Cooperatives: A Case Study

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Introduction
Cooperatives are business organizations that are owned by individuals such as business employees rather than outside investors. Many individuals have decided to form or join cooperatives after feeling oppressed by the economic environment. Cooperatives have democratic processes that do not include the rankings of a typical business with one person making a majority of the decisions for the sake of profit.

The United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives lists seven principles that define the culture within cooperatives, which mainly focus on friendly workplace and social responsibility. See Appendix I for the chart. According to the Worldwatch Institute, one million individuals are now members of at least one cooperative (“Cooperative”, …show more content…

Laws and regulations vary from state to state. A cooperative is treated in the same manner as a business entity, however, not all states allow this type of business formation. Only about a dozen states allow a co-op business formation. In states that do not recognize cooperatives, businesses may form only the more traditional business types such as corporations or partnerships; even California, until 2016, did not allow the formation of cooperatives (“Governance”, 2018). In general, in the eyes of the law, cooperatives are treated the same as any other business …show more content…

From the beginning of formation, cooperative structure is very important on how it will operate. Questions arise such as: who will have the final decision? Board of directors or majority vote? Are members allowed to overturn a decision? In addition, in states where cooperatives are allowed to have non-members on the board of directors, bylaws need to be put in place which ensures that non-members are acting in the best interests of the cooperative. While members of the cooperative are technically owners and therefore have a stake in the company, non-members have little affiliation with the cooperative. A process in which they are picked, how long they can run, and how many non-members can be on the board needs to be picked carefully to best manage the cooperative (Governance,

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