ownership of companies

Gen Mgt

the possession of shares in companies. Company ownership structures can differ widely. Owners of public companies may be institutions, or individuals, or a mixture of both. Directors are often offered company shares as incentives and more participative companies may offer shares to employees through employee ownership plans. Private companies are usually owned by individuals, families, or groups of individual shareholders. Nationalized industries are publicly owned. Cooperatives are wholly owned by employees. A separation between the ownership and control of companies became a widely discussed issue during the 20th century, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom where shareholders have tended to be more passive. Managers were viewed as having come to occupy controlling positions as the scale of industry grew. From the 1980s, this position changed to some extent as privatization, management buyouts, restructuring, and share incentive schemes led to greater share ownership among managers and produced less passive shareholders.