The environmental change in Rajabhat Universities, Thailand.

Sinthunava, Kittiwan

INTRODUCTION

Since 2004, all the Rajabhat Universities in Thailand had set up new HRM policies (because they had changed from teachers' training colleges to become the newly formed universities) to support them to survive in the changing environment. Each university has different strategies of HRM; it is dependent on the organisational culture and the responding of staff. However, there are four major factors that have impacted on HRM policies in all six Rajabhat Universities in Bangkok, Thailand: the economic, political, social and technological factors which have transformed the traditional way of work and life of staff in those universities to become more complex and competitive. Students became the most important customers (King, 2004) and the centre of every decision and staff have to provide the high quality of learning and teaching processes to them (Denman, 2005). Teaching alone is not enough to get a better salary and promotion, staff need to conduct research and get some funding from outside their universities (Ambos, Makela, Birkinshaw & D'Este, 2008). Publishing the research results and writing text books became more acceptable for getting a higher position (Dahlstrand, 2008). English language became the most important skill of exchanging knowledge and creating academic network with the others (Schwartz, 2009). It can be seen that those new environments at the universities had completely changed the life of the staff and the way they used to work at Rajabhat Universities. Most of them had to start taking a course on how to do a research, how to write a research proposal and how to use statistics for analysing the data. It is not easy to accept all of these sudden changes, but staff do not have other choices. Change is difficult but not to change is impossible. The six Rajabhat Universities understood this situation and the top administrators had prepared the new HRM policies to help and support staff to cope with the new environment and changing process.

CHANGE

What is change?

The Macquarie Dictionary (Yallop, Bernard, Blair, Butler, Delbridge & Peters, 2005) suggests that change as a verb means to make different, alter in condition, appearance, etc., and as a noun means variation, alteration, modification, deviation, transformation, etc. The word change can be assumed to mean 'to transform someone or something to be different, or to substitute one thing for another'. It can have a positive meaning or a negative meaning in this sense and when someone or something has changed it can be implied that they are not the same as before.

Most scholars agree that change management is about making things better and different. This is important for the new environment and survival (Robbins & Judge, 2007). The newly formed Rajabhat Universities that needed to survive had to respond to change and adapt themselves to the new environment. However, it is generally agreed that change is difficult and unpredictable, especially when concerning Thai culture which has a high resistance for change. Hargreaves (2005) explains that there are many reasons why institutions might not change. There is no guarantee that change will be successful nor who will benefit and how. Moreover, in many higher education institutions, situations change too fast for people to cope, and they suffer from anxiety, frustration and despair. However, it is accepted that no matter how difficult it may be for higher education institutions, they cannot avoid change if they wish to survive and develop to become successful (Marginson, 2006).

Why does change occur?

Sometimes change is related to external factors such as competitors introducing new products or services, or government agencies enacting new laws that will require many changes. Sarason (1982) suggests that political processes are the major factors producing educational change. Hargreaves (2005) agrees but suggests that societal forces also push educational change. However, many higher education institutions have to change because of internal factors such as changing organisational structures, or new presidents or executive administrators.

Change requires leadership and has to be supported by members in the organisations (Bass, 1960; Hatch & Cunliffe, 2006). In higher education institutions in Thailand, the Presidents and the Vice-Presidents are the group of people who manage change. Change management is not a process that happens accidentally. The key factor to effect change is the people who must implement it, and change always brings resistance, loss, challenge to competence and conflict (Evans, 1996; Fullan, 2005). Thus to make change happen in ways that benefit higher education institutions is a serious challenge for all leaders in every institution. Fullan (2003) stated that the meaning of change for individuals in an organisation is dependent on how the change affects the individual's understanding and work. The meaning of change may be understood by each person in a different manner and throughout the same university the meaning of change can be constructed differently. Change can create both positive and negative sentiments in lecturers and staff in the same faculty. Thus the President's plan how to implement change successfully and develop the methodologies that will support the processes of change management is important.

How does change occur?

