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PROFESSIONALISM IN MANAGEMENT OF CO-OPERATIVE SECTORS OF SOUTH GUJARAT

KrishiKosh

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Title PROFESSIONALISM IN MANAGEMENT OF CO-OPERATIVE SECTORS OF SOUTH GUJARAT
 
Creator NAIK, RAJENDRAKUMAR M.
 
Contributor PATEL, R.B.
 
Subject biological phenomena, economic systems, sugar, marketing, markets, participation, manpower, economics, productivity, imports
 
Description Professionalism is essentially a function of modernization in which cooperatives
have to emerge as strong business enterprises so as to emerge
triumphant amidst the winds of change in the economy. As they have matured as
organizations, there is a corresponding need to infuse adequate doses of
professionalism in their functioning. They will have to manage change through
scientific behavioural tools and innovations. They will have to discard their old
norms of functioning, imbibe a new culture and sharpen their powers of resilience
so as to march ahead in this tumultuous era. In this pursuit, professionalism
competence of co-operatives should come to the fore. This can only materialize if
attempts are made to follow the dictates of professionalism in demonstrating
certain proficiency and excellence in practices, based on a systematic body of
knowledge, aiming at inculcating among its members a sense of responsibility
towards each other, and at establishing norms of behaviour, and clearly defined
qualifications for membership. Some may consider it as an idealistic assumption,
but closely following its spirit would portray a serious endeavor towards
fulfillment of the objective of professionalism in a sharp break from the past.
The co-operatives in the present times represent myriad socio-economic
activities with a wide range and depth. Their management has become a complex
phenomenon requiring a high degree of innovation, skills and ability to
experiment with new ideas. The problems of management have become manifold
requiring specialized attention in the spheres of marketing, banking, processing,
consumption etc. Due to this, application of specific fields of management with
their techniques and methodologies has become important in the field of cooperatives,
where management at present is quite simple and elastic, portraying
a disjointed and somewhat outdated outlook. The co-operatives should not show
despondency by showing a lukewarm attitude to the rapid advances in the field of
management. A definite spin off effect of professionalism will be rise in
productivity for co-operatives, which will be an important yardstick of success for
the growth of co-operative organizations.
The co-operative sector in India has emerged as one of the largest in the
world with 504 thousand societies of various types with a membership of
20.91crore and working capital of Rs. 2,27,111.83 crores (Table: 1). Almost all
villages in India are covered under the co-operative fold. Therefore,
"Professionalism in management of co-operative sectors of South Gujarat" was
undertaken with the following specific objectives.
The specific objectives of the study were as under:
1. To study the existing membership of respondents in different cooperative
sectors of South Gujarat;
2. To study the perception of office-bearers, governing body and members
regarding extent of professionalism in management of co-operative
sectors;
3. To study the group cohesiveness and its relation with professionalism in
context to effectiveness of the co-operative sectors;
4. To study the personal, social, economic and psychological characteristics of
respondents on professionalism in context to effectiveness of the cooperative
sectors;
5. To assess the factors responsible for professionalism of co-operative sectors;
6. To develop extension strategy for developing professionalism in cooperative
sectors of different enterprises.
Research Methodology
Ex-post-facto research design was used for the present study. The three cooperative
sectors, viz., agricultural, sugar and dairy are spread over and
functioning in all the part of South Gujarat. These three co-operative sectors were
selected purposively for this study. The list of co-operative societies of all three
sectors were obtained from the Gujarat state Co-operative
Development Federation Limited, Ahmedabad. Later on three co-operative
societies from each sector were selected randomly. Three categories of
respondents, viz., office-bearers, leaders and primary members of the societies
were selected randomly at the ratio of 5:5:10. Thus, the total number of
respondents were 180.
The data were collected with the help of structured schedule by personal
interview method. The dependent and independent variables were measured by
utilizing suitable scales and procedure adopted by other research workers. The
data so collected were coded, classified, tabulated and analyzed in order to make
the findings meaningful. The statistical measures such as percentage mean score,
standard deviation, co-efficient of correlation, stepwise multiple regression,
standard partial regression co-efficient and path co-efficient analysis were
used.
Major Findings
The following major findings were drawn from the present investigation.
1. The respondents possessed highest number of membership (89.44 per
cent) in dairy co-operative societies and got first rank under study area.
2. A majority of the farmers (53.33 per cent) and more than two-fifth of the
office-bearers (46.67 per cent) and governing body (46.67 per cent) had
perceived average level of professionalism in agricultural sector. The same
trend was observed in sugar and dairy co-operative sectors.
3. Majority of the respondents of agricultural (50.00 per cent), sugar (70.00
