From Crisis to Adaptation: A Model for Educational Service Area Offices Chorpha Supradith Na Ayudhya, Ed.D student, Semester1,2000 The University of Melbourne. Abstract This paper studies the importance of strategic thinking during the Thai economic crisis period from July 1997. Self-adaptation or reform and ‘Krabuankarn Prachakhom’ or civil-society are strategic directions to survive the crisis. The paper also focuses on strategic alert regarding what will happen to the Thai Ministry of Education by 2002 through its educational reform, particularly in administration and management. What kinds of leadership, skills and values do government officials in the Ministry need to be prepared for successful change? Transformational and quality leadership, promoting double loop learning and practice in strategic thinking including appreciation of the values of good governance and a service orientated mind will be necessary. These initiatives are expected to build up Educational Service Area Offices—the new decentralized pattern of Thai educational administration to be Quality and Learning Organizations. Their accountability can be demonstrated by their efficiency/effectiveness in government budget expenses, including providing quality services to people; at the same time government officials in the Area Offices have professionalism and integrity to serve people accordingly and create an impact on society. When I exchanged Thai bahts to Australian dollars in late June 1997 to revisit Perth, I was delighted that the currency was very strong at about nineteen bahts a dollar, instead of more than twenty. One week later, when the devaluation was announced, I realized that the country had been fighting the currency war with overseas speculators. Initially, it seemed that Thai authorities won but, finally, they lost the battle, with
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From Crisis to Adaptation: A Model for Educational Service Area Offices
Chorpha Supradith Na Ayudhya,
Ed.D student, Semester1,2000
The University of Melbourne.
Abstract
This paper studies the importance of strategic thinking during the Thai economic crisis period from July 1997. Self-adaptation or reform and ‘Krabuankarn Prachakhom’ or civil-society are strategic directions to survive the crisis. The paper also focuses on strategic alert regarding what will happen to the Thai Ministry of Education by 2002 through its educational reform, particularly in administration and management. What kinds of leadership, skills and values do government officials in the Ministry need to be prepared for successful change? Transformational and quality leadership, promoting double loop learning and practice in strategic thinking including appreciation of the values of good governance and a service orientated mind will be necessary. These initiatives are expected to build up Educational Service Area Offices—the new decentralized pattern of Thai educational administration to be Quality and Learning Organizations. Their accountability can be demonstrated by their efficiency/effectiveness in government budget expenses, including providing quality services to people; at the same time government officials in the Area Offices have professionalism and integrity to serve people accordingly and create an impact on society.
When I exchanged Thai bahts to Australian dollars in late June 1997
to revisit Perth, I was delighted that the currency was very strong at
about nineteen bahts a dollar, instead of more than twenty. One
week
later, when the devaluation was announced, I realized that the
country had been fighting the currency war with overseas
speculators. Initially, it seemed that Thai authorities won but, finally,
they lost the battle, with all foreign reserves exhausted. Dating back
perceive, understand and reason in selecting appropriate strategies
to prepare the country for modern changes.
However, the modern authorities in the time of the economic crisis
also had good education from overseas and had long financial
working
experiences. What complication in the system gave them
inadequate strategic thinking, lacking, what Garratt (1995, p. 2,
quoted in Caldwell, 2000) called ‘different perspective of the
internal and external dynamics’?
Considering the IMF’s statement, released in August 22, 1997 in
Washington, on the approval of stand-by credit for Thailand, the
main wreckage of the Thai financial system can be summarized as a
lack of financial discipline, adverse development and a series of
serious currency attacks.
However, it is well understood that the economic crisis was not only
a problem. It reflected the real political problem ‘in which politicians
buy their way to power and then devote their energies to recouping
their investment’ (Bangkok Post, April 14, 2000) resulting in
inefficiency and weakness of administration. Political management
based on good governance was called for as the key to restructuring
the financial sector (Desai, 1997, Far Eastern Economic Review,
December 25, 1997). Considering the above opinions, I would like to
propose, as illustrated in Figure 1, that strategic thinking in the Thai
contexts must be based on good governance. Without this value as
an essential foundation, strategic thinking for the public good
cannot be attained.
