Starting Worker Cooperatives Through Dialogue

Starting Worker Cooperatives Through Dialogue
by Benjamin F. Galbraith
Masters of Science in Management
Graduate Management Program
The Center for Creative Change
Antioch University Seattle
Year 2006
Abstract

“Worker cooperatives” are businesses that are controlled and owned by their workers. Dialogue is conversation in which we suspend judgment, be honest, and build new ideas with others. I used dialogue to help create a worker cooperative as part of this thesis project. Little has been written on how to start worker cooperatives in the USA. The literature available on dialogue hints that dialogue could help make workplaces more worker controlled. Dialogue does not have to be perfect: conversations can involve varying degrees of dialogue. Dialogue like conversation helps groups trying to become worker cooperatives succeed by allowing them to have an accurate view of themselves.

Full Thesis Document Here