Thesis (Master in Management) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, June 2016.

The subject company of this paper is the United Blind Masseur and Associates cooperative (UBMA Coop)?s with the Touch of Wellness Blind Massage Spa and Wellness Clinic as their business. The coop was founded by a group of visually impaired masseurs on May 25, 2004. The coop was established primarily to serve the needs of visually impaired members and their immediate beneficiaries. Thus, the coop divides the members a decent source of living, thereby improving their socio-economic well-being. For now, the coop has established 3 massage clinics in Davao City. The massage clinics operate under the brand Touch of Wellness. Touches of Wellness blind massage clinics are located in Gaisano Ilustre Mall, NCCC Mall, and Gaisano Mall of Toril. Currently, the coop has 43 massage therapists, 35 are coop members. Them being different, as visually-impaired is one of the primary stigmas of the blind massage therapists. This is evident based on the many published studies for the PWDs by the Philippine Coalition of UNCRPD, Philippine Institute of Development Studies, and other social institutions. These people are deprived with the basic rights, that we, fully-abled enjoy. The social discrimination has gone beyond the deprivation of their basic rights. Based on the conducted survey, the visually-impaired massage therapists are less preferred by the general market. This is despite the fact that they are capable rendering the market?s generalization over the quality of their services is very evident. It came out that customers who experienced unsatisfactory service from a visually-impaired are less likely to avail blind massage again. Above all, there is a general perception that they are incapable of rendering quality massage services because they are blind, but on the contrary there are also clients who perceive them as extraordinary massage providers because of their disabilities, and these perceptions pose as major challenges noted by the UBMA Coop massage therapists. The coop?s internal environment is also challenging. Since the coop is founded for the visually-impaired PWDs, the managing of all the four basic function like the Marketing, Finance, Operation and Human Resources is done by one visually-abled member. Thus, the policies and procedures over these functions are not clear. Hence, these functions are not well-implemented and well- managed due to the limited working groups to manage these functions. The strategies focus primarily on the members of the coop. the analysis resulted to the need of the coop to focus on the empowerment of the members, enhancement of their competence and to banner equity on their internal environment. The strategies intend just to enhance their incomes but also to make all their members experience their basic rights, to promote self-esteem, self-entitlement and equality inside the coop that are rarely being experienced in the public.