Employee Ownership: The New Source of Competitive Advantage

Robert W. Sexty is a professor of commerce and business administration
at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the author of Canadian
Business: Issues and Stakeholders.

Written by Carol Beatty, an academic and director of the Industrial
Relations Centre at Queen’s University, and Harvey Schachter, a
freelance journalist, Employee Ownership is based on research spanning
seven years.

The introduction provides a good overview, but given the substantial
literature on employee ownership it could have been more extensive. The
case studies are well chosen and illustrate a variety of
employee-ownership perspectives. Employee-owned enterprises resulted
from startups, spin-offs, privatizations, and threatened closures. The
initiatives—some voluntary, others forced—met with varying degrees
of success (one was an outright failure). A concluding chapter gives an
analysis of the case studies, addressing issues such as the advantages
of employee ownership for both employers and employees, the ideal level
of employee participation, the role confusion between owner and
employee, and the influence of unions. The authors formulate a good set
of lessons from the case studies. An appendix claims to look at the
extensive literature, but falls short.

Replete with valuable insights and practical advice, Employee Ownership
is recommended for anyone involved with, or proposing, the employee
ownership form of enterprise.