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Strategic Thinking
Public Good
Value: Good Governance
Figure 1: Strategic thinking for the public good requires the value of
good governance as its essential foundation.
The results of inadequate strategic thinking were huge. During the
crisis, thousands of companies and factories permanently closed
their businesses. Millions of people were laid off. They had no money
for living after their savings plus their three or six months of
compensation were spent. They could not pay for their children to
go to schools. There were high rates of transferring children from
private to public schools. Many people could not even send their
children to public schools. Consumer goods’ prices and taxes
increased. Some people responded to their immediate financial
problems by committing suicide. Overcoming the crisis, the
government sought financial loans from the IMF and was required to
follow the IMF’ s rigid rules and regulations. It was said among Thai
people that the country lost its independence to the IMF. In social
sectors, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) gave loans to ease
difficulties in education and employment aspects. Japan also
provided the Miyazawa Fund to assist Thailand in the crisis.
Strategic thinking in an era of crisis: the focus on
the social sector
10
Among the turmoil and difficulties of the time, leadership in people
without authority also played an active role in the social sector.
There were many academics sharing their opinions with the public
on how to progress through the crisis. The common prominent ideas
were of self-adaptation or reform and ‘Krabuankarn Prachakhom’ or
civil society as a tool to achieve the goal. These strategic directions
were diffused and discussed through all kinds of media, creating a
common strong acceptance of the urgency for reform and of a new
value-civic responsibility. In Reform of Thai Society: A National
Agenda (1998), a reform advocate clearly illustrated the social
changes in Thai society:
…Thai society is confronting the most drastic social changes ever from within and from its interconnectedness with the complex and rapid changing outside world. For thousands of years, Thai society had been based on the system of relationship and codes of conduct of small village communities. Nearly overnight, it has radically changed into a complex society with a modern economic system, information technology and know-how…Combined with the currency trade, speculations and the tidal waves of modern culture and technology, they all add-up into severe attack on Thai society. Meanwhile, Thais have yet to set up and effectively regulate a system in which people can live and cope with changes in the dynamic new society. In addition, social institutions- be they political, bureaucratic, educational, religious, judicial and media systems-have failed to adapt themselves to cope with the formidable social changes. The result is organizational weakness, confusion, conflicts and sufferings…
http://www.bkkpost.samart.co.th search by words ‘prawase wasi’
It is clear that from every aspect of changes in society, the old way
of doing things could not support Thailand through the current crisis.
Thai society urgently needs a new value of civil mindedness and
reform in all sectors: finance, economy, politics, bureaucracy,
education, mass media, and legal system (ibid). However, reform of
all aspects of society cannot be accomplished by individuals or a
single organization. The success of reforms depends on a civil
All segments in society must come together to think and take
action. Individuals and different sectors in the bureaucracy, politics,
business, academics, religion, non-governmental organizations and
the mass media must all take part in the process. This requires Thai
to change their old mentality from a non-of-my-business attitude to
civil-mindedness, that is, emphaty for others’ problems and
teaming up to solve problems together.
(Bangkok Post July 30,1998, Reform of Thai society: a national
agenda, http://www.bkkpost.samart.co.th)
The civil minded atmosphere was widespread and this strategy
helped Thai people overcome the turbulence. Instead of the
previous none-of-
my-business attitude and the expected higher rate of crime and
robbery, people were sympathetic to others and helped whatever
they could. Non-partisan groups tried to help solve national
problems and troubled people. Many free-food centers were set up
in Bangkok and the provinces. Vocational training programs for laid
off people were arranged. The emergent problem of lacking foreign
reserves was solved by the ‘Thais Help Thais Fund’, gaining
donation for 1.7 billions baht in gold and cash from people around
the country, which was given to the government to become a new
national foreign exchange reserve. Ruam Duay Chuay Kan or
‘Everybody Help’--a radio station, teamed up with all police stations
and other organizations to act as a coordinating media center for
everyone to phone for immediate help or offer help in all social
problems on a twenty-four hours basis. The civil mindedness could
also be seen in the dynamic participation and involvement of people
discussing reform matters necessary to reach a better society.
