IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v30y2009i2p182-206.html

Balancing the Democracy Dilemmas: Experiences of Three Women Workers' Cooperatives in Hong Kong

Author

Listed:
  • Catherine W. Ng

    (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

  • Evelyn Ng

    (University of Hong Kong)

Abstract

Workplace democracy is `an evolving reality' reflected in an organization's daily practices to deal with dilemmas. This article examines the inherent tensions and conflicts of practising workplace democracy in three women workers' cooperatives in Hong Kong. The co-ops were young and supported by non-governmental organizations. Based on interviews and participant observation, it was found that on balance, these co-ops were tilted towards democracy at the expense of efficiency. The analyses suggest that as these co-ops grow and develop, to sustain democracy in the long term, they may need to pay more attention to efficiency issues. Although the pull towards efficiency can lead to the emergence of a managerial elite group, thus contributing to a degeneration of democracy, paradoxically, to revive democracy, some form and function of leadership and management, collectively agreed, need to be established.

Suggested Citation

  • Catherine W. Ng & Evelyn Ng, 2009. "Balancing the Democracy Dilemmas: Experiences of Three Women Workers' Cooperatives in Hong Kong," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 30(2), pages 182-206, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:30:y:2009:i:2:p:182-206
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X09102419
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X09102419
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X09102419?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric Batstone, 1983. "Organization and Orientation: A Life Cycle Model of French Co-operatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 4(2), pages 139-161, May.
    2. Sarah Hernandez, 2006. "Striving for Control: Democracy and Oligarchy at a Mexican Cooperative," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 27(1), pages 105-135, February.
    3. George Mathew Kandathil & Rahul Varman, 2007. "Contradictions of Employee Involvement, Information Sharing and Expectations: A Case Study of an Indian Worker Cooperative," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 28(1), pages 140-174, February.
    4. Chris Cornforth, 1995. "Patterns of Cooperative Management: Beyond the Degeneration Thesis," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 16(4), pages 487-523, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kévin Pastier, 2024. "Beyond democratic degeneration, horizontal and liberated organization? The agonistic approach of a Belgian food co-op," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(4), pages 1325-1349, November.
    2. Andrew Timming & Juliette Summers, 2020. "Is workplace democracy associated with wider pro-democracy affect? A structural equation model," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 41(3), pages 709-726, August.
    3. Ronald Hartz & Markus Tümpel & Melanie Hühn & Irma Rybnikova, 2024. "Handling the organizing paradox: A multiple case study of German cooperatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(4), pages 1112-1136, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ronald Hartz & Markus Tümpel & Melanie Hühn & Irma Rybnikova, 2024. "Handling the organizing paradox: A multiple case study of German cooperatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(4), pages 1112-1136, November.
    2. Ignacio Bretos & Rory Ridley-Duff & David Wren, 2025. "Crafting alternative work organisations: Paradoxes of workplace democracy and emancipation in worker-buyout cooperatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 46(4), pages 1002-1030, November.
    3. Pietro Ghirlanda & Vassil Kirov, 2024. "An alternative organizational model for a more democratic and equitable digital economy: A systematic literature review on platform cooperativism through the lens of stakeholder theory. Competitive advantages and challenges," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(4), pages 1197-1221, December.
    4. Regine Bendl & Alexander Fleischmann & Angelika Schmidt, 2025. "The (In)Visibility of Diversity in Alternative Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 196(2), pages 273-289, January.
    5. Menachem Rosner, 1991. "Worker Ownership, Ideology and Social Structure in 'Third-way' Work Organizations," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 12(3), pages 369-384, August.
    6. Gerald Callan Hunt, 1992. "Division of Labour, Life Cycle and Democracy in Worker Co-operatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 13(1), pages 9-43, February.
    7. Krista Jaakson & Epp Kallaste, 2016. "Who uses employee financial participation in an adverse environment? The case of Estonia," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 37(3), pages 449-467, August.
    8. Thibault Mirabel, 2021. "Survival advantage of worker buyouts over newly created worker-owned firms," Post-Print hal-05429433, HAL.
    9. Roger Hadley & Lancaer Universiy & Maurice Goldsmith, 1995. "Development or Convergence? Change and Stability in a Common," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 16(2), pages 167-199, May.
    10. Yohanan Stryjan, 1994. "The Formation of New Cooperatives: Theory and the Swedish Case," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 15(4), pages 565-594, November.
    11. Chris Cornforth, 1995. "Patterns of Cooperative Management: Beyond the Degeneration Thesis," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 16(4), pages 487-523, November.
    12. Anthony Jensen, 2011. "Saving companies worth saving: Spain pioneers a sustainable model of democratic corporate governance," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 32(4), pages 697-720, November.
    13. Silvia Gherardi & Atilio Masiero, 1987. "The Impact of Organizational Culture in Life-Cycle and Decision- Making Processes in Newborn Co-Operatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 8(3), pages 323-347, August.
    14. Chris Cornforth & Alan Thomas, 1990. "Cooperative Development: Barriers, Support Structures and Cultural Factors," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 11(4), pages 451-461, November.
    15. Anjel Errasti, 2015. "Mondragon’s Chinese subsidiaries: Coopitalist multinationals in practice," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 36(3), pages 479-499, August.
    16. Mick Camey, 1992. "The Incentive Structures of Co-operative Retail Buying Groups," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 13(2), pages 207-231, May.
    17. Kévin Pastier, 2024. "Beyond democratic degeneration, horizontal and liberated organization? The agonistic approach of a Belgian food co-op," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(4), pages 1325-1349, November.
    18. Charlène Arnaud & Célia Auquier & Pascale Chateau Terrisse, 2025. "Creating alternatives within cooperatives [La fabrique de l’alternative dans les coopératives]," Post-Print hal-05069314, HAL.
    19. Carla Dickstein, 1988. "The Role of Cooperative Development Agencies in Developing Worker Cooperatives: Lessons from Philadelphia," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 9(2), pages 197-224, May.
    20. Udo Staber, 1989. "Age-dependence and Historical Effects on the Failure Rates of Worker Cooperatives: An Event-history Analysis," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 10(1), pages 59-80, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:30:y:2009:i:2:p:182-206. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.