Oral Presentation by Benjamin Lum¹, Christine Unterrainer¹, Wolfgang G. Weber¹, Thomas Höge¹, Severin Hornung¹
¹ Universität Innsbruck, Austria
TIME: Thursday, 16 July, 10:30 – 12:00
LOCATION: Room 3
Session: 19
Abstract
Current research on organizational democracy and participative workplace structures is heterogeneous and fragmented across several disciplines. Studies include qualitative and quantitative research, as well as a variety of conceptual works focusing on different dimensions of organizational democracy, including structures and processes, as well as outcomes, thereby establishing numerous frameworks. This contribution presents a literature review based on the results of a literature search in the EBSCO database, leading to the screening of 121 publications addressing typological approaches of organizational democracy, published between 2016 and 2026. In addition, relevant studies were identified through a berry-picking strategy, allowing the inclusion of influential conceptual contributions beyond the initial search criteria. The study pursues two objectives: Firstly, it aims to provide an overview of qualitative and conceptual studies on organizational democracy, analyzing and comparing different forms of democratic organizations presented in the literature. Furthermore, it analyzes and compares different dimensions, levels, and frameworks to understand how democratic structures and processes are characterized and defined in organizational research and how they are affected by economic constraints and power structures. Its second aim is to rework and extend an existing typology of democratic structures and organizations developed by the ODEM research group. The typology is compared to different democratic criteria found throughout the literature and conceptualizes which criteria can be integrated. In addition, a new dimension, “democratic resilience”, is suggested, which describes practices to prevent degeneration and to support regeneration, resulting in an extensive and inclusive taxonomy. It thereby combines current heterogeneous research findings and includes various forms of organizational democracy described in the literature. The developed taxonomy is suggested as a theory-based model to assess, evaluate and design democratic organizations in the current world of work.