A Hotel in Cambodia Where Employees Think and Act Like Owners
Executive Director
On July 5, National Public Radio (NPR) ran a story about Soria Moria, an employee-owned hotel in Cambodia, just outside the famous Angkor Wat temple complex. The two original owners of the hotel are Norweigians who intend to move back home and decided that the next owners should be the employees. The NPR story covers the transaction and, even more interestingly, the changes in mindset that it created for both employees and the original owners.
Reporter Daniel Zwerdling describes some employee-owners' view of founder Kristen Hansen as a "benevolent monarch." He also describes a company meeting where employees voted to adopt a proposal that Hansen opposed, a watershed moment that created a new feeling of ownership among employees. Bartender Lous Dalish says, "I am one of the owner[s]. So I have the right to choose. I have confidence to express my ideas, to make decision[s]."