Browsing by Subject "Cooperative values"

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Operationalisierung von Werten in Genossenschaften
(2020) Breuning, Senta; Doluschitz, Reiner
Values have gained in relevance due to their importance to individuals as well as to companies, as they are used, among other things, for orientation and identity formation. This is true for society as a whole, but especially for the structure of cooperatives. Against this background, the present cumulative dissertation will first of all establish an intersection of social (individual values) and cooperative (company values) values. For this purpose, numerous representative social value studies were analysed and a comprehensive national and international analysis of the cooperative scientific literature was collected. The aim of the intersection was to analyse a common denominator of individual and company values in order to be able to conduct an empirical survey based on fundamental values of society and cooperatives. The result of the two analyses was an intersection of 16 values, which serve as a basis for the quantitative empirical survey along a structured questionnaire. In the further course of the present dissertation it was clarified what German society knows about cooperatives and their principles and values. As differentiating factors, individual determinants such as gender, generation, federal states and cooperative branches have been analysed comparatively. In principle, a clear majority of German society has heard the term cooperatives before. However, the cooperative values and principles are much less known than the term cooperative itseld. The lack of knowledge about the term "cooperative" as well as about the cooperative values and principles is mainly found among women and the younger generations Y and Z. Contrary to the expectations, no differences are discernible with regard to the degree of familiarity with the term cooperative and its values and principles in an East-West comparison of the federal states. However, the level of awareness of cooperatives and their values and principles depends on the cooperative sector. Therefore, it can be concluded that the test persons who are familiar with the field of cooperative banks have heard the term cooperative more often and are more familiar with the cooperative principles and values than the test persons who are more acquainted with commercial or rural cooperatives. Furthermore, it should be noted that members of cooperatives are better informed about the term cooperative and its values and principles than the general German population. While the social values represent the individual values of German society and are classified as "important" to "very important", the cooperative values are the company values which are perceived by society as "less important". When listing the individual and company values, it becomes clear that the sequences are not identical and that the mean values differ considerably. Freedom is the most important individual value, whereas freedom comes last in the company values. Meanwhile, solidarity is the most important company value, which is nevertheless ranked 12th in the list of individual values. Other interesting differences, but also similarities, such as in the value of security, can be found in the rankings of the individual and company values. In general, it is worth noting that women and the oldest age cohorts, i.e. the traditionalists, rate both individual and company values more important than men and the younger generations Y and Z. Against this background, cooperatives are faced with the decision of how they want to deal with the result, especially in the context of their strategic management. In this context, either the adaptation or the differentiation strategy is suitable with regard to the application of values. The adaptation strategy consciously communicates the values that the selected target group considers as important. The differentiation strategy explicitly communicates values that can be historically and branchspecifically associated with the individual cooperative. In addition to the challenge of value pluralism, which can be found in society as well as in cooperatives and their value communication, the heterogeneity of the membership structure and their value perception of corporate values poses an additional challenge for cooperatives. In order to operationalise values in the corporate culture of cooperatives, the membership structure should therefore be analysed on a case-by-case basis and the strategic orientation of the management should be chosen accordingly. In conclusion, it is important to note that values are considered abstract. However, when continuously applied in strategic management, as well as in precise and goaloriented communication, they represent an essential contribution to the corporate mission and vision. Thus, they can contribute a considerable share to the increase of positive perception and company success.