The role of human resource management practices in promoting good governance in the Thai civil service

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to 1) examine the influence of human resource management practices on good governance in the Thai civil service 2) examine human resource management practices that relate to good governance in the Thai civil service, 3) understand the casual relationship that HRM practices have towards good governance in the Thai civil service and 4) understand the mediation role of ethics management and ethical culture that pass the relationship from HRM practices to good governance in the Thai civil service. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled: the role of HRM practices in promoting good governance in the Thai civil service modeled on a 5 point rating scale. Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items. The reliability index of the instrument was 0.98. An analysis was performed on the data of 400 participants who are civil servants from 20 ministries selected by stratified random sampling method. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis, path analysis with AMOS, and the PROCESS Macro for testing the serial multiple mediators were used in this research. The interview methods were also applied for qualitative data gathering.

The findings of this research revealed that the HRM practices in the Thai civil service of 4 dimensions which are recruitment and selection, compensation and rewards, training and development and law and discipline were in accordance with empirical data. The level of perception of good governance in the Thai civil service is high and consistent with empirical data. Model of relationship between casual factors and good governance in the Thai civil service could be able to explain 74% of variance of good governance. The highest direct effect variables were ethical culture, followed by training and development and law and discipline and the direct effects sizes were 0.55, 0.29 and 0.16 respectively. Recruitment and selection and compensation and rewards revealed no association to good governance. Ethics management and ethical culture were found to significantly and partially mediate the relationship between the training and development to good governance and they also partially mediate the relationship of law and discipline towards the good governance in the Thai civil service.