This is a summary of what our Group Study, "Business and Democracy at Goddard College," learned about democracy at Goddard College and at a small sample of other colleges.

There are many dimensions of democracy in organizations and Goddard has some democratic and some non-democratic elements.

1. Democracy reveals itself in widely held organizational values including shared power, rights, and responsibilities; a commitment to broad and active participation; wide access to information; the importance of education and learning; an open and inclusive environment; and accountability to, all stakeholders of the College.

   We found that many at Goddard hold democratic values, and that many outside the College believe that these values find expression in Goddard's governance, management, and operations more than at most other colleges.

   
   

2. Democracy reveals itself in organizational structures that are used to insure that the interests of organizational stakeholders are taken into account in decisions made in organizations. These structures include the board, CEC, standing committees, community meetings, search committees, grievance committee, etc. These. structures are democratic to the extent they provide appropriate and fair representation of all the stakeholders of the College, given the nature of decisions addressed by the committee.

   Goddard has a variety of structures that make governance, management, and operational decisions. Some are very democratic (community meetings, search committees, group studies, student life); some are quasi-democratic (CEC, which has 2 faculty, 2 staff, 2 students, but 7 administrators); some are not democratic (Board of Trustees).

   Most schools we surveyed were not as democratic at the educational level (group studies, curriculum) but many had more representative college-wide structures. For example, Hampshire College has a chief governing body called the College Senate made up of 12 faculty, 7 students, 3 members of the administration and/or staff, and 3 ex officio members: the president, dean of the faculty, and dean of students. Even a traditional college like Bowdoin has a College Planning Council made up of 5 faculty, 5 administrators, and 2 students. Bowdoin also has a Budget and Financial Priorities Committee that represents a broad cross-section of the College community.

   While several of the Colleges we contacted had faculty and/or student representatives on their boards of trustees (Hampshire, Antioch), this representation was, like Goddard's, relatively small.

   -page 2-

   
   

3. Democracy reveals itself in organizational processes and systems that support informed decision-making and participation in organizational structures. For example, systems that make information available to all those in the college who need it or allow and support active participation of stakeholders in budgeting are an essential part of a democratic organization.

   Access to financial and budgetary information is not easy at Goddard, but we found that with continual requests we were able to get audited financial statements and budget summaries. This contrasts sharply with, for example, Bowdoin College where this kind of information is more widely available and where their Financial Vice President offers a free course for faculty, staff, and students on financial management and budgeting so they can understand this information. This class fills quickly to capacity numbers. Their entire budgeting process is highly participative.

   
   

4. Democracy reveals itself in the skills and knowledge of members of the College community that help them to be more effective in carrying out their responsibilities in a democratic setting. This includes knowledge of one's role and responsibilities in a democratic society as well as specific skills, like leadership, organizing, conflict resolution, mediation, facilitation, and conducting meetings, that make one more effective in those settings.

   Goddard does not have any explicit commitment to educating its staff, faculty, and students to be more effective participants in democratic settings, be they communities or organizations, although some of its programs, group studies, institutes and workshops can be seen as consistent with such a commitment.

   Several other colleges we contacted, however, have made much more impressive commitments to such education. Tusculum College in Tennessee has a Civic Arts curriculum designed to explicitly provide "the skills and attitudes necessary for effective participation as citizens in a democracy--for fostering a culture of public life." The general education curriculum at Berea College "has, to some degree, been specifically developed to promote civic purpose." And at least one college president, Clair Gaudiani, of Connecticut College writes "I believe forcefully that liberal arts colleges are models of a new democratic civil society for our country." This seems somewhat of a stretch but it at least indicates that the idea of education for democracy is widespread in higher education.

   -page 3-

   
   Although we only reached a small sample of Colleges we found little evidence of an educational emphasis on democracy skills like leadership, organizing, conflict resolution, etc.

   In sum, Goddard College is quite democratic in its educational process, but not especially democratic in its management and overall governance. Its mission, educational philosophy, and longstanding democratic values, however, provide a unique base for building a strong curriculum around education for democracy. If this education was extended to all members of the College community, and included the development of democracy skills, this would provide support for extending democracy to the management and governance of the College, an important long term goal for the College.

