Pieces of the Action: Ownership and the Changing Employment Relationship

Abstract

We develop theory specifying the role of ownership in the employment relationship and address how sharing in ownership’s privileges can create convergent psychological contracts between workers and employers. We specify two factors limiting the attractiveness of ownership for some workers—that is, the potential for internal conflict among worker/owners transitioning to this dual role and the risks that ownership entails—and also outline a research agenda to investigate how allocating ownership to workers impacts their interests and those of managers and investors.