When Workers Take Charge
It’s a unique model – the worker-owned business. Some say it sounds like socialism, but these six companies say it’s helped them tough out the recession.
The Beyster Fellowship Symposium Video Series
The Beyster Fellowship Symposium brings together academic leaders and new scholars involved with evaluating broad-based employee ownership (EO) and entrepreneurism. The first symposium was held July 2009 in La Jolla, CA. Over 40 academics shared their research findings and participated in an MIT Enterprise Forum panel discussion, which was attended by more than 200 people. The following are videos of Symposium presentations highlighting multiple dimensions of the history, development, and process of employee ownership.
Five Key Errors in Designing Equity Compensation Plans in Closely Held Companies
I have had dozens of conversations with business owners who want to share equity with some or all employees over the past several years.
Safeguarding Employee Stock Ownership Plans: Insurance As Assurance
Through this article, we will demonstrate how the creation of private insurance coverage for ESOPs would help to eliminate, or at least reduce, the problem of the large downside risks associated with these quasi-retirement plans. In order to fully develop this assertion and the reasoning behind it, we will explore how ESOPs fit within ERISA. … Read More
Reflexite Corporation
In March, 2007, Michael Foley, Chief Executive Officer of Reflexite Corporation, had to decide whether to proceed with a change in the company’s employee stock ownership plan. Foley, still in his first year as CEO, pondered the situation: the employees had spoken, but when the man who had built the company strongly objected, shouldn’t one listen?
What is an ESOP?
What is an ESOP? Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or ESOPs, were designed as a way to put ownership into the hands of American workers.
Lightworks Optics
The firm was meeting to grapple with a thorny issue—whether or not to expand their production capability and, if so, where. Early in its history, LightWorks had set up an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, under which employees gradually built up equity in the closely-held firm.
Corporate Governance and Labor Relations
I view corporate governance as a process of designing and implementing various implicit and explicit contracts among capital providers, corporate managers, workers, and other important stakeholders. In my talk today, I will expand the scope of the typical shareholder value focus to consider the design and implementation of contracts with other stakeholders, particularly employees and organized labor.
Companies We Keep: Employee Ownership and the Business of Community and Place
Thoroughly revised with an expanded focus on employee ownership and workplace democracy, Companies We Keep celebrates the idea that when employees share in the rewards as well as the responsibility for the decisions they make, better decisions result.
A Closer Look at Business Education: Employee Ownership
This Closer Look scans the current landscape of employee ownership teaching in graduate business programs, and shares the perspectives of a leading academic and veteran practitioner about the salient lessons of this model of business.
L. S. Starrett Company
Should Wachovia Bank and Trust lend the ESOP of Starrett the money to purchase shares? The required tasks involve a standard credit analysis and the valuation of Starrett’s shares.
S Corp ESOP Legislation Benefits and Costs: Public Policy and Tax Analysis
Samuel Zell’s acquisition of the Tribune Company in December 2007 using an S corporation employee stock ownership plan (S ESOP) brought S ESOPs to national attention.
The Carris Companies: Doing the Next Right Thing
Presented in this case is the Carris Companies’ movement towards 100% employee shared ownership and governance with an emphasis on and investment in education; focus on ‘quality of life’; economic, educational and social accessibility provided by the company for its employees, many of whom are unskilled at the time of initial employment; encouragement of employee wellness; employee involvement in corporate decision-making and philanthropy; companies’ increased efforts to reduce waste and energy use and the overall positive effects on the companies’ profitability…
When Workers Share in Profits: Effort and Responses to Shirking
This paper summarizes new evidence from the “Shared Capitalism” Project on the extent to which workers’ earnings depend on the performance of their firm or work group in the US and advanced European countries and on the impact of sharing arrangements on economic behavior.
Employee Ownership and Participation Effects on Firm Outcomes
While there have been many studies on whether such ownership improves firm outcomes, this one attempts a larger-scale replication, looking also at effects of worker participation in management-type decisions.
Employee Financial Participation: An International Survey
Employee Financial Participation: An International Survey provides an overview of key international trends in employee ownership, pension reform, equity compensation, privatization, and employee financial participation in over 30 countries.
ESOPs in Indiana: State Emphasizing Employee Ownership Model
Staff members at Vasey Commercial Heating & Air Conditioning in Zionsville are company owners as part of an employee stock ownership plan.
The Inherent Motivation to Work Productively: A Brief Look at Employee Ownership and Industrial History
Until the industrial revolution, work was performed in the U.S. (outside of the slave economy) by individuals who had direct and obvious motivation to maximize the quantity and quality of their production.
Implications of the LaRue Decision for ESOPs
The large majority of ESOPs are funded by the company with no individual choices or directions, so losses to one participant’s account are likely to be mirrored in accounts of other participants.
Shared Capitalism at Work: Introduction
Almost half of American private-sector employees participate in shared capitalism — employment relations where the pay or wealth of workers is directly tied to workplace or firm performance.
Broad-Based Employee Incentive Arrangements
This article provides descriptions of various broad-based employee incentive arrangements.
The Fabric of Creativity
At W.L. Gore, innovation is more than skin deep: The culture is as imaginative as the products.
Employee Ownership Culture Building: Process and Success Measures
This presentation outlines ways to measure success in an employee owned company, how to achieve positive results, and learn from the ‘best companies to work for.’
Who Runs an ESOP Company?
This presentation discusses the governance structure of employee-owned companies, including trustees, fiduciaries, administrators and plan participants…
Understanding Motivation: How Managers Can Contribute to the Success of the Organization
This Powerpoint presentation provides an introduction to the topic of motivation in the workplace and discusses ways in which managers can encourage better performance by contributing to employee motivation.