Employee Ownership and Effect on Attitude Essay

Employee Ownership and Effect on Attitude - Essay Example Majority believe that employees sharing ownership tend to be hard workers who subsequently pay more attention to the quality of the work that they deliver compared to their non-owner counterparts. Moreover, Keef (1998) further asserts that employ owners are also highly inclined to vote their shares for the interest of an organization. Klein (1987) also recognizes certain sociological effects of employee share ownership within an organization. He posits that allowing employees to some ownership of a company is a form of wealth distribution among workers and consequently enhance the wide and equitable distribution of the products of economic success. Consequently, this also serves to reduce possible management or labour-related conflicts. Some proponents of the employee ownership have also approached the issue from a political stance and have viewed the strategy as a symbol of economic democracy within an organization. Nevertheless, there have been a number of concerns that have been r aised by the opponents of employee ownership. Most have argued that by allowing employees to own a stake in an organization, they are likely to be exposed to unwarranted risks. In addition, there will also be a likelihood of an increase of management and labour-related conflicts. ... companies. Employee ownership can take place in a number of ways. The process is usually multidimensional in its approach. When talking about employee ownership, there are four major aspects that normally come in mind. To begin with, the first dimension of employee ownership is the determination of the percentage of workers who will actively participate in ownership of the firm. Another aspect to be taken into account when making decision pertaining to employee ownership is the percentage of ownership to be held by employees within an organization. Similarly, prior to allowing employees to have the legal ownership of a company’s shares, the rights and privileges employees will have as result of owning a stake in the company will also be determined. The rights and privileges held by the employees are usually determined by the manner in which the employees own the company’s shares (Trewhitt, 2000). Employees can assume either direct or indirect ownership of a company. In indirect ownership of a company, the employees own the company’s stocks through a workers trust, whereas for direct ownership, employees can willingly purchase or sale a company’s stocks. Kruse (2002) affirms that nearly 7.7% percent of all workers in the private sector in the U.S. own shares in their companies either directly or indirectly, a figure that translates to nearly 20 million workers. According to Vuaghan (1995) employee ownership may have a positive effect on behaviour and attitude of employees on the condition that such employees regard the value of their ownership as a means for greater income and job security. On the contrary, it may pose very little or no effect on their attitude and behaviour or even have a negative influence on the same if the