A Study on Consultant ’ s Social Value , Learning , Leadership Type Influence on Consulting Flow and Performance

The purpose of this study is to investigate consultants in ongoing consulting projects for smaller enterprises to implement an empirical study on the degree of influence of consultant value, consultant learning and consultant leadership type on consulting performance, which have not been mentioned in preceding study. The surveyed were consultants who had provided consulting service to smaller enterprises. For the study, a total of 223 sets of questionnaires were collected but 18 poorly-answered sets were excluded to utilize 205 sets for the study research. As a summary of the results, the social responsibility had a significant effect on consulting Flow whereas social support did not. learning motivation, learning intention and transformational/transactional/servant leadership on consulting Flow found that all of the variables had a significant effect on consulting Flow. In addition to that, social responsibility, support and learning motivation, learning intention and transformational/transactional/servant leadership on consulting satisfaction found that all of the variables significantly affected consulting satisfaction.


Introduction
Recently, amid the expanding influence of smaller enterprises on society in South Korea, people become more interested in the nonfinancial performances of firms such as social or environmental issues.Company management continuously requires change27s in management goals, corporate culture, organizational structure and organizational members' attitude.In the process of corporate change management, the necessity for consulting is increasing.In this situation, consultants apply not only their knowledge and experiences but also ethical and moral standards to their advice and guidance for a variety of requirements from enterprises.
Preceding study on smaller enterprises found that, among the consultants' qualities, the levels of characteristics, knowledge, educational support, etc. had a positive effect on business performance (Kim & Hwang, 2001;Bae, 2013;Yun, 2013).There is a growing realization of companies on social responsibility in the perspectives of growth and distribution, and there is an increasing tendency of focusing on the parties concerned as well as the parties involved with interest.
Consultants participate in diverse projects to achieve their consulting goals and, in the participation process, they need the sense of social responsibility and support such as moral recognition and model behavior.
Learning is defined as knowledge acquired through research, experience or study, or knowledge or skill gained through education or research (Oxford dictionaries).Consultants' knowledge is formed by learning and experiencing.To this end, they will need motivation, will, etc. Motivation and will for learning positively affect Flow (Won & Lee, 2013) and influence smaller firms' performance by providing expertise in project management and operation (Nah et al., 2001, Thong et al., 1994, Yap et al., 1992).
In the consulting project process, consulting organizational leader or individual's ability has a great effect on achieving company performance goals or project goals.This is because the type of consulting organizational leadership and consultants' motivation affect work satisfaction (Hersey & Blanchard, 1982).In light of this, it is expected that there will be difference in influence on consulting Flow and satisfaction depending upon consultants' social responsibility and support and their learning and leadership type and degree.
This study investigates consultants in ongoing consulting service for smaller enterprises and seeks to analyze difference in relationship affecting consulting Flow and satisfaction according to social responsibility and support, learning motivation and will, and leadership type, which have not been mentioned in preceding research.By doing so, the study aims at presenting a way for more practical approach.

Relationship between Consultant's Value and Consulting Flow, Consulting Performance
We are making tremendous efforts for sustainable management of small and medium-sized businesses under the global environment, but we are facing many difficulties internally and externally.To overcome them, we are implementing small and medium-sized business consulting.Various consulting methods are applied such as diagnosis and strategy establishment to solve difficulties and problems of small and medium-sized businesses, and these are proved to have a positive effect on business performances.(The Small and Medium Business Administration of Korea, 2015) McGuire (1963) conceptualized corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity as economic and legal obligations and even the responsibility for the society as a whole.Carroll (1979) divided corporate responsibilities specifically into economic, legal, ethical and charitable activities.Petkus and Woodruff (1992) defined the relationship between corporate social responsibility with Flow by minimizing harm to society while maximizing long-term contribution.
Social support can be separated into emotional support where one perceives he or she is receiving support from people around; evaluative support where one thinks he or she is fairly and properly evaluated for own work and attitude; and informational support where one feels he or she is loved, esteemed and respected based on causal relationship in a society (Ahn et al., 2011).
Jung gi-han (2007) the corporate social responsibility positively affects Flow and customer loyalty in terms of image, trust, Flow, and customer loyalty.
In the consulting industry, social support based on ethics is necessary because client firms' secrets known during project implementation should be kept confidential, no false result should be presented in consulting implementation, and project scope should not go beyond the specialty area.Based on these theoretical predictions and previous research, we set the following hypothesis.
H1: The value of consultant (social responsibility and social value) might have a positive effect on Flow.
1-1 consultant's social responsibility might have a positive effect on Flow.
1-2 consultant's social support might have a positive effect on Flow.H2: The value of consultant (social responsibility and social value) might have a positive effect on satisfaction 2-1 consultant's social responsibility might have a positive effect on satisfaction.
2-2 consultant's social support might have a positive effect on satisfaction.

