Introduction
The debate whether diversity is beneficial to corporate governance or not has persisted over the years. In this context, the concept of diversity relates to boardroom composition and the wide-ranging blend of characteristics, expertise, and attributes supplied by individual board members (Grosvold, Brammer and Rayton, 2007, p. 344). What is more, diversity in corporate boards of directors can assume a variety of forms, counting individual demographics such as, nationality, race, ethnicity, and gender (Singh, Terjesen, and Vinnicombe, 2008, p.48). Boardroom diversity in listed companies is dictated by an array of diverse factors, including profitability, company size, as well as the size of the board (the number of non-executive and executive directors) (Grosvold, Brammer and Rayton, 2007, p.346). In listed companies, the board of directors usually serves at least four significant roles i.e. controlling as well as monitoring managers, providing counsel and information to managers, ensuring conformity with relevant laws as well as regulations, plus connecting the corporation to the external business environment (Carter et al. 2010, p.398).
Evolving societal, political, as well as cultural perceptions of corporate boardroom membership are somewhat eliciting interest in the diversity of corporate directors. Additionally, the increasing worldwide desire for enhanced corporate governance is also a reason (Carter et al. 2010, p.396) and (Grosvold, Brammer and Rayton, 2007, p.347). For instance, in the UK, novel corporate governance laws after the Cadbury Report as well as the Higgs Review have highlighted the value of boardroom diversity, including gender diversity, and the necessity for choosing directors from a broader ta...
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... more content customers. In addition, companies with diverse board membership were considerably more lucrative than those with homogeneous board membership. Moreover, Mallin (2013, p.186) proposes that three or more women in the boardroom can enhance corporate governance and cause essential changes in the boardroom.
Conclusion
The argument for gender-diversity enhancing boardroom effectiveness and performance in listed companies has been made. The evidence herein is also very compelling. However, If gender-diversity is to enhance corporate governance in listed companies; then women appointees to directorship positions will be required to have suitable training, development, as well as experience. Furthermore, tokenism’ alone will not allow listed companies realize the tangible and intangible benefits of diversity, including gender diversity, in corporate governance.
Ralph Nader, Mark Green and Joel Seligman, in an excerpt from Taming the Giant Corporation (1976, found in Honest Work by Ciulla, Martin and Solomon), take the current role of the company board of directors and suggest changes that should be made to make the board to be efficient. They claim the current makeup of the board does not necessarily do justice to the company because “in nearly every large American business…there exists a management autocracy” (Nader, Green and Seligman, 1976, p.570). The main resolution they present is to make the board more democratic with the betterment of the company as its first priority. Currently the board no longer oversees operations, or elects top company executives and they are no longer involved in the business operations to the extent they should be. Nadar, Green and Seligman argue that that all of these things need to be changed. For a corporation so large to be successful there must be separation of powers just as there is in any current government system ( p.571). They claim this is the only and best way to success (Nader, Green and Seligman, 1976, p.570-571).
First, our company should understand the importance of gender diversity. In the first article “Why Workplace Gender Diversity Matters”, Anne Marsan pointed out directly that most tech companies lack of gender diversity. Then she explained several reasons why gender diversity matters to companies. Using logos, she mentioned that women in U.S. purchased 50 percent of computers, 50 percent of cars and 80 percent of consumer goods. In other words, organizations with gender diversity are better to connect with
“The financial crisis and various corporate scandals have caused widespread concern over the way corporations are governed and their responsibilities to stakeholders.” Regulators and academics have emphasised the importance of board diversity in improving the strategic and monitoring role of the board, and preventing further business failures. The discussion has recently concentrated on the poor representation of female members at board level, which seems to be a common problem in most countries, including the United Kingdom. It has been suggested that women can provide boards with “unique qualities and resources that can improve board dynamics, strategic decision-making and firm performance.
Jefferson P. Marquis, Nelson Lim, Lynn M. Scott, Margaret C. Harrell, Jennifer Kavanagh "Managing Diversity in Corporate America, An Exploratory Analysis" Rand Corporation. Web. 29 June 2015.
