Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intellectual ...

Wannapa Pipattanawong et al.
cannot currently meet its research goals due to a number <strong>of</strong> factors, especially <strong>the</strong> complaint by NIs that <strong>the</strong>y
are overloaded with work and lack <strong>the</strong> time to conduct research [PBRI 2009; BCNC 2009].
According to internal quality assessment results, <strong>the</strong> amount <strong>of</strong> research at BCNC should be
increased. Action research is as a tool originating in KM that can uplift an organization to meet goals
associated with a knowledge-based and learning society. HEIs could apply KM in education as a
framework to enable people within organizations to develop a set <strong>of</strong> practices to collect information and
share what <strong>the</strong>y know, leading to action that improves services and outcomes (Petrides and Nodine
2003)
Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, in 2007 to 2009, BCNC conducted a small amount <strong>of</strong> research, achieving only 12.81% in
<strong>the</strong> Thai Nursing Council’s research assessment, which did not reach <strong>the</strong> required standard<strong>of</strong> ≥ 20%.
In corroboration <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se low figures, BCNC could conduct research <strong>of</strong>only 0.13 articles per year
(BCNC 2009).while nursing colleges under PBRI should complete at least 0.70 articles per year
(Kaewjaiboon 1998). 96.15% <strong>of</strong> BCNC instructors did not get enough experience in writing academic
articles and publications, complaining that barriers were: lack <strong>of</strong> time (workload),incentives, skills, and
experience <strong>of</strong> CR, this was similar to o<strong>the</strong>r Nursing Colleges/HEIs (PBRI 2009; BCNC 2009; Kaewjaiboon
1998; Suwanachat et al 2006; Ouppor et al 2009).
Despite this data, <strong>the</strong> BCNC budgetary report in 2009 showed high personnel costs in research not
consistent with <strong>the</strong> poor productivity <strong>of</strong> research output (overheads were equal to 186,453.55 baht/topic).
In addition, <strong>the</strong> cost allocation for research is very low (4.68%) when compared with administrative and
personnel development, and teaching and learning activities.Therefore, <strong>the</strong> objectives <strong>of</strong> this paper are:
To analyze workload using ABC
To suggest appropriate management methods to remove crucial barriers leading to research
competency enhancement
2. Literature review
Thompson et al. (1999) found that <strong>the</strong> barriers to conduct nursing research are a lack <strong>of</strong> time,
motivation, confidence, research knowledge, interest and value <strong>of</strong> research, awareness <strong>of</strong> current
research, confidence in research findings and a flexibility/willingness to change. In addition, <strong>the</strong> lack
<strong>of</strong> relevance to practice, replication, rigorous methodology, believable findings and appropriate
recommendations are considered as research obstacles. In terms <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organization, barriers are; a
lack <strong>of</strong> access to journals and research resources, funding to support new technology, expectations for
research participation, rewards/reinforcement for staff, time allocation, staff empowerment, support from
medical doctors or administrators, acceptance <strong>of</strong> risk-taking and change, collaboration between
researchers & clinicians, presentation in practice publications in clinical journals, understandable
research publications, and availability <strong>of</strong> consultants to critique.
In <strong>the</strong> case study <strong>of</strong> Kaewjaiboon (1998) at Nursing Colleges in <strong>the</strong> nor<strong>the</strong>rn region <strong>of</strong> Thailand, it was
found that academic research activities <strong>of</strong> NIs were less than QA key performance indicators (KPIs).
The intrinsic factors influencing research motivation were executive personnel and lack <strong>of</strong> supporting
resources, inadequate facilities, lack <strong>of</strong> reinforcement, academic atmosphere and insufficient research
skill development. The extrinsic factors were <strong>the</strong> technological, political and economic status. Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore,
obstacles were inadequate time and, out <strong>of</strong> date textbooks, research, documents and articles at <strong>the</strong>
college, along with no experience.
In addition, Suwanachat et al. (2006) found that obstacles relating to a lack <strong>of</strong> time and ineffective time
management are significant in conducting research (CR) and/or continuing research. Those in
administrative positions perceived this problem as not serious, but leadership and instructors’ did. The
research environment felt hurried, non-supportive and lacked networks. Findings suggested that CR
obstacles should be solved through workload management and decentralized policy so as to motivate
instructors in CR. It also recommended that <strong>the</strong> result <strong>of</strong> this finding should be followed up to as
certain whe<strong>the</strong>r it had been fully implemented and whe<strong>the</strong>r more research was conducted as a result..
Ouppor et al. (2009) discovered that NIs feel research is difficult to do meaning <strong>the</strong>y sometimes avoid it
and do alternative tasks. Using questionnaires based on Social Cognitive Theory framework, <strong>the</strong>
literature also found that <strong>the</strong> perceived research self-efficacy, and research outcome expectation <strong>of</strong>
NIs from Nursing Colleges under PBRI were at a high level but relationships between <strong>the</strong>m were
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