在近幾十年裡，人們對於有意義的工作的興趣猛增。這在多項組織研究的成果中證明其重要性。然而，管理人員一直持續地幫助員工尋求在工作中找到意義的方法。本研究意旨在解釋民主制度如何引領有意義的工作。它主要使用此論點：民主制度透過促進工作場所的自由和尊嚴帶來有意義的工作。一個有效用的商業案例被用來支持該論點。撰寫研究案例的資訊出處是來自一家位於巴西某家公司的董事長及前執行長共同撰寫的文件中收集的。據分析表示，民主制度所實踐的自由和尊嚴是人類的基本需求，也是人們在工作中尋求意義的來源。它們很自然地創造了一系列組織成果，例如工作的投入、承諾、責任及動機等等。本文最後為管理者提出了一些建議，並強調了一些局限性。

Interest in meaningful work has skyrocketed in the last decades. Its importance in term of organizational outcomes have been proven by several studies. However, managers have been struggling to find ways to help workers find meaning in their work. This study aims to explain how democracy leads to meaningful work. It uses this main argument: democracy leads to meaningful work by promoting freedom and dignity at the workplace. A qualitative business case study has been used to support the argument. Information to write the case study was collected from documents written by the owner and ex-CEO of a Brazilian corporation. The analysis suggests that freedom and dignity which are promoted by democratic practices, are fundamental human needs that are source of meaning for people at work. They create naturally a set of organizational outcomes such as work engagement, commitment, responsibility, motivation etc. The paper concludes with some recommendations for managers and highlights some limitations.

Table of Contents
Thesis/Dissertation Validation letter i
Abstract (Chinese) ii
Abstract (English) iii
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Methodology 2
Chapter 3 Literature review 3
3-1 Workplace Democracy………………………………...………..…………….3
3-1-1 Origins …………………………………………………………..………….3
3-1-2 Definition……………………………………………....…………………...8
3-2 Workplace Democracy and meaningful work………………………….……11
3-2-1 Freedom at work……………………………………………………..……14
3-2-2 Dignity at work………………………………………………...………….19
3-3 Workplace Democracy, meaningful work, and organizational outcomes…..22
Chapter 4 Case study……………………………………………..…………………….27
4-1 Semco Partners, Background……………………………………..…………27
4-2 Organizational structure…………………………………………..…………27
4-3 Working conditions……………………………...…………………………..31
4-3-1 Recruitment, assessment, and firing…………………………………..…..31
4-3-2 Work organization…………………………………...……………………32
4-3-3 Salaries, and rewards………………………………..…………………….34
4-3-4 Training……………………………………………………..……………..36
4-4 Corporate decision-making………………………………………….………37
4-5 Semco organizational performance…………………………………….……38
Chapter 5 Discussion…………………………………………..……………………….40
Chapter 6 Conclusion, Implications, and Limitation………………………………..….45
List of references……………………………………………………………….………49
Appendix…………………………………………….…………………………………56

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