중소제조기업의 최고경영자와 종업원 특성이 혁신성과에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

Abstract

국 문 요 약

21세기 글로벌 경영환경의 가장 두드러진 특징은 변화의 속도가 빠르다는 것이다. 미래 경영환경의 변화를 예측하고 준비하는 기업은 지속적인 성장을 이루나, 변화에 대비하지 못하는 기업은 도태될 수밖에 없다는 사실은 많은 경영사례에서도 증명되고 있다. 즉, 기업의 생존과 성장 조건은 경영환경 변화에 부합되는 경영혁신을 이룩하는 것이다. 여기서 혁신이란 조직과 그에 관련된 환경에서 새롭게 파생되는 변화의 채용으로 정의될 수 있다(Knight, 1967). 그러나 기업이란 다양한 이해관계자가 상존하기 때문에 기존 지배구조상에서 이해구조를 변화시키는 데는 저항이 존재하게 마련이다. 한편 시스템적으로 운용되는 대기업과 달리 중소기업의 성과를 결정하는 가장 중요한 요인은 무엇인가. 최고경영자의 능력과 자질이라는 것은 널리 알려진 사실이다. 이러한 관점에서 볼 때 중소제조기업(中小製造企業)의 생존과 성장을 위한 경영혁신에 최고경영자의 역할은 절대적이다. 따라서 중소제조기업의 경영혁신은 최고경영자의 학력과 실무경험 등 전문적 능력에 의해 영향을 받지만 성취욕, 내재적 통제 위치, 모호성의 수용정도 그리고 위험감수성향과 같은 최고경영자의 심리적 특성에 의해서도 영향을 받는다. 또한 최고경영자의 경영혁신 의지를 받아들이는 종업원의 태도도 중요하다. 아무리 우수한 경영혁신 방안이 도출되더라도 이를 수행할 종업원의 이해와 참여 없이는 실행이 어렵기 때문이다. 최고경영자와 종업원의 심리적 특성이 경영혁신 성과에 어떠한 영향을 미치는가에 대해서는 많은 선행연구들이 존재한다. 그러나 대부분 대기업을 중심으로 이루어졌기 때문에 중소제조기업의 의사결정에 적용할 수 없는 한계점을 드러낸다. 따라서 중소제조기업을 대상으로 최고경영자와 종업원의 심리적 특성이 경영혁신에 어떠한 영향을 미치는가에 대한 연구를 수행하였다. 현재 중소기업들이 처한 어려운 현실을 고려할 때 본 연구는 중소제조기업의 생존과 성장을 위한 경영혁신 의사결정에 상당한 도움을 줄 것으로 판단된다. 주요 연구내용과 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 최고경영자의 심리적 특성을 성취욕, 내재적 통제 위치, 모호성의 수용, 위험감수성향으로 분류하고, 이러한 요인들이 경영혁신 성과에 미치는 영향과 한계효과의 크기를 비교분석하였다. 주요 연구 결과로는 독립변수인 성취욕, 통제 위치, 모호성의 수용 그리고 위험감수성향은 모두 유의한 양의 계수 값이 보고되었다. 즉, 성취욕이 높을수록/ 내재적 통제위치가 높을수록/ 모호성을 싫어할수록/ 상대적으로 위험을 회피하는 정도가 높을수록 기술혁신 성과에 정(+)의 방향으로 영향을 미쳤다. 한편 이들의 상대적 크기는 4개의 혁신성과를 종속변수로 한 모든 연구모형에서 위험감수성향, 통제 위치, 성취욕 순으로 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으며 모호성의 수용정도가 기술혁신 성과에 가장 적게 영향을 주는 것으로 관찰됐다. 흥미로운 점은 위험감수성향에서 나타난다. 