Patterns of employee participation and industrial democracy in UK ESOPs

This paper examines the institutional characteristics of UK ESOPs and considers the extent to which ESOPs extend employee participation and industrial democracy. It is suggested that ESOPs in themselves do not extend industrial democracy. Instead patterns of employee participation are substantially determined by the goals of those primarily responsible for establishing the ESOP. Three constellations of ESOPs are discerned on the basis of their participative characteristics: `technical ESOPs'' where there is little or no development of industrial democracy; `paternalist ESOPs'' which tend to develop individualistic forms of employee participation; and `representative ESOPs'' where new institutions are created to give some opportunity for involvement of employee representatives in top decisions.