Abstract:
The objectives of this research were threefold: 1) to study the level of transformational
leadership, organizational culture, good governance, and effectiveness of local administrative
organizations (henceforth LAOs) in Nakhon Phanom province; 2) to study the influences of
structural relationships of transformational leadership, organizational culture, and good
governance on the effectiveness of LAOs in Nakhon Phanom province; and 3) to explore ways to
enhance the transformational leadership, organizational culture, good governance, and
effectiveness of LAOs in Nakhon Phanom province. The samples were 377 executives and staff
members selected through a stratified random sampling from 104 LAOs across Nakhon Phanom
province in the fiscal year 2015. Out of the 377 samples, 12 were conveniently selected for an indepth interview. A questionnaire with statements of five Likert-type rating scales was used to
collect the quantitative data, and a structured interview was used to collect the quantitative data.
The statistical tools used for analyzing the quantitative data included descriptive statistics,
Pearson's correlation, and path analysis. Content analysis was performed to analyze the
quantitative data from the in-depth interview. The results were as follows: 1) transformational
leadership, organizational culture, good governance, and effectiveness of the LAOs in Nakhon
Phanom province were at a high level; 2)transformational leadership, organizational culture, and
good governance had the direct effects on the effectiveness of the LAOs, the variables with
indirect effects were transformational leadership and organizational culture, and the proposed structural equation model comprising four factors-transformational leadership, organizational
culture, good governance, and effectiveness of the LAOs in Nakhon Phanom province-had
goodness of fit with the empirical data; and 3) transformational leadership could be enhanced
through intellectual stimulation, organizational culture through adaptability and mission-oriented
cultures, and good governance through accountability and cost-effectiveness. The three causal
factors could account for 33 per cent of the effectiveness of the LAOs in Nakhon Phanom
province.
