Effect of Managerial Skills on the Development of Dairy Cooperatives in Kiambu County

Abstract

Cooperatives societies are part and parcel of an increasing number of people in formal and informal employment the world over. The study sought to examine how managerial skills affect the development of Dairy Cooperatives in Kiambu County. Grounded on the Social Capital and Resource-Based Theory, this study adopted the descriptive research design. In this study, the target population was 59,635 registered Dairy Cooperative members while the sample size was 398 respondents who were picked via stratified random sampling. Data collection involved questionnaires that contained 5-point scale Likert-type statements. Descriptive and inferential statistics were carried out. In this case, tests such as central tendency (mean), frequencies, percentages, and standard deviation in addition to Pearson and regression analysis were utilized. The findings show that managerial skills had a significant influence on the development of dairy cooperatives. This is evidenced by a positive and statistically significant relationship between managerial skills & leadership (r=.156, p<0.001) and the development of dairy cooperatives. These findings lead to the conclusion that the kind of managerial skills and leadership in dairy cooperatives affected their development. The skills deployed by the managerial team would thus determine the level of development in dairy cooperatives. As such, there was a need for dairy Cooperatives to have robust management teams staffed with highly competent and experienced managers. The integrity of the firms should be established and regularly assessed to avoid corruption and mismanagement of the finances. Training is also necessary to enhance the capacity of managers and employees. This could be done in-house or sponsored by institutions of learning.