Abstract:
The purposes of this research were: 1) to study the roles of the village headmen and Sub-District Administrative Organization (SAO),2) to find problems which occurred between the village heads and to provide suggestions to improve the collaboration. The sample group consisted of 251 people which comprised of village headmen, SAO administrators, members of the SAO Council, a sheriff, district officers and residents of Play Praya District. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. The statistics employed in analyzing the collected data were percentage, arithmetic means, and S.D.
The results of the study revealed:
1. The roles of village headmen in various areas were found to be as follows: regulations: most respondents agreed that the village headmen followed their roles as assigned in the legislation ; entering positions of village headmen: many people preferred to elect their own headmen ; duration of position : four years were considered appropriate ; duties and responsibilities : village headmen should assist the work of the S.A.O. ; goals and objectives : most people preferred to continue having village headmen to prevent crime and maintain peace and safety in their own community.
2. Problems which occurred during the work among the village headmen and the S.A.O. mostly were from the misunderstanding of each others role. Opinions from the respondents concerning this issue were found as follows : members of the SAO : village headmen were not given an opportunity to participate in the S.A.Os activities ; villagers : the village headmen and the S.A.O. were in conflict about sharing business and benefits ; administrators and staff of the S.A.O. : the problem was at political level ; village headmen : they lacked understanding about the role of the S.A.O. due to inefficient cooperation.
3. Suggestions from various groups were as follows : members of the SAO : collaboration activities should be increased ; villagers and administrators and staff of the S.A.O : the village headmen and the S.A.O. should cooperate and work together to develop their community ; village headmen; the headmen and the S.A.O. should not let their own conflicts affect their work