Determinants of the performance of cooperative societies in Bomet central, Bomet county Kenya

Abstract

Co-operatives have long been recognized to play an important role in societies that translate into the improvement of living conditions of their members. Being voluntary, democratic and self –controlled business associations, cooperatives offer institutional framework through which local communities gain control over the productive activities from which they derive their livelihoods. The goal of this study was to find out the determining factors that jinfluence the performance of cooperative societies in Bomet Central Sub County in Bomet County. The following were the guiding objectives; to investigate the influence of management competencies on the performance of cooperative societies, to examine the extent to which organizational structure affect the performance of cooperative societies, to establish how Monitoring and Evaluation influence the performance of cooperative societies and to determine how corporate governance affect the performance of cooperative societies in Bomet Central. Descriptive research methodology was adopted in the research while stratified sampling was used to draw samples from selected active cooperative societies within the county. The target population was 1,356 members of active cooperative societies and a group 135 was sampled to represent the entire target population. The response rate was 88%. The quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 in order to present it in descriptive form while qualitative data was analyzed by use of the content analysis. The study found out that 76.4% of the respondents agreed that Management Competencies influenced performance of cooperative societies whereas 23.6% were for the contrary opinion 70% of the respondents were in agreement that Organizational Structure influence the performance of cooperative societies while 30% were of the contrary opinion. 72% of the respondents were of the agreement that Monitoring and Evaluation influenced the performance of cooperative societies while 28% went contrary to the opinion. A majority of 66% of the respondents agreed that Corporate Governance affected the performance of cooperative societies while 44% went contrary to the statement. The study recommends that cooperative societies should have well trained personnel who understand their roles effectively so as to facilitate and enhance the growth and sustainability of cooperative societies. It also recommends that cooperative societies should organize their operations in a manner that it can easily cope with the prevailing business environmental conditions and seize any opportunities that come forth with. Recommendations are also made to cooperative societies to establish strong Monitoring and Evaluation units where they do not exist, and strengthen them where they are already in existence. Another recommendation made was that cooperative management boards be provided with regular trainings trough seminars and other capacity building activities to help them better understand their roles so as to boost the performance of cooperative societies in Bomet Central, Bomet County.