Building an agreement in a farming cooperative governance: A Sociology of conventions approach

Abstract

This study examines how a board of directors and management team establish an agreement under an agricultural cooperative governance structure. We carried out a case study of an agricultural cooperative based in France, the board members and management team of which were interviewed and observed for over four years regarding their ability to create and maintain an agreement in the governance of the cooperative. Building on the theory of conventions, our findings indicate that board members' and managers' hybridity constitutes the basis for establishing a compromise and developing a trusting relationship between board members and managers. Furthermore, we highlighted the chairperson's crucial role in building, negotiating, and permanently repairing cohesion between these two bodies. Our study contributes to a more holistic understanding of the relationship between the board and management by explaining how previous experiences in different “worlds” (e.g., farming, cooperative, commercial) create hybrid individuals and how this facilitates agreement between actors with different dominant logics.