US worker co-operatives and their spans of management, decision making, and governance: An exploratory analysis

Abstract

Abstract Much has been written over the years about worker co-operatives as an alternative to traditional forms of business organization and ownership. The literature has mostly covered the issues of whether worker co-ops are more productive, more profitable, have trouble with accessing capital and growing, and/or have a longer existence than traditional firms. This paper tries to fill some gaps in the literature by covering topics rarely if ever mentioned in writings on US worker co-ops by exploring their spans of management, their decision making with respect to investment and hiring/firing decisions, and their use of employees who are not also owners of the firm. The results from a recent survey are interesting from an organizational behavior or institutional perspective in that worker co-ops show themselves generally to be different from and yet in some ways similar to many of their traditional, capital-managed counterparts.