Dignity in Self-Determination
This is part three of a three part series. You can read parts one and two here.
The case for worker cooperatives is not best made by showing increases in productivity, improved resilience to financial downturns, lower staff turnover or any other traditional metric of economic success.
As is so often the case in life, in love, and, so, in work, it is the nebulous and elusive characteristics of it that make it most worthwhile and meaningful. Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory sets out a framework to understand the choices people make without external interference, without coercion. They connect the motivations driving our actions to our basic psychological needs,namely, competence, relatedness and autonomy.
The poster child of the neoclassical economists, Adam Smith, in his seminal work, Wealth of Nations, warned against excessive division of labour, arguing it makes us “as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become”. With division between employee, manager and owner being eroded, one must continually develop skills and expertise in all these areas. Competence is and must be continually gained in all these roles to function as a true worker cooperative.
Relatedness is the “will to interact with, be connected to, and experience caring for others”. With there being solidarity and a strong sense of equality among all employees, the cohesion created surpasses any traditional mode of employment could afford.
“The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand.” Irene C. Kassorla
Of the three components of self-determination, I believe it is autonomy that resonates strongest. With each employee being an owner, you are your own boss, you collectively decide the strategy for the business.
Wilhelm von Humboldt expresses this in far stronger terms: “Whatever does not spring from a man’s free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very being, but remains alien to his true nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness…we may admire what he does, but we despise what he is.”
Creative, self-driven work, especially work with a social purpose, is something that provides for, fulfils and nurtures the fullest expression of our capabilities as human beings. It disproves the theory that people must work under external command and coercion as the default mode of organising economic activity.
As an aside, if you’re interested in seeing some exciting examples of worker cooperatives and what it feels like to work in one, check out this documentary from Sweden, available free to watch on YouTube.
The single most powerful shift that occurs in this way of working is one of mentality that stems from the role of having agency in one’s own work. Attitudes have to change where success of the business is dependent, by design, not on sole pursuit of individual gain but on the wholesale psychological wellbeing of both ourselves and everyone around us.
Lastly, if you will allow me, dear reader, to dream a little once more. In an age where the issues facing us are increasing in uncertainty, ferocious in their intensity and overwhelming in their complexity, the type of business, leadership and society we shape throughout our lives will need to alter radically to adapt to these challenges. A more cooperative way of working may contain within it the seeds of a new society; a society where the innate human instinct for freedom, the inviolable dignity of each person, where the need for connection to other people and to our environment is utterly inseparable from the way we work, which should be both, with, and, for, one another.
You can get in touch with me at jawad.anjum@onpurpose.london
