Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Threats of Rural Co-operatives and Unions in Guilan Province

The study analyzed the effects of some environmental factors (internal or external), had on the performance and tasks of rural cooperatives and unions of Guilan Province. A SWOT approach was used to facilitate the analysis. In the same path, a Delphi technique was used to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the cooperatives. In addition, appropriate strategies were presented to improve their performance. The population of the study included 174 rural cooperatives and unions, with 1080 employees. Bartlett et al (2001). Table was used to determine sample size. Two hundred twenty- three researcher-made questionnaires were randomly distributed among the board members and network of rural cooperatives. Results indicated that the rural cooperatives and unions had more weaknesses than strengths, and suffered from lack of long term and short term plans. Respondents indicated that a routine repetitive daily task was an obstacle hampering cooperatives performance. Lack of liquidity and working capital, lack of knowledge and awareness regarding laws and regulations among board members were found extensively in this study. Implementing appropriate strategies could reduce the negative factors in cooperatives performance.