The Factors Responsible for Professionalism in Management of Agricultural Co-operative Sector of South Gujarat

Professionalism is essentially a function of modernization in which co-operatives 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. In order to assess the amount of contribution (influence) of each independent variable to the dependent variable, the effect of other was held constant. Out of all independent variables, the professionalism in management of dairy co-operative sector was affected and predicted by five independent variables namely knowledge about principles of co-operation, perceived benefits of co-operatives, faith in people, education and group cohesiveness, which had together contributed to 90.95 per cent of the total variation in the perception of professionalism. The findings are suggestive of the fact that the farmers having more knowledge about principles of co-operation, more perception regarding benefits of co-operatives, more faith in people higher education and higher group cohesiveness were found to have more perception of professionalism in management of dairy co-operative sector.