Introduction
Collectivism serves as an important philosophy for collective actions such as cooperatives, yet there were limited literatures exploring its contemporary application. Meanwhile, studies on cooperatives focused on practical solutions, immediate actions and they are mostly drawn from the technocrat’s perspectives rather than from the origins of collective behaviour. This trend had actually pushed the cooperative movement into business directed motion rather than from its philosophical origins of governance through collectivism. Moreover, cooperative studies are often written from a compartmentalized perspective wherein the economic, social and political are treated separately. Studies highlight the economic value of cooperatives in which they are vehicles to improve quality of life, an alternative political system to capitalism and socialism, or as a social system to attain society’s goal. There has been no literature that puts together a holistic picture of cooperatives from its philosophical origin towards gathering empirical evidences of collectivism as observed in the various economic, social and political aspects. Hence, this study attempts draw a holistic picture of the economic, social and political aspects of cooperatives and integrate collectivism as a philosophical construct on organizational level (i.e. cooperative) that supports recommendations of researches on collectivism. For instance Oyserman, et al. (2002) suggests that future researches must study collectivism in the organizational and societal level to avoid becoming theoretically empty in the era. For Guess (2004), he also mentioned that the study of collectivism is rarely explored in the organizational setting, yet collectivism is a relevant factor in decision-making. In the recent study of Yang, et al. (2014), they pointed out that a study of collectivism in the organizational level is beneficial because it could provide insightful evidence that collectivism is essential solution to control self-centered behavior.
Cooperatives can be differentiated with other types of organizations since they embody collectivism as a way of life. The individuals’ participation in a cooperative is a self-expression of their willingness to be identified with a group and to live cohesively with others in order to preserve the group’s welfare and happiness (Rothschild, 2016). Cooperatives provide mechanisms where the members could work together and they abide with the principle of equality in order to address communal issues and challenges that are related to their economic, social and political aspirations. The members follow democratic form of governance wherein they have equal voice in making decisions for themselves and in electing officers who will work for their general interest. Practically, every member is entitled with one vote regardless of their capital share unlike other business entities. Essentially, they set their collective goals in such a way that the members would feel secured and better off in terms of economic, social and political conditions. Relevant studies have shown that cooperatives have contributed in improving the economic, social and political conditions of their members. In improving the members’ social conditions, cooperatives have been providing provided education and trainings (Oczkowski, et al., 2013) and they create opportunities to participate in meetings and they can eventually become officers. In improving economic conditions, cooperatives contributed in providing jobs, generating income, quality of food and services, and in enhancing weak members’ individual capacities (Lecoutere, 2017). They also promoted better economic decision-making of the members and provided opportunities for equitable growth in wealth through the members’ patronage and cooperation (Altman, 2015). In improving political conditions, cooperatives acted as polities where the members exercise autonomy and independence in electing their officers that could encourage better leadership and governance (Sumelius, et al., 2015).
Cooperatives depict a realistic embodiment of collectivism and their governance structures are highly dependent on collective action (Morris, et al., 1993). This means that their success can only be realized if the collective would embrace collectivism as a norm and common behavior. It requires that the members must have emotional attachment by willingly giving up some of their resources through payment of their subscribed shares (Mikami, 2015) and enable their cooperative to accumulate resources. In addition, they must also participate in meaningful activities such as patronizing the cooperative’s business, attending general meetings, and electing officers who are in-charge to oversee the regular affairs of the cooperative. Meanwhile, the elected officers emanated from the members and they commit themselves to oversee the operation of the cooperative and eventually pursue the general interest of the collective. Operationally, the cooperative would use the accumulated resources to pursue enterprising activities which require the collective to patronize their products and services and elect functioning officers (Harris, et al., 1996) who would manage the activities. The members can also become employees, suppliers, and customers in order to support the operation of their cooperative (Ramanauskas, et al., 2017). This applies the theory of Triandis (2001) on horizontal and vertical collectivism where horizontal collectivism suggests that the members must work cohesively with their co-members and contribute monetary interest so that they can assets that will serve as their resource base. While vertical collectivism means that the members must work with their elected officers so that they can reach their goals and aspirations.
This study would shed light on the collective nature of cooperatives and weave philosophy into the consciousness of cooperative studies. Literatures show that there is hardly any study that attempted to weave the cooperative operations to its philosophical origins. It further rationalizes that cooperatives are catalysts of revolutionary ideologies to achieve better welfare without coercion, but it leverages on believing that people are capable of governing themselves collectively, yet literature that deals on these are very few. Primarily, this study utilizes the codified collective aspirations of the members found in their vision, mission and goals (VMGs) through the trifocal aspect of collectivism such as economic, social and political. Literatures often portray cooperatives in a compartmentalized perspective of economic, social and political structure. There is an observed gap between philosophical origins and cooperative practices that combines economic, social and political. Cooperatives are viewed as economic vehicles that could improve quality of life, an alternative political system to capitalism and socialism, or as a social system that aims to attain the society’s goal. There is a dearth of literature that puts together a holistic picture of cooperatives from its philosophical origin and the empirical evidence of collectivism as observed in the various economic, social and political aspect of cooperativism as a way of life of their members.
In general, the members’ collective goals and aspirations are embedded in the cooperatives’ vision, mission and goals (VMGs) in order to communicate and set direction to all the members and elected officers. The vision represents the organization’s direction while the mission justifies their existence (Altiok, 2011). The goals are time-framed measurable indicators the organization intends to achieve. The VMGs can be interpreted beyond its simplistic literary form that it can actually reflect the ex-post behaviors of the members and elected officers. Essentially, these are codified aspirations and they were derived from several general assembly meetings wherein the members have participated and expressed their thoughts and emotions. These are guidelines for the cooperative in case of creating policies and decision making for their operation. In fact, the cooperatives’ successes are measured in terms of how far these VMGs were attained and translated into the cooperatives’ operation (Puusa, et al., 2006).
The study focused on cooperatives in the Philippines. There are very limited researches about cooperatives in the country but they are contributing in the economic, social and political aspects of the country. They are in fact regarded as important institutions that can contribute to the Vision 2040 of the Philippines which encourages the cooperative sector to play critical role in: a) rapid, inclusive and sustained economic growth, b) financial inclusion, and c) reduction of poverty (RA 9520; NEDA, 2017). On the report of Castillo and Castillo (2017), cooperatives in the Philippines have manifested their capacity to contribute in terms of: eradication of poverty and hunger; decent work and economic growth; responsive production and consumption; reduced inequalities; climate action; peace, justice and strong institutions; and gender equality in which cooperatives contribute to the country’s GDP equivalent to an average of 3.12% and average per capita contribution of 3,574.45 (in Philippine Peso) per coop members in a month. As reported by the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) (2020), there are around 18,848 cooperatives registered in the Philippines with membership of 11.5 million individuals and aggregated asset base of 572.5 billion (in Philippine peso). Thus, it is worthwhile to contribute to the development of cooperatives by presenting the relevance of collectivism in cooperatives.
The objective of this study is to:
  1. Write a literature review on the connection of collectivism as a philosophy in the study of cooperatives through the lens of social, economic and political;
  2. Weave through the social, economic and political dimensions of collectivism as it is empirically established in the context of cooperatives;
  3. Empirically establish the application of collectivism in the VMGs of cooperatives in which the VMGs were utilized as units of analysis because these are relevant evidences of collective actions that emanated from the members’ participation and behavioral expressions; and
  4. Provide a continuous fulcrum that weaves philosophy into the consciousness of cooperative studies especially in the Philippine setting.