In 1947, Kurt Lewin introduced the 'three steps model' to describe organisational change. The major reasons that his model had been used to explain change in the Rajabhat universities can be seen by the processes that each President had used to introduce change in their HRM policies. While there have been a number of change theories (Argyris & Schon, 1974; Daft & Weick, 1984; Pedler, Burgoyne & Boydell, 1990; Senge, 1990; Argyris, 1993; Edmondson & Moingeon, 1998; Skelton, 2002; Trowler, Fanghanel & Wareham, 2005) the appropriate explanation for this study is by following the concept of Lewin's Field Theory. The three steps model involves unfreezing, moving, and refreezing (Lewin, 1952). Although Lewin's three steps model makes it appear that change occurs in linear fashion, at each of the three steps there are unquantifiable numbers of combinations of decisions to be made which produce the chaotic nature of change. Lewin believed that change is difficult and the same approach could not be applied in every organisation (Lewin, 1947b). Human behaviour is complicated and in order to change behaviour, the organisation needs to be destabilised, or unfrozen, before the old behaviour can be discarded or unlearnt and new behaviours adopted (Burnes, 2004).

The 'unfreezing' of the present level may involve quite different problems in different cases...To break open the shell of complacency and self-righteousness it is sometimes necessary to bring about an emotional stir up. (Lewin, 1952: 229)

The key to unfreezing 'was to see that human change, whether at the individual or group level, was a profound psychological dynamic process' (Schein, 1996: 28). There are three processes that Schein (1996) comments that will support organisations to make successful changes: the disconfirmation of the validity of the status quo, the induction of guilt or survival anxiety, and the creation of psychological safety. People will not change if they think that change is not necessary or will not have an impact upon them. They are likely to accept change if they are convinced that they have no option but to accept it (Burnes, 2004).

Lewin's Field Theory proposes that change occurs when supporting forces outweigh restraining forces (Lewin, 1952). It is the responsibility of the change agents, in this study the President and the Vice-Presidents, to generate supporting forces and eliminate restraining forces (Ivancevich, Konopaske & Matteson, 2008) by using processes to make staff feel safe from loss of face and humiliation (Burnes, 2004). People can accept the change after they believe that they will survive in the new environment. Lewin (1947a: 33) suggested that 'the greater the social value of a group standard the greater is the resistance of the individual group member to move away from this level.' Especially in Thai culture to maintain a good relationship between members is the most important concern for society. The norm of a group plays a significant role in changing behaviour of staff in Thai organisations.

Unfreezing can be divided into two distinct components. After analysing the current organisational structure there needs to be an attempt to remove resistance to fears of change, and there needs to be an attempt to create a situation whereby people are motivated to change their behaviour and assist in the process of institutional reform (Lewin, 1952). In other words, unfreezing can be generated by increasing driving forces, decreasing restraining forces and a combination of the two (Robbins, Waters-Marsh & Millett, 2004). Generally, when an individual or a group is forced to change their behaviour, they generate a resistance to change. Change agents have to unfreeze those behaviours or the attitudes of people who object or resist change.

Driving forces are the processes used by change agents to change people's behaviour. It is argued that these forces are likely to encourage people to try new things and to change their habits. When the change agents increase the driving forces, individuals or groups use forces that hinder the change process. To overcome this pressure the change agents have to decrease restraining forces. Some change agents choose to only increase driving forces or only to decrease restraining forces, but other change agents combine the two forces to make change successful.

The second step of Lewin's model is called moving. Unfreezing only creates a feeling for the need to learn about the new situation, but unfreezing does not control or predict what might happen next (Schein, 1996). It is important to unfreeze human behaviour by making people feel dissatisfaction or frustration with their current state. After unfreezing it is necessary for people to move to the new state. As Burke (1987: 56) states:

   bringing about lasting change means initially unlocking or
   unfreezing the present social system. This might require some kind
   of confrontation.... Next, behavioral movement must occur in the
   direction of desired change. Finally, deliberate steps must be
   taken to ensure that the new state of behavior remains relatively
   permanent.

