Mary Ann Beyster Speaks at ESOP Association Annual Conference

Mary Ann Beyster was the featured luncheon speaker at the 32nd ESOP Association Annual Conference in Washington D.C. The presentation was titled "Applied Research & Education on Broad-Based Ownership to Shape Our Next Generation Leadership."

While various aspects of employee-ownership have been widely studied, Mary Ann spoke of the need to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach in the research of broad-based employee ownership in response to changing business environment. There are many models of employee-ownership that exist in both publicly traded and closely held companies in the United States. We know that when it works, it is not one single mechanism (options, ESOP, etc.), discipline, or functional area (HR, leadership, accounting) that makes a difference in how employee-ownership works, but the connections among many mechanisms, disciplines or functions that are most important for success. This requires systems thinking.

She also pointed to the current lack of a comprehensive and integrated curriculum on broad-based ownership, especially when it is estimated that over 50% of U.S. employees in the private sector (i.e., not including government and non-profits) have some form of shared capitalism in their companies. The goal is to generate applied research studies that would advance understanding of how broad-based ownership works and to integrate these research findings into the educational curriculum, enabling more students and entrepreneurs to be exposed to ownership principles that will lead to more sustained personal, firm, and economic success.

Mary Ann spotlighted the research projects currently performed by universities involved with the Beyster Fellowship Program (link to Beyster Fellowship sub page), and ground-breaking initiatives by the Aspen Institute like the Curriculum Library on Employee Ownership (CLEO) within CasePlace.org and the newly established Shared Capitalism Through Employee Ownership dissertation award program.