OPINIONS OF TAM LOD COMMUNITY TOWARD DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HEAD OF TAM NAM LOD WILDLIFE CONSERVATION DEVELOPMENT AND EXTENSION CENTER, PANG MAPHA, MAE HONG SON

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze desirable characteristics of the head of Tam Nam Lod Wildlife Conservation Development and Extension Station based on the opinions of Tam Lod community in Tam Lod Sub-district, Pang Ma Pa District, Mae Hong Son Province. The data were collected through an in-depth interview in which the interviewees were divided into two groups. First, 20 community leaders were selected by a purposive sampling technique. Second, the representatives of Tam Lod residents were selected through a snowball sampling technique. The selection of the resident samples ended when information from the interviews was theoretical saturated. A total of 45 households were interviewed. Data analysis was done followed a method by Supang (2009).

The findings revealed a majority of community leaders were male; age between 31 – 60 years old; completed their education lower than Grade 6. The community leaders mentioned they were familiar with the previous heads of station but not the present one. Words of mouth were the common way of communication between the station and the community. However, they rarely received information from the station. The head of the station’s gender played no important role in their opinions. On the local residents, the findings revealed a majority of them were female; age between 31 – 60 years old; completed their education lower than Grade 4, and had no acquainted with the heads of the station both in the past and present. They also rarely received information from the station. Their opinions of the gender of the head of station did not differ from their community leader group. When comparing the results between the community leaders and the local residents it showed no differences in terms of the desirable characteristics of the head of station. Both groups wanted a person who had leadership skills, decent educational background and work capabilities, high morality, good personality, and human relations.