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1 – 10 of over 15000Profit‐sharing and employee share ownership schemes have attracted great interest in the 1980s. The findings of the first phase of a Department of Employment study which involved…
Abstract
Profit‐sharing and employee share ownership schemes have attracted great interest in the 1980s. The findings of the first phase of a Department of Employment study which involved a large‐scale investigation of British companies is reported. Details on the operation, coverage and type of scheme which had been adopted were gathered for 822 firms and extended interviews were conducted with a further 303 firms. A highly varied rate of adoption of schemes in different industrial sectors and with diverse economic and industrial relations experiences is revealed. If further advances in profit‐sharing and share ownership are considered to be worthwhile, policy initiatives should be centred on the medium and smaller companies in Britain. Considerable efforts outside the financial sector are necessary to effect any marked acceleration of profit‐sharing and share ownership. If future developments are envisaged senior management of the main types of enterprise are a vital target group. Foreign‐based companies should also be encouraged to embark on profit‐sharing or share ownership. If the advancement of more specific Inland Revenue APS schemes is to become general policy, information and advice for companies outside the financial sector is needed.
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FAYEZ A. ELAYAN, JAMMY S.C. LAU and THOMAS O. MEYER
Incentive‐based executive compensation is regarded as a mechanism for alleviating agency problems between executives and shareholders. Seventy‐three New Zealand (NZ) listed…
Abstract
Incentive‐based executive compensation is regarded as a mechanism for alleviating agency problems between executives and shareholders. Seventy‐three New Zealand (NZ) listed companies are used to examine the relationship between executive incentive compensation schemes (ICS) and firm performance. The results suggest that neither compensation level nor adoption of an ICS are significantly related to returns to shareholders or ROA. However, there is a statistically significant relationship between Tobin's q and both CEO compensation and executive share ownership. Further, the evidence suggests the recent compensation disclosure requirements in NZ are not yet stringent enough to allow adequate analysis of the link between ICSs and corporate performance.
Erik Poutsma, Paul E. M. Ligthart and Ulke Veersma
Taking an international comparative approach, this chapter investigates the variance in the adoption of employee share ownership and stock option arrangements across countries. In…
Abstract
Taking an international comparative approach, this chapter investigates the variance in the adoption of employee share ownership and stock option arrangements across countries. In particular, we investigate the influence of multinational enterprises (MNEs), industrial relations factors, HRM strategies, and market economies on the adoption and spread of the arrangements across countries. We find that industrial relations factors do not explain the variance in adoption by companies in their respective countries. MNEs and HRM strategies are important drivers of adoption. Market economy does not moderate the influence of MNEs on adoption, suggesting that MNEs universally apply the arrangements across borders.
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Héctor Simón Moreno, Núria Lambea Llop and Rosa Maria Garcia Teruel
The global economic crisis and the housing bubble meltdown have had a significant impact on the Spanish property market. As a result, the homeownership–tenancy dichotomy has…
Abstract
Purpose
The global economic crisis and the housing bubble meltdown have had a significant impact on the Spanish property market. As a result, the homeownership–tenancy dichotomy has become a matter of discussion, and efforts are made to discover formulas that provide affordable, stable and flexible housing access. Taking this background into account, the Catalan lawmaker has implemented the so-called “intermediate tenures” (temporal ownership and shared ownership) into the Catalan Civil Code, which are conceived as a middle ground between ownership and renting. This paper aims to explores how these “intermediate tenures” work.
Design/methodology/approach
These tenures are conceived as a middle ground between ownership and renting and may be used for a variety of purposes. As the Catalan lawmaker has fragmented the right of ownership on the basis of English law, which is a great breakthrough regarding the long-standing conception of the right of ownership in continental legal systems, the paper explores how these “intermediate tenures” work, as regulated in Act 19/2015, in a comparative perspective.
Findings
The paper offers an overview of how these “intermediate tenures” are regulated and which are the problems arising from legislation and the potential uses.
Originality/value
As the temporal ownership confers on the titleholder the domain of an asset for a specifically defined period of time, it does not conform to the right of ownership as it is currently conceived in continental European legal systems, given that it is based on the English leasehold; shared ownership confers on the buyer a property share in the thing, entitling him to the full possession, use and exclusive enjoyment of the thing and to gradually acquire the remaining share. Both are based on the English shared ownership scheme and leasehold, and are legal transplants worth to be analysed.
J. Hyman, H. Ramsay, J. Leopold, L. Baddon and L.C. Hunter
There has been a considerable amount of interest in employee shareownership schemes in the last few years, and this has been mirrored byan increase in publications relating to the…
Abstract
There has been a considerable amount of interest in employee share ownership schemes in the last few years, and this has been mirrored by an increase in publications relating to the subject. However, the authors argue that this literature leaves much to be desired, in particular in its implicit assumption that management and employee interests will converge with share ownership. The evidence from two of their case studies indicates a divergence between management objectives and employee responses. It also suggests that trade union attitudes to share ownership may be changing as well.
