Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a strong influence on the Thai economy since they account for more than 95% of the companies in Thailand. They are not merely miniature versions of big corporations because not everything that works for big corporations will work for SMEs as well. Thai SMEs need a tool to help them to identify effective leaders for their organizations. Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness has been shown to be able to identify the right leader for various control situations in the United States. However, the model has never been specifically tested on the SMEs in Thailand. To determine whether Fiedler's model is also applicable to Thai SMEs, twelve Thai companies participated in this research study. One supervisory leader was selected from each company to answer the questionnaires provided by the model (translated in Thai) in the form of a structured interview to establish the theoretical effectiveness of the leader. One superior and two subordinates of the same supervisory leader participated in another structured interview to determine the observed effectiveness. The research found only 33.3% percent agreement between theoretical and observed effectiveness. Since the translation process and how the questions were understood by the respondents could be the cause of the low support for the model, the questionnaires that had been translated into Thai were then tested to see if the translation from English to Thai was accurate enough to convey the original work-related meanings that were intended. The results of the tests on the questionnaire show that Thai words used in the questionnaire are acceptable according to the standard English translation with an average of 59 percent of the meanings overlapping each other. Another test was then done using the newly revised translation that focused on the relationship between superior and subordinate at work and the result showed no significant change in the outcomes of the model. The low support for the mode, therefore, was not caused by the translation. Possible reasons for the low support of Fiedler's model include the characteristics of SMEs and the characteristics of Thai culture. The characteristics of both SMEs and Thai culture could affect the nature of the relationship between a superior and subordinate in Thai SMEs that resulted in the poor performance of Fiedler's Contingency Model of Leadership Effectiveness. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2006.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267211 |
| Creators | Chokchainarong, Direk. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
Page generated in 0.0014 seconds