EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION IN MANAGEMENT . CASE STUDY OF A DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION – MONDRAGÓN CORPORATE COOPERATIVA

Abstract

Purpose: The present paper is a critical analysis of Mondragón Corporate Cooperativa (MCC), a company known as one of the largest organizations in the world, which for many years has been successfully applying employee participation in management. The main purpose of this article is to present a literature review of the field of participatory management and to analyze a real example which shows how the functioning of a democratic organization looks like, what impact does it have on employees and the business.

 Methodology: Case study analysis was conducted based on interviews with employees, data analysis and observation.

Findings: Democracy in MCC is not only marked by employee ownership, profit-sharing among all members of the organization and transparency of all information including remuneration, but also by democratic selection of governing bodies and making most of important decisions by voting, in which all members of the organization participate. All of these characteristics have significant influence on the attitude of employees towards the organization, their perception of the workplace and also the specificity of problems that arise in the organization.

Originality of the paper: The practices of employee participation in management and organizational decision making have been relatively popular over the last years. However, in the literature it is hard to find examples which investigate how the organization has to be designed in order to allow employees active participation. The originality of this paper is ensured by detailed description of a real company where participation in management is implemented.