per cent) and dairy (55.00 per cent) co-operative sectors had perceived
professionalism to be at average level.
4. Leader driven rather than government programme based dimension was
perceived to be at average level with 46.66, 66.67 and 51.67 per cent in
agricultural, sugar and dairy co-operative sectors, respectively by the
respondents.
5. Half of the respondents of agricultural co-operative sector had perceived
emphasis on business planning dimension as poor, whereas, 40.00 and
25.00 per cent respondents had good perception regarding this dimension
in dairy and sugar co-operative sectors, respectively.
6. Majority of the respondents of all three co-operative sectors had perceived
human resource development policy dimension to be at average level.
7. Majority of the respondents had perceived management information
system dimension to be at poor level (55.00 per cent) in agricultural, good
level (41.67 per cent) in dairy and average level (46.66 per cent) in sugar
co-operative sectors.
8. Majority of the respondents had perceived broad based interest
organization of farmers dimension to be at average level in agricultural,
sugar and dairy co-operative sectors.
9. The dimension newer instrument to raise capital had been perceived to be
at good level in sugar (44.45 per cent), average level (46.66 per cent) in
dairy and poor level (50.00 per cent) in agricultural co-operative sectors by
the respondents.
10. Almost half of the respondents had perceived image building through
standard setting in terms of product quality dimension to be at average
level in all three co-operative sectors.
11. Almost half of the respondents had perceived emphasis on strategic
alliances with other co-operatives and corporate sector dimension to be at
average level in all three co-operative sectors.
12. Majority of the respondents of Amalsad and Pratapnagar societies had
average level, while the respondents of Karcheliya society had poor level of
perception of professionalism in all eight dimensions.
13. Majority of the respondents of all three societies had perceived all eight
dimensions of professionalism to be at average level.
14. Majority of the respondents had perceived good level in
Vasudhara society and average level in Dudhdhara society and
Choryasi society of perception of all eight dimensions of professionalism.
15. A majority of the agricultural (58.33. per cent), sugar (78.33 per cent) and
dairy (61.67 per cent) co-operative sectors' respondents had moderate
level of group cohesiveness. It was found highly significant correlation
between group cohesiveness and professionalism.
16. It was observed that 95.56 per cent of the total respondents were more
than 31 years of age. It was found non-significant correlation between age
and professionalism,
17. Almost three-fourth of the total respondents (73.89 per cent) possessed
education in between high school to graduate level. It was found nonsignificant
correlation between education and professionalism.
18. All the respondents were male in agricultural and sugar co-operative
sectors, while, only 10 per cent respondents were female in dairy cooperative
sector. There was non-significant correlation between gender
and professionalism.
19. The majority of the respondents of agricultural (61.67 per cent), sugar
(63.34 per cent) and dairy (61.67 per cent) co-operative sectors were
dominated by the forward caste. Caste was found negatively significant in
dairy co-operative sector, which was marginal, whereas in other two
sectors, it was found non-significant.
20. Majority of the respondents of agricultural (51.67 per cent),and dairy
(71.66 per cent) and one-third of sugar (33.33 per cent) co-operative
sectors possessed farming with dairing as major occupation for their
livelihood, but it was found non-significant correlation between occupation
and professionalism.
21. Majority of the respondents of agricultural (70.00 per cent), sugar (81.67
per cent) and dairy (81.67 per cent) co-operative sectors were in medium
income group. The relationship between income and professionalism was
found highly significant in pooled analysis.
22. Almost two-third of the respondents in all three co-operative sectors had
nuclear type of family, which had non-significant correlation with
professionalism.
23. More than three-fourth of the respondents from all three co-operative
sectors had medium size of family, which had non-significant correlation
with professionalism.
24. Majority of the respondents of agricultural (55.00 per cent), sugar (73.33
per cent) and dairy (68.34 per cent) co-operative sectors were from big land
holding category, which had non-significant correlation with
professionalism.
25. Majority of the respondents of agricultural (73.33 per cent), sugar (75.00
per cent) and two-fifth of dairy co-operative sectors belong to small herd
size category, which had non-significant correlation with professionalism in
their respective co-operative sectors, while it had highly significant
correlation with professionalism in pooled analysis.
26. Majority of the respondents of agricultural (58.33 per cent), sugar (53.33
per cent) and dairy (63.33 per cent) co-operative sectors had medium level
of social participation. It was found non-significant correlation between
social participation and professionalism.
27. Majority of the respondents of agricultural (68.33 per cent), sugar (68.33
per cent) and dairy (55.00 per cent) had favourable attitude towards their
co-operative society, which had highly significant correlation with
professionalism in pooled analysis.
28. Majority of the respondents of sugar (51.67 per cent) and two-fifth of
agricultural (48.33 per cent) and dairy (45.00 per cent) co-operative sectors
