Human Resource Management in Cooperatives and Employee‑Owned Firms”

Call for Papers – Special Issue “Human Resource Management in Cooperatives and Employee‑Owned Firms”

Journal: Journal of Co‑operative Organization and Management
Publisher: Elsevier
Journal metrics: Impact Factor 2.5, CiteScore 5.4
Submission deadline: 31 October 2026

This special issue addresses how human resource management (HRM) functions in cooperatives and employee‑owned firms, which combine internal cooperation, shared ownership, and multi‑stakeholder governance. The SI invites research on how HRM shapes individual, organisational, and societal outcomes in these distinctive forms of enterprise, including traditional worker cooperatives, emerging platform and international cooperatives, and other majority‑employee‑owned organisations.

Why this issue matters

• Cooperatives and employee‑owned firms are under pressure from technological change and grand societal challenges, yet their HRM practices must also align with democratic participation, equity, and cooperative values.

• Members in such organisations often play multiple roles (employee, owner, sometimes manager), creating unique tensions and opportunities for HRM, such as balancing employee voice, training, and wage‑policy flexibility during crises.

• The special issue positions JCOM as a key outlet for advancing cooperative and employee‑ownership‑centred HRM scholarship, linking theory and practice for both scholars and co‑operative managers.

Core themes and research questions

The Special Issue welcomes empirical (qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods), theoretical, and review contributions on HRM in cooperatives and employee‑owned firms. Illustrative themes include:

• Relationship between HRM strategies and practices (e.g., recruitment, training, pay, performance management) and outcomes at individual, organisational, and societal levels.

• Impact of the dual role of owner‑employees / member‑employees on commitment, satisfaction, absenteeism, and free‑riding.

• Integration of HRM in cooperatives with sustainable HRM and “common‑good HRM” frameworks, exploring how HRM shapes and is shaped by broader societal goals.

• Role of formal and informal learning in building competencies and sustaining cooperative culture and identity.

• HRM practices oriented towards promoting cooperative values (equality, participation, solidarity) and challenges in implementation.

• Employee participation and employee voice at strategic and operational levels, including collective bargaining and multi‑stakeholder negotiations.

• Internationalisation of cooperatives and the transfer and adaptation of cooperative HRM practices in foreign subsidiaries.

• Wage and labour flexibility in cooperatives during crises, and its effects on employment protection, attitudes, and behaviour.

• HRM in “false cooperatives” and the role of HRM in the deterioration or improvement of working conditions.

• HRM in transformations from investor‑owned firms to cooperatives or employee‑owned firms, including change management and culture‑shift.

• HRM in new forms of cooperatives, particularly platform cooperatives in the gig economy.

Guest editors

• Dr Imanol Basterretxea, University of the Basque Country (Spain)

• Dr Przemysław Piasecki, Poznań University of Economics and Business (Poland)

• Dr Ludger Voigt, Technische Universität Braunschweig (Germany) & Free University of Bozen‑Bolzano (Italy)

Submission details

• Submission platform: Elsevier Editorial Manager for Journal of Co‑operative Organization and Management:
  https://www.editorialmanager.com/jcom

• When submitting, select article type “VSI: HRM in Cooperatives”.

• Submission period: from 1 January 2026

• Submission deadline: 31 October 2026

• All manuscripts must comply with the journal’s Aims & Scope and Guide for Authors and will undergo double‑blind peer review.

• The special issue is expected to be fully published by the end of 2027.

This SI is ideal for HRM, organisational studies, cooperative‑economy, and labour‑economics researchers who wish to deepen understanding of how HRM can both support and strain the distinctive logic of cooperative and employee‑owned enterprises.

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