NKC-IC14-HS02. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, KhonKaen,Thailand, 40002

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1 NKC-IC14-HS02 FACTORS LEADING TO THE SUCCESS OF HERBAL TRANSFORMATION HOUSEWIFE GROUP, BAN NON NYEU, NONG KHAM SUBDISTRICT, KRANG KRAW DISTRICT, CHAIYAPHOOM PROVINCE 391 Pratin Onkanha and Sukhumvit Saiyasopon * Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, KhonKaen,Thailand, *Corresponding author. pratin_bb@hotmail.co.th Abstract: The objectives of this research study were to 1) study the overall operation of and 2) study factors to success of Herbal Transformation Housewife Group, Ban Non Nyeu, Nong Kham Subdistrict, Krang Kraw District, Chaiyaphoom Province. Used mixed methodology, questionnaires were research instrument. The samples of this study were housewife group consisted of 15 people. The statistics used in analyzing the data were percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The study found that the group s overall operation was related to its objectives as follows: 1) increasing household and community incomes, 2) reducing unemployment in the community, 3) reserving local wisdom, 4) responding government policies and 5) supporting community cooperation by applying PDCA planning process into its works. Nevertheless, the group was concerned about financial management, participatory processes, general management, leadership respectively, which of those were factors led to success. Also, there were opportunities and potentialities that the group could be promoted to be internationalized such as its management, productivity, financial supports, marketing, value maintaining, networking and government supports. Keywords: Herbal Transformation Housewife Group, PDCA planning process Introduction and background At the present, Thailand is facing the problem of economic crisis and people in every level of the society are also facing different types of problems. One of the problems that the people in the grassroots level, who are the majority of the population in the country, are struggling with is the problem of poverty. The government had declared war on poverty by announcing to the senate about the setting up of the One Tambon One Product or OTOP for short. OTOP is one of the top priority and urgent projects on the government s policies. The goal of the project focuses on each of the communities bringing out their own local wisdoms to develop their products with the government s help in providing new knowledge and the logistics in bringing connecting the products from the communities to the market both internally and nationally, the system of the internet and network shops to promote and support the process of local communities development, building up strong communities, bring about development to the communities for them to be able to raise the livelihood status of the people within. The project also help people to be able to self-sustain and create a participatory process is generating income through using the resources and local wisdom to improve the products and services to a better quality, unique, gain more financial values, and creating the demands in both domestic and international market that goes accordingly with the culture and local way of life. These were done basing on three principles: The first principle the local, yet global, knowledge. The second principle is the self-reliance and creative thinking. The

2 third principle is developing human resources. From the announcement of the policies by Mr. TaksinShinnawatra on 2001, there was a support and push towards income generating process for all people by encouraging the sustainable economy principle according to the potential of the grassroots communities of the countries; starting from the production, the consumption, and selling the excess to help generate more income for the families, the support in coming together to help maintain the community economy, the rush in developing the middle-sized and small sized entrepreneurs to help support one another in order to achieve a systematic income generating process for the people. Therefore, the government had launch the Prime Minister s policies on the Committee on the National One Tambon One Product of 2001 on September 7 th, The committee, with the deputy prime minister as a chair person assigned by the prime minister, has the authority to come up with the policies, strategies, the model scheme on the One Tambon One Product, determining the standard and the regulations in choosing and registering the outstanding products, as well as supporting the working process to be efficient in accordingly with the policies and model scheme. Therefore, the people in Nong Kham subdistrict, Kang Kraw district, Chaiyaphoom province had come together to form four occupational groups in response to the project: herbal transformation housewife group, hammock making group, weaving group, and basketry group. Only one group succeeded; the herbal transformation housewife group which had already been registered and rated as a four-star OTOP product; which means the product itself has the potential to be accepted domestically and can be developed to the international level. Due to its importance, the researcher was interested in studying the factors attributing to the success of the herbal transformation housewife group, mainly on its status and the working process. Moreover, the researcher also hope to identify the factors the helped strengthen the group and led to the continuity of the work which led to the products to be accepted as a four-star OTOP product, accumulating the information and knowledge to be the guideline for other groups, and strengthening the herbal transformation group of Non Nyeu to its full potential in the improvement of the product towards the national standard. The Objectives of the Research 1.To study the working status of the herbal transformation housewife group of Non Nyeu village. 2. To study the factors contributing to the success of the herbal transformation housewife group of Non Nyeu village. Research Procedure This research is both a qualitative and quantitative research with the sample group consisting of fifteen members from the herbal transformation housewife group of Non Nyeuvillage. The sample group was selected through a purposive sampling method. The researcher had collected the data from documents, in-depth interviews, and participatory observation. Research Tools The research tools can be categorized into 2 types: Type 1Interview: The interviews with open-ended questions were used with the sample group from the selected herbal transformation housewife group in Non Nyeu village. The questions can be separated into 5 parts: Part1 General information of the interviewees. Part 2 The working status of the herbal transformation housewife group of Non Nyeu village. Part 3 The format and the working procedures of a successful group. Part 4 The factors the led to the success of the herbal transformation housewife group. Part5 The potential and opportunities to develop the products to be internationally accepted. Type 2 Participatory observation: 3 meetings of the housewife group. 392

