Co-op News (August 2019)

Why is co-operative
culture important?
CONNECTING, CHAMPIONING AND
CHALLENGING THE GLOBAL CO-OP
MOVEMENT SINCE 1871
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Manchester M60 0AS
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EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Rebecca Harvey
rebecca@thenews.coop
INTERNATIONAL EDITOR
Anca Voinea | anca@thenews.coop
DIGITAL EDITOR
Miles Hadfield | miles@thenews.coop
WRITER
Jen Banks
DESIGN
Keir Mucklestone-Barnett
ART & DESIGN PLACEMENT
Owais Qazi
INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH OFFICER
Elaine Dean
DIRECTORS
Barbara Rainford (chair), David Paterson
(vice-chair), Gavin Ewing, Tim Hartley,
Beverley Perkins and Ray Henderson.
Secretary: Richard Bickle
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News is published by Co-operative
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Benefit Society Act 2014. It is printed
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cooperativenews
Whether it manifests itself through shared values, attitudes or assumptions, culture
can play a key role in determining an organisation’s behaviour. In this issue we look
at co-operative culture – what it is and how the values and principles of co-operation
are reflected in diff erent sectors. How is it reflected in approaches to leadership,
education or personal lives?
Ed Mayo explains how there is no one identity across diff e rent organisations,
since organisational culture is strongly influenced by factors such as environment,
colleagues and the nature of a co-op’s work (p28). And in our feature on Cecop’s
40th anniversary, we hear about some of the challenges its founding members
faced when bringing together diff erent co-operative cultures under one European
umbrella organisation (p36-37).
Organisational culture is also influenced by the sector in which co-ops operate and
the size of the business. A new report argues that Canadian federation of credit
unions Desjardins Group has moved away from its original mission and co-op
culture due to increased competition from other banks and new consumer trends
(p38-39).
Why does culture matter? As Ed Mayo writes, when values are reflected in
genuine behaviour, co-operative culture can bring authenticity. Employees
who work for organisations whose values they share are also more engaged
and tend to accomplish more, which means that culture can help co-ops thrive.
This issue we also look at the cross over in values between co-op culture and diff
erent religions, hear about a university course looking specifi cally at co-op
culture, and how their unique way of organising helped co-ops to survive the
fascist regime of Mussolini’s Italy.
ANCA VOINEA - INTERNATIONAL EDITOR
Co-operative News is printed using vegetable oil-based
inks on 80% recycled paper (with 60% from post-consumer
waste) with the remaining 20% produced from FSC or PEFC
certified sources. It is made in a totally chlorine free process.
AUGUST 2019 | 3