SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFIT OF WORKER COOPERATIVE USING AT OWERRI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

Description

ABSTRACT

This study aimed at throwing light on social and economic benefit of worker cooperative using at owerri municipal council. This study is divided into five chapters, the first chapter is the introductory chapter which give a condensed historical background of subject matter. In this chapter, worker cooperative is defined by many renounced management expert is considered. It also studies the benefits and other introductory sub-heading(s) and analyzed the types of worker cooperative. Chapter three, deals with research design and methodology. Chapter four covers the interview and questionnaires, which I conducted and distributed using the tabulation percentage, and data analysis. The source using were primary and secondary data. Chapter five is the summary, conclusion and recommendations. It supported the deals of selecting the most qualified staff as leader.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

1.0      INTRODUCTION

• BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
• AIM AND OBJECTIVE
• PROBLEM OF THE STUDY
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
• PROJECT ORGANISATION

 

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• HISTORY OF WORKERS COOPERATIVE
• DEFINITION OF WORKER COOPERATIVE
• COOPERATIVES MOVEMENT IN NIGERIA
• SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFIT OF WORKER COOPERATIVE
• WORKER COOPERATIVE STRUCTURES

 

CHAPTER THREE

• RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• INTRODUCTION
• RESEARCH DESIGN
• SOURCES OF DATA
• METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
• POPULATION AND SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION
• SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION
• SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
• VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
• ADMINISTRATION OF DATA COLLECTIVE INSTRUMENT
• RELIABILITY OF MEASURING INSTRUMENT
• DATA TECHNIQUES

 

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0      DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

• INTRODUCTION
• DATA PRESENTATION

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION
• RECOMMENDATION
• REFERENCES

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                         INTRODUCTION

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

A worker cooperative is a cooperative that is owned and democratically governed by its worker-owners. This control may be exercised in a number of ways.  In some worker cooperatives, worker-owners may run for and elect a Board of Directors comprised of worker-owners, which makes certain governance decisions and perhaps hires and supervises managers.  In other worker cooperatives, the workers elect their managers directly.  Finally, some worker cooperatives are managed collectively (without a management hierarchy).  In all cases, worker-owners are typically empowered to vote on major decisions such as changes to the bylaws.

In traditional worker cooperatives, all shares are held by the worker-owners with no outside or consumer owners.  Like other kinds of cooperatives, worker cooperatives operate on the “one member, one vote” principle: no worker-owner may buy more shares in order to obtain additional decision-making power or financial entitlements.  It is worth noting that some “hybrid” cooperatives exist, in which workers own a considerable number of shares but some “outside” ownership is permitted.

A more detailed primer on worker cooperatives can be found here.  Part one is particularly useful as a basic overview.

The ICA defines a cooperative as: “An autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise” (ICA, 1995).

Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others. They adhere to a code of practice enshrined in the Universal Cooperative Principles (Open and Voluntary membership; Democratic Member Control; Member Economic Participation; Autonomy and Independence, Education, Training and Information; Cooperation among Cooperatives and Concern for the Community). Cooperatives, as economic enterprises and as autonomous self-help organisations, play a meaningful role in uplifting the socioeconomic conditions of their members and their local communities, as well as running major international businesses. They are found in practically all countries of the world, covering almost all the major sectors – including agriculture, forestry, fishery, finance (banking, microfinance and insurance), electricity (generation and supply), construction, mining housing, transport, manufacturing, trade and a wide range of social services. They help create, improve and protect income as well as they generate employment opportunities and contribute to poverty reduction. Cooperatives focuses on the individual who wishes to start or expand a business including small and medium enterprise (SME) to better their socio-economic life and this is led by individuals who can be considered entrepreneurial (Agbasi 2010). Clearly, cooperative societies from their antecedents have not only contributed to the development of small scale business but are in themselves small scale businesses. The Global Strength of Cooperatives Over the years, cooperative enterprises have successfully operated locally-owned people-centered businesses while also serving as catalysts for social organisation and cohesion. Cooperatives have over one billion members worldwide and can be found in sectors ranging from agriculture to finance to health (Whitman, 2011). In Germany, the cooperative business model is „seen to provide stability and security in tough times‟, and is expanding into new fields within the SME sector.

