When I began my research, Carris Reels was beginning its transition from family-owned to employee-owned, it seemed in reviewing the literature that few companies held as evolved a social vision as that described in The Long Term Plan and few had put in place a structure, to “walk the talk”. The unknowns for the company were enormous. There were many questions being asked inside the company and from its research potential. These, not necessarily in chronological or priority order below became part of the starting inquiry for the research and held true to the end of it.
- What elements of the LTP and employee-ownership and governance are most understood and received?
- How will the employee-owners respond to business challenges over time?
- Will the company become more or less profitable?
- What is the relationship among employee held values, corporate conditions, employee attitudes, percentage of employee ownership, employee demographics, with employee involvement?
- Will employee values’ (Rokeach instrument) rankings be affected by changing conditions (will values’ rankings move toward more social values from individual values)?
- How does training impact progress toward employee voice in corporate governance?
- What will the impact be of placing management and employees on the same side for corporate growth and profitability?
- How will vendors and suppliers of goods and money respond, how will customers respond etc.?