Unpacking Employee Share Ownership Plans ESOPs

Abstract

Globally, the empowerment of historically disadvantaged groups, economically, is not uncommon. As such preferential policies geared towards transformation have been a common feature especially towards advancement of historically disadvantaged groups. One such empowerment policy has been that of Employee Share Ownership Plans (ESOPs). Globally, employee empowerment schemes are considered to be part of many public and private companies and despite the availability in various forms of employee ownership programs, ESOPs have proven to be met with much success in comparison. ESOPs have been implemented successfully by many international companies in many different sectors. Construction companies, banks, insurance companies, textile manufacturers, architectural firms, health care providers, hotels and resorts and many other industries have successfully employed ESOPs, (Rosen et al 2005). Despite the availability of many empowerment schemes, ESOPs have received the most universal acceptance and support. However, despite their perceived success in terms of acceptance, how ESOPs have fared internationally has been highly dependent on mainly the various company and country circumstances and as such offer varying accounts of success