Professional Ethics within Agricultural Cooperatives

  Cooperatives as distinct forms of business rely upon members to work together ‎towards collective goals. Trust is the heart of an agricultural cooperative‏.‏‎ Ethics provides ‎the foundation for trust that must be present for cooperation to occur. This study explains ‎why ethics is important to the success of cooperatives and what boards of directors and ‎managers can do to strengthen it. Emphasis upon ethical business conduct may help ‎distinguish cooperatives from other types of business while at the same time reinforcing ‎membership commitment and loyalty. This study considers the challenges and ‎solutions of professional ethics in the agricultural cooperatives. ‎ Extreme pressure on managers to obtain higher savings with lower prices, run ‎the cooperative like a private business by the number of managers, the large number of ‎competitors and the lack of customer, the increasing complexity in the market and the ‎number of cooperatives, requirement of restructuring the agricultural sector and reducing the ‎profitability of farms are the most important causes and stimulus of unethical behavior in the ‎management of agricultural cooperatives. The majority of agricultural cooperatives faced ‎with Immoral challenges such as shirking responsibilities, business dealing with relatives, ‎friends, sales incentives, pricing, illegal business practice. Ethical management, issue ‎identification, values clarification, effective decision making, organizational supports and ‎commitment are the most important ethical organizational activities to improve ethical ‎processes in the agricultural cooperatives. ‎