Merriam-Webster defines diversity as “the condition of having or being composed of differing elements; especially the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization” (Merriam-Webster, 2016). With diversity including many different elements, the concept of workplace diversity also covers a broad spectrum of topics, and continues to evolve as many companies look to expand globally. This subject has become increasingly important among managers over the last couple of decades, and has helped to reinforce other concepts such as affirmative action and equal opportunity employment. While most people believe that everyone should have the same opportunities available to them, and that we
Business Firms and organization need to apply workforce diversity in their management. Diversity at the workplace is simply understood as the variation of skills, experience and ideas among employees. This can arise due to differences in various aspects like race, gender, religion and physical attributes. In addition to these, other discrepancies include national origin, medical conditions and so many more (Subbarao 98). Diversity among the workers is an important tool that often leads to prosperity in an organization hence the need for maximum application of this important business virtue.
Women are underrepresented in managerial (Adler 451) and executive level positions within organizations in the United States even today. Although females embody almost fifty percent of the workforce (Adler 451, they occupy only about thirty percent of all salaried positions, twenty percent of middle manager positions, and about five percent of executive level positions (Bell 65). At the current rate of increase in executive women, it will take until 2466 or over 450 years to reach equality with executive men.
Diversity is a highly important issue in today’s business, especially in a globalized company. Workplace diversity helps to get better solutions to business problems (Schawbel, 2012). When you have a group of individ...
This is issue is not equal, the future can not continue like this. Women should never be discriminated in there work because of there gender.This is not a issue that is only concerning in the United States. This issue is world wide, Stated by a blog, “How Can We Achieve Gender Equality in the Workplace?’’ it is quoted, “Women are less likely than men to be associated with leadership positions in the UK. At this time 43% of large firms have no women on their board and only 34.7% of smaller firms have female directors; however the Lord Davies’ 2011 review called for 25% of directors to be female by the end of 2015, so this is an encouraging
The importance of diversity is that it allows an organization to get access to broader range of opinions and viewpoints as well as, to obtain the best talent or skill in a competitive environment(Meeting The Challenge of Diversity, 2005). Diversity in the workforce can also be used as a business communication strategy and as a marketing strategy in line with increasingly diverse customer, vendors and partner. According to McInnes (2013), workforce diversity is also important to demonstrate organization’s social responsibility or as a legal requirement.
All organizations should be motivated to better understand the many factors related to diversity. Not only because it enables corporations to improve their competitive advantage, but more importantly, because it the right and ethical way to conduct business (Canas & Sondak, 2011). One such company taking a proactive approach to the support of diversity is Dell, Inc. This paper will discuss Dell, Inc. and how its leadership’s approach to corporate stewardship has enabled the organization to become a leading source for the world’s technological solutions.
Diversity within a company will benefit the company’s bottom line and help the company to keep the competitive edge (McCuiston, et. al., 2004). Improving the bottom line can be also be improved by retaining employees and improving customer service (McCuiston, et. al., 2004). So utilizing a diverse work group is very rewarding for the companies who implemented it correctly. The profitability that the company will see may not be seen on the front end, but the long term results will yield a better profit for the company by helping to reduce turnover rates, improving employee morale, and the recruitment of new
According to a recent statistic, 41 percent of companies say they’re too busy to implement gender diversity policies in the workplace. Most Fortune 1000 companies have one or no women on their top teams. This demonstrates that gender diversity is too low of a priority for companies. A pew study asked respondents which gender are they most likely to hire and it found that both genders tended to hire men over women. This is likely one of the causes of
Gender diversity helps companies attract and retain talented women. This is especially relevant as more women join the labor force around the world. Companies cannot afford to ignore 50% of the potential workforce and expect to be competitive in the global economy.
Secondly, companies have a duty to “seek balanced representation of each sex on their boards” . While the legal committee of the ANSA considers this to be a general principle without any legal force, for others, the provision is imperative. Every time a company appoints a new director, it has the obligation to show that it fulfilled its obligation (“Obligation de moyen”) to seek a balanced representation of its board.