Whitcomb, Shipper Publish New Paper on Employee Ownership

SALISBURY, MD---Successfully transforming employees into owners after an employee buyout is a complex activity that is simplified using principles of learning management.

Factors critical to successful employee-owned organizations and the transition process was the focus of a study conducted by Drs. Valerie Whitcomb, academic instruction program designer in Salisbury University’s Franklin P. Perdue School of Business, and Frank Shipper, SU professor emeritus of management in the Perdue School.

The resulting article, “Operationalizing Critical Success Factors of Employee Ownership Using Principles of Learning Management,” recently was published in the journal International Review of Applied Economics. The paper was also posted in the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations’ Curriculum Library for Employee Ownership, the largest global online library on the subject. The article is available to the public at https://doi.org/10.1080/02692171.2024.2410218.

The researchers conducted a metasynthesis of a large body of literature on mature employee-owned companies to determine critical success factors for companies transitioning to an employee ownership model. They then applied those factors to learning models geared toward employees in general, as well as specific employee groups.

Their analysis identified the most important critical success factors as accountability and responsibility, communication, governance, innovation, leadership, working in teams, training, transparency (especially in finance), culture and values, engagement, and human resources practices. Potential learning management systems for optimizing information in these areas include informal discussions, formal and informal mentoring, corporate communications, signage, published policies and processes, experience and on-the-job training, and other training.

The researchers suggest employee-owned companies choose learning management strategies that will have the broadest impact for a wide audience at the best possible price, noting that knowledge in critical success factor areas is an important tool in mitigating risks and helping employees understand their contribution to the bottom line — and how it helps them financially.

Whitcomb and Shipper have many years of combined experience studying employee ownership. Both have received Rutgers University’s distinguished Employee Ownership Foundation/Louis O. Kelso Fellowship. Earlier this year, Whitcomb represented SU in England as a U.S. delegate at the Oxford University Symposium on Employee Ownership.

Shipper has spoken at Oxford multiple times. His research also has been presented at the Beyster Symposiums at the University of California, San Diego; the Business Fights Poverty conferences at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School; the International Rendanheyi Model Forum in Qingdao, China; the Academy of Management’s Annual Meetings and other venues.

His studies also have been referenced by national media, including MSNBC and The Wall Street Journal. In addition, he is a recipient of Rutgers’ William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King White Book Prize for Shared Entrepreneurship: A Path to Engaged Employee Ownership, for its “significant contribution to the advancement of economic democracy.” Shipper served as editor and coauthor for this award-winning book.

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