Leadership Qualities in Community-Based Co-Operatives in Nepal : An Exploratory Analysis

Successful leadership is imperative for a cooperative to flourish. However, there is limited literature concerning leadership qualities in the context of cooperatives, and most particularly in cooperatives in the global south. This study applied the participatory Delphi research technique to the task of identifying effective leadership qualities in the context of community-based cooperative societies in rural Nepal. A survey of 1255 leaders and team members from 210 cooperatives was undertaken and the qualities of leadership were obtained by using explorative factor analysis. The results identified four dimensions of effective cooperative leadership: Role Model, Empowering the Team, Performance-based Rewards, and Skills of the Sector. These four dimensions, unified in the 'REPS' Model of leadership, is presented as a contextualized model of cooperative leadership that can serve to inform both further research and cooperative development practice