Workplace Democracy MAJIA HOLMER NADESAN Arizona State University, USA GEORGE CHENEY University of Colorado Colorado Springs, USA; University of Utah, USA; University of Waikato, New Zealand Te idea of work, workplace, and economic democracy is inspiring, seductive and elusive. Te ideal type of workers or members engaged in common ownership and self-determination is compelling because such an arrangement aims to reconcile the conficts in ownership between labor and capital, between top-down governance and fully or largely participative systems, and between bureaucratic ossifcation and interactional dynamism. Te exploration of workplace democracy raises fundamental questions about the fnancial structure of ownership, structure and execution of work, the design of organizations, and the relationships of various types of labor to the larger market. Eforts to advance workplace democracy also raise important questions: What are the histories of eforts and systems in the democratization of work? What forms does – or could – workplace democracy take? What are barriers to workplace democratization? What possibilities for the future can be envisioned and perhaps realized? Tere is also a host of more specifc questions about this topic, for instance: How are individual and collective interests mediated or blended – in both economic and sociopolitical terms? How do truly democratic organizations (regardless of sector) navigate national and global marketplaces that are dominated by for-proft corporations? How should democratic organization allow for self-correction and organizational change over time, especially across generations of workers? To some extent these questions parallel those in the political sphere, including the fundamental issue about the interrelationships of democracy and capitalism. Communication scholars have addressed these questions largely through an empha- sis on specifc communicative practices, asking how, or can, communication operate to establish, maintain, or preclude workplace democracy? While a great deal of the research under this specifc rubric is critical in nature – that is, in terms of confronting power relations and promoting certain values – this encyclopedia entry includes treatments of workplace democracy (participation, voice, involvement, dissent, self-actualization, etc.) that are empirical-analytical or interpretive as well. Research under the very broad heading of participation (and by extension, public deliberation) has been conducted in all three main epistemological traditions, with some additional work from a post-modernist skeptical standpoint (e.g., Cheney et al., 1997; Seibold & Shea, 2001; Stohl, 1995; Stohl & Cheney, 2001). Tere has been comparatively less research by communication scholars concerned with the role of common economic Te International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication. Craig R. Scott and Laurie Lewis (Editors-in-Chief), James R. Barker, Joann Keyton, Timothy Kuhn, and Paaige K. Turner (Associate Editors). © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/9781118955567.wbieoc221