In the USA, some of the largest health providers are consumer cooperatives; in the Pacific Northwest one cooperative provides health care for 570,000 members; in the Mid-West another has as many as 630,000 members. In Japan, 120 consumer cooperatives provide health care for around three million members. In the UK in particular, consumer cooperatives are fifth in market share and are pre-eminent in the small supermarket sector. In provision of utilities, over 1000 electricity cooperatives supply power to around 12 per cent of USA households, mainly in rural areas. The cooperative also has a visible in the insurance sector. For example, the Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF) has 184 insurance companies in membership from 70 countries, with seven percent of the world‟s premiums. There are primary producer cooperatives, which supply inputs and do marketing and processing of products for farmers, fishermen and forestry workers. They include some of the world‟s biggest businesses, including conglomeration of farmers, ranchers and primary cooperatives whose success made to the Fortune 500 listing. Some are cooperatives of small farmers struggling to survive in a tough market where prices paid by supermarket chains are falling and farm subsidies are being cut. Also in the UK, In the UK, there is a cooperative that operates 400 markets on behalf of 65 cooperative market societies, through which 12,000 producers can sell direct to consumers (Co-operatives UK (2008).

In Africa, the cooperative sector has continued to grow, at least in a number of countries. This was in spite of the economic difficulties that have been plaguing the continent. For instance, whereas there were only 1,000 cooperatives in Ghana in 1992, this has grown to 2,850 in 2005. Likewise Nigerian cooperatives grew from 2,900 with a membership of 2.5 million in 1992 to 5000 with a membership of 4.3 million in 2005 (Develtere and Pollet (2008)). In Kenya, the number of persons in the cooperative movement was 2.5 million in 1992 and 3.3 million in 2005. Also in Kenya, 20% of the population belongs to the cooperative movement (Vanhuynegem, 2008). South Africa as at 2002 has a total of 654 cooperative societies of various kinds with a membership of 56,501 (Philip, 2003).And in Ethiopia, more than 85 per cent of Ethiopias total inputs in rural areas are distributed through cooperatives, and over 75 per cent of its coffee is exported by cooperatives. Indeed, in all the countries of Africa.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVE

The major aim and objective of this project work is to denote the social and economic benefits of workers cooperative a case study of owerri municipal council.

1.4 PROBLEM OF THE STUDY

Cooperatives workers in the world over are in a state of flux. In almost all parts of the world, cooperatives face one or more of the following crises: crisis of ideology, crisis of capital, crisis of credibility and crisis of management (Taimni, 1997).

Cheney (1995) identified five challenges facing cooperatives workers. These are cultural transformation, competition and expansion, wage solidarity, centralization and reorganization, and programs to increase productivity and participation. Groves (1985) on the other hand, posits that one of the major problems of cooperatives is how to keep balance in the two parts of cooperative business, efficiency and democracy since those who are charged with the operation of a cooperative chiefly the board and manager must serve two masters: the imperatives of good business practice and the social purpose of a community of people. Hence, to maintain their special character, cooperatives must be two things in one: a business organization and a social

movement. This is what makes a cooperative a business enterprise with a human face and so, very difficult to manage. In striving for efficiency, cooperatives often tend to imitate other business, but in pursuing a social purpose they bring out the features, which make them different (Laidlaw, 1974).  Educating, training and retraining of members in general and officers in particular is always a challenge to cooperatives especially in developing countries.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This project work on the  social and economic benefits of workers cooperative will be of great importance to cooperate worker in their field of work and also will be of great help to future researcher that will be conducting research on the topic or related topic.

1.6                                                         PROJECT ORGANISATION

The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work,   chapter two presents the literature review of the study,  chapter three describes the methods applied, chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendation