What is the relationship between the personal philosophy (as it relates to the management of the firm) of leaders of employee-owned companies and the structure of their employee stock ownership plans?
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.
Using data from an extensive study of employee-owned companies in Ohio, where employee ownership is a well-developed trend, this book offers a strong empirical portrait of firms with Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs).
The purpose of this book is to consider some consequences of worker participation in production and to provide an accessible economics perspective on two groups of worker co-ops in the Pacific Northwest: the plywood co-ops and the forestry worker co-ops.
This case traces the origins of Starbucks and its rapid growth through joint partnerships and diversified products, and its rapid expansion of retail cafes. A profile of Starbuck’s financial contributions to community development and literacy projects, and its efforts to promote progressive workplace conditions is presented. Despite this, criticisms of pushing out local businesses, homogenization … Read More
Evident in the case are important themes such as the transformational leadership of its senior management, the effective use of human resource strategies to control organisational growth, and the adoption of values similar to Charles Handy’s ‘Citizen Corporation’.
In 1997, seeking new sources of growth, A/S DIENA expands outside the Latvian capital to set up the Regional Press Group, a decentralized network of community newspapers emphasizing employee ownership and a separation of roles between editors and publishers.
This paper examines the use and consequences of shared compensation plans (profit sharing, profit related pay, SAYE schemes and company stock option plans) in a sample of UK workplaces and firms in the 1990s.
The authors argue that properly applied, a VBM program will put your company’s profitability firmly on track.
This case examines several strategies advocated by various actors in the Nucor Corporation, a major producer of steel.
The Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC) is a non-profit, university-based program that provides outreach, information, and preliminary technical assistance to Ohio employees and business owners interested in exploring employee ownership.
This paper reviews the conflicts of interests introduced by employee participation in the governance of a firm and how these can be constructively resolved by introducing a division of power between investors and employees and/or between management and workers.
This case describes Microsoft’s human resource philosophies and policies and illustrates how they work in practice to provide the company with a major source of competitive advantage. Discusses employee development, motivation, and retention efforts in one of Microsoft’s product groups.
This paper examines wider employee share ownership in developing and newly industrializing countries with particular emphasis on Africa and Asia. The first section reviews the available evidence on the extent of wider employee share ownership. The second identifies the key issues relating to the implementation of wider employee share ownership: the objectives for employee ownership, … Read More
This chapter describes how ESOP companies can align expectations and build a culture of ownership; reprinted from “Selling to an ESOP, Sixth Edition.”
In this paper, we take on a seemingly very simple set of empirical questions that we hope will shed light on whether employee ownership of firms ‘works’…
Teamwork—a sense of shared responsibility for success—percolates throughout Scot Forge, the largest open die shop in North America. That means hard work, the willingness to pitch in where help is needed and to build a non-traditional organizational culture…
Lucent was created in 1994 as part of AT&T’s tri-vestiture. This case focuses on the dilemma faced by a new company that inherited a labor-management consultation structure developed by AT&T, a structure that has broken down in many respects, and that does not seem adequate to the challenges of the new company in a new and highly competitive market…
This article examines the employee buyout process and industrial relations under employee ownership based on the case study of the Karabuk steel mill.
In 1994 United Airlines became the largest employee majority-owned enterprise in the United States, with various groups of employees – most represented by unions – having purchased 55% of its stock in exchange for various concessions. The employees accepted pay cuts and made other concessions, but were also granted representation on the company’s board of directors…[newline]
Cisco Systems, specializing in network systems that link computers and provide Internet communications, was founded in 1990. Employee compensation is closely tied to company and individual performance through stock ownership and profit-sharing, and performance is focused on customer satisfaction. Cisco has grown mainly by acquisition, always trying to stay ahead of the next best technological … Read More
Southwest Airlines has created a culture where employees are treated as the company’s number one asset.
This paper explores the impact of employee ownership on employee attitudes, using additional data obtained from four UK bus companies which had adopted the ESOP form of employee share ownership. After reviewing the recent UK literature, the paper highlights findings from US literature that a ‘sense of ownership’ is an important intervening variable between actual ownership and additudinal change, and that opportunities for participation in decision-making are more important that ownership per se in generating feelings of ownership.
Less than a year after Sealed Air embarked on a program to improve manufacturing efficiency and product quality, the company borrowed almost 90% of the market value of its common stock and paid it out as a special dividend to shareholders.
Procter & Gamble’s top executives form a small, autonomous, cross-functional Corporate New Ventures team led by a young former brand manager. The team invents a systematic approach to gathering information and producing creative ideas for radically new product categories.