Successful corporate democracy: Sustainable cooperation of capital and labor in the Dutch Breman Group
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Executive Overview The typical modern corporation is based on the old-fashioned blueprint of the shareholder-driven hierarchy. A worthwhile question is how alternative blueprints of corporate democracy might better satisfy the requirements of modern knowledge economies. In this article, we introduce a model of corporate democracy developed and implemented by the medium-sized Dutch engineering firm Breman Group in the early 1970s. The model has been in place ever since. We argue that Breman's democratic structures and procedures help to develop and sustain organizational adaptation and learning capabilities and competencies which are critical to a knowledge- and service-based economy. We provide lessons that can be learned from the Breman example and illustrate how the Breman model of democracy has been and can be implemented in other existing and newer organizations.
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In large firms, employees are subject to authority stemming from the employment contract, rather than from the election of managers.
“In large firms, for instance, employees are subject to authority stemming from the employment contract, rather than from the election of managers (De Jong and Van Witteloostuijn, 2004).”
From Make Social Media Social Again: How Platform Interoperability Can Fix Social Media and Future‐Proof Democracy (2025) · cites this paper as De Jong and Van Witteloostuijn, 2004
In “Corporate Democracy in Breman's Practices” (page unavailable), the paper says most Dutch managers favor control and hierarchy, supporting the claim that employees are subject to managerial authority. It does not establish that this authority stems from the employment contract rather than the election of managers. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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- Successful Corporate Democracy: Sustainable Cooperation of Capital and Labor in the Dutch Breman Group Author(s): Gjalt de Jong and Arjen van Witteloostuijn Source: The Academy of Management Executive (1993-2005), Vol. 18, No. 3 (Aug., 2004), pp. 54-66 Published by: Academy of Management Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4166092 Accessed: 10-02-2020 08:09 UTC
- REFERENCES Lampel, J. 1998. Strategy safari: A guided tour through the wilds of strategic management. London: Prentice-Hall. 20 See, for instance, many chapters in Baum, J.A.C. (Ed.). 2002. Companion to organizations. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
- A well-known analysis here is D'Aveni, R. A. 1994. Hyper- competition: Managing the dynamics of strategic maneuvering. New York: Free Press.
- Stacey, R. 2001. Complex responsive process in organiza- tions: Learning and knowledge creation. London: Routledge.
- 25Huselid, M. 1985. The impact of human resource manage- ment practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate finan- cial performance. Academy of Management Journal, 38: 635- 672;
- and Pfeffer, J. 1998. The human equation: Building profits by putting people first. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
- 27Burt, R. S. 1992. Structural holes: The social structure of competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Noot- eboom, B. 2000. Learning and innovation in organizations and economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press; and
- Weick, K.F. 1995. Sensemaking in organisations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 30 This is an example of combined activities that cycle from exploration to exploitation. See March, J. 1991. Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organization Science, 2: 71-86. 31 Examples of classic contributions to the organizational learning literature are Argyris, C., & Schon, D.A. 1978. Organi- zational learning. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; March, J. 1991. Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Orga- nization Science, 2: 71-86;
- and Senge, P. M. 1990. The fifth dis- cipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday. For overviews of recent studies, see many chapters in Baum, J.A.C. (Ed.). 2002. Companion to organizations. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
- Flood, R. L., & Romm, N. R. A. 1996. Diversity management: Triple-loop learning. Chicester: Wiley.
- ' The Breman model illustrates how triple-loop learning can be organized. Other examples of such triple-loop organizations are the Dutch company Endenburg and the Quaker communi- ties. See, for example, Romme, A.G.L., & Witteloostuijn, A. van. 1999. Circular organizing and triple-loop learning. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 12: 439-453;
- and Louis, M. R. 1994. In the manner of friends: Learning from Quaker practice for organizational renewal. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 7: 42-60.
- Boone, C.A.J.J., et al. 2004. The genesis of top management team diversity: Selective turnover within management teams in the Dutch newspaper publishing market in 1970-1994, Academy of Management Journal (forthcoming);
- Jehn, K. A., & Mannix, E. A. 2001. The dynamic nature of conflict: A longitudinal study of intragroup conflict and group performance. Academy of Man- agement Journal, 44: 238-251;
- and Pelled, L. H., Eisenhardt, K. M., & Xin, K. R. 1999. Exploring the black box: An analysis of work group diversity, conflict, and performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44: 1-28.
- See, for example, Shapiro, C., & Varian, H. R. 1999. Infor- mation rules: A strategic guide to the network economy. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
- Gjalt de Jong is assistant pro- fessor of international econom- ics and business at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). He received his PhD. in business administration from that univer- sity. His research interests and publications center on alliances, productivity, institutions, and or- ganizational behavior. He is former senior advisor of Pricewa- terhouseCoopers and presently advises on strategy, change, and business models. Contact: g.de. jong@aeco.rug.nl. Arjen van Witteloostuijn is pro- fessor of intemational economics and business at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) and professor of strategy at the Uni- versity of Durham (UK). He re- ceived his Ph.D. in economics from Maastricht University (the Netherlands). His research inter- ests range from intemational macroeconomics and personal- ity psychology to industrial eco- nomics and organizational be- havior. He has published widely in such journals as the Academy of Management Journal and the Strategic Management Joumal. Contact: a.van.witteloostuijn@ eco.rug.nl.
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Vergne, J. P. (2025) · Journal of Management Studies · doi:10.1111/joms.70048 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- de Jong, G., & Van Witteloostuijn, A.
- Venue
- Academy of Management Perspectives
- Publisher
- Academy of Management
- Published
- 2004-08
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 54-66
- ISSN
- 1558-9080 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-4529
- OpenAlex
- W2140240911
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 10.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Academy of Management Perspectives (publishedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- VU Research Portal (submittedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Labor Movements and Unions
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Cooperative Studies and Economics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Organizational Management and Leadership
- Keywords
- corporate democracy, engineering firms, organizational learning, organizational adaptation, knowledge economy, employee participation, organizational design, medium-sized organizations
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