12
A civil society was translated not only as one having civil
mindedness in social activities but also in the economic perspective
of grouping local people to strengthen the local economy. An
economic definition was given to civil society as:
The society which groups people into clubs, association, foundations, cooperatives and communities to develop the economy and improve the spirit, morals, culture and the environment. Groups would be strengthened as members joined together to act, work and manage.
(Prawase Wasi, 1997, http://www.bkkpost.samart.co.th search by Prawase Wasi).
An example is that villagers involved in farming, handicraft making,
agricultural processing and so forth joined to form a saving fund.
Members could seek loans and profits were arranged to create
welfare
in the form of education and medical services (Ibid). It was
necessary for the government to encourage people to form
community groups that work together to strengthen local
economies. This strategic direction is regarded as development from
the bottom up, as the country ‘even with IMF assistance would find
it hard to survive if the economic foundation remained weak’ (Ibid).
Fortunately, the strategic thinking of establishing civil society has
come into the parliament. Most of the members of the new senate
who were elected by people according to the Constitution of 1997
were reported to support this strategy. They are moving to push for
the strengthening of communities and local groups including
integrating this strategy in the Ninth National Development Plan
Regarding reform, matters on reforming were widely discussed and
broadcast by media: television, radio, newspapers and publications.
Thailand today has reform in all sectors as a main agenda,
especially political reform, which is regarded as one of the critical
success factors of recovery. Information disseminated to the general
public encouraged strong participation from the people in
exchanging opinions, apart from public polls and being scrutinized
by scholars. Public seminars and public hearings were organized on
a continuous basis. In educational reform, for example, a total of
254,318 persons participated in seminars and eight public hearings
in all regions were conducted before creation of the National
Education Act, 1999, taking one year and eleven months (ONEC,
1999a).
In short, on the road through turbulence and recovery, strategic
thinking among Thai academic people who have no authority could
mainly help people get through the most difficult period and look
forward to a better society. I would like to propose that thinking
strategically in the Thai context, does not need to happen only from
the top-down hierarchy pattern or in a vertical line but can also
happen from the bottom-up and communicate throughout in the
horizontal line by mass media, as shown by figure 2.
Strategic thinking top-down
14
Strategic thinking bottom-up
Figure 2: Strategic thinking can occur from top-down, bottom up and
communicate throughout in the horizontal line by mass
media.
Strategic alert in an era of reform: the focus on education
From the economic collapse, Thais realized that developing only
economics was the wrong strategy, as education is an important
tool in human resource development. Some indicate that a weak
human resource base has been one of the underlying factors
causing the economic and financial crisis. Many have highlighted the
lack of Thai graduates capable of independent analytical thought as
one factor responsible for the country's economic downfall (ONEC,
1999b)
The criticism of Michelle Zack in the Far Eastern Economic Review,
December 4, 1997 is true. She comments that:
Educating people has never been a major focus of Thai government. Other Asian Tigers stressed education from the beginning of the boom times, but the Thais were trying to catch up in the middle of a major economic setback.
In addition, the highest-ranking official in the Office of the National
Education Commission also accepts that:
Defense and politics were given priorities during the cold war period. The nation enjoyed wealth during the economic boom in the last decade. It was not until the economic recession crisis in the past few years that Thai society came to realize that something should be done with the education system in order to speed up Thailand’s economic recovery and competitiveness. As educators, we cannot deny the responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and political ill effects since people who caused all these problems are the products of our current educational system.
Quality assurance is most pro-active in that it seeks to prevent the occurrence of problems and errors through the implementation and maintenance of a quality management system. Here the work product is not the only focus, but also the process and people that are involved in its production.
According to the above definition, it can be concluded that a quality
management system helps to guarantee quality by caring for all
26
elements of the system (work process, people who work and work
products/service).
The aims of quality assurance are:
To identify client requirements;
To achieve those requirements;
To provide evidence of the achievement.
(D’angilo, 1996, p.6)
From the aims questions can be raised such as who are the
customers in the Educational Service Areas? What is the customers’
focus? How to achieve the requirement? How to guarantee the
quality?
