ABSTRACT
Worker co-operatives are organizations with equally shared worker ownership and egalitarian ideologies. Worker co-operatives are extreme examples of businesses where the concepts of flattened workplace hierarchies, shared ownership, and collective management are put into practice. Market pressures can exacerbate tensions between a co-operative's goals of self-management and the need to survive economically in a competitive economy. A number of corporations speak of moving toward greater worker participation in managerial-type decisions and greater sharing of information. While few managers would consider converting their businesses to co-operatives, some current management trends incorporate certain aspects of worker co-operatives. A number of human resource practices attempt to improve the interpersonal respect and recognition given to employees. Quality-of-work-life and employee-involvement programs are some of the earliest types of direct employee participation initiatives to gain widespread attention in the early 1980s. The experience of being a member of a worker co-operative should strengthen one's ability to pursue wrongful actions and provide the confidence.
