Ecstatic Economics

Owning the Work

Employee Ownership, Profit Sharing and What the Evidence Shows

Ammanuel Santa Anna · ORCID 0009-0008-3244-0306

Abstract

An owner at a desk with last year's accounts, a worker holding units he cannot value, a leader told that ownership culture is the answer: this book is for all three. Where the idea came from, what the best evidence says, where it goes wrong, and how a firm or a household can begin. Employee ownership, profit sharing and what the evidence shows: thirteen chapters, a tool in each, and a workbook.

Cite this book

Santa Anna, A. (2026). Owning the Work: Employee Ownership, Profit Sharing and What the Evidence Shows. Luminous Prosperity Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23988988

@book{santaanna2026owning,
  author    = {Santa Anna, Ammanuel},
  title     = {Owning the Work: Employee Ownership, Profit Sharing and What the Evidence Shows},
  publisher = {Luminous Prosperity Inc.},
  year      = {2026},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23988988},
  url       = {https://business.hautelumiere.life/library/owning-the-work/}
}

References

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  2. Kruse, D. L., Freeman, R. B., & Blasi, J. R. (Eds.). (2010). Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee Ownership, Profit and Gain Sharing, and Broad-Based Stock Options. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226056968.001.0001
  3. Blasi, J., & Kruse, D. (2017). An American historical perspective on employee ownership. In The Oxford Handbook of Mutual, Co-Operative, and Co-Owned Business. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199684977.013.8
  4. Freeman, R. B., Kruse, D. L., & Blasi, J. R. (2008). Worker Responses to Shirking under Shared Capitalism (NBER Working Paper 14227). https://doi.org/10.3386/w14227
  5. Kruse, D. L., Freeman, R. B., & Blasi, J. R. (2008). Do Workers Gain by Sharing? Employee Outcomes under Employee Ownership, Profit Sharing, and Broad-based Stock Options (NBER Working Paper 14233). https://doi.org/10.3386/w14233
  6. Kruse, D. L., & Blasi, J. R. (1995). Employee Ownership, Employee Attitudes, and Firm Performance (NBER Working Paper 5277). https://doi.org/10.3386/w5277
  7. Pendleton, A., & Robinson, A. (2010). Employee stock ownership, involvement, and productivity: An interaction-based approach. ILR Review, 64(1), 3–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979391006400101
  8. Blair, M. M., Kruse, D. L., & Blasi, J. R. (2000). Employee Ownership: An Unstable Form or a Stabilizing Force? SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.142146
  9. Errasti, A., Bretos, I., & Nunez, A. (2017). The viability of cooperatives: The fall of the Mondragon cooperative Fagor. Review of Radical Political Economics, 49(2), 181–197. https://doi.org/10.1177/0486613416666533
  10. Errasti, A., Bretos, I., & Etxezarreta, E. (2016). What do Mondragon coopitalist multinationals look like? The rise and fall of Fagor Electrodomésticos S. Coop. and its European subsidiaries. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 87(3), 433–456. https://doi.org/10.1111/apce.12137
  11. Kim, E. H., & Ouimet, P. (2014). Broad-based employee stock ownership: Motives and outcomes. The Journal of Finance, 69(3), 1273–1319. https://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.12150
  12. Kurtulus, F. A., & Kruse, D. L. (2017). How Did Employee Ownership Firms Weather the Last Two Recessions? Employee Ownership, Employment Stability, and Firm Survival: 1999–2011. W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. https://doi.org/10.17848/9780880995276
  13. Kruse, D. L. (1991). Profit-sharing and employment variability: Microeconomic evidence on the Weitzman theory. ILR Review, 44(3), 437–453. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979399104400303
  14. Kruse, D. L. (1993). Does Profit Sharing Affect Productivity? (NBER Working Paper 4542). https://doi.org/10.3386/w4542
  15. Doucouliagos, C. (1995). Worker participation and productivity in labor-managed and participatory capitalist firms: A meta-analysis. ILR Review, 49(1), 58–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979399504900104
  16. O'Boyle, E. H., Patel, P. C., & Gonzalez-Mulé, E. (2016). Employee ownership and firm performance: A meta-analysis. Human Resource Management Journal, 26(4), 425–448. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12115
  17. Kurtulus, F. A., & Kruse, D. L. (2017). How Did Employee Ownership Firms Weather the Last Two Recessions? W. E. Upjohn Institute. https://doi.org/10.17848/9780880995276

The chapters

  1. Chapter OneWho Holds a Sharedoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989565
  2. Chapter TwoA Share in the Placedoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989566
  3. Chapter ThreeEvery Egg, One Basketdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989567
  4. Chapter FourThreats From, Threats Todoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989568
  5. Chapter FiveA Bakery's Arithmeticdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989569
  6. Chapter SixFour Houses That Kept Their Purposedoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989570
  7. Chapter SevenTwo Beginnings in 1956doi:10.5281/zenodo.23989571
  8. Chapter EightThe Field Manualdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989572
  9. Chapter NineKnowing Whether It Workeddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989573
  10. Chapter TenThe Hard Conversationsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989574
  11. Chapter ElevenOne Person's Sharedoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989576
  12. Chapter TwelveThe Roots Under the Standdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989014
  13. Chapter ThirteenWhat Moves Between the Rootsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989016
  14. The WorkbookEvery Tool, and Ninety Daysdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989020

The other books in the library

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  2. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyChange That Staysdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989557
  3. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business Methodology · Book TwoEarneddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989328
  4. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IEnough by Designdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989348
  5. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyLuminous Integral Leadershipdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989368
  6. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Morphic Marketing SeriesLuminous Morphic Marketingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989389
  7. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business Methodology · Book OneMindful Leadership Masterydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989430
  8. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Channel Keeps Itdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989022
  9. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Customer Already Told Youdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989055
  10. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IIIThe Economy That Keeps Becomingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989451
  11. Ecstatic Economics · Volume VThe Embedded Marketdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989474
  12. Ecstatic Economics · Volume VIThe Gain Was Always Shareddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989502
  13. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Long Clockdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989072
  14. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Manager's Weekdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989102
  15. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IIThe Pasture Was Never Emptydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989523
  16. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Price Nobody Chargeddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989120
  17. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Second Briefdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989141
  18. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IVThe Standing Forestdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989542
  19. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Strategy That Reaches the Floordoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989179
  20. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyWhere the Flow Stopsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989196
  21. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyWho Decidesdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989215

The licence

Free to read, share, quote, translate and teach, non-commercially, for ever, under the Luminous Library Licence 1.0. Every other right is the Author’s. Deposited on Zenodo in the Luminous Prosperity community.