School administrators play an important role in work management as well as enhancement of educational management for schools to be successful and to accomplish their goal effectively. To achieve goal, the administrators have to be competent in staff management, have good relationship with their colleagues, and build staffs’ collaboration in work place.

There are research studies on administrators’ desirable characteristic, involving giving significance to organi-zational staffs which can be expressed in ethics and morality that are accepted by the organizational staffs (Greenleaf, 1970; Spears, 2005; Daft, 1999; Yulk, 2002; Laub, 2003; Dennis, 2004; Nwogu, 2004; Drury, 2004; Sipe and Frick, 2009). In addition, it is indicated that when organizational staffs are satisfied with administrators,  it  would  cause  them  to be effective and also develop (Irving, 2005; Ostrems, 2005; Krekeler, 2010; Hayden, 2011; Boyum, 2012). Furthermore, when administrators display desirable characteristic that is being recognized by school staffs, it would cause positive relationship in the school (Black, 2007; Babb, 2012)   

According to the report of Educational Situation  in Thailand (2007-2009), the administrators during the age of educational reform dedicated themselves to solve many important problems; for instance, the problem of inequality in education, quality development in educational management, development for teachers and educational staff.  So, for the efficient educational management to be congruent with national economic, political, and social situation needs to provide development for teachers as well as educational staff truly (The Office of Educational Council, 2010).  To use the technique that can lead to problem solving and accomplishment, the school administrators and professional leaders need to obtain knowledge,  competency, ethics, morality, and good professional code of ethics in order to provide good, efficient, and effective school administration and management  (Rooncharoen, 2007). 

Considering the problem with basic school administrators, it is found that most school administrators still lack the characteristic of building good relationship with school staff. Most school administrators make decision and order the work practice by themselves.  They give importance to school policy and set goal as the first priority.  As a result, they neglect to care for their staff.  They do not stimulate and encourage the staff in work practice (Office of Educational Council, 2010).  Consequently, the school works for their responsibility and duty only.  They do not dedicate, sacrifice, and interact with each other.  So, their work performance is not effective or specified goals are not met.          

Therefore, this study viewed the importance of basic school administrators’ desirable characteristic caused by the need of teachers as well as educational staff in order to be guidelines for the basic school administrators to use in promoting the desirable characteristic for themselves, and for school management to be more efficient. 

 

Leadership characteristic

There are various research studies on leaders’ characteristic. Considering the leaders’ characteristic stated at the beginning by Stogdill (1974), there are 163 studies on leaders’ characteristic from 1948-1970. Six characteristics of good leaders could be specified as: 1) Physical Characteristics including the fit and firm physical health,  2) Social Background including the well- educated and social condition, 3) Intelligence including high intelligence, good decision making, and communication skill, 4) Personality including alertness and emotional control, creative thinking, ethics, morality, and self- confidence 5) Task related characteristics including one’s wish to try one’s best, be responsible, be not discouraged in obstacle, and work oriented, and 6) Social characteristics including one’s wish to cooperate with others, be honored and recognized by others, and be socialized and intelligent. James and Barry (1995) studied characteristic of leaders being recognized as the most important characteristics; the origin of trustworthiness includes: 1) being honest, the most important characteristic of leaders for being accepted by followers; leaders have to tell the truth, be ethical for others to rely on them, 2) being forward-looking, leaders have to be able to direct as well as be concerned with organizational future, 3) inspiring, leaders have to be energetic and powerful, have positive thinking for future, inspire others, be able to communicate their approach or vision to others, and encourage others to follow them.  Leaders have to be confident in inspiring others unless they would fail.  Leaders have to inspire their sub-ordinates to be self-confident in accomplishing the specified goal by expressing their enthusiasm, and 4) being competent, it is not necessary for them to be competent technologically, but they have to be competent based on their position as well as organizational condition. For instance, the executive leaders in organization would be expected to be competent in planning strategy as well as policy. 

