Union Counterpowers in Participative Management Experiments: A Case Study of CN2i
(2024) Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics — Location: University of Limerick, Limerick, Irlande (27.June.2024)
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- Abstract
- This paper focuses on how different social actors, faced with the uncertainty resulting from numerous changes in the socio-economic context, experiment with new social practices to cope with them (Murray et al., 2020). In the recent years, a rising number of managers experiment “self-management” practices that promotes the adoption of radical arrangements of participative management (Lee & Edmondson, 2017a; eg. Holacracy, see Robertson, 2015). The growing popularity of this fashion, and of the practices of self-management that it promotes, in the academia and the HRM professional community (Gilbert, Raulet-Croset, et al., 2017; Lee & Edmondson, 2017b) sparked a trend of research to grasp the phenomena (Coutrot, 2018; Cultiaux & Léon, 2019; Fox & Pichault, 2017; Gilbert, Teglborg, et al., 2017; Mattelin-Pierrard et al., 2020; Picard & Islam, 2019). This paper explores CN2i, a distinctive cooperative formed in 2019 through a worker takeover with government, union, and solidarity capital support. CN2i uniquely combines worker-member ownership, with unionized employee working in deeply participative management arrangement. The case’s originality comes from the fact that the participative management arrangements are enshrined into a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The CBA signed in 2022 defines participative management arrangements, introducing innovative features such as "circles" inspired by Holacracy. While hierarchy persists with a distinct managerial group, new roles like the Ombudsperson for participatory management and Information Coordinator, local elected facilitators replacing management in their role of participation animators are introduced to balance power and promote co-operative values. This multi-faceted approach enables CN2i to transcend traditional hierarchical structures and provides a fertile ground for the examination of institutionalized participative management arrangements and union counterpowers in participative management. The paper suggests that CN2i's participative management offers potential solutions to challenges faced by non-hierarchical organizations(Jégou, 2023). By incorporating counterpowers within the cooperative structure, such as union representation and the Ombudsperson role, CN2i aims to prevent power imbalances. The paper emphasizes the importance of synergies between governance, management, and social dialogue spheres to address the tension between equality and freedom. The constant interaction between the shop floor and dedicated governance bodies serves as an experimental approach to organizational structure that merits further exploration. The paper aims to shed light on the intricacies of CN2i's journey towards a self-managed cooperative and the ways in which participative management arrangements have been strategically integrated to foster a more inclusive and empowered organizational culture. By analyzing the case of CN2i, this paper seeks to contribute to the ongoing discourse on contemporary organizational structures, providing insights into the challenges faced by workers' co-operatives and offering valuable lessons for organizations aspiring to organize beyond conventional hierarchies. The findings from this study may inform future organizational practices and policies, guiding the development of more effective models for achieving genuine freedom and equality within self-managed structures. This paper is based on a beginning ethnographic case study made in the context of a partnership research with CN2i. In the next months, observations will be conducted in the different governance body that mediate conflict about participation and evaluate how this enterprise, considered as an organizational experiment, contribute to better or worse work.
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Jégou, O., & et al. (2024). Union Counterpowers in Participative Management Experiments: A Case Study of CN2i. Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics, University of Limerick, Limerick, Irlande. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/239784