Title Page

ABSTRACT

Contents

I. INTRODUCTION 13

A. Background and Necessity of Research 13

B. Purpose of Study 15

C. Scope of Study 17

D. Research Method 17

II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 19

A. The Current State of Korean Enterprises 19

1. Korean Large Enterprises 19

2. Korean Medium Enterprises (High Potential Enterprises) 24

3. Korean Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) 30

B. Middle Manager 35

1. Concept of Middle Manager 35

2. Roles of Middle Manager 37

C. Leadership 38

1. Concepts of Leadership 38

2. A Study on Leadership Theories 42

3. Elements of Leadership 51

D. Literature Reviews on the Middle Managers 67

III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 74

A. Research Design 74

B. Production of Measurement Tools 78

1. Plan of Measurement Tools 78

2. Generation of Measurement Questions 89

C. Data Collection 99

1. Tips for Assessment (Survey) 99

2. Means of Collecting Data 100

IV. EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 101

A. Empirical Results Analysis 101

1. Analysis of Leadership 101

2. Demographic analysis 139

B. Statistical Analysis 146

1. Reliability Analysis of Middle Managers' Self-Assessment 147

2. Statistical Analysis of Employees' Fact Judgement 149

3. Analysis of Employee Satisfaction Statistics 155

V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 161

A. The Conclusion of Study 161

B. Suggestions of Research 163

REFERENCES 167

APPENDIX 177

1. Questions for middle managers' self-assessment 177

2. Questions for employee fact judgement and satisfaction 182

Table 2-1. Current Number of Large Enterprises, the Number of Affiliates and Total Asset 22

Table 2-2. Percentage of Total Employees in 30 Large Enterprises by Industry in 2017 23

Table 2-3. The Criteria for Medium Enterprise 25

Table 2-4. The Total Number of Medium Enterprises by Year 27

Table 2-5. The Number of Employees 27

Table 2-6. The Number of Companies by the Size of Employment 28

Table 2-7. Sales Change of Medium Enterprises 28

Table 2-8. The Main Line of Business for SMEs 31

Table 2-9. The Number of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, and the Number of Workers in 2015 32

Table 2-10. The Total Sales and the Operating Profit of SMEs in 2015 33

Table 2-11. Status of Small and Medium Enterprises by Industry 34

Table 2-12. Definition of Leadership 41

Table 2-13. Comparison of 7 Contingency Theories of Leadership 47

Table 2-14. Characteristics of Respected Leaders 52

Table 3-1. Elements and Sub-factors of Leadership Development 78

Table 3-2. Elements and Sub-factors of Leadership Personality 80

Table 3-3. Elements and Sub-factors of Human Capital 81

Table 3-4. Elements and Sub-factors of Influence 82

Table 3-5. Elements and Sub-factors of Pursuit of Change 83

Table 3-6. Elements and Sub-factors of Decision Making and Execution 85

Table 3-7. Elements and Sub-factors of Followership 87

Table 3-8. Elements and Sub-factors of Self Leadership 88

Table 4-1. The Standard of Judgment 101

Table 4-2. Understanding Leadership 102

Table 4-3. Leadership Development and Training 104

Table 4-4. Perspective 106

Table 4-5. Insight 107

Table 4-6. Leader's Traits 109

Table 4-7. Leader's Value 111

Table 4-8. Leader's Competency 113

Table 4-9. Leadership Style 114

Table 4-10. Leader's Human Capital 116

Table 4-11. Leader's Direction Guidance 117

Table 4-12. Leader's Communication 120

Table 4-13. Building a Trustful Relationship 122

Table 4-14. Pursuit of Change 124

Table 4-15. Pursuit of Change 126

Table 4-16. Decision Making and Execution 128

Table 4-17. Executive Ability of Decision Making 130

Table 4-18. Follower's Act 132

Table 4-19. Follower Type 134

Table 4-20. Self-understanding and Reflection 135

Table 4-21. Self Improvement and Management 136

Table 4-22. Leadership Overall 137

Table 4-23. Leadership Satisfaction Statistics of Middle Manager by Gender 139

Table 4-24. Leadership Satisfaction Statistics of Middle Managers by Age 140

Table 4-25. Leadership Satisfaction Statistics of Middle Manager by Academic Background 141

Table 4-26. Leadership Satisfaction Statistics of Middle Manager by Marital Status 142

Table 4-27. Leadership Satisfaction Statistics of Middle Manager by the Number of Years of Employment 142

Table 4-28. Leadership Satisfaction Statistics of Middle Managers by the Position 143

Table 4-29. Leadership Satisfaction Statistics of Middle Manager by the Duty 144

Table 4-30. Leadership Satisfaction Statistics by the Number of Employees of Company 145