These leadership characteristics are important for creating the personality and attribute of leaders physically:  good personality and appropriate dressing, good manner, good physical health, good human relation with others, good verbal expression. Mental characteristic consists of one’s integrity, generosity, ethics and morality, respon-sibility, empathy, and persistence in developing others etc.  

 

Ideal leaders’ desirable characteristic 

Ideal refers to imagined standard of virtue, beauty, and truth which human beings focus on as their life goal.  It consists of principle as well as value which could play an important role in morality, because both principle and value emphasized by persons depend on the significance of each one.  When leaders are ethical and moral, they would give priority to others through different processes or techniques caused by feeling or nature of one’s mind truly.  They would try to understand and approach others’ feeling, care for them, and help them without anything in return.  They would have good human relationship, listen to others, encourage them, and value others rather than themselves.  Leaders not only provide service for others, but also have foresight and vision.  They would help organizations and everyone equally.  They would wish to support and develop others to have increased potentiality. They would use their competency in leading the followers and organization to accomplish their common goal (Greenleaf, 1970; Yulk, 2002; Spears, 2005).

Leaders with this desirable characteristic would be able to win their followers’ mind truly.  Their wish for helping others is more than the need for their position or power since they sacrifice themselves without hoping for anything in reciprocal. They focus on the issue concerning their followers, are concerned with the followers’ life as well as livelihood since they are the important part in the production process of the organization. Moreover, leaders provide service without the feeling of getting something in return. In part, followers would obtain influence and motivation through the leaders’ service (Patterson, 2003). Leaders use influence of giving or self-giving which is not the influence of honor or self-glory.  These kinds of leaders would be dynamic who can practice efficiently among complex situation as well as rapid changes of present world.  Leaders’ good characteristic could make change by being the role model for others.  These leaders would motivate their followers to act and imitate their characteristic. In addition, leaders’ good characteristic would affect the decrease of followers’ dissatisfaction, leading to profit as well as success in future (Stone et al., 2004).   

During the age of changing leaders’ management paradigm, leaders have to be able to adjust themselves with the changes as the professional ones do.  Further-more, they have to persist to provide benefit for the public. Many kinds of success occurring in organization depend on personal factor. If the leaders have appropriate characteristic, they would have opportunity to be more successful. The major factor for effective work management is the leaders’ characteristic.  It is obviously seen that effective work management depends on the leaders’ competency. In the limitation of organization, a guideline to help leaders accomplish specified goal or objective is the leaders’ characteristic in each organization.

 

Basic school administrators in Thailand

It is necessary for school administrators to play their role in educational administration and management, and has important characteristic in both profession and personal aspects for implementation in order to accomplish the educational goal and objective.  In school administration during the regular changing period or globalization, it is necessary for public management to be based on professional leaders so that the organization would be well implemented and accomplish its specified goal. The economic and social changes as well as technology advancement rapidly occur without border, and affect the whole world. National Education Act 1999, and the Revised Issue (the 2^nd Issue) 2002, Section 53, specified that the administrators in educational service area as well as school administrators have to be certified based on principle and technique specified by the teaching profession organization, school administrators, and educational administrators. This is based on criterion and technique of higher profession organization, and professional administrators.

The current situation of school administrators in Thailand shows that most school administrators act as the only persons who make decision and command work practice in school.  As a result, they do not care for staff.  The interaction with staff is overlooked.  There are no encouragement and enhancement in work practice for the staff (Office of Educational Council, 2010).  These problems were accumulated for a long period of time in Educational Area of Thailand. Although the Ministry of Education tried to reform the whole system of structure, it was difficult to reform one’s traditional thinking inherited from behavior.   

Six phases were determined in implementation. Phase 1: the document and related research literature were studied.  Phase 2: the in-depth interview from the experts was performed by using the unstructured interview form.  Data from the interview were arranged and organized.  The content was grouped.  Data were analyzed by concluding from content analysis in order to obtain framework of major characteristic and minor characteristic.  Phase 3: the samples were surveyed for their opinion on desirable characteristic in the present study and in the ideal basic school administrators by using questionnaire as rating scale classified into 5 Likert’s Level rating scale (Srisaad, 2010). Phase 4:  the factors of ideal desirable characteristic were ascertained by focus group discussion of the educational experts.  Phase 5: the construction and development of the program were evaluated by the experts.  Phase 6: the program was administered to basic school administrators, in the primary school. 