Considering this in the Thai context, the external customers are
communities, parents, students, individuals, and private/other public
organizations in the Areas; and the internal customers are staff. The
external customers demand high quality services, whereas the
internal customers need good management and good leadership so
that they can work to the best of their ability. However, an internal
quality assessment will be required, as the ‘ultimate determinant of
the quality in any organization is within the organization itself’.
(Pauline, 1990) whilst the external assessment will be validation
through unbiased and professional judgement, ‘like a clear well
polished mirror’ (ibid).
Components of quality assurance: there are four components of
quality assurance:
Everyone in the organization has a responsibility for maintaining
the quality of the product/service;
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Everyone in the organization has a responsibility for enhancing
the quality of the product/service;
Everyone in the organization understands, uses and feels
ownership of the systems, which are in place for maintaining and
enhancing quality; and
Management (and sometimes the customer or client) regularly
checks the validity and viability of the systems for checking
quality.
(Frazer, 1991, p.11)
The above components stress the importance of ownership,
participation and responsibility of all staff in maintaining and
enhancing quality. In addition, this, the importance can be seen in
the management process opening for quality reviewing internally
and externally from the customers.
The concepts of quality and quality assurance lead to quality
leadership which motivates ‘others in the organization to serve their
customers, internal and external, with devotion’ (Sallis, 1994,
p.238).
The major functions of quality leadership are:
To have a vision of total quality for the organization; To be visible and accessible to staff; To have a clear commitment to the quality improvement process; To communicate the quality message; To ensure that customer needs are at the center of the organization’s
policies and practices; To ensure that long-term strategic quality planning takes place; To ensure that there are adequate channels for the voice of customers; To lead staff development and invest in training; To be careful not to blame others when problems arise without
considering the evidence-most problems are the result of the policies of the institution and not the failings of staff;
To lead innovation within their organization; To facilitate the process of continuous improvement; To ensure that organizational structures clearly define responsibilities
and provide the maximum delegation compatible with accountability; To be committed to the removal of artificial barriers, whether they be
organization or cultural; To build effective teams and motivate employees;
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To develop appropriate mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating success;
To develop effective quality systems and procedures.
(Sallis, 1994, p.238)
From the above, it can be said that quality leadership has three
main important roles:creating a culture of working with quality,
establishing a quality management system and strengthening staff
with professional development. In the Thai context, quality
leadership would serve to cultivate a quality culture within staff, so
that each individual feels that quality ‘starts at me’ and it would
become a way of working life. Without such cultivation, quality
cannot be sustained in the long run, as it cannot be ordered from
the top-down, it is rather the business of everyone in the
organization to construct, maintain and enhance. QL would also help
install a quality system in the Area Offices. I propose that the Area
Offices in the future not only cultivate a quality culture but also try
one of the suitable quality assurance systems to become a model
for other public organizations. Last but not least, QL would promote
staff development to be more professional and to be able to provide
quality services to people with efficiency and effectiveness.
Another concern is that the Area’ s Offices would not only focus on
‘maximum customer satisfaction’ but also need to ‘keep costs down’
(Doherty, 1994f). As the country has limited resources, improving
quality with fewer resources (Freeman, 1994, p.156f) seems to be a
paradox but is necessary.
In summary, TF are leaders who promote change. They are
proactive leaders while QL would promote providing quality service
to people and continuous improvement. These two types of
leadership can complement each other.
29
Why Double Loop Learning?
Single/Double Loop Learning:
Argyris (1980) defines single-loop learning as detecting and
correcting error without altering underlying values or policies while
the double-loop concept entails detecting/correcting error
involving the changing of underlying values and policies.
From these contrasting definitions, the Area Offices need to promote
double-loop learning, as the country has become a complex society
facing many formidable changes. Petrie & Alpert (1982) suggest
that, when there is a balance between internal and external
environment, single-loop organizational learning is sufficient but
when an organization faces difficulties, double-loop learning is
needed. Thus promoting double-loop learning is necessary in the
Thai context of reform. Overmeer (1997) indicates that building
double-loop learning will assist in developing a learning
organization.
