Managing and resisting ‘degeneration’ in employee-owned businesses: a comparative study of two large retailers in Spain and the UK

Employee-owned businesses have recently enjoyed a resurgence of interest as possible ‘alternatives’ to the somewhat tarnished image of conventional investor-owned capitalist firms. Within the context of global economic crisis, such alternatives seem newly attractive. This is somewhat ironic because, for more than a century, academic literature on employee-owned businesses has been dominated by the ‘degeneration thesis’. This suggested that these businesses tend towards failure – they either fail commercially, or they relinquish their democratic characters. Bucking this trend and offering a beacon - especially in the UK - has been the commercially successful, co-owned enterprise of the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) whose virtues have seemingly been rewarded with favourable and sustainable outcomes. This paper makes comparisons between JLP and its Spanish equivalent Eroski – the supermarket group which is part of the Mondragon cooperatives. The contribution of this paper is to examine in a comparative way how the managers in JLP and Eroski have constructed and accomplished their alternative scenarios. Using longitudinal data and detailed interviews with senior managers in both enterprises it explores the ways in which two large, employee-owned, enterprises reconcile apparently conflicting principles and objectives. The paper thus puts some new flesh on the ‘regeneration thesis’.

Gizarte-elkarrekintza ingurunearen irakatsi eta ikasi prozesuan Lehen Hezkuntzan

Lan honetan, elkarrekintzaren bidez irakasle batek ikasleengan ezagutzak eraikitzeko zer mekanismoren bidez lortzen duen aztertu da, laguntzak nola egokitzen dituen eta laguntzeari nola uzten dion ikertuz. Helburua, elkarrekintzan eragina daukaten mekanismoak identifikatzea, deskribatzea eta ulertzea izan da. Horretarako, ikasleen iniziatiba bultzatzen duen giroan oinarritutako behaketa parte-hartzailea erabili da, errealitatea sistematikoki behatu eta eman diren gertaerak jaso, deskribatu, aztertu eta interpretatu direlarik. Behin transkribatutako saioak aztertuta, elkarrekintza segmentuak atera dira, horietan gehien errepikatzen diren jokabide-patroiak jasoz. Laguntzak egokitzean zein laguntzeari uztean, irakaslea ikasleen iniziatibetatik abiatzen dela ondorioztatu da.