Conscious Growth: Why South Mountain Co. Pursues Deliberate Rather Than Maximum Growth
Is it true that small businesses are just big businesses that haven’t succeeded yet? John Abrams’ company pursues conscious growth not maximum growth.
Is it true that small businesses are just big businesses that haven’t succeeded yet? John Abrams’ company pursues conscious growth not maximum growth.
Can a support organization enhance the development and performance of an employee-owned sector in a market economy? That is the question this paper will address.
Research on employee ownership has focused on questions of productivity, profitability, and employee attitudes and behavior, while there has been little attention to the most basic measure of performance: survival of the company. This study uses data on all U.S. public companies as of 1988, following them through 2001 to examine how employee ownership is related to survival.
By law, shareholders have an exclusive right to make certain corporate decisions, and this arrangement is generally justified by the shareholder’s role as the owner of the firm. However, many thoughtful observers hold that such a privileged position for shareholders is morally objectionable, in part because it neglects the important role played by employees.
The case examines how Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation Holdings (SRC), a key player in the engine and parts remanufacturing market in the US, turned itself around by implementing the ‘Open Book Management’ (OBM) philosophy.
Carole Pateman argues that democratic participation in the workplace can increase workers’ feelings of political efficacy and political participation. We explore this issue by looking at the implementation of a high involvement work system (HIWS), using both cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons.
The Baby Boom is de-booming and soon there will be many more jobs than people available to fill them. The message: Keep your workers happy today.
UAL suffered from particular design flaws in its stock ownership plan and, more seriously, the absence of complementary institutions focused on the distinctive problems of employee-owned firms.
The strategy outlined by the authors hinges largely on opening up the books to all employees and keeping the staff posted on financial matters.
There is a significant gap in the incidence and development of employee ownership between the European Union (EU) and the US when both sectors are examined.
Details a thinly disguised situation faced by a recent Harvard MBA graduate who was forced by a prospective employer to place a dollar value on a grant of stock options.
This paper presents finding from our most recent research on the transformation of participatory employment practices of Japanese firms in the 1990s, during which the Japanese economy slowed down considerably. The operation appears to be of particular public policy interest for many countries considering participatory employment practices as a way to improve their productivity performance and thus competitiveness.
Mike Katz, an MBA with several years of manufacturing management experience, talks about purchasing Molded Dimensions, Inc. (MDI), a Wisconsin-based plastics manufacturer, with his wife Linda, who also has a manufacturing background.
The fifty employee owners of Jet Rubber Company, a manufacturer of custom molded goods and rubber-to-metal parts founded in 1955, celebrated the 10th anniversary of their ESOP in March 2003.
In the wake of the spectacular bankruptcies of Enron, United Airlines, and Polaroid, employee stock ownership plans have come under intense media scrutiny during the past year. The staggering losses of employees’ retirement savings have prompted pundits to predict the demise of ESOPs, and politicians to call for regulatory overhaul.
This article describes several forms of stock purchase plans in Canada and examines participation using the Workplace and Employee Survey. Some U.S. statistics are presented as well.
They were the currency of the American dream. Now they are worthless paper — a symbol of CEO greed. What went wrong with stock options? Where do companies go from here? Our only option: Visit one of the world’s leading authorities on employee ownership.
The growth of ESOPs over the past 25 years is part of a general growth in compensation arrangements linking worker pay to company performance, including profit sharing, gain-sharing, and broad-based stock options in addition to the various methods of employee ownership.
Employee stock ownership programs (ESOP) may become a source of competitive advantage but a threat to a firm’s survival as well. Strategic stakeholder negotiation, on the other hand, is a process through which an organization negotiates with multiple stakeholders in order to achieve a strategic goal. Such perspective helps to illustrate the importance of understanding, balancing, and managing stakeholder demands in ESOP-related negotiations. The airline industry provides an interesting arena in which to study this process.
The Athenian model of organizational democracy offers a window into how sizable groups of people can, in an atmosphere of dignity and trust, successfully govern themselves without resorting to a stifling bureaucracy.
The author considers the idea that employee ownership of the organizations they work in can influence the dynamics of ‘sustainable peace.’
The string of business scandals that recently engulfed America painted a picture of corporate chieftains lining their pockets by cutting corners, cooking the books, and duping gullible investors. In doing so, greedy CEOs have hijacked what could be one of the most important business innovations in decades: stock options for all employees.
It would be easy to look at what’s happening at United Airlines, now on the brink of bankruptcy, and conclude that the concept of employee ownership in America has fallen into a tailspin.
This conceptual paper based on a case examines some of the devastating impacts of the recent spate of corporate wrongdoing, noting the widespread interconnectivity and interrelationships these demonstrate; revisits the roots of capitalism and the underpinnings of corporate citizenship; and explores the efforts of the Carris Companies as they implemented their plan for 100% employee ownership and governance, working toward full transparency and accountability in their decision-making.
Level 3’s unique compensation plan rewarded managers for the firm’s performance only if the firm’s stock price movement exceeded that of the market. This design was intended to maximize shareholder value by tying managers’ performance more closely to that of the firm.