What is a learning organization? A learning organization can be
defined as:
An organization that has woven a continuous and enhanced capacity to
learn, adapt and change into the fabric of its character. It has values,
policies, practices, programs, systems, and structures that support and
accelerate organizational learning. Its learning results in changes in the
ways in which individuals and the organization operate.
(O’Brien, 1994, p.4)
From this definition, the Area Offices need to construct total
mechanism--values, policies, practices, programs, systems and
structures, to foster continuous learning. Garvin (1993, quoted in
30
O’Brien, 1994, pp.4-5) indicates that organizations should build in
the following systems:
Systematic problem solving;
Experimentation with new approaches;
Learning from their own organization’ s experiences or
from those of others;
Transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently throughout
the organizations.
From the systems, staff can learn by evaluating their capacity in
comparison with others; updating their knowledge and skill bases in
accordance with the current changes; finding a chance to learn new
attitude and technologies; solving problems creatively and helping
others to learn to change and grow (O’Brien, 1994).
According to the above, learning becomes dynamic because people
learn and adapt as a continuous cycle. Senge (1990, quoted in
O’Brien, 1994) suggests another higher level of learning called
generative learning which not only adapts but also creates or
produces new solutions/new products/services. The abilities of
learning, adapting and creating are necessary to organizations’
survival and growth.
From the above concept, the essences of learning, adapting and
creating, are necessary to new organizations incorporating radical
changes, such as the Area Offices, where power is decentralized and
staff have to exercise responsibility. In order to grow, the office
leaders need to promote double-loop learning among staff and
strive to be learning organizations which are flexible, adaptive,
31
creative and capable of changing (O’Brien, 1994). In addition, as the
Area Offices
have the role of listening and responding to stakeholders, they
should encourage learning among communities as well. Wilkinson &
Pedler (1996, p.241) suggest that the public service should link
policy, strategy and operations with user ‘voice’ by encouraging
stakeholders to present their opinions through local papers,
questionnaires, group discussions or public seminars/hearings. Such
participation is a way of being ‘proactive in the open, real time
information nets of the public service as a learning organization’
(Ibid, p.242). In summary, the Area Offices, their staff and people in
the Area would together learn, adapt and create a better milieu.
Why strategic thinking?
In the transition to devolution, confusion may arise due to the old
familiarities of doing things. The new Area Offices certainly need
strategic thinking to give directions of managing people, policy,
planning, resources, work processes and technologies in the Area.
With strategic thinking based on the value of good governance, as
proposed at the beginning of the paper, the Offices would be able to
exercise decentralized power effectively leading to the expected
outcomes and the public good.
Why values?
Definitions: Schwartz (1992, quoted in Gurr, 2000, p.1) defines
values as concepts or beliefs which pertain to desirable end states
or behaviors, to transcend specific situations, to guide selection or
evaluation of behavior and events, and which are ordered by
32
relative importance. Jaques (2000) indicates that values are ideas
about the worth or importance of things, concepts, and people
(http://www.leader-values.com).
There are four types of values:
(1)Basic human values, such as freedom and respect for others;
(2)General moral values, such as social justice and fairness
(3)Professional values, such as adoption of business practices and
centrality of students; and
(4)Social and political values, such as participation and commitment
(Gurr, 2000, p.3)
The role of values: Values have an important role in guiding the way
people work. The following phrase well voiced the important role of
values in people:
If the CEO can established over-arching corporative values and
philosophies, which are nested within basic societal values, and
which meet people’s own generic values, he or she can get the
whole organization working effectively in the same broad
direction. It is our values that move us, bind us together, push
us apart, and generally make the world go round
(http://www.leader-values.com)
As bribery and corruption are among the problems which have
eroded Thai society, it is important to enhance moral spirit in
government officials. Crump (1993, p.74) recommended five related
issues of being moral:
Most decisions that have consequences for others have moral
dimensions;
Moral knowledge is not a separate or distinct form of knowledge;
above functions to achieve the desirable outcomes. In wider scope,
the people in the Areas also need to be civil-minded to support such
development. If so, reform for the public good can be actually
achievable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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