Sustainable Performance of the Management of the Private Vocational College Business Sector in Thailand

Abstract

In the situation where the private vocational college business sector is encountering intense competition, they are also currently facing with the problems of students with low potential and competency, and the quality and image of the private vocational colleges being negatively affected. Parents and students have no trust on these colleges, resulting in lower rate in the number of students who are interested to study in these colleges, causing the colleges to suffer losses, and many of them have to be closed down. Private vocational colleges thus have to adjust their strategies to ensure the sustainability of their businesses. The objectives of this research were to: 1) study levels of leadership, quality management, knowledge management, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable organizational performance of private vocational colleges in Thailand; 2) examine influences of corporate social responsibility, leadership, knowledge management, quality management on the sustainable organizational performance of the private vocational colleges in Thailand; and 3) develop a model for enhancing the sustainable organizational performance of the private vocational colleges in Thailand. This research employed a mixed research methodology combining quantitative and qualitative methods. For the quantitative research part, the research sample consisted of 400 leaders of the private vocational colleges in 5 regions of Thailand. The sample size was determined based on the criterion of 20 times the observed variables. They were selected via stratified sampling. Data were collected with the use of a questionnaire and analyzed with a structural equation model. As for the qualitative research component, in-depth interviews were conducted with 20 key informants including executives and practitioners with high potential. The findings showed that: 1) leadership, quality management, knowledge management, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable organizational performance of the private vocational colleges in Thailand were all rated at a high level; 2) corporate social responsibility leadership, knowledge management, quality management had an influence on the sustainable organizational performance of the private vocational colleges, with a .05 level of statistical significance, and all of which could predict the results by 93 percent; and 3) the model for enhancing the sustainable organizational performance of the private vocational colleges in Thailand, developed by the researcher, was called the SOP Model. It was a management innovation for ensuring the sustainability of the private vocational college business sector in Thailand. It can serve as a model for all the private vocational colleges to adjust their business direction in order to gain potential, enhance professional skills, and modify their image regularly and consistently so that their quality can be recognized by the publics and accepted by the society and communities. This can lead the parents and students to have positive attitudes towards them, resulting in an increase in the number of students, which in turn bring about sustainability to the private vocational college business sector, and the better development of youth, society, and the country.