In this chapter, the researcher discussed conclusion, implications and limitations based on results of correlation and regression. The conclusion section included two parts according to hypothesis. Implication was divided into two parts, including for managerial practice and for employees. Limitations provided some suggestions to future researches.
Conclusions
Based on the framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among serious leisure-travel, well-being, social support and ICC-IR. The following conclusions were discussed based on these variables.
Serious Leisure – Travel Positively Related to Well-being
Serious leisure has six dimensions, including perseverance, career, personal efforts, durable individual benefits, strong identification and unique ethos. According to correlation and regression analysis, the results showed all dimensions were positively related to well-being. The more employees involve in their favorite leisure activities, the higher well-being they feel.
In this study, getting more involvement means people would have well-planned schedule to develop their travel-related skill and knowledge. For example, they would like to join related clubs, buy travelling magazines, glance over travelling blogs or watch travelling TV shows. They also would try to overcome difficulties such as weather, tiredness or fear to make travel available. Through continuous pursuit of travelling, people would feel self-growth and strong identification so that they are willing to share their travelling experiences or promote this activity to others. Those who have stronger identification would
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think travel cannot be replaced by other activities. In travel-loving groups, all participants would develop their similar beliefs and values. They feel comfortable when they get along with travel-loving person.
Social Support and ICC-IR Have No Moderating Effect on the Relationship between Travel and Well-being
Social support has three dimensions included supervisors, families and friends in this study. In correlation analysis, the result showed there was significantly positive relationship between social support, including those three dimensions, and well-being. It meant the more social support is, the higher well-being people feel. In workplace, supervisors’ management style would affect employees much and based on the study’s analysis, it also showed that supervisors’ understanding and support would make employees feel happy; outside workplace, supports from families and friends would also increase people’s happiness.
About ICC-IR, the result showed it had significantly positive relationship with well-being. Those who could easily interact with people from different cultures would have higher well-being. When people go overseas travel, they must learn how to adapt to new environment. If they can feel less pressure to start a conversation in unfamiliar occasions or to get along with people from various cultures, they would feel satisfied and happiness increases.
However, the result showed both social support and ICC-IR had no moderating effect. It means neither social support nor ICC-IR is significantly affect the relationship between travel and well-being.
Implications
The researcher provided some recommendation based on for managerial practice and future travel-related researches.
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For HR Section
As chapter one mentioned, more and more people focus on employee welfare which has become an important indicator when they search jobs. The survey of 1111 Job Bank (2011) further showed travel pension as top welfare for Taiwanese employees. Compare to other countries. Taiwan working hours is longer. Tang (2013) showed the employees’ working hours in one year were 2141 hours, ranking the third among 30 countries. With such long working hours, travel is an important way for Taiwanese to release pressure according to Global Views Monthly (2007). The researcher suggests HR practitioners may plan travel-related holidays or pension for employees if organizations still have no such policies. For example, organizing regular employee travel program, cooperating with travel agency to provide travel information, discount and help and encouraging employees to travel are practical projects. For organizations with related welfare, travel holidays need to be checked if it is more flexible based on employees’ need. For example, if employees need long-term holidays, there might be some coordinated measures or evaluation to strike a balance between departments and employee needs.
Besides, because a greater number of young people prefer independent travel, HR could design different travel types for different age groups or provide various travelling pension sets to let employees choose which fits their needs most. For example, it is better to provide flexible holidays or travel pensions to young generation who likes to plan schedule themselves but provide tourist groups to the older or people who are not interested in spending time planning travel.
Furthermore, HR could arrange travel discussion group or lectures so that employees have more actual ways to find partners, collect travelling information or share intercultural experiences. Also, through these sharing approaches, workplace relationship might be strengthened.
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For Employees
Since serious leisure – travel was positively related to well-being, employees are recommended to develop travel-related skill or knowledge. Serious leisure includes six dimensions; therefore, according those dimensions, there are some suggestions. For perseverance, training the problem-solving ability is one way to help traveling plan keep going. For career, try to set different traveling goals at different life stages. For personal efforts, keep a habit of obtaining knowledge and skills through joining sharing activities or try to communicate with those who have the same habit in traveling. After involving in favorite leisure activities, people would feel identification and create an unique ethos about travel and then obtain tangible or intangible benefits during their lives. Besides, trying to improve intercultural competence is beneficial to self-growth. For example, reading related books, joining language clubs, making friends from different cultures, attending lectures, participating in theme camps, being a local homestay or trying to be a backpacker and international volunteers are all possible measures.
For Future Researches
Based on this study’s need, the questionnaires were distributed to employees with oversea travel experience from 2013 to 2014. The sample included three types which were tourist groups, semi-independent travel and independent travel and the very majority was independent travel.
For future study, there are some suggestions in studying the relationships between serious leisure-travel and well-being.
3. It could collect more samples on tourist groups to examine if independent travelers’
well-being is higher than tourist groups. The difference between independent traveler and tourist group could be referred to page 16 in this study.
4. Nowadays, with the increase of female workers, it could be also focus on the well-being level between female travelers and male travelers.
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5. In this study, the questionnaires were sent to Taiwanese employees and the majority travelled in Asia area from 2013 to 2014. However, for studying ICC, if having more samples on non-Asia area could be better.
