{"id":876,"date":"2012-09-24T12:25:11","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T16:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/?p=876"},"modified":"2012-12-15T14:19:29","modified_gmt":"2012-12-15T19:19:29","slug":"the-biggest-threat-to-workplace-consultants-workplace-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/the-biggest-threat-to-workplace-consultants-workplace-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest Threat To Workplace Consultants? Workplace Democracy."},"content":{"rendered":"

[Editors note: Scott Trumbull is one of The Working World’s loan-agents at our international office in Le\u00f3n, Nicaragua. Since starting with TWW just under two years ago, Scott has worked with dozens of worker cooperatives.]<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Nicaragua<\/a><\/em>Earlier this month, Kevin Burns, the \u201cWorkplace Expert,\u201d posted a critique on his blog about \u201cWhy Worker Self-Management Won\u2019t Work.<\/a>\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0Having worked with dozens of successful worker-run businesses in Argentina, Nicaragua, and the U.S., we couldn\u2019t help but ask ourselves:\u00a0 What could be going through this guy\u2019s head?\u00a0 Then suddenly, it hit me\u2014If more companies became worker-owned and -managed, Burns would probably be out of a job.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

1.)\u00a0\u00a0 Cooperative workplaces are more efficient.\u00a0 Their purpose is not just to remove the \u201cboss says so\u201d mentality.\u00a0 They are also designed to incentivize workers.\u00a0 Unlike contracted employees, worker-owners actually make what they deserve.\u00a0 If they produce more and better-quality products, they make more money.\u00a0 This makes for a harder-working, more productive workplace (with or without a costly motivational speech from The Workplace Expert).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2.)\u00a0\u00a0 Worker ownership and self-management also significantly reduce the amount of money a company spends on monitoring the workplace and hiring consultants (like Kevin Burns).\u00a0 This is primarily because workers have real-time access to information about workplace inefficiencies that managers do not.\u00a0 If something is inhibiting the productive process, worker-owners will resolve it quickly\u2014because their salaries depend on it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3.)\u00a0\u00a0 Finally, democratic workplaces foster exactly the type of managerial leadership that Burns describes.\u00a0 Burns is right on this one.\u00a0 Workers need a good coach.\u00a0 Unfortunately, managers in private companies don\u2019t always maintain the most supportive or productive relationships with their workers (just think of your last nightmare boss\u2026).\u00a0 In self-managed firms, however, managers are elected by the workforce, which means they\u2019ll almost always be relatable to and respected by their fellow employees.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s face it.\u00a0 Kevin Burns isn\u2019t against worker self-management because \u201cit will fail.\u201d\u00a0 After all, some of the most productive industrial complexes in Europe are worker-run (i.e. Mondragon in Spain, Emilia-Romagna in Italy, etc.).\u00a0 \u00a0He\u2019s against it because democratizing business has the potential to revolutionize the workplace and make his job totally obsolete.\u00a0 But no hard feelings, Kevin; we wish you the best of luck.\u00a0 From what we have seen in our seven short years of experience, you\u2019re going to need it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Editors note: Scott Trumbull is one of The Working World’s loan-agents at our international office in Le\u00f3n, Nicaragua. Since starting with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[21,24,26,7,23,25,20,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1034,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876\/revisions\/1034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theworkingworld.org\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}