Corpoarte Governance in Cooperatives

11

Birmbaum, 1969:328). For organisations to survive, they must recognise the dynamism of theirenvironment that can create or destroy relevance and value (Allsopp: 1977).As a survival strategy, recognising change is one thing and appropriately responding to itis another. Allsopp (1977) illustrates the response to change that is commonly encountered inbusiness and how they affect the success or failure of organisations. The first he calls negativeresponse, which is total opposition to change and relying strongly on maintaining the status quo.The weathervane response is characterised by the belief that if you ignore change it will go awayor somehow accommodated if it does not. The opportunist response suggests reacting tochanging situations only because short-term opportunities will avail. A response where peopleinterpret circumstances subjectively is termed `self centred'. Finally, there is the response of leadership. The latter are people who can make positive change. Thus, they see change andopportunity on the horizons and make careful plans to decide the optimum reaction and introduceit at the right time. These people will move their organisation to greater heights. The responseof leadership is perhaps the ideal response that requires the ability to identify forces or variablessurrounding a problem and to develop consensus about the relevant forces and a strategy of manipulating these forces (Bennis et’al:1969).Banks are like living organisms. They evolve in cycles and in certain period of theirdevelopment undergo phases of rupture, which improve changes of direction and make survivaltheir central preoccupation (de-Carmoy, 1990:200). To remain relevant and maintain theiridentity, they need to improve their competitive standing and operational efficiency. The rightstrategies are the turnaround strategies (Wheelen and Hunger: 1992, Colin and Keith: 1993), alsoreferred to as strategies of change (de-Carmoy: 1990).

12

According to Rue and Holland (1989: 51),...