Case data from an ethnographic study of six experimental firms illustrate characteristic dilemmas and patterns of action in organizational groups espousing participatory democracy. The article explores what the author calls 'democratic hierarchies' through vignettes from each case that highlight a particular dilemma or pattern of behavior. Three problematic aspects of democratic hierarchies discussed include hierarchy and accountability; hierarchy and authority; and hierarchy and ownership. Three recurrent behaviors include holding democratic values and business decisions in tension; participating in multiple forums, including attention to group process; and developing democratic repertoires and rituals.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Blasi, Joseph R.
(1988) Employee Ownership: Revolution or Rip-off?Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
2.
Blumberg, Paul
(1968) Industrial Democracy: The Sociology of Participation. Lon-don: Constable.
3.
Bowles, Samuel
and Herbert Gintis (1986) Democracy and Capitalism: Property, Community and the Contradictions of Modern Social Thought. New York: Basic Books.
4.
Bradley, Keith
and Alan Gelb (1983) Cooperation at Work The Mondragon Experience. London: Heinemann.
5.
Cornforth, Chris
and Alan Thomas (1990) 'Cooperative Development: Barriers, Support Structures and Cultural Factors', Economic and Industrial Democracy11(4): 451-462.
6.
Dahl, Robert A.
(1989) Democracy and its Critics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
7.
Espinosa, Juan
and Andrew Zimbalist (1978) Economic Democracy: Worker Participation in Chikan Industry 1970-1973. New York: Academic Press.
8.
Estrin, Saul
(1991) 'Some Reflections on Self-management, Social Choice, and Reform in Eastern Europe', Journal of Comparative Economics15: 349-366.
9.
Frost, Peter J.
, Larry F. Moore, Meryl R. Louis, Craig C. Lundberg and Joanne Martin (eds) (1985) Organizational Culture. Beverley Hills, CA: Sage.
10.
Greenwood, Davydd J.
, Jose Luis Gonzalez Santos et al. (1992) Industrial Democracy as Process: Partipatory Action Research in the Fagor Cooperative Group of Mondragon. Assen/Maastricht: Van Gorcum.
11.
Gunn, Christopher E.
(1984) Workers' Self-management in the United States. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
12.
Gustavsen, Bjorn
and Gerry Hunnius (1982) New Patterns of Work Reform: The Case of Norway. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
13.
Hammer, Tove Helland
and Robert N. Stern (1980) 'Employee Ownership: Implications for the Organizational Distribution of Power', Academy of Management Journal23(1): 78-100.
14.
Hyde, Alan
(1992) 'In Defense of Employee Ownership', Chicago-Kent Law Review67(1): 159-211.
15.
Jones, Derek
(1980) 'Producer Co-operatives in Industrialised Western Economies', British Journal of Industrial RelationsXVIIT(2): 141-154.
16.
Kunda, Gideon
(1992) Engineering Culture. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
17.
Locke, Edwin A.
and David M. Schweiger (1979) 'Participation in Decision-making: One More Look', Research in Organizational Behavior1: 265-340.
18.
Mansbridge, Jane J.
(1983) Beyond Adversary Democracy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
19.
Martin, Joanne
(1992) Cultures in Organizations: Three Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
20.
Michels, Robert
(1962) Political Parties. New York: Free Press (originally published 1911).
21.
Miller, David
(1989) Market, State and Community: The Theoretical Foundations of Market Socialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
22.
Mygind, Niels
and Charles P. Rock (1993) 'Financial Participation and the Democratization of Work', Economic and Industrial Democracy14(2): 163-164.
23.
Pateman, Carole
(1970) Participation and Democratic Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press.
24.
Rosen, Corey
and Karen Young (1991) Understanding Employee Ownership. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
Rothschild-Whitt, Joyce
(1979) 'The Collectivist Organization: An Alternative to Rational-bureaucratic Models', American Sociological Review44(August): 509-527.
27.
Russell, Raymond
(1985) Sharing Ownership in the Workplace. Albany: State University of New York Press.
28.
Schartzman, Helen B.
(1990) The Meeting: Gatherings in Organizations and Communities. New York: Plenum Press.
29.
Schein, E.
(1983) 'Organizational Culture: A Dynamic Model', MIT Sloan School of Management Working Paper No. 1412-83.
30.
Schumpeter, Joseph A.
(1942) Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers.
31.
Stern, Robert
(1988) 'Participation as Representation', Work and Occupations15(4): 396-422.
32.
Strauss, George
(1982) 'Workers' Participation in Management: An International Perspective', Research in Organizational Behavior4:173-265.
33.
Tannenbaum, Arnold S.
et al. (1974) Hierarchy in Organizations. San Francio: Jossey-Bass.
34.
Tocqueville, Alexis de
(1959) Democracy in America, trans. Henry Reeve. New York: Alfred A. Knopf (originally published 1835).
35.
Trice, Harrison M.
and Janice Beyer (1992) Cultures of Work Organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
36.
Van Maanen, John
(1988) Tales of the Field. On Writing Ethnography. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
37.
Viggiani, Frances A. (1991) 'Democratic Hierarchies in the Workplace', unpublished PhD dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
38.
Whyte, William Foote
and Kathleen King Whyte (1988) The Making of Mondragon. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
39.
Wisman, Jon D.
(ed.) (1991) Worker Empowerment: The Struggle for Workplace Democracy. New York: The Bootstrap Press.
