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The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 10 Number 1, February, 2015 41

The Relative Study of Social Support, Job Satisfaction and Wellbeing of Military Instructors－ The Case of High Schools’ Military Instructors in Yunlin,

Chiayi and Tainan Districts of Taiwan

Shu-Hung Hsu, Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration,

Nanhua University, Taiwan

Kuo-Chung Huang, Professor, Department of Business Administration, Nanhua University, Taiwan

Kuo-Sue Huang, MBA, Department of Business Administration, Nanhua University, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of social support to job satisfaction and

wellbeing of high schools military instructors. The job satisfaction had a sense of mediating effect

between social support and wellbeing. The samples were chosen military instructors of high schools in

Yulin, Chiayi, and Tainan of Taiwan. There were 396 questionnaires sent to samples and 308 collected

with 289 valid. The valid response rate was 73%. The study results found that high schools military

instructors with social support had impact on their job satisfaction and wellbeing, and job satisfaction

had a mediating effect on social support and wellbeing. Therefore, there were the relationship among

social support, job satisfaction and wellbeing.

Keywords: Military Instructors, Social Support, Job Satisfaction, Wellbeing

INTRODUCTION

Today, the high school military training instructors face rapid social change in chaos educational

environment. Under this pressure, they must constantly improve the professional competence in order to

keep their jobs. Military instructors are also face challenges for their access on wellbeing, social support

and job satisfaction. Caplan and Killilea (1976) pointed out that social support helped individual to face

the challenges, pressures and difficulties, and to help cushion the pressure of life. The social support of

military training instructors has a significant impact on their wellbeing. Davis (1951) indicated that job

satisfaction can lead a higher interest on their job that would bring wellbeing (Lu, 1999). Therefore,

Military training instructor’s wellbeing is influence by their social support and job satisfaction.

The purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship among social support, job satisfaction and

wellbeing of high school military instructors. Investigate the effects of social support on the job

satisfaction of high school military instructors. Investigate the effect of the job satisfaction on the

wellbeing of high school military training instructors. Investigate the effects of social support on the

wellbeing of high school military instructors.

The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 10 Number 1, February, 201542

LITERATURE REVIEW

Social Support Caplan (1974) proposed social support means that when an individual experiencing stress and

problems, family members, friends, neighbors around the relevant person was able to provide individuals

a variety of different forms of assistance and support. The social support contained physical,

psychological, information, tools, materials and money, to give individual guidance and appropriate

comfort and shelter (Caplan, 1974).

Moos (1976) mentioned social support was an accepted, loved and feeling of being needed. Cohen

and Wills (1985) believed when the individual faced with pressure from life, it will form a threat to an

individual's self-esteem, leading to the generation of powerlessness. If the individual has a positive social

relations, will enable a more balanced individual psychologically, and reduce the negative state of mind.

Social network not only provide emotional support and individual self-affirmation of the value, but also

provide the individual courage to face life's changes and challenges in life (Cohen & Wills, 1985).

Brown (1974) mentioned informal social support includes family, friends, peers, neighbors and so

on. Kim, Price, Mueller and Watson (1996) noted that social support can be divided into three parts,

namely, peer support, supervisor support and family support.

This study was divided into three military instructors’ sources of social support, including school

executive support, peer and colleagues support, friends and family support.

Job Satisfaction Hoppock (1935) raise workers' job satisfaction that was a subjective feeling of work situations,

including physical and psychological levels. Adams (1965) considered worker's job satisfaction that was

perceived depends on the individual inputs (such as time, experience, money, education, work,

technology etc.) and outputs (such as status, salary, promotion, honor and welfare). The individual was

not only a measure of their status and also measure the position of others.

Locke (1969) indicated that job satisfaction factors can be categorized into events and actors. Work

event included the work itself, compensation and the environment. The actors were the actors themselves,

or the other person in organization or outside the organization.

