Discussion
The present study reflects collectivism in the VMGs of cooperatives. The
VMGs represent the members’ ex-post facto behaviors and
expressions of the members’ willingness to participate in a collective
action and to attain together their aspirations. Cooperatives are
realistic avenues where the members could demonstrate their willingness
to embrace collectivism as a way of life and express their aspirations
to become better off in terms of economic, social, and political
conditions. Realistically, they codify their aspirations in their VMGs
in order to set their cultural norms and to direct the activities and
various aspects of the cooperatives. The codified VMGs serve as the
cooperatives fundamental datum and raison d’etre for their
existence. These VMGs have gone through a series of deliberation,
debate, and discussions before being voted on as governing principles
and philosophies that guide all cooperative actors (e.g. individual
members, elected officers, management).
An examination of the cooperatives’ VMGs reflects that collectivism is
expressed in three dimensions: economic, social, and political. The
present findings affirm the theoretical frameworks of collectivism.
Collectivism has become a cultural norm for cooperatives wherein
economic, social and political challenges and issues within the society
can be resolved through organized and meaningful collective action.
Through the organization of cooperatives, the people can realistically
express their collectivist thoughts and they can work together to
improve themselves. It manifested from the results that through
collective action, the members can improve their economic conditions. It
showed that cooperatives can pool together their funds and they can
pursue enterprising activities that could cater to the needs of the
members in terms of goods and services. If they succeed in their
enterprising activities, they can support most of their economic
aspirations. Results also manifest the social aspirations of the members
whereas they participate in cooperatives in order for them to interact
with a larger group who would care for them and fulfill their social
needs. Through their cooperatives, they can attain feelings of
happiness, peace and quality life. Finally, cooperatives became an
avenue where the members could express their aspirations for better
political state and governance. Yet they are communal in nature, they
can actually set their expectations from their elected officers and
through this, they can realize better leadership and governance
settings.
Yet the study treated separately the dimensions of collectivism into
economic, social, and political, the study does not intend to segregate
them. Rather, the study intended to empirically establish the presence
of these three dimensions among cooperatives and that they are reflected
in their VMGs. The social and political thoughts are in fact
representing the non-commercial character of cooperatives that
differentiates them from other cooperatives. While the cooperatives
focus on economic dimensions, they must also meet the social and
political dimensions in order all of their collective aspirations. The
three dimensions must be well coordinated in the cooperatives’
activities in order to balance the three aspirations and avoid
trade-offs of these dimensions. The chi-square tests reveal that the
cooperatives emphasize their economic aspirations in their vision and
goal statements and that the dimensions of collectivism are dependent on
the size of the cooperatives (e.g. micro, small, medium. Large). This
would show that the aspirations and cooperative activities are more
focused on economic thoughts. However, the mission statements would show
equal importance of the three dimensions. This means that the
cooperatives’ approach towards attaining the members’ aspirations is by
equally attaining the three dimensions of collectivism.