Development or Convergence? Change and Stability in a Common

In: Economic and industrial democracy, Band 16, Heft 2, S. 167-199

Abstract

The life history of work cooperatives in capitalist societies offers a fruitful field for examining the factors which may influence their development as distinctive alternatives to prevailing work cultures or their tendencies to revert to prevailing norms. The case study presented in this article explores change and stability in a long-established British common ownership firm, comparing data from studies in 1960 and 1989. Evolution from paternalist to managerialist leadership is analysed using an action approach. A force-field perspective is employed to examine the interaction of pressures for development, convergence and the maintenance of the status quo, and to explain the equilibrium which has resulted.