Anmerkungen:
In: in Thilo Kuntz (ed.), Research Handbook on Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance, Edward Elgar, 2023
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments November 3, 2022 erstellt
Beschreibung:
This chapter sets out to explore the interaction between the recent changes to the UK’s Corporate Governance Code 2018, which encourage companies to engage with their workforce in various ways, and the dramatic rise in institutional investors’ public commitments to environmental, social and governance matters (ESG), which policymakers expect to inform engagement activities under the UK’s Stewardship Code 2020. In particular, we ask how far institutional investors (IIs) who commit to ESG are pushing to enhance or deepen processes of workforce participation, and examine the extent to which companies are appointing workforce directors. Our analysis identifies little if any commitment on the part of IIs to push companies to put in place and deepen arrangements for workforce engagement. Overall, the chapter highlights the limitations of relying on IIs, even those who are publicly committed to ESG, to drive deeper workforce engagement by investee companies. Where companies have adopted the deepest forms of workforce engagement, that is directors drawn from the workforce, they have done so in response to scandal and/or under the influence of a dominant shareholder. We conclude that, if policymakers want companies to engage more deeply with their workforce, they must do more than merely offer suggestions, leaving the details in the hands of boards and shareholders