The quality of Thai bosses has received praise from employees. Asked to score their bosses out of 10, the average score employees gave their bosses was a strong 6.9. The world's employees gave an average score of 6.7 out of 10 for their bosses. Although a relatively positive rating, this suggests that globally, there is considerable room for improvement in management-employee relations.

The Kelly Global Workforce Index sought the views of some 70,000 employees in 28 countries. The global analysis was undertaken by a leading independent statistician, Statistics Workshop, based in Australia.

The survey found that Thai employees ranked 23rd globally and sixth in the Asia-Pacific region, just ahead of Singapore, for the highest percentage of happy employees. Indonesia and India ranked an equal first, followed by Australia and New Zealand. Malaysia ranked ahead of Hong Kong in the region.

A number of nations showed a remarkably positive picture of the quality of their management. Mexico, the United States, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and India all scored seven or above. The most contented employees in the global study were in Denmark, Mexico and Sweden and the least happy in Hungary, Russia and Turkey.

Thailand's bosses have been given a surprisingly good rating by their employees.

The score of 6.9 out of 10 places Thailand ninth on a world scale. The best bosses were in Mexico, the US and Canada, and employees least happy with their bosses were in Sweden, Italy and Turkey.

In the Asia-Pacific, Thailand tied in fourth place with Indonesia, just behind New Zealand, Australia and India. Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong all scored less than seven.

"This result suggests that many organisations around the world and in Thailand can probably do better at developing workplace practices that keep their employees engaged and motivated", said Wanna Assavakarint, country manager for Kelly Services Thailand.

"Managers need to examine how they can lift performance and increase the level of communication and team spirit within their organisation. They may need to take time to ensure that they better connect with staff and provide them direction, feedback and guidance to work towards organisation goals," she said.

Employers were rated on four attributes - communication, leadership, team spirit and delegation skills. In Thailand, employees felt that bosses were best at delegating effectively and weakest when it comes to communication and team spirit. Younger employees in Thailand viewed their bosses more favourably, while women rated their bosses slightly higher than men.

On the question of who makes the best bosses - men or women - the vast majority of Thailand employees (69 per cent) said it made no difference. But 19 per cent said they preferred a male boss compared with 12 per cent preferring a female boss.

Some 69 per cent of employees in Thailand said their bosses rewarded them for a job well done while 26 per cent said they were rewarded rarely or never.

"It's important to try and find what makes a contented and motivated workforce because employees who enjoy their work will make a more effective contribution to the performance of the organisation," Wanna said.

"The best employers understand this and provide people with interesting and challenging work as well as opportunities to learn and more fully develop their own skills.

"If we look at what employees say is important to them, they want a workplace with good morale, stimulating work, a degree of autonomy, and one where they receive feedback from their bosses.

"Many employers in Thailand recognise this but it's not universal. Sometimes senior managers are so busy managing the business they frequently overlook the people aspects, which are so important," she added.