THE DESIRABLE CHARACTERISTIC & ROLE OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OFFICER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to study 1) the desirable characteristic and role of community development officer for sustainable development, 2) guideline for enhancing the success of sustainable development of the community. Key informants in this study composed of 32 community leaders who worked collaboratively with community development officers in 4 areas and 48 members from all of country for focus group discussion. To identify the informants, Purposive sampling was applied. The research design in this study was a qualitative approach. Structured interview form and questions for group discussion was tool for data collection. After interviewing the informants, the researcher analyzed the data through the use of content analysis.

            This study reported the following findings: 1) Roles of community development officer for sustainable development found that 1.1 Promotion Aspect including career, marketing, group cooperation, community plan development, projects proposal concerning sufficiency economy, personal development & enhance using  technology and language for communication, and traditional tourism promotion 1.2 Supporting Aspect in terms of consulting, budgets and sharing information, coaching and facilitator 1.3 Coordinating Aspect consisted of working collaboratively with community leaders and government institutions. This study, additionally, presents three desirable characteristics of community development officers which were 1. possession of  knowledge and ability - community development officers should have an expertise in work related to community development and keen to learn new knowledge, 2. personality – community development officers should have good interpersonal skills, dress up and explain things clearly, polite, humble, positive thinking, human relationship & rapport, 3. work behaviors – community development officers should be the people who were willing to work toward goals, loved and understood the nature of community development work, pay attention, punctual, neutral, open-mind, and devoted themselves to the field work. 2) The guidelines for roles and desirable characteristics development in increasing the success of sustainable development composed of DEPT

D (Development) - Human, Economic & Environment

E (Ethics) - Ethics & Moral Development

P (Participation) - Participation Development

T (Technology) - Technology & Language Development for Communication