Development the Measurement of Human Resource Competency in SMEs in Upper Northeastern Region of Thailand

The paper is designed to provide a quantitative measure of the human resource competency of the small and medium enterprises in the upper Northeastern Region of Thailand. The objective of this study is to examine the validity and reliability of the measure of the four-factor model of the human resource competency in the upper Northeastern part of Thailand. The research mainly involves a survey design. It includes a pilot test using undergraduate business students at UdonThani Rajabhat University for pretesting questionnaire items. In addition, this investigation into skills, expertise, problem-solving, and adaptability competency attributes necessitates uncovering variables of interest and this involves a large-scale field study. The data are collected via personal questionnaires from 329 samples. They include the managers of SMEs in 3 provinces including UdonThani, Nongkhai, and Beungkarn. Respondents are asked to rate, on a five-point Likert scale, their agreement or disagreement on the human resource competency attributes. LISREL program is used for data analysis since the proposed model is a simultaneous system of equations having latent constructs and multiple indicators. Quantitative data are analyzed by the statistical techniques, namely exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. It is found from the study that the four - factor human resource competency, which consists of skills, expertise, problem-solving, and adaptability competencies of the SMEs in the upper Northeast of Thailand, is empirically fit the data. The managerial implications are discussed.