6. In this study, the majority of travelling days was below 30 days. For studying the relationship between serious leisure-travel and well-being, more samples on long- term travelling days (30 days above) could be better. Long-term travel is better to experience intercultural challenges, which was positively related to well-being.
7. Questionnaires of this study were distributed to Taiwanese employees who have overseas travel from 2013 to 2014. The results might be interesting and more useful if future study could choose one organization or specific industry to examine employees’ travel habits and well-being, and then develop related welfare or policies.
8. Serious leisure has six characteristics; future study might conduct qualitative approaches to explore if there are more implications could be classified.
9. In well-being scale, Chinese translation of “I am intensely interested in other people”
still makes people confused although two peers and two experts have reviewed.
Data analysis shows lots of people chose neutral in this item. The translation should be examined and make it clear.
10. According to table 4.15 and table 4.16, in model 3, both ICC-IR and social support still showed significantly positive to well-being but no moderating effect. Future study might adopt ICC and social support as a variable to examine more about the relationship between them and well-being.
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Research Limitation
Different countries have different cultures and these cultures would also affect the
organizations’ policies toward employees. In Taiwan, employees commonly work overtime and compared to western employee welfare, Taiwanese employees have fewer opportunities to travel for more than one week. In this study, because the researcher focused in Taiwan workplace, questionnaires were all distributed to Taiwanese employees. Therefore, the results of this study cannot apply to other countries.
In well-being items, “I am intensely interested in other people” has negative t value in item analysis. It supposed to be translation problem in this study so this item does not need to be deleted.
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APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE
Part I : Background Information
For the following sections, please tick the appropriate box that best fits your situation..
Your personal information will be kept confidential.
1. Please state your gender
□ Male □ Female 2. Please state your age
□ 20-25 □ 26-30 □ 31-35 □ 36-40 □ 41-45 □ 46-50 □ 50+
3. What is your highest level of education?
□ Junior High school or below □ Senior High school □ College/ University □ Master □ Ph.D
4. What is your current marital status?
□ Single □ Married □ Divorced or separated □ Other 5. Please specify your nationality? __________________
6. Which class do you think your current monthly income belongs to in Taiwan?
□ Low(25% below) □ Medium(25%~50%) □ Average(50% ~75%)
□ High(75% up)
Part II : Overseas Travel Experience
There are two items in this section. Please state your overseas travel experience in the last year.
1. Do you have any overseas travel experience in the past year, since you started a full-time job?
□ Yes □ No
2. Please recall your last overseas travel in the past year, and briefly describe the type, duration and location of this travel below.
Tourist Group Independent Travel Self-independent Travel e.g.
Japan – 2 months (learn language)
Note : Self-independent Travel means travel agency is in charge of your accommodation, flight ticket and helps you plan overseas schedule.
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Part III : Level of Involvement in Travel
There are 18 items in this section which are to measure involvement in travel. The scale is from 1 (strongly disagree ) to 5 (strongly agree). Please tick the appropriate box that best fits your situation.
Question Items Strongly Disagree
Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
10. Through travel, I make more foreign friends.
□ □ □ □ □
11. I get an opportunity for self-fulfillment through
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15. I think travel is meaningful.
No other leisure activities
17. I like to join activities with those who love travel.
□ □ □ □ □
18. We share similar values when being around with people who love travel for a long time
□ □ □ □ □
Part IV : Social Support
This section is to measure how supportive your supervisors, family and friends are.
There are a total of 9 questions. The scale is from 1 (strongly disagree ) to 5 (strongly agree).
Please tick the appropriate box that best fits your situation.
Question Items Strongly Disagree
Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 1. My supervisor is supportive
when I have a problem at work
□ □ □ □ □
2. I feel comfortable bringing up personal or family issues with my supervisors.
□ □ □ □ □
3. My supervisor really cares about the effects of job
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This section is to measure your level of happiness. There are a total of 29 questions. The scale is from 1 (strongly disagree ) to 5 (strongly agree). Please tick the appropriate box that best fits your situation.
Question Items Strongly Disagree
Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 1. I don’t feel particularly pleased
with the way I am.
□ □ □ □ □
2. I am intensely interested in other people.
6. I am not particularly optimistic about the future.
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14. I am well satisfied about everything in my life.
□ □ □ □ □
15. I don’t think I look attractive. □ □ □ □ □
16. I find beauty in some things. □ □ □ □ □
17. I always have a cheerful effect on others.
□ □ □ □ □
18. I can find time for everything I want to.
22. I often experience joy and elation.
□ □ □ □ □
23. I do not find it easy to make decisions.
□ □ □ □ □
24. I usually have a good influence on events.
27. I do not have particularly happy memories of the past.
□ □ □ □ □
28. I do not have a particular sense of meaning and purpose in my life.
□ □ □ □ □
29. I feel I have a great deal of energy.
□ □ □ □ □
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Part VI : Intercultural Communication Competency (ICC)
This section is to measure your ICC. There are a total of 5 questions. The scale is from 1 (strongly disagree ) to 5 (strongly agree). Please tick the appropriate box that best fits your situation.
Question Items Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 1. I find it easy to talk with
people from different cultures.
□ □ □ □ □
2. I find it easy to get along with people from different cultures.
□ □ □ □ □
3. I always know how to initiate a conversation when interacting with people from different cultures.
□ □ □ □ □
4. I feel relaxed when interacting with people from different cultures.
□ □ □ □ □
5. I find it easy to identify
5. I find it easy to identify