Abstract
The newly hired staff who can adapt well with an organization's culture could perform effectively and maintain better socialization in the workplace. This would result in happy working life and leads to organizational success. The aims of this study were to (1) investigate the organizational culture of newly-hired customs officers hold with them at work and (2) examine the job performance of newly-hired customs officers and the interrelationship between customs' organizational culture and performance. A mixed method was administered in this study. The correlation and multiple regression analyses were applied. The results showed that the majority of newly-hired customs officers hold four main cultures ranked from the highest including social safety, facilitation, technology adaptation, and investigation suppression. The recommendation is to cultivate the importance of continuous learning into newly hired officers. Leaders should socialize them by face-to-face communication particularly two-way communication. The organization's culture model was proposed to the Customs Bureau.
TopIntroduction
In Thailand, most Thais want to work as a government official even though the salary is quite low, because of the fringe benefits that cover the whole family who have the same family name such as parents, spouses, and children. Moreover, the government officers get respect from the public and neighbors. This means that officials have higher intrinsic rewards than extrinsic rewards. And it is not easy to obtain the available opportunities as an official agent, since there are at least two tests. One is from the Office of the Civil Service Commission (OCSC) or national test, the other is the specific test of each public organization under government supervision, as each issues their own examination. Furthermore, the competition is extremely high because the positions are open for everyone in the country who fits with minimum requirements eligible to take the exam. The Thai Customs Department basically provides higher salary than other public services with good benefits and compensation. Consequently, the responsibilities of Customs are not only the collection of national revenues, but include the service to facilitate global trade, control imports, exports, transit goods, protect and secure society through the Customs control system.
Since last 20-years, the Office of the Civil Service Commission of Thailand has a downsizing policy by recruiting new official at a rate of only 2%, and as a result, the quantity of public servants has been inconsistent with the increased workload because of officials retiring. So, in last four years, the OPDC has started to recruit new officials to support the increasing work in several functions. In 2005, Royal Thai Customs recruited 750 customs officers to work in the Customs Department, at Suvarnabhumi International Airport Passenger Customs Bureau. There were 75 new customs officers from the total recruited on duty to serve passengers and to protect of smuggling. The new officers were rotated to perform different roles when on duty, to encourage them adapting their behavior according to the activity assigned. Meanwhile, the new officials were socialized concerning organizational culture for 3-4 years in their job. Most of them were Gen-Y or the millennials whose characteristics and values include growing up with the use of technology as part of their daily life, freedom of expression, look for integrity and openness, social lives, innovation, entertainment and learning (Meister & Willyerd, 2010). These characteristics can be explained by Life Course Theory (Espinoza, Ukleja, & Rusch, 2010) that refers to the associate effect in which a group experiences the same situation occurring in a social context which will be embedded with them throughout their lives.
Generally, the Thai culture system in the public organization is high power distance, bureaucratic, patronage, face-saving, personal connection, and hierarchical, where juniors always respect their seniors (Hanphakdeeniyom & Kimthaptim, 2018; Panpare, 2011). Thus, it is not common to see young people express their ideas in the meetings freely. However, today the society is changing, with new generations having more self-confidence and self-assurance entering the working place. As a matter of course, the new generations replace some retiring staff. The newly-hired customs officers have to work in the environment where it is crowded, chaotic, and must work in unusual hours, because of the airport operating around the clock. In addition, there are thousands of passengers coming from various countries and cultures, so the newly-hired officers have to adapt themselves to the new working environment and to the new organizational cultures. Hence, whether the mentoring or coaching system of leader implementing is suitable or effective related to job performance has been assessed.
From this situation, the researchers have three questions in conducting this study. Those were:
- 1.
What organizational cultures do newly-hired customs officers hold?
- 2.
What is job performance degree of the newly-hired customs officers?
- 3.
What organizational cultures have a major influence on job performance?
The aims of this study were to: (1) investigate the organizational culture of newly-hired customs officers hold with them at work, (2) examine the job performance of newly-hired customs officers, and the interrelationship between customs’ organizational culture and performance.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Thailand International Public Sector Standard Management and Outcomes: This organization was set up by OPDC in order to develop international standard management and outcomes for the Thailand public sector. This organization focuses on the holistic system and process of developing reach to the achievement of the outcomes.
Managerial Values: The principles of administration and management of an organization striving for optimal success.
Millennial: Persons who were born between 1979 – 1997, also known as Gen-Y. The important issue is growing up with technology. They are digitally literate, open, socially adept, innovative, and enjoy learning and entertainment.
Customs Department: In the past, Thai Customs were known as Monopoly Tax Collector, since the main duty was collecting taxes and duties on imports. Presently, the responsibility of the Thai Customs Department has been changed due to globalization. The role of customs is trade facilitation, control of goods movement, and supply chain security.
Organizational Culture: Defined as the culture of the organizational concerned with vision and mission including work-related matters of job duty of the Thai Royal Customs department which consist of Facilitation, Continuous learning, Professional customs officer, Task achievement orientation, Integrity, Responsibility, Transparency and accountability, Technology adapting, and Cooperation partnership.
Job Performance: Defined as the performance which is composed of quantity and quality of work, timeliness, economics, and the result of the work.
Office of the Public Sector Development Commission (OPDC): It is the key body for public administration development in Thailand. The OPDC is responsible for giving advice and recommendations for bureaucracy development in public sector duties including structure, budget, personnel system, moral and ethics, compensation, and public sector practices.