The organisational learning of manpower service cooperative as basis for organisational development plan

This study sought to establish that like other organisations, cooperatives can also benefit from the application of organisational development concepts. In the case of this cooperative studied, the main objective is to help and improve the quality of life of its members. Some cooperatives initiate expansion into businesses such as providing goods and services to improve members’ productivity and income. These ventures however bring new challenges in sustaining business growth and organisational health. Such is the case of one particular cooperative, a manpower service provider, organised in response to the Philippines chronic unemployment problem. This descriptive quantitative case study was applied. A survey among 577 officers and members of Coop-A was conducted, using the Organizational Learning Diagnostics [1]. Results indicate that there were weaknesses in phases and mechanisms of organisational learning but there were also strengths practised by the leaders, but deficient among members. The weakness under organisational learning mechanism is competency building. It was revealed that there is no significant relationship between organisational learning phases and mechanisms to members’ performance evaluation. The correlation between the organisational learning phases to mechanisms was marked to high. It is recommended that a year-round organisational development plan for assessment, revision and update be conducted on an annual basis. This could be a practice that other cooperatives may adopt for enhanced performance