Learning from the Mondragón cooperative experience

The Mondragón cooperative complex in the Basque country of Spain is recognized as the world’s most impressive case of industrial cooperative development. The complex links together industrial, service, and agricultural cooperatives with a bank and a series of educational cooperatives. The continued expansion of the complex defies the conventional wisdom that worker cooperatives can only survive briefly in special niches not of interest to multi-national businesses. Mondragón’s dynamic growth and development cannot be due to some special features of the Basque culture. Success is due in part to the extraordinary vision and leadership of the founder, father José María Arizmendiarrieta, to the social inventions he created, and to theorganizational culture that he and his followers built to guide the complex. William Foote Whyte is professor emeritus (1979) in Cornell University’s New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He continues to be active in the extension division of the School as research director of Programs for Employment and Workplace Systems. His best known book isStreet Corner Society. With Kathleen King Whyte, he publishedMaking Mondragón: The Growth and Dynamics of the Mondragón Cooperative Complex. His latest book is an autobiography,Participant Observer.