To conform or to perform - the dilemma of director's attributes in agricultural cooperatives

Research related to cooperative boards has highlighted dilemmas and tensions related to board characteristics and director's simultaneous role as representatives of membership groups and as board experts. Cooperative scholars' views have differed on the roles of directors emerging from the membership and elected from outside the cooperative. This study focused on 16 Finnish agricultural cooperatives, and the data was based on interviews with 32 chairpersons. The study utilises a stepwise qualitative analysis in bringing out three dilemmas related to director's attributes, which are coupled to board's conformance and performance roles. The dilemmas are linked to representativeness and the need for competence, selecting a candidate from internal governance or from membership and gender quota opposition and gender as a resource. The results indicate that regional representativeness and the director's experience from internal governance are important. The right type of person with wide perspective is a significant attribute whereas external board experts are approached with cautiousness. Despite the cooperatives' desire to improve gender balance, they have a negative attitude towards gender quotas. The results disclose specific differences across diverse types of cooperatives.