Employee board-level representation is a significant feature of industrial relations systems in the majority of EU member states. Even so, analyses of its impact on company board-level decision-making remain sparse, and very few focus on how employee board-level representatives conduct their relationships with shareholder representatives and maintain their independence from management beliefs, norms and values. This article examines the findings from interviews with 20 unionized representatives in 13 European countries. Representatives reflect on their influence on the board, their relationship with other board members and their achievements and disappointments. The article concludes that employee representation contributes towards a more broadly based corporate strategy by ensuring that it takes into account at an early stage the views and interests of organized labour.
Addison JT and Schnabel C. ( 2009) Worker directors: A German product that didn’t export?IZA Discussion Paper no. 3918, January, Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit / Institute for the Study of Labour, Bonn.
2.
Appelbaum E. and Hunter LW ( 2005) Union participation in strategic decisions of corporations . In: Freeman RB, Hersch J and Mishel L (eds) Emerging Labor Market Institutions for the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research , 265-292.
3.
Auberger M-N and Conchon A (eds) (2009) Les administrateurs salariés et la gouvernance d’entreprise. Collection les études . Paris: La documentation française .
4.
Carley M. ( 2005) Board-level employee representatives in nine countries: A snapshot. Transfer11(2): 231-243.
5.
Crouch R. ( 1993) Industrial Relations and European State Traditions . Oxford: Clarendon Press.
6.
Dukes R. ( 2005) The origins of the German system of worker representation . Historical Studies in Industrial Relations19: 31-62.
7.
Eiro (1998) Board-level representation in Europe. Observer Supplement5/98: i-iv, European Industrial Relations Observatory, Dublin, available at: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/1998/09/study/tn9809201s.htm .
8.
Eldridge JET ( 1975) Industrial relations and industrial capitalism . In: Esland G, Salaman G and Speakman M (eds) People and Work. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 306-324.
9.
Fulton L. ( 2006) The Forgotten Resource: Corporate Governance and Employee Board-level Representation. The Situation in France, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. London: Labour Research Department.
10.
Gold M. ( 2005) Worker directors in the UK and the limits of policy transfer from Europe since the 1970s. Historical Studies in Industrial Relations20: 29-65.
11.
Gold M, Kluge N and Conchon A (eds) (2010) ‘In the Union and on the Board’: Experiences of Board-level Employee Representatives across Europe. Brussels: European Trade Union Institute.
12.
Hall PA and Soskice D. ( 2001) An introduction to varieties of capitalism. In: Hall PA and Soskice D (eds) Varieties of Capitalism. The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-68.
13.
Hunter LW ( 1998) Can strategic participation be institutionalized? Union representation on American corporate boards. Industrial and Labor Relations Review51(4): 557-578.
14.
Jacobi O., Keller B. and Müller-Jentsch W. ( 1992) Germany: Codetermining the future? In: Ferner A and Hyman R (eds) Industrial Relations in the New Europe. Oxford: Blackwell, 218-269.
15.
Kluge N. and Stollt M. ( 2006) The European Company - Prospects for Worker Board-level Participation in the Enlarged EU. Brussels: Social Development Agency and European Trade Union Institute .
16.
Kluge N. and Vitols S.(2009) The European company: A pilot for integrating shareholder value into stakeholder-oriented European societies? In: Gold M, Nikolopoulos A and Kluge N (eds) The European Company Statute: A New Approach to Corporate Governance. Brussels: Peter Lang, 67-83.
17.
Knudsen H. ( 1995) Employee Participation in Europe. London: SAGE.
18.
Levinson K. ( 2000) Codetermination in Sweden: Myth and reality. Economic and Industrial Democracy21(4): 457-473.
19.
Levinson K. ( 2001) Employee representatives on company boards in Sweden . Industrial Relations Journal32(3): 264-274.
20.
Pistor K. ( 1999) Codetermination: A sociopolitical model with governance externalities. In: Blair MM and Roe MJ (eds) Employees and Corporate Governance . Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 163-193.
21.
Stern RN ( 1988) Participation by representation. Workers on boards of directors in the United States and abroad. Work and Occupations15(4): 396-422.
22.
Streeck W. ( 1997) Citizenship under Regime Competition: The Case of the ‘European Works Councils’. Jean Monnet Chair Paper no. 42. Fiesole: European University Institute.
23.
Streeck W. ( 2009) Re-Forming Capitalism. Institutional Change in the German Political Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
24.
Thimm AL ( 1980) The False Promise of Codetermination. The Changing Nature of European Workers’ Participation. Lexington, MA : Lexington Books.
25.
Vitols S. ( 2008) The evolving system of corporate governance: Implications for worker participation. Transfer14(1): 27-43.
26.
Yin RK ( 2009) Case Study Research. Design and Methods . London: SAGE.
