The culture of UK employee-owned worker cooperatives

Purpose – This paper presents exploratory, empirical data from a three-year study of organizational culture in for-profit, employee-owned businesses within the UK, comparing ownership types (direct, trust, and cooperative). It outlines the study and then focuses on worker cooperatives. Culture is illuminated through the lens of performance and reward management. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative data was gathered from three worker cooperatives based in the North of England, using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document review and was compared to qualitative data collected from other types of employee-owned businesses. Findings – The findings suggest a distinct culture within worker cooperatives encompassing five key values: a whole life perspective, consistently shared values, self-ownership, self-control, and secure employment. Research limitations/implications – Additional time with each cooperative and a greater spread of cooperatives would be beneficial. The research was carried out during a period of organizational growth for the case organizations, which may influence attitudes to reward and retention management. Practical implications – The results inform recruitment and retention policy and practice within worker cooperatives and highlight concerns regarding the stresses of being a self-owner. These are important considerations for potential worker co-operatives alongside policy recommendations to advance employee ownership. Originality/value – A comparative analysis of culture, performance, and rewards across different employee ownership types has not been undertaken before. This addresses an under-researched area of employee ownership regarding HR practices. Within the UK, recent research on the culture(s) of worker cooperatives is limited

A Letter to Mr. Robertson from Dr. John Wren- Lewis

The contents of this letter regards what could be found out about the views of H.D. Noone and his relationship with Kilton Stewart. The letter also raises questions about Noone that Mr. Robertson may be able to answer. It lists the areas in which the writer would be interested in Robertson’s thoughts, such as the mystery of the 1934 and 1939 lectures. Accompanying the letter is the extract from a manuscript of a proposed book on “Dreams and the Creative Process” in which Wren-Lewis asks for Robertson’s opinion

A Letter to Mr. Robertson Regarding Stewart Wavell

This letter discusses the excitement of John Wren-Lewis on hearing of Stewart Wavell’s experiences with the Temiar from an extract sent to him by Mr. Eric Robertson

‘Socio-economic and livelihood impacts of environmentally supportive bio-enterprise development for the agro-/pastoral communities in Samburu Heartland, Kenya’.

The question of agro/pastoral livelihoods adaptation is gaining attention in the rural development arena but little empirical evidence exists that has examined the performance and impact of diversified enterprises on agro/pastoral livelihoods and the environment in the ASAL, and on how to effectively support such initiatives. Additionally, there has been little evaluation of the type of behavioural patterns that agro/pastoral communities need to evolve in order to engage in such initiatives. This research study endeavours to bridge this knowledge-gap and assist the ASAL communities, NGOs, CBOs and government departments to understand the skills and resources required to develop climate-resilient, environmentally and economically sustainable bio-enterprises. This study examines the roles of bio-enterprise initiatives in enabling agro/pastoralists to develop more resilient livelihoods and incentivising positive community-led natural resource management and draws on different bio-enterprise initiatives located across the drylands of Kenya. In this study data was collected through interviews, focus group discussions and from secondary data. The analysis of four agro/pastoral bio-enterprise initiatives compares the level of success of specifically orientated development-funded support schemes. A more in-depth study was made of one of the initiatives, the BDP. Two surveys were made one year apart and secondary data was collected of the BDP impact. This highlighted the probable factors that influence the communities’ up-take of these bio-enterprises. Results show that this diversification requires stakeholders and support-actors to gain a greater understanding of business development approaches. Other factors such as capacity development to ensure production meets market standards, strong linkages with ethical commercial operators, access to trade-finance and ongoing mentoring proved to be the main drivers of success in these initiatives. The results show that the outputs of the BDP service-providing activities and the ethical trade facilities have been a major factor in the level of success achieved by the BDP. The main policy implications that this study has shown are: Agro/pastoralists realise that they can improve their resilience, food security and incomes by developing bio-enterprises. If conducted using conservation practices, this is an effective conservation and drought management tool. Communities do not possess the necessary skills and business acumen to diversify from traditional activities. Due to the lack of market knowledge, business acumen and technical skills many development and government instigated rural enterprise initiatives have failed. The commercial sector has strong transferable skills and will assist in developing bio-enterprises where commercial gains can be attained. This study has shown that where government, development and the private sector work in synergy projects are more socially, environmentally and economically successful. International standards and certification for sustainable harvesting of indigenous plant materials will effectively assist communities to manage their natural resource utilization and market their products more competitively. Women have shown that they have control over small-scale diversified activities and are able to choose how to use the revenue they have raised. Due to the orientation of agro/pastoralists to collective-action a wide ripple-effect can be seen from well-targeted business development assistance such as: mentoring, skills development, access to affordable trade finance/capital, improved market opportunities and value-addition.Non

Emergency locating transmitter

A transmitter generates three signals for sequential transmission. These signal are an unmodulated r.f. carrier, a r.f. carrier amplitude modulated by a first audio frequency waveform and a r.f. carrier amplitude modulated by a second audio frequency waveform which is distinguishable from the first and which may be employed as a means for identifying a particular transmitter. The composite, sequentially transmitted signal may be varied in terms of the individual signal transmission sequence, the duration of the individual signals, overall composite signal repetition rate and the frequency of the second audio waveform. Various combinations of signal variations may be employed to transmit different information

A Letter to Mr. Robertson from John Wren-Lewis

This letter concerns Dr.John Wren-Lewis introducing himself to Mr. Robertson in the hope that Robertson may confirm the stories behind the Senoi “dream tribe” and H.D. Noone

A Letter to Mrs. Robertson from Dr. John Wren- Lewis

This letter highlights the trip into the Malay jungle by Dr. John Wren-Lewis, obtaining up-to-date photographs of the Temiar as well as some valuable historic photographs from a Malay civil servant. He also requests any reminiscences from Mrs. Robertson

Informational Rents and Discretionary Industrial Assistance

The paper analyses the existence and efficiency of discretionary industrial assistance schemes under asymmetric information between an uninformed government and a uniform distribution of firms with differing productivities. Discretionary assistance allows the government to scrutinise projects in an effort to learn the type to reduce the 'informational rents' of automatic assistance, where firms take up any contract on offer. Two discretionary grant schemes are analysed, which either exclude 'non-additional' projects or reduce the assistance to the minimum necessary for a project to proceed. The paper finds the conditions under which discretionary assistance exists and is more efficient than automatic assistance.subsidies, asymmetric information, discretionary assistance, investment grants