3 Data Analysis The research on Factors leading to the success of Herbal TransformationHousewife Group, Ban Non Nyeu village is a mixed between quantitative and qualitative research through the use of interviews as a tool in data collecting. The qualitative data was analyzed using descriptive analysis. The data accumulated was the information collected through in-depth interviews. The data was analyzed by the researcher in order to find the working status that led to the success of the group and well as the factors that led to the overall success. In order for the analysis to be even more complete, it is therefore based on the concept s and theories as a framework for the descriptive analysis. Findings from the Study The research findings can be concluded as followed: 1.From the general information of the interviewees, it was found that the majority of the members of the herbal transformation housewife group are women, which made up to 80%, 60% of the members ranges between years old. All or 100% of the members are married. As for the educational level, 86.6% has primary school education. 93.3% of the members practice agriculture. 93.3% of the members make less than ten 10,000 baht per month and 73.3% has the knowledge in transforming herbal plants. 2.As for the working status of the herbal transformation housewife group, the results from the interviews shows that the herbal transformation housewife group came together with the following objectives: 1) Create additional occupation for the families. 2) Solve the problem of unemployment within the community. 3) Preserve the Thai local knowledge. 4) Respond to the government s policies. 5) Encourage the cooperation within the community. The group members have the knowledge in the principle of planning. 88.3% of the members carried out the plan. As for the implementation, or DO, 91.7% of the members had carried this part out according to the plan. In the Check aspect, 88.9% of the members had checked up on their implementation according to the plan. In the Act aspect, all or 100% of the members had fixed the problems that occurred. The leaders of the herbal transformation housewife group came up with their own ideas. They make decisive decision and sacrifice for the greater good. The group has their own budget and funding sources to support the activities of the group by collecting from the members and getting loans from the community state enterprises as a rotating fund for the internal group management. Somehow, the group still has problems in terms of maintaining the rotating funds and the production. 3. For the working formats and the procedures of the group that contributes to the success, it was found that the group had chosen a chair person and a set of committee from those that are suitable for the work. Work was distributed amongst all members. The plan was always laid out beforehand. There are clear regulations on group management. The group is also able to continuously produce and sell the products. The income and expense report were done correctly and always up-to-date. For the funding, the group raises funds both within and outside of the group. There are continuously coordination and public relations between the group and the outside. The knowledge on the working process has always been developed. There are follow-ups and evaluations of the group s work and report to members every time there are activities within the group in order to improve the group s stability to achieve the objectives and gain target groups for the products. As for the improvement of the products, there are the improvement of the packaging, the characteristics of the products, the development of the knowledge in order to achieve the standard and become a potential product; being accepted domestically and able to develop to the international level. 393