Once people accept that they are not able to prevent a change from occurring, they will attempt to move to a new situation in which they feel comfortable. In this study the change agents (i.e., the Presidents and the Vice-Presidents) are trying to transform staff behaviour by introducing Lewin's model, however each Rajabhat University has been interpreting the process of unfreezing, moving and refreezing in a number of different ways. They do this by managing control and managing transition (Ivancevich et al., 2008). This involves learning new skills, new information and creating a new environment for employees, and the transition of employees' attitudes about their roles in implementing the new organisational goals. In reality, management control relates to a retraining stage, in which productivity may be reduced temporarily, due to the time required for training, and it will take time for this transition to start showing benefits to the organisation (Lewin, 1947a).

METHODOLOGY

There are two major kinds of case study. An intrinsic case study is used when the researcher wants to study the particular subject. An instrumental case study is used when the researcher has a research question and needs to find the information by studying something particularly (Stake, 2006). In order to understanding how six Rajabhat Universities have been responding to change and the implementations of leaders in higher education in Thailand, the six Rajabhat Universities in Bangkok were selected as individual instrumental case studies to understand the process of responding to change and surviving in the new higher education environment in Thailand.

To select cases that will be representative of other cases is difficult for the qualitative researcher (Stake, 1997). Each case study is different and the main purpose of using a case study is to understand the detail and experience associated with that case (Yin, 2009). Stake (1995) suggests that if researchers want to produce generalisations it is not appropriate to use a case study approach because the real function of case study is to highlight its particularity and uniqueness.

Additionally, information from a holistic perspective is important as the researcher wants to gain an in-depth understanding of the situation of how six Rajabhat Universities responded to changes. Yin (2009) suggests that 'how' and 'why' questions are suitable for case study research. Yin (2003, p.6) explains that "such questions deal with operational links needing to be traced over time, rather than frequency or incidence."

ANALYSIS OF DATA

The researcher used open coding and categorised interviews in Thai first and translated into English later. There are four basic guidelines when conducting open coding. Firstly, every interviewee has been asked a specific and consistent set of questions. Secondly, the information from the interviews have been analysed in a detailed, careful and thorough manner. After that the interviewer wrote a theoretical note about the category involved for each part of the interview. The process was slow, and involved frequent stopping and starting of the interview tape to take note of all relevant information including remembering the context of the actual interview. Finally, all the information derived from the interviews does not assume analytic relevance of any demographic variable such as age, sex, social class, and so forth until the data show it to be relevant (Strauss, 1987).

The final stage of analysis was reported in English but during the process of writing up there was continual comparison with the Thai version. Both English and Thai versions have been categorised into higher order headings (themes) and important themes which had been generated from the interviews Identified.

The information from interviewing, document analysis and observations show that each Rajabhat University has developed their strategic plans to cope and deal with environmental changes. The names of the universities have been protected. In this study, each university has been called by the name of a princess as follows: Rajabhat Antoinette (RA), Rajabhat Beatrice (RB), Rajabhat Christabel (RC), Rajabhat Danielle (RD), Rajabhat Elizabeth (RE) and Rajabhat Fran (RF).

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

In the six case studies, the second step of Lewin's model, 'moving,' has been done through every faculty and most of their staff. After Rajabhat Institutes became Rajabhat Universities, the Presidents and the Vice-Presidents introduced many training programs, renovated infrastructures and provided a lot of financial support for their new policies. All these activities try to move staff behaviour to the new level that will achieve the university's goals. Lewin (1947a: 37-38) explained that:

   Motivation alone, however, does not suffice to lead to change. That
   presupposes a link between motivation and action....The decision
   links motivations to action and, at the same time, seems to have a
   'freezing' effect which is partly due to the individual's tendency
   to 'stick to his decision' and partly to the 'commitment to a
   group.'

Lewin (1947b) concluded that a successful change involves unfreezing the current situation, moving to the new situation, and finally refreezing group behaviour to the new situation. The refreezing level Lewin explained 'is determined by a force field, permanency implies that the new force field is made relatively secure against change' (Lewin, 1947a: 35). If the change agents did not refreeze the new behaviour, there is a tendency that their behaviour will change again. 'Refreezing seeks to stabilize the group at a new quasi-stationary equilibrium in order to ensure that the new behaviours are relatively safe from regression' (Burnes, 2004: 986).

