Employee Ownership in Traditional Industries
Author: Johnson, Jennifer
Source: The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education
Year: 2010
Abstract:
One of the most significant changes to business in the twentieth century was the shift from more traditional manufacturing and basic industries to high technology and services. Many companies found themselves at a distinct disadvantage in the marketplace, undercut by globalization and outsourcing, lacking in innovation, or polarized by labor-management conflict. Manufacturing companies have faced significant challenges in the US and elsewhere in the West, but so have companies in industries like newspapers and agriculture.
As the cases and other material in this Collection illustrate, a number of companies have been able to overcome these challenges not by removing more employees from the equation, as with outsourcing, but by instead integrating employees more closely into their organizational and governance structures. Some firms turned to employee ownership after coming on hard times, while others used it to weather the storm. Their methods include transparent management, increased autonomy, increased human capital development, and equity ownership. This is not to say that it has all been smooth sailing, but this Collection provides material for the constructive discussion of the benefits and challenges of employee ownership implementation.
Related Documents
Worker Participation: Lessons from the Workers Co-Ops of the Pacific Northwest
Author(s): Pencavel, John
Product Type: Books / Book Chapters
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.
Nucor Corporation (A, B)
Author(s): Govindarajan, Vijay
Product Type: Cases
This case examines several strategies advocated by various actors in the Nucor Corporation, a major producer of steel.
Change Factory
Author(s): Dorsey, David
Product Type: Magazine / Newspaper Articles
Delphi not only makes catalytic converters; it has also converted itself. Its factory in Oak Creek, Wisconsin has become a fast, flexible, future-focused operation. The result is a new-economy factory in the heart of the old economy.
Mid-Missouri Energy
Author(s): Reinhardt, Forest; Weber, James; Shelman, Mary
Product Type: Cases
Mid-Missouri Energy is a farmer-owned cooperative created to take advantage of the growing interest in ethanol as an automotive fuel.
Lincoln Electric Co.
Author(s): Fast, Norman D.; Berg, Norman A.
Product Type: Cases
This case covers the strategy and management practices of the world's largest manufacturer of welding equipment. Discusses the compensation system and company culture, and the leadership style of management.
Organic Valley's Plowing Ahead
Author(s): Weatherhead School of Management
Product Type: Mini-Cases
Organic Valley is an organic, family farmer-owned cooperative on a mission.
The Kerry Group plc.
Author(s): Kennelly, James J.
Product Type: Cases
Kerry Group plc was founded as a farmers' cooperative in 1974. Even after Kerry Group went public in 1986, the original cooperative (and its farmer-shareholders) retained control of the corporation with 51 percent of the shares. Now the farmers are being asked to further lower their shareholding in Kerry Group...
Loch Fyne Oysters
Author(s):
Product Type: Mini-Cases
Andy Lane read an article about the Baxi Partnership, which was starting to fund employee buy-outs, and saw how this route could provide a way of paying Noble’s estate his share of the business without selling the company.
Davey Tree Stands Tall with Employee Ownership
Author(s): Thomas, Karen
Product Type: Magazine / Newspaper Articles
Over 25 years, The Davey Tree Expert Company's employee owners built a good small company into one of the premier companies in its industry, with an entrepreneurial zest for new products and acquisitions. The company's development would have pleased its inventive founder and provably surprised the family members who sold it to hesitant employees in 1979.
McKay Nursery Company (A, B)
Author(s): Meyer, Kathleen A.; Pochop, Laura; Weiss, Stephanie
Product Type: Cases
McKay Nursery Co., founded in 1897 in Waterloo, WI, had a longstanding history of commitment to employees. The close-knit organization was a pioneer in the agricultural industry of several employee-friendly policies. But in the early 1980s, as McKay's owners grew older and senior management neared retirement, the next generation of managers feared for the future of the profitable, debt-free company...
Tribune Company, 2007
Author(s): Seth Gordon, Eric; Luehrman, Timothy A.
Product Type: Cases
This case describes the proposed acquisition of Tribune Company by Sam Zell in 2007. It is two-tiered, employs an ESOP as the acquisition vehicle, involves a high degree of leverage as well as significant asset sales, and Zell himself will own almost no common stock in the post-deal Tribune.
DIENA
Author(s): Simons, Robert L.; Reinbergs, Indra A.
Product Type: Cases
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.
Ohio's Oldest ESOP
Author(s): Thomas, Karen
Product Type: Magazine / Newspaper Articles
Extending ownership to all employees, involving all in managing the business and tying the compensation to profits brought a renaissance to Alloy Engineering twenty years ago.
Fastener Industries: 25 Years of Stability and Prosperity
Author(s): Ohio Employee Ownership Center, Kent State University
Product Type: Policy and Issue Reports
At a time when Ohio companies are closing and the state has lost over 16% of its manufacturing jobs since the start of the recession in March 2001, 100% employee-owned Fastener Industries is celebrating 100 years in business and 25 years of employee ownership.
Jet Rubber: Ten Years of ESOP Success
Author(s):
Product Type: Magazine / Newspaper Articles
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.
Robb-Jack Company: 100% ESOP
Author(s): The National Center for Employee Ownership
Product Type: Mini-Cases
Robb-Jack, a Sacramento area manufacturer of cutting tools, has been an ESOP company since 1981.
Starting Over in Lexington
Author(s): Stack, Jack
Product Type: Magazine / Newspaper Articles
The folks at our Lexington, Ky. plant are well on their way to becoming owners of their company, all part of our plan to turn the operation around and make it profitable again.