New NCEO Study on Participation

A new study by the NCEO has found that publicly traded companies with more than 10% employee ownership are neither more nor less likely to involve their workers in Total Quality Management (TQM) programs, work teams, mini-business units, quality circles, or other forms of participative management than a comparable group of non-employee ownership firms. The companies were about 20% more likely, however, to share financial information with employees, including information about the operation of individual units, competitor performance, overall company results, and other measures.

The study was based on a survey of 317 publicly traded employee ownership firms, of which 82 provided usable data (a 26% response rate). Answers were compared to a similar study conducted by the Association for Quality and Participation of Fortune 1000 firms. That study had a 28% response rate. While the samples are somewhat different, the NCEO researchers did not believe these differences would cause any systematic variation. The study is part of a larger study designed to look at whether publicly traded employee ownership companies with a participative management style have better returns to shareholders than comparable non-employee ownership firms or employee ownership firms with limited participation. Results from that study should be available mid-1997.