internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha's for the total scale ranging from .85~.91. Factor loading of the 30 items on four sub-scales ranged from .67~.83. The sub scales were named service leadership, service system, customer focus, and service control. Item convergent and discriminant validity were also established for the Service Orientation Scale for Health Care Organization. Criterion validity showed a significant correlation with customer orientation. CONCLUSION: The findings of the study demonstrate that the Service Orientation Scale for Health Care Organization has satisfactory construct and criterion validity, and reliability and can be used to measure service orientation.

The concept of medical professionalism as for self-employed physicians in Korea

Medical professionalism in Korea is underdeveloped because of a strong state that has been in place for the past one hundred years. If the government actively controls policies and regulates the professional associations under state corporatism, deterioration of professionalism is inevitable. The current medical insurance in Korea is unified as a monopsony, but it is not the 'bipartite corporatism' between the government and the medical profession such as the National Health Services (NHS) in Britain. All insurance matters related to a physician's practice, including standards of treatment and the physician's reimbursement, are handled by the government. Therefore, the authority of medical expertise is subordinate to the authority of the government agency, and physicians are forced to follow the goals and policies that are set by the government. Physicians' professional ethics are the core of their occupational control. The declaration of "Codes of Ethics" by the Korean Medical Association, before it was revised in April 2006, defined a "sincere fulfillment in practicing medicine" as a full duty of the physician's life. If this declaration was intended to be interpreted literally, all physicians in Korea could be asked to pursue identical lives with the same goals as their professional life as a physician. If it was not intended to be interpreted literally, then physicians may develop their own ethical approaches according to their individual perspectives on life. The former case is an unethical form of state control while; the latter case would make legitimate occupational regulation impossible. The ideal of medical service is an institutional attribute of an occupation and not a duty of an individual's life. Therefore, it should be possible for physicians to work under an occupational control that requires specific standards for the members of the profession and embodies their professional values.