Resource Library
A growing collection of timeless insights, resources, and tools capturing the legacy of the Scanlon Leadership Network.
The Scanlon Leadership Archive is a living collection of documents, videos, podcasts, and tools that preserve and extend the legacy of one of the most enduring movements in organizational management — the Scanlon Plan. It exists because great ideas deserve to be found.
This is a curated, searchable library of primary and secondary resources documenting the Scanlon tradition from its origins in 1930s labor-management cooperation through its evolution into a comprehensive leadership philosophy practiced by organizations worldwide.
The archive draws together materials that have previously existed only in filing cabinets, institutional memories, and private collections — newsletters from the 1990s, landmark case studies, foundational essays, practitioner interviews, and training tools developed over decades of field work. Brought together in one place, they tell a coherent story about what it looks like when organizations genuinely trust their people.
Resources are organized by category and tagged against the EPIC framework — the four principles (Equity, Participation, Identity, Competence) — so visitors can explore thematically or browse the full collection.
Joe Scanlon was a steelworker, union leader, and later a lecturer at MIT whose ideas about labor-management cooperation were radical in his time and remain quietly revolutionary today. His core insight was simple: the people doing the work know the most about how to improve it, and organizations that ignore that knowledge leave enormous value — human and financial — on the table.
From that insight grew a full management philosophy: gainsharing plans that distribute productivity gains equitably; participative committees that give employees meaningful voice; identity-building practices that connect people to organizational purpose; and competence development that treats every worker as worth investing in.
“Every man a capitalist” — the idea that every person should be a genuine stakeholder in the enterprise they give their working life to.
— Joe Scanlon, foundational principle
Scanlon’s ideas influenced the development of Japanese Lean manufacturing, shaped management practices at iconic American companies like Herman Miller, Donnelly Corporation, and Landscape Forms, and continue to inform how forward-thinking organizations design work today.
All resources in the archive are tagged against one or more of the four EPIC principles — the conceptual pillars of the Scanlon approach.
Meeting the needs of Customers, Investors and Employees. Fair sharing of gains, risks and information. Scanlon organizations distribute the fruits of improved performance — financially and otherwise — to customers, employees and investors.
Genuine employee voice in decisions that affect their work. Real authority and accountability at every level of the organization — not consultation theater.
Clarity of organizational purpose, values, and belonging. People work best when they understand why their organization exists and feel genuinely connected to its mission.
Commitment to developing the skills and knowledge of every person in the organization. Learning is treated as a strategic imperative, not a perk.
The archive spans eight categories, ranging from foundational theory to practitioner tools, across multiple formats.
Highlights include the full Max DePree interview series on servant leadership; employee-produced videos from Wescast Industries; CEO testimonials from Donnelly Corporation, Landscape Forms, SGS Tools, Lorin Industries, and Thomson-Shore; foundational texts by Dr. Carl Frost; the original Fortune Magazine article that helped launch the movement; a complete Hoshin Kanri strategic planning system with coordinator guide, leader guide, goal tracking template, and training overheads; and the definitive EPIC Leadership guidebook synthesizing decades of research and practice.
This archive is designed for anyone who believes the relationship between organizations and the people inside them can — and should — be better.
Practitioners implementing or renewing a Scanlon Plan will find implementation roadmaps, sample agreements, measurement guides, and case studies from organizations that have done it successfully. Leaders wrestling with culture, engagement, or transformation will find a coherent philosophical framework backed by decades of evidence. Researchers and students will find primary sources and practitioner voices unavailable anywhere else in one place. And anyone curious about why some workplaces feel fundamentally more alive and trusting will find the answer here.
Browse the full collection, filter by theme or format, and discover where the Scanlon tradition can take your organization.
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