Influential Factors on Member's Participation in Management of Rural Cooperatives in Gorgan Township

This research aimed to identify and analyze the influential factors on member's participation in management of rural co-operatives in Gorgan Township. This descriptive research has been done by survey method. Populationincluded all the members of rural co-operatives in Gorgan Township. Sample size has been determined by Cochranformula (n=140). A researcher-made questionnaire was used in order to collect data. Face and content validity were established by a panel of experts. Reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed according to calculated Cronbach's alpha (r=0.76). The results of correlation coefficient showed that there was a significant relationship between members’ participation rate in public conventions and membership background as well as their interest to participate in conventions. Factor analysis of the "influential factors on members’ participation in management of rural cooperatives", extracted three factors, named "management potency", "cooperative performance" and "mechanism of participative management", explained 60.63% variances of analyzed variables. The results of logistic regression analysis showed that probability of participation in conventionsincreased through "management potency" and "cooperative performance" while increase in years of experience and member's age decreased their participation in various conventions.