Comments on: Trouble in Egalitarian Paradise – San Francisco Strippers Go Co-Op

By: Glenn Mehltretter

Glenn Mehltretter — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:15:14 +0000

Years ago I stumbled on a meta study of employee involvement methodologies. For each approach they looked at two factors: the impact on morale and the impact on productivity. While my recollection of list may be fuzzy (it includes such things as elected representatives, surveys, town hall meetings, employee ownership, self-managed teams etc.) the finding was vividly burned in my mind. There was only one employee involvement methodology that resulted in both improved morale and improved productivity — it was employee ownership.

So, Jack, sounds like the foundation was right and you built on that.

By: Michelle Malay Carter

Michelle Malay Carter — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:50:49 +0000

Hi Jack,

So co-op and egalitarianism don’t always go hand in hand. In this instance, when they didn’t, you had success.

I’d love to work in an organization that had the core values of honesty, clarity and dignity embeddeding within their processes which sounds like what you did at GasForce.

Thanks for the comment. When are you publishing your book on the case?

Michelle

By: Jack Fallow

Jack Fallow — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:49:47 +0000

In 1996, a company in the UK, GasForce Ltd, was formed by a buy-out from its parent. In six years, and against industry trends, it turned ?1.4m shareholder capital into ?21.7m. Employment grew from 215 to 400. It won its first quality award in its first year. It won gold safety awards in year three and every year thereafter.

Nothing unusual in this story, except that GasForce was OWNED by the workers. Effectively, the workers could sack any director at 21 days notice.

Individual and group accountability was widespread via the ownership and group bonus structure (no individual bonuses or any of that managerial hocus-pocus was tolerated). However, critical to its success was that it had a clear managerial leadership hierarchy. People knew where they stood.

Was it egalitarian? No. People had their own jobs and relied on one another to deliver in an accountable fashion.

Was the behaviour systems driven? Well yes, because, apart from the ownership structure, we eliminated many of the lie-inducing incentives of the old employer – overtime payments, call out payments, individual bonus structures, quick rewards for recent efforts etc.

Of course, the company didn’t do well in keeping up with the fads and fashions of modern management. They just wanted honesty, clarity and dignity rather than profit…and guess what….the profits flooded in.