Financial Participation

Abstract

Full self-management is characterised by both full worker participation in managerial decisions and a profit (or surplus) sharing system of labour remuneration. In the last chapter we discussed arrangements within conventional firms by which the right to manage is shared between managers and workers. Such arrangements do not necesarily entail any profit sharing system of remuneration; neither do they entail any arrangements to encourage conventional ownership (via shareholding) by workers in the firms for which they work. Conversely, financial participation schemes (such as profit sharing) within conventional firms do not imply any managerial participation. In practice, though, managerial and financial participation (of both remuneration and ownership varieties) are sometimes found in the same firm. A ‘pure’ cooperative, of course, exhibits full managerial participation and a surplus-sharing system of labour remuneration, but cannot issue shares. Thus, financial participation schemes within conventional firms may be seen as a partial alternative to self-management, just as one might regard the managerial participation arrangements of the last chapter. The schemes to be discussed in this chapter all operate at the level of the individual firm and may therefore also be thought of as alternatives to the corporatist type of policies to be discussed in chapter seven.