Components of Collaborative Governance for Aeronautical Search and Rescue in the Gulf of Thailand Area to International Standardization

Abstract

The objectives of this research are 1) to study the current conditions, the cooperation operations, and the components of collaboration among Thailand’s organizations for aeronautical search and rescue in the Gulf of Thailand area and 2) to examine the consistency of the aeronautical search and rescue model for aircraft and vessels in distress in the Gulf of Thailand area in order to meet international standards. This study has applied mixed methodology, primarily using a quantitative method and using a qualitative method in support of data collection. The quantitative research has begun with collecting data gathered from questionnaires by using a stratified random sampling method. They have been distributed to 308 persons who work for 1) policy organizations for aeronautical and maritime search and rescue (99 persons), 2) units responsible for the northern area of the Gulf of Thailand (32 persons), and 3) the aeronautical search and rescue units (177 persons). In terms of data analysis, the descriptive statistics and confirmatory factor analysis are used. Methods used for the qualitative research are an in-depth interview with nine executives responsible for making search and rescue policy and the focus group discussion with eight officers performing search and rescue operations. The results of this study are summarized as follows:

1. The collaboration among Thailand’s organizations for aeronautical search and rescue in the Gulf of Thailand area consisted of eight components and 20 observable variables which are 1) a commitment to legitimacy, 2) a commitment to change: fostering common interests, 3) a commitment to flexible leadership and shared authority, 4) a commitment to authentic face-to-face dialogue, 5) a commitment to culture of learning, 6) a commitment to identifying “common ground”, 7) the role of modelling, and 8) measuring success of a collaborative government process, process and outcome measures.


2. The aeronautical search and rescue model is in statistically significant congruence with empirical data; (χ2/df = 1.542, GFI = 0.938, AGFI = 0.902, CFI = 0.992, RMSEA = 0.042 and SRMR = 0.022). The components reporting from maximum to minimum loading factors are a commitment to culture of learning (0.99), a commitment to role change to foster, common interests, and a commitment to identifying ‘common ground’ (as equal to 0.98), a commitment to authentic face-to-face dialogues, a commitment to flexible leadership and shared authority, and a commitment to legitimacy (0.97), the role of modelling’s loading factor (0.96), and the measurement of effective in collaborative governance process (0.85) respectively.