Employee Ownership as a Joint Management-Labor Drive Toward Caring and Sharing

Organizational change is generally looked at as a planned process. Yet, when the employees buy their own company they embark on a venture that eventually emerges as a self-growing culture. The article outlines major challenges and findings, including some of the emotional consequences. At first both management and workers expect each other to change. But gradually, a minority of technical activists sets an inspiring example for the rest to follow. As management and labor hereafter begin to listen to and recognize the need to remedy the concerns of each other, a new cooperative spirit of sharing, caring and honesty slowly emerges. The findings are based upon a four-year-long cross-comparative study of six, mainly 100 percent employee-owned manufacturing companies in the US.