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A balanced job complex is a way of organizing a workplace or group that is both directly democratic and also creates relative equal
empowerment Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming strong ...
among all people involved. Specifically a balanced job complex is a collection of tasks within a given workplace that is balanced for its equity and empowerment implications against all other job complexes in that workplace. It was developed as an alternative to the corporate division of labor. Each worker must do a share of rote tasks (unskilled work) for some time each work day or each week. All workers also share the most rewarding and empowering tasks in the workplace so it is coordinated with everyone's involvement. In this way workers share the burdens and benefits of work that impact each person's ability to participate in democratic decision-making within the workplace. Balanced job complexes imply a lack of owners or formal managers involved in the workplace, as all tasks are balanced for empowerment. Balanced job complexes are central to the theory of
participatory economics Participatory economics, often abbreviated Parecon, is an economic system based on participatory decision making as the primary economic mechanism for allocation in society. In the system, the say in decision-making is proportional to the impa ...
which emerged from the work of radical theorist Michael Albert and that of radical economist
Robin Hahnel Robin Eric Hahnel (born March 25, 1946) is an American economist and professor emeritus of economics at American University. He was a professor at American University for many years and traveled extensively advising on economic matters all over ...
. The concept of the balanced job complex was developed and put into practice at
South End Press South End Press was a non-profit book publisher run on a model of participatory economics. It was founded in 1977 by Michael Albert, Lydia Sargent, Juliet Schor, among others, in Boston's South End. It published books written by political a ...
in the late 1970s. In the 1990s, a series of worker-run collectives in
Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,60 ...
, Canada, were founded using parecon-inspired principles, including balanced job complexes, as part of their internal structures. Most notable in this regard have been
Mondragon Bookstore The Mondragon Bookstore & Coffeehouse was a political bookstore and vegan cafe located in The Old Market Autonomous Zone at 91 Albert Street in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The name comes from the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation and other organ ...
and Coffee House,
G7 Welcoming Committee Records G7 Welcoming Committee Records was a Canadian independent record label based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The label mostly released material by artists and speakers with a radical left-wing point of view. History G7 Welcoming Committee Records was f ...
, and Arbeiter Ring Publishing.


See also

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Job rotation Job rotation is a technique used by some employers to rotate their employees' assigned jobs throughout their employment. Employers practice this technique for a number of reasons. It was designed to promote flexibility of employees and to keep em ...
, a different form of changing roles *
Kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
, Israeli communities with similar balance of roles
Work From Everywhere
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Participatory economics Participatory economics, often abbreviated Parecon, is an economic system based on participatory decision making as the primary economic mechanism for allocation in society. In the system, the say in decision-making is proportional to the impa ...


References

3. Gayathiri, M., & Ramakarishnan, D. (2013). Quality of Work-Life Linjage with Job Satisfaction and Performance. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2(1), 01-08
4. Yadav, R., & Dabhade, N. (2013). Work Life Balance and Job Satisfaction Among the Working Women of Banking and Education Sector: A Comparative Study. Journal of Advancement in Education and Social Sciences, 1(2), 17-30. Employee relations {{business-stub