Dear Tom Webb, Jon Kessler, Smadar Ottolenghi, Bob Marshall, and Interested
Others:
I have appreciated very much being a part of these networks and receiving so
much information about co-ops from many of you. I am especially grateful
for writings I have received from several people on this network regarding
Mondragon and am eager to learn more of the new books recently announced on
the subject--Guy Dauncey's _After the Crash_ and Greg McLeod's _From
Mondragon to America_.
Allow me to explain who I am and what I am up to, in response to your
various requests. I am a professor of organizational communication at the
University of Montana. I specialize in such areas as employee participation
and workplace democracy, quality of worklife (in its general senses),
business ethics, and the analysis of corporate public discourse. I have
published two articles on Mondragon (one, a general treatment from the
standpoint of communication theory; the other, with a focus on the multiple
and changing meanings of "solidarity" at Mondragon), and am at work on
another (about senses of "community" and "severance" at Mondragon), as well
as trying to finish a book that centers on the same case. The book deals
with the changing meanings and practices of "participation" within the
context of the pressures and discourses of the market and especially "the
culture of the customer" (as management-cultural critics Paul du Gay and
Graeme Salaman put it). As I have observed at Mondragon, during three
visits there in 1992, 1994, and 1997, the _prevailing_ (though this is by no
means univocal) sense of "participacion" has been shifting from one of
rights or privileges or even responsibilities ("un sentido political y
juridico y con respecto a la politica de la organizacion") to a demand to
give one's all to the job with the customer as the overrarching and
organizing symbol ("participacion al nivel del puesto, como respuesta al
mercado y para servir el consumidor"). Thus, there's great irony to the
presumably democratic ethos of consumerism, at least as it reshapes and
powerfully focusses employee participation _inside_ the firm: the internal
"logic" or locus of participation is, in many cases, dissolving, despite the
new emphasis on teamwork, entrepreneurship at the level of one's job and
work group, work-group autonomy, etc. (And, we see such trends apparent in
all sectors, though the characterization I have offered is by no means
without exceptions.)
Along with seven other colleagues, I have also recently completed a
multi-disciplinary review of research on workplace democracy, employee
participation, and communication. Finally, I have recently completed an
essay "On the Person as Object in Discourses in and around Organizations,"
which observes (among other things) how people are ironically reduced in
their various societal roles through the overwhelming emphasis on The Customer.
I would be happy to send copies of any or all of these articles--including
the book outline (in the form I will be presenting it at a conference next
month)--to you. However, given the severely strained budget of my
department--to be blunt: just $1,200 per year for eight faculty members and
18 graduate students, to cover operating expenses, including postage and
photocopying--I must ask for some reimbursement for the department (not for
myself) between $5.00 and $10.00 (depending on how many items you would
like). Please indicate the postal address you would like me to use, as
these items (in their published forms) are not transmittable via the
Internet. Checks can be made out to the Department of Communication
Studies, The University of Montana.
Thank you again for your interest. I look forward to receiving any writings
you care to send me as well.
Cheers, George Cheney
>Greetings from Atalntic Canada. I just returned from a two week study tour
>of co-operative systems in Italy and Spain and 'listened in ' on your chat
>with Robert Marshall. I too asked him to put me on his list and I am
>interested in your publications on Mondragon.
>
>I would be glad to trade for publications from here. See our web site and
>let me know waht might be of interest.
>
>Thanks for sharing.
>
>Tom Webb
>
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] (George Cheney)
>To: Multiple recipients of list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: Successful cooperatives
>X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0b -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
>
>Dear Robert Marshall:
>
>I'd like to be included on your mailing list, also. And, I would be happy
>to send you copies of my publications on Mondragon in return.
>
>Thanks, George Cheney
>
>Professor George Cheney
>Department of Communication Studies
>The University of Montana-Missoula
>Missoula, MT 59812
>USA
>tel.: 406-243-4426
>fax: 406-243-6136
>e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>J. Tom Webb Director, Extension Department, Saint Francis Xavier University
> P.O. Box 5000, Antigonish, N.S., B2G 2W5
> Phone (902)867-3923 Fax (902)867-5154
> Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webbsite: http://juliet.stfx.ca/~extensio/
>
>
>
Professor George Cheney
Department of Communication Studies
The University of Montana-Missoula
Missoula, MT 59812
USA
tel.: 406-243-4426
fax: 406-243-6136
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
