Methodology
The research employed a qualitative method of research. It made use of
document analysis as a technique to give meaning around an assessment
topic (Bowen, 2009). Based on Bowen’s procedures in document analysis,
the following steps were conducted:
- Define the environment: the study requirements, external requirement,
the document universe, and the set of document types;
- Define the textual features needed in the study;
- Identify the relationships among the features; and
- Enrich the collection of the text features.
By following the document analysis, the research utilized submitted
social audit reports of cooperatives in the Cooperative Development
Authority-Cordillera Administrative Region (CDA-CAR), Philippines. The
available documents were from 2008 to 2018 and the VMGs of each
cooperative were extracted. The VMGs were monitored in terms of their
consistency and changes. In case changes were made, the most recent VMGs
were used as units of analysis. By following the processes of document
analysis, the social audit reports were used in order to define the
environment of the study and the textual features were utilized in order
to uncover underlying reasons, opinions and motivations that exist in
cooperatives. Mainly, the VMGs were extracted from the documents and
these were used as units of analysis in order to reflect whether
collectivism is present in the VMGs. The VMGs are useful data that can
be interpreted to reflect the collectivist behavior of the cooperative
actors.
Data Sample. The study utilized 483 complete social audit
reports that were extracted from the submissions of cooperatives in the
Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines starting from the year
2008 until 2018. The VMGs were gathered from each of the cooperatives
and the VMGs were monitored in terms of consistency and changes. In case
there are changes, the most recent data was used. The study classified
the reports based on the asset size of the cooperatives such as micro,
small, medium and large. There were 299 submitted reports from micro
cooperatives, 106 from small cooperatives, 50 from medium cooperatives
and 28 from large cooperatives. There were 796 registered cooperative in
the region, however there were cooperatives that failed to submit
reports. Based on an interview with a CDA officer, there were
cooperatives who failed to submit due to reasons such as lack funds to
hire internal bookkeepers, to pay for external audit fees, and there
were some that encountered operational failure hence their business
operation had ceased.
Data Analysis. After extracting the VMGs of the cooperatives,
the VMGs were subjected to semantic analysis in order to reflect whether
collectivism is embodied in the VMGs of cooperatives. Semantic analysis
uses content analysis to create themes (categories) that identify the
main subjects and dimensions in the material under study, and the
specific sub-fields under these subjects and dimensions (Őzdem, 2011).
Following the process of semantic analysis, the following procedures
were conducted:
Phase 1: The researcher collected the VMGs from the submitted
performance audit and social audit reports of the cooperatives;
Phase 2: The researcher independently coded the VMGs within the
framework of analysis using major themes such as economic, social and
political. The major themes were economic, social and political basing
them from literature reviews. Following the identification of themes,
sentences in the VMGs were identified and grouped under these themes;
Phase 3: Sub-themes were created under the major themes and
they were grouped whether they are economic, social or political themes.
For instance, words that were classified as economic thoughts were
grouped. The most commonly used such as dependable and developed
cooperative were treated as one sub-theme. Commonly used grouped as
single sub-theme were social thoughts that included: achievehappiness, peace and quality life ; and equality, equity and
mutual self-help . Further, synonymous words were also grouped such as:unity, oneness, harmony, and mutual respect were created as a
single sub-theme.
Phase 4: The themes were presented in tabular form and
observations were treated using frequency and percentage. Afterwards,
the themes were ranked based on the frequency and the themes were
arranged based on their respective ranks; and
Phase 5: A comparison was conducted to compare the whether the
perception of the cooperatives in relation to their asset size vary in
terms of reflecting collectivism in their VMGs. The study used the
Pearson chi-square test in order to test for independence or difference
in the distribution of observations on the collectivist themes. To
perform the test, it is important to find the degree of freedom which is
computed as:
DF = (r – 1) * (c – 1)
In this study, the r pertains to the level number of variable A
(e.g. size of the cooperatives), while c is the level number of
Variable B (e.g. collectivist thoughts such as economic, social and
political).
The expected frequency counts, Er,c , are
computed for each categorical level of the other categorical variable.
This provides the expected frequency number for level r of
variable A and level c of variable B. It is computed as:
Er,c = (nr * nc) / n
As a test statistic, the Pearson’s chi-square test that can be
calculated as:
X2 = ∑ [(Or,c–Er,c) 2 / Er,c]
Where, Or,c represents the observed
frequencies, Er,c is the expected frequency
count. The null hypothesis states that “the observation is independent
on the group or there are no significant differences in the distribution
of observations among the different groups,” whereas the alternative
hypothesis states that “the observation is dependent on the group or
there are significant differences in the distribution of observations
among the different groups”. The observations refer to the observed
collectivist themes, which were classified into three categories:
economic, social, and political. The group refers to the size of the
cooperatives’ assets.
Permission and Informed Consent. As part of the requirement of
the document analysis, necessary requirements were accomplished.
Permission was obtained from the CDA to interpret the submitted social
audit and performance audit reports. This research was supported by a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the CDA-CAR and Saint Louis
University, Baguio City, Philippines. This was a signed agreement which
allows employees and students to work collaboratively with the CDA in
order to generate meaningful research that can be used as a source of
information to further improve the management of cooperatives in CAR. To
further enhance the result of the study and to validate the results, the
paper was presented among cooperatives in La Trinidad, Benguet,
Philippines on October 24, 2018 during the cooperative month that was
participated by cooperative members and officers from various provinces
in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines.