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Re: Mondragon: Fwd: New ILO Recommendation on the Promotion of Cooperatives
Title: Re: Mondragon: Fwd: New ILO Recommendation on the
Prom
on 10/9/02
1:39 am, RaceM at race@netspace.net.au wrote:
>> on 8/9/02 5:49 am, RaceM at race@netspace.net.au wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Dear Robert
>>>
>>> Thanks for your message, and for your appreciative
comments about
>>> 'Jobs of Our Own'. As to 'Rerum Novarum', I had always
until I wrote
>>> the book called the encyclical just that, but in the
course of the
>>> research I came across 'De Rerum Novarum' in what I took
to be an
>>> authoritative source, and adopted it as translating to
'Of New
>>> Things'. Which shows among other things that a distant
recollection
>>> of schooldays Latin is a dangerous thing. I haven't
commented on your
>>> 'Jobs and Fairness' because I haven't yet had the
opportunity to read
>>> it properly - the Parliamentary Library here came up with
a copy on
>>> inter-library loan, but it had to be returned before I
had had time
>>> to do any more than a first skim through, so I've now
ordered it from
>>> my local bookseller who tells me that I have a few more
weeks still
>>> to wait. One section that interested me greatly was the
end game in
>>> regard to the National Freight Corporation - I'd read
Peter
>>> Thompson's account in his memoirs some years ago and
frequently
>>> referred to it in speeches, but never got round to
finding out what
>>> had been the final washup. Meanwhile, I still don't know
whether I
>>> will be able to make Bilbao, less for financial reasons
than that I
>>> have recently taken on a fairly substantial short term
consultancy on
>>> early childhood education and care for a government
deparyment, that
>>> has to be completed by Christmas, so getting to the
conference will
>>> depend on how the work is progressing. Best wishes, Race
Mathews
>>
dear race, thanks for both your e-mails. I shall certainly make a
point of
>> visiting the GKC institute at Orange in New Jersey when I am
next in
>> America. About the employee ownership end-game at NFC, I
suppose the key
>> fact is that "a significant majority of NFC's employee
shareholders, some
>> 60%, voted in 1988 to authorise the directors to seek a
flotation". Of
>> course, that isn't the VERY end of the story; and Sir Peter
was rightly
>> incensed by what he saw as the subsequent betrayal - after
his retirement -
>> by the successor top management of the "rank and file "
employee
>> shareholders. That is all dealt with fairly fully in my book.
Incidently I
>> had originally intended in my comments about Jobs of Our Own
to bring up the
>> comparison (p226) between behaviour in Japanese and Mondragon
businesses. Do
>> you know Ronald Dore's TAKING JAPAN SERIOUSLY with its
striking sub-title- A
>> CONFUCIAN PERSPECTIVE ON LEADING ECONOMIC ISSUES. If not I
can only
>> recommend it most strongly. He introduces most persuasively a
distinction
>> between the COMPANY LAW MODEL of capitalist businesses and
the Community
>>
Model and argues that DE FACTO even if not DE JURE the latter is what
you
>>
find in Japan. For what it's worth I reviewed the book at some length
in the
>> April-June 1988 issue of Political Quarterly, to which you
may have
>> relatively easy access....I shall keep my fingers crossed and
hope that your
>> other commitments will allow you to make the journey to
Mondragon and Bilbao
>> in late Novemenber - and to stop off here either on the way
or the way back.
>> I have two spare rooms so there would be no difficulty about
the offer of a
>> bed. With renewed thanks and all the best from robert.
>
> Dear Robert
>
> Thanks for your message, and I'll get the library to look out a
copy
> of the 'Political Quarterly' article for me. Meanwhile, I'd like
to
> think that, irrespective of whether I make it to Bilbao, the
> conference might consider putting formally to the MCC a proposal
for
> jointly resuming the action research that was initiated by
the
> Greenwood/Gonzalez team at Fagor in the late 1980s. It seems to
me
> that
no single issue is more important for the future of the MCC as a
> co-operative entity, and for the 'evolved distributism' to which
it
> so eloquently gives expression, than to get to the bottom of
the
> shopfloor disaffection that the Greenwood and Gonzalez
research
> identified - and that apparently also shows up in more recent
survey
> data - and develop an agreed program of remedial measures. In
my
> view, the task is in no sense insuperable, providing that it
draws on
> the best sources of industrial relations and industrial
democracy
> insight, information and guidance, irrespective of where they are
to
> be found,and does not try to operate on a wholly in-houses basis,
as
> would be understandable in the light of the success of the
> co-operatives in fending for themselves in so many other
spheres.I
> also wonder whether - in the light of your long association
with
> Mondragon and the wide range of cases you have covered in 'Jobs
and
> Fairness'- you might not be admirably qualified - either
alone or
> perhaps in association with others such as, say, Jeff Gates -
to
> steer such a project to external sources of advice that would be
both
> effective and congenial for the co-operatives? And might not
a
> measure at least of funding be accessible from Brussels or the
ILO?
> Not least, it seems to me that getting off the ground such a
program
> with an appropriate sense of urgency would in itself make the
> conference worthwhile, irrespective of the whatever other
positive
> outcomes may be achieved. It would not be the MCC co-operatives
alone
> that benefited, but all those of us who wish them well and
would
> like to see their lessons put to work in our own countries. I'd
hoped
> originally that something similar might be triggered from
discussion
> on the Mondragon page of the COG web site, but on indications to
date
> it isn't going to happen, and an entity with clout and
credibility is
> required. Best wishes, Race Mathews.
dear race,
this is an overdue response to your latest email. Rather
unusually I have been out of London for the past two days. In
principle I
greatly favour your "action research" proposal: for a
thoroughly
professional investigation into the causes of management/shopfloor
discontents within MCC and the resulting indentification of a set of
changed
policies to confront them. I might also be able to point to a
candidate who
could do a good job. For what it's worth Ron Dore would probably be
my
preferred researcher. I failed to pass on when I flagged him up in my
last
e-mail what has always seemed to me his most persuasive contrast
between how
western and japanes managements are perceived by the "lads".
The latter are
seen as the "trusted elders of a working community" the
former as "the paid
agents of the shareholders". And if the project was really going
to come
off- and the sponsors wanted a competition to get the job - I could
almost
certainly suggest some other names. But I also have two initial
caveats: a)
if the proposal is to be considered by the conference I would favour
seeking
to establish in advance what MCC reaction was likely to be and b)
getting an
advance reaction from Mark Mathieu. Friendly Fred might be prepared to
act
as an intemediary in the first case. You are, I'm sure, the best agent
in
the second. Well, that's about it for now. But one final query. Have
you an
address and other contact details for John Thomson, preferably here in
the
UK but also useful to me if he is elsewhere. With best wishes from
Robert.
Dear Robert
Thanks for your message. I'm
intensely interested in your insight about contrasts between western
and japanese perceptions of management at the shopfloor level -
between the 'paid agents of the shareholders' and 'trusted elders of a
working community' paradigms - being relevant to the disaffection
among some members of some Mondragon co-operatives that
Greenwood and Gonzalez and subsequent researchers have identified, and
immensely encouraged that you share my sense of urgency about the need
for an international study to nail down the precise nature of the
problem and come up with concrete, hands-on remedies that are
compatible with the culture of the co-operatives and congenial to
them. Clearly you are right about the essential pre-requisites
including a strong sense of ownership of the project by the
co-operatives, and also the availability of a strong auspicing body
such as Marc Mathieu and the European Federation
of Employee Share Ownership - in conjunction perhaps with the European
Confederation of Workers' Co-operatives and Participative Enterprises?
- might well be able to provide. On the face of the matter, the
Bilbao conference would be an ideal starting point, bringing face to
face as I imagine it will members of the co-operatives with numbers of
their external well-wishers who are in a position either to contribute
to a planning process or participate personally in an agreed research
project. And I wonder if, in you chairing of the
conference, and having had the enviable privilege of actually talking
with Arizmediarrieta, you might not feel his approving presence
- not to mention also the presence of Jimmy Tomkins and
Moses Coady and the founder distributists before them - behind
you on the dais, in the event that discussion of the project
turns out to eventuate? Be that as it may, while it may well be that
both Marc and Fred Freundlich are followng our exchanges of
messages, I will copy this one to them individually, in the hope that
that they may have some guidance for us as to how best to proceed.
Finally, on a more down-to-earth note, perhaps you could say
some more about Robert Dore and his work, in part as an
indication of the attributes and skills you feel the project would
require. 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.
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