Worker attitudes toward employee ownership, profit sharing and variable pay

Fidan Ana Kurtulus, Douglas Kruse, Joseph Blasi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Using the NBER Shared Capitalism Database comprised of over 40,000 employee surveys from 14 firms, we investigate worker attitudes toward employee ownership, profit sharing, and variable pay. Specifically, our study uses detailed survey questions on preferences over profit sharing, forms of employee ownership like company stock and stock option ownership, as well as preferences over variable pay in general, to explore how preferences for these different types of output-contingent pay vary with worker risk aversion, residual control, and views of co-workers and management. Our key results show that, on average, workers want at least a part of their compensation to be performance-related, with stronger preferences for output-contingent pay schemes among workers who have lower levels of risk aversion, greater residual control over the work process, and greater trust of coworkers and management.

Original languageAmerican English
Title of host publicationAdvances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms
EditorsJed DeVaro
Pages143-168
Number of pages26
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011

Publication series

NameAdvances in the Economic Analysis of Participatory and Labor-Managed Firms
Volume12

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Industrial relations
  • Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)

Keywords

  • Employee ownership
  • Perceptions of co-workers and management
  • Profit sharing
  • Residual control
  • Risk aversion
  • Variable pay
  • Worker preferences

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