had favorable attitude towards other members of the co-operative
society. It had highly significant correlation with professionalism in pooled
analysis.
29. Majority of the respondents of agricultural (60.00 per cent), sugar (65.00
per cent) and dairy (51.67 per cent) co-operative sectors showed medium
level of faith in people, which was found highly significant correlation with
professionalism in pooled analysis.
30. Majority of the respondents had mediocre perception about benefits of cooperatives
in all three groups of co-operative sectors and it was found
highly significant and positively correlated with professionalism.
31. Majority of the respondents had medium level of group motivation in all
three categories. It was found significant correlation with professionalism in
sugar co-operative sector and highly significant correlation in agricultural
and dairy co-operative sectors.
32. Majority of the respondents of agricultural (50.00 per cent), sugar (56.67
per cent) and dairy (51.67 per cent) co-operative sectors had moderate
level of knowledge about principles of co-operation, which was found
highly significant and positive correlation with professionalism.
33. Almost half of the respondents from all three co-operative sectors
belonged to medium experience category. It was found marginally
significant correlation with professionalism.
34. Majority of the respondents in all three co-operative sectors wanted to
market the produces through their respective societies.
35. Majority of the respondents had preferred their co-operative society as a
source of information, followed by extension worker and progressive
farmers.
36. Out of all independent variable, four variables namely income, knowledge
about principles of co-operation, perceived benefits of co-operatives
and group motivation were accounting influence on the professionalism in
management of agricultural sector, whereas, family size, knowledge about
principles of co-operation, perceived benefits of co-operatives and group
motivation were accounting influence on the professionalism in
management of sugar co-operative sector. In case of dairy co-operative
sectors, five variables namely education, knowledge about principles of cooperation,
faith in people, perceived benefits of co-operatives and group
cohesiveness were accounting influence on the professionalism, whereas,
five variables namely herd size, knowledge about principles of cooperation,
attitude towards other members, perceived benefits of cooperatives
and group-motivation were accounting influence on
professionalism in management of co-operative sectors as a whole.
37. The factor knowledge about principles of co-operation exerted the highest
positive direct effect, group cohesiveness exerted the highest positive total
indirect effect and group cohesiveness also exerted the highest substantial
indirect effect of professionalism through knowledge about principles of cooperation
in agricultural and sugar co-operative sectors and in pooled
analysis. It was also found similar trend in dairy co-operative sectors,
except that the variable attitude towards co-operative society exerted the
highest substantial indirect effect on professionalism through knowledge
about principles of co-operation.
38. According to the results of path analysis, some of the factors like
knowledge about principles of co-operation, perceived benefits of cooperatives,
group motivation, attitude towards other members of the
society, herd size, group cohesiveness, attitude towards their cooperative
society and faith in people had great influence on the level of the
perception of professionalism. Keeping these factors and some suggestions
expressed by the respondents an extension strategy is suggested for better
perception of professionalism in management of co-operative sectors of
South Gujarat.
(i) The lukewarm attitude towards professionalism should be avoided
through dissemination of full information regarding professionalism.
(ii) The specialized institutes of training for co-operatives have immense
contribution to make towards providing a boost to professionalism.
(iii) Demarcation of authority and responsibility between elected board
of directors and paid professional managers should he carefully
evolved without any element of confusion.
(iv) Attractive service conditions, pay scales, work environment, welfare
facilities, security and services avenues for promotion should be
present in the co-operative organizations.
(v) Co-operative values and principles should not be discarded. It should
given prime importance. The training component must structure
around these factors.
(vi) Appropriate mechanisms should be introduced which encourage and
permit active involvement and participation of members in the
affairs of co-operative.
(vii) Sound information technology has been catapulted to the center
stage of professionalism.
(viii) The autonomous forum should review, analyse, debate, discuss and
evaluate the ongoing policies and programmes of cooperation.
(ix) Common understanding regarding basic principles of co-operation
and its utility in professionalism
(x) Common perception regarding benefits of co-operatives and its
professionalism.
(xi) High group motivation and professionalism.
(xii) Positive attitude towards other members of co-operative societies
and its professionalism.
(xiii) Development of group cohesiveness among the members.
(xiv) Positive attitude towards their co-operative society and its
professionalism.
(xv) Creation of faith in people.
 
Date 2016-03-02T12:02:36Z
2016-03-02T12:02:36Z
2006-01
 
Type Thesis
 
Identifier http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/64589
 
Language en
 
Format application/pdf
 
Publisher Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari