Today, more than 25 percent of American workers own stock in their employers. You can shop at employee-owned supermarkets such as Publix, buy Gore-Tex fabric from employee-owned W.L. Gore & Associates, and sip coffee served by employee owners at Starbucks. Now Corey Rosen, John Case, and Martin Staubus present convincing evidence that employee ownership can be much more than just a good benefit program. Done right, it can be the foundation for a new-and more effective-model of management. Drawing on first-hand studies of dozens of companies from large corporations to local retailers, the authors show that the "equity model" enables firms to grow faster and more profitably than conventionally run competitors. Vivid examples of both winning and failed attempts at employee ownership reveal the key concepts that make the model successful, and suggest how managers can adapt these strategies for use in their own companies.

This is the book on employee ownership in technology companies.

Stock options have been pilloried as the ill-gotten lucre of excessive executive compensation and as the hot air that fueled the too-rapid expansion and ultimate bursting of the Internet bubble. Options have been praised as the hidden seed capital that facilitated the rise of the technology sector, as the harbinger of democratic capitalism and as the ultimate in pay-for-performance awards that links worker compensation with long-term corporate performance. Depending upon the eye of the beholder, options either provide perverse incentives that risk distorting long-term corporate planning strategies or they are the carrot to attract, the glue to hold and the incentive to spur employees to share in the risks and rewards of the entrepreneurial culture that has been at the core of robust economic growth and technological innovation over the last few decades. And options are once again attracting controversy in light of the recently released draft of the International Accounting Standards Board, which would require companies to expense stock option grants, a proposal fiercely opposed by companies using broad-based option programs.

An ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) is a tax-qualified benefit plan that is designed to invest primarily in company stock. Among other things, an ESOP can be used to purchase shares from retiring owners in closely held companies; buy out divisions, product lines, or entire companies; finance new capital; and provide a tax-advantaged employee benefit. There are over 11,000 U.S. companies with ESOPs, covering well over 8 million employees.

More than ever before, a company's most important asset is its people. The ideas and information employees can contribute every day distinguish innovative, dynamic, and successful businesses from their more plodding peers. To encourage employees to get more involved, more and more companies ask employees to "think and act like owners," even if they don't share actual ownership. Others do share ownership but still treat people as "just employees." However, research and experience show it is the combination of involvement and ownership that really creates winners. It's not an easy task, however; ownership management requires constant attention every day.

At a time when employers are searching for new and innovative ways to motivate and retain key talent, employee stock ownership plans are proving to be powerful retention and reward strategies that have a positive impact on profitability, revenue growth, and productivity. Employee ownership is relatively inexpensive to initiate and it can help firms gain a competitive edge - the 15% advantage cited by of one of the CEOs profiled in this book.

Using data from an extensive study of employee-owned companies in Ohio, where employee ownership is a well-developed trend, this book offers a strong empirical portrait of firms with Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). It describes how these plans work and places their emergence and change in a historical context. John Logue and Jacquelyn Yates examine firms that have succeeded in employee ownership and those with failed plans. Some companies, they find, are committed to the concept of employee ownership, and others merely use ESOPs as a financing tool.

Forward-thinking companies are waking up to the fact that compensation is not merely a financial cost, but a powerful tool that can boost performance and profits at all levels of the organization. Linking psychology and pay is both an art and a science, and Compensation and Motivation is the first complete guide to this cutting-edge approach. For more than fifteen years, author Thomas J. McCoy has improved the performance of organizations through improving the performance of their employees. In these pages, he spells out the details of his innovative Behavior-Based Incentive Compensation system (BBIC). You'll learn why you should replace typical bonus and commission arrangements (which usually apply only to executives and sales personnel) with performance-oriented, self-funding plans that truly empower every employee.

The authors argue that the traditional models of compensation and reward no longer serve the best interests of organizations competing in a rapidly evolving marketplace. They propose a total compensation strategy--comprising the essential elements of base pay, variable pay and merit pay--and discuss practical ideas for revitalizing outmoded compensation systems. "Useful to any enterprise--large or small, successful or struggling."--Industry Week.