Apple Inc. has been receiving a lot of negative publicity about the iPhone 4′s antenna reception problems following the device’s launch on June 24. In a surprising development, the Wall Street Journal reported that “Apple engineers were aware of the risks associated with the new antenna design as early as a year ago, but Chief [...]
Archive for the ‘workplace democracy’ Category
Apple falters because of Steve Jobs top-down management style
Posted in Democratic Companies, workplace democracy, tagged Steve Jobs Apple iPhone 4 antenna reception problems on July 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Workplace Democracy: the secret to Warren Buffet’s investment success?
Posted in Democratic Principles, workplace democracy, tagged democratic workplace, Management Innovation, Warren Buffett investment secret workplace democracy, workplace democracy at Berkshire Hathaway on June 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
One of Warren Buffett’s best-kept investment secrets might be that he practices workplace democracy in managing his subsidiary companies. Few people may be aware that this innovative management strategy has contributed to the phenomenal success of Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings. Unlike most other conglomerates, whose executives exert tight control over their subsidiary companies and often make the [...]
Professor calls hierarchical, top-down management ‘outdated’
Posted in Democratic Principles, Management Innovation, workplace democracy, tagged workplace democracy, democratic workplace, democratic company, Management Innovation, Stanley Truskie, Fischler School of Education and Human Services, Nova Southeastern University, Leadership in High-Performance Organizational Cultures, Miami Herald, enlightened leadership on March 25, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Stanley D. Truskie, a program professor at the Fischler School of Education and Human Services, Nova Southeastern University, and author of Leadership in High-Performance Organizational Cultures, wrote an opinion in the Miami Herald where he called for a new, “enlightened” style of management. Truskie recommends the following leadership practices to help companies quickly adapt and [...]
Owner gives company to employees on 81st birthday
Posted in Democratic Principles, Management Innovation, democratic company, employee-owned companies, workplace democracy, tagged workplace democracy, Management Innovation, Democratic Companies, Bob Moore gives Bob's Red Mill company to employees as ESOP, Operations VP Dennis Vaughn, Employee Stock Ownership Plan, sharing ownership, employee ownership at Bob's Red Mill on March 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
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 [...]
An argument against ‘totalitarian’ IT policies
Posted in Democratic Principles, Gary Hamel, Management Innovation, democracy at work, employee engagement, workplace democracy, tagged innovation, Management Innovation, Gary Hamel, IT departments, IT policies, Management 2.0 blog, creativity, productivity, engagement, 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 [...]
The end of the ‘rock star’ CEO
Posted in Democratic Principles, Management Innovation, democracy at work, workplace democracy, tagged workplace democracy, Management Innovation, Democratic Companies, workplace jerks, the cult of the faceless boss, rock star CEOs, anonymous bosses, top-down hierarchcal system, decentralized democratic organizational model, Jeff Skilling of Enron, Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco, Sarbanes-Oxley, Bob Nardelli of Home Depot, Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard, Democratic Principles 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 [...]
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 democratic company, shared decision making, Brainpark, South Mountain, open-book management, DaVita, Democratic Companies, Capitalism: A Love Story and workplace democracy, Michael Moore and workplace democracy, Michael Moore, Capitalism: A Love Story, workplace democracy as an alternative model to capitalism, capitalist economic model, innovative management strategy, engage and motivate employees, maintain a competitive advantage, company ownership structure, worker-owned cooperatives, W.L. Gore and Associates 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 [...]
An interview with the authors of Freedom, Inc.
Posted in Democratic Companies, democracy at work, workplace democracy, tagged workplace democracy, democratic workplace, democratic company, Management Innovation, decentralized workplace, Democratic Companies, Brian Carney, Isaac Getz, Freedom Inc book, Freedom Inc, freedom and responsibility for employees, set their employees free, free workplace, freedom based workplaces, command & control, decentralizing 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 [...]
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 [...]
Democratic companies profiled on CNNMoney.com
Posted in Democratic Companies, democracy at work, employee-owned companies, workplace democracy, tagged workplace democracy, democratic workplace, democratic company, democracy at work, Democratic Companies, We Can Do It!, Full Sail Brewing Co, Mushkin Enhanced, Pelham Auto Parts, Ronin Tech Collective, employee-owned company, worker's cooperative, Isthmus Engineering and Manufacturing 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 [...]