| The long term care industry is one of the fastest emerging industries in Taiwan. Its rapid growth is due a number of factors including (1) a substantial increase in its aging population, (2) generous social welfare programs, and (3) high accessibility to a national healthcare system. The primary focus of this research examines job satisfaction of caregivers within a cultural context.; Job satisfaction plays a critical role in determining the quality of services rendered (Steffen, Nystrom, O'Connor, 1996). Increases in the cost of living coupled with changes in work preference of the Taiwanese together have impacted hiring behaviors among long term care facilities in Taiwan. In recent years, these facilities have focused keenly on foreign contractors to meet the demand of caregiver shortages in the workforce. Because long term care is considered a blue collar occupation, the profession has been given little attention by researchers. Caregiver roles are unquestionably critical, not only in terms of their contribution to the delivery of health care, but also in terms of its function within social and family systems.; The objective of this research is to investigate whether differences in the job satisfaction exist between Taiwanese and Filipino caregivers. A stratified random sample of 185 Taiwanese and Filipino caregivers employed in selected long term care facilities in Taiwan responded to the long form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ). 250 Chinese-MSQ and 150 Tagalog-MSQ were distributed and achieved a return rate of 37% and 61% respectively, for a total sample of 93 Taiwanese and 92 Filipino respondents.; A series of independent samples t-tests revealed no significant difference between Taiwanese and Filipino caregivers for the three types of job satisfaction. An ANOVA analysis examining the relationship between a series of demographic variables (age, education and experience) also revealed no significant differences in job satisfaction between age and education where ethnic origin was concerned. The ANOVA however did reveal that level of related work experience did indeed contribute significantly to job satisfaction scores. Caregivers with four to five years of experience reported the lowest level of job satisfaction. |