Maslow (1943) proposed that the motivation hierarchy of needs theory which considered human

behavior caused by the five kinds of demand, followed by a low and high, including physiological needs,

safety needs, love and belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs that may influence

on their job satisfaction. This study focused on two dimensions of job satisfaction, "inner satisfaction"

and "extrinsic satisfaction" to measure job satisfaction.

Wellbeing Diener (1984) pointed out that wellbeing was a subjective experience of feelings. An individual

with positive cognitive perspective on things will be naturally with a positive attitude to explain on things,

which would get the result of an overall assessment of life. Ryff (1995) mentioned that wellbeing is not

just to be wellbeing, but also included their full potential and achieve the perfect experience.

Buss (2000) indicated that wellbeing was a personal right moment or life experience, a sense of

self-realization, and a continual feeling of enjoyable life. Ryan and Deci (2001) proposed that wellbeing

was not only an emotion positive subjective experience, but also individual perceive energy sources

resilience and deep sense of security experience.


Social Support, Job Satisfaction and Wellbeing

Larocco and Jones (1978) pointed out that social support for job satisfaction has a significant main

effects and interactions. Boss support and specific job satisfaction has highly relevance. Locke (1976)

indicated that employees can appreciate immediate supervisor, giving encouragement to perform well,

and to listen to the supervisor voices of goodwill, staff satisfaction will relatively increase. Therefore, this

study suggested that social support of military instructors has a significant impact on their job

satisfaction.

There is a high conflict between workers with families when their job satisfaction and wellbeing

will be decreased. Job satisfaction can effectively predict the level of wellbeing. Therefore, military

instructors of job satisfaction have a significant impact on wellbeing.

Cohen (1985) considered that acceptable social support can enhance wellbeing. Teachers were with

high social support, can get the better work performance, and the better feeling of wellbeing. Social

support was positively correlated with wellbeing. The study proposed social support of military training

instructors has significant effects on their wellbeing.

Linqian (2014) studied the status of high school military training instructors’ social support and job

satisfaction. The study pointed out that the high school military instructors’ social support was highly

related to their job satisfaction. Mao (2014) studied that the workers' job satisfaction found their job

satisfaction and wellbeing are positively correlated, and job satisfaction can effectively predict the level

of wellbeing. Based on the above findings, this study inferred social support affects individual job

satisfaction. The individual's social support is high that can calmly face the challenges, and improve its

job satisfaction and wellbeing. This study proposed that social support can adjust the individual job

satisfaction, and thus enhance the individual's wellbeing. Military instructors’ wellbeing and social

support was mediated by job satisfaction.

Hypothesize

To achieve the study to understand the current high school military training instructors’ social

support, job satisfaction and wellbeing. According to literatures, established research structure and

inference assumptions were as follows:

H1: Social supports of military instructors have the significant impact on job satisfaction of military

instructors.

H2: Job satisfactions of military instructors have the significant impact on wellbeing of military

instructors.

H3: Social supports of military instructors have the significant impact on wellbeing of military

instructors.

H4: Job satisfactions of military instructors have the mediating effect on social support and wellbeing of

military instructors.

METHODOLOGY

Measurement

In this study, there were three variables, namely, social support, job satisfaction and wellbeing. The

measurement for each variable as follows: This study was used Social Support Scale (Social Support

Questionnaire, SSQ) to test social support that was originally prepared by Sarason, Levine and Basham

(1983).


This study was used "Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire" to test job satisfaction that was

according to Weiss, Davis, England and Lofgurist (1967). The surveying was retrieved and chooses

suitable questions for military training instructors’ job satisfaction. In this study, to test wellbeing was

according to Argyle (1987) the Oxford Happiness Scale (Oxford Happiness Inventory).

The scoring scale was adopted Likert five-point scale, scoring from "strongly disagree", "disagree",

"no opinion", "agree", and "strongly agree". There were given a 1,2,3,4,5 scores, higher scores represent

military instructors feel the current level of variables, higher, and vice versa on the current level of

variables, lower feelings.

