Purpose This article presents a compelling case study of a workers’ cooperative in the cultural sector. It offers a unique opportunity to delve into the tensions between managerial and democratic control, particularly in the context of heightened artistic claims. The pivotal role of an...

Purpose The paper investigates the effects of individual employees' empowerment on different forms of job satisfaction in British workplaces while controlling for the presence of job demands and whether these effects depend on the presence of an equality plan in the workplace. The demand-control...

Purpose Worker cooperative practitioners and developers often claim that democratic worker ownership advances egalitarianism within and beyond the workplace, but most of the empirical evidence in the USA is based on ethnographic case studies or small-scale surveys. This study aims to leverage...

Purpose Many workers with disabilities face cultures of exclusion in the workplace, which can affect their participation in decisions, workplace engagement, job attitudes and performance. The authors explore a key indicator of engagement—perceptions of organizational citizenship behavior...

Purpose The aim of this paper is to describe the main characteristics of het two most recognised models in Spain: worker cooperatives and worker-owned companies ( Sociedades Laborales ). Design/methodology/approach To this end, a review will be carried out of the main factors from the regulatory...

Purpose This article analyses how the MONDRAGON Group has overcome the barriers that the literature identifies in the creation of employee owned companies (Mygind and Poulsen, 2021), and how it has managed to grow over the last few decades. Design/methodology/approach To this end, based on an...

Purpose France is the third country in Europe after Italy and Spain for the number of employee-owned firms, with some 2,600 worker cooperatives (SCOPs). The authors propose a comprehensive review of SCOPs and any barriers to their expansion. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyse...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to give an updated overview over the development of employee-ownership in Italy, France, Spain including Mondragon, the UK and the US with relatively many employee-owned firms. How have the barriers for employee-ownership been overcome in these countries?...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare three models of employee ownership and to identify pros and cons in relation to how the models can overcome the barriers. Which choices are important when defining the overall rules around the models and the specific possibilities for variations...