Framework for studying cooperative organisations : case of NAFED / by S. P. Seetharaman and N. Mohanan

Cooperatives as a form of business organisation are different from private and public sector organisations. They have three facets, enter prise, institution and environment. These three facets form the basis of the normatic construct developed for studying the effectiveness of a cooperative.

To examine the validity of the organisational construct, the National Agricultural Market ing Federation (NAFED) was purposively chosen to evaluate its performance as an institution and as an enterprise.

The normative framework can be used to classify a cooperative into four groups on the basis of its success or failure as an institution and as an enterprise. Ideally, a cooperative should be successful both as an enterprise and as an institution. The one that is a failure on both the aspects would be in the process of liquidation. One that is successful as an in stitution but a failure as an enterprise would have to take measures to grapple with realities. A cooperative that is successful as enterprise but not as institution, a common phenomenon in most of the developing nations, may not gain the character of a cooperative unless put under pressure by members. Management has a critical role to play in making a cooperative achieve its mission. This book analyses the framework in analytical detail.