Explaining differential employee responses to employee ownership: the role of attribution and personality traits

Prior research has largely overlooked employees’ cognitive reactions to employee ownership and individual differences that shape these reactions. Building on attribution theory and trait activation theory, this study investigates employees’ attributions of employee ownership, their association with psychological ownership of the organization, and the personality traits linked to positive attributions of employee ownership. Ordinary Least Squares regression analyses of a dataset from a U.S. firm operating a gift-based employee ownership indicated that positive employee ownership attributions are positively related to psychological ownership of the organization, conscientiousness is positively related to positive employee ownership attributions, and openness to experience strengthens the conscientiousness–attribution linkage. These findings highlight that employees’ employee ownership attributions are a key cognitive response that translates into positive attitudes such as psychological ownership of the organization, and that relevant personality traits help explain variation in these attributions, thereby advancing our understanding of how and why employees respond differently to employee ownership.