The statistical software version SPSS18 was used to test data, to analysis the scale reliability.

Reliability analysis was measured results obtained degree of consistency. The questionnaire modified

after pre-test reliability analysis, some of questionnaire items retained and some deleted.

Samples

The study chooses 50 high school military training instructors of southwest regional of Taiwan to

participate the pre-test. Military instructors of high schools in Yulin, Chiayi, and Tainan of Taiwan were

chosen as the samples.

RESULTS

The study was used SPSS18 to test and analysis data, and used convenience sampling approach to

collect data. There were 396 questionnaires sent and 308 collected with 289 valid. The effective response

rate was 73%.

According to the Cronbach's value and selection criteria proposed by the Guieford (1965),

considered α value greater than or equal to 0.7 which means the high degree of faith and a good

questionnaire design. If α value was between 0.35 and 0.7, which means that the questionnaire can be

accepted, if less than 0.35, questionnaire required correction.

In this study, the reliability analysis for social support, the Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.917. The

reliability analysis for job satisfaction, the Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.871. The reliability analysis for

wellbeing, the Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.956, as shown in Table 1. Overall, the confidence level of

each dimension more than 0.7 was acceptable level. Overall, the pre-test questionnaire items in each

dimension have good reliability.

Table 1: Reliability of Variables Variables Cronbach’s α Dimensions Cronbach’s α

Social Supports 0.917 School Executive 0.915 Family Friends 0.888 Peer Colleague 0.884

Job Satisfactions 0.871 Intrinsic Satisfaction 0.875 Extrinsic Satisfaction 0.750

Wellbeing 0.956 Self-affirmation 0.949

Physical and mental health 0.887 Life Satisfaction 0.909

The SPSS18 statistical analysis was used to conduct descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and

regression analysis to test data results for this study. The results were as the following:


This study conducted a descriptive analysis of the sample structure, in order to understand each

demographic of the Southwest region of high school military training instructors, the results shown in

Table 2.

Table 2: Descriptive Analysis of the Sample Demographic Items Number Percentage ％

Gender Male 203 70.2

Female 86 29.8

Age

21-30 3 1 31-40 229 79.2

Over 41 57 19.7

Years of service

Under 5 190 65.7 6-10 70 24.2 11-15 21 7.3

Above 16 8 2.8

Education Cadets 195 67.4

Bachelor 42 14.5 Master 52 18

Marital status Single 33 11.4

Married 253 87.5 Others 3 1

Number of Children

0 181 62.6 1 71 24.6 2 39 12.8

Above 3 8 2.8

School Type

Public High School 94 32.5 Public vocational 101 34.9

Private high schools 42 14.5 Private Vocational 52 18

The number of instructors

1 10 3.5 2 15 5.2 3 15 5.2 4 33 11.4

Above 5 216 74.7

Order Level Captain 13 4.5 Major 203 71.3

Colonel 70 12.7

Position General instructors 199 68.9

Health Auxiliary Leader 64 22.1 Director instructors 26 9

Correlation Analysis Social supports of military instructors have the significant impact on job satisfaction of military

instructors.

From Table 3 shows the high school military training instructors’ social support and job satisfaction

positive correlation, reached significant levels (r = 0.576, p <.001), and the dimensions also shown

significant positive correlation. The results shown high school military training instructor’s social support

positive correlation to job satisfaction. Overall, social support was higher; the job satisfaction was also

higher. Therefore, H1 was supported.


Table 3: Correlation Analysis of Social Support and Job Satisfaction

Social Support Job Satisfaction

Overall Intrinsic Satisfaction Extrinsic Satisfaction Overall 0.576*** 0.570*** 0.446***

School Executive 0.446*** 0.412*** 0.380*** Family Friends 0.456*** 0.504*** 0.290*** Peer Colleague 0.515*** 0.492*** 0.419***

*p＜.05, **p＜.01, ***p＜.001

Job satisfactions of military instructors have the significant impact on wellbeing of military

instructors.

