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| Registros recuperados: 14 | |
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| Gray, Thomas W.. |
| This paper applies concepts of member sovereignty (capability of people to create and effect decisions on how a system should operate and change) and equality (even distribution of articulation possibilities among members) to large agricultural cooperatives. Equality is reconceptualized to refer to elected member representativeness in large cooperatives. An elite interviewing technique was used to gather descriptions of control structures and mechanisms in five Western European countries. Interviews were conducted with decision makers in apex cooperative education organizations. Hierarchal membership structures are described, weaknesses are pointed out, and options to improve member sovereignty and elected member representativeness are discussed. |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Agribusiness. |
| Ano: 1986 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/46273 |
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| Gray, Thomas W.. |
| This article is about the financial structure and capitalization of agricultural cooperatives. It is not an article directly about agricultural cooperatives and industrialization, merger, strategic alliance, concentration and centralization, and globalization. It is a more modest work about the neoclassical economics discourse of cooperative finance, with particular attention given to the construct “vaguely defined property rights”. The purpose of this article is to deconstruct this term by examining the concrete formative structuring of agricultural cooperatives, as cooperatives were formed in the early first half of the 20th century in the US. (and how this structuring is carried forth in derivative form to the present day). The construct “vaguely... |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Agribusiness; Agricultural Finance. |
| Ano: 2004 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/59771 |
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| Torgerson, Randall E.; Reynolds, Bruce J.; Gray, Thomas W.. |
| The evolution of agricultural cooperative thought, theory, and purpose in the United States is reviewed from the standpoint of the reemergence of interest in how cooperatives can provide some of the security and benefits that might be lost with gradual phasing out of federal government farm support programs. By accomplishing group action for self-help, the early development of cooperatives drew considerable attention from economists, social theorists, and politicians. Alternative schools of cooperative thought developed, but most proponents of cooperatives regarded them as having enormous potential to provide a public service role in building a more economically stable and democratic society This paper also surveys how cooperative theory was developed more... |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Agribusiness. |
| Ano: 1998 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/46222 |
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| Gray, Thomas W.. |
| The rational, consuming individual is from within a particular historical era- high modernity. The collective rationally of his or her consumption drives the larger socio-economic culture in profoundly irrational ways: through personal anxiety, questionable sustainability, and loss of value and community. The industrialization of agriculture extends these dynamics in a manner that fragments more grounded aspects of the larger culture, including family farms and rural communities. Intrinsic to its very nature, the agriculture cooperative is embedded in its member-user-owners like no other business organization. The uniqueness gives it a comparative advantage to mollify some of the disruptive aspects of high modernity. |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Agribusiness. |
| Ano: 2000 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/46412 |
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| Gray, Thomas W.; Mooney, Patrick H.. |
| This paper is written from a sociology of science/rhetoric of science perspective. The paper critiques the central rhetorical constructions of neoclassical economic studies as applied to agricultural cooperative conversions. Conversions refer to the internal re-structurings, sell-outs, and hybridizations of cooperative organizational form to investment oriented structures. Neoclassical economics analyses of conversions are based within an "individualist-idealist" metaphor. This metaphor, as articulated in neo-classical economics, does not allow the scientist to see historical and sociological aspects of cooperatives, and broader, more holistic implications of conversions. We argue for broadening the conversation to include social materialist, and social... |
| Tipo: Report |
Palavras-chave: Agribusiness. |
| Ano: 1998 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/62049 |
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| Gray, Thomas W.; Butler, Gillian. |
| Organizational charts of membership structures can be useful tools for monitoring member control when they accurately depict a concept of control grounded in context and theory. This paper develops the concept "member control" by placing it within cooperative principles and democratic theory. From this perspective, members control their organization when, through a democratic process of decision making, they are able to keep the cooperative a cooperative, a condition we call "containment." With this conceptual development, a containment method of member control charting is developed and illustrative examples given. |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Agribusiness. |
| Ano: 1991 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/46262 |
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| Gray, Thomas W.; Butler, Gillian. |
| Various events have led to the development of highly complex cooperative operations and to concepts for understanding operations. However. development of membership structures and concepts for understanding these structures has lagged. This paper imports organizational design and contingency theory into the member control literature. Membership structure is understood as organization-like, producing a service (Le., member control). Member control structure is understood as having three aspects (representation, policy making, and oversight) and two environments (the members themselves, and management and operations). Building from cooperative principles and following the development of cooperatives from simple to complex organizations, this paper develops a... |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Agribusiness. |
| Ano: 1994 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/46401 |
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| Schomisch, Thomas P.; Gray, Thomas W.. |
| The overall objective of this study is to provide cooperative decision makers with effective strategies for developing young member programs in local cooperatives. To accomplish this, the study sets out to determine: (1) the range and scope of young member programs and activities utilized by a sample of local cooperatives, (2) the relationship of young member programs and activities to the legislative system of local cooperatives, (3) the factors that block integration of young member programs and activities into local cooperatives and (4) the organizing procedures that help stimulate the development of young member programs and activities. |
| Tipo: Report |
Palavras-chave: Cooperative; Young member; Education; Program; Participation; Agribusiness. |
| Ano: 1985 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51381 |
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| Gray, Thomas W.; Heffernan, William D.; Hendrickson, Mary K.. |
| The context of agricultural cooperatives is undergoing major change with the development of various food and information monitoring technologies. Large multi-nationals have moved to take advantage of these developments with the construction of agri-food chains. These chains are being facilitated via various mergers, acquisitions, and alliances, with the power, and deepening power of such deep-pocket organizations as Cargill, ADM, and ConAgra. Cooperatives have been integrated into these chains for their core competencies, generally for their supply functions, and capacity to handle primary commodities. These direct links to the farmers serve as markets for biotechnology innovations, and as a source of raw material for later processing. Agricultural... |
| Tipo: Journal Article |
Palavras-chave: Agribusiness. |
| Ano: 2001 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/60884 |
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| Gray, Thomas W.. |
| This study examines the membership structure of a large centralized cooperative from an organizational workability view. Structure is created by dividing membership organizationally, i.e., assigning different roles and tasks to different groups of members, as well as to individual members, and bringing coordination to these differentiations. The membership structure of the case cooperative was found large in number of members, highly differentiated, and well coordinated. The structuring, i.e., creating a division of labor among the membership, and the coordinating of these divisions is done in response to conditions in the membership environment. |
| Tipo: Report |
Palavras-chave: Cooperative; Organization; Paradigm; Specialization; Coordination; Complexity; Stability/instability; Agribusiness. |
| Ano: 1991 |
URL: http://purl.umn.edu/52016 |
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| Registros recuperados: 14 | |
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