Does Employees’ Participation in Decision Making Increase the level of Corporate Social and Environmental Sustainability? An Investigation in South Asia

Omer Farooq, Mariam Farooq and Emmanuelle Reynaud
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Omer Farooq: College of Business and Economics, UAE University, Al Ain, UAE
Mariam Farooq: UCP Business School, Uniersity of Central Pujab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Emmanuelle Reynaud: CERGAM, IAE-Aix en Provence, University of Aix-Marseille, Puyricard, 13540 Aix en Provence, France

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: Although previous studies have explored the role of legal framework, industry norms, innovation, and the use of clean technologies to achieve sustainability, they have paid little attention to the role of employees in increasing a firm’s sustainability performance. This article develops a model based on social identity theory and proposes that employees whose organizational identification is rooted in the sustainability of the firm can influence the sustainability strategy of the firm through the participation process. Data were obtained from 421 employees of large fast-moving consumer goods manufacturers. The findings demonstrate that employee participation has a strong positive effect on all the components of sustainability (environmental and societal). Moreover, the findings show that the impact of employee participation on the components of sustainability is moderated by organizational identification in such a way that if employees have a strong sense of identification with their organization, their participation in decision making has a greater impact on the sustainability of their organization.

Keywords: corporate sustainability; environmental sustainability practices; societal sustainability practices; employees’ participation in decision making; South Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:2:p:511-:d:199084

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