There are many things in human societies that work very well when “everyone knows everyone personally”, but start to come apart at seams beyond that point.
I have no direct evidence of that being the case for worker co-ops, but the reliance on “workers monitoring productivity of fellow workers” sure hints at the possibility.
I also can’t help but notice that tech startups seem to fit the groove of “worker co-op” reasonably well in early stages—they start out as small crews of (hopefully) high performing employees that own equity in their own business and are involved in decision-making. They do, however, transition away from that as they scale up.
What about scale?
There are many things in human societies that work very well when “everyone knows everyone personally”, but start to come apart at seams beyond that point.
I have no direct evidence of that being the case for worker co-ops, but the reliance on “workers monitoring productivity of fellow workers” sure hints at the possibility.
I also can’t help but notice that tech startups seem to fit the groove of “worker co-op” reasonably well in early stages—they start out as small crews of (hopefully) high performing employees that own equity in their own business and are involved in decision-making. They do, however, transition away from that as they scale up.