PROFESSIONALISM IN MANAGEMENT OF CO-OPERATIVE SECTORS OF SOUTH GUJARAT

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field of cooperatives, where management at present is quite simple and elastic, portraying a disjointed and somewhat outdated outlook.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.