Abstract:
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Public service delivery (PSD) is an issue with which the government of
Thailand should be concerned as a first priority because it is important for improving
the country’s sustainable development. The principal of democracy is citizencentered, where the quality of citizens’ lives is a significant goal for government to
support the quality of life. The public organization that is closest to the citizen is the
local government, and city municipalities are the strongest local government for PSD
compared with others. Thus, this is the reason why this research has used city
municipalities for the study of PSD.
There are many problems with PSD in local governments that are reflected in
the workload returned, all types of corruption, the failure of PSD management, etc.
This has caused many chaotic situations for the Thai government to deal with, and the
cause of these problems can be classified into 3 groups. The first is the fast and
unstable changes in politics, economics, and the social situation in Thailand. The
second is the phenomena of innovation, technology. and e-government; and the third
is the changes in the models and standards of PSD management in terms of being
aligned with the diversity of the current situations.
Therefore, HRM structure and competency are necessary for PSD to be used
as devices and methods to handle these situations. The methodology of the research is
a mixed-methods approach that applies both quality and quantity research. Two
questionnaires were used to collect the data from the citizens in 8 city municipalities
from 4 parts of Thailand (from a total of 30 city municipalities). The first
questionnaire was used for the group of staff workers and leaders working for city
municipalities, a total of 280 persons; and the second one was for the citizens that had
come to use the PSD, a total of 447 persons. The data collection for this research
began in August, 2017 and lasted until May, 2018. For the qualitative study, there
were 11 in-depth interviews, executives having responsibility for the auditing and
appraisal of the PSD of the local government, the principals of city municipalities, the
executives of the National Municipal League of Thailand ( NMITL), the private sector,
independent organizations, the staff members of small local government, and specialist
scholars that studied local government. All of the in-depth interviewees had
considerable experience with PSD in the Thai local government, so the benefits of the
quality research will be applied by suggesting best practices and a HPWS ( high
performance working system) for Thai HRM structures and competencies for improving
Thai PSD.
The results of the quantitative of the research revealed that formal structures
such as laws, rules, and regulations determined by the central government were
aligned with local contexts, so they could be classified into 2 groups and explained
using the qualitative research (in-depth interviews). First, the group of high executives
that worked in the local government had the opinion that the central government did
not understand local contexts, which are different and unique. Thus, the standards,
laws, and regulations from the central government cannot cover all local contexts. On
the other hand, the private sector, independent organizations, and the PSD staff working
for the local government think that the system of the central government supports them in
their work.
The research suggestions are, first, Thailand needs an HPWS to improve HRM
structure and competency in turn to increase the quality of PSD. Second, the mission
returning (the workload that the local government cannot undertake and then return to
the central government) problems can be solved by classifying the competency level
of the local government and decentralizing it little by little according to the workload
that each local government can handle. Third, classifying citizen groups in order to
provide the right service to the right groups of the citizen is the best way to prevent
wasting resources with the wrong groups that do not need them. Fourth, applying
technology and databases is very significant for the PSD staff so that it can work
effectively and so that the staff members can have time to improve the visions and
wisdom of working for PSD. Fifth, citizen participation must be supported in order to
be strong, because it can help the central and local government audit PSD work,
suggest how to solve problems and improve PSD, and raise the level of participation
in PSD.
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