Do co-ops speak the managerial lingua franca? An analysis of the managerial discourse of Mondragon cooperatives

Saizarbitoria, Iñaki Heras; Basterretxea, Imanol

doi:10.1016/j.jcom.2016.02.001

Cited by 20 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 50 publications

(68 reference statements)

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“…Looking to the future, the different levels of decoupling should receive greater attention in complex cases such as Mondragon, where such a disconnection has been detected between the macro-organizational rhetoric of the Corporation and the rhetoric emanating from the cooperatives (Heras-Saizarbitoria, 2013). Likewise, it would be interesting to analyze the specific contingencies and strategies that have supported and eroded the adoption of the main cooperative principles (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ties that bind? Exploring the basic principles of worker-owned organizations in practice

Saizarbitoria

2014

Organization

Self Cite

106

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The Mondragon Cooperative Experience has been one of the worker-owned alternative organizations that has received the most attention in the academic world. Despite its economic success, this experience has also been wrought with its own share of tensions and internal paradoxes. Surprisingly, the perspective of worker–member–owners in the analysis of those inconsistencies in Mondragon has been given very little prominence. Similarly, the equivalence between the formal policies defined in that experience and the day-to-day activity has been widely taken for granted in the literature. This article aims to fill this gap and contribute to the literature by analyzing the extent to which Mondragon’s basic cooperative principles are applied in the daily practice from the perspective of worker–member–owners. To that end, in-depth interviews were conducted with worker–member–owners of Mondragon outside their working environment. An interpretative analysis provides evidence of a decoupling of cooperative principles from the workers’ daily activity. Furthermore, a tacit and non-formal principle frequently surfaces in the interviews: the principle of the primacy of secure membership and guaranteed employment. This seems to be the most solid tie that binds members to their organization, in a context with growing individualization and precarious employment conditions, together with a ubiquitous managerial discourse that encourages shallow forms of workplace participation. This work contributes to the broader field of organizational theory and sheds light on the dissociation process in formal policies of organizations governed by alternative founding principles. It also tries to contribute to the study of the sustainability of such alternative organizations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ties that bind? Exploring the basic principles of worker-owned organizations in practice

Saizarbitoria

2014

Organization

Self Cite

106

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“…The management and innovation capabilities of cooperatives and their relationship to business performance, for example, is a topic of recurring debate regarding cooperative firms [90,91]. On the side of management capabilities, the literature highlights difficulties of cooperatives to attract talented managers due to salary limitations, their governance model, or the difficulties in adapting to the culture and values of cooperatives for managers trained in conventional firms.…”

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confidence: 99%

Responsible Innovation for Sustainable Development Goals in Business: An Agenda for Cooperative Firms

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Eizagirre

2020

Sustainability

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In this contribution, we explore the possibilities of Responsible Innovation (RI) to assess and support the engagement of businesses in the spectrum of Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) and, in particular, cooperatives to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the firm level. We conduct a critical review of the academic literature on sustainable development and responsible innovation, focusing on the role of business to identify how firms in the spectrum of SSE can contribute through responsible innovation to the sustainable development agenda and how firms in the spectrum of SSE can benefit from it. Results suggest that firms can benefit from responsible innovation in the transformation of their business models. On the other hand, firms in the spectrum of SSE contribute to extending the scope of SDGs to business, not focusing on what cooperatives do by their nature (e.g., principles and values), but their contribution to key horizontal enablers (e.g., partnership and innovation) for the integration of firms in the sustainable development agenda. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the relationship between SSE firms and RI is assessed from the perspective of firms’ contribution to SDGs. Further research is needed to sophisticate the translation of particular tools developed in the framework of RI to firms in the spectrum of SSE and, in particular, cooperative firms.

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“…As an organization grows, the division of labor tends to become more marked, and members tend to become more specialized. This tendency has been observed in alternative organizations and is often referred to as the ‘degeneration thesis’ in which organizations gradually conform to mainstream organizational practices (Cornforth, 1995; Heras-Saizarbitoria and Basterretxea, 2016) (this is sometimes also known as the iron law of oligarchy (Michels, 1962)). This thesis sees leaders (re)establish hierarchy and asymmetrical power relations for their own benefit at the expense of the membership base of the organization, thus undermining the practice of direct democracy.…”

Section: Discussion and Conclusion: Formalized Alternative Leadership...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternative leadership and the pitfalls of hierarchy: When formalization enables power to be tamed

2022

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Hierarchy is a key – but under-studied – lens for critically exploring leadership. The critical literature suggests that both mainstream and alternative leadership contribute to the perpetuation of hierarchy. In mainstream leadership, even in its most recent forms in allegedly ‘flattened’ organizations, hierarchy continues to exist and followers often remain disempowered. In alternative leadership, which occurs for instance in non-hierarchical organizations, an unofficial hierarchy tends to persist: even when leadership is rejected, it is enacted in less-formalized forms, resulting in the tyranny of structurelessness and the undermining of horizontal democratic practices. Our research therefore explores whether and how alternative leadership can be practiced in such a way that it avoids the pitfalls of formal or informal hierarchy. We conducted an in-depth case study of a non-hierarchical group of freelancers, combining 140h of participant observation, 15 semi-structured interviews, and documentary analysis. Our research shows that it is possible to practice alternative leadership in a way that avoids the pitfalls of hierarchy and that this happens through the formalization of leadership. Leadership formalization allows power to be tamed by making it visible but it also involves some tensions.

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Do co-ops speak the managerial lingua franca? An analysis of the managerial discourse of Mondragon cooperatives

Abstract: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Heras-Saizarbitoria, I., & Basterretxea, I. (2016). Do coops speak the managerial lingua franca? An analysis of the managerial discourse of Mondragon cooperatives.

Cited by 20 publications

References 50 publications

The ties that bind? Exploring the basic principles of worker-owned organizations in practice

The ties that bind? Exploring the basic principles of worker-owned organizations in practice

Responsible Innovation for Sustainable Development Goals in Business: An Agenda for Cooperative Firms

Alternative leadership and the pitfalls of hierarchy: When formalization enables power to be tamed

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