The main objectives of this research were i) to study the management efficiency of abbots in Nonthaburi Province;   ii)  to compare the management efficiency of abbots in Nonthaburi Province as viewed by monks and novices, classified by personal factors; and iii) to study the problems and suggestions for improvement of  the management efficiency of abbots in Nonthaburi Province.  The survey research was carried out in this study.

A group of samples for this research consisted of 352 monks and novices under Mahanikaya sect in Nonthaburi Province, being drawn by simple random sampling technique.  The tool for data collection in this research was questionnaire comprising check-list, rating scale and opened end questions with the reliability value equal to .929. The programme for social science research was employed for data analysis. The statistics used for it are frequencies, percentage, average means and standard deviation. To test the hypotheses, t-test, One Way ANOVA and Least Significant Difference: LSD were used.

Results of Research were concluded as follows:

The overall management efficiency of abbots in Nonthaburi Province were found at high level ( = 3.73). Having considered by each aspect, it was also rated at the high levels at all aspects ranking from the most to the least in terms of means such as education, training and teaching( = 3.95), temple maintenance, affairs management and temple assets( = 3.78),  convenience of merit making ( = 3.61), and management and administration( = 3.56), respectively.

  On comparing the management efficiency of abbots in Nonthaburi Province as viewed by monks and novices, classified by personal factors, it was noted that status, age, years of monkhood, level of Dhamma studies, level of Pali studies and level of general education were not found significant differences even at .05 level of significance as contrast to the hypotheses expected

Regarding to the problems and suggestions for improvement of  the management efficiency of abbots in Nonthaburi Province, it was found that: i) temple maintenance, affairs management and temple assets, no registration of temple materials, areas in and out temple were not clean enough, and some remains and antiques in some temple were not got repaired; ii) management and administration, large gap of meeting, there was abbot based centralization of administration in some temples resulting in inadequate taking care in general; iii) education, training and teaching, there was limited number of trainers for training and teaching monks and novices, there was rare training of monks to be monk teachers, resulting in lack of monks teaching Dhamma and Pali studies;  and iv) convenience of merit making, inconvenience of contact, no equal invitation for all, temple moderators and rites performers in some temples did not guide perfect rites and rituals in the light of Buddhist tradition, and there were no sufficient parking areas in temples resulting in inconvenience for those who wanted to make merits in the temples.

Suggestions for improvement were noted as follows : i) temple maintenance, affairs management and temple assets, there should be fund allocation for temple materials and assets registration,  there should be cleaning activities for improving temple views in and out the temples, there should be reparation of the remains and antiques in the temples; ii) management and administration, there should a meeting once in a month and decentralization of administration should be authorized and trusted to those concerned in management and administration; iii) education, training and teaching, there should support the learning and teaching management  of Dhamma studies in the temples and support those who had capability to improve themselves to be Dhamma teachers, there should be monks teaching Dhamma studies training in every month; and iv) convenience of merit making, offices and places responsible for merit making in the temples should be provided along with working persons in the offices,  there should moderators and rites performers training all over province so that they could perform rites and rituals in the same directions and manners, and adequate parking places should be provided for the sake of convenience of those who came to make merits in the temples and contact in doing merits.