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A Stake in Place? The Geography of Employee Ownership and its Implications for a Stakeholding Society
Author(s) -
Wills Jane
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
transactions of the institute of british geographers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.196
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1475-5661
pISSN - 0020-2754
DOI - 10.1111/j.0020-2754.1998.00079.x
Subject(s) - power (physics) , business , industrial relations , general partnership , investment (military) , control (management) , work (physics) , government (linguistics) , market economy , employee engagement , public relations , finance , economics , politics , management , political science , law , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
In recent years employee ownership has become a means by which some workers facing privatization, closure or takeover have attempted to defend their jobs and communities. Proponents of a ‘stakeholding’ society have advocated the widening of share ownership as a means of democratizing the economy, building partnerships and achieving consensus at work. But is employee ownership able to sustain local investment and industrial partnership? Through a detailed case study of a management and employee buyout in the railway industry, I suggest that the ability of employee ownership to fix investment in place may be enhanced by relations of ‘stakeholding’, increasing employee commitment to the firm and its future. In the case studied here, however, lack of employee power and finance effectively excluded most workers from the processes and philosophy of the buyout. The new ownership structure did little to reshape local relations between workers and those in control. While ownership cannot eradicate economic threats to community, it might, if used as a mechanism to promote new styles of management and employee commitment, foster long‐term success. It is argued that government and trade unions can do more to promote wider employee ownership and participation at work in the future.