Our Share: Employee Ownership as a Wealth Sharing Tool

About this course

In this course, you will learn about a well-researched tool for building a more equitable economy: “employee ownership.” You will learn what it is, how it differs from traditional business ownership models, and the forms it can take. You will learn how employee ownership can share wealth and profits with employees--while making businesses more productive. You will learn what the research shows about the benefits of this tool for employees, retiring business owners, and the economy. Whatever your interest in the topic, you’ll find information here that you can use. If you are a business owner or entrepreneur, you will learn why employee ownership could be a solution that benefits you and your employees. If you are an employee of a business, you will learn how you could gain an ownership stake in the business and what that would mean. If you are a student, this course is relevant to numerous fields including human resources management, strategy, entrepreneurship, organizations, history, economics, community economic development, labor studies, sociology, and more. If you are simply someone interested in tested real-world solutions to economic inequality, or concerned about social justice, this course is for you as well. By the end of the course, you will know key questions to ask to determine whether employee ownership may be suitable for your workplace. This course was developed by the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing with support from the Beyster Foundation for Enterprise Development.

Course objectives

• examine the differences between employee ownership and traditional business models
• analyze research on employee ownership's benefits
• consider employee ownership as a solution for economic inequality