The high school military training instructors’ job satisfaction and wellbeing were highly correlated,

and reached significant levels (r = 0.793, p <.001), and the dimensions also showed significant positive

correlation, as shown in Table 4. The results shown high school military training instructors’ job

satisfaction was positively correlated to wellbeing. Therefore, with a higher job satisfaction, wellbeing

was also higher. Therefore, H2 was supported.

Table 4: Correlation Analysis of Job Satisfaction and Wellbeing

Job Satisfaction Wellbeing

Overall Self-affirmation Physical and mental health Life Satisfaction Overall 0.793*** 0.720*** 0.669*** 0.706***

Intrinsic Satisfaction 0.809*** 0.758*** 0.629*** 0.737*** Extrinsic Satisfaction 0.584*** 0.504*** 0.555*** 0.501*** *p＜.05, **p＜.01, ***p＜.001

Social supports of military instructors have the significant impact on wellbeing of military

instructors.

From Table 5, high school military training instructors’ social support and wellbeing shown with a

positive correlation, and reached significant levels (r = 0.560, p <.001), and the dimensions also shown

significant positive correlation. The results shown social support positively correlated with wellbeing. The

social support of high school military training instructors was higher, their wellbeing was higher.

Therefore, H3 was supported.

Table 5: Correlation Analysis of Social Support and Wellbeing

Social Support Wellbeing

Overall Self-affirmation Physical and mental health Life Satisfaction Overall 0.560*** 0.526*** 0.419*** 0.527***

School Executive 0.387*** 0.360*** 0.323*** 0.333*** Family Friends 0.482*** 0.471*** 0.328*** 0.454*** Peer Colleague 0.523*** 0.475*** 0.380*** 0.535***

*p＜.05, **p＜.01, ***p＜.001

Regression Analysis

Social supports of military instructors have the significant impact on job satisfaction of military

instructors.

Table 6 shown, social support for job satisfaction’ R² was 0.332, F value of 142.844, reached


significant levels p <.001, and standardized β value of 0.576. Therefore, social support to job satisfaction

had significant influenced. The high school military training instructors with a higher social support, job

satisfaction was higher. To enhance social support of high school military training instructors can improve

their job satisfaction. Therefore, H1 was supported.

Table 6: Regression Analysis of Social Support and Job Satisfaction

Dimensions Coefficient β R2 Adj.R2 F P

Social Support to Job Satisfaction 0.576 0.332 0.330 142.844 0.000*** Job Satisfaction to wellbeing 0.793 0.628 0.627 484.994 0.000*** Social Support to wellbeing 0.560 0.314 0.312 131.346 0.000*** *p＜.05, **p＜.01, ***p＜.001

Job satisfactions of military instructors have the significant impact on wellbeing of military

instructors.

Table 6 shown, job satisfactions to wellbeing’ R² was 0.628, F value of 484.994, reached significant

levels p <.001, and standardized β value of 0.793. Therefore, job satisfaction to wellbeing had significant

influenced. The high school military training instructors with higher job satisfaction can own better

wellbeing feeling. To enhance high school military training instructors’ job satisfaction will improve their

better degree of wellbeing. Therefore, H2 was supported.

Social supports of military instructors have the significant impact on wellbeing of military

instructors.

Table 6 shown, social support to wellbeing R² of 0.314, F value of 131.346, reached significant

levels p <.001, and standardized β value of 0.560. Therefore, social support had significant influence on

wellbeing. The high school military training instructors with a higher social support had better

wellbeing feeling. The high school military training instructors’ social support enhanced can improve

their better degree of wellbeing. Therefore, H3 was supported.

Job satisfactions of military instructors have the mediating effect on social support and wellbeing of

military instructors.

