A Better Way of Doing Business?: Lessons from The John Lewis Partnership
Graeme Salaman and John Storey
Abstract
The book is a rich account and analysis of the John Lewis Partnership. The JLP is well-known, revered, and admired, enjoying an enviable reputation for commercial success and principled business practice. And yet, among the public, commentators, and government, it is not known well at all. This book offers a deeper, more analytical understanding, revealing the tensions and dilemmas that characterize even this most well-intentioned of organizations. The US/UK model of the firm, emphasizing shareholder value and openness to the market, is prone to a number of problematic consequences, for employ ... More
The book is a rich account and analysis of the John Lewis Partnership. The JLP is well-known, revered, and admired, enjoying an enviable reputation for commercial success and principled business practice. And yet, among the public, commentators, and government, it is not known well at all. This book offers a deeper, more analytical understanding, revealing the tensions and dilemmas that characterize even this most well-intentioned of organizations. The US/UK model of the firm, emphasizing shareholder value and openness to the market, is prone to a number of problematic consequences, for employees, suppliers, and sometimes shareholders. JLP represents a contrast to this model—one with implications beyond the small niche of mutually-owned firms. JLP has lessons for organizations that are unlikely to move towards the Partnership’s distinctive shared ownership; this book identifies these lessons. Key questions addressed include: how does JLP work in practice? What is the link between co-ownership, the JLP employment model, and the performance of the businesses? What is the role of management in the success of John Lewis and Waitrose? Are mutuality, co-ownership, and business performance at odds? What is the significance of democracy within JLP? And probably most significantly: what are the implications for policy-makers, managers, and economic agents of the JLP? This book is based on detailed knowledge of the JLP and its constituent business gathered by the authors over a fifteen-year period. They conclude that JLP is more complex, more impressive, and more interesting than its admirers realize.
Keywords:
governance,
employee ownership,
industrial democracy,
partnership,
business performance,
shareholder value,
stakeholder capitalism,
accountability,
leadership,
financialization
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198782827 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198782827.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Graeme Salaman, author
Emeritus Professor of Organisation Studies, Business School, The Open University
John Storey, author
Professor of Management, Business School, The Open University
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