Watermark Credit Union To Improve Efficiency With
Principles Developed By Participative Management Guru
Joe Scanlon In The 1930s
Seattle, Washington.............................November 23, 2005

Watermark Credit Union employees voted overwhelmingly in favor of adopting a plan to improve efficiency and cut un-necessary expenditures. The plan, which was also unanimously supported by the credit union's Board of Directors, was created by a team of employees and uses the principles developed by Joe Scanlon. He was a steelworker and an accountant who became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Scanlon was a leading exponent of using the full talents of workers to create organizations of exceptional efficiency and is today known as the father of participative management.

Watermark's plan, called EPIC for its four component principles of Equity, Participation, Identity and Competence, creates a way for employees to be fully involved in improving how the organization operates. Each department will elect members who will review and approve suggestions that cut waste or improve processes. An essential part of the plan is the way that the organization and employees will share savings from these improvements equally.

Many companies in America use Scanlon principles, but according to the Scanlon leadership Network, Watermark Credit Union is the first financial services organization to do so.