From an Experiment in Industrial Democracy to Driving the Difference: The John Lewis Partnership Co-ownership model 1964 - 2014

1914年，约翰·斯皮丹·刘易斯(John Spedan Lewis)在一家名为彼得·琼斯(Peter Jones)的服装店开始了他的“工业民主实验”。他在1919年创建了员工委员会，让车间和管理层的员工有机会讨论和探索与企业运营相关的问题。自那以后，约翰·刘易斯合伙公司(JLP)已成为英国最大的共同所有企业，而“约翰·刘易斯模式”--一种显然成功地调和了自由市场资本主义和社会公益的模式--继续吸引着政客、媒体和学者的注意。然而，在一个利润最大化的零售组织的发展过程中，对创始思想的表达、解释和理解的方式仍未得到充分研究。在更广泛的历史和政治背景下适应商业成功和共同所有权的这一过程也很少受到关注。战后时期，英国倡导了许多不同的工业民主模式，人们对员工参与工作场所有效运营的潜在好处的兴趣跨越了政治光谱，一直持续到上世纪80年代初。尽管它后来失去了这一突出地位--其原因将被探讨--但它是一个定期重新浮出水面的想法。没有对共同所有权模式以及理事会和其他民主机构的作用的相关性进行历史上的比较分析。这将构成主要的研究领域，处理百年/周年纪念庆祝活动和作为2014年开展的“推动改变”方案的一部分对企业民主结构进行重大重组的50年期间。作为该项目的一个持续方面，约翰·刘易斯伙伴关系和其他企业将使用研究。经参与者同意，合作伙伴带去面谈的物品的口述历史或文字记录和照片/扫描图像将提供给约翰·刘易斯遗产中心，供各方今后进一步分析。作为该项目正在进行的一部分，我的目标是定期向记忆商店网站捐款，以突出遗产中心的内容和作用。对口述历史和背景信息的分析将量身定做，以适应当今商业中的话语。分析的重点将是性别和参与，因为工作环境中的性别不平等是当前的一个问题。拉姆齐和学者强调，在理论讨论中，劳动力往往被视为“同质群体”。该项目将挑战和分析劳动力的不同因素，如性别、种族和残疾，以确定约翰·刘易斯伙伴关系中工人参与的总体包容性。将强调取得成功的领域以及需要改进的领域。这种方法将针对约翰·刘易斯合伙公司本身，但也适用于其他企业。这项研究的另一个有用的应用将是英国加入欧洲经济共同体及其对工人参与的影响。随着英国被认为即将脱离欧盟，重新审视加入欧盟之前的时期的研究将能够洞察人们对工业民主以及更广泛地说对工人参与的态度的变化。

In 1914, John Spedan Lewis began his 'experiment in industrial democracy' at the drapery store, Peter Jones. He created the Staff Council in 1919, giving employees, both shop-floor and management, the opportunity to discuss and explore issues which were relevant to the running of the business. The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) has since become the largest co-owned business in the United Kingdom and the 'John Lewis model' - an apparently successful conciliation of free-market capitalism and social good - continues to draw the attention of politicians, the media and academics. Yet the ways in which the founding ideology has been expressed, interpreted and understood within the development of a profit-maximising retail organisation remains underresearched. There has also been little attention given to this process of accommodating commercial success and co-ownership in wider historical and political contexts. Many different models of industrial democracy were advocated in Britain in the post-war period and interest in the potential benefits of employees having a stake in the effective running of their workplaces spanned the political spectrum and remained on policy agendas into the early 1980s. Even though it has since lost this prominence - the reasons for which will be explored - it is an idea that has periodically resurfaced.No comparative, historically-attuned analysis of the co-ownership model, and the relevance of the role of the Councils and other democratic bodies has been undertaken. This will form the major area for research, addressing the fifty-year period between the centenary/jubilee celebrations and the major reorganisation of the democratic structures of the business as part of the 'Driving the Difference' programme, undertaken in 2014.As a continuing aspect of this project, research will be useable by the John Lewis Partnership and other businesses. The oral histories or transcripts and photographs/scanned images of items brought to interviews by partners will be contributed to the John Lewis Heritage Centre with the agreement of the participant to allow for further analysis by various parties in the future. As an ongoing part of the project, I aim to regularly contribute to the memory store site to highlight the contents and role of the heritage centre. The analysis carried out on the oral histories and contextual information will be tailored to be relevant to discourse among business today. A focus of the analysis will be gender and participation as gender inequalities in working environments is a current issue. Ramsey and Scholarios have highlighted that the workforce tends to be treated as a 'homogenous group' in theoretical discussion. This project will challenge and analyse different elements of the workforce such as gender, race and disability to determine the overall inclusivity of worker participation within the John Lewis Partnership. Areas of success would be highlighted as well as areas for improvement. This approach would be aimed toward the John Lewis Partnership itself but would also have relevant applications for other businesses. Another usable application of the research will be toward Great Britain's membership to the European Economic Community and the effect on worker participation. With Britain's supposedly imminent departure from European Union, research that revisits the period prior to membership will be able to provide insight into the shifts of changing attitudes toward industrial democracy and more broadly, worker participation.