An Assessment of Employee Ownership in the United States With Implications for the EU
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.
Sally Jameson: Valuing Stock Options in a Compensation Package
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.
Labor Markets and Firm Benefit Policies in Japan and the United States
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.
Taking Stock of Equity Compensation
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.
Are We Out of Options?
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.
Motivating Employee-Owners in ESOP Firms: Human Resource Policies and Company Performance
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.
United is a Poor Model for Employee Ownership
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.
Compensation at Level 3 Communications
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.
Broad-Based Employee Stock Options in US ‘New Economy’ Firms
This paper compares the performance of 229 `New Economy’ firms offering broad-based stock options to that of their non-stock option counterparts. A simple comparison of these firms reveals that the former have higher shareholder returns, Tobin’s q and new knowledge generation.
Research Evidence on Prevalence and Effects of Employee Ownership
The idea of employee ownership has attracted support across the political spectrum, often being seen as a form of economic democracy that complements our political democracy. Along with these positive views, however, there have been many concerns expressed about employee ownership particularly that it can expose workers to excessive risk and may in some cases increase labor management conflict and lower economic performance.
Company Stock in Pension Plans: How Costly is it?
The high-profile collapse of Enron has focused attention on just how much employees stand to lose when they invest retirement savings in company stock.
Broad-Based Employee Stock Options – A Union-Nonunion Comparison
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.
Employee Ownership: The New Source of Competitive Advantage
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.
Shared Modes of Compensation and Firm Performance: UK Evidence
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.
Sharing Ownership via Employee Stock Ownership
This paper summarizes the findings from over 50 large-sample empirical studies that have been done on employee ownership and broad-based stock option plans in the past 25 years, covering studies on plan adoption, employee attitudes and behaviours, firm performance, and employee wages and wealth.
Stock Ownership and Work Motivation
Topics include: ownership and motivation, different ways to become an owner, and does ownership make a difference?
‘New Economy’ High-Tech Jobs Look Much Like Old Economy Low-Wage Work
The “new economy” is another name for an old bag of tricks where promise and reality don’t match up. E-workers counting on valuable stock options, a revolutionized workplace, and premier wages and benefits have instead gotten mediocre wages, useless stock options, relentless production pressure, and maximum job insecurity.
Nucor Corporation (A, B)
This case examines several strategies advocated by various actors in the Nucor Corporation, a major producer of steel.
New Economy Ethics: YouKnowIt.com
The case suggests ways of compensating the advisory board and raises questions about whether there are new rules in the new economy about building professional networks, and when offers of equity constitute bribery and wrong doing.
The Roots of Broadened Stock Ownership
This analysis examines recent trends in stock ownership and explains the reasons for the dramatic increase in stock ownership among a broader and increasingly diverse number of Americans.
Microsoft’s Vega Project: Developing People and Products
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.
United Airlines
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]
Employee Ownership and Unions: Lessons from the Airline Industry
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.
Cisco Systems
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
Sealed Air Corp.’s Leveraged Recapitalization (A, B)
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.