Building Organizational Social Capital Through Employee Ownership and Participation in Decision Making 

This workshop will introduce participants to the concept of organizational social capital and how it is related to employee ownership and participation in decision making. Using examples from my research, I’ll show how cooperatives and other employee owned businesses have an advantage over traditionally owned and managed companies in promoting trust, reciprocity and organizational commitment from their members. This workshop will focus on the importance of participation in decision making. Participants will discuss and practice various strategies to increase the level of participation within their own organizations as well as how to avoid potential pitfalls. They will also have an opportunity to learn from each other by sharing with the group specific strategies that their organizations employ.

Bob Levine received his MBA and Ph.D. in sociology from Boston College where his two areas of specialization were organizations and social economy. His dissertation was entitled “The Effects Of Organizational Democracy On Organizational Social Capital.” For his research he worked with small to midsized employee owned companies and compared them to traditionally owned companies with respect to how employee ownership and participation in decision making affected outcomes such as interpersonal trust, reciprocity, organizational identification, and organizational commitment. He has had a long interest in democratic organizations, and currently is a principal in small consulting firm called Innovative Labor Solutions.