The refreezing step reminds the change agents to follow and encourage people in the organisations to install, test, debug, use, measure and enhance the new system. The successful refreezing requires a commitment to remain actively involved until required new behaviours have replaced those that existed prior to the change (Levasseur, 2001). From Lewin's point of view, change is a continuous process and the successful change has to be accomplished as a group activity. Institutional change needs to refreeze the norms and their culture in order to transform the desired routines to individual behaviour (Cummings & Huse, 1989).

Planned change is often thought to be linear, moving through a number of different stages (Bartol, Martin, Tein & Matthews, 2001). However, the assumption that planned change occurs in a linear manner can be questioned. Planned change in many higher education institutions in Thailand illustrates nonlinear processes.

It is important to combine Lewin's model with Thai culture. Within the three steps, unfreezing, moving and refreezing (Lewin, 1952), the Presidents need the strong support of staff. Working in Thai organisations it is important to combine change with fun and happiness (Embree, 1950; Komin, 1990). Staff need to feel excited about work and to achieve their goals. RA and RF have created competitive environments and strong discipline for their staff and staff have confirmed that they are feeling positive about that environment. The other Rajabhat Universities have created a family atmosphere and friendly relationships in their workplaces. It is interesting to note that the core idea of having fun has been inserted into every strategic plan.

The important research that has been conducted by Hofstede in 1980 states that Thai culture has shown high Power Distance, high Uncertainty Avoidance, high Collectivism and high Femininity and these are still applicable and can be seen in every organisation around the country. However, the impact of Western culture and a globalisational style of management have changed the attitude of Thai academic executive administrators. Many Thai traditional cultural values have been gradually changed and new generations of academic people who graduated from overseas universities have adopted a more Western style culture.

In the future, it is difficult to identify whether the six Rajabhat Universities will follow the same patterns of culture found in Hofstade's study. Therefore the Presidents have to be concerned about Thai culture as a major factor in changing staff behaviour at all times. The one certainty that has been accepted is that change is chaotic and people's minds and behaviour are unpredictable. One HRM policy might work well in one Rajabhat University at a certain time; however when the environments or other factors change, the same HRM policy might not work anymore even though it has been implemented at the same Rajabhat University. Table 1 shows the different ways in which each President has attempted to manage their staff.

Most Presidents of Rajabhat Universities used negotiation techniques at least to some extent to motivate staff and in managing the organisation. However, it can be seen from Table 1 that RA and RF did not use negotiation techniques. RA uses a system in which the President explains that if staff do well, they will get paid well, if staff do badly, they get paid less or even be required to leave. For RF the President believes in controlling and setting up standard requirements; if staff do not achieve them, they are punished.

All Presidents used two-way communication to explain and persuade their members to change their behaviour and attitudes to respond to the policy of the universities.

Working as a team is a key concept in most Rajabhat Universities and has been implemented in every project. Some Rajabhat Universities work very successfully as a team and staff are willing to make decisions and take responsibility, but the others still depend on their President to make decisions. RA is the only Rajabhat University which pays more than the standard for government officers. If staff want the greater salary and benefits they need to show that they can work and generate an income for RA more than the other staff. Money and benefits to pay for staff are not a problem for RA.

RA uses a business model to manage staff. The President tries to encourage staff to compete with each other and anyone who cannot achieve the university's plans is demoted. This is unusual for Thai culture, especially for staff who work at educational institutions or government organisations. Most Presidents try to motivate staff by giving them rewards if they achieve the universities' objectives. RF did not use these techniques, but used punishment techniques to control staff to achieve the university's goals instead.

RA and RF Presidents do not attempt to avoid conflict with staff, which is unusual in Thai culture. They demand change and they force everyone to follow their policies. Both Presidents believe that staff need to be controlled and monitored closely and if staff know that they are being watched, they will perform better. Other Presidents believe that their staff will want to improve and perform well for their organisations.

Many Presidents disagree with a system of performance related pay or paying productivity bonuses. The Presidents of RB and RC say that it is impossible to use a fair system of performance indicators because it is difficult to measure who contributed the greatest performance of their career and who has the poorest performance. They believe this would create a chaotic system instead. Many Rajabhat Universities use a seniority system, which means that if a person works there longer and has higher qualifications, they should get higher salaries than younger and less qualified staff.

The six Rajabhat Universities have different policies to calculate work load per week. Some Presidents specify how many hours staff can teach per week and how many hours they have to do administrative work. However, Presidents do not specify exactly how many hours per week that staff should teach or do other jobs, but if staff are given orders from their deans, they are expected to obey. If anyone in a higher position directs them to do something, they cannot reject those jobs.

A number of Rajabhat Universities have separated teaching work from administrative work. Staff have to select between teaching and administrative jobs. They are not permitted to do both jobs at the same time. This policy has been introduced to help staff to focus on what they are doing and at the same time the benefits of this policy will provide a better quality of life and in the long term will support them to improve and increase their performance.

Most universities set the maximum hours per week that their staff can teach. For example RA, RD and RF do not allocate staff to teach more than nine hours per week. The Presidents of RB, RC and RE stated that their staff should not teach more than 15 hours per week. However, if staff wish to teach more than the standard of the universities, the Presidents cannot prohibit them from doing that either. The more hours they teach, the more money they get. It is logical to assume that many staff prefer to teach as many hours as they can.

Every Rajabhat University had spent a considerable sum of money to renovate and improve Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities. Most of the universities' policies required staff to use e-learning, e-mail and other electronic technologies in their work. RA, RD and RF have been successful in getting staff to use ICT for teaching and learning. RB, RC and RE have persuaded staff to change and learn new technologies more gradually.

Another major change that has occurred in the six Rajabhat Universities is a process which transfers power and authority from the President to the deans. After Rajabhat Institutes became Rajabhat Universities, the Presidents found that the previous organisational structure, where the Presidents controlled every decision, did not work well. Staff were unable to respond immediately to solve problems, most staff did not have enough power to make any decisions. RA, RD and RE Presidents empowered deans to make decisions that are directly related to their faculties, and deans have motivated other staff to get involved with the projects that are related to their work.

RB and RC supported deans to learn and make decisions for their faculties, but this takes time to develop the necessary skills. The President of RF explains that, although ready to devolve authority to the deans, the deans have not been able to make decisions without consulting with the President. In the future if RF continues to grow, the President knows that there will be a need to encourage deans to make more decisions for their faculties.

A lack of money is a major problem in five Rajabhat Universities in terms of the provision of a good human resource development plan. Since 2004, there have been four major new environments (Economic, Political-legal, Social, and Technological) so that each of the Rajabhat universities needs a good strategy by which to adjust and to change staff behaviour. At the beginning RA has adapted to the change more efficiently and faster than the others, but in the long term the other Rajabhat universities believe that they will become successful universities, similar to RA.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Questions of validity, reliability, and ethics are major concerns for all research. In this study the research addressed the issue of validity and reliability by using triangulation techniques. Firstly, individual interviews with the Presidents and the Vice-Presidents from each Rajabhat university allowed the researcher to check the consistency of the statements made by each person. Secondly, the statements made in the interviews were checked for authenticity against the statements contained in the Rajabhat University Act (2004), the strategic plans of each Rajabhat University, and then compared with the observations. Finally, the Presidents of each Rajabhat University were asked to comment on the findings and explanations made by the researcher.

This study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Sydney. The researcher obtained permission from the Presidents of six Rajabhat Universities to observe and collect all the documents that have been used in this study. The findings in this study will be provided to those universities. All participants in this study gave their informed consent, and were aware that they could withdraw from the study at any time. All names and identities of the universities and the participants have been protected through the use of pseudonyms.

LIMITATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

This research involved six case studies conducted in Rajabhat Universities located in Bangkok. As case studies it was not intended to be able to generalise the findings to all Rajabhat Universities throughout Thailand. However, the findings of this study can be used to explain the process of change and how new universities coped and dealt with change.

