Social And Individual Factors That Influence Board Participation Behaviour In The Co-Operative Governance

This review paper expanded knowledge and improved understanding of active participation behaviour among Board of Director (BOD) in the governance of co-operative organization. To understand the role of BOD in the co-operatives’ governance structure, we began this paper with the introduction of philosophy, universal values and principles of co-operatives. The formation of the co-operative organization is briefly described to illustrate the importance of member participation in the governance. Current issues related to participation based on research findings were discussed to illustrate the importance of this study. The concept of participation in previous studies was reviewed to develop an operational definition of active participation behavior in the co-operative governance. BOD is responsible for carrying out its functions on a voluntary basis and some of their roles are the attending of meetings, having open communication, giving constructive ideas and solutions, being involved in decision making and as well as performing tasks in a team. Several factors were highlighted to explain the BOD participation phenomenon in the cooperative organizations using relevant theories. The Social Capital Theory (SCT) and Mutual Incentive Theory (MIT) were described briefly in this paper to explain the social factors and individual factors in shaping active participation behaviour. Finally, this paper suggested that further studies can be conducted to explore other factors that could explain the participation behaviour especially in the governance of co-operatives that can contribute to the theory and existing knowledge.