At the intersection between industrial relations and corporate governance - i.e. corporate board worker representation - this paper applies three perspectives from the industrial relations literature (unitary, pluralist, and egoist) on changes in directors’ perceptions over time. Empirically, a longitudinal survey (1999-2014), filled out by both shareholder- and worker-elected directors in the largest listed Swedish corporations, is utilized to map differences and similarities between the two director populations regarding the degree to which the directors display pluralistic, unitarian or egoistic assumptions. The findings indicate differences between the two categories of directors than employee elected regarding the egoistic assumptions. Shareholder elected directors expose such assumptions to a significantly higher degree than worker-elected directors However, the assumptions that gain the highest means for both categories of directors are the ones connected to the unitary perspective. This leads to the conclusion that differences between worker-elected directors and shareholder elected directors regards the allocation of value added of the firm rather than how this value added has been created. The paper contributes to the industrial relations literature by linking perspectives on industrial relations, often understood as incommensurable, by considering a longitudinal development in perceptions among relevant actors participating in corporate boards. The paper also contributes to corporate governance understanding of how the institution worker-elected directors interact with the board mechanism.