ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the effects of several structural and cultural variables on the behavior of Thai physicians. The inadequate incentive system was shown to produce major theme in physicians' role making, namely the problem of reconciling the demands of public service with those of private practice. Professionalism made possible the use of egalitarian forms of address and other symbolic gestures which defined the roles of the doctors and their superiors that made it more difficult for superiors to demand special services from physicians. The total number of patients in the hospital's outpatient clinic cannot be reduced because the clinic is a free, public service, and the other hand the physicians do not wish to reduce their private patient loads. Inpatient care in the hospital is unaffected by the demands of private practice. The pressures of private practice also appear in the physicians' responses to the hospital's rule that only the physician in charge of a ward may treat patients there.
