ILRIC 2370

Industrial Democracy and Employee Involvement

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2015-2016.

Provides an introduction to the different forms of worker participation and their associated benefits for employees, firms, and society.  We will compare and contrast different models of participation, ranging from self-managed and offline teams to worker-owned cooperatives; from consultative committees to works councils and labor unions.  While these differ in the form and extent of employee involvement in decisions concerning the organization and conditions of their work, they share a common impetus of decentralizing some degree of control over these decisions from management to workers.  A central focus in the course will be to evaluate how different countries' legal and collective bargaining systems can support (or, alternatively, discourage) different forms of worker participation.  To this end, we will discuss comparative research as well as firm- and industry-based case studies from different countries, including Germany, Denmark, and Japan.

When Offered Spring.

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

Satisfies Requirement Satisfies the ILR Advanced Writing requirement.

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