4 4.There are 8 factors that contribute to the success of the herbal transformation housewife group of the Non Nyeu village, listing from the most important to the least: 1) Participation factor: This factor is very important to the group since it is based on the cooperation of the members within the group. The members have to think together, work together, and taking responsibilities together in order for the work of the group to be successful and reaches the objectives set out. 2) Management factor: This open up an opportunity for the members and the committee to participate in voicing their opinions in order to create the right kind of management according to the laid out plan. 3)Leadership factor: The leaders within the group have their own creative ideas, able to become a group representative while building up the solidarity within the group, can make decisive decision, respect other people s opinion, and sacrifice personal happiness for the greater good. 4) Internal Membership factor: The herbal transformation group will distribute the work amongst themselves. They are diligent, enthused, and looking for new knowledge. 5) Monetary factor: This is the primary factor in the implementation within the group. The housewife group records the income and expenses of the group in a systematic way, creating a rotating fund to be used according to the plan. 6) Marketing factor: The customers of the group consist of the middlemen who always come to get the products and other general customers. The middlemen are the ones buying the products in bulk. This is a group of customers that buys a lot of products. Other customers are people from thegeneral public sector. The group also hold exhibitions to show their OTOP products. 7) Production factor: The group had did some improvements and developments to get the products to a better quality as well as making their own packaging to go along with the product, making them more beautiful and more interesting. The group also put the logo อย. or the FDA logo on the packaging to make the products more reliable. 8) External relationship factor: There are government offices, which consist of the Nong Kham Tambon Administration Office, Kang Kraw Agricultural Office, and Kang Kraw Community Development Office, who come in to help with the improvement of the products, set up trips and training to help provide more knowledge on the management, the production, and the marketing to the housewife group. 5. The findings on the potential and the opportunity to develop the group s product to a more international standard, a five star OTOP product, shows that the housewife group has the potential and the opportunity to develop their own product to a five-star OTOP product through the following help from outside: 1) The potential of the herbal transformation housewife group - The participation aspect: All the members of the housewife group have the same goal of achieving the objectives setup in for group. - The management aspect: The group has the potential on the management that is correct and go accordingly to the laid out plan which open up the opportunity for the members and the committee to participate in voicing their opinion in order to create the sense of ownership. - The leadership aspect: The group has the leadership potential; the leaders have creative ideas and can act as the group s representative, create solidarity within the group, make decisive decision, respect other people s opinion and sacrifice. - Production aspect: the housewife group has the right amount of member. The group also improves and develops the products to a better quality. - Monetary aspects: The group has the monetary potential in accessing the funding resources which creates the product production rotation, liquidity, and a system of income-expense record. 394

5 - Marketing aspect: The group has a enough regular customers. The trade partners are the entrepreneur who buys the products in bulk to sell them. The group also does exhibitions in the OTOP exhibition hosted by the government. 2) The Opportunity of the Herbal Transformation Housewife Group. - Creating and finding ways to increase the value of the products; such as the improvement of the packaging to suit the products, improving the outside look of the product too look more modern, and to put the อย. or FDA logo on the packaging and passall the quality standard. - The improvement on the characteristics of the product which consist improving the characteristics of the herbal product to be more attracting to the consumers; the products color, smell, taste, texture, and etc. to be as close to the natural taste as possible. The products are safe for the customers since they use the authentic raw materials from the community which contain no contamination. In the improvement of the product, one needs to consider the needs of the consumers and what type of products consumers want. - Using the local knowledge in the production is one way to use the local wisdom in the production process in order to attain the products that gives both the physical and mental quality. - The support from the government: Since the government launched the renewed strategies in restoring the OTOP project to be able to reach the international level within the National Action Plan ( ). This plan consist of the management of the OTOP project to reach more potential by encouraging the communities and community enterprises to use the local knowledge in addition to the contemporary knowledge to raise the standard and the quality of the products and the management and in accessing the funding sources of both domestically and internationally. - Building networks to support the production and the marketing by creating the networks in each area and the exchange of information with the outside groups as well as communicating with the related agencies that are involved with the supporting OTOP project. Discussion The discussions are as followed: 1. The work status of the group: The setting up of a group based on the following objectives: 1) Secondary source of income for the families to help generate more income. 2) Solve the problem of unemployment for the people within the community. 3) Preserving the local knowledge 4) Respond to the government s policies 5) Encourage the cooperation within the community. These objectives goes along the line of the concept of a group by JeerapanKanchanajittra (1995 : 189) which gives the definition of a group as more than two people coming together under the activities while seeing the same objectives, interacting with one another, feeling of being on the same side, have the same interests, and behave according to the roles and responsibilities. These groups are fundamental units within a society that will add on to the characteristics and ideals of an individual. For this point, the researcher believes that the setting up of the housewife group shows that every member of the group have the same objectives and goals in coming together as a group. There is a group structure, the distribution of roles and responsibility of the group, the norm of the group, the interrelationship within the members, and activities that will help the group achieve the objectives. The housewife group have the knowledge and understanding in the work principles of the planning (Plan), the implementation (Do), checking the results from the action (Check), and acting according to the test results (Act), which go along with the study of WerapongChalermjirarat (2004 : 56) that mentioned the Deming Circle, or the PDCA Circle, which is the steps in achieving the work correctly, efficiently, and trust worthy, consisting of Plan, which leads to the implementation (Do), the checking of the results from the implementation (Check), and the action in 395

