Corporate democracy

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Corporate democracy is in contrast to economic democracy democratic constitution of companies, as well as non-profit organizations. The aim is to involve the workforce in the operational decision-making processes and to make their work so democratic. The term overlaps with various other related terms such as industrial democracy , solidarity economy or new work .

definition

“Corporate democracy is the leadership and design of organizations by all interested members in order to realize the respective organizational purpose. It is a binding self-organization that is not the only means to the end of profit maximization. "

This is how corporate democracy differs from economic democracy. Economic democracy aims to democratize the economy.

research

Probably the oldest book on corporate democracy (Industrial Democracy) was founded in 1897 by Sydney and Beatrice Webb published

The German businessman, business journalist, trade unionist and later Israeli finance minister Fritz Naphtali published his work “Economic Democracy. Your essence, path and goal "(with many references and references to Webb & Webb)

There are different findings at the moment, but the effects of the democratization of work have been explored from many sides since about 1980.

As early as 1978 it was shown that it's from the British Carole Pateman suspected transmission effect is (spill-over effect) democratic also in job design. That corporate democracy also has effects on the private life of employees. For example, direct participation in the form of so-called “self-determined work control” leads to greater political and cultural commitment. This coincides with other results that showed that social and cultural engagement is promoted through direct democracy in working groups and in the workplace.

For the decision-makers in organizations, the positive effect in their company will be particularly important. In this regard, Wolfgang Weber, Professor of Applied Psychology at the University of Innsbruck, published a study in 2007. He researched the impact of corporate democracy on work and working life in the context of the Austrian research program “New Orientations for Democracy in Europe”. In this study, a total of 631 employees from 24 democratic companies were examined and compared with 13 traditionally run companies. The democratically run companies and organizations led to greater solidarity and help in the workplace and a stronger emotional bond with the employer.

In leisure time, corporate democracy led to higher social responsibility, higher democratic and social engagement, higher self-efficacy expectations with regard to a just world and stronger humanistic ethics. Weber has thus also confirmed the research paradigm of the spill-over effect. Weber and colleagues put it this way: “The more employees report that they participate in operational, tactical and strategic decisions in their company, the more they show community-related value orientations, which are characterized by humanistic values ​​and a willingness to be cosmopolitan and democratic. ... The practice of democratic companies, such as those from our sample, gives a little hope that companies, in cooperation with many other civil society institutions (for example families, kindergartens, schools, clubs, universities) can be a place for democratic society preserve and defend. "

Case studies

The best-known example internationally is probably the Brazilian company Semco S / A, founded in 1954 (an artificial word from Semler & Company). It was by Ricardo Semler , developed, who took over the company from his father Antonio Curt Semler 1980 into a successful, democratic since growing companies. Success was achieved through the democratization of the company: Sales rose from $ 4 million in 1982 to $ 212 million in 2003. The number of employees grew from 90 to over 3,000.

Semler explained the secret of Semco's success right at the beginning of his book “The Seven-Day Weekend”. He is of the opinion that in the replacement of the usual top-down control, combined with a radical democratization of the company: “It's our lack of formal structure, the way we give up control so workers can follow their interests and their instincts when choosing jobs or projects. ... It's inherent in how we embrace democracy and open communication, and encourage questions and dissent in the workplace. " Semler makes it unmistakably clear that it was the democratization of Semco that also led to economic success: “The answer lay in relinquishing control. It was a deceptively simple principle because it would mean instituting true democracy at Semco. "

Former Human Resources Director of Telekom AG Thomas Sattelberger published six different, predominantly German case studies in the 2015 book “The Democratic Company” together with Professor Isabell Welpe from the Technical University of Munich and Andreas Boes, Member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Social Science Research (ISF) Munich .

The German management consultant and management author Andreas Zeuch highlighted in his 2015 book “All power for nobody. Aufbruch der Unternehmensdemokrats ”ten others (also: Cecosesola ), mainly German case studies.

literature

  • Andreas Zeuch: All Power for Nobody - Awakening of the Corporate Democrats . Murmann Publisher, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-86774-475-1 .
  • Ricardo Semler: The Seven-day Weekend: A Better Way to Work in the 21st Century . Arrow Books, London 2004, ISBN 0-09-942523-8 .
  • Ricardo Semler: The Semco System. Management without a manager . Heyne, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-453-08787-9 .
  • Isabell Welpe, Andreas Boes: The Democratic Company - New Working and Management Cultures in the Age of the Digital Economy . Ed .: Thomas Sattelberger. Haufe, Freiburg / Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-648-07434-3 .
  • Gernot Pflüger: Success without a boss - What work looks like that employees want . Econ, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-430-20086-8 .
  • Heinrich Fallner: “Forward and don't forget…” The reform company Hoppmann 1961-1997 . Ed .: Wolfgang Belitz. Ursel Busch, 1998, ISBN 3-927370-07-X .
  • Paul Bernstein: Workplace Democracy. Its internal dynamics . Kent State University, 1976.
  • Cecosesola: On the way. Lived utopia of a cooperative in Venezuela . Die Buchmacherei, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-00-037134-9 .
  • Yvon Chouinard: Let the staff go surfing! - The success story of a headstrong entrepreneur . Redline, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-86881-051-6 .
  • Lutz Frühbrodt: The social foundation company - an economic policy alternative . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8260-5483-9 .
  • René Junkes: Democratic Management in Companies - Less Effort, More Change . AV Akademieverlag, Saarbrücken 2015, ISBN 978-3-639-87342-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Zeuch: Is corporate democracy an irresponsible utopia? In: blog. May 9, 2016, accessed August 10, 2016 (definition of corporate democracy).
  2. ↑ Beatrice Webb, Sidney Webb: Industrial Democracy . 1897 (English).
  3. ↑ Beatrice Webb, Sidney Webb: Theory and Practice of the English Trade Unions . Stuttgart 1898 (two volumes).
  4. ^ Fritz Naphtali (Ed.): Economic Democracy. Your essence, path and goal . Bund, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-434-45021-1 ( http://archive.org/details/WirtschaftsdemokratieIhrWesenWegUndZiel online [accessed on October 28, 2016] reprint of the 1928 edition).
  5. ^ RA Karasek: Job Socialization: A Longitudinal Study of Work. Political and Leisure Activity . Ed .: Swedish Institute for Social Research. Stockholm.
  6. ↑ M. Elden: Autonomy at work and participation in politics . In: A. Cherns (Ed.): Quality of Working Life and the Kibbutz Expierience . Norwood, PA 1980, pp. 230-256 .
  7. ^ Weber, W .; Schmidt, B .; Unterrainer, C .: “ODEM-Organizational Democracy - Resources for social, democratic readiness to act”. Research report on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture within the framework of the program “new orientations for democracy in europe”, (2007), p. 11, p. 13
  8. ^ R. Semler: The Seven-Day Weekend, p. 5
  9. ^ R. Semler: The Seven-Day Weekend, p. 9