[1][2] Democratic practices in the workplace are the norm in worker cooperatives, and some can be found in companies with employee ownership or even more traditional corporate structures.
[4] Workers in a democratic environment may also develop a greater concern for the common good, which also transfers to fundamental citizenship.
"[8] The Menshevik led Democratic Republic of Georgia experimented with workplace democracy by promoting cooperatives in the economy.
Often[quantify] employees who publicly criticize such poor decision making of their higher management are penalized or even fired from their jobs on some pretext or other.
The comic strip Dilbert has become popular satirizing this type of oblivious management, iconically represented by the Pointy-haired Boss, a nameless and clueless social climber.
Mintzberg and Drucker studied how executives spent their time, Meadows how change and leverage to resist it existed at all levels in all kinds of organizations.
The equity model of workplace democracy exists when bottom-up practices, such as participatory management, are combined with the top-down influence provided by their voting rights.
In China, a form of workplace democracy is mandated by law for state-owned enterprises[14] and permitted in non-state-owned collectives and companies.
The Marxian economist Richard D. Wolff describes it as "a stunningly successful alternative to the capitalist organization of production".
The Marland Mold employees voted to join the International Union of Electrical Workers, because of a dispute that took place over health insurance.
[18] In the 1980s, Brazilian businessman Ricardo Semler, converted his family firm, a light manufacturing concern called Semco, and transformed it into a strictly democratic establishment where managers were interviewed and then elected by workers.
Decentralization of management functions, he claimed, gave him a combination of insider information and outsider credibility, plus the legitimacy of truly speaking for his workers in the same sense as an elected political leader.
Benefits are often contrasted to simple command hierarchy arrangements in which "the boss" can hire anyone and fire anyone, and takes absolute and total responsibility for their own well-being and also all that occurs "under" them.
[21] A meta-analysis of 43 studies on worker participation found there was no negative correlation between workplace democracy and higher efficiency and productivity.
[26] A 2006 meta-study on workplace democracy found that it can 'equal or exceed the productivity of conventional enterprises when employee involvement is combined with ownership' and 'enrich local social capital.
'[27] Another 2006 study reviewing existing evidence found that contrary to the popular idea that worker participation would decrease productivity, it actually increases it.
[29] Another 2022 study using data from France found workplace democracy increases economic performance in knowledge-heavy sectors.
[33] A 2012 study of Spanish and French businesses with democratic workplaces found that they “have been more resilient than conventional enterprises during the economic crisis.
[39] A 2013 study from the United States found that democratic workplaces in the healthcare industry had significantly higher levels of job satisfaction.
[42] A 1995 study from the United States indicates that “employees who embrace an increased influence and participation in workplace decisions also reported greater job satisfaction”.
[44] A 1986 study of plywood companies in the USA found that democratic workplaces tended to over-report accidents whilst conventional capitalist ones would under-report them.