Impact of Governance on the Organizational Performance of Professional Associations: A Study of the Poultry Sector in Morocco

Abstract

As groups of professionals that defend their own interests, professional associations must improve their organizational performance on both individual and collective levels. However, members’ diversity, lack of interaction and difficulties in creating and diffusing information have prevented these organizations from achieving their goals. These aims may include: lobbying, scheduling and pricing production, improving product and process quality as well as promoting consumption and exports by seeking out new markets. The governance of professional associations is frequently responsible for the success or failure of a sector. As such, this paper considers how some countries develop a strategic sector by building a solid foundation for professional associations’ development. The existing bibliography as well as a specific benchmark of two emergent countries were used in this research to determine the key success factors of organizational performance in the poultry sector. The benchmark indicated that integrated production systems and strategies focused on the search for added value. Diversification (halal markets in the Middle East); aggregation (performance-based service contracts) and partnerships with production-technique leaders (especially in Japan); and territorial organization and compartmentalization (one industrial aggregator per region buying from multiple breeders) are the three key success factors of the poultry sector. Our paper aims to develop a governance approach of organizational performance to provide African leaders (particularly Moroccan leaders) of professional associations, especially in the poultry sector, a model to follow in the light of the creation of the African Poultry Confederation.