The goal statements of the cooperatives are those approaches, strategies and activities of the cooperatives in order for them to meet their vision and mission. The goal statements were formulated collectively by the members, and they are being translated into specific, measurable and time-bound objectives by management. These goals serve as the foundation for the actions of the elected officers and management so that the members’ aspirations will be realized. As observed in Table 12, the goal statements are in-line with the members’ aspirations in terms of economic, social, and political. This reflects that the cooperatives’ directed approaches, strategies, and activities, which were collectively agreed upon by the members, are related to collectivist dimensions such as economic, social, and political. Meanwhile, the chi-square test reveals that the cooperatives have significant differences in terms of their collectivist aspirations. The frequency counts and percentages manifest that the cooperatives give greater attention on economic aspirations (63%) than their social (20%) and political thoughts (17%). 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 13 reflects the cooperatives’ collectively agreed-upon economic goals, which will guide the elected officers and management in their activities. They would have to conduct business and develop relevant strategies and activities in order to improve the members’ economic conditions. As observed, the formulated goals are in terms of meeting the members’ financial needs, provision of goods and services, generating surplus (income), and growing their assets and capital. In addition, they also want to extend the benefits to the community by providing equal access to goods and services, creating employment opportunities, and helping the family of the members.
Table 14 reflects the cooperatives’ collectively agreed-upon social aspirations. As observed, the value the members’ social well-being and lifestyle. In reality, they were able to codify policies that would benefit members in terms of education and training, social bonding, and provision of social services benefits based on need. To support these, the offered programs such as scholarship assistance to their children, health care, mutual aid, and so on. They also provide social services to other cooperatives as well as the community in which they reside and operate business.
Notably, the cooperatives are important political catalysts and advocates for good governance in both their business operations and their communities. As reflected in Table 15, among their goals is to instill the values of transparency, accountability and trustworthiness in their elected officers and management. The elected officers and management are expected to abide with the cooperatives’ philosophies and policies in their business operations and activities. Through this, they become important role models in their communities and other form of organizations could be influenced to adopt cooperative practices and management styles. Furthermore, cooperatives can also become political catalysts in the public sector because they actively participate in government affairs by lobbying on behalf of their members’ concerns and also they can become effective tools in carrying out some governmental functions and goals. Imperatively, collectivism as a way of life causes leaders to become more conscious of their actions and behaviors, as well as more proactive as change agents in society.