ABSTRACT
Universities are large and complex organisations tasked with being fundamentally innovative, creative places where critical thinking produces socially and economically valuable new knowledge. This poses particular difficulties in establishing effective governance regimes – the systems and approaches to decision-making. Leadership is an aspect of governance, encompassing the formal power structures and the cultures within and by which governance is enacted. University leadership should ideally promote criticality, innovative thought and creativity amongst all the university’s members. This chapter discusses a case in stark contrast to the managerialist and audit-oriented leadership regimes of countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia. It explores the near-unique example of Mondragon University in Spain. Mondragon is a long-established private, not-for-profit university in the Basque country run strictly on cooperative principles. Its formal structure is of a workers’ cooperative, with staff, students and external stakeholders such as local cooperative industries all having active and equal involvement. Leadership is distributed and collaborative, with all members taking responsibility for the organisation. It is uniquely engaged with its surrounding regional community. This chapter argues that the quite unusual social relations evident at Mondragon as a result of its leadership and governance engender critical and creative thinking and action. Mondragon, whilst not exactly replicable elsewhere, offers valuable insights into how university governance and leadership might be formulated on collaborative, inclusive lines so as to aid individual commitment, creativity, criticality and engagement. This involves consideration of both formal governance structures and university cultures and mores.
