The Impact Of Employee-Share-Ownership Schemes On Performance In Unionised And Non-Unionised Workplaces

Conventional wisdom suggests that higher performance is observed when employee-share-ownership (ESO) schemes coexist with employee participation arrangements. However, the evidence is inconclusive and it has been suggested that performance benefits occur in ESO workplaces only when employees are actually involved in the decision-making process. Drawing on the cross-section data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey, the article shows that higher productivity is observed in those workplaces where unions coexist with ESO schemes. This result highlights the relevance of unions to High Performance Work Systems.