Influencing Strategic Decisions: Worker Directors in UK Bus Companies Available to Purchase

This paper examines the role and effectiveness of worker director schemes in six employee‐owned bus companies. This form of industrial democracy, which is aimed at giving workers and their representatives a role in the strategic direction of the employing organization, has been in abeyance in recent years. However, it now seems to be making something of a comeback. Concern about corporate governance, the spread of employee ownership and recent initiatives by the EC have combined to generate renewed interest in employee representation in the formulation of company strategy. As industrial democracy edges back on to the industrial relations agenda it is opportune to reconsider the findings of earlier literature in the light of recent developments.