Social Capital, Organizational Structure And Performance In Water-user Association (WUA)

Since the1990s,in order to solve the problem such as the backward system of irrigationmanagement, the aging and losting of irrigation systems，the inefficient use of water resourcesfor irrigation and so on,we emplemented in a number of large and medium irrigationparticipatory management system, and formed the water user association（WUA）, to solve theproblem of the management absence of the main irrigation.Even though there has beengrowing rapidly irrigation WUA in recent years;however,the WUA service status andinfluencing factors are not understood in-depthly. The Irrigation system of multi-centergovernance theory is based on network, trust and cooperation of the social capital theory, andorganizational structure theory provides us with multiple research perspectives. Based ontheory of the irrigation water management and operating mechanism of farmer water userassociation, a comprehensive study has important,theoretical and practical significance, thenpromotes the healthy development of farmer water user association,also has importantreference value.This paper has combed the theory and the related literature at home and abroad. Basedon the Social Capital theory,it constructs the framework of the WUA-Structure-PerformanceAnalysis.And with Baoji gorge irrigation district WUA in Shaanxi province for example, weuse the Factor Analysis method, respectively, to make analysis and evaluation of the WUA,Social Capital, Organizational Structure and Performance. On the basis of above research,according to the result of Factor Analysis and Data,and Multiple Regression Analysis methodand Case method,we are in depth study of Social Capital in each dimension of OrganizationalStructure, then we have got the influence of Social Capital, Organization Structure in thedimension of comprehensive performance,and the influence in WUA of in each dimensionof the Association Performance of WUA degree of satisfaction. Finally we put forward thedevelopment of Social Capital,improve the Organizational Structure and improve theAssociation Performance of countermeasures and suggestions.Through the above study,we’vegot the following conclusions:(1)Measuring the association of social capital,we can know: There are big difference ineach association of Social Capital:the main canal upstream association of Social Capital scoreis higher than the downstream association, which is due to the Social Capital tending to a unique performance in specific area related to culture. At the same time, the lower reaches ofthe Association close to Xi’an, Xianyang City and other cities; a higher degree ofmarket-oriented, established in traditional network relationships and trust on the basis ofsocial capital will gradually decline as the market continues to deepen.(2)On the results of the measurement of WUA Organizational Structure,we find it: thedegree of specialization and standardization,the association of the main canal upstream ishigher than downstream association, which is brought about by its close geographicaladvantages of the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University of Science andTechnology;the degree of decentralization, the main canal downstream Association to higherthan the upstream Association, which is closer to the center of the city, the external flow ofinformation, democratic and sense of participation of water users is relatively high.(3)The WUA of performance evaluation research as you can see, on the financialperformance, each association differs little; and flows on the basis of performance andcomprehensive performance, the upstream association based performance is better than themiddle and lower reaches of association. On the one hand,it is related to the downstreamassociation gradually reducing in farmland area, and the income increasing in proportion ofnon-agricultural; on the other hand,related to urbanization in recent years,and the highwayconstruction; On social performance, the upstream downstream of the main canal associationin not lower than the association of downstream which is due to the closing to the central city,the external information and knowledge accepted are more than other associations.By theimpact of market economy, gentry’s power and clan consciousness are relatively weak, andthe rural democratization is relatively high.(4)The Linear Regression analysis can draw the following conclusions: the relationshipbetween dimensions of Social Capital as well as the control variable scale (association) havesignificant effect on Organizational Structure; the structure and cognitive Social Capital hasno significant effect on Organizational Structure; Structure, Cognitive Social Capital,andSocial Capital Association of standardization and the scale of association to the association’sperformance have significant impact.But the relationship between Social Capital andorganizational specialization and standardization of association have no obvious effect onperformance; Association of financial performance and social performance have a positiveeffect on society satisfaction, and the basic performance has no significant effect onsatisfaction, so most of the association of irrigation infrastructure still need to furtherstrengthen and to be perfect.