AbstractA key issue confronting managers when designing employee involvement programs (EIPs) is membership status. This refers to whether the corporation requires employees to participate in an EIP or allows voluntary participation. Employees report that membership status is a key issue when designing an EIP, since it can send a powerful signal—positive or negative—concerning the potential benefits that can be derived from the program.To support this view, a series of research studies on the effects of membership status on employee performance are reviewed below. Drawing on extensive consulting experience; data acquired from thousands of interviews with employees, staff and management; and a few thousand questionnaire responses to surveys on EIP design and administration practices in American business, the author examines key arguments that support EIP voluntary membership policies. His discussion sheds light on a paradoxical issue concerning EIPs—namely, if EIP is the foundation to a firm's competitiveness and, in fact, to its very survival, then why is participation by employees in EIP voluntary in a large percentage of U.S. companies?