CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research Background
Interpreting, as long-standing as it may have been in the human history, is but a
relatively newly-emerged profession in the global service industry (Zhou, 1997).
However, in just matter of decades, the occupation has had countries and international
organizations around the world setting up training institutes and entities to meet the
enormous demand for the service (Pöchhacker, 2004). In the same manner, the
interpreting profession has seen waves of enthusiastic individuals joining the line
(Tseng, 1995). Like every other occupation, some practitioners fared extremely well
and stayed for good, while others came to perceive the discrepancy between reality
and ideals and opted to leave once and for all. What makes the difference? This
has been questioned by those who are interested in the field of study (Chen, 2005).
According to occupational studies, various factors are at work to influence
one’s length of time on the job, among which satisfactoriness and satisfaction play the
two prominent roles (Dawis, 1984). Satisfactoriness, the extent to which one
capably performs an assigned task and receives appraisal, could generally be
measured or reflected on a final product or service. Meanwhile, satisfaction, which
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refers to how an individual’s needs are being fulfilled by a certain work, is more
intangible in nature and demands psychometric instruments to provide more
information. As many studies in the interpreting field so far are dedicated to
pedagogical research, or ways to improve interpreters’ performance, this study turns
to explain how interpreters see or like the interpreting job, and some of the possible
causes lying beneath.
Therefore, this study seeks to describe Taiwan interpreters’ general views on
work and their degree of satisfaction toward the interpreting profession, and
determine whether or not discrepancies exist between expected and actual perceptions.
The researcher hopes that this study will provide useful information to the
interpreters-to-be before their official entrance into the profession, the training
institutes that are recruiting promising talents and designing related curriculums, and
the active interpreters who are at the front of the industry’s professionalization. Last
but not least, happy practitioners lead to happy customers. When the clients are
satisfied with the service they received, the interpreters will likely be accorded more
prestige and compensation, which, according to Western, are the two typical benefits
of professional work (Western et al., 2006). This positive repercussion will be
helpful to the development of the interpreting profession.
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1.2 Purposes and Scope of the Study
The purposes of this study are to explore the current status of work values and
job satisfaction of the interpreters in Taiwan, and to investigate the relationship among
work values and job satisfaction variables. Work values are defined in this study as
the evaluative standards relating to work or the work environment by which
interpreters assess the importance of preferences, while job satisfaction is the
emotional appraisal of the various factors associated with the job and the work
environment. The literature review therefore goes into detail on the substance,
factors, and assessment of work values and job satisfaction, as well as the relationship
between the two, coupled with a description of the interpreting profession in Taiwan
and worldwide. The research method of questionnaire survey, with both
multiple-choice and open-ended questions, is employed to gather the necessary
information for analysis. Readers should bear in mind that due to time and resource
constraints, this study intends to give a snapshot of Taiwan interpreters’ work values
and job satisfaction at the moment of the research and so does not attempt to trace out
personal career trajectories. In addition, this study does not search for work values
idiosyncratic to individual interpreters – common values, or average trends, are
examined instead. Nor does it probe into the causes behind individual job
satisfaction ratings, though the comments provided by the interpreters in the
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open-ended questions section may reveal some clues. The major objective of this
study is then to examine the different levels of importance Taiwan interpreters place
upon the general dimensions of work values, and to discover if the current work
conditions measure up to their expectations.
1.3 Organization of Study
The overall structure of this study takes the form of six chapters. Chapter One is
the introductory chapter. Chapter Two reviews the literature on work values, job
satisfaction, the relationship between work values and job satisfaction, and
interpreting as a profession. Chapter Three discusses the research methodology of
this study, giving an overview of the methods, participants, research tools, and data
analysis process involved. The results are presented in Chapter Four, with their
analyses and implications discussed in Chapter Five. Finally, Chapter Six concludes
by giving a brief summary and critique of the findings, and includes a discussion of
the implication of the findings to future research in this area.
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