 

Delimitation of population, samples, and key informants

The experts in in-depth interview

The researcher administered purposive sampling in obtaining 9 experts by determining characteristic into 3 groups.  Group 1: 3 Basic school administrators with doctoral degree in educational administration were included.  Group 2: 2 Instructors in higher education institution included those with Doctoral Degree in Educational Administration, and those who wrote their textbook or conducted research in Educational Leadership.  Group 3: 2 Directors of the Office of Educational Service Area, under jurisdiction of the Office of Basic Education Commission.  Group 4: 2 administrators in policy level including those who practiced in policy level of the Office of Basic Education Commission or the Institute of Administrator Development of the Office of Basic Education Commission. 

 

Population in data collection

The population of this study was 29,067 basic school administrators,  assistant basic school administrators, and teachers as the chiefs of academic work management practicing in primary schools, under jurisdiction of the Office of Basic Education Commission. The samples were 378 persons, selected by using multi-stage random sampling technique; the cluster random sampling was used for classifying into groups for 6 regions:  7 Provinces in the North region, 17 provinces in the North eastern region, 18 provinces in the central region, 6 provinces in the Eastern region, 4 provinces in the Western region, and 11 provinces in the Southern region.  The sample size was determined by using Krejcie and Morgan’s table. The Simple Random Sampling was administered.  Sixty three provinces were obtained.  

Using Simple Random Sampling, the Office of Primary Educational Service Area of each province was sampled. The population included 29,067 basic school administrators, assistant basic school administrators, and teachers as the chiefs of academic work. The sampling and sample size were determined by using Krejcie and Morgan’s table. 378 samples were obtained.  Simple Random Sampling was used by taking lots; they were 126 Basic School Administrators, 126 Assistant Basic School Administrators, and 126 Teachers as the Chiefs of Academic Work.

 

Experts in Focus Group Discussion

The participants in Focus Group were obtained by purposive sampling.  The Focus Group participants were divided into 3 regions:  the North Region, the Central Region, and the North Eastern Region including the Basic School Administrators, Instructors in Higher Education Institute or Academics, and the Chiefs of Academic Work (total of 18 persons).  The determined characteristics were:  Group 1, 6 Basic School Administrators with Doctoral Degree in Educational Administration; 2 administrators in each region were included.  Group 2: 6 Instructors in Higher Education Institution included those with Doctoral Degree in Educational Administration, and who wrote their textbook or conducted research in Educational Leadership or Servant Leadership; 2 administrators in each region were included.  Group 3: 6 teachers of academic work management practicing in basic school; 2 teachers from each region.     

 

The experts who investigated the program 

Nine experts that evaluated the propriety were classified into 3 groups:  Group 1:  3 Basic School Administrators with Doctoral Degree in Educational Administration.  Group 2: 2 Instructors in Higher Education Institution included those with Doctoral Degree in Curriculum and Instruction, with experience in teaching curriculum, wrote their textbook and conducted research on curriculum or program development. Group 3: 2 experts with experience in leadership including the persons with Doctoral Degree, wrote textbook or conducted research on leadership.  Group 4: 2 experts in policy level of the Office of Basic Education Commission or the Institute of Administrator Development of the Office of Basic Education Commission. 

 

The samples in the program

The samples who used the program included 30 basic school administrators, under jurisdiction of basic education commission. They were selected by purposive sampling from those who volunteered to participate in development. 

 

The research instruments

The unstructured interview was done by interviewing the experts, and synthesizing with conclusions from principle, approach, theory, and related research literature in order to obtain the conceptual framework of major desirable characteristic, minor desirable characteristic, and indicator of basic school administrators.  Non-directive and in-depth interviews were done.  The researcher asked the experts to investigate the congruence between the question items of the interview, and research objective by using the IOC: Index of Item Objective Congruence.  The values of IOC ranged between 0.80-1.00 in acceptable criterion.  

There were 2 parts of the questionnaire: the checklist on the respondents’ demographic data regarding gender, age, educational Level, working experience, as Force choice, and questionnaire rating scale on ones’ desirable characteristic of Basic School Administrators in the present and Ideal. It was classified as 5 Likert’s level rating scale. The content validity of tentative questionnaire constructed by the researcher was investigated by experts to give their opinion on the congruence of question items by using the IOC (Index of Item-Objective Congruence) technique.  The IOC of every item was = 1.00.  The item discrimination was investigated by trying out the validity of the tentative questionnaire by the experts. This was done with the basic school administrators, assistant basic school administrators, and teachers who were not the samples. Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient was used to consider the relationship between each item and total score or item total correlation.  The item discrimination of items ranged between 0.31–0.62. Moreover, the researcher searched for the total issue Reliability from the question items with item discrimination as criterion based on Cronbach’ s Alpha Coefficient.  The reliability of total issue was 0.83, which was in the acceptable criterion.  

The evaluation form of the level in servant leadership of basic school administrators is classified into 2 issues: self-evaluation, and the other issue including: the assistant director, and teachers as the chiefs of academic management work, 30 items in each issue.  The experts were asked their opinion on the congruence of items by using the IOC (Index of Item-Objective Congruence.  The IOC of every item was 1.00.  The tentative issue being validated was tried out with 30 basic school administrators using Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient by considering the correlation of score from each item, and total score.  The item discrimination ranged between 0.30–0.79. To search for reliability of total issue, Cronbach’ Alpha Coefficient technique was used.  The reliability of total issue is 0.92.   

The research findings from phases 1-4 included documentary study, in-depth interview of the experts, the samples’ opinion survey, and the experts’ focus group discussion for ascertaining the factor. The major factors and minor factors of desirable characteristic of basic school administrators are shown in Table 1.   

 

 

The experts expressed their congruent opinion about factors of desirable characteristic of Basic School Administrators as follows: 1) Empathy consists of 4 minor factors:  being interested in listening to others attentively, understanding and approaching others’ feeling, respecting individual differences, and being concerned about others, 2)  Foresight consists of 4 minor factors: analyzing the organizational condition, anticipating the future trend, building and communicating the appropriate vision, and planning as well as providing the guidelines of practice for staffs, 3)  Stewardship consists of 4 minor factors:  being caring and responsible for others, positive thinking, dependable, and facilitating as well as allocating resource,  4) Building the learning community consists of 4 minor factors: learning how to be a coach, providing staff development, building team work and collaboration with others, and providing conflict management creatively.

The samples’ opinion on basic school administrators’ desirable characteristic in the present and the desirable characteristic in the ideal was surveyed by using by the questionnaire as rating scale based on 4 aspects of major factors as shown in Table 2.

 

 

It is found that the basic school administrators’ desirable characteristic in the present is in “Moderate” level, overall. 

The mean values were ranked in order from high to low as follows: Foresight, Building the Learning Community, Empathy, and Stewardship. The level of desirable characteristic in Ideal is in “The Highest” level.  The mean values were ranked in order from high to low as follows:  Empathy, Building the Learning Community, Foresight, and Stewardship. The mean values of needs were ranked in order from high to low as follows:  Stewardship, Empathy, Building the Learning Community, and Foresight.  

The levels of desirable characteristic in the present and desirable characteristic in the ideal as classified by minor factors based on the samples’ opinion are shown in Table 3.  

 

 

Desirable characteristic in the present study was in the highest level in: ‘the administrators were interested in listening to others attentively’. The level of desirable characteristic in  the ideal was in the highest level in: ‘the administrators were able to learn technique as well as being responsible coach’. 