선행연구에서는 일반적으로 높은 위험감수성향이 혁신성과에 긍정적인 방향으로 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 그러나 본 연구에서는 오히려 위험감수성향이 낮을수록, 즉 안정성을 추구하는 성향이 높을수록 혁신성과에 정(+)의 방향으로 영향을 주는 것으로 드러났다. 이러한 원인으로는 창업소유경영자들의 특성에 기인한 것으로 판단된다. 즉, 창업소유경영자들은 보다 보수적인 성향을 지니고 있으며, 참고로 본 연구 설문응답자의 62%가 창업소유경영자로 구성되어 있다. 둘째, 종업원의 심리적 특성을 의사결정 참여의지, 혁신 수용태도 그리고 조직몰입도로 분류하여 혁신성과에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 혁신 수용태도는 모든 혁신성과를 종속변수로 하는 모형에서 유의적인 양의 값을 갖는 것으로 나타났으며, 이는 당연한 결과로 판단된다. 그러나 의사결정 참여의지 정도는 +/- 값이 혼재되어 나타났는데 통계적 유의성이 확보되지 않아 의미를 부여하기 어렵다. 즉, 종업원의 의사결정 참여의지는 혁신성과에 유의한 영향을 미치지 못했다. 흥미로운 것은 조직몰입 정도에서 나타난다. 전체적으로 종업원의 조직몰입 정도는 혁신성과에 음(-)의 방향으로 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으나, 그 정도는 기술혁신성과와 공정혁신성과 그리고 구조혁신성과와 인적자원혁신성과에서 차이가 나타난다는 점이다. 즉, 기술혁신성과와 공정혁신성과에서는 유의적인 값으로 나타나지 않았지만 구조혁신성과와 인적자원혁신성과에서는 유의적인 음(-)의 값으로 나타났다는 점이다. 이는 조직에 대한 로열티가 높은 직원들은 오히려 기업이 혁신을 추구하는 데 부정적으로 작용한다는 것으로, 의미 있는 연구결과로 판단된다. 마지막으로 최고경영자의 심리적 특성을 독립변수로, 종업원의 심리적 특성을 조절변수로 하여 혁신성과에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 연구결과, 전체적으로 종업원의 심리적 특성이 모형에 포함되는 경우 모형의 설명력이 높아지는 것을 관찰할 수 있었다. 이는 중소기업의 경영에 의미하는 바 크다. 즉, 최고경영자가 경영혁신을 보다 효과적으로 이루기 위해서는 종업원과 지속적인 의사소통을 통해 종업원의 의사결정 참여의지를 높이고, 혁신에 대한 인식을 긍정적으로 바꾸는 노력을 경주해야 할 것이다. 중소기업은 우리나라 일자리의 90%를 차지하고 있음에도 국내경제의 구조적인 문제로 인하여 경영상 어려움에 직면해 있다. 이러한 요인을 극복하기 위해서는 끊임없는 혁신을 통하여 글로벌 경영환경 변화에 대비해야 한다. 그러나 아직까지 국내의 중소기업을 대상으로 경영혁신 성과에 미치는 절대적 요인들에 대한 연구는 미진한 상황이다. 본 연구의 표본이 반월화시지역에 한정되었다는 점, 그리고 제조업에 국한했다는 점에서 일반화 할 수 없다는 한계점은 존재한다. 그러나 본 연구는 대기업 위주의 선행연구와 달리 중소기업을 대상으로 최고경영자와 종업원의 심리적 특성이 경영혁신 성과에 미치는 영향을 분석했다는 점에서 의의가 있으며, 향후 중소기업 정책수립 시 정책적 함의가 높을 것으로 판단된다.

