What if the way we work could be a catalyst for solving huge problems like inequality and climate change?

In the new book Democratize Work: The Case for Reorganizing the Economy, Harvard Business School Professor Julie Battilana and a dozen other social scientists argue that, with the right governance structures and norms in place, businesses could help put people, including their workers, and the planet back at their core. Through a series of essays, the book exposes the fault lines between democracy and capitalism and, building on alternative models of organizing like the cooperative presented in the excerpt below, the authors outline what a greener and fairer economy would look like.

Co-edited by Battilana, the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the Alan L. Gleitsman Professor of Social Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School, Isabelle Ferreras, professor of sociology at the Université catholique de Louvain and a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Worklife Program, and Dominique Méda, a professor of sociology and the director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in the Social Sciences of the Université Paris Dauphine, the essays offer a new architecture for the future of work.

Book Excerpt

Democratize Work: The Case for Reorganizing the Economy

Essay by Julie Battilana

When Sandra arrived in Boston from her hometown of Vitória, Brazil, everything felt foreign. Looking back now on those first few months, she shudders. Through another Brazilian immigrant, she had obtained housecleaning work shortly after settling in. She worked constantly, trudging home most nights after dark, too late—and often too tired—to spend meaningful time with her son. The work was arduous, the pay minimal, and the days long. She could not help but think the American Dream, or even just the chance to live a dignified life, was out of reach no matter how early she left for work or how late she stayed. Because she had been in charge of workers’ safety at a factory before moving to the United States, Sandra also knew how toxic many of the cleaning products she was using were to her health and to the environment. So, when she heard about Vida Verde, a worker cooperative organized by Brazilian women immigrants, which sells housecleaning services using natural products that are healthier for domestic workers and for the environment, she jumped at the opportunity to join them—even though she did not know what to expect.

Joining has made a significant difference in Sandra’s life. Not only have the other worker-owners been a source of information, support, and strength, but working on her own terms has also been transformative. “I feel like I have a superpower,” she told me. “I am my own boss. I make my own schedule. I can’t express how important this is. I now have time to take care of my son, and he is the reason I immigrated in the first place! I’ve traded in exploitation for autonomy.”

By coming together, these domestic workers have built an organization that gives them control over their working lives. In doing so, they shifted the balance of power in their favor by becoming the worker-owners of a cooperative that offers a valuable resource to its socially and environmentally conscious clients: access to ethical housecleaning services that are worker centered and environmentally friendly. By letting them decide when they will work, how they will be compensated, and even how to adjust safely to a global pandemic, this power has changed their lives. In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic sent Boston into lockdown, existing clients cancelled and new clients stopped calling; Sandra’s and Vida Verde’s work came to a standstill. Together, they decided to use some of the cooperative’s funds to compensate each of the workers for lost business, giving Sandra some income during the three harshest months of the lockdown.

The level of control Sandra and her coworkers have over their working conditions may sound like a reasonable baseline for all workers. Indeed, access to dignified work, democratized governance, and a job that cares for people’s and the planet’s health is what every worker should have. Yet, this is not the norm for most people, especially in the informal and domestic economy. Workplaces remain largely hierarchical, most of them more authoritarian than democratic. As the philosopher Elizabeth Anderson provocatively puts it, “Bosses are dictators, and workers are their subjects.” Few workers have Sandra’s power to influence the strategic decisions that affect their working lives. Such lack of control is associated with job dissatisfaction, greater mental strain, and damaged physical health. Workers often have no say in pay equity (no wonder CEOs are paid 351 times more than the average worker in US companies), in executive hiring, or in their organization’s adjustments to health or financial crises. Instead, especially in nonunionized workplaces, control over these decisions is concentrated in the hands of top executives and board members who represent the interests of shareholders. Since power derives from control over access to valued resources, this disparity in control over strategic decisions results in a great power imbalance among workers, top executives, and capital investors, placing workers in a heavily disadvantaged position.

Reprinted with permission from Democratize Work: The Case for Reorganizing the Economy by Isabelle Ferreras, Julie Battilana, and Dominique Méda and translated by Miranda Richmond Mouillot, published by the University of Chicago Press. © 2022 by the University of Chicago Press. All rights reserved.

You Might Also Like:

• Feeling Powerless at Work? Time to Agitate, Innovate, and Orchestrate
• How to Avoid the 'Ethical Slide' That Leads Companies Astray
• Empower Your Employees to Make Better Decisions

Feedback or ideas to share? Email the Working Knowledge team at hbswk@hbs.edu.

Image: iStockphoto/Radomir Jovanovic