This study aims to examine the influence of early childhood teacher's social support on organizational commitment and happiness. For this purpose, this study set the study subjects as shown below.
Study question 1. How about the social support, org...
This study aims to examine the influence of early childhood teacher's social support on organizational commitment and happiness. For this purpose, this study set the study subjects as shown below.
Study question 1. How about the social support, organizational commitment and happiness of early childhood teachers?
Study question 2. What is the relationship between social support, organizational commitment and happiness of early childhood teachers?
2-1. What is the relationship between social support and organizational commitment of early childhood teachers?
2-2. What is the relationship between social support and happiness of early childhood teachers?
Study question 3. What is the relative influence of early childhood teachers' social support on organizational commitment and happiness?
3-1. What is the influence of social support on organizational commitment of early childhood teachers?
3-2. What is the influence of social support on happiness of early childhood teachers?
This study was conducted on 252 early childhood teachers who had worked at early childhood education institutions in 5 districts of Gwangju metropolitan city. To examine early childhood teachers' social support, this study used a questionnaire developed by Park Ji Won(1985) and corrected and complemented by Im Jin Hyeong(2000). To examine organizational commitment of early childhood teachers, this study used the scale of organizational commitment used by Gang Ji Young(2009). In addition, to examine happiness of early childhood teachers, this study used the Oxford happiness questionnaire as adapted by Choi Yo Won (2002), corrected and complemented by Kim Si Yeon(2014). For data analysis, SPSS 24.0 was utilized, and according to the problem set by the researcher, technical statistics, correlation analysis and phased regression analysis were performed.
Results of this study can be summarized as follows.
First, as a result of examination on how were social support, organizational commitment and happiness of early childhood teachers, 'social support outside workplace' showed the highest result in terms of early childhood teachers' social support. 'Emotional commitment' showed the highest result in terms of organizational commitment of early childhood teachers, and 'happiness affirmation' of early childhood teachers was found to be the highest.
Second, as a result of examining relationship between social support, organizational commitment and happiness of early childhood teachers, both 'social support in workplace' of the early childhood teachers and 'social support outside workplace' of the early childhood teachers showed positive correlation with lower elements of organizational commitment such as 'emotional commitment', 'continuous commitment', 'normative commitment' and 'overall organizational commitment". In addition, both 'social support in workplace' of the early childhood teachers and 'social support outside workplace' of the early childhood teachers showed positive correlation with 'happiness affirmation', the lower elements of happiness, and negative correlation with 'happiness denial'. This means that early childhood teachers' social support has significant positive correlation in organizational commitment, suggesting that organizational commitment gets higher if the social support of early childhood teacher gets higher. In addition, we may see that happiness affirmation gets higher and happiness denial gets lower if the social support of early childhood teacher is high.
Third, as a result of examination on influence of social support on organizational commitment of early childhood teachers using phased regression analysis, 'social commitment' of early childhood teacher, and explanation of 'social support in workplace', the lower element of social support were found to be highest at 48%. And 'continuous commitment' of early childhood teachers, and 'information support' and 'evaluation support outside workplace' among lower elements of social support of early childhood teacher as well as 'overall social support' were found to be the significant prediction variables. In addition, among the lower elements of organizational commitment of early childhood teacher, ‘normative commitment’ and 'social support in workplace', the lower elements of social support were found to be significant prediction variables. ‘Overall organizational committment' in the lower elements of organizational commitment of early childhood teachers, and 'social support in workplace' in the lower elements of social support were found to be significant prediction variables.
As a result of examination on influence of social support on happiness of early childhood teacher, explanation of ‘happiness affirmation’ in the lower element of happiness of early childhood teacher, and 'social support in workplace' in the lower element of social support were 51.1%, found to be the highest prediction variables. 'Happiness denial' of early childhood teacher, and lower elements of social supports such as 'overall social support' of early childhood teacher, 'emotional support outside workplace', and 'emotional support in workplace' were found to be significant prediction variables.
As a result of this study, organizational commitment and happiness are found to improve as the early childhood teacher gets better social support. Such result suggests that social support is important to early childhood teachers. This means that recognition of surrounding people should be changed in order for the early childhood teachers to work at infant educational institutions with pride. This study suggests that programs for teachers are required to improve happiness and organizational commitment through early childhood teachers' social support. In addition, it also suggests that positive service environment should be provided to enhance quality of infant education where colleagues and directors respect each other and are considerate of each other in the workplace.