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Although several organizations still function according to traditional command-and-control, authority-based management principles in which employee discretion is minimal, competitive pressures and new social realities have prompted many business leaders to embrace a more participative approach. In organizations that foster employee engagement, employees are encouraged to participate in decision making on an ongoing basis. Such an approach requires employees to consider a variety of business issues when involved in decision making. It would seem that models of participative management have largely ignored this requirement. Our aim, therefore, is to put forward a conception of business environment awareness and to explore its function in a context of employee participation. We define this concept as the extent to which employees consider business-related issues in their organization in the context of decision making. We also delimit the conceptual boundaries of business environment awareness by differentiating it from other constructs found in organizational research, notably situation awareness, brand awareness, psychological empowerment, and organizational commitment. This conceptual analysis helps us to determine the specificities of business environment awareness relative to other concepts used in organizational research.