Re: Mondragon: Re: Mondragon

[RaceM <race@netspace.net.au>]

>Race
>
>It is my view that shop floor democratisation cannot be given 
>creditability or sustained or be without democratising control of 
>the firm.  This view is based on the truism that power corrupts and 
>absolute power in firms controlled centrally by a single board of 
>directors, corrupts absolutely.  This truism has been repeatedly 
>demonstrated recently with high profile business collapses in the 
>US, UK and Australia that has unitary boards unlike in Europe.
>
>To sustain shop floor democratisation one has to break down the 
>command and control hierarchies in firms and adopt A NEW WAY TO 
>GOVERN.  This is the title of my public policy pocket book being 
>published in London this Wednesday with the sub-title "Organisations 
>and society after Enron".    An academic version of the pocket book 
>with references, tables, and diagrams can be downloaded from the 
>Social Science Research Network at 
><http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=310263>.
>
>Business has become too complex to be managed centrally. 
>Distributed intelligence is required based on NETWORK governance 
>that Mondragon so outstandingly demonstrates and is currently only 
>found in the more dynamic and/or high tech industries like fashion 
>textiles, movie production, electronics and bio science.  I use 
>Mondragon as the leading exemplar for NETWORK governance in A NEW 
>WAY TO GOVERN.
>
>Mondragon has a lot more to offer than just shop floor democracy. 
>It would not do them justice to just focus on this issue in any IMSA.
>
>Cheers
>
>Shann
>
>
>At 08:35 AM 1/7/2002, you wrote:
>>I am concerned that COG's Mondragon page seems to be in danger of 
>>being still-born.It was my hope in accepting COG's invitation to 
>>moderate the page (at least in an interim capacity) that human 
>>resource management,industrial relations and industrial democracy 
>>specialists could be encouraged to address themselves in specific 
>>and practical terms to what I see as the most important challenge 
>>currently confronting Mondragon: namely, how to replicate at the 
>>shopfloor level the degree of democratisation that has been 
>>achieved in the sphere of governance, and thereby alleviate and 
>>perhaps ultimately eliminate the disturbing degree of disaffection 
>>among some members of the co-operatives that the Greenwood and 
>>Gonzalez research identified in the late 1980s and that has also 
>>surfaced in subsequent studies by Mikel Lezamiz and his Office of 
>>Sociological Research at Otalora. However, it was never my 
>>intention that the theme of shopfloor democratisation should be 
>>pre-emptive, and I hope that,if other issues are seen as being more 
>>important or likely to have more widespread application, they can 
>>now be brought forward.
>>
>>Meanwhile, be other suggestions as they may, am I right is 
>>identifying shopfloor democratisation as a priority issue? If so, 
>>what are people's views as to whether and if so from whom relevant 
>>experience and insights are available? How can these prospective 
>>sources of inspiration and advice be brought into a productive 
>>dialogue with elements within the co-operatives who are thinking 
>>along similar lines? Is it desirable for there to be an 
>>International Mondragon Studies Association, and, if so, how can it 
>>be brought about? If an IMSA is to be established, would the COG 
>>conference in Washington in October be the time and place for it to 
>>happen? Best wishes, Race Mathews
>>
>>--
>>
>>
>>Dr Race Mathews,
>>Senior Research Fellow,
>>Government and Governance Unit,
>>Faculty of Business and Economics
>>Monash University.
>>
>>Postal Address:
>>123 Alexandra Avenue,
>>South Yarra, Vic, 3141,
>>Australia.
>>
>>Phone/Fax: (03) 9826 0104.
>>
>
>Shann Turnbull  Ph.D.
>P.O. Box 266 Woollahra, Sydney, Australia, 1350
>Ph: +612 9328 7466 office; +612 9327 8487 home; Fax: +612 9327 1497;
>Life long E-mail: sturnbull@mba1963.hbs.edu 
>Alternate:sturnbull@optusnet.com.au
>http://members.optusnet.com.au/~sturnbull/index.html
>Papers at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=26239
>with other papers & book at http://cog.kent.edu/library.html

Dear Shann

Thanks for your message. Needless to say, I agree wholeheartedly with 
you about the indivisibility of shopfloor democracy and democratic 
corporate governance, and it is precisely because I share your 
admiration for corporate governance on the Mondragon model that I am 
also anxious to see similarly inclusive and effective arrangements at 
the shopfloor level. As you will see from my response to Chris 
Macken's message, it is very much my hope that sources such as his 
firm and the San Francisco group around Tim Huet can bring their 
experience to bear on analysing what is currently the situation in 
resprentative Mondragon co-operatives, to what extent the 
disaffection identified by the Greenwood and Gonzalez studies and the 
subsequent Ikasbide/Otalora research is still present, and whether 
there are potential practical, hands-on remedies that might usefully 
be drawn to the attention of the co-operatives.It may well be that a 
discussion along these lines will have benefits not only for the 
co-operatives but closer to home. Best wishes, Race Mathews
-- 


Dr Race Mathews,
Senior Research Fellow,
Government and Governance Unit,
Faculty of Business and Economics
Monash University.

Postal Address:
123 Alexandra Avenue,
South Yarra, Vic, 3141,
Australia.

Phone/Fax: (03) 9826 0104.