Cooperative Principles from the Perspective of Employees of a Credit Cooperative

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the priority of cooperative principles in the perception of employees of a credit union. For this, a structured instrument was applied to data collection with 99 (ninety-nine) employees of a credit union in the Central Region of RS. Through the Method of Hierarchical Process Analysis (AHP), in their view, the criteria were prioritized in order to verify which of the Cooperative Principles were more relevant. The main results showed that some principles are highlighted, such as “free and voluntary membership” and “democratic management by members”, in relation to the others, it was observed that they are less evident in the context of the cooperative. Finally, the results obtained, given the dissemination of information among the members of the organization, as well as the expansion of channels of participation and cooperative education, aiming to reduce this gap, with society and its management.