MONDRAGON’s governance model guarantees transparent decision-making, management and accountability to all members. It is a democratic, inclusive business approach, with owner-workers participating in the management to create competitive, sustainable projects.
It is a democratic, inclusive business approach, with owner-workers participating in the management to create competitive, sustainable projects.
All the people who participate on the governing bodies and in the management of the cooperatives are elected democratically. The elections are held in accordance with a one person, one vote system, regardless of the voter’s position at the company.
a very important aspect focused on reinforcing the model’s identity-based aspects and aiming to boost the all-round development of the people forming part of the project.
Cooperative governance is based on trust and a management ethic backed by cooperative vision and leadership, the use of internal staff promotion criteria and the approval of the management and results by all the members of each cooperative.
The cooperatives have defined their own communication channels and supports to provide all the necessary information for their stakeholders: worker-members, supplier companies, customers and institutions. Internal communication at the cooperatives is very important.
More than 650 representatives (39% women) from all the cooperatives meet annually at the Congress, a body that decides on the general guidelines or criteria governing MONDRAGON. The concept of “self-governance”, implemented through shared responsibility and the association of people within a working organisation, reflects the basic aspiration of cooperative governance.
The Cooperative Experience arose from values such as cooperation, participation, shared responsibility,
social responsibility, self-imposed standards of excellence and innovation.
Its principles refer to aspects such as democratic organization (one person-one vote), sovereignty of labor (fairer distribution of results, according to the work contributed), solidarity in terms of remuneration (on a scale of 1 to 6) or inter-cooperation (with mechanisms of solidarity and business efficiency).
570 people are democratically elected as the members of the cooperatives’ governing bodies.
In 2023, 15,008 hours of cooperative training were given to new members and governing bodies.
28 cooperatives (accounting for 92% of sales) issue non-financial reports providing support by documenting all the information, action and relevant landmarks in a single channel.
Democratically elected people to manage the governing bodies of the cooperatives
Hours of cooperative training