Filling the vacuum in new management practice? Lessons from US employee-owned firms

In this paper we explore the way in which Angle-American capitalism is evol ving to meet the competitive challenges of a global economy. A wide range o f scholars, policymakers, and business leaders now argue that the post-Ford ist economy requires greater levels of employee involvement, participation, and empowerment, and a new set of management practices have been developed to secure this new culture of work. In this paper we explore these develop ments and point to the different ways in which terms such as involvement, e mpowerment, participation, and partnership can be mobilised in the workplac e. Moreover, research suggests that new management practices and cultures o f work have evolved in different ways across space, crafting an uneven geog raphy of new management practice. In this regard, we look at the ways in wh ich some employee-owned firms in Ohio, America, have been the arena for con siderable managerial experiment in fostering employee participation. Althou gh we acknowledge the limitations of employee ownership, empirical material from two majority employee-owned firms illustrates the way in which employ ees have been able to take a greater role in the business. Employee ownersh ip is much further advanced in the United States than the United Kingdom, a nd there is scope for building on US experiences in the United Kingdom.