   
   

   ---

   
   

   One Answer to the Question:
   What is Democratic Management?

   From Ordway Tead, Democratic Administration (New York: Association Press, 1945):

   Democracy has high in its constituent elements the aim of conserving and enhancing the personality of all individuals--the idea of respect for the integrity of the person and the primary value of developing persons as worthy and worthful ends in themselves...

   ...the word "personality"...includes the discovery and use of unique talents, the fullest possible expression of creative powers, the responsible assumption of a share in shaping the conditions which are found to make growth in the quality of personal living possible ...includes also the acquiring of sufficient knowledge and understanding, the sense of enough status with one's peers, the sentiment of friendly attachment with one's fellows, the possession of enough voice and power in one's society, so that one feels that he is in fact helping to shape the conditions which make possible the achievement of individual, creative release. It has to do also with a continuing reexamination of self and society to assure that the dignity of the person is being maintained under changing conditions...

   The conditions of good administration---in quality and meaning of purpose, in human attitudes, in powers of communication and opportunities for criticism, in the inwardness of leadership responsibilities entailed, in the distribution of responsibilities and of knowledge---these conditions are democratic conditions.

   ...Democratic administration is thus definable as that overall direction of an organization which assures that purposes and policies are shared in the making, that methods are understood and agreed to, that individual potentialities are being enhanced, that corporate or group ends are being realized with a maximum of release of shared creative power and a minimum of human friction. It implies further a periodic, orderly,cooperative review of total performance, of leadership in action, of effectiveness of methods at every point. It brings to pass collaboration as willing, coordination as informed and continuing, personality growth as an actuality and a continuing promise.

   ...The infusion of democratic concern into administration does not mean ...wide, general voting on all sorts of operating and technical issues ...the inevitable growth of a bi-party or multi-party system to aggravate sharp alignment on issues of administrative policy ...the administrator shall be elected by those work he oversees ...that in committees we talk ourselves into inaction because talk is easier than actual productive work---although this is a genuine hazard to be guarded against.

   Democratic administration does mean a clear distinction between policy making and policy execution. It means that the process of determining purpose, policy, and method is advisedly seen as shared, and the process of oversight and direction is seen as unified and single.

   -page 4-

   
   

   Principles of Democratic Organizations

   From our group study work and from readings in the field, ¹ we constructed a set of principles that define democratic organizations, and that we feel can be used to guide organizations seeking to become more democratic.

   1. All members of a democratic organization share directly or indirectly in the governance of the organization (ownership decisions), its implementation (management and operations), its handling of individual and constituent concerns, and in defining or changing how the organization's authority and accountabiity is structured.

   2. The organization's "membership" and the relative power of different membership groups (stakeholders, constituencies) needs to be agreed upon by the full membership in a fair and appropriate' manner. ²

   3. The organization should have a strong commitment to insuring that the organization not only be structured democratically but that it operate in a fully democratic and participative fashion.

   4. All members have full access to all information concerning the organization unless these members, through their governance and policy making system, set agreed upon limits to access to specific types of material.

   5. All members receive the orientation and continuing education needed to understand and carry out their roles in governance, management, and operations within the organization. This education includes the development of a wide range of democracy skills and the development of a democratic culture within the organization.

   6. All members of the organization assure each other individual rights corresponding to basic political liberties, with the organization providing a representative and independent judiciary to safeguard these rights.

   7. The organization has a way of fairly distributing among its members the economic costs and benefits it creates in the conduct of its operations.

   ---

   1. Drawn from Paul Bernstein, Workplace Democratization: Its Internal Dynamics (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1976); and Patricia McLagan and Christo Nel, The Age of Participation (San, Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1995)
   back to text

   2. This determination might reflect such factors as the nature of their investment in the organization (time, energy, labor, money), the extent to which the organization's actions, products or services impact their lives, the duration (longterm, shorterm) of their relationship to the organization, and the particular tye of decision being made.
   back to text

   
   back to top