Relationship between Consultant's Learning and Consulting Flow, Consulting Performance
Learning behaviors are the process of acquiring knowledge through communication with consultants, and the information and knowledge acquired in this process have a positive effect on organizational Flow.Won Yu-seok and Lee Jun-jae (2013) claim that business ability improvement through learning has a positive influence on organizational Flow.Park Sun-bong (2014) claims in a study on consultant's ethics and values that motive, sharing results and transparency affect Flow.Jang Dong-in (2011) reveals the responsibility relation that should be done while consulting is implemented such as ability, knowledge, will and attitude with social behaviors in a study on the component factors of management consultant's competence.
Kim Jae-hwan (2011) claims if the level of business educator's personal competence is high, job satisfaction is significantly high in the effect of business educator's personal competence on job satisfaction.This indicates as high group's personal competence is high, the level of effect that has on job satisfaction is high.This means consultant can enhance consulting satisfaction on the overall business.Teece, Pisano and shuen (1997) stressed the necessity for learning a new capacity continuously to secure their competitiveness.For a successful consulting implementation, consultants should acquire knowledge on the sustained basis in addition to professional experiences.Consultants' knowledge is formed by learning and provides expertise in their project management and operation reportedly to influence smaller firms' performance (Nah et al., 2001;Thong et al., 1994;Yap et al., 1992).
Kim jae-hwan (2011) A consulting organization is made up of manpower who can apply and manage suitable methods for consulting purposes.With the input manpower, a person in charge of assignments is required to have knowledge to manage the whole project as well as core competences including leadership.
Myeongnam Jeon (2014) reported in his study on team learning and team effectiveness that learning motivation and learning support had a positive effect on team performance.It was found to have affected the relationship between learning behavior and leadership and have a strong interactivity with team learning and innovation performance.Given the study finding that consultant education positively influences management performance and satisfaction, consultants can secure their competitiveness by enhancing consulting organizational efficacy, consulting Flow and satisfaction in addition to their personal capacity building when they have the internal motivation to participate based on psychological improvement and voluntary efforts.Therefore, consultants can reinforce their own capacity based on learning motivation and will and it influences consulting Flow and satisfaction.Based on these theoretical predictions and previous research, we set the following hypothesis.
H3: Consultant's Learning (learning motivation and intension) might have a positive effect on Flow.
3-1 Consultant's learning motivation might have a positive effect on Flow.
3-2 Consultant's learning intension might have a positive effect on Flow.
H4: Consultant's Learning(learning motivation and intension) might have a positive effect on satisfaction.
4-1 Consultant's learning motivation might have a positive effect on satisfaction.
4-2 Consultant's learning intension might have a positive effect on satisfaction.

Relationship between Consultant's Leadership and Consulting Flow, Consulting Performance
A consulting organization is made up of manpower who can apply and manage suitable methods for consulting purposes.With the input manpower, a person in charge of assignments is required to have knowledge to manage the whole project as well as core competences including leadership.
The paradigm of leadership is changing into three types -transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and servant leadership.The transformational leadership (Burns, 1978) interacts with organizational members to boost up their interest and enthusiasm, seeks shared goals, presents a new vision and cares for individuals to motivate and induce Flow.The transactional leadership (Bass, 1985) is to motivate to achieve a goal by exchanges or performance and reward regarding what is mutually beneficial for a leader and organizational members.The servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1991), according to preceding leadership, has been developed with the main focus on ethicality and is developing into the areas of human respect, members' growth, morality and leadership exhibition after starting from the ideas of respect, volunteering, justice, honesty and community ethics (Laub, 1999).Against this backdrop, this study implements an empirical study under the assumption that the effect on consulting Flow and satisfaction would be different depending upon the leadership type of a leader responsible for a task in a project.
Consulting Flow and satisfaction factors are fundamental performance variables.Locke (1976) defined that work satisfaction is a pleasant or emotional status determined in organizational members' evaluation on their work.Min-ju Kim et al. (2013) emphasized to reinforce business performance capacity and expertise of a consulting firm to secure competitiveness.They presented it was possible through learning.In other words, consultants' knowledge, skill, and attitude factors have a positive effect on Flow and consulting performance.
Sunbong Park (2014) reported that consultants' perceived capacity level positively affected consulting satisfaction.Depending upon a consultant's personal characteristic and the levels of his or her perceived knowledge and attitude, Flow and satisfaction would vary.Based on these theoretical predictions and previous research, we set the following hypothesis.

