The Gain Was Always Shared · Chapter Ten

The Hard Conversations

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

Chapter Ten of The Gain Was Always Shared: Gainsharing from the Scanlon Mill to the Kitchen Table.

Abstract

Every participation system is first a series of conversations, and most of them are harder than the design work. A board has to hear that the firm intends to open part of its books. A union has to hear that management wants its help with productivity, a word with a long and unhappy history. A supervisor has to hear that ideas will now travel past their desk. A partner in a small firm has to hear that the other partner wants to share something both of them have always kept. A family that owns a business has to hear that the people who are not family will see numbers the family has never shown them. And somewhere in the room there is always a sceptic, usually well read, who has a good argument for why none of this will work.

Read the PDFRead the whole bookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989519

Cite this chapter

Santa Anna, A. (2026). The Hard Conversations. In The Gain Was Always Shared. Luminous Prosperity Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23989519

@incollection{santaanna2026the10,
  author    = {Santa Anna, Ammanuel},
  title     = {The Hard Conversations},
  booktitle = {The Gain Was Always Shared},
  chapter   = {10},
  publisher = {Luminous Prosperity Inc.},
  year      = {2026},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23989519},
  url       = {https://business.hautelumiere.life/library/the-gain-was-always-shared/10-the-hard-conversations/}
}

References

  1. Bullock, R. J., & Tubbs, M. E. (1990). A case meta-analysis of gainsharing plans as organization development interventions. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 26(3), 383–404. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886390263011
  2. Kim, D.-O. (1999). Determinants of the survival of gainsharing programs. ILR Review, 53(1), 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979399905300102
  3. Thornicroft, K. W. (1991). Promises kept, promises broken: Reciprocity and the Scanlon plan. Employee Relations, 13(5), 12–21. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425459110000468
  4. Arthur, J. B., & Kim, D.-O. (2005). Gainsharing and knowledge sharing: The effects of labour–management co-operation. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 16(9), 1564–1582. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500239077
  5. Schuster, M. (1984). The Scanlon Plan: A longitudinal analysis. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 20(1), 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/002188638402000107
  6. Kaufman, R. T. (1992). The effects of Improshare on productivity. ILR Review, 45(2), 311–322. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979399204500208
  7. Kandel, E., & Lazear, E. P. (1992). Peer pressure and partnerships. Journal of Political Economy, 100(4), 801–817. https://doi.org/10.1086/261840
  8. Welbourne, T. M., & Ferrante, C. J. (2008). To monitor or not to monitor: A study of individual outcomes from monitoring one's peers under gainsharing and merit pay. Group & Organization Management, 33(2), 139–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601107313308
  9. Lazear, E. P. (2000). Performance pay and productivity. American Economic Review, 90(5), 1346–1361. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.90.5.1346

Every chapter of The Gain Was Always Shared

  1. Chapter OneWho Holds What a Firm Learnsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989505
  2. Chapter TwoThe Mill That Asked Firstdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989508
  3. Chapter ThreeWhere the Gain Goes Missingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989509
  4. Chapter FourA Firm Has a Circulationdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989510
  5. Chapter FiveTwenty-One Defects in a Thousanddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989511
  6. Chapter SixTalk Is the First Returndoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989514
  7. Chapter SevenPromises, Prices and the Operating Roomdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989515
  8. Chapter EightThe Field Manualdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989517
  9. Chapter NineHow to Know It Workeddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989518
  10. Chapter TenThe Hard Conversationsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989519
  11. Chapter ElevenOne Person's Gaindoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989520
  12. Chapter TwelveThe Gain Was Always Shareddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989521
  13. AppendixThe Workbookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989522

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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.