Abstract: | Abstract . In the United States the issue of worker control is currently receiving increased attention. Nevertheless, before this view of work and the workplace can be successfully implemented, the standard (hierarchical) image of organizational order must be rethought. Communicative competence, as discussed by Jürgen Habermas, is offered as a theoretical alternative to social ontological realism for developing a workplace that is compatible with worker control. This theoretical shift is necessary to avoid organizational domination of the worker and to develop a workplace that embodies, instead of restricts, human action. For if human action does not orient the workplace, worker control does not exist. |