Bob Moore, the owner of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods celebrated his 81st birthday by giving the company that he founded to his employees. Moore announced the new Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) at an all-company meeting at the headquarters office in Milwaukie, Oregon.
Moore said, “It’s been my dream all along to turn this company [...]
Archive for the ‘workplace democracy’ Category
Owner gives company to employees on 81st birthday
Posted in Democratic Principles, Management Innovation, democratic company, employee-owned companies, workplace democracy, tagged Bob Moore gives Bob's Red Mill company to employees as ESOP, Democratic Companies, employee ownership at Bob's Red Mill, Employee Stock Ownership Plan, Management Innovation, Operations VP Dennis Vaughn, sharing ownership, workplace democracy on March 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
An argument against ‘totalitarian’ IT policies
Posted in Democratic Principles, Gary Hamel, Management Innovation, democracy at work, employee engagement, workplace democracy, tagged creativity, engagement, Gary Hamel, innovation, IT departments, IT policies, Management 2.0 blog, Management Innovation, productivity, totalitarian IT policies on December 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In his Management 2.0 blog, Gary Hamel shares some thought-provoking questions about counterintuitive, yet common, IT policies that seem to discourage productivity and innovation:
How is it that companies are willing to trust employees with their customers, their expensive equipment, and their cash, but are unwilling to trust them when it comes to using the Web [...]
The end of the ‘rock star’ CEO
Posted in Democratic Principles, Management Innovation, democracy at work, workplace democracy, tagged anonymous bosses, Bob Nardelli of Home Depot, Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard, decentralized democratic organizational model, Democratic Companies, Democratic Principles, Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco, Jeff Skilling of Enron, Management Innovation, rock star CEOs, Sarbanes-Oxley, the cult of the faceless boss, top-down hierarchcal system, workplace democracy, workplace jerks on November 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A story published earlier this month on the Economist discussed the recent trend of companies preferring “anonymous” bosses to the “rock star” CEOs who were popular in previous decades. “The corporate world is increasingly rejecting imperial chief executives in favour of anonymous managers.”
We believe that this shift represents another stage in the ongoing evolution in [...]
Michael Moore, ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ and Workplace Democracy
Posted in Democratic Companies, Management Innovation, democracy at work, employee engagement, employee-owned companies, open-book management, workplace democracy, tagged Brainpark, Capitalism: A Love Story, Capitalism: A Love Story and workplace democracy, capitalist economic model, company ownership structure, DaVita, Democratic Companies, democratic company, engage and motivate employees, innovative management strategy, maintain a competitive advantage, Michael Moore, Michael Moore and workplace democracy, open-book management, shared decision making, South Mountain, W.L. Gore and Associates, worker-owned cooperatives, workplace democracy as an alternative model to capitalism on November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Capitalism: A Love Story, the 2009 documentary movie directed by Michael Moore, criticizes the current economic order in the United States and capitalism in general while covering the financial crisis of 2007–2009 and the recovery stimulus. In his movie, Moore highlights workplace democracy as an alternative model to capitalism.
Many would argue that workplace democracy should [...]
An interview with the authors of Freedom, Inc.
Posted in Democratic Companies, democracy at work, workplace democracy, tagged Brian Carney, command & control, decentralized workplace, decentralizing, Democratic Companies, democratic company, democratic workplace, free workplace, freedom and responsibility for employees, freedom based workplaces, Freedom Inc, Freedom Inc book, Isaac Getz, Management Innovation, set their employees free, workplace democracy on October 13, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Brian Carney and Isaac Getz are the authors of a new book called Freedom, Inc., which is being released today! WorkplaceDemocracy.com spoke with them recently about their book and its connection to workplace democracy.
What is Freedom, Inc. about?
Freedom, Inc. is a book about the most important corporate movement of the last two decades, a movement that has [...]
Interview with WorldBlu Founder Traci Fenton
Posted in Democratic Principles, democracy at work, workplace democracy on September 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The following is an interview that WorkplaceDemocracy.com conducted with Traci Fenton. Traci is the Founder and CEO of WorldBlu, a non-profit organization that champions the growth of democratic organizations worldwide. She is also author of the forthcoming book, Democracy at Work.
What makes a company ‘democratic’?
A company is democratic when it operates using the principles of [...]
Democratic companies profiled on CNNMoney.com
Posted in Democratic Companies, democracy at work, employee-owned companies, workplace democracy, tagged democracy at work, Democratic Companies, democratic company, democratic workplace, employee-owned company, Full Sail Brewing Co, Isthmus Engineering and Manufacturing, Mushkin Enhanced, Pelham Auto Parts, Ronin Tech Collective, We Can Do It!, worker's cooperative, workplace democracy on September 23, 2009 | 2 Comments »
CNNMoney.com recently profiled six worker-owned, democratic companies. These companies, from diverse industries such as software to auto parts to beer brewing, all credit their innovative management structures with having helped them wheather the current economic crisis.
Here are the companies that were profiled:
We Can Do It! Women’s Cooperative (Si Se Puede! in Spanish) was founded in [...]
The Invisible Hook: What Managers Can Learn from Pirates
Posted in Democratic Principles, Management Innovation, workplace democracy, tagged Adam Smith, democracy, economics, invisible hand, Peter Leeson, pirates, The Invisible Hook, University of Chicago on September 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
WorkplaceDemocracy.com conducted an interview with Peter Leeson, economics professor at the University of Chicago and author of The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates. The Invisible Hook is a fascinating book that explores why and how lawless and violent pirates organized themselves into what may have been the world’s first democratic workplaces.
The Invisible Hook shows how pirates’ search [...]
Democratic Company Profile: South Mountain
Posted in workplace democracy, tagged democratic company, democratic workplace, employee ownership, ICA Group, Industrial Cooperatives Association, John Abrams, Mondragon Cooperatives, South Mountain, workplace democracy on August 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
WorkplaceDemocracy.com recently interviewed John Abrams, the co-founder and CEO of South Mountain Company and the author of COMPANIES WE KEEP: Employee Ownership and the Business of Community and Place. 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.
South [...]
“The DemoCratic Workplace” Research Paper
Posted in workplace democracy, tagged democratic workplace, Management Innovation, workplace democracy on August 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Rune Kvist Olsen, a consultant, author, and former lecturer at the University at Tromso, Norway, has written a paper called “The DemoCratic Workplace.”
The paper was written in order “to approach workplace organization through a ‘participatory strategy’ which is based on the involvement and engagement of the individual human being in the workplace.”
Click here to access [...]