Why Workplace Democracy Can Be Good Business
Reader Comments
Worker management
Most managers, graduates of B Schools, tend to misunderstand the nature of their own business, especially when it's production. One-size-fits-all management goals and processes do not work, especially when you cross sectors from, say, finance to manufacturing. The most knowledgeable people are those who labor in the business and know how it runs. Their skill at adaptation and innovation is what makes a good company great. Pure ego keeps managers from acknowledging the worth of working people, but the best and most profitable companies use managers to facilitate what the workers need to do and incorporate workers' understanding of their processes into decision making on policy. The data bear out that worker owned and managed corporations are among the most profitable, and the more draconian the management, the more isolated the decision making from production, the more likely the business will fail. Management needs to get out of the way. Workers need to have input. If that means revising Taft Hartley, then let's do so. We need all the intelligence we can get.