Mode 1: social support to job satisfaction, and its standardized β was 0.576, reached significant

results p <0.001, meet social support had a significant impact on job satisfaction, as shown in Table 7.

Mode 2: wellbeing as dependent variables impacted by independent variables social support and job

satisfaction. The results found that social support had a significant positive effect (β = 0.560, p <0.001) on

wellbeing; job satisfaction was a significant positive effected on wellbeing (β = 0.793, p <0.001). It

shown the independent variables (social support) have the significantly affected on dependent variable

(wellbeing), and mediating by mediator variables (job satisfaction), as shown in Table 7.

Mode 3: the results found an mediator variables (job satisfaction) was added, the independent

variable (social support) on the dependent variable (happiness) reached a significant level of regression

coefficient (β = 0.155, p <0.001), independent variables (social support) from the original 0.560

standardized coefficient decreased to 0.155. To join mediating variables (job satisfaction) on the

dependent variable (wellbeing), reached a significant level of regression coefficient (β = 0.703, p <0.001),

showed a mediating effect. Therefore, the hypothesis 4 "job satisfaction" of military training instructors

has mediating effect between "social support" and "wellbeing, as displayed in Table 7. H4 was supported.


Table7: Regression Analysis of Social Support, Job Satisfaction and Wellbeing

Variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

Job Satisfaction Wellbeing Wellbeing Social Support 0.576*** 0.560*** 0.155*** Job Satisfaction 0.793*** 0.703***

R2 0.332 0.314 0.628 0.644 Adj.R2 0.330 0.312 0.627 0.642

F 142.844 131.346 484.994 265.530 P 0.000*** 0.000*** 0.000*** 0.000***

*p＜.05, **p＜.01, ***p＜.001

According to the above data analysis, the test results of hypotheses as shown in Table 8.

Table 8: The Results of Hypotheses Hypotheses Results

H1: Social supports of military instructors have the significant impact on job satisfaction of military instructors.

Support

H2: Job satisfactions of military instructors have the significant impact on wellbeing of military instructors.

Support

H3: Social supports of military instructors have the significant impact on wellbeing of military instructors.

Support

H4: Job satisfactions of military instructors have the mediating effect on social support and wellbeing of military instructors.

Support (Partially Mediated)

DISCUSSION

In this study, social support had a significant positive effect on job satisfaction. The results show

that the social support of Taiwan southwest regions of high school military instructors had a significant

positive effect on their job satisfaction. The results indicated relatively with a high social support, and

then job satisfaction was high. A spouse, parents or siblings in the family given the high level of support

to soldiers that make them no worries at work or on duty, then can enhance their job satisfaction. Savery

(1998) indicated that supportive by supervisor behaviors can increase employee job satisfaction.

Therefore, if military instructors receive supervisors or family members supported, they will be able to

enhance their job satisfaction.

In this study, job satisfaction had a significant positive effect on wellbeing. The results show that

the Taiwan southwest region of the high school military instructors’ job satisfaction had significant

positive effect on wellbeing, and a moderate positive correlation. To enhance job satisfaction of practice

will be able to enhance military training instructors’ happiness feelings. To achieve military instructors’

satisfaction from their work will has a higher sense of happiness.

The results show that social support to military instructors had a significant positive effect on

wellbeing. The results indicated a relatively high social support to a high happiness and performance. The

family gives comfort and assistance, peer colleagues and school executives give care to military

instructors that can enhance their encouragement. The higher levels of social support can effectively

enhance their job satisfaction, and thus enhance the degree of feelings of wellbeing. Therefore, military

instructors’ social support has a positive impact on their job satisfaction and wellbeing.


Limitation and Future Study

This study has limited on the Taiwan Southwest region, and the issues focused on social support,

job satisfaction, and wellbeing of military instructors. The future study will broader sampling area and to

study different issue to effect on military instructors performance.

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