For the uninitiated and unsophisticated, employee-owned companies almost sound like they are possibly socialist and therefore, in their own way, un-American, but this isn’t true at all. We find that for a whole lot of employed people, they are nothing much more than an employee, who in many States, are an “at-will” employee which basically means that no matter their length of time at a given company or their need for steady and livable income, that they can thus be terminated by their employer at any time, for any reason that the employer finds suitable. This type of employment condition is obviously not ideal for the employee, and is arguably the biggest complaint of why capitalism, as currently structured, needs to be modified so that all employees have more of a voice, such as we find in union shops.
When it comes to employee-owned companies, because everybody that is employed there has a voice, and the right to some percentage of ownership in the company, that the cohesion and teamwork so displayed are often going to reflect a more motivated workforce, because they know that what they really do and therefore their productivity, does matter, and because it matters to their continual employment, profit sharing, and value of the stock that they own, it incentivizes employees to push themselves harder to maintain that success. In other words, whenever equity is provided to employees, they feel that their personal value is higher, and because of that, they are motivated to do their best, which is not always the case, in those companies, in which, the employee is paid by the hour, and seems to be, in many a case, of marginal value or replaceable to the ownership.
To believe, somehow, that the best companies are those in which the lion’s share of the ownership is held in the hands of upper management, along with those that have significant shares or options to those shares, reflects a belief that there should be a division between those that are well-positioned and well-compensated, as opposed to the general worker bee workforce. A management attitude such as that is reflected in why we see so many jobs that could be and ought to be in America, being outsourced overseas, because whenever the objective for upper management is to do all in their power to increase profit, even at the direct expense of American workers, they are going to be well tempted to do that very thing. It isn’t so much that outsourcing is always wrong, but rather it is the fact that when upper management has specific incentives that push profit as the be-all and end-all of everything that the corporation does, then regular employees are often going to be stuck with the short end of the stick.
Indeed, when we look at companies of all sorts, it would be healthier for those companies if each employee of the company were vested in it, so that they would thereby not only really care about the success of the company, but would also directly benefit from the success of the company, as well, which is why employee-owned companies are in reality, most in harmony with what America represents, at its finest.