Study of employment relationships in spanish cooperatives

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the predominant employment relationships in Spanish cooperatives. We start from the typology of employment relationships that compares the employer's expectations of the employee and the incentives offered, in order to analyze the impact of these expectations on the design of human resource management practices in the cooperatives studied. The necessary information was obtained through a questionnaire answered by the Human Resources Director and the Administrator of 124 cooperative companies. Descriptive statistical techniques such as factor analysis, cluster analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test were applied. The results obtained suggest that Mutual Investment and Overinvestment employment relationships significantly affect and condition the human resources management of the cooperatives in the sample studied. On the other hand, Quasi-spot Contract and Underinvestment employment relationships promote to a lesser extent the human resources practices contained in the AMO model. Thus, it is confirmed that the type of employment relationship predominant in a cooperative affects the design of its human resources system.