The decision to study Rajabhat Universities instead of other universities was made because the charter of these universities was to focus on developing local communities and addressing issues at the local level. Currently, there are more than 64 universities located in Bangkok (Thailand Office of the Higher Education Commission, 2010). However, it was only the Rajabhat Universities that were changed to universities in 2004 (Thailand Office of the Prime Minister, 2004). The other universities became universities before that time and have operated as universities for a number of years. Other universities did not undergo such a transformative change as a result of the changes to laws. It has been a complex and complicated time for all Rajabhat Universities to get through this process of change from teacher colleges in 1892, to Rajabhat Institutes in 1995, and to Rajabhat Universities in 2004.

This study collected data from six Rajabhat Universities in Bangkok. The decision to focus on these universities in Bangkok when Rajabhat Universities are located in different regions throughout Thailand was made because those universities in Bangkok face similar issues, whereas Rajabhat Universities in other parts of Thailand have different cultures, values, social norms, local languages, and demands of their labour markets. Although it would be interesting to study how these other Rajabhat Universities responded to the changes, the process would be complicated by their different histories and local environments.

This study only involved interviews with the senior executive team of each of the six universities. It can be assumed that there are a number of other perspectives that would have been revealed if interviews had been conducted with the University Council members, deans, academic staff, students, or key people in the local communities. The study of these other perspectives will await on-going research into the issues revealed in this study.

CONCLUSION

The results of changing processes adopted in the six Rajabhat Universities have transformed them to become more competitive universities, and more focused on the demands of students and the labour market than in the past. It is difficult for the staff to change their work and life into something that they have not been prepared for, and in the situation where a market becomes highly competitive. Forward thinking institutions have to have sound business strategies to expand their business opportunities and be financially responsible. If the universities do not have good business plans they will find it difficult to survive in a less regulated higher education sector. All of the Presidents have a strong belief that they know how to change and understand the behaviour of staff. Regardless of the types of changes they implemented and future success or otherwise of these changes, their commitment to their institutions and their concern for their institutions and their staff cannot be questioned. Change is unpredictable and every Rajabhat University creates a unique style of HRM policy. This study has shown that different HRM policies and the different ways of life and work and addressing the issues they considered important, led them to respond in a number of special ways.

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Kittiwan Sinthunava

Phranakhon Rajabhat University

Table 1: Human resource management

Management techniques                   RA                  RB

Used negotiation techniques                          [square root of]

Encouraged two-way               [square root of]    [square root of]
communication

Encouraged team work             [square root of]    [square root of]

Pay by performance               [square root of]

Established reward systems       [square root of]    [square root of]

Created a friendly and           [square root of]    [check]
supportive environment

Separated teaching work from     [square root of]
administrative work

Reduced teaching hours           [square root of]
per week

Encouraged/forced information    [square root of]    [check]
technology use

Decentralised power to           [square root of]    [check]
the deans

Management techniques                   RC                  RD

Used negotiation techniques      [check]             [check]

Encouraged two-way               [square root of]    [square root of]
communication

Encouraged team work             [check]             [square root of]

Pay by performance

Established reward systems       [square root of]    [square root of]

Created a friendly and           [square root of]    [square root of]
supportive environment

Separated teaching work from     [square root of]    [square root of]
administrative work

Reduced teaching hours           [check]             [square root of]
per week

Encouraged/forced information    [check]             [square root of]
technology use

Decentralised power to           [check]             [square root of]
the deans

Management techniques                   RE                  RF

Used negotiation techniques      [square root of]

Encouraged two-way               [square root of]    [square root of]
communication

Encouraged team work             [square root of]

Pay by performance

Established reward systems       [square root of]

Created a friendly and           [square root of]
supportive environment

Separated teaching work from                         [square root of]
administrative work

Reduced teaching hours                               [square root of]
per week

Encouraged/forced information    [check]             [square root of]
technology use

Decentralised power to           [square root of]
the deans

Note: [square root of] means greater emphasis and [check]
mean some emphasis