The following chapter includes background, statement of the problem, purpose of the research, significance of the study and definition of terms.
Background of the Study
With economy development becoming fast and more competitive markets showing up, to retain human capitals and avoid brain drain are important issues for organizations. More and more organizations are starting to notice the benefits which well-being can bring to employees. In the World Happiness Report 2013 (Helliwell, Richard, & Jeffrey, 2013), people begin to focus on which country or region is the happiest one in the world. In this report, as to region part, the happiest ones go to North America, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) and the least happy one is Sub-Saharan Africa. This report also divided Asia into three parts, East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The happiness level of East Asia and South Asia is lower than that of world average but Southeast Asia was slightly higher than the world average a little bit. Besides, if we shift the focus from region to individual country, the top three countries of happiness are Denmark, Norway and Switzerland which are all in the European area.
In contrast, in East Asia, quick economic growth seems not to enhance happiness. This region includes China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia and Taiwan where there are powerful and stronger economic environments. In the table of happiness ranking, China ranks 93, South Korean 41, Japan 43 and Taiwan is 42. Compared to other regions such as Europe and America, Asia’s economy has been booming with high speed for years but people in this area do not feel equal happiness. Asians earn much more money than before but feel less happiness. Like Xi (2009) said that the money brings limited happiness.
However, Taiwan, as a small island country with a population 23 million, the workers’
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happiness has already come to Taiwanese government’s notice since 2011. To encourage companies to focus on employees’ happiness and create a harmonious workplace, the Department of Labor of Taipei City Government (2011) began to evaluate Taipei employees’
happiness level and reward the best companies every year as well. Besides governmental units, the two famous human resource agencies, 104 Job Bank and 1111 Job Bank, also did many surveys of Taiwanese best companies since 2005.
Happier employees could have more productivity, higher efficiency and better performance in the workplace (Lin , Lu , Wu & Wu,2012; Taris & Schreurs, 2009), so organization should be concerned for their employees’ well-being for increasing organization performance. In fact, 104 Job Bank, as the biggest job bank in Taiwan (Li, 2009), even set up a database to share best companies’ information and their employee welfare with job hunters.
Also, in its survey of best companies in 2012, 104 Job Bank let female employees vote for the best company in terms of employee welfare. In review of this database and survey, employee welfare has become an important indicator when employees choose the best companies. According to survey of 1111 Job Bank (2011), the top three welfare for employees are travel allowance, opportunities for advanced study and pension for transportation, accommodation and meals. Compared to other kinds of welfare, it is more crucial for organizations to understand why travel is placed at top one by employees.
Nowadays, travel has become a popular and important leisure activity for Taiwanese.
Based on statistical data of the Tourism Bureau, M.O.T.C. Republic of China (2013), the number of outbound Taiwanese citizens has been booming from 5,923,072 to 10,239,760 and the number of domestic travel was from 102,399,000 to 142,069,000 over the past decade.
Chen (2007), the author of Global Views Monthly, showed that the majority thought the dominant function of travel is sufficient relaxation and pressure release, which employees most require nowadays because in this quickly changing society, employees work in exceedingly pressured condition. The sources of pressure come in several forms such as
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unfriendly environment, unequipped skills and abilities, indifferent interpersonal relationship or expectation difference between employees and organization. Many employees are experiencing high workloads, long working hours and job insecurity (Burchall et al., 1999).
In addition, poor job permanence and poor stability would be brought about by employees who have worked under excessive pressure (Yu, 2007).
However, based on the Tourism Bureau, M.O.T.C. Republic of China‘s report (2012), the top reason for why people cannot travel is having no time, reported by 43.1% while money problems are reported by 16.1%. Both time and money are barriers. The same report indicated that the average length of travel time was 1.47days for domestic and 9.26 days for overseas. As to the ideal length of overseas travel, Global Views Monthly (2007) shown 54.9% people prefer five to seven days and 22% prefer eight to fourteen days. For Taiwanese, travel is not only a leisure activity but also one important part of their lives. In the definition of serious leisure, seeing some leisure activities as a part of lives is one main characteristic.
Serious leisure became an issue since the 1970s and recent literature showed that people having conspicuous characteristics of serious leisure and great involvement in what they like will have higher well-being level than others (Heo, Stebbins, Kim, & Lee, 2013). However, in the review of literature, travel, as important employee welfare in Taiwan, is less studied and less linked to well-being. In addition, independent travel has become an international trend (Chesshyre, 2002) and Taiwan is not an exception. More and more Taiwanese like overseas travel and it is very possible to meet culture shock or intercultural communication barriers when they are in another country. Those overseas problems and barriers might further affect their well-being. Whether or not people have better intercultural communication competence might affect their happiness level during overseas travel. For example, if they could communicate with locals, understand their ideas, solve problems they encountered or even make friends with foreigners, the happiness level might be elevated.
In addition to serious leisure-travel and intercultural communication competence,
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another factor is social support. Cohen & Syme (1985) pointed out the research on social support has been booming because it affects people’s well-being positively or negatively.
