Does employees' participation in decision making increase the level of corporate social and environmental sustainability? An investigation in South Asia

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 fastmoving 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.