Does Female Representation on Boards of Directors Associate With <i>Fortune</i>'s “100 Best Companies to Work For” List?

Bernardi, Richard A.; Bosco, Susan M.; Vassill, Katie M.

doi:10.1177/0007650305283332

Cited by 160 publications

(150 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(31 reference statements)

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“…Research has related women's involvement in governance to financial measures such as profitability and value in the UK (Singh et al, 2001) or the US (Carter et al,, 2003;Erhardt et al,2003). Further research has examined the effect on reputation (Bernardi et al, 2006), and strategic, corporate or market positioning (Shrader et al,1997). Although the positive effect is usually assumed, empirical evidence suggest the diversity of organisations needs to be considered.…”

Section: Women and Organisational Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Gender balance in the governance of social enterprise

Lyon

Humbert

2012

Local Economy

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There are high expectations placed on social enterprises as alternative forms shaping local economies. However, little is known about how they are governed and their accountability to their local communities. The gender balance of their governing boards and representation of women is therefore an important issue. This paper makes a contribution to examining the claims of greater equality proposed by social enterprises. The results draw on an analysis of a survey of 825 social enterprises and show there is a more equal gender balance in social enterprise governance compared to the private sector. The survey also finds that women are still under-represented on boards when considered as a proportion of the population or the proportion of women's employment in social enterprises. There is also considerable sectoral concentration and a smaller proportion of women on boards of larger organisations. Social enterprises have the potential to be alternative spaces to encourage greater representation of women in the governance of local economies, but at present there continues to be an imbalance.

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Section: Women and Organisational Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Gender balance in the governance of social enterprise

Lyon

Humbert

2012

Local Economy

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“…However, this often represents a misalignment between words and actions (a diversity mixed message) because the majority of organizations are still male dominated, especially in boardrooms, where female representation rarely overcomes token status (Bernardi, Bosco, & Vassill, 2006; 4 We exploratively found an interaction between board type and participants' gender. Whereas the link between the number of women on the board and integrity perceptions was almost linear for men, there was a clear kink for women.…”

Section: Main Contributions and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Finally, this study was conducted in Germany. Although Germany shares various elements regarding organizational gender diversity (e.g., male dominance in upper echelons, high public scrutiny of the issue, and some sort of regulation) with other countries (Bernardi et al, 2006;Catalyst, 2013;German Ministry of Family Affairs, 2014;Pande & Ford, 2011;Vinnicombe et al, 2014), similar research in other societal contexts and countries is needed. In countries with strong gender egalitarianism, for instance, it is likely that the effects of diversity mixed messages might be stronger.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Outsiders’ Perceptions Of Diversity Mixed Messages

Windscheid

Bowes

Kidder

et al. 2016

AMPROC

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To attract a gender diverse workforce, many employers use diversity statements to publicly signal that they value gender diversity. However, this often represents a misalignment between words and actions (i.e., a diversity mixed message) because most organizations are male dominated, especially in board positions. We conducted 3 studies to investigate the potentially indirect effect of such diversity mixed messages through perceived behavioral integrity on employer attractiveness. In Study 1, following a 2 ϫ 2 design, participants (N ϭ 225) were either shown a pro gender diversity statement or a neutral statement, in combination with a gender diverse board (4 men and 4 women) or a uniform all-male board (8 men). Participants' perceived behavioral integrity of the organization was assessed. In Study 2, participants (N ϭ 251) either read positive or negative reviews of the organization's behavioral integrity. Employer attractiveness was then assessed. Study 3 (N ϭ 427) investigated the impact of board gender composition on perceived behavioral integrity and employer attractiveness using a bootstrapping procedure. Both the causal-chain design of Study 1 and 2, as well as the significance test of the proposed indirect relationship in Study 3, revealed that a diversity mixed message negatively affected an organization's perceived behavioral integrity, and low behavioral integrity in turn negatively impacted employer attractiveness. In Study 3, there was also evidence for a tipping point (more than 1 woman on the board was needed) with regard to participants' perceptions of the organization's behavioral integrity.

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“…There are several reasons to believe that boards that include a greater proportion of women are better. For example, these companies could deal more effectively with diversity related to products and markets and also improve their overall image as a result of an improvement of the ethical decision process (Bernardi et al, 2006). So far, the empirical studies that have addressed this relation have offered mixed results.…”

Section: Board Attributes and Company Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mean proportion of females within Romanian boards is 13.50%; this might look like a small percentage, but in fact it is comparable to other results of female representation. For example, the study performed by Bernardi et al (2006) upon boards of directors associated with Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" revealed a female representation of 12.00%. The mean proportion of outside directors is 84%, which is similar to the proportion of boards in Australia (Stapledon and Lawrence, 1996) or even in the United States (Bhagat and Black, 2002).…”

Section: Empirical Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boards’ Attributes and Company Performance: the Romanian Experience

Bordean¹,

Borza²

2017

Economics &Amp; Sociology

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ABSTRACT. For a long period of time, researchers from the corporate governance field have been interested in finding out what drives companies' performance. The present study identifies five attributes of boards -size, age, female representation, proportion of non-executive directors, and chairman-CEO duality -in an attempt to link these to diversification strategy and financial performance. These relations are investigated using archival sources of data for a sample of 56 publicly traded companies from an emerging economy. The results are consistent with other studies performed abroad and at the same time offer new theoretical and managerial perspectives on the issues analyzed. The findings offer some valuable insights into the decision of corporate diversification at both theoretical and managerial level. The results provide support for both managerial hegemony and agency theory. Board members have little involvement in the strategy-making process as this is most often an attribute of managers, where as the existence of more members without executive responsabilities is a determinat of superior company performance.

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Does Female Representation on Boards of Directors Associate With Fortune's “100 Best Companies to Work For” List?

Cited by 160 publications

References 28 publications

Gender balance in the governance of social enterprise

Gender balance in the governance of social enterprise

Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Outsiders’ Perceptions Of Diversity Mixed Messages

Boards’ Attributes and Company Performance: the Romanian Experience

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