The administrative acievements of subdistrict administrative organization in the country's country's upper central provinces of strategic group 1 / ศิรินทร พุ่มวัน
Abstract:
The objectives of this research were 1) to study the administrative achievements of the Subdistrict Administrative Organizations in the upper Central provinces, 2) to study the factors affecting the administrative achievements of the Subdistrict Administrative Organizations in the upper central provinces, and 3) to determine appropriate approaches leading to improve administrative achievements of the Subdistrict Administrative Organizations in the upper central provinces. This research combined quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative research was conducted by collecting data through a 4-level rating scale questionnaire from a sample consisting of 400 respondents, which was increased for the population of 23,825 people who were subdistrict headmen, village headmen, members of Subdistrict Administrative Organization councils and community leaders living in the provinces of Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya and Saraburi. They were selected by stratified random sampling technique. The sample size was obtained using Taro Yamanes formula. The data were analyzed by mean and standard deviation and the hypotheses were tested by stepwise regression analysis. The qualitative research was conducted by in-depth interviews of 24 key informants, from 4 provinces, which consisted of 4 Heads of Provincial Local Administrations, 4 Chief executives of Provincial Administrative Organizations, 8 Deputy Chief Executives of Subdistrict Administrative Organizations, 4 Chairmen of Subdistrict Administrative Organization Councils, and 4 Chief Administrators of Subdistrict Administrative Organizations. The data were analyzed by analytic induction and interpretation.
The research results were as follows:
1) The administrative achievements of the Subdistrict Administrative Organizations in the countrys upper central provinces of strategic group 1 were, overall of practices, at a high level ( = 3.10, S.D. = 0.74). Considering each aspect individually, it was found that all of four aspects were at high levels. Ranked in each aspect, the aspect of art and traditional culture and local wisdom was at the highest ( =3.11, S.D. = 0.73), followed by the aspect of professional management ( = 3.10, S.D. = 0.75), the aspect of people satisfaction ( = 3.10, S.D. = 0.73) and the aspect of natural resource and environmental preservation management ( = 3.07, S.D. = 0.76), respectively.
2) Three factors were found to affect the administrative achievement of Subdistrict Administrative Organizations in the upper central provinces: (1) the public policy, composed of two variables namely clear objectives (β = 0.172), and practical ability (β = 0.132), both significant at the significance level of 0.05. They explained 15.50 percent (R2 = 0.155) of the variation of the administrative achievements, (2) the organizational structure, composed of three variables, namely decentralization (β = 0.266), authority (β = 0.087), and controlling (β = 0.064). They explained 50.50 percent (R2= 0.505) of the variation of administrative achievement at the statistical significance level of 0.05 and (3) the organizational management, composed of four variables, namely appropriate human capital (β = 0.197), people participation, (β = 0.176) appropriate leadership (β = 0.151) and governance (β = 0.103). They explained 48.40 percent (R2 = 0.484) of the variation of administrative achievements at the statistical significance level of 0.05. Moreover, the qualitative research findings revealed that the effective administration of Subdistrict Administrative Organizations consisted of (1) a clear administration policy (2) good governance and (3) the potential of leaders.
3) The appropriate approaches for better administrative achievements were synthesized using the quantitative data and the qualitative data from the focus group discussions. They consisted of four major components: (1) implementing a monitoring system which would cope with the agencys mission by focusing on three major activities comprising of efficiency and transparency in budgeting management, the empowerment of the evaluators and utilization of the evaluation results to make improvements, (2) developing the potential of the Subdistrict Administrative Organizations personnel by emphasizing 3 main aspects: the proper leadership of the administrators, moral and ethical promotion for staff at all levels and awareness building for the benefit of all staff, (3) promoting and supporting the local government to be more efficient at complying with the principles of good governance, and (4) planning a local development strategy by focusing on 3 key aspects comprising of quality of life, infrastructure and education, and religion and culture to achieve sustainable development.