The Transition to Labour Management as a Gestalt Switch

The essay contains a highly speculative theory of social change
together with an application to the theory of labour management. It
draws on previous work done by the author (1972, 1978), partly in
collaboration with C.C.v.weizsäcker (Weizsäcker/Schlicht 1979). In
Part I the proposed theory of social change is developed in some
detail. The argument leads to the conclusion that society interpets
its rules of social organization and interaction as modifications
of pure, or simple, or prototype rules, rather than viewing the
prevailing set of rules as a self-sufficient archetype. This leads
tothe proposition that continuous social changes might entail
discontinuous switches in the scheme of social organization. Since
the theory draws heavily on Gestalt psychology, these switches are
termed Gestalt switches; discontinuous changes in superstructure
brought about by smooth changes within the existing socio-economic
framework. Part 2 deals with an application of this general kind of
argument to the theory of labour management. Starting with a sketch
of why labour immobility is a precondition for the viability of
labour management in a competitive economy, it will be argued that
technical progress will lead, through competitive pressure, to just
that: a de-facto-immobility of labour. Thereby, the stage is set
for the development of an efficient type of labour-managed
organization which might evolve from competition; but immobility of
labour will have another important consequence: The very notion of
the firm will undergo a change, socially. People will cease to
interpret employment relations as exchange relations. Rather, they
will view the employment contract as establishing permanent rights
and obligations. Since workers are tied permanently to a firm,
firms will be considered as being constituted by their staff rather
than by changing physicalequipment, just in the same way as a firm
is viewed socially as being constituted by the owners of capital
under capitalist conditions. Thus, firms will become ultimately
identified with their staff rather than with the suppliers of
capital, and the labour managed firm will appear as the "natural"
form of organization. Actual firms will be considered as
modifications of this pure form just in the same way as
co-determination is considered as a modification of the pure
capitalist mode of organization today. Thus, this precarious kind
of theorizing leads to the conclusion that strong pressures are
working towards a gestalt switch to labour management. The reader
is kindly rtequested, however, not to take those conclusions at
face value, since the foundations on which the theory is built are
not excelling in firmness. Take all this, please, as a
Gedanken-experiment, as one particular attempt towards a better
understanding of social and economic change containing, perhaps,
some elements of a fruitful approach