Cooperatives have tended to place themselves in the contradictory stance of imitating the authority structures of corporate management, without even having enough financial competence or even knowledge of basic good business practices to increase the retained earnings of that business without massively exploiting both non-management staff and the members. With just a little bit of imagination and curiosity the management of cooperative businesses would look more and more like progressive management. The Rochdale Pioneers created a model not just for cooperatives, but also for progressive management.

Excerpted from Tadit Anderson:

“The economics of cooperatives needs to be closer to the original meaning of economics, as in management by the community in the interest of the community. There needs to be a type of management and commerce which is different from the elitism and naked class warfare of the financialized version of economics.

If the word “mangement” is to be true in its practice to the original meaning of “economics” then the processes of community would be central to its functions and priorities. Progressive management treats management as a function which can be shared within a community in the interest of perhaps a larger community. This would press for the reintegration of labor in the reproduction of an open community. Conventional corporate management treats “manager” as a position somewhere in a sometimes complex hierarchy of elite management functions.

Progressive management depends upon its ability to support an active form of group cooperation toward goal oriented problem solving and production. It tends to value knowledge, communication, imagination, and the facilitation of cooperation. Decision making based upon objectives and outcomes is favored over decision making based on rank, the promotion of competition, and other structural violence. It values both social skills and technical facility. The use of financial data and analysis is equally important within both management paradigms, with adaptations to the different ways of structuring the priorities, work and costs of the business.

Typically management within cooperatives has been confused, ad hoc, or invested in the authoritarian version of corporate management. Few cooperative managers show any evidence of being aware of progressive management as a different perspective on the process of management. And most cooperative board members seem to be even less informed. A few cooperatives have had individuals whose personal styles and values as managers have caused them to lean toward a progressive sort of world view. Even so it is doubtful that they were aware of the progressive management perspective. Lacking an appreciation for progressive management, its organizational culture will often revert to the corporate form of management and “leadership.”

Conventional management tends to move accountability downward and the power of decision making upward. Conventional management is risk adverse and this will limit its capacity for problem solving. In moments of distress or crisis the practicalities of cooperation and community are often pitched over the rail in favor of the comforting superstitions and the fig leaf of authoritarianism. The alternative to conventional decision making is not decision making based upon majority rule, but upon outcome focused decision making.

Progressive management in its extension has proven itself to be more nimble toward adapting to changing markets and more effective in the utilizing of employee capacites and experience. Progressive management relates to employees who work as a part of any particular business as a part of its community of interests. Anyone familiar with the nature of successful small businesses will recognize the pattern.

Consumer cooperatives are by their traditional structure composed by members who are both owners and patrons, and the employees who are often attracted to the value placed upon community look to find it also in daily practice. Progressive management is known for a number of techniques which were later abused by conventional management. This list includes “management by objectives,” “just in time” inventory control, “quality circles,” the virtual organization, and team building. In using management based upon the process of community the contributions of each employee are respected.”