Research on successful cooperativist actions has been found to generate social impact through the creation of employment and the promotion of economic growth. In this article, we present the way in which leaders in nontraditional businesses assess qualitatively the social impact of the improvements linked to such actions beyond the economic dimension. The interviews include the voices of members and nonmembers of cooperatives occupying diverse positions in organizations and illustrate how the exercise of dialogic leadership supports the strength of democratic principles and the quality of employment. The results revealed that the processes of empowerment related to cooperative organizations enable a kind of qualitative assessment of social impact that provides evidence of how successful cooperativist actions play a role in the development of more democratic and participatory organizations.
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