is for the employees to form a new company, and purchase the production facilities where they work a single plant, as opposed to the purchase of an entire corporation unless a corporation's production facilities consisted of only one plant (Leopold, 1984, p. 16). In some cases, however, the nature of the business involved dictates the acquisition of an entire corporation in a worker buy out (Business Week, 1984, p. 157).
The wisdom of worker ownership of employing firms is disputed. Many spokespersons for management tend to disparage the potential for success of such ventures (Baldwin, 1984, pp. 108 111). Other analysts, however, can point to successful employee owned firms (Greider, 1984, p. 79). The advocates of worker ownership claim that both motivation and productivity are improved under such arrangements, while opponents of employee ownership of the firms for which they work dismiss such claims.
A failed employee owned firm, however, does not, of necessity, indicate that employee motivation and
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