Determinants of Leadership Efficiency in Cooperative Organizations!! An Investigation

In a country like Ethiopia where the overall economy is based on agriculture, Cooperatives are considered as important economic and social organizations providing various services to the farmers, developing agriculture, creating income sources, employment opportunities and others. In order to survive and serve their members, cooperatives need to have a strong, dedicated and vibrant leadership. Efficient leadership is a cornerstone for the better performance of cooperatives which attract and retain the members. According to the officials of Sidama Zone Cooperative Bureau, there are leadership problems in most of the cooperatives and the problem is severe in Wondo Gennet Distict. Hence this research paper is focused on the objectives; (i) To measure the leadership efficiency of management committee in the SACCOS; (ii) To investigate the leadership competency of committee members of selected SACCOS; (iii) To trace out the factors determining the leadership efficiency of leaders in the selected cooperatives in the study area. To address the objectives, primary data was collected using semi-structured interview schedule from 128 members of sample 12 SACCOs selected by Yamane (1967) sample determination formula. In addition, five management committee members from each cooperative were selected purposively to assess the leadership competency. Thus total sample size was 188. In addition, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were carried out to elicit relevant information. The collected data was analysed using SPSS (version 21) to arrive meaningful results. Statistical tools such as Mean, Standard Deviation, Chi-square Test, and Test of Significance were adopted for analysis and interpretation of data. In addition, Orderly Logistic Regression model was used to trace out the influential factors responsible for the efficiency of leaders in the cooperatives. The analysis results are presented in the form of tabulation and diagrams. The overall results indicate that leadership efficiency of management committee is seems to be moderate (3.4) perceived by the members. However, the efficiency of leaders perceived by themselves is high (4.026). While the leadership competency perceived by the leaders is slightly above average (3.63). The regression results show that out of 17 variables included in the model, 10 variables are found to be significantly influencing the leadership efficiency of SACCOs’ leaders. They are age, educational level, membership duration, leadership experience, leadership training, working environment, knowledge of cooperation, interest in their leadership, leadership skill, and income of the family which need attention while selecting the leaders so as to perform well in their role and responsibilities. It is suggested that relevant stakeholders need to arrange the periodical leadership training to the management committee of the cooperatives so as to improve the performance as expected.