Co-construction of management concepts: Interpretative viability as opportunity for workplace democracy

Abstract

When management concepts are introduced in organizations, common problems are lack of enthusiasm and that the concept does not solve the organization's problems. In this article, I argue that a more participative process is to introduce new ideas through broad participation and dialogue between insiders and outsiders in order to increase the level of industrial democracy. However, to be able to do so, the management concept has to be flexible enough to be able to be interpreted in different ways. Dialogue and participation require the actual opportunity to make changes to the original concepts. Most management concepts, however, are inherently flexible by being characterized by interpretative viability. This viability opens up an opportunity for participation. In this article, I will describe a case where such an opportunity was used. © The Author(s) 2011.