Considering the overall, the basic school administrators’ desirable characteristic in the ideal of Thailand consisted of 4 major factors: stewardship, empathy, building learning community, and foresight. The viewpoint of school administrators, assistant school administrators, and teachers as the chiefs of academic work manage-ment, were that the level of desirable characteristic in the present study was “moderate”.  The mean values were ranked in order from high to low as follows: Foresight, Building the Learning Community, Empathy, and Stewardship. Moreover, the level of desirable charac-teristic in the present was in “the highest” level.  The mean values were ranked in order from high to low as follows: Empathy, Building the Learning Community, Foresight, and Stewardship.   

 

Construction and development of program

The components of the program were: 1) Introduction including the related theoretical approach, definition,  and significance of desirable characteristic in ideal, 2) the objective including the goal needed to accomplish the program used, 3) the material content, 4) the activity including the implementation of development for enhancing the Basic School Administrators’ Servant Leadership occurring in each module, 5) the learning media/source including the document, equipment, and learning source occurring in each module, and 6) the measurement and evaluation including the investigation process of findings in enhancing the basic school administrators’ desirable characteristic.  The total duration of development included   73 h, 4 modules as follows: 

Module 1:  Empathy, 18 h 

It aims to make the school administrators interested in listening to others as well as understanding and approaching others’ feeling; respecting individual differences, being concerned about. The following details are given:

a) Material and content, include the definition, significance, principle, guideline for practicing listening, understanding, and approaching others’ feeling

b) Activity includes the documentary study, video tape study, individual experience sharing, game playing, Dharma listening, role playing, responding to the work-sheet individually and in group, scholars, conclusions and discussion, and final test.

c) Learning media/source include the video tape, CD, worksheet, scholars, game playing instrument, and test. 

d) Measurement and evaluation include the observation during discussion, evaluation of performance from worksheet activity, and the comprehension test.

 

Module 2:  Foresight, 14 h

It involves the school administrators being able to analyze the organizational situation, anticipate the future trend, building and communicating the appropriate vision, and be able to plan and provide guidelines for staff. They are detailed as follows: 

a) Material and content include the definition, significance, principle, practice guidelines for analyzing the organi-zation situation, anticipation of future trend, building and communicating appropriate vision, and planning and providing the practice guidelines for staff.

b) Activity includes the revision of prior experience, real practice, attendance in lecturing by educational experts, video tape study, case study, field trip study, responding to the worksheet individually and in group, discussion and conclusions, and the final test.

c) Learning media/source include video tape, CD, scholars, worksheet, knowledge sheet, and best practice test.

d) Measurement and evaluation include observation during discussion, evaluation of performance from work-sheet individually and in group, and the comprehension test.

 

Module 3:  Stewardship, 20 h

It involves the school administrators being caring and responsible for others, have positive thinking, be dependable, and facilitate and allocate the resource in school:  

a) Material and content include the definition, significance, principle, practice guidelines for caring and being responsible to others, positive thinking, being dependable, and facilitating and allocating resourced.     

b)  Activity   includes video  tape  study, listening to the interview of the teachers and educational staff, brain-storming by mind mapping, studying from worksheet, individual activity sheet and group sheet, conclusions and discussion.  

c) Learning media/source include:  video tape, CD, worksheet, knowledge sheet, and the test. 

e) Measurement and evaluation included the Observation during discussion, evaluation of performance from Worksheet individually and in group, and the Comprehension Test.

 

Module 4:  building the learning community, 18 h 

It involves the school administrators being able to act as coaches, be persistent in providing staff development, team building and communicating with others, and be able to provide conflict management creatively. The details are as follows: 

a) Material and content include the definition, significance, principle, method, and technique of practice for being coach, persistent in developing  the staff to be successful in their profession, building team work and cooperating with others, and being able to provide creative conflict management creatively. 

b) Activity includes studying from worksheet, video tape, listening to the scholars’ lecture, role playing, responding to the activity sheet for individual and group, case study, field trip study, conclusions and discussions, and the final test.

c) Learning Media/Source include the video tape, CD, scholars, best practice school, worksheet, knowledge sheet, and test.

d) Measurement and evaluation include observation from discussion, evaluation of performance from worksheet in individual and group, and comprehension test. 