Table 4-31. Leadership Satisfaction Statistics by the Company Location 146

Table 4-32. Reliability Analysis (Middle manager's self-assessment) 148

Table 4-33. Reliability Analysis (employees' fact judgement) 150

Table 4-34. Variance Analysis 151

Table 4-35. Multiple Comparison 152

Table 4-36. Descriptive Statistics 154

Table 4-37. Reliability Analysis (Employee Satisfaction) 156

Table 4-38. Variance Analysis (employee satisfaction) 157

Table 4-39. Multiple Comparison (employee satisfaction) 158

Table 4-40. Descriptive Statistics (Employee satisfaction) 160

 The study is to do research on the leadership of middle managers and satisfaction of their subordinates in Korean companies. What the leaders concern most in the organization or company is to improve performance or productivity. This is especially true in these uncertain times. One of the key factors affecting the company's productivity is employee satisfaction. It is middle managers who can play a key role in influencing the subordinates' satisfaction level by sharing their vision and goals with their subordinates, planning and designing specific practices to achieve them. Thus, middle managers must trust subordinates and present them with clear goals to achieve new management goals, and improve productivity by efficiently operating the organization while communicating with their subordinates.

The middle managers also bring about changes to a new environment by generating variety of ideas and adjusting the speed of change to the members' unique circumstances so that the organization or company is not exposed to managerial hazard.

The middle manager is also a key figure in the organization and serves as a link between his/her superior and employees. The top management considers the role of these middle managers to be very important to the organization and contributive to its growth and development. Nevertheless, the research to improve the leadership of middle managers is not many.

For the study on the current status of middle managers' leadership, the survey was organized by classifying the key elements of the leader into eight dimensions, and then classifying them into 20 sub-factors, and developing a leadership competency assessment tool with 137 elements (124 elements of leadership including self leadership and a leadership development and training, 13 additional questions for follower ship elements) to derive the leadership status of middle managers, fact judgement of employee and employee satisfaction level through 360 degree feedback method.

As a result of the study, it indicates that most people in Korea misunderstand the concept of leadership or don't know the role exactly and they apply it wrongly. Especially, since the company does not recognize middle managers as leaders and they are busy solving the problem stuck in the current situation, it seems difficult for them to think of a mid-to long-term vision and creative idea for the future, or pursue change which were satisfied least by employees.

I hope this research will help Korean managers and middle managers to realize the importance of middle managers' leadership, develop the leadership of middle managers who play a pivotal role in the development, growth and sustainability of Korean companies, and be helpful in providing training and education programs. It is also suggested that the study will contribute to the direction and method of education to improve the leadership of middle managers.

이 연구는 한국 기업의 중간관리자의 리더십 실태와 부하들의 만족도에 관한 조사이다.

기업이나 조직에서 리더들이 가장 관심을 갖는 것은 성과나 만족도를 개선하는 것이다. 기업의 생산성에 영향을 미치는 주요한 요인 중 하나는 직원들의 만족도이다. 직원들의 만족도에 영향을 미치는데 중요한 역할을 하는 것이 바로 중간관리자들인데 이들은 부하들과 함께 비전과 목표를 공유하고 그것들을 성취하기 위해 구체적인 실행을 설계하고 계획하기 때문에다. 따라서 중간관리자들은 새로운 경영 목표를 성취하기 위해서 부하들을 신뢰하고 그들과 소통을 하면서 그들에게 분명한 목표를 제시하여 조직을 효율적으로 운영함으로 생산성을 향상시켜야 한다.

중간관리자들은 또한 조직이나 기업이 경영상의 위험에 노출되지 않도록 다양한 아이디어를 창출하고 구성원들의 독특한 환경에 변화의 속도를 조절함으로 새로운 환경에 변화를 불러온다.

중간 관리자는 조직의 핵심 인물로 상사와 직원들의 연결고리 역할을 한다. 최고 경영진은 이러한 중간 관리자의 역할이 조직에 매우 중요하며 조직의 성장과 발전에 기여한다고 생각한다. 그럼에도 불구하고 중간 관리자의 리더십 향상을 위한 연구는 많지 않다.

본 연구는 중간 관리자의 리더십 실태를 조사하기 위해 리더의 핵심 요소를 8차원으로 분류한 뒤 그것들을 20개 하위요소로 분류하고, 137개 요소(셀프 리더십과 리더십 개발, 훈련을 포함하는 리더십 요소 124개와 팔로워십 요소 13개의 추가 질문 포함)의 리더십 역량 평가 도구로 설문조사를 구성했고, 다면평가 방식을 통해 중간관리자의 리더십 실태와 그에 대한 직원들의 사실 판단, 그리고 만족도를 도출하였다.

연구결과 대다수 한국 사람들은 리더십의 개념을 잘못 이해하거나 리더의 역할을 정확히 몰라서 리더십을 잘못 적용한다는 것을 보여주었다. 특히 기업이 중간관리자를 리더로 인정하지 않고, 중간관리자들은 현재 상황에 매몰되어 문제 해결에 바빠서, 직원들에 의해 가장 만족스럽지 못하다고 평가를 받은 미래에 대한 중장기적 비전과 창의적 아이디어를 생각하거나 변화추구가 어려워 보인다.