Hearing the Employee Owner's Voice: a critical appraisal of indirect mechanisms for hearing the employee owner's voice for the achievement of real involvement, in the growing sector of UK employee owned businesses

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the topic of effective employee voice within employee-owned businesses. This is considered within the context of the growing sector of employee-owned businesses within the UK, and a representation gap in the wider UK workforce caused in-part at least by a continued decline in trade union membership.

Existing literature does not provide a clear definition of employee ownership, however, this thesis justifies the use of the term to apply to organisation with either a majority of shares currently being held for or by employees, or organisations with a stated intention to work towards this. As a result of this, the present research is distinct from that concerned with employee share ownership plans (or similar) that provide employees with a minority stake. Existing academic sources concerned with employee ownership based upon this definition are highly limited, thus meaning that the present research addresses topics not previously given academic consideration. Existing literature on the topic of employee voice, whilst not concerned with Employee-Owned organisation in the main, is more extensive. This identifies topics of significance, including missing employee voices.

Employee owners across employee-owned organisations of differing sizes are interviewed for the present research, which provides an opportunity for their voices (rather than those of founders or external stakeholders) to be heard and prioritised. A methodological contribution is made in the use of a Reflexive Hermeneutic approach to ensure that potentially missing voices are well-reflected.

This thesis finds that there are a range of topics on which employee owners wish to have their voices heard, including in relation to reward, business strategy, employee development, the working environment and their wellbeing, in addition to senior leadership appointments and topics for future voice. Whilst concerned with indirect voice mechanisms, the role of direct mechanisms in support of this are discussed. Other provisions to support voice, falling into the categories of time, training, information and democratic structures, are identified and discussed.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Supervisor	Ahmed Abdullah (Supervisor) & Elizabeth Lloyd-Parkes (Supervisor)