ILRIC 2370

Employee Involvement and Workplace Democracy in the Global Economy

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2018-2019 Catalog.

This course provides an introduction to the challenges and benefits of employee involvement in decision-making at work.  We will compare and contrast different models, including worker-owned cooperatives, ESOPs, self-managed and offline teams, employee representation on corporate boards, works councils, and labor unions. These all involve decentralizing or democratizing control over management decision-making. However, they differ in the form and extent of participation, as well as outcomes for workers, firms, and society.  A central focus in the course will be to compare different forms of employee involvement across countries.  To this end, we will discuss comparative research as well as case studies from the USA, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Japan, Argentina, and Greece. Some sample case studies include Mondragon, Volvo, Kaiser Permanente, and Google.

Permission Note Enrollment limited to: 15 ILR sophomores or permission of the instructor.

When Offered Spring.

Satisfies Requirement Satisfies the ILR Advanced Writing requirement.

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