Workers' self-management

Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a defining characteristic of socialism, with proposals for self-management having appeared many times throughout the history of the socialist movement, advocated variously by democratic, libertarian and market socialists as well as anarchists and communists.[1]

There are many variations of self-management. In some variants, all the worker-members manage the enterprise directly through assemblies while in other forms workers exercise management functions indirectly through the election of specialist managers. Self-management may include worker supervision and oversight of an organization by elected bodies, the election of specialized managers, or self-directed management without any specialized managers as such.[2] The goals of self-management are to improve performance by granting workers greater autonomy in their day-to-day operations, boosting morale, reducing alienation and eliminating exploitation when paired with employee ownership.[3]

An enterprise that is self-managed is referred to as a labour-managed firm. Self-management refers to control rights within a productive organization, being distinct from the questions of ownership and what economic system the organization operates under.[4] Self-management of an organization may coincide with employee ownership of that organization, but self-management can also exist in the context of organizations under public ownership and to a limited extent within private companies in the form of co-determination and worker representation on the board of directors.

Economic theory

An economic system consisting of self-managed enterprises is sometimes referred to as a participatory economy, self-managed economy, or cooperative economy. This economic model is a major version of market socialism and decentralized planned economy, stemming from the notion that people should be able to participate in making the decisions that affect their well-being. The major proponents of self-managed market socialism in the 20th century include the economists Benjamin N. Ward, Jaroslav Vanek and Branko Horvat.[5] Horvat says that participation is not simply more desirable, but also more economically viable than traditional hierarchical and authoritarian management as demonstrated by econometric measurements which indicate an increase in efficiency with greater participation in decision-making. Writing from the perspective of socialist Yugoslavia in the early 1980s, Horvat suggested that the larger world was moving toward a self-governing socialistic mode of organization as well.[6]

Management science

In his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel H. Pink argues on the basis of empirical evidence that self-management/self-directed processes, mastery, worker autonomy and purpose (defined as intrinsic rewards) are much more effective incentives than monetary gain (extrinsic rewards). According to Pink, for the vast majority of work in the 21st century self-management and related intrinsic incentives are far more crucial than outdated notions of hierarchical management and an overreliance on monetary compensation as reward.

More recent research suggests that incentives and bonuses can have positive effects on performance and autonomous motivation.[22] According to this research, the key is aligning bonuses and incentives to reinforce, rather than hamper, a sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness (the three needs that self determination theory identifies for autonomous motivation).

Political movements

See also

• Agile software development
• Collectivist anarchism
• Consensus decision-making
• Council communism
• Industrial democracy
• Lean manufacturing
• Open allocation
• Participatory economics
• Socialization (economics)
• Titoism
• Workplace democracy
• Works council

Further reading

• Curl, John. For All The People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America, PM Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1604860726.
• Széll, György. "Workers' Participation in Yugoslavia." in The Palgrave Handbook of Workers' Participation at Plant Level (Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2019) pp. 167–186.
• Vieta, Marcelo. Workers' Self-Management in Argentina: Contesting Neo-Liberalism by Occupying Companies, Creating Cooperatives, and Recuperating Autogestión , Brill, 2020, ISBN 978-9004268968.
• An Anarchist FAQ, Vol. 2, (2012, AK Press), see section: I.3.2 What is workers' self-management?.
• Anarcho-syndicalism, Rudolf Rocker (1938), AK Press Oakland/Edinburgh. ISBN 978-1902593920.
• Reinventing Organizations, Frederic Laloux. Nelson Parker, 2014, 378 pp. ISBN 978-2960133509.

External links

• The New Resistance in Argentina, by Yeidy Rosa
• Self-management and Requirements for Social Property: Lessons from Yugoslavia by Diane Flaherty
• Worker self-management in historical perspective by James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer
• Yugoslavia's Self-Management by Daniel Jakopovich
• The Worker-Recovered Enterprises in Argentina: The Political and Socioeconomic Challenges of Self-Management Andrés Ruggeri, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• The Social Innovations of Autogestión in Argentina's Worker-Recuperated Enterprises: Cooperatively Reorganizing Productive Life in Hard Times (Labor Studies Journal, 2010)