 

The findings from the program used

The researcher administered the program to 30 basic school administrators, under the jurisdiction of the Office of Primary Educational Service Area.  The researcher evaluated and compared the participants’ desirable characteristic in ideal by using the evaluation form.  The participants evaluated themselves, and were evaluated by others including the assistant school directors, and teachers as the chiefs of academic management work.  The findings are shown in Tables 4-5.  

 

 

 

According to Table 5, the level in every factor of ideal characteristic of basic school administrators after development was significantly higher than before development at .01 level.

 

Evaluation from real practice

After the participants in development went back to work in  their own schools for approximately 3 months, the researcher did the follow up and evaluation by observing and interviewing the school directors and the school staffs including the assistant school directors, teachers, and educational staffs. He used the observation and the unstructured interview forms. It was found out that the school administrators who had experience in development program for enhancing the ideal desirable characteristic obtained knowledge in self-development as well as work development until there were obvious changes.  There was a network for educational cooperation network with community as well as other organizations related to educational quality development. It was constructed for administrators to be caring, empathic to others, being aware of individual differences, adjusting oneself to different situation appropriately, being able to advise and help the staffs in work, promoting team work to decrease conflict among staffs, providing morale for staffs sincerely without pretending, being able to lead the school staffs in strategic planning, determining the vision, mission, and goal of success in Educational Development collaboratively, developing confidence and faith in school staffs as well as community leading to changes in school and collecting educational resource for school development.  The teachers co-operated in doing their duty, and dedicated themselves in instructional management.  As a result, the students’ learning achievement was increased as specified goal.

The basic component of study being used for program development included the study of basic school administrators’ ideal desirable characteristic, and the study of basic school administrators’ current desirable characteristic. 4 modules of program for promoting the school administrators’ desirable characteristic were obtained: Model 1:  Empathy, Model 2: Foresight, Module 3: Stewardship, and Module 4: Building the learning community.  Each module consisted of sub-components as the objective of development, content material, activity for development in learning media/source, and measurement and evaluation. The program used for developing the basic school administrators’ ideal desirable characteristic shoed that the posttest desirable characteristic was significantly higher than the pretest at .01 level. The developed program was tested and investigated by the experts.  It included suitable steps as well as activities in development emphasizing the participants to learn from their real experience. It is supported by Liana’s (2004) research that development program focusing on direct experience could cause changes.  When it was evaluated by other persons (the assistant school directors and teachers), the posttest of servant   leadership was significantly higher than the pretest at .01 level.  Besides, the participants were able to apply their obtained knowledge in school administration and management efficiently, cause confidence in school staffs and community, and many changes in school and students. Every teacher collaborated in work practice, were dedicated to their work, and provided instructional development. As a result, the students’ learning achieve-ment increased as specified goal of school.  They took care of other persons as the first priority until they were trusted by school staffs and community. It is congruent with Greenleaf’s (2002) approach, which states that when leaders give importance to others first, people would trust them. Consequently, the followers would be willing to follow their order. Therefore, when the program for promoting the desirable characteristic is applied and developed for expansion in the administrators of other organizations, positive changes might occur in both the organization and organizational staffs.  

The study found that the basic school administrators’ ideal desirable characteristic consisted of 4 aspects of major component: Stewardship, Empathy, Building learning community, and Foresight. All were used as basic components of the program.  In addition, each component was given importance with reference from research findings in the significance and need for promoting the basic school administrators’ ideal desirable characteristic. It was weighted in development ranking order from high to low as follows:  Stewardship, Empathy, Building learning community, and Foresight.  Furthermore, according the use of developed program for promoting the basic school administrators’ ideal desirable characteristic, the school administrators have significantly higher ideal desirable characteristic in posttest than pretest.  Moreover, the school administrators were able to develop trust, confidence, and faith in school staffs and community. As a result, the school was supported by community more. In addition, the students’ learning achievement was increased as specified goal of school.   

The authors have not declared any conflict of interests.