Table 4 reflects the collectivist thoughts that were formulated by the members that were drawn from their cooperatives’ vision statements. Apparently, the members established their cooperatives in order to attain their mixed of aspirations such improving their economic, social and political conditions. They organized their cooperatives and pooled their resources together with the purpose of improving themselves through collective action. The chi-square test reveals that the cooperatives have significant differences in terms of their collectivist aspirations. Using the frequency counts and percentages, the cooperatives gives greater attention on economic aspirations (51%) than their social (27%) and political thoughts (21%). In addition, the collectivist thoughts are dependent on the size of the cooperatives, wherein the collectivist thoughts were mostly observed among micro and small cooperatives than those medium and large cooperatives.

Table 5 presents the sub-themes of the members’ economic aspirations that were drawn from the cooperatives’ vision statements. As observed, the members view their cooperatives as effective means that could allow them to improve their economic conditions, living standards and to bring sustainable impact to the society and environment. Based on frequency count and percentages, the highest rank is allowing the cooperatives to generate adequate financial resources in which they could attain this by contributing their resources and eventually growing their business through their patronage and collective efforts. As they progress, they can uplift their members’ lives, encourage them to save and become entrepreneurs, and become self-reliant. Contemporary cooperatives have similar experiences to that of Robert Owen and Dr. William King when they founded the early cooperatives. Whereas, the cooperatives were ideated and created by the members by pooling together their resources and eventually improve their economic conditions. This affirms what Hayek (1963) and Durkheim (1984) have stated: collectivist societies demonstrate their survival by collectively owning material means and controlling their use to achieve their desired goals.

Table 6 presents the sub-themes of the members’ social aspirations. The result manifests that cooperatives are acting as relational entities wherein the members can claim their self-identity and belongingness with others. The result shows that the members joined cooperatives with the intention of achieving happiness, peace and quality of life in which they could only realize if they integrate themselves to collective organizations such as cooperatives that could recognize their social needs. Most often, the members feel secured and happier since they themselves can resolve matters, attain together quality life that consequently give them peace of mind, and pursue their common beliefs, norms, attitude and culture. Through this, the members can express their desire to work with others and develop stronger social bond wherein they have sensitivity to interpersonal relationships such as belongingness, dependency, empathy, and norms of reciprocity. This affirms Rothschild (2016) who asserted that collectivist institutions could accommodate diversities and allow them to establish social relationships. Tiessen (1997) also mentioned that collectivism can foster harmonious relationships among its members.

Interestingly, cooperatives are not limited to economic and social aspect. This study reveals that cooperatives also stand as a polity where the members aspire for better political and governance system. Through their cooperatives they can collectively improve their political condition and impose their desire for better governance. Based on cooperative principles, cooperatives adopt autonomous and democratic form of governance system wherein the collective members are the highest authority while the leaders have to abide with the collectives’ will. Table 7 portrays the expectations of the members from their elected officers. For instance, they desire for strong and dynamic leadership and management so that their respective cooperative becomes a model, good standing and respected cooperative.

The attainment of the vision statements is reflected in the mission statement of the cooperatives. The mission statements provide the cooperatives approach, core purpose and direction that were collectively formulated in order for them to attain their vision statements. Table 8 to 11 present the frequency counts and percentages of the collectivist thoughts as observed in three dimensions such as economic, social and political.

Table 8. Collectivism in the Mission Statements of Cooperatives