6 solving the problems that prevents the work from being successful according to the plan (Act). The leaders within the group have their own creative ideas, make decisive decision, representing the group, and sacrifice for the greater good. The group also have their own budget and funding sources in implementing the activities by raising funding from the members within the group and taking a loan from the community enterprise to use as a rotating fund in the group s management and the group that mainly has problems with the rotating funds and the production problems. This also goes along with the study by ChantanaOsotkrapun (1995 : 15) and LuntomSutti (2000 : 22) that talks about the characteristics factors of the group leaders to the success of the occupation group work. The leaders should be the consultant to the group, have the ability in giving opinions, helps with the group s development, and possess the knowledge, the ability, the responsibility, and honesty. As for the format and the method of working together as a group that contributes to the success, suitable chairperson and committee were chosen, works were distributed equally amongst the members, plans are always laid out ahead of time, have clear regulations on group management, correct and up-to-date income and expense record, fund raising internally and externally, continuously coordinating and public relation with the outside, follow up with the group work evaluation and informing the members, all the activities are aimed at developing the stability of the group, and able to achieve the objectives. The group also has goals in developing the products; improving the packaging, the characteristics of the products, and the local knowledge, to achieve the standard of the products with potential that are accepted in the national and the international level. This goes along with the working principle of OTOP by JeeraKanjanapukdi and PanorjitLaopoonsook (1998), who had presented the information on the development of community economy which consist of the development in terms of the monetary funding, the production, the marketing, and the management. 2. The 8 factors leading to the success of the herbal transformation housewife group of Non Nyeu, listing from the lost important to the least, are as followed: 1) the factor on the participation which very much affect the work of the group. 2) the factor on the management 3) the factor on the leadership 4) the factor concerning the members of the group 5) the factor on monetary funding 6) the factor on marketing 7) the factor on the production and 8) the factor on the interaction with the outside. This ranking goes along the line with the concept on the factors of success and failure by JaimanusPloydeereferenced innarongpetchprasert, 2007 : , in implementing the community business. There are 9 factors that leads to the success and failure to the group which consist of the following: funding factor, marketing factor, production factor, management factor, leadership factor, labor factor, members participation factor, organization s regulations factors, and the interaction with the outside organization. In this point, the researcher see that the fact that housewife group will be able to succeed in their work and achieve their goals will have to depend to other factors. Only that will help the group to reach their objectives and their goals. As for the potential and the opportunities for the product of the herbal transformation housewife group to reach the international level, five-star OTOP product, it will need the participation from the member of the group. It also needs good management, leadership, production, funding, and marketing. The group can also gain the opportunity from outside to step up to a more international standard; such as finding ways to add the values to their products, using the local knowledge in the production, the support from the government and building up networks. These method goes along with the study by YuthasakSuppasorn(2013: Abstract),who had studied the opportunities and the impact of the OTOP in light of the country entering into the ASEAN Economic 396

7 Community. The research believes that the herbal transformationhousewife group of Non Nyeu has all the factors that can lead to the success of the group. The group also shows the potential of the group in their work which shows that they are ready to step up to the international level in addition to the opportunities that the group get from outside in several aspects which helps to push the products to a better international standard. Recommendations 1. Suggestions on the policies 1) There should be more monetary support from other agencies to increase the amount of the rotating fund I the production and the transformation of the products. 2) The government should provide the group with more modern tools in the packaging in order to help the group achieve their goals. 3) The government should setup trainings to increase the knowledge in the management, the production, and the marketing to the housewife group. The government can also setup a study trip to encourage the exchanges of knowledge in order to use that knowledge to add the improvements to the products, which is also a way to a more sustainable development. 4) The government agencies should pay more attention and be more aware of the importance of the housewife group. They should come in to check on the activities of the group more continuously. References Chantana_Osotkrapun (1995). Selected factors affecting success of homemaker groups' operating in Ayudthaya Province, Thailand, Chiangmai: Maejo Institute of Agriculture ChiraphanKanchanachittra (1995). Community Development,Bangkok :Ramkhamhaeng University JutaratPhulkate (2002). Factors supporting the success of career group : study of District Public Social Welfare Offices in Bangkok Metropolitan Area : Thammasart University Acting Sub-Lieutenant DuddeawWongpak (1993). Factors Affecting the Achievement of the Operation of 4-H Groups in ChangwatPrachinburi, Chiangmai: ChiangmaiUniveristy BuphaSanpayao (1995). Factors Affecting the Failure of Farm Housewife Grops in Kamoang Province, Thailand. Chiangmai, Maelo Institute of Technology Manus Kaewpraphan (2541). Case Study: The Success in the Work of the Village Women Development Committee Group. Community Development iniubonratchathani, Bangkok: National Institute of Development Administration. LuntomSutti (2000). The Homeindustry Group Achievement Indicators : A Case Study of Farmers in Land Reform Areas. Bangkok. Thammasart University SuraphinKanchanajittra and PrapasSilparatsamee (1996) The Factors Affecting Success of the Occupation Group. Bangkok. PathumthaniUniverist 397