Organization and management of rural women cooperatives in Osun state of Nigeria

The study investigated some aspects of the organization and management
of rural women cooperatives in Osun state of Nigeria. Specifically, the study was
designed to determine: members level of satisfaction with the derived
organizational benefits, the organizational structure and decision-making pattern
of the groups, the activities of the groups, the level of organizational
participation of members, the acquisition and use of productive resources
available to the cooperative groups and the nature and types of linkages existing
between the cooperatives and the union, other cooperative societies, and relevant
government agencies.
Six Local Government Areas (LGAs) were randomly selected from the
twenty-three LGAs in the state. Four women cooperative societies were
randomly selected from each of the selected LGAs. A total of twenty-four women
cooperatives were therefore used for the study. Twenty-five percent of the
members were randomly selected from each cooperative, while four leaders of
each cooperative were purposively selected and interviewed. A total of 306
respondents consisting of 210 members and 96 leaders constituted the subjects of
the study. Two sets of interview schedules were used for data collection; one set
was used for the leaders while the other was used for other members. Data
analysis was undertaken by the use of frequency distribution, percentages, mean
and Pearson's product moment correlation.