Structure and Characteristic of Democratic Control in Agricultural Cooperatives

In agricultural cooperatives, each member has three characters of an owner, a user, and a management person. But today, the character of the member as a management person is weak. In oeder for agricultural cooperatives to develop stably, a management sustem based on active participation of the members must be built up. This paper takes up the Hadanoshi Agricultural Cooperative (abbreviated to JA Hadano in the following) as a case. In JA Hadano, direct democracy is aimed for and each member's activity is performed actively. The purpose of this paper is considering the reform direction of JA management through a case analysis. The conclusions are as follows. Firstly, the basic direction of management reform was clarified. The consciousness “JA cannot be reformed” is deeply ingrained in the members with broadening of JA, diversification of its members, etc. We pointed out that the educational activity as OJT was important for changing such consciousness. Secondly, the characteristic of the organizational management in JA Hadano was clarified. In this JA, direct democracy, such as adoption of a system of general meeting, the discussion meeting in spring and autumn, is aimed at. As the result, the organizational climate, such as “speaking”, “listening”, are formed. We point out that democratic control is practiced under these organizational climates in JA Hadano. Thirdly, the characteristic of the organizational management in the strawberry sectional meeting was clarified. In this sectional meeting, a sustem is built to give its members wide management responsibility. And the member is not dependent on the employee thoufhtlessly. We pointed out that this sectional meeting is managed by member's condominium under the strong awareness of member as a management person.