Nonprofit corporations, cooperatives, and credit unions constitute an alternative avenue of hope and action for communities that have come up short in the normal operation of the market economy. These organizations comprise the third sector, which accounts for approximately 10 percent of U.S. economic activity.
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.
The strategy outlined by the authors hinges largely on opening up the books to all employees and keeping the staff posted on financial matters.
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.
Many explanations for the rarity of workers’ control have been offered, but there have been few attempts to assess these hypotheses in a systematic way. This book draws upon economic theory, statistical evidence, and case studies to frame an explanation.
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.
This book draws on the National Center for Employee Ownership’s over 20 years of experience in the field, and, more importantly, the experience of the leading employee ownership companies.
This book takes a broad look at how to use incentives, ranging from stock options to cash bonuses to gainsharing, to motivate and reward employees in dynamic companies that seek to create a more productive ‘ownership’ culture.
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.
Values at Work is an analysis of organizational dynamics with wide- ranging implications in an age of market globalization. It looks at the challenges businesses face to maintain people-oriented work systems while remaining successful in the larger economy.
Following a brief description of the methodology employed within this chapter, background information is provided on the Carris Companies. Changing stakeholder relationships highlighted in the segment on employee ownership provide a foundation for understanding the transitional process within the Carris Companies and, specifically, the practice of governance.
Until recently, stock options were primarily reserved for senior executives and selected managers in most American corporations. In the last decade or so, however, stock options have become part of the compensation package for an increasing number of rank-and-file employees.
At a time when employers are searching for new and innovative ways to motivate and retain key talent, employee stock ownership plans are proving to be powerful retention and reward strategies that have a positive impact on profitability, revenue growth, and productivity.
Organizational leadership sets the standard for ethical conduct in the workplace. Christianity’s “Golden Rule” was used by William H. (Bill) Carris, owner of the Carris Financial Corporation (CFC), as the central ethical principle in his Long Term Plan (UP), describing the transition to 100% employee-ownership and governance…
Henry Hansmann explains why different industries and different national economies exhibit different patterns of ownership forms.
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’…
This chapter describes how ESOP companies can align expectations and build a culture of ownership; reprinted from “Selling to an ESOP, Sixth Edition.”
Capitalism may have taken over the bulk of the modern world, writes highly regarded government and industry consultant Jeff Gates, but in its current incarnation it has created such dramatic inequities of wealth and power that more individuals than ever now feel detached from its inherent benefits and distrustful of its potential goals. In his revolutionary new book, The Ownership Solution: Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century, Gates outlines a wide-ranging plan to reverse this increasingly universal condition–and the result is a specific blueprint that, he argues, could easily be adopted around the globe.
The U.S. airline industry has, in recent years, offered some conspicuous examples of a phenomenon that has now become familiar, both in the U.S. and abroad, among firms that face economic difficulties: the granting to employees of a substantial ownership stake in return for wage and work rule concessions necessary to maintain the firm’s viability.
Over the last decade companies have struggled to balance the human dimension of business with the need to be aggressive, competitive, and profitable.
Southwest Airlines has created a culture where employees are treated as the company’s number one asset.
Fifty case studies of new types of cooperatives, from healthcare, camping gear, trailer courts, buffalo, hardware, housing, sports teams, credit, carpet, even manure and beyond highlight the almost limitless ways people are using cooperative action to rebuild community, revitalize their economies and secure their lives.
Employee ownership in U.S. companies has grown substantially in the past 20 years. This paper reviews and provides some meta-analyses on the accumulated evidence concerning the prevalence, causes, and effects of employee ownership, covering 25 studies of employee attitudes and behaviors, and 27 studies of productivity and profitability (with both cross-sectional and pre/post comparisons).
Open-book management is not so much a technique as a way of thinking, a process that actively involves employees in the financial life of the company.