ABSTRACT
To investigate whether HRM function is regarded as a business partner in the firm operation, an exploratory and empirical study was undertaken (Siengthai and Bechter, 2001). The survey was conducted in Thailand during 1999-2000 with a sampling of firms of 200-plus employees. It was found that the majority of firms, i.e. 63.4 percent consist of 200 to 999 employees; large-sized firms by Thai industry and labor standards. Most of these firms have been established for over 10 years and operate in the manufacturing industry. The majority’s sales revenues in 1999 were from 100 to 4,999 million bath. More than half of these sample firms are local Thai firms and the rest are joint ventures, with Japan-related firms dominant and some wholly foreign multinational corporations.