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Keith Whitfield, Andrew Pendleton, Sukanya Sengupta and Katy Huxley
A range of studies have shown that performance is typically higher in organisations with employee share ownership (ESO) schemes in place. Many possible causal mechanisms…
Abstract
Purpose
A range of studies have shown that performance is typically higher in organisations with employee share ownership (ESO) schemes in place. Many possible causal mechanisms explaining this relationship have been suggested. These include a reduction in labour turnover, synergies with other forms of productivity-enhancing communication and participation schemes, and synergies with employer-provided training. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper empirically assesses these potential linkages using data from the 2004 and 2011 British Workplace Employment Relations Surveys, and provides comparisons with earlier analyses conducted on the 1990 and 1998 versions of the survey.
Findings
Substantial differences are found between the 2004 and 2011 results: a positive relationship between ESO and workplace productivity and financial performance, observed in 2004, is no longer present in 2011. In both years, ESO is found to have no clear relationship with labour turnover, and there is no significant association between turnover and performance. There is, however, a positive moderating relationship with downward communication schemes in 2004 and in 2011 in the case of labour productivity. There is no corresponding relationship for upward involvement schemes.
Research limitations/implications
The results are only partially supportive of extant theory and its various predictions, and the relationship between ESO and performance seems to have weakened over time.
Originality/value
The study further questions the rhetoric offered in support of wider ESO.
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Group incentive schemes have been shown to be positively associated with firm performance but it remains an open question whether this association can be explained by the…
Abstract
Purpose
Group incentive schemes have been shown to be positively associated with firm performance but it remains an open question whether this association can be explained by the motivating characteristics of the group-incentive scheme itself, or if this is due to factors that tend to accompany group-incentive schemes. We use a controlled experiment to directly test if group-incentive schemes can motivate sustained individual effort in the absence of rules, norms, and institutions that are known to mitigate free-riding behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
We use a controlled lab experiment that randomly assigns subjects to one of three compensation contracts used to incentivize an onerous effort task. Two of the compensation contracts are group-incentive schemes where subjects have an incentive to free-ride on the efforts of their coworkers, and the third (control) is a flat-wage contract.
Findings
We find that both group-incentive schemes resulted in sustained, higher performance relative to the flat-wage compensation contract. Further, we do not find evidence of free-riding behavior under the two group-incentive schemes.
Research limitations/implications
Although we do find sustained cooperation/performance over the three work periods of our experiment under the group-incentive schemes, further testing would be required to evaluate whether group-incentive schemes can sustain cooperation over a longer time horizon without complementary norms, policies, or institutions that mitigate free-riding.
Originality/value
By unambiguously showing that group-incentive schemes can, by themselves, motivate workers to provide sustained levels of effort, this suggests that the “1/n problem” may be, in part, an artifact of the rational-actor modeling conventions.
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P. Reeves Knyght, Alexander Kouzmin, Nada K. Kakabadse and Andrew P. Kakabadse
Employee ownership has attracted much attention across the globe. Whether affected by the global financial crisis (GFC), or not, this paper seeks to canvass what is known about…
Abstract
Purpose
Employee ownership has attracted much attention across the globe. Whether affected by the global financial crisis (GFC), or not, this paper seeks to canvass what is known about employee ownership in neo‐liberal political economies.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a literature review, cross cultural analysis and critique.
Findings
The findings indicate future research directions.
Research limitations/implications
The paper suggests a reconsideration of organizational configurations for possible greater application in the future.
Social implications
The paper hightlights the re‐regulation of neo‐liberal markets.
Originality/value
The paper focuses on employee share ownership schemes.
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M.J. Peel, R.E.V. Groves and M.W. Pendlebury
Research is currently being conducted at Cardiff Business School into the impact of wider share‐ownership/profit sharing and privatisation on various aspects of employee relations…
Abstract
Research is currently being conducted at Cardiff Business School into the impact of wider share‐ownership/profit sharing and privatisation on various aspects of employee relations (see e.g. Poole and Jenkins, 1988; Wilson and Peel, 1989; Groves, Peel and Pendlebury, 1989; Peel, Pendlebury and Groves, 1989; Matthews, 1988). The purpose of the current paper is to outline a specific aspect of this research which is investigating the impact of share‐ownership/privatisation on the ‘financial awareness’ of employees; and to outline some preliminary evidence based on detailed questionnaire returns from leading UK quoted companies.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the incidence of employee financial participation (EFP) schemes in Europe and examine the factors that influence the likelihood of (i…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the incidence of employee financial participation (EFP) schemes in Europe and examine the factors that influence the likelihood of (i) a company offering EFP schemes and (ii) employees taking up EFP schemes.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a combination of descriptive and econometric techniques, the paper provides information on the incidence of EFP schemes in the EU and profiles a typical company and a typical employee that, respectively, offers and takes up EFP schemes. The empirical investigation is based on two models employing probabilistic techniques. Data used for this analysis include the European Company Survey (ECS) conducted in 2009 and three rounds of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) conducted in 2000, 2005, and 2009.
Findings
Results display a significant rise in EFP in the EU-27 in the last decade. In addition, results seem to suggest that the employees’ and companies’ characteristics, as well as sector and region of operation explain some of the variation in likelihoods of companies and employees, respectively, offering and taking up EFP schemes.
Research limitations/implications
Due to data limitation, our analysis lacks a dynamic assessment of the relationship between parameters. Studies that exploit longitudinal data are suggested to follow this paper.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the existing empirical literature by examining jointly the determinants of financial participation from both employers’ and employees’ perspective.
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