What do people think employee share ownership schemes do for them? A qualitative study of participants’ experiences in three UK share schemes

Abstract

Research has produced mixed findings about the impact of participation in employee share ownership (ESO) schemes on employee attitudes and behaviours. Analyses of how participants themselves interpret ESO's effects could contribute to both theory-building and empirical evidence, but have not, to date, been undertaken. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 participants in three tax-advantaged ESO schemes in nine companies within the United Kingdom. Employees tended to feel that ESO had not increased their motivation, commitment or performance because they were already exhibiting these at a high level, as any good employee should. Even where this occurred, there was little evidence that employees thought ESO had strong effects, with the exception of staying with the company long enough to get a financial payoff. For some, this payoff was far from certain to materialise. There was some evidence that ESO was perceived to lead to a greater general sense of inclusion and that feeling special (e.g. being selected to participate) enhanced the perceived effects of ESO. We highlight the important roles of expectancy and instrumentality (expectancy theory) and conclude that the employee 2 experience of ESO reflects theory in some respects, but also offers new elements that theory may need to incorporate.

The antecedents of leader-member-exchange (LMX) relationships in African context: the influence of the supervisor’s feedback delivery-tactic

“…We used semi-structured interviews with a set of guided questions, follow-up questions and multiple probes. This approach helps to ascertain individuals’ experience in detail (McConville et al , 2018), which allowed us to explore in greater depth how the quality of LMX relationship links to supervisor’s feedback delivery tactic. The interviews were structured around the following themes: organisations’ strategic priorities on feedback, feedback and organisational performance, feedback as a relational mechanism, feedback and LMX quality and finally the participant’s own feedback preference.…”

Conscious Decision to Engage in Defensive Silence: An Expectancy Theory Perspective

“…Applying motivation theories and models to the process of employees' decision making to choose defensive silence has not commonly been done. (McConville, Arnold & Smith, 2018), presented that expectancy theory can provide suitable theoretical framework for research to investigate individual motivation to perform in varied working context. Additionally, expectancy theory has been acknowledged as one of the most promising conceptualizations of individual motivation (Redmond, 2014).…”

“…If there is low level of expectancy and instrumentality followed by negative or zero valence, Motivational Force also becomes zero. Hence, a particular behavior is not adopted (McConville et al, 2018;Vroom, 1964).…”

“…al., 2016). It also provides an indepth and step by step explanation of one's cognitive decision (McConville et al, 2018;Parijat & Bagga, 2014). Furthermore, it is stated that the selection of an alternative behavior is based on expectancy that the selected behavior will help to achieve the probable satisfaction and the desired output.…”

“…expectancy, instrumentality and valence forms a Motivational Force to propel and employee to exert his efforts and to engage in silence behavior (Vroom, 1964). These components further help to elaborate the step by step conscious decision process to engage in defensive silence, based on the influence of certain motivation forces and the desired outcomes (McConville et al, 2018…”