ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 40 (Number 17) Year 2019. Page 11

Human resource management needs of Thai basic education

Necesidades de gestión de recursos humanos de la educación básica tailandesa

SUKSUP, Charoen 1 & SUKKAMART, Aukkapong 2

Received: 02/02/2019 • Approved: 24/04/2019 • Published 27/05/2019

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results

4. Discussion of the results

5. Conclusions

Bibliographic references

1. Introduction

The changes resulting from globalization and the rapid development of science and technology has led to shifting innovation that has affected the country's development in various dimensions. Internal and external contexts and environments are likely to alter quickly, with high dynamism and complexity. Therefore, inclusive development strategies to develop the country are required. Relevant cooperation has been provided by the civil state, from diverse sectors, as an integrated development partnership, as all development dimensions are related. To drive the efficient and effective development of the country, Thailand implemented a 20-year national strategy (2018-2037). One of the six strategies used is a balancing and public management strategy that the government has given priority to. It focuses on public sector adjustment, based on the principle "Public sector is of the people for the people and common interest". The public sector should be of a well-suited size, with roles and missions, and distinct roles in governance, or in providing service, in high potential and competitive markets. Furthermore, the public sector should adhere to good governance, adapt work culture to focus on achievements and common interests, be able to keep pace with modernity, be prepared for world changes, and continuously improve public human resource management systems that motivate and draw capable people to work together in order the turn the country towards the desired goal (Government Gazette, 2018).

The Ministry of Education, as the agency responsible for the education of the country, set the National Education Plan (2017-2036) as the guideline for moving national strategies forward. One significant objective is to develop an efficient educational management system, particularly in terms of the adjustment of structure and roles, to have an educational management system which is flexible, explicit, and accountable. Moreover, the human resource management system for teachers, professors, and educational personnel should be fair, motivating, and promote personnel with high potential to perform work (Office of the Education Council: ONEC, 2017). This is in line with the education development plan set by the Ministry of Education No. 12 (B.E. 2017-2021) (Office of the Permanent Secretary, 2016), which aims to develop a flexible management system for educational management with transparency and the acceptance of service users. The ministry structure has been enhanced by decentralization towards the regional sector and educational institutions. It has been seen that the personnel factor is the key matter for driving educational strategies. For this reason, the Bureau of Personnel Administration Development and Legal Affairs, the main agency responsible for the system and human resource management of the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), was authorized to enhance the system, public structure, criteria and standards of human resource management, human resource management-related operations (including purpose policies, regulations, criteria, and practices), and perform legal and contact affairs. Therefore, it is necessary to study the needs for human resource management, based on the opinions of Thai education administrators, in order to obtain useful information for planning the development of educational personnel.

1.1. Research objectives (Initial cap only. Not increase indent)

1. To examine the actual state, and the desired, state of human resource management, based on the opinions of Thai education administrators.

2. To study and prioritize the needs for human resource management, based on the opinions of Thai education administrators, both overall and in terms of working experiences by administrative field and geographic area.

2.1. Population and sample group

The population comprised education administrators under the Ministry of Education, consisting of Directors of Education Areas, Provincial Education Officers, and Regional Education Officers under the Office of the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education (OBEC) B.E. 2561, with 2,526 persons in total. The sample group, 345 persons, was obtained by applying Krejcie and Morgan (1970), at 95% reliability. Multi-stage random sampling was also applied.

2.2. Research tool

The research tool used was a 5-rating scale questionnaire (Likert’s Rating Scales) (Likert, 1967), with questions about the desired state and the actual state of the human resource management of Thai education administrators. The questionnaire consisted of 33 questions, covering four aspects. The Index of Item Objective Congruence: IOC was 1.00, and the reliability of the questionnaire, based on the Coefficient Alpha of Cronbach (1984), was 0.88.

2.3. Data collection

The researcher collected data from Thai education administrators, consisting of Directors of Education Areas, Provincial Education Officers, and Regional Education Officers under the Office of the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education (2018), by distributing 198 sets of questionnaires, with 100% of them being returned. The human resource management of Thai education administrators, in terms of the actual state and the desired state, was evaluated.

2.4. Data analysis

The following methods were used for data analysis.

1. The actual state of the human resource management of Thai education administrators was analyzed by mean and standard deviation. The interpretation was:

4.50-5.00         Very High

3.50-4.49         High

2.50-3.49         Moderate

1.50-2.49         Low

1.00-1.49         Very Low

 2. The study and prioritization of needs for human resource management of Thai education administrators, both overall and in terms of work experiences by management field and geographic area, were analyzed using the Priority Needs Index Modified (PNIModified) approach.

The research findings are shown as follows.

