THE SHERIFF’S DEVELOPMENT IN THE NEXT DECADE

Abstract

The objectives of this qualitative research were 1) to study the roles of district chiefs under legislation, specified by Department of Provincial Administration, Ministry of Interior and assigned by various departments and ministries, 2) to study expected roles of district chiefs and their roles perceived by district chiefs and people and 3) to create guidelines for development of district chiefs’ roles in the next decade. The participants of this article were 78 representatives from the government organization, local leaders, people representatives and private organization. An instrument was content analysis, in – dept interview, a meeting for public hearing, a group discussion and a participatory observation. For the data collection, the researcher collected and analyzed the theorical data, document that related to the secondary subjects, the participatory observation, in – depth interview and the meeting for public hearing and group discussion. Sentence usage from the participants, regulation, related documents, in – depth interviews, information from participatory observation and group discussion were used for the data analysis. The findings of the research were as follows: 1) According to the legislation, district chiefs had to follow Local Government Act, B.E. 2457 (2014) and its Amendment, and State Administration Act, B.E. 2534 (1991) and its current Amendment (No. 8), B.E. 2553 (2010), including the law in charge of Department of Provincial Administration, Ministry of Interior. 2) In terms of their roles based on the policies of the government, ministries, departments, regulations and expected by people, district chiefs of the people had to perform with dedication their work on stability, economy, society, politics and tradition and customs to be trusted and accepted by local people. In addition, all their work had to be people-centered. 3) The guidance on development of district chiefs’ roles, which was found capable to specify guidelines to develop roles of district chiefs in the next decade, consisted of 3.1) the country’s context on rapidly changed environment, location and technology, which district chiefs had to develop themselves to pace with the change and to be transformational leaders for efficient administration, and 3.2) integration of roles of district chiefs and involved agencies in order to solve problems on emergency situations, disasters, and epidemics. The roles of district chiefs should be entirely legislated to administrate the existing situations independently.