Professionalism and OD: The Past, the Present, and Future Scenarios

Organization Development Journal, Fall 2006 by Kulick, Orisha A

1. First Krause guild power element: power of association.

In the European countries studied from about 1150 to 1400, guilds became the main way of organizing work. All of the rights and obligations of the guild rested with in the masters, who were required to be equals and colleagues, responsible for the group and for the behavior and activity of the apprentices and journeymen.

2. Second Krause guild power element: control over the workplace.

This power came into being because guild masters owned the means of production: the tools and the workshop. The guild masters deliberately limited the production pace to maintain the quality of the product. They also restricted the number of employees and the number of apprentices who worked for room, board, and experience. The pace of work was a humane one, with no night work and with frequent holidays, religious and otherwise. For one guild master to profit at the expense of another was prohibited, but as the guilds weakened, guild masters themselves not only hired nonguild labor, but also hired more than the maximum number of employees, paid less than the guild-set wage, and in effect became capitalists themselves.

3. Third Krause guild power element: control over the market.

Control over the market is intimately interrelated with the fourth component of guild power, power over the relation between the guild and the government. The government was at first the town and later one of the regional governments. The government was the body that granted the guilds a monopoly. Guilds were often threatened by nonguild production and they constantly had to lobby, beg, or bribe the local powers to protect and preserve their monopoly. Then, as now, the right to control the availability of an item meant the ability to set the price - at a level that the guild always called fair, but that consumers, or governments, often felt was too high. Monopoly also meant control over the training of skill in the craft, over its secrets and "mysteries." Early town governments complained of "restraint of trade" and price-rigging by the guilds - unless the guilds controlled the town governments, as they did in some parts of Europe. The stronger the government, the more it could exact from the guilds in the form of fees. The aim of an early guild in formation was to obtain a written charter from the local governmental powers structure.

4. Fourth Krause guild power element: power over the relation between the guild and the government.

A craft guild was considered powerful if it could persuade a local or national government to agree to grant market control to the craft or to protect it instead of challenging it. Under Krause's guild power model, it was the guilds that enforced acceptable craft behavior. The guild masters set the craft norms. Strong guilds expelled those who did not comply with the set standards and those who were expelled from the guilds were prevented from practicing the craft.

In the final chapter of his book, Krause again sounded the alarm for both the professions and consumers in the countries he studied: