THE COOPERATIVE ALTERNATIVE

As business leaders, we search for new structures, new insights and new ways in which we operate. We seek to be innovators, to break new grounds and this has led me to view new strategies in which some organizations has employed to command results which are different from the conventional methods. One of these new strategies is known as the Cooperative Alternative.

 In an organisation, the conventional method of management is structured in a way of strict hierarchy; Chief Executive Officer (CEO), General Manager (GM), Manager, Assistant General Manager and employee and all the decisions  made follows this order and the least in the hierarchy (employee) has no say in the decision making process. The Cooperative Alternative was developed to invest in employees/workers and also in communities but this method is not fully considered when employing conventional methods of Management.

HOW DOES COOPERATIVE ALTERNATIVE WORK?

A Cooperative is a group of people (also known as workers owners), who work in favour of the employee. They seek to give everyone in an organisation an equal say with the benefit of shared profits. In general they seek to build a better world.

A Union known as the united steel workers were responsible for the development of what is known as the ‘union co-model’ (Cooperative alternative). They believed that there was the need for a new business model that fostered participation and empowerment which in my opinion guarantees a level of high profitability and productivity. 

This Union developed a unique business model where the workers owners i.e the cooperative elects a union committee and the board of directors,  the union committee also elects a larger union and finally the board of directors elect the management. I would say its more like a bottom-up approach to electing leaders and making decisions in an organisation. The picture below better explains how this work:

In this type of business model, the management runs the business and every worker owner is part of the general assembly while the union committee represents the workers to the larger union. The larger union takes into consideration what is right and fair for the workers in the business which also implies that when the management is not in line with the vision, values and objectives of the can get fired.

THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP

In my humble opinion, the cooperative alternative is a good idea, it seeks to shift attention from just making profits from shareholders to creating value for and once value is created I believe profitability is insight and inevitable. This alternative is built on employee participation and empowerment; it makes the workers more interested and involved in building up the business. The workers are willing to be committed, they see the business as part of who they are, integrate the values as theirs and they are constantly motivated in the pursuit of excellence and contribution.

In my view, that’s what leadership is all about, it is focused on how to motivate individuals, instill commitment that isn’t forced or falsely adopted. It is about growth, about change, productivity and improvement.

Finally, while the cooperative alternative is a good on there are also flaws with it but the idea is not to focus on the bad side but to see how as business leaders we can be innovative and open minded and consistently seek change in the way businesses are run in our country for maximum productivity.   

Chinwe

I would like to hear the thoughts you all have, your perception and ideas.

For more:

http://www.uk.coop/what-co-operative

http://www.co-operative.coop/corporate/widermovement/

NEXT:

We will look at various organizations that are associated with the corporative alternative and seeing the reason for their success.