주요용어: 혁신성과, 기술혁신, 공정혁신, 구조혁신, 인적자원혁신, 최고경영자특성, 성취욕, 통제위치, 위험감수성향, 모호성의 수용, 종업원특성, 의사결정참여, 혁신수용태도, 조직몰입. |Abstract

A study on the performance of small manufacturing firms in view of personality of CEO and employee

Shin, chung-sang Department of Business Administration Graduate School of Hanyang University Directed by prof Ryu tea-soo

The dizzying pace of change is one of the most noticeable traits of global business environment of the 21 century. History proved that companies well-prepared for changes in the business environment have prospered while those ill-prepared have fallen behind. In other words, business innovation tailored to changes in business environment is a must for the very existence and growth of the businesses. Innovation is adoption of changes that originated in the organization and the relevant environment (Knight, 1967). However, companies are engaged by nature in different stake holders, it is inevitable to meet challenges when changing interest structures within the existing governance structure. What is the most important element to success of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are different from systemically-operated large businesses or conglomerates? The answer is CEOs' talents and expertise. Accordingly, the roles of CEOs are absolutes to existence and growth of SMEs. Business innovation of manufacturing SMEs is influenced not only by CEOs' specialties like education background and work experience, but also by psychological characteristics like passion for success, self-control level, and attitude toward uncertainty and risks. Also important is employees' attitude toward the CEOs' innovative will. No matter how great an innovation plan is created, it is useless unless it can draw employees' attention and participation. Research has been conducted on how psychological characteristics of CEOs and employees affect the performance and outcome of business innovation. However, most studies have focused on large companies and thus are not applicable to SMEs' decision making processes. Therefore, this study is designed to examine manufacturing SMEs and identify how psychological characteristics of CEOs and employees affect the performance and outcome of business innovation in SMEs. Considering the hardship and challenges that SMEs are currently facing, this study is expected to help them make innovative business decisions for their existence and growth. Key findings are as follows. First, CEOs' psychological traits were categorized into four: passion for success, self-control level, uncertainty acceptance and risk preference, then how such traits influence business innovation and performance was examined. All four psychological aspects were proven to be meaningfully related. In other words, the higher the passion for success/the higher the level of self-control/the more uncertainty aversive/ the more risk aversive, the more positive influence on technology innovation. With regard to the relative significance of the four elements, experiments revealed that innovation was influenced by the order of risk preference, self-control level and passion for success, and uncertainty acceptance had the least influence among them. Findings on risk preference are particularly interesting. Precedent studies generally claimed that higher risk preference had a positive impact on the outcome of business innovation. However, this study found that lower risk preference, or more risk aversive, had positive correlations with the outcome of business innovation. Such different results may be attributable to the characteristics of founder-owner-CEO. When the founder and owner is the CEO, he/she is usually more conservative and 62 percent of the respondents of this survey fall into this category. Second, employees' psychological traits were categorized into three: their will to participate in decision making, innovation acceptance and organization immersion level, then how such traits influence business innovation and performance was examined. All experiments found that employees' attitude toward innovation was proved to have positive correlations with innovation outcome, which is only natural. However, their participation will showed somewhat mixed results or correlations, but this is statistically not significant. In other words, employees' will to participate in decision making turned out to have no meaningful impact on innovation outcome. Findings on organization immersion level were most interesting. While employees' overall immersion level revealed to have negative influence on the outcome of business innovation, the degrees of influence differed in accordance with innovation fields: technology innovation, process innovation, structure innovation and human resource innovation. Employees' organization immersion level had no meaningful correlations with either technology or process innovations, but did have a negative impact on the outcome of both structure and human resource innovation. It can be construed that, contrary to conventional wisdom, employees with higher loyalty to organization may have negative influence on corporate innovation. Third, influence on innovation outcome was examined provided that CEOs' psychological traits were independent variables while employees' were control variables. Interestingly enough, when employees' psychology is considered in experiments, the experiment models get to better explain the relations. This has a significant meaning to SMEs. To more efficiently achieve innovation, CEOs should constantly communicate with employees in order to boost their will to participate in corporate decision making and change their perspectives on innovation. SMEs responsible for 90 percent jobs in Korea are struggling due to unfavorable conditions of the domestic industry structure. To overcome business challenges, they have no choice but to ceaselessly innovate themselves to well prepare themselves for the global business environment. So far, not many studies have examined domestic SMES and key factors that have significant impact on their business innovation and performance. This study has also its own limitations due to its limited sampling that was only based on the Sihwa-Banwol Industrial Complexes and manufacturing companies, and thus cannot be generalized. Nevertheless, this study is noteworthy as it examined SMEs and analyzed how psychological traits of SME CEOs and employees influence their business innovation and performance; expected to serve as reference when the government establishes policies for SMEs in the future.; Abstract

A study on the performance of small manufacturing firms in view of personality of CEO and employee

Shin, chung-sang Department of Business Administration Graduate School of Hanyang University Directed by prof Ryu tea-soo