Study
The purpo implement leadership The aim of   Second, in the result of analyzing the effects of consultants' social responsibility and support on consulting satisfaction, both social responsibility and support have a significant effect on consulting satisfaction.When the importance level of variables' sub-factors is understood, social responsibility has a stronger impact on consulting satisfaction than social support does.
Thus, public institutions need to eradicate wrongful use of government grants to companies as a method to improve consultants' social responsibility and support.
Third, in the result of analyzing the effects of consultants' learning motivation and learning will on consulting satisfaction and Flow, both variables have a positive effect on consulting satisfaction and Flow.This indicates that government support agencies need to supply systemic education programs that provide professional knowledge necessary for consulting implementation, and for the growth of overall consulting industry, it is necessary to adopt programs in connection with domestic universities and consulting graduate schools such as MBA.
Fourth, in the relation of consulting Flow with consultants' transforming leadership, transactional leadership and servant leadership, transactional leadership is the most influential followed by transforming leadership and servant leadership.Especially, consultants' transactional leadership is motivation related to actual income, so it is more influential.It is necessary to establish a profit creation plan for improvement of beginner consultants' Flow.
Fifth, consultants' transforming leadership, transactional leadership and servant leadership have a significant effect on consulting satisfaction.Especially, transforming leadership instills their own value according to the changes of consulting situations when they perform consulting tasks, so it can be considered as more important leadership for effective consulting management.Therefore, to promote the above leaderships, it is important to develop and apply methods suitable for the purposes of consulting and to consider input consultants' competencies, relevant fields of projects, dimension and difficulty levels for effective management.

Study Limitation and Future Plan
This study examined the effect on consulting Flow and satisfaction of social responsibility and support from an ethical perspective of consultants providing consulting service to smaller firms, of learning motivation and will to reinforce individual capacity and of the leadership type of a leader in a consulting project.
This study seems meaningful in working to differentiate itself from preceding studies.Nevertheless, the study has limitations as follows: First, the study may have the limitation of non-sampling error as the independent variables such as morality, ethical aspect, personal capacity aspect and leadership type were analyzed and selected based on the researcher's own assessment.
Second, results may become different depending upon a consultant's age, experience, and specialized area of consulting.In this sense, the study is not free of non-sampling error.
Third, based on the results above, regulation effect analysis was implemented to verify the gap in effect sizes among the sub-groups.But 75% were found not statistically significant.This unveils the limitation of this study regarding the relationship between interaction effect where both independent variables and regulation variables show influence altogether and main effect where they show influence separately.
Due to the three limitations above, generalization of study findings may be limited.In this sense, additional study seems necessary.
In terms of study methodology, it is suggested to utilize experimental designing in test, rather than survey questionnaires.Also, if focus group interview (FGI) or in-depth interview are employed for survey data collection, more reliable results would be produced.
Before closing, to enhance the reliability of survey-based research, future study will need to increase the number of survey questionnaires, move beyond the multiple regression analysis to investigate the influencing relationship by regulation effect, and examine the relationship among potential variables.
H5: Consultant's Leadership (transformational leadership, transactional leadership, servant leadership) might have a positive effect on Flow.5-1 Consultant's transformational leadership might have a positive effect on Flow.5-2 Consultant's transactional leadership might have a positive effect on Flow.5-3 Consultant's servant leadership might have a positive effect on Flow.H6: Consultant's Leadership might have a positive effect on satisfaction.6-1 Consultant's transformational leadership might have a positive effect on satisfaction.6-2 Consultant's transactional leadership might have a positive effect on satisfaction.6-3 Consultant's servant leadership might have a positive effect on satisfaction. ass.ccsenet.
Figure Figure 1 is sum n the effect of c y on the effect o on the effect of