Employee Voice and Corporate Governance: Power and Engagement for the Environment

Abstract

The authors investigate the role of employee voice in corporate governance for corporate environmental impact. This issue is important given the potentially serious employment implications for corporations seeking to transition to lower carbon economic activity and the urgency of moving toward a carbon neutral economy. Using secondary and interview data from Germany, the authors use Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to demonstrate that strong employee voice in corporate governance is a key factor in reducing the environmental impact of corporations. The authors also illustrate distinct strategies by which labor representatives at the company level enact institutionally granted power resources for environmental issues. This work contributes to academic debates on labor and the natural environment literature. In particular, it highlights that, alongside unions, labor representatives at the company level constitute an important source of employee voice for environmental transformation.