Kelso Fellows from SU Share Workforce Development, Employee Ownership Research

SALISBURY, MD---Members of Salisbury University’s Franklin P. Perdue School of Business recently participated in the Mid-Year Fellows Workshop in Honor of Louis O. Kelso, hosted by the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations.

The annual event focuses on the study of employee ownership and brings together Employee Ownership Foundation/Louis O. Kelso Fellowship recipients whose scholarship has advanced that field of study. The eponymous workshop and fellowship are named in memory of the 20th century economist and attorney.

Dr. Valerie Whitcomb, academic instruction program designer in the Perdue School and two-time Employee Ownership Foundation and Louis O. Kelso Fellow, was a discussant during the panel “Book Talk: Employee Ownership in the Americas: A Path to Shared Prosperity.” Recently published by ITESO, Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara, Mexico, the book focuses on how employee ownership may help improve economic and social circumstances among populations in Central and South America.

In 2022 and 2023, she presented her collection of teaching cases at several Fellowship conferences, each of which were published at the Curriculum Library of Employee Ownership (CLEO). Her case “Putting the ‘High Performance’ in Workforce Development,” designed for business students, has been accessed over 250 times.    

Dr. Frank Shipper, SU professor emeritus of management and a Kelso Fellow, is featured in Employee Ownership in the Americas as co-author of the chapter “Practices of Freedom-Based Employee Ownership Enterprises, Their Employees and Leaders” with William Nobles, former vice president of information systems at ExxonMobil Corp. Their observations are based primarily on case studies and other research conducted by Shipper and his colleagues.

At the workshop, Shipper served as a discussant during the panel “Span of Control and Employee engagement: A Field Experiment” and provided an update on his ongoing research.

He also recently was designated as an expert contributor by Business Fights Poverty, which partners with individuals and academic centers such as Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Harvard University’s Kennedy School Corporate Responsibility Initiative to fulfil a shared vision of an equitable, resilient, and sustainable future.

In addition, Shipper was an invited expert contributor for a recent Zoom conference to share insights, co-create solutions and deepen relationships that are central to building a more equitable and resilient future. In addition, a case co-authored by Shipper and Dr. Richard Hoffman, SU professor emeritus of management, “Haier’s GE Appliance Division: Acquisition and Outlook,” was selected as one of the top 10 in the 2024 John Molson M.B.A. International Case Competition (ICC) Case Writing Competition. Participation will result in international distribution of their research.

Shipper’s research has been presented at many venues, including the Beyster Symposiums at the University of California, San Diego; at the Saïd Business School’s Business Fights Poverty Conferences and the Kellogg College’s Rutgers-Oxford Employee Ownership Research Symposium both at the University of Oxford; the International Rendanheyi Model Forum in Qingdao, China; and Academy of Management’s annual meetings.

His studies also have been referenced by national media, including MSNBC and The Wall Street Journal, and featured in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations’ Curriculum Library for Employee Ownership, the largest global online library on employee ownership, among other notable outlets. For over 30 years, his colleagues and he have promoted effective inclusion, diversity and equity practices through their teaching and dissemination internationally of their research.  

In 2022, he was awarded Rutgers’ William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King White Book Prize for the book Shared Entrepreneurship: A Path to Engaged Employee Ownership, for which he served as editor and coauthor.

Learn more about SU and opportunities to Make Tomorrow Yours at the SU website.