The purpose of this study was to determine the association between school managers'' support, as perceived by nutrition teachers (or dietitians) in Gyeonggi Province, and job satisfaction, provide data concerning efficient job performance by nutrition teachers (or dietitians), determine the effects of school managers'' support on job satisfaction of nutrition teachers (or dietitians), and provide basic data that could help improve school meals. It was found that nutrition teachers (or dietitians) more likely to know school managers'' support had higher levels of job satisfaction. The principal support managers included chief administrators (55.3%), principals (27.2%), assistant principals (15.0%), and managers in charge (2.4%). Nutrition teachers (or dietitians) scored 3.38 out of 5 for awareness of school managers'' support: 3.66 for emotional support, 3.27 for informational support, 3.22 for instrumental support, and 3.11 for evaluational support. They scored relatively higher at 3.66 out of 5 for emotional support―school managers make open communication, take interest in what nutrition teachers (or dietitians) do, respect them, and trust them as professionals―than for the other types of support but scored relatively lower at 3.11 for evaluational support than for the other types of support. Nutrition teachers (or dietitians) scored 3.37 out of 5 (higher than average) for job satisfaction: 4.19 for work performance, 3.39 for interpersonal relationships, 3.37 for job satisfaction in general, 3.29 for job itself, 3.07 for job environment, and 2.70 for performance rating and benefits system.
There was statistically significant correlation between awareness of school managers'' support and job satisfaction (r=.771, p<.01). The correlation between awareness of school managers'' support and job satisfaction was most significant in terms of interpersonal relationships, followed by job itself, performance rating and benefits system, job environment, and work performance. The correlation between awareness of school managers'' support and job satisfaction was highest in terms of instrumental support, followed by emotional, evaluational, and informational support.
So if school managers constantly give evaluational support based on constructive feedback concerning instruction or school meal system operation and on definite guidelines for effective instruction or school meal system operation and become more concerned about performance rating and benefits system and job environment with which nutrition teachers (or dietitians) were relatively less satisfied, compared with their workload, it is expected to make great contributions to decision-making and improvement of plans for school meals by nutrition teachers (or dietitians) and improve the quality of school meals.