Abstract:
The purposes of this research were to determine the personnel development form and method, the need for personnel development in different aspects of management, and the business performance of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Chonburi province, as well as to compare their need(s) for personnel development in management aspects as classified according to the size of the enterprises, expected total selling performance, and expected performance on profit. The samples for this study were 193 business operators of those with the decision making authority from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Chonburi province. They were obtained through the purposive sampling as agreed by the researcher. The instruments used for the study were questionnaire, and the statistics used for analyzing the data were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and t-test.The findings of the study revealed that most of the respondents were business workplaces managers with the highest educational background of Bachelor degree. The business workplaces were the one-owner type with the operation periods between 3-7 years. The product types sold were for goods and food consumption with the average selling income of less than 500,000 Baht per month. The profit gained from the B.E. 2546 business performance was between 200,000-500,000 Baht with the business performance in terms of selling income and profit higher than or equal to what expected.In regard to the need for the personnel development form and method, it was found that the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) needed the form and method of using the work unit(s) inside the organizations at the high level, whereas those of using the work unit(s) outside the organizations was rated at the medium level. In regard to the need for personnel development in the aspects of management, it revealed that their needs were rated at the high level and they could be ranked from more to less as follows: production management, finance and accounting management, marketing management, and personnel management. However, regarding the hypotheses testing results with the statistical significance at the 0.05 level, it revealed that the medium enterprises had more needs on the development for management personnel in the aspects of fincance and accounting, production management, and personnel management than the small enterprises, but there were no differences for their needs on the personnel development in terms of marketing management. Busides, the small and medium enterprises with average selling income higher than or equal to what expected had more needs for the personnel development in the aspects of finance and accounting, and production management than those with average selling income lower than what expected, but there were no differences for their needs on the personnel development in the aspects of marketing management and personnel management. Also, the small and medium enterprises with the profit higher than or equal to what expected had more needs for the personnel development in the aspects of finance and accounting, production management, marketing management, and personnel management than those with the profit lower than what expected.