Social support comes from friends, families and important others. In this context, besides families and friends, the researcher assumes that an important other would be supervisors. In a speech at the Happy Labor Forum, which was held by Department of Labor of Taipei City Government in 2013, the relationship between supervisors and employees is always the top one reason of employees’ leaving. Therefore, support from supervisors (important others) might affect employees’ well-being.
Based on information and data, this study links the serious leisure-travel, social support, intercultural communication competence and well-being together to explore the relationship among them.
Statement of the Problem
Well-being is a continuous and personal feeling toward entire lives which means how people feel today influence how they feel on following days (Wright & Cropanzano, 2004) and employees with higher well-being can show better job performance (Judge, Thoresen, Bono, & Patton, 2001). In other words, employees with low level of well-being would decrease their performance and job satisfaction in workplace. Therefore, to increase employees’ well-being is always an important issue in organizations. A well-designed welfare can not only meet employees’ need but also increase employees’ well-being. The 1111 Job Bank survey in 2011 shown Taiwanese employees value travel pension most in terms of welfares so that the travel issue should be taken seriously by organizations when they revise employee welfare. Also, with more and more people emphasizing the quality and outcome of travel, it is clear that travel is already becoming one part of their daily necessaries. When people have more involvement in what they like, they would have a well-planned schedule to develop the related skill and knowledge, which is called serious leisure. Like the study
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mentioned above, more significant the characteristics of serious leisure are, then the higher their well-being will be. That is, with travel as an example, if employees involve themselves in travel and then they are willing to develop related knowledge and skills, they will feel higher well-being. Since travel could be classified into different types, including tourist groups, independent travel and semi-independent travel, the researcher takes all of them into consideration. In addition to serious leisure-travel, two other factors are also taken into account, which are social support and intercultural communication competence.
In this study, the researcher explores the relationship among serious leisure-travel, social support, intercultural communication competence and well-being.
Purpose of the Research
For those who are desirous of travelling, travel has become replaceable and is the main thing to increase their well-being. Even if they do not feel entirely rebirthed after travelling, at least they could feel energy is recharged because having some opportunities to experience different lifestyles could be helpful for people to observe themselves and reflect on their own lives and choices (Kottler, 1998). Besides, social support has always been considered as a factor when it comes to well-being and pressure release (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2002;
Taris & Schreurs, 2009; Wong & Lin, 2006; Wright & Cropanzano, 2004). On the other hand, when people go abroad for travelling, they could easily feel emotionally down if they cannot overcome culture shock, which could decrease their well-being (Zapf, 1991). Therefore, intercultural communication competence could also play an important role.
Based on the background discussed above, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among well-being, social support, intercultural communication competence and serious leisure – travel.
Here are three research questions,
(1). What is the relationship between serious leisure - travel and well-being?
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(2). Does social support have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between serious leisure-travel and well-being?
(3). Does intercultural communication competence have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between serious leisure-travel and well-being?
Significance of the Study
Many literatures have talked about well-being and what kinds of factors will affect it.
However, some topics are less discussed. First, few literatures linked well-being, serious leisure-travel, social support and intercultural communication competence together. Second, few literatures are discussed if intercultural communication competence affects well-being.
Third, many literatures studied serious leisure but few of them involved travel and employees in. Forth, some Taiwanese companies might take incentive tours into consideration when they design their employees’ welfare. Companies might provide customized tourist groups, independent travel pension or extra holidays for employee to travel. Actually, according to an Insightxplorer survey (2005), more and more people, especially young people aging from 22 to 29, prefer independent travel to tourist groups. This study showed there was a positive relationship between serious leisure-travel and well-being. Different groups of employees need different types of incentive tours so that the well-being level could increase. However, travel has been discussed in different articles but few of them link it to well-being.
The Definition of Terms Well-being
Well-being is a term, reflecting how people’s integral evaluation about health and satisfaction with work and life is. Because well-being is an internal feeling, another term called it as subjective well-being, SWB (Diener, 1984). In organizations, well-being is used to evaluate employees’ psychological health in workplace and taken job satisfaction, job pressure and job depression into consideration (Warr, 1987). In this study, the researcher
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adapts well-being to evaluate Taiwanese employee’s happiness.
Serious Leisure-Travel
Stebbins (2001) pointed out that serious leisure means people have well planned schedule to join one or more leisure activities systematically outside workplace. Those activities make people feel interested and gradually develop the related skills and knowledge through continuous experiences. Further, people with characteristics of serious leisure will see those activities as a part of their lives. Serious leisure has six dimensions called perseverance, career, personal efforts, individual benefits, identification and unique ethos.
Leisure activities will be various depend on different personalities. In this study, the researcher focuses on travel activity.
Social Support
Social support is defined as the resources provided by other persons such as family, friends and important others and it may affect well-being and health positively or negatively.
The resources could be tangible or intangible. Besides, the importance and meaning will vary when people is at different life cycles (Cohen & Syme, 1985).
In this study, the support from supervisors, families and friends are mainly considered.
Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC)
Intercultural communication competence or cross-cultural communication competence means a process of conveying messages among different cultures and those messages include spoken language, written words, facial expression or body language. The goal of ICC is to understand how people from different cultures communicate with each other.
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