Correlates of employee satisfaction with stock ownership: Who likes an ESOP most?

In this study, we examined the correlates of individual employee satisfaction with stock ownership in a sample of 37 employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) companies. The results indicated that ESOP satisfaction is a function of five factors: (a) characteristics of the company ESOP, (b) employee status within the ESOP, (c) employee values, (d) interactions between employee and ESOP character-istics, and (e) employees ' general attitude toward the organization as a whole (organizational commit-ment). Together, these five factors accounted for 58 % of the variance in ESOP satisfaction. The results both support and extend previous employee stock ownership research and theory.