Making Mondragón: The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex

by William Foote Whyte, Kathleen King Whyte

Since its founding in 1956 in Spain's Basque region, the Mondragón Corporation has been a touchstone for the international cooperative movement. Its nearly three hundred companies and organizations span areas from finance to education. In its industrial sector Mondragón has had a rich experience over many years in manufacturing products as varied as furniture, kitchen equipment, machine tools, and electronic components and in printing, shipbuilding, and metal smelting.

Making Mondragón is a groundbreaking look at the history of worker ownership in the Spanish cooperative. First published in 1988, it remains the best source for those looking to glean a rich body of ideas for potential adaptation and implementation elsewhere from Mondragón's long and varied experience. This second edition, published in 1991, takes into account the major structural and strategic changes that were being implemented in 1990 to allow the enterprise to compete successfully in the European common market.

Mondragón has created social inventions and developed social structures and social processes that have enabled it to overcome some of the major obstacles faced by other worker cooperatives in the past. William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King Whyte describe the creation and evolution of the Mondragón cooperatives, how they have changed through decades of experience, and how they have struggled to maintain a balance between their social commitments and economic realities. The lessons of Mondragón apply most clearly to worker cooperatives and other employee-owned firms, but also extend to regional development and stimulating and supporting entrepreneurship, whatever the form of ownership.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Politics, History, Sociology, Business

431 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

There is more than one author in the Goodreads catalog with this name. This entry is for William Foote ^ Whyte.

Reviews

[Julian Worker · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Mondragon is the most impressive refutation of the belief that worker coooperatives have little capacity for economic growth and long-term survival.

Mondragon started in 1956 with 23 workers in one cooperative and grew to 19,500 workers in more than one hundred worker cooperatives and supporting organisations by 1986. Only three cooperatives were shutdown between 1956 and 1986, the timespan in this book.

These cooperatives have not lost their democratic character. They continue to operate on the one-member one-vote principle and many employ no nonmembers.

This is a fascinating story not least because Mondragon was started by Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta a priest born in the Basque Country. At over three hundred pages, there are many detailed parts which will probably only appeal to economists and management consultants, but the story as a whole does show that there are alternative economic models which do work for everyone as a whole rather than just for certain people with ambition to make a success for themselves.

[Etienne OMNES · Rating 4 out of 5]

Making Mondragon décrit l'histoire de la plus grande coopérative du monde de sa fondation jusqu'à la fin des années 80. Il décrit aussi le fonctionnement interne et la façon dont cette coopérative a traversé des épreuves qui auraient coulé plus d'une entreprise privée, et qui montre tous les avantages du modèle coopératif, et sa résilience.

Ce livre m'a réconcilié avec l'économie et la sociologie. Il m'a montré aussi à quoi ressemble le distributisme appliqué, et ses potentialités, mais aussi ses problèmes. Je suis vraiment émerveillé par ce que Mondragon a accompli, et je souhaite voir cela appliqué plus largement.

Pour ce qui est de la qualité du livre, le couple Whyte a fait un vrai bon travail d'enquête, avec une documentation minutieuse, un très bon sens de la synthèse, un talent pédagogique indéniable, et une grande humilité dans leur traitement du sujet. C'est agréable à lire, même s'il y a d'inévitables passages techniques.

Bref. A lire pour ceux qui s'intéressent au distributisme "appliqué" et se demandent si cette doctrine économique fonctionne.

[Mrdowns · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's tough to say you "like" a book like this, but it's a good description of the coop complex Mondragon. If you're interested in cooperatives and how they might scale, the challenges involved and creative ways to solve them. This is all extremely dry and technical, but informative. If you want to understand the intricacies of running a large scale cooperative, this is a good resource.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Documents the largest, longest existing, most successful cooperative in the world. This Basque cooperative based out of Spain pull in over 5 billion in revenues every year.

This model of business is the closest I have seen of company that resembles how the human body works.

The book is documentary so it's a bit detailed ( but necessary) to appreciate the complexities and dynamism associated with company that has survived over 40+ years and endured major economic recessions.

This book documents the legacy of one man's heart for region that was an economic wasteland before he started his life's work there.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good introduction to the worker cooperative "complex" in Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain, though it delves into minutia too often. Also a bit dated, since it was written in 1991. Overall, it's a good history of the complex and does a good job explaining how their governance worked in the past.

[John NM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting details and history on a perennially interesting way of organizing production. Did not take much of a critical eye to the cooperative, but still plenty of useful and intriguing insights.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It was necessary to change the sovereignty of capital to the sovereignty of labour.”

I met a Canadian-Italian bloke when I was traveling in 2023 who told me about a cooperative network in Basque country in Spain, which sounded suspiciously utopian. This book, while a little aged (a recent article on The Guardian shows its more recent conditions) shows a detailed, organisational theory on the Mondragon Corporation, its origins and its fundamental principles.

“For those who hope to find ways of following a humanistic vision while confronting hard economic and technological realities, Mondragon can serve as an inspiration.”

What if we approached business differently one that promoted worker solidarity and dignity, while achieving economic sustainability?

“Even allowing for favourable conditions, all economists who have studied Mondragon’s financial history report that the cooperatives have far outpaced private Spanish firms.”

The lore is also a little irresistible, a Catholic priest who shied away from any particular ‘isms’ (except for collectivism) teaches young students to create a network of organisations that has continually evolved, lasting many internal and external crises.

“We have recognised that theory is necessary, yes, but it is not sufficient: we build the road as we travel.”

It has been argued that Mondragon could have only in the Basque country. Perhaps the Mondragon method is uniquely theirs, but it is worth a read if you wish to imagine a different way to organise ours work and ultimately the world around us.

“Their vision was not limited to the building of individual cooperatives. Rather, they were dedicated to developing a cooperative way of living and working. It was this vision that guided them to discover novel ways of solving the practical problems of organisational development.”

[Mike Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, and would be a 6 star if not for the middle being quite dry. Chapters 3, 19, 20, 21 are must reads and really where the message shines. The rest is a bit dry and might not be of general interest

[Merrill Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in the beginning. Too much minutia in the end. Makes one think about working together for the common good.

[vitto reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

muito bom para entender movimento cooperativista e a história de mondragon, é realmente uma imersão!

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This offers a comprehensive overview of the creation of the Mondragon cooperative complex in the mid twentieth century. It describes how the co-ops navigated and survived the upheaval of global recession in the 1980s and reorganized to compete in the global market that emerged simultaneously.

The book is notably dated given the decades since its revision an all that has occurred both within the Mondragón ecosystem and on the global economic stage since then. Yet a discerning reader, especially one with a strong understanding of cooperatives will still extract many lessons from these pages.

[Andrew Roxby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detailed look at the history and structure of the worker cooperative complex. Absolutely essential. The quotes from Arizmendi in particular reveal a deep, insightful socioeconomic thinker who left the ultimate testament to his ideas - the living, thriving worker cooperative complex itself.