ABSTRACT
Democratic management is fundamentally different from any prevailing management orthodoxy, in particular from the traditional hierarchical, exclusive, top-down type of management that has been the dominant managerial concept and ideology since the late 19th century. Formal organisational institutions and management positions as such are not a problem even for the democratic organisation – but they are a problem, a serious problem, if they are drawn up and function like traditional, orthodox ones, i.e. hierarchical and with line management authority equipped. The institutions and positions of representative management are democratic institutions and positions, i.e. they are constituted, based on, operated, staffed, and managed according to democratic principles and standards. Democratic management offers the main rationales, concepts, formal structures, and processes for organising and managing not only work and organisational affairs but also social positions and social actions in non-hierarchical, equal, inclusive, and participative ways.
