Getting on Board: A Critical Analysis of Women on International Corporate Boards (original) (raw)

Thispaperfocusesonunderstandingthevariouslegislationsinitiatedbycountriesacrossthe globe towards empowering women with representation on Company Management Boards and restoring their gender rights in a male dominated business arena through Corporate Quotas.Theaimistounderstandwhetherthe'Legislativerepresentation'reallyhashadany impact on Company boards across these few countries through a review of preliminary studiesconductedinthisdomain.Thepaperrepresentsacomparativestudyacrossdeveloped nations (viz. European countries, US, Canada) and some developing nations to understand where they stand in the current perspective related to women representation on Corporate Boards. This has been further extended in the context of the Asia-Pacific region to depict wheretheconcernednationsstandinthesphererelatedtowomenequalityandempowerment, whileproposingempiricalresearchinthisregion,tounderstandfactorsthatattributetowards lowerpresenceofwomenoncorporateboards(WOCB).

The Companies Act of 2013 has provided top priority to Corporate Governance (CG). Among the various provisionsrelated to CG, the Act mandates appointment of a minimum of one woman director in the Board. The Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI), so as to align with the Act, has revised Clause 49 to add suitable provisions regarding Board composition. Board diversity has also been provided top priority all over the world. However, the position of women Board membership the world over is dismal. The paper analyzed the present position of the women in the Board of Directors of BSE 30 (Bombay Stock Exchange) companies. The main focus was to find out the composition with respect to the inclusion of women before and after the enactment of the new Companies Act. The results of the study show that the status of gender diversity in the Indian Boards is far below the required minimum standards set globally. Certain companies are yet to appoint the required minimum women in the Board, as stipulated by the Act and SEBI. Drastic steps need to be taken to bring in the required diversity in the Indian board rooms.

The Companies Act of 2013 has provided top priority to Corporate Governance (CG). Among the various provisionsrelated to CG, the Act mandates appointment of a minimum of one woman director in the Board. The Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI), so as to align with the Act, has revised Clause 49 to add suitable provisions regarding Board composition. Board diversity has also been provided top priority all over the world. However, the position of women Board membership the world over is dismal. The paper analyzed the present position of the women in the Board of Directors of BSE 30 (Bombay Stock Exchange) companies. The main focus was to find out the composition with respect to the inclusion of women before and after the enactment of the new Companies Act. The results of the study show that the status of gender diversity in the Indian Boards is far below the required minimum standards set globally. Certain companies are yet to appoint the required minimum women in the Board, as stipulated by the Act and SEBI. Drastic steps need to be taken to bring in the required diversity in the Indian board rooms.

Driven by different feminist movements and manifestations, the notion of gender diversity is a very topical issue worldwide. This study focuses on corporate gender diversity looking primarily at corporate management positions. Indeed, despite significant progress in education and political participation, women are still often underrepresented on corporate boards around the world. The phenomenon is most striking in the United States which, despite an upward trend in recent years, remain behind other Western countries and their 30-40% gender quotas. This paper analyses and compares the results of various relevant studies in the field and responds to the following question: Is gender diversity on boards a growing issue for American companies? Thus, the study highlights the fact that the issue of gender diversity on boards is indeed current and slightly on the rise. Although the trend is increasing, it appears clearly that a gender glass ceiling still exists. The analysis continues with a discussion on the different legislative frameworks. Furthermore, various arguments and counterarguments around the justification of gender diversity will also be discussed around societal, political and financial issues. It will be also taken into account the possibility that the interest around the phenomenon is only window dressing for companies, serving the agenda setting. Finally, using a case study, this papers discovers the possible evolutions of the American case of gender diversity on boards and, more specifically, those that are most likely to lead to a larger gender diversity.

The current study investigates the relationship between family firm board structure and financial performance in Sri Lanka. This study uses five years (2006–2010) of data from 65 family firms listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). In order to investigate the impact of board structure on family firm financial performance, a dynamic panel generalised method of moment estimation is applied. The results show that board openness to non-family members, board diversity and insider ownership decrease family firms’ financial performance. Consequently, this study suggests the corporate governance framework needs to be tailored to a family business structure as ‘one size does not fit all’.

Caminos: Organizational Memberships That Characterize Hispanic Board Members of The Fortune 500 This research focused on the networks of Hispanics in the United States serving in a governance capacity as directors on corporate boards. The researcher asked: What are the organizational affiliations and professional characteristics that describe Hispanics who serve on boards of directors of the Fortune 500? How do these affiliations and characteristics impact the director‟s pathway to board service? The participant group members for this study were all board members of Fortune 500 corporations in 2007. This study was designed using four sources of information. These sources included the 2007 documentation of the Hispanic Association for Corporate Responsibility (HACR), including director assignments and professional profile information. The second source was the 10K corporate board member biography filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The final documents were the Executive Profile located in the Business Week Corporate Analyst data bank and the Soylent Communications NNDB Biographical Data Base. These sources demonstrated overlapping, or interlocking, directorships and resulting network affiliations with individual members from corporate boards represented in the Fortune 500. Interlocking directorships are created when a board member, or members, serving on multiple boards create(s) a link between those boards. This investigation revealed the networks or patterns of inter group ties, demonstrated in the professional biographies of Hispanic directors. These networks may demonstrate the pathway to board service and the potential utility of these ties as a value-added contribution to the corporate boards on which our participants serve. A portion of the directors in the sample maintained traditional corporate career-driven affiliations as their pathway to the board room. Another portion of the directors in the sample had an expansive network of affiliations that provided an alternate pathway to the board room. The analysis of the participants‟ network affiliations revealed complex links between their individual affiliations and the intersection of their group affiliations. This demonstrated the duality of their social/professional roles and the value of their capacity to bridge significant communities of interest. This serves as a baseline for future longitudinal studies or for the purposes of an extended study with other director populations. KEYWORDS: CORPORATE DIRECTORS, CORPORATE BOARDS, CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, DIVERSITY, HISPANIC AMERICANS, INTERLOCKING DIRECTORATES, LATINOS, MEMBERSHIP NETWORK ANALYSIS, ROLE ANALYSIS, ORGANIZATIONAL CAPITAL

This study offers Executives and Policy Makers a thorough analysis of the most current data from international organizations and consulting firms, as well empirical evidence from interviews of women 50 executive women who hold mandates on Boards around the globe, on the increasing economic importance of greater gender diversity on Boards. A discussion of the various feasible “strategies” currently being proposed and adopted by different countries and other concerned parties and organizations to increase female Board representation suggests that progress is in sight, but that there are many obstacles to be remedied if women are to be a real engine for a more effective Corporate Governance of Boards. The study provides empirical support that women must be encouraged to bring, in terms of skills and behaviours, a difference to the table if “gender diversity” measures are to have positive and genuine change in the exercise of effective Corporate Governance practices internationally. The study highlights that current and potential female candidates share a rigorous vision of the functioning of Boards and therefore demand a new model of governance based on sustainability, which integrates both masculine and feminine “polarities” within companies and organizations.