The empirical study of the kindergarten teachers …

1 The empirical study of the kindergarten teachers ' job satisfaction in Taiwan: exploring the effect of the intrinsic demand, external reward, and organizational treatment Dr. Jao-Nan Cheng, Department of Education, National Taitung University, Taiwan Dr. Yigean Chen, Department of Early Childhood Caring and Education, Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology, Taiwan ABSTRACT. There is difference in vocational environment between kindergarten teachers and childcare center teachers in Taiwan, in which, generally, public are superior to private ones. We hope through nationwide samples (in Taiwan) to explore the kindergarten teachers ' job satisfaction , and the effect of the intrinsic demand, external reward, and organizational treatment. The results show: the results show the external reward (that it is the material reward) is the most important effective factor to teachers ' satisfaction .

2 The second effective factor is the perception of organizational treatment (that it is the distributional justice), in which the perception of justice that teachers are treated is the second option if the kindergartens' principals hope to raise teachers ' job satisfaction . The third effective factor is the intrinsic demand, including the feeling exchange, value fitness. Keywords: teachers ' job satisfaction , external reward, organizational treatment, intrinsic demand. INTRODUCTION. There is difference in vocational environment between kindergarten teachers and childcare center teachers in Taiwan, in which, generally, public are superior to private ones. For example, some private schools offer well-design policies of reward, reasonable workload. On the contrary, some private ones haven't sensible treatment as above. Therefore, the kindergarten teachers ' job satisfactions were affected by the treatments, and the lower job satisfactions affect children's learning (Coyle & Witcher, 1992; Lee, 2003).

3 There is a lack of nationwide samples to study about kindergarten teachers ' job satisfaction , and so is the model of integrated theories and variables. We hope through nationwide samples (in Taiwan) to explore the kindergarten teachers '. job satisfaction , and the effect of the intrinsic demand, external reward, and organizational treatment. LITERATURE REVIEW. The present studies of job satisfaction focused on the relationship between teachers ' background and job satisfaction (Yang, 1997), but lacked an overview of studies' frame. The researcher reviewed the current references and discovered the psychological need was a main influence factor to job satisfaction . For example, Chen Hu's results (1994) showed personal values were in consistency with organizational values that the members job satisfaction would rise, and Cheng & Liao (2000) appointed the social feeling exchange would influence job satisfaction .

4 The value consistency or value fitness, and the social feeling exchange relationship are as the intrinsic demand which was a main variable. The external reward was the other factor for job satisfaction . For example, Netemeyer, Boles, McKee, The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol. 7, Num. 2, December 2011 127. and McMurrian (1997) appointed the salary could influence job satisfaction , the more money reward the higher satisfaction . Lee's 2003 results supported the above result for the kindergartens' and childcare centers' teachers . Therefore, some kindergartens' managements implement accountability system based on teachers ' performance. The external reward could influence job satisfaction that the researcher gets the salary and the material exchange as predicted factors for job satisfaction . Another factor was the organizational treatment. For example, Cheng's (2004) result appointed the distributional justice was relevant to job satisfaction : the more fairness, the better job satisfaction .

5 The last factor was the organizational one, the workload and commute-hours: the more workload, the lower job satisfaction (Lee & Chen, 1999), and long commute-hours unsatisfied teachers . The references combined, the study 's purposes are as follows: 1. Understanding of kindergarten teachers ' and childcare center teachers ' job satisfaction . 2. Understanding of feeling exchange, value fitness, salary, material exchange, distributional justice, workload, and commute-hours. 3. Integration of feeling exchange, value fitness, salary, material exchange, distributional justice, workload, and commute-hours and job satisfaction as a model to explore the fitness through nationwide samples. METHODOLOGY. According to the literary reviews above, the structure of this study was listed below. (Figure 1). Intrinsic Demand: exchange fitness Predictor Criterion variable variable External Reward: exchange Job satisfaction Predictor Control variable variables Organizational Treatment: teachers ' back ground justice Figure 1: A research structure of this study We conducted a random sampling in three different levels, which were and childcare center, and rural areas, and private schools.

