This essay will aim to investigate the ethical treatment of shareholders and workers in a traditional, capitalist corporation; The Ford Motor Company and compare and contrast the findings with the treatment of these stakeholders in the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation. The structure of this essay will be as follows; firstly the fundamental differences between the two contrasting organisations will be examined and how these differences impact the ethical treatment of the relevant stakeholders; secondly, the ethical treatment of shareholders in regards to corporate governance and the executive’s accountability and control will be investigated, and lastly, the ethical treatment of workers within the two contrasting organisations will be scrutinized in relation to the employees right to participation and association, as well as the right to fair wages.

To frame the purpose of this essay; to investigate the ethical treatment of shareholders and workers in a traditional, capitalist corporation compared to the treatment of these stakeholders in the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, it is imperative to firstly examine the contrasting ideologies and points of difference between the two ways of organising. In understanding the fundamental differences between the two contrasting organisations, it is then possible to recognise the ethical dilemmas that arise for both shareholders and workers. The fundamental differences between a traditional capitalist corporation and the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation are the capital-ownership structures, the difference in rationale for the establishment of the two contrasting organisations and the labour-capital relations within them.

Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private property ownership and private ownership of the means of production (Mathison 2005). Friedman (1962) argues that the purpose of the