Interview with Daphne Berry
In this short video, Dr. Daphne Berry describes why she teaches her students about worker cooperatives and participatory ESOPs.
Distressed ESOP Sales Presentation for Sellers
Developed in 1989, these slides are placed on CLEO for researchers to use to ascertain some of the perceived motivations behind the types of transactions that were being discussed and closed during this period of ESOP history when many of the big, union-oriented ESOPs were being formed.
Shared Capitalism, Social Capital, and Intra-Organizational Dynamics
The purpose of this paper is to explore employee participation in ownership and control in a modern corporation and its impacts on intra-organizational social capital and workplace dynamics.
Mondragon’s Amorphous Network Structure: “Making the Whole Truly Greater than the Sum of Its Parts”
This article focuses on the unique organizational structure, ownership model, and decision-making process at Mondragon Corporation, the world’s largest consortium of worker-owned cooperatives.
Board Structure at Carris Reels: A Participatory ESOP Company
This case study provides an in-depth look at a company’s board of directors’ composition-related decision-making in the context of broad-based participatory processes and the desire to maintain a profitable and fully employee-owned and governed enterprise.
Governance and Decision Making at Carris Reels
Synopsis Carris Reels, a reel-manufacturing company headquartered in Vermont, had long-standing goals of being employee owned and governed. They also had a strong organizational (ownership) culture. The Corporate Steering Committee (CSC), a committee composed of representatives from management and non-management employees, and the board of directors had a decision to make about adding two new … Read More
Special Section Democracy 2.0
This special section of The Sociological Quarterly, edited by Joyce Rothschild includes the following articles: The Logic of a Co-Operative Economy and Democracy 2.0: Recovering the Possibilities for Autonomy, Creativity, Solidarity and Common Purpose by Joyce Rothschild When Freedom is Not an Endless Meeting: A New Look at Efficiency in Consensus-Based Decision-Making by Darcy K. Leach “Plan … Read More
Beyster Startup Toolkit: Sharing Equity Ownership
Ultimately, the success of your venture will be determined not by your efforts alone but by the performance of the cast of people — employees, partners, or associates — that you assemble. So, if there is a strategy that can help you get more out of the people on whom you depend and also boost your organizational horsepower, you owe it to yourself to take a serious look. A policy of sharing equity with employees that is designed and used wisely can be just that strategy.
Can We Do It Ourselves?
Can We Do It Ourselves focuses on economic philosophy with an emphasis on the concept of economic democracy. The film helps viewers understand the difference between a market economy in which consumer demand drives a company’s supply of goods and services, and a capitalist economy in which private owners control production and hold a right to … Read More
Don’t Wait for a Crisis, Fix it Now
When things go wrong at work, as they occasionally do, a common first reaction is to look for the culprit(s). This can lead to punishment which may result in the ‘evildoer(s)’ being severely reprimanded, or even terminated. Unfortunately, not only does the problem often remain unsolved, the organization is left with another challenge of replacing a person or two. There may be a better way that doesn’t result in a lose-lose situation…
Choosing Between Government Procurement Preferences and Employee Ownership
Adworkshop currently is considering a transition to 100 percent employee ownership over the next 10 years. Unfortunately, employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) companies have encountered obstacles when trying to participate in procurement programs…
Building Community at Terra Nova Consulting
This case describes the challenges faced by the president of an engineering and environmental services consulting firm (Terra Nova Consulting) as it seeks to address deep internal cultural divisions…
Sharing Ownership, Profits, and Decision-Making in the 21st Century
Ownership and decision-making are key issues in the economic restructuring taking place as economies struggle to emerge from the Great Recession, and technological change and globalization continue to place new demands on workers and firms. Corporate, labor, and policy leaders are increasingly recognizing the potential role of employee ownership, cooperatives, profit sharing, and other ways … Read More
Amul Dairy
How could the managing director maintain the firm’s cooperative structure, address the nutritional needs of all Indians, make use of emerging technology, and navigate the country’s dairy policies in the coming years?
Selling Ownership to an ESOP: An Attractive Route to Cashing Out
Any business owner who evaluates their succession options without investigating the concept of an employee stock ownership plan will be making a mistake. What is an ESOP, and how does it work?
Re-booting Capitalism: The Action Agenda for Business
Capitalism is living in interesting times. Politicians, academics and activists around the world are debating the merits of the capitalist system, and how and if it could be improved…
Using Ownership Incentives in China
Roy Weber met Cheng Wang, a business consultant and Chinese entrepreneur, at Cheng’s hotel bar in Silicon Valley. Although Roy was slightly familiar with Chinese business practices, he welcomed more advice from a Chinese national. Could Roy transplant Silicon Valley’s model of employee ownership to China, and what would this process entail for a technology startup?
Worker Cooperative Case Study: Isthmus Engineering & Manufacturing
While the U.S. manufacturing sector has shrunk over the past 30 years, the fully worker-owned Isthmus Engineering & Manufacturing (IEM) cooperative has thrived in the automated manufacturing industry.
Principled Entrepreneurship and Shared Leadership: The Case of TEOCO (The Employee Owned Company)
The case describes a unique corporate culture that motivates employees to achieve the organization objectives. It also discusses the company development strategy, the concept of shared leadership and how their recent partnership with a major private equity firm may have changed TEOCO’s culture and its business model…
Mid-Missouri Energy: Ethanol from Corn
Mid-Missouri Energy is a farmer-owned cooperative created to take advantage of the growing interest in ethanol as an automotive fuel.
CHART Rehabilitation of Hawaii
Frieda Takaki took a deep breath, filling her senses. She was about to make a very difficult decision. She took off her shoes, placed them next to her desk and started pacing her office barefoot as she was thinking aloud. “I can’t let this business close down,” she whispered. “I have to do something about it.” The answer was now abundantly clear: why wouldn’t the employees buy the business from the owners?
Breaking The Mold
What is workplace democracy? Workplace democracy is generally understood as the application of democratic practices, such as voting, debate and participatory decision-making systems, to the workplace.
People and Organizations
This course provides an understanding of the human and organizational contexts in which the student will be working and the skills to put the scientific, technical and organizational knowledge learned to work in addressing the major challenges facing management and organizations today.
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?
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.