6 According to the percentage of the numbers of kindergarten and childcare center, in sampled schools, every teacher had to fill in the questionnaire. The valid samples were 1424 from 22 counties and cities in 229 schools. Department of Statistics of Ministry of the . Interior, 2005; Department of Statistics of Ministry of Education, 2005 . The measurement tool in this study was the Questionnaire of Preschool teachers ' Work Situation . which was modified from questionnaires by Netemeyer et al.(1997), Price and Mueller(1986), Cheng and Liao(2000), Cheng(2006). For each question, the options were very true, true, somewhat true, untrue, . and very untrue, and each was assigned a score of 5 to 1, respectively. After revisions through this study , the validity and the reliability value were good and all subscales' results were as follows (Table 1). 128 The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol.

7 7, Num. 2, December 2011. Table 1: Summary table of factor analysis and the validity and the reliability of this study 's subscales Percentage Reliability Feeling Eigenvalue Questions Commonality of total Cronbach' validity Exchange . variance s value I feel the principal is friendly..931 .867 .94 .86~.93. I feel the principal is kind to .918 .843. teachers on work. I feel the relationships between principal and teachers are just .909 .826. like family. The principal cares about my .882 .779. life or my family. I have a good relationship with .857 .734. the principal. I think I get a good pay from this .884 .782 .85 .81~.88. kindergarten . I think this kindergarten provides .852 .727. teachers with good welfare. I think the salary of this job is .805 .648. good. When a teacher has higher job performance, this kindergarten .790 .624. will provide him (her) with a reward.

8 In this kindergarten , teachers '. salary and reward are decided by .635 .404. their job performance or number of students in their own class. About student's care and education, my opinion is the .933 .871 .90 .87~.93. same as the principal's. About class management, my opinion is the same as the .928 .759. principal's. About school management, my opinion is the same as the .871 .862. principal's. teachers ' workload distribution .893 .797 .91 .79~.89. in this kindergarten is fair. The resource distribution in this .873 .762. kindergarten is fair. teachers ' teaching hour distribution in this kindergarten .873 .761. is fair. Compared with my colleagues, my workload and reward are .869 .755. fair. According to the level of a teacher 's effort, this kindergarten .792 .627. will give him a fair reward. I feel the workload is beyond .875 .766 .89 .81~.88. my ability. The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning Vol.

9 7, Num. 2, December 2011 129. I am too busy with my job that I..839 .704. can't take care of my family. I think my work hour is too .822 .676. long. I think this kindergarten .812 .660. demands too much workload. I feel exhausted about my job..806 .650. I am satisfied with my present .919 .845 .94 .87~.92. job. I feel a great satisfaction to this .905 .819. job. I still feel satisfied about my job after I consider every aspect of .865 .749. this job. The researchers analyze the data through SPSS. The basic statistics is analyzed by F test and the OLS. regression is used to analyze predictor variables' effect to criterion variable (job satisfaction ). RESULT AND CONCLUSION. Table 2: The means of variables in this study Standard Average score Mean Samples Score range deviation of every item job satisfaction 1410 5-15 feeling exchange 1419 5-25 material exchange 1393 5-25 value fitness 1414 5-15 distributional justice 1393 5-25 workload 1402 5-25 salary NT NT 1265 NT 10000-70000.

10 Commute-hours min min 1399. According to table2, the results showed: the kindergarten teachers and childcare center teachers ' job satisfaction was not high. The feeling exchange, material exchange, value fitness, and distributional fairness were at a middle degree. The workload was reasonable because it was not yet overloading. The average salary for kindergarten teachers and childcare center teachers was NT 28000 every month and it was not good. The kindergarten teachers and childcare center teachers liked to work closer to their homes because they only needed fewer than 18 minutes to commute. Table 3: The result of OLS regression variables b beta Intrinsic Demand Feeling exchange .065* .108. Intrinsic Demand Value fitness .190* .172. External reward Salary .070. External reward Material exchange .125* .223. Organizational Treatment Workload * Organizational Treatment Distributional justice.