Even when I was living in a very liberal area, there were only a small handful of stores that advertised as worker co-ops. It’s funny too because those co-op stores were all incredibly popular and successful, so I don’t understand why they are so comparatively rare? The organizational structure seems simple to maintain, and has a high incentive for regular workers to go above and beyond since they directly benefit from the business being successful, so what’s the deal? I am speaking from a US centric view, so maybe things are different in Europe, but even with my limited knowledge I feel like they are relatively unpopular there too, but maybe not? I dunno.
Co ops can have traditional chains of command, the only defining characteristic of a co op is ownership. There’s no reason why a leadership hierarchy and leader ownership must go hand in hand.
A well-functioning co op can take in any worker irrespective of work ethic and provide them with the structure and support to develop into a valuable team member. The problem is that co ops, like anything aren’t guaranteed to function well.
So no, a co op does not require all workers within in be fundamentally minded towards the business. A co op simply means that the ownership of the company and the labour force are one in the same. There are plenty of co op workers all over the world who just show up and do their job, they just also have a voice and must be considered differently as a result.
They could be linked by voting rights. If you have ten equal owners, then you’ve got the equal voters in terms of board decisions.
I agree with your first paragraph, and once we instituted a traditional hierarchy of responsibility in the form of editors and publishers with defined timetables and expectations, things ran more smoothly - the effort lasted 12 years in all before closing.
However, the amount of management and moderation involved from those placed at the top was far greater than in a comparable corporate structure, in large part due to the human behavior factors I addressed above. This led to burnout, and which had a cascading effect on those with less responsibility. While I don’t regret what we accomplished, I’ve come to the conclusion it would have been undoubtedly easier to succeed in the publishing space with a corporate structure.
As such, I disagree with your assumption in the latter half of your comment that a co-op can take in any worker irrespective of ethic. A co-op thrives because it’s a community that relies on each other. When you introduce bad actors into the mix, who are benefiting without contribution, it breeds resentment and similar behavior if not corrected quickly - especially if you’re working on a profit-share basis. My experience in both the non-profit and corporate worlds has shown that the latter can absorb a much higher ratio of these bad actors than a co-op or non-profit can, as these latter organizations rely on an equitable social contract to motivate their workforce. Corporations just rely on a paycheck.
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