Murray, Tessa-Ann2024-08-142024-08-142023Murray, Tessa-Ann. (2023). Making Sense of Employee Ownership: An Institutional Logics Perspective [PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg].https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40094A research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of philosophy to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023This grounded theory study explored the perspectives, attitudes and behaviours of individual employee-owners within organisations that had implemented share- ownership schemes as a mechanism to address the persistently elevated levels of inequality in South Africa. The study articulates how employee-owners make sense of their dual roles as employee and owner of the organisation, and how they integrate ownership into their work experience. While the motivation for implementing employee-ownership schemes may often be aligned with shareholder capitalism, increasing awareness of the alternative of stakeholder capitalism to address inequality highlights employee ownership as a way of including employees in financial participation and decision-making in the workplace. Implementing employee ownership provides an opportunity for organisations to balance and meet their financial and social commitments. The grounded theory approach utilised in-depth interview data from 18 individuals from previously disadvantaged population groups. The key findings of the study indicated that the assimilation of employee ownership is an individual, temporal, situational process that comprises progressive levels of integration. During this process, the orientations of management and employee- owners towards employee ownership influence the individual’s momentary readiness to integrate ownership into their work experience. An institutional logics interpretation of the findings revealed the influence of macro-, meso- and micro-contexts on how employee-owners perceive management’s orientation towards employee ownership and their own perceptions and expectations of inclusion as employee-owners in the workplace. As its theoretical contribution, the study clarifies the individual’s integration of ownership and proposes a model for the integration of ownership into the work experience of the collective of employee-owners over time and the institutionalisation of employee ownership in the workplace.en© 2023 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.employee ownershipGrounded theoryInstitutional logicsOwnership integrationSensemakingSDG-8: Decent work and economic growthDissertationUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg