Workplace Democracy seems to be discussed in the US more than in Europe, maybe due to Europe's stronger trade unions' traditions. In democratic theory, a renaissance of these discussions from the 1970s is not yet visible in Europe, it seems. I am wondering if you know more about this.
I really find this subject very interesting. But I don't know about any nem model and concept. Maybe it would be interesting to check some concepts that were build in the Business Administration and Management area about organizational models.
There are some initiatives in the US for the realization of workplace democracy such as http://workerdemocracy.org/
As far as I know there are no concrete concepts for this in Business Administration and Management Studies, but maybe colleagues from organisational and management theory know more?
Yes, they might do, even if they don't call it that way. Because there are many types of organizational hierarchy, some more horizontal and others less so. I heard that here, in Brazil, there is a company called Semco which is a good case for worker's democracy. But it doesn't seem to be a "new model" like you want,
As far as I know it doesn't seem to be a fashion anymore, the "Zeitgeist" has changed. Through the back door there were some tiny ideas in the old direction, called quality, innovation or health (management) circles, where employees meet and discuss improvements either in business processes or work conditions and later make suggestions for the management.
Maybe in the so-called "alternative enterprises" sector you can find some ideas - but that's a different approach: these enterprises don't want to change existing hierarchies within organizations. They were found to offer more self-determined work conditions, and function as self-organizing, less hierarchical organizations.
Or in the IT industry, within the open source world, like wikipedia and all kinds of IT tools, were people work for a common goal.
This is an interesting question, even though I think it is not successful for companies, because one needs a leader who decides the path at the end. A possibility to find some of what you are looking for, you might find in companies that are already existing for hundreds of years. For these leaders it is important to listen to the opinion of their employees and the answers of those influences the decision of the leader.
I recently found a very good article on Workplace Democracy here (http://demandnothing.org/workplace-democracy-a-model-of-participative-management/) showing that it is still relevant. Furthermore, under chancellor Schröder in Germany there was a Commision on the Participation of Workers in enterprises in 2006:
I heard that prof. Bengt-Åke Lundvall, a great scholar in the Innovation area, supports, in his studies, the workers (and consumers) participation to get more innovative industries. But I'm not sure if this is his main goal, and I don't know the name of the works where he says that.
In the case of Multinationals in Europe you might check the European Works Council Directive 38/2009 (Recast Directive). Although this scheme faces some serious challenges in Europe, it still remains a scheme that, in theory, will enhance employees consultation and information rights, that are prerequisites for workplace democracy in a capitalist context.
Vasilis is right: the area gaining prominence is the transnational dimension of workplace democracy. Here you have the examples and debates around the European Works Councils, workers' representation and paricipationin the European Company (Societas Europaea) and European Cooperative + SCE. A very interesting area to keep an eye on is the emerging level of transnational collective bargaining in form of Transnational Company Agreements (TCAs) and International Framework Agreements. Further on, the existing concepts and debates need to be extended as far as articulation (linking) between the national and local levels of workplace democracy and those on transnational level. A lot of reasearch on this has been conduced by the European Trade Union Institute, Hans Boeckler Foundation in Germany and the Dublin Foundation.
There is a lot of material on 'alternative organizing', which of course includes workplace democracy, within the general field of 'critical management studies'. Have a look, for example, at an edited collection I recently did - Martin Parker et al (eds) (2014) The Routledge Companion to Alternative Organizations.
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