Theoretical aspects of collective Enterprises

Resumen

This article is devoted to the theoretical issues of the functioning of collective enterprises. The article reveals the concept of a collective enterprise (self-managed firm), as well as the principles of the functioning of such firms. The authors mean collective enterprises by those economic entities which work collective actively participates in making managerial decisions. Moreover, the organizational and legal form of the enterprise is immaterial for the case. The arguments of supporters and opponents of collective management are considered. The main advantage of such enterprises is the high level of motivation of employees interested in eventual outcomes of their work. It is shown that collective enterprises overcome such management problems as imbalance of interests for various participants of economic activity, authoritarianism at the microeconomic level, prevention of workers from participation in production management. At the same time, the main feature of a collective enterprise is not so much the participation of workers in the company's capital, but rather the real economic power of its work collective, what requires formation of a qualitatively different corporate governance culture aimed at broad involvement of employees in managerial and economic processes. The most important argument of opponents of collective enterprises is the ineffectiveness of making group decisions due to the lack of professional competencies among the bulk of ordinary workers. The paper notes that this deficiency is overcome by introducing the system of continuing education for members of the work collective at a collective enterprise. The condition for preserving the advantages of collective enterprises and eliminating their shortcomings is the strengthening of interaction of labor and capital in making decisions in the sphere of production management and the distribution of its results.