The dizzying pace of change is one of the most noticeable traits of global business environment of the 21 century. History proved that companies well-prepared for changes in the business environment have prospered while those ill-prepared have fallen behind. In other words, business innovation tailored to changes in business environment is a must for the very existence and growth of the businesses. Innovation is adoption of changes that originated in the organization and the relevant environment (Knight, 1967). However, companies are engaged by nature in different stake holders, it is inevitable to meet challenges when changing interest structures within the existing governance structure. What is the most important element to success of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are different from systemically-operated large businesses or conglomerates? The answer is CEOs' talents and expertise. Accordingly, the roles of CEOs are absolutes to existence and growth of SMEs. Business innovation of manufacturing SMEs is influenced not only by CEOs' specialties like education background and work experience, but also by psychological characteristics like passion for success, self-control level, and attitude toward uncertainty and risks. Also important is employees' attitude toward the CEOs' innovative will. No matter how great an innovation plan is created, it is useless unless it can draw employees' attention and participation. Research has been conducted on how psychological characteristics of CEOs and employees affect the performance and outcome of business innovation. However, most studies have focused on large companies and thus are not applicable to SMEs' decision making processes. Therefore, this study is designed to examine manufacturing SMEs and identify how psychological characteristics of CEOs and employees affect the performance and outcome of business innovation in SMEs. Considering the hardship and challenges that SMEs are currently facing, this study is expected to help them make innovative business decisions for their existence and growth. Key findings are as follows. First, CEOs' psychological traits were categorized into four: passion for success, self-control level, uncertainty acceptance and risk preference, then how such traits influence business innovation and performance was examined. All four psychological aspects were proven to be meaningfully related. In other words, the higher the passion for success/the higher the level of self-control/the more uncertainty aversive/ the more risk aversive, the more positive influence on technology innovation. With regard to the relative significance of the four elements, experiments revealed that innovation was influenced by the order of risk preference, self-control level and passion for success, and uncertainty acceptance had the least influence among them. Findings on risk preference are particularly interesting. Precedent studies generally claimed that higher risk preference had a positive impact on the outcome of business innovation. However, this study found that lower risk preference, or more risk aversive, had positive correlations with the outcome of business innovation. Such different results may be attributable to the characteristics of founder-owner-CEO. When the founder and owner is the CEO, he/she is usually more conservative and 62 percent of the respondents of this survey fall into this category. Second, employees' psychological traits were categorized into three: their will to participate in decision making, innovation acceptance and organization immersion level, then how such traits influence business innovation and performance was examined. All experiments found that employees' attitude toward innovation was proved to have positive correlations with innovation outcome, which is only natural. However, their participation will showed somewhat mixed results or correlations, but this is statistically not significant. In other words, employees' will to participate in decision making turned out to have no meaningful impact on innovation outcome. Findings on organization immersion level were most interesting. While employees' overall immersion level revealed to have negative influence on the outcome of business innovation, the degrees of influence differed in accordance with innovation fields: technology innovation, process innovation, structure innovation and human resource innovation. Employees' organization immersion level had no meaningful correlations with either technology or process innovations, but did have a negative impact on the outcome of both structure and human resource innovation. It can be construed that, contrary to conventional wisdom, employees with higher loyalty to organization may have negative influence on corporate innovation. Third, influence on innovation outcome was examined provided that CEOs' psychological traits were independent variables while employees' were control variables. Interestingly enough, when employees' psychology is considered in experiments, the experiment models get to better explain the relations. This has a significant meaning to SMEs. To more efficiently achieve innovation, CEOs should constantly communicate with employees in order to boost their will to participate in corporate decision making and change their perspectives on innovation. SMEs responsible for 90 percent jobs in Korea are struggling due to unfavorable conditions of the domestic industry structure. To overcome business challenges, they have no choice but to ceaselessly innovate themselves to well prepare themselves for the global business environment. So far, not many studies have examined domestic SMES and key factors that have significant impact on their business innovation and performance. This study has also its own limitations due to its limited sampling that was only based on the Sihwa-Banwol Industrial Complexes and manufacturing companies, and thus cannot be generalized. Nevertheless, this study is noteworthy as it examined SMEs and analyzed how psychological traits of SME CEOs and employees influence their business innovation and performance