Bayer Won't Call This Workplace Democracy, But...
... the big pharmaceutical company's new "dynamic shared ownership" sure sounds familiar.
A Wall Street Journal podcast from this week highlights a big experiment at Bayer, the giant pharmaceutical company and maker of aspirin.
The new CEO is implementing what he calls “dynamic shared ownership,” cutting ~40% of bosses and middle managers, and facilitating the creation of ad hoc teams built around the best ideas, proposed by anyone at the company and then voted on by their colleagues.
Bayer won’t call this democratic—perhaps that’s a scary word?—but it sure sounds like that to my ears.
For one point of comparison, here is an edited version of the five pillars of democracy, according to one of the giants of democratic theory, Robert Dahl:
Effective participation
Full access to information
Equal treatment
Control of the agenda
Full inclusion of adults
Listening to Bayer employees’ complaints and to the CEO’s proposed solutions sure sounds a lot like he might have read Dahl along the way. Dynamic Shared Ownership promises to offer more transparent and effective participation and control over the decision-making agenda to a wider swath of Bayer employees, equalizing the importance of employees’ input.
Watch this space—we’ll see how it goes! The original podcast: