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Selected Works of Brian Burton
Article
Collaborative Control and the Commons: Safeguarding Employee Rights
Business Ethics Quarterly (1996)
  • Brian K. Burton, Western Washington University
  • Craig P. Dunn, Western Washington University
Link
Abstract
The logic of the commons is applied to the U.S. labor pool. It is argued that the labor pool is an "active" commons, a commons in which the resource as well as the users of the resource can change voluntarily. For this commons to be tended properly, technical solutions are ineffective and inappropriate; both employer and employee must have trust in the mechanisms that tie them together. Collaborative control is given as a possible framework for making the morality shift necessary to avoid ultimate tragedy.
Keywords
  • Self interest,
  • Morality,
  • Workforce,
  • Natural resources,
  • Coercion,
  • Labor productivity,
  • Corporations
Disciplines
Publication Date
July, 1996
DOI
10.2307/3857460
Publisher Statement

Citation Information
Burton, B.K., & Dunn, C.P. 1996. Collaborative control and the commons: Safeguarding employee rights. Business Ethics Quarterly, 6: 277-288.