The objective of this research aims to identify the factors that lead Thai government employees to work inefficiently compared to the private sector. Also, to share useful information and recommendations to the Thai bureaucracy and others who are interested in this research, and to improve the image of the Thai government and achieve better performance, funded by the tax paid by the Thai people. The data were drawn from interviews with 6 managers and 14 officers selected from the government and private sectors who have at least one year of experience working with the Thai government.
Therefore, the Thai government needs to introduce more changes and improvements that support the changing perception of Thai civil servants, learning, such as knowledge management system, related new technology and electronic support system to save costs and improve efficiency. The research topic of this issue paper is to examine the factors that drive Thai government officials to perform inefficiently compared to the private sector. Given the image of the Thai bureaucracy, it is often considered slow and inefficient, in contrast to the high demand of people who want to be part of government officials.
This study investigates what are internal and/or external factors that lead to ineffective performance of Thai government officers. The first objective is to find the main reasons why Thai government officers often show inefficient performance. Second is to share useful information and recommendations to Thai bureaucracy and others interested in this research.
Last one is to improve the image of the Thai government and achieve better performance, financed with the taxes paid by the Thai people.
Research Scope
Expected Benefits
LITERATURE REVIEW
- Government Organizations and Officers in Thailand
- Influencing elements in work performance
- Government action
- Conceptual framework
- Asymmetric Information
- Motivation
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Political officer means a person who is a public official by position, such as Prime Minister (Political Officer Act, 1992). The variety of civil servant types and roles is important for managing, recruiting, limiting, etc. of the public service. Civil servants (Ministry of Finance, 2008) - This is life-long service which is fairly permanent employment status or difficult to resign.
Permanent Staff – It is similar to a civil servant who is also employed for life, but the monthly salary after retirement is reduced to a retirement allowance. Retired Government Employees – They are former government employees but are still receiving salary and other welfare benefits after age 60 or other reason for retirement. Intasena and Srima (2017) indicated that no related variables affect the job performance of Thai government officials in the 17 Northern Provincial Bureau of Buddhism.
However, they proposed 6 factors affecting performance in future research which are as follows: (1) Results-based management (2) Strategic management (3) Good governance (4) e-Governance (5) Motivation (6) ) Mission, Vision, and Value (I AM READY). In the past, the Thai government tried several times to reform the bureaucracy to deal with the situation of low efficiency. 5/2559 by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is intended to improve the efficiency of both the bureaucracy and government officials.
Furthermore, after it was launched for 1 year, a government and OCSC still need to adjust it to be in the right way. Therefore, the civil service applicant knows their own information better than the interviewer or examiner, and they may change their behavior after joining. Developed by Frederick Herzberg in the 1950s, he found two factors that can affect employee motivation.
Motivating factors – These lead to satisfying and motivating employees to work harder e.g. salary, company policy, benefits, relationships with managers and co-workers when these cannot be met can lead to dissatisfaction. In the last section, literature review indicates many factors that drive employee to work efficiently. Nevertheless, there are no precise results from previous studies that specify the factors that make government officials work ineffectively.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
Data collection methodology
- Population
- Sampling
- Data collection
In addition, this research is also directed at managers and officers in the private sector to compare both sides of other position view. The preliminary selection is applied in this research to ensure the ability of each individual interviewee to understand the topic and the ability to answer the question. Both groups at the two levels are composed of 80 percent government sector and 20 percent private sector employees.
The data was collected during interview sessions that were recorded with a digital recording device and transcribed for analysis to discover the key factors and reasons why Thai government officials work inefficiently, regardless of the complex and high-quality recruitment process, and to compare with the private sector. To reduce the potential impact on the career path of interviewees, all personal information will be kept confidential and will not be revealed in any research materials.
Instrument
To reduce the potential impact on the career path of interviewees, all personal information will be kept confidential and will not be revealed in any research materials. period/experience). The guiding questions help the interviewer manage an efficient time frame and obtain related information that covers all relevant topics for the investigation. Nevertheless, the actual questions during the interview may differ from the guiding questions, because the interviewee may come up with unexpected and interesting answers.
The questions used as a guide in the interviews to obtain relevant information from the interviewees are as follows: In your opinion, what do you think about working in government in terms of the following aspects? 3 Do you think that the recruitment processes compared to the efficiency of government employees allow them to live up to their qualifications?
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Demographic Profile of Interview Participants
10 Permanent/Government 36 Master's Degree Media 11 Permanent/Government 27 Bachelor's Degree Media 12 Permanent/Government 32 Bachelor's Degree IT 13 Permanent/Government 29 Bachelor's Degree Media 14 Temporary/Government 27 Bachelor's Degree Media 15 Temporary/Government Degree 123 /Government 27 Bachelor's Degree Medicine 17 Temporary/Government 33 Masters Construction 18 Temporary/Government 39 High Vocational.
Main Interview Findings
- Organizational structure
- Organization Culture and Value
- Human Resource Management and Recruitment Processes The vision of the Thai government is not always supported by the employees
- Development and Resources
- Evaluation system
- Return/Income
- Office Politics
It is not so easy for Thai people to adapt when the power changes in their hand. Some interviewees said the same thing about the organizational structure as "It is too heavy and slow". The central command can hardly cover all the divisions in detail, so the performance of each department is not fully under control.
Another group said that "organizational culture affects how to work in an organization." For example, office hours are not like other real office hours. The leader said that "the government recruits new staff from a huge pool by setting broad specifications that fit someone, and in the private sector they set more specific qualifications that fit". But one participant said that "the workload is not less than the worker, but there are fewer people working." In addition, most participants mention that working people would have a much higher workload than others.
The training program is also considered useful, but from the experience of the respondents said that it is not as a norm. In addition to resources, the fast system environment is not fully supported as a global company. Even the environment is not well managed like the servant service, they are not well clean which leads to health problems.
One of the managers in medicine said "the given budget is not related to the real situation, it only counts according to the population in that area". The knowledge management in the government organization is not exactly happening, except in the medicine industry. The system to control performance does exist, but the implementation and enforcement is not that strong.
For the interviewees who have ever worked in the private sector, they all claim the same thing that "the pay is too low". and "the second return process is a long way to get overtime in May, it would be paid in July." This factor makes the employee think that he will do it only if it is enough for this return. In addition, low incomes lead to the problem of corruption when their salary is not enough to survive. For example, one participant said: "Corruption can happen in a small proportion, such as an overpaid transport fee".
Limitations
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION
Conclusions
Development and resources: The training program is not really useful in working life, while knowledge management is not well organised. Limited and not exactly relevant budget gives less improvement and leads to scarcity of working tools. They may have to do other things to get more income and may lead to corruption in some way like working hours.
Most of it makes people not want to work or demotivates them more than it increases the motivation to work. All systems are designed to achieve greater productivity and reduce costs, leading to greater profits. If they have a higher return or higher salary, the private sector as a government does not allow them to have a free hour in their working hours.
Therefore, employees have adequate workload, they have no time to gossip or politics on duty. They are more wary of the law of diminishing returns in economics, which is "the diminishing marginal product of a production process as the quantity of a single factor of production increases gradually while the quantities of all other factors of production remain constant . .” (Brown, 2016) In addition to the colleague, there are more than one person who can work in place of another which is protection by not losing from the worker's permit. However, the most significant thing is a good person who has attitude in his or her mind to do for the people and be right that is the most valuable people for the government organization.
Recommendation
Limitation and suggestions for future research
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Introduction to Interview
Appendix B: Consent Form
Letter of Informed Consent
