Impact of Members' Attitudes on the Usage of Co-operative Services

Abstract

This work was an attempt to investigate the effect of members' attitudes on the usage of cooperative services. The Agricultural Marketing Co-operatives in Kilimanjaro region were taken as a case study. The study, which involved 60 respondents (43 males and 17 females) of various age groupings, had made use of descriptive statistics, chi-square and multiple regression models in the data analysis. The study had established that the majority of members had a negative attitude towards co-operatives. They were most unhappy with lack of leadership transparency, failure of cooperatives to provide farm inputs, and delayed produce payments. However, some members had shown a high degree of readiness for involvement and commitment to cooperatives; a situation which provided fertile ground for revival of co-operatives. The study had further established that gender and age had no significant influence on the attitude towards co-operatives. However, the general attitude had been found to have predictive power on the usage of co- operative services. Specifically, member satisfaction as part of the OB-related attitudes had been found to have a strong impact on the usage of co-operative services. Since attitude in general and member satisfaction in particular, had strong predictive power on future usage co-operative services, it was recommended that efforts be directed towards improving cooperative services, transparency and accountability. Further, deliberate co-operative imagecleaning campaign ought to be launched.