The student Gentzane Aldekoa Anton obtained an EXCELLENT

The student Gentzane Aldekoa Anton obtained an EXCELLENT

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• Thesis title: La participación en la propiedad como variable moderadora en la relación entre los Sistemas de Trabajo de Alta Implicación y las actitudes laborales: evidencias empíricas

Court:

• Presidency: Aitor Aritzeta Galan (UVP/EHU)
• Vocal: Frederick Freundlich (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)
• Vocal: Álavaro Lleó De Nalda (Universidad de Navarra)
• Vocal: Maite Legarra Eizagirre (MONDRAGON Corporation)
• Secretary: Ane Sanchez Zeziaga (Mondragon Unibertsitatea)

Abstract:

This thesis examines the role of ownership participation as a moderating variable in the relationship between High Involvement Work Systems (HIWS) and work attitudes, specifically job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Within the field of strategic human resource management, HIWS have become established as configurations that are, at least from a theoretical perspective, simultaneously promoting employee well being and organizational performance. However, the literature has highlighted the need to advance toward more contextualized approaches that allow for a better understanding of how these systems operate under different institutional frameworks and governance structures.

From a contextual Human Resource Management perspective, this study examines whether individual level ownership participation status is configured as a contextual element associated with the meaning and the psychological mechanisms through which high involvement practices influence job satisfaction and organizational commitment. To this end, a quantitative research design based on Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling (MSEM) is adopted, using a sample of 8,634 employees within 95 industrial organizations in the Basque Autonomous Community, a context characterized by the relevance of the cooperative model and ownership participation. In the sample analysed, employees with ownership participation are worker-members of worker cooperatives integrated within the Mondragon Group, whereas employees without ownership participation belong to non-cooperative organisations outside the Mondragon Group.

The results show that HIWS are positively associated with both job satisfaction and organizational commitment among employees with and without ownership participation. However, these relationships are not homogeneous. In the case of job satisfaction, the relationship with high involvement practices is weaker when such practices are highly institutionalized, as occurs in ownership participation contexts. In contrast, organizational commitment shows a stronger relationship among employees with ownership participation, particularly when the HIWS includes practices associated with identification and co responsibility, with access to relevant information emerging as one of the practices most strongly associated with this difference. In this sense, the findings indicate that ownership participation does not generally associate with stronger HIWS relationships, but rather that certain practices, especially access to information, are associated with a stronger relationship with organizational commitment among employees with ownership participation, consistent with theoretical interpretations related to identification with the organizational project.

From a theoretical standpoint, the thesis contributes to the literature on strategic human resource management and ownership participation by integrating psychological ownership theory, approaches focused on interest alignment and self determination, and social identity theory, thereby advancing a contextualized understanding of high involvement. Methodologically, it reinforces the importance of analysing these phenomena at the individual level while simultaneously controlling for the influence of the organizational context. Overall, the study highlights that high involvement does not constitute a universal model, but rather a dynamic system whose relationships with work attitudes vary according to the institutional context, the governance structure, and the status from which employees interpret management practices.