Worker Management:A Power-Dialectic Framework
Abstract
The article uses a single theoretical framework to analyze the development of participatory organizational forms. The histories of decision-making structures are considered in terms of the structural sources of decision-making power within organizations and supraorganizational networks. The dialectic of power at the points of production and managerial planning lead to distinct forms of authority and structures of workforce participation in the decision-making process. Structural linkages between forms of industrial organization, ownership, and development and growth of corporate structure and workforce participation in decision-making are the central issues examined. Principal conclusions of the analysis are that collective bargaining, as developed within capitalism, is a form of workers' participation and that worker ownership is a necessary but not sufficient condition of workers' control.