Delivering academic services at regional level: a grounded theory study of Thai academics

Abstract

Investigating the work of Thai academic staff, this thesis addresses the extent to which academic services are delivered at regional level with respect to the national
development plan to build Thailand as a knowledge economy. This is a grounded theory research project involving three investigatory propositions namely regional, institutional and individual profiling of academic staff. The empirical setting of this investigation is a multi-site case study carried out in three traditional public universities. The thesis concludes that academic services are performed as either responding to regional needs or using resources existing within the regional proximity. For public universities, in response to the national expectation of their service roles, these universities have an institutional organisation that serves systematic service performance. However, at the operational level, despite the fact that there are many different forms of academic service delivered, part of this work is misconceived and undermined which results in an under-accounting of work and the underuse of designated institutional organisation of service delivery. With the grounded theory approach employed, these findings also function as hypotheses of a substantive theory developed regarding the three investigatory propositions. Supporting the theory developed, this thesis helps make a contribution to the knowledge by shedding new light on the way in which systematic services are to be promoted.

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