Identifying Contextual Factors of Employee Satisfaction of Performance Management at a Thai State Enterprise

Abstract

Organisations across the public services around the world are facing enormous challenges and pressure to bring about change amidst the increasingly ambiguous and complex environmental context. The public sector organisations need to be re-invented to better meet expecta- tions of their customers and stakehold- ers. Furthermore, increased globalisa- tion also spreads the introduction of Western human resource management practices across borders in the private sector as well as the public sector. This paper is concerned with the ap- plication of the Western practices of employee performance management (PM) in non-Western contexts, partic- ularly within the public sector. Many studies about PM practices have been mostly carried out in the Western con- text with a limited amount of research in Eastern cultures (Fletcher, 2001; Rao, 2007).By studying a Thai organisation in the public sector, a supplementary per- spective from the public sector in an emerging country could be expected. The limited literature available on Thai and Western management is generally in line with the notion that Thai and Westerners differ in their work values (Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars, 1997; Hofstede, 1980). Holmes, Tangtongtavy and Tomizawa (1995) questions the applicability of the Western management practices to the Thai business environment. Possible reasons why the Western management practices should be evaluated in the Thai context include: (a) uniqueness in the way Thai people maintain har- mony in the workplace; (b) how Thais tend to place a higher premium upon group rather than individual concerns; and (c) the way Thai people view the legitimate use of power by managers. Workplace harmony is obtained from Thais' concern for saving face, non- confrontational and indirect culture, being aware of another person's feel- ings, being neutral, and self-restrained. The relationship orientation also en- compasses gratitude and indebtedness to others. Management prerogative is maintained by very hierarchical cul- ture, focusing on status-oriented rela- tionships and respect for authority. Ac- cording to Hofstede's (1980) model of work values, Thailand ranks high on Power Distance, high as a Collectiv- ist culture, high on Uncertainty Avoid- ance, and high on Femininity.Nevertheless, in the last 15 years, like other parts of the world, Asian econo- mies have been affected by increased globalisation, economic and financial crisis (Chatteijee andNankervis, 2007; Lehmann, 2009; Zhu, Collins, Webber, and Benson, 2008). These changes led to increased scrutiny of the traditional 'Asian value concept' governing or- ganisational and managerial practices. Recent research on PM in South East Asian country (Vo and Stanton, 2011) has started to support the convergence approach. In addition, in studies in Thailand and Vietnam, national cultur- al traits are found to evolve and can be overridden by a strong organisational culture (Kantabutra and Saratun, 2011; Vo and Stanton, 2011).Therefore, the available evidence so far indicates a need to examine the PM theory in Thailand. The present study examines relationships between em- ployees' PM satisfaction and contex- tual factors at a Thai state enterprise. This research investigates individual PM, rather than group PM. The rea- son of this research choice is to inves- tigate the application of the Western practices in opposite non-Western contexts, particularly within the high Collectivist culture. Next, the avail- able literature on PM, employees' PM satisfaction and influencing contextual factors is reviewed, respectively. The design of the study is outlined in the third section. Results from survey are reported in the fourth section. The fi- nal section provides discussion.LITERATURE REVIEWPerformance management (PM)Within the HRM perspective, PM can be regarded as an extension of 'perfor- mance appraisal' (Thorpe and Beasley, 2004). In addition to appraisal, the evolved concept of PM has led to the inclusion of other elements, for exam- ple, the linkage and communication of a company's 'shared vision' through the cascade of the organisation's ob- jectives and competencies to individu- als in performance agreement, the use of regular feedback and reviews, and linking performance evaluation results to reward (Tahvanainen, 2000). …