Independence of board of directors, employee relation and harmonisation of corporate governance Empirical evidence from Russian listed companies

Purpose - The main aim of this paper is to examine the role of the board of directors in Russia with specific attention to their independence, employee relations and ability of successful adaptation of the international standards. Design/methodology/approach - The authors used a survey questionnaire to provide an empirical example from a transition economy to the corporate governance literature by exploring the attitudes of the 55 board directors from 30 listed companies on the Russian Trading System (RTS) Stock Exchange. Findings - The respondents recognise the board of directors as an important instrument of efficient and good corporate governance practice. More surprisingly, they are also in favour of employee representatives on the board of directors and agree that board size and composition should be enhanced by employee representatives on the board. Research limitation/implications - Even though 200 questionnaires were distributed and the response rate was 28 per cent, the authors know that they cannot generalise results for all directors of 1,414 listed companies on the Russian Trading System Stock Exchange from this level of response. In addition, questions might have some elements of subjectivity. Practical implications - Policy makers in Russia should continue reforms in Russian corporate governance to improve transparency and accountability to adopt international standards and to attract foreign capital. Originality/value - This study is one of the most comprehensive studies to explain the role of directors of listed companies in corporate governance throughout a survey questionnaire in Russia. The authors believe that the study contributes to the literature in two ways: theoretically by examining the attitudes of Russian listed company directors in the literature and empirically by conducting a survey among listed companies' directors to evaluate the attitudes of boards of directors, and employee relations in Russia.