3.1. General information of respondents

From Table 1, from 198 respondents, 184 were male (accounting for 92.93%); 143 of them had Master’s degrees (accounting for 72.22%); 87 people had had experience in management of between 11-20 years (accounting for 43.94%); 155 people held the position of Director of an Education Area (accounting for 78.28%), and 65 people were administrators in the northeastern region (accounting for 32.83%). 

Table 1
Frequencies and percentages of respondents classified by status

3.2. State of human resource management for Thai education administrators

Table 2
Means and standard deviations of state of human resource management
for Thai education administrators- actual state and desired state

From Table 2, the state of human resource management for Thai education administrators, it was found that the overall actual state was at the moderate level ( =3.33, S=0.67), and the overall desired state was at the very high level ( =4.67, S=0.40).

3.3. Prioritization of needs for human resource management

Table 3
Results of evaluation and prioritization of human resource
management needs of Thai education administrators

From Table 3, the results of the evaluation and prioritization of needs for human resource management for Thai education administrators, there was a need to develop human resource management for Thai education administrators, using PNIModified, of 0.25-0.33. The priority was, in order, recruitment and appointment, legal affairs and disciplinary, manpower planning and positioning, and rewarding and personnel record.

Table 4
Results of evaluation and prioritization of needs for human resource management for
Thai education administrators classified by experience in the management field

From Table 4, the results of evaluation and prioritization of the needs for human resource management for Thai education administrators classified by experience in the management field showed that most of the administrators had a corresponding priority of needs. The priority was, in order, recruitment and appointment, legal affairs and disciplinary, manpower planning and positioning, and rewarding and personnel record.

Table 5
Results of evaluation and prioritization of needs for human resource management
for Thai education administrators, classified by experience in geographic area

From Table 5, the results of the evaluation and prioritization of needs for human resource management for Thai education administrators in different regions showed that all regions had a corresponding priority of needs, which was, in order, Recruitment and appointment, Legal affairs and disciplinary, Manpower planning and positioning, and Rewarding and personnel record.

4. Discussion of the Results

The research showed that the overall actual state of human resource management for Thai education administrators was at the moderate level (M=3.33, SD=0.67), while the desired state was at the very high level (M=4.67, SD=0.40). This indicated that the actual and the desired state of human resource management, according to the opinions of Thai education administrators, were different. This was because Thailand started government reform in 2017, by announcing the 20-Year National Strategy for balancing and developing public management to be more modern and to connect it to all development levels. In order to respond to the national strategy, the Ministry of Education developed the National Education Plan (2017-2036) to enhance the efficiency of the educational  management system by improving the management structures of the central, regional, and educational agencies, coupled with resolving the problems of the human resource management systems of executives, teachers, and educational personnel (Office of the Education Council, 2017). This is consistent with the notion of Witkin and Altschuld (1995), who stated that one of the most significant purposes of needs assessment was to develop and improve organizational structure management programs and the performance of organizations. 

The results of the evaluation and the prioritization of needs for human resource management for Thai education administrators, both overall and classified by management work experience and geographical area, illustrated that most administrators had a consistent priority of needs. The ranking was, in order, tecruitment and appointment, legal affairs and disciplinary, manpower planning and positioning, and rewarding and personnel record. This was because recruitment is the process of searching for and motivating capable applicants to work with the organization (Werther and Davis, 1996). The regulations to be considered for recruitment process were organization policies, human resources plans, general environment, job requirements, and recruiter qualification. An accurate and strict recruitment process would identify the potential applicant suitable for an organization (Pfeffer, 1994). Recruiting the wrong applicant for work might obstruct the efficiency level, whereas a complex recruitment process ensures that an organization would recruit capable personnel as required (Terpstra and Rozell, 1993). This is in line with Olšovská, Mura, and Švec (2016), who stated that the key problem of human resource management related to and was connected with the recruitment process. For this reason, the Slovak Republic activated the consideration of the need to revise laws regarding the recruitment and selection process. Furthermore, the research results indicated that Legal affairs and disciplinary, Manpower planning and positioning, Recruitment and positioning, and Rewarding and personnel record having less priority than recruitment was consistent with Mondy and Noe (1996); they stated that the environmental factors affecting human resource management consisted of external factors, such as manpower, legal affairs, society, labor union, and technology, and internal factors, such as mission, policies, organizational culture, and the management approach of executives.

This research examined the actual state and the desired state of human resource management, based on the opinions of Thai education administrators, and studied and prioritized the needs for human resource management, both overall and in terms of working experiences by administrative field and geography. The sample group was Thai education administrators, consisting of Directors of Educational Areas, Provincial Education Officers, and Regional Education Officers under the Office of the Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education (OBEC) B.E. 2561, comprising 345 persons in total, obtained by multi-stage random sampling. The research tool used was a questionnaire that had a validity of 0.88. The obtained data were analyzed by mean, standard deviation, and index analysis. The needs were prioritized with the Priority Needs Index Modified approach. The findings indicated that Thai education administrators had opinions on the overall actual state of human resource management at the moderate level (M=3.33) and, on the overall desired state, at a very high level (M=4.67). The evaluation and the priority of the needs for human resource management for Thai education administrators, both overall and in terms of working experiences by administrative field, as well as by geographic area, illustrated that most of the opinions of the administrators were consistent in terms of the priority of needs, being, in order, Recruitment and appointment, Legal affairs and disciplinary, Manpower planning and positioning, and Rewarding and personnel record.

Armstrong M. (1994). Human resource management, London, UK, Kogan Page.

Anastasia A.K. (2012). Investigating reverse causality between human resource management policies and organizational performance in small firms. Management Research Review, 35(2), 134-156.

Angelin M. (2009). Needs Assessment and Analysis Methods, A Research Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Science Degree in Training and Development, The Graduate School, University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Bemis S.E., Belenky A.H. and Sodner D.A. (1983). Job Analysis: An Effective Management Tool, Washington, DC, BNA Books.

Cronbach L.J. (1984). Essentials of psychological testing, 4th ed, New York, Harper & Row.

Dessler G. (1997). Human Resource management, 7th ed, New Jersey, Prentice Hall.

Government Gazette. (2018). National Strategy (2018-2037), http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/ DATA/PDF/2561/A/082/T_0001.PDF

Galambošová J., Rataj V., Prokeinová R., Prešinská J. (2014). Determining the management zones with hierarchic and non-hierarchic clustering methods. Research in Agricultural Engineering, 60(Special Issue), S44-S51.

Kaplan R.S., and Norton D.P. (2001). The Strategy-Focused Organization, Boston, Harvard Business School Press.

Krejcie R.V., and Morgan D.W. (1970). Determining Sample Size for Research Activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30(3), 607-610.

Li Y., Zhang G., Yang X., and Li J. (2015). The influence of collectivist human resource management practices on team-level identification. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(14), 1791-1806.

Likert R. (1967). The Method of Constructing and Attitude Scale, Reading in Attitude Theory and Measurement. New York, Wiley & Son.

Mondy R.W., and Noe R.M. (1996). Human Resource Management, 6th ed, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall.

Mondy R.W., Noe R.M., and Premeaux S.R. (1999). Human Resource Management, 7th Ed, New Jersey, Prentice Hall.

Office of the Education Council. (2017). National Strategy Plan (2017-2036), Bangkok, Office of the Education Council, Ministry of Education.

Office of the Permanent Secretary. (2016). Educational Development Plan of Ministry of Education No. 12 (2017-2021), Bangkok, Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education.

Olšovská A., Mura L., and Švec M. (2016). Personnel Management in Slovakia: An Explanation of the Latent Issues, Polish Journal of Management Studies, 13(2), 110-120.

Pfeffer J. (1994). Competitive Advantage through People Unleashing the Power of the Workforce, Boston, Harvard Business School Press.

Reviere R., Berkowitz S., Carter C.C., and Ferguson C.G. (1996). Needs Assessments: A Creative and Practical Guide for Social Scientists, New York, Routledge.

Stufflebeam D. L., McCormick, C.H., Brinkerhoff, R.O., and Nelson, C.O. (1985). Conducting Educational Needs Assessment, Boston, Kluwer Academic.

Swanson R.A., and Holton, E.F., III. (2001). Foundation of Human Resource Development, San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler.

Terpstra D.E., and Rozell E. J. (1993). The relationship of staffing practices to organizational level measures of performance, Personnel Psychology, 46(1), 27-48.

Witkin B.R., and Altschuld J.W. (1995). Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments: A Practical Guide, Sage Publications, Newbury Park.

Watkins R., Meiers W.M., and Visser Y.L. (2012). A Guide to Assessing Needs: Essential Tools for Collecting Information, Making Decisions, and Achieving Development Results, Washington, DC: World Bank, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/2231

Werther J., and Davis K. (1996). Human Resources and Personnel Management, 5th ed. New York, McGraw-Hill.

Wongwanich, S. (2007). Research on Needs Assessment, 2nd Edition, Bangkok, Chulalongkorn University Press.

Wongwanich S., and Wiratchai N. (2005). A follow-up and evaluation of the government educational reform results based on the state fundamental policy and the national act, Journal of Research Methodology, 18(1), 93-124.

1. Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), Bangkok, Thailand, e-mail: charoen.5554@gmail.com

2. Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), Bangkok, Thailand, e-mail: auk2519@gmail.com