Effects of Employee Share Ownership Plans
The positive effects of share ownership plans on company performance and productivity are a key rationale for the use of these plans. There is now a wealth of research from around the world indicating that these plans have beneficial effects on performance.
We found that the level of participation in share plans affects how they impact productivity: where participation rates are low, participation in decisions is also necessary for better than average productivity; where participation rates are high, share plans achieve better productivity on their own.
A later paper, with Professors Keith Whitfield and Sukanya Sen Gupta, found less evidence for productivity effects but found that the combination of good communications and share plans could have a positive impact on productivity.
