3.3 Employee Ownership, B Corps, ...
Steward-ownership & other models
The realm of “alternative” company models – alternative as in, not like shareholder primacy models – is wide and complicated. The following outlines some of the models available to companies to be chosen and combined.
Models targeting ownership
Employee ownership means employees collectively own the company, but ownership can take different forms. It can either be structured as wealth-ownership, where employees share in profits and sometimes the financial value of the company, as in ESOPs, stock options with employees or certain types of cooperatives. This can make sense where the vision is to create equity for employees. This form can or cannot include voting rights.
The other option is to structure employee-ownership as steward-ownership, where employees collectively own control over a company with limited or no profit rights and no commodification of the company, as is the case in many Employee Ownership Trusts and certain types of cooperatives.
The same – structuring as wealth-ownership with or without voting rights or as steward-ownership – applies to mutual / user ownership, where the company is mutually owned by customers or users of the company, and to family ownership, where a family owns the company and passes it on within the family.
Models targeting standards of conduct
Where ownership models like steward-ownership decide who has rights and control, models targeting the standards of conduct are certifications that look at how the business behaves and is accountable. While some consider corporate ownership structures as one of the certification criteria, the certification works regardless of ownership.
Taking B Corps or companies certified with Economy for the Common Good standards as examples, the model requires that companies demonstrate their impact in several different categories in which they are assessed/ scored. If the score is high enough, they are certified. The information and certification process is transparent, so employees and customers can make decisions based on the certification, while entrepreneurs can draw conclusions and see improvements. The upholding and re-certification is voluntary, so future company leaders can decide to continue or exit the certification.
Steward-ownership and other ownership models can be combined with any certification methods – but it is a fundamentally different approach. Where the lever for change in models targeting standards of conduct lies in measuring output, evaluating how well the company performs in various categories, and its measurement and ranking